I awoke today and I needed to share.  I trust it will be an enlightenment for some of you reading.  We have all heard the saying, “Of all the things in life, you can’t fix stupid.”  Oh boy is that saying a lot.  In my younger days I did not realize we, I, had a choice in my life.  George Michael wore a t-shirt in the 1980’s saying “Choose Life.”  In my rebellious days I wore the “Choose Death” t-shirt, (Ooooo, I was so cool).  My underlying, not fully conscious, thoughts at the time about the t’shirt were, “choose the death of all things negative or self limiting.”  Although I did not realize this at that time,  I now understand the double negative in my wording.

I use the term “you can’t fix stupid,” because I think stupid is a state of mind.  Until we realize we have a choice on everything in our life, we remain stupid. As long as we settle for the status quo and believe what our politicians and the television tells us, we remain stupid.  Until we make that new choice, we remain stupid. Every day, everything is a choice.  Yes, with reactions or consequences for each choice.  But let’s face it folks, we need to stop complaining about the status of things and start doing something about it.  As Anthony Robbins talks about, “you have to get sick and tired of being sick and tired” before most people will make a change in their lives.  Life is a choice.

I heard it once said that, “Being rich is a choice.”  News flash: this is true for everything in our life.  Being old, fat, uneducated, broke, angry, jealous, preyed upon, depressed, sick, tired, are all choices.  Some may say, “You don’t know what you are talking about, Jim.  My situation is different.”  In life you have either results or excuses.  That is all there is.

Some may reject the light.  But the light of truth and the Indomitable Will of the Spirit are things we choose to engage in or we choose to reject.  If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice!!  Dr. Wayne Dyer talks about seeing the beauty in everything. My philosophy states that G*D created everything.  Therefore everything is good.  In fact, one of my affirmations I recite throughout my day is… “There are only 2 things in life:  Good and very Good.”  This is a wonderful affirmation because it inspires me to look for the good in all situations.  It allowed me to rewrite my life.  Many things of my past I was able to review and find the good in each situation.  So now, if my life is unfolding in a different path then I envisioned, I take corrective action and I make a new choice and a new course of action.  If I am upset about something, I make a new choice of how to perceive the feedback.  I ask myself, “What else could this mean?”

I remember being reprimanded and fired from a job, in my youth.  At the time I found “The Good” to be my new freedom of time.  But, I was trying to make light of the embarrassing situation of being fired.  The reprimand and being fired made me mad.  I realize now, I had a victim mentality, “How could they do this to me?”  Now, I realize that corrective action is just that.  It is an action to correct one’s behavior or actions.  I was taking it personal which it wasn’t.  It is like the actions of a marksman. If you miss what you were shooting at do you give up and say, “I will never try that again?”  No. You take aim anew.  Missing the target never means failure.  The only way to fail is to quit.  Missing the target or a goal only means feedback.  Take corrective action (aim anew) and shoot again.

Same as we can choose to be ‘Light Stealers’ we can also choose to be ‘Light Givers.’ We can choose to be youthful, athletic, educated, wealthy, loving, trusting, empowered, empowering, happy, joyous, healthy, and energized.  Where focus goes energy flows.  We can choose to be the lighthouse.  And when you choose to be the lighthouse you may need to purge the ‘light stealers’ from your life.  One of my mentors, challenged me to upgrade my relationships every 90 days.  A good friend of mine once said, “Take your greatest weakness and make it your greatest strength.”  By doing this your armor becomes impenetrable.  You can then sustain anything that life can throw at you and maintain your joyous life.  It all starts with realizing you have a choice.  I choose my greatest possible outcome.  I encourage you to find yours.  No one can make that choice for you.  What do you choose?

Aloha,

James Christopher

ThruJimsEyes.com

We leave first thing tomorrow morning for our next seminar. I am going to be training with one of the top speaking trainers in the country. He has trained many of Tony Robbins’ speakers and I am ready to take my speaking to the next level.

This past year has been growth spurt after growth spurt. Both Leise and I have learned so much. The interesting thing is, I still feel like I know nothing. We purchased a new Mac in April last year and since then I have learned iPhoto, iMovie, Keynote, and so much more.  I am still learning Pages and I haven’t even touched on Numbers yet. All things in time. The interesting thing about knowledge is this: the more you have learned, the more you realize how little you have learned. It’s kind of the same thing with money.

Money is like knowledge.  The more you have, the more you realize how much is truly out there that you never knew about or could even fathom.  Also, the more you have the more hungry you become for more, money and knowledge.

A number of years back I was introduced to the self development industry.  I took a little weekend course with Robert Tennyson Stevens.  The course is called Conscious Language.  Prior to this course my body tended to be very cold blooded.  I would normally be wearing thermal underwear, tops and bottoms, to keep my body warm and boots with thick socks to keep my feet warm on a cold winters’ day.  This guy so completely rocked my world and opened my eyes that I use the comparison to the movie “The Matrix.”  You remember, when they wake up Neo (Keanu Reeves) from the dream world? This is what I experienced.  I vividly remember coming back to work after this weekend wearing sandals on my bare feet and a light weight Hawaiian print Aloha Shirt… in the middle of winter.  No thermals!!  My nervous system rewired itself. My body was running so hot for the next week or so until it reached a new equilibrium. Now like an addict chasing that next high I am now hooked on self improvement. I search for that next piece of enlightenment, that next epiphany.  A short while back we attended Anthony Robbins’ Unleash the Power Within (UPW) 4 day immersion seminar. This is where I learned the term CANI: Constant And Never-ending Improvement. We learned about physical/emotional/psychological anchors: the good and bad associations we all have in our minds that are linked to certain experiences. I have learned so much and been to so many seminars that I started to recognize similar patterns in different presentations. Next I started to analyze the presentation style. I can usually tell when someone is trying to sell me something versus just offering information and educating me. It’s quite fantastic.

So we are off to our next seminar in the morning. We are off to experience the next chapter and see how we can incorporate it into our lives.

Aloha,

James Christopher

ThruJimsEyes.com

We are driving down the coast from Waikoloa to Kona.  As I am looking down the coast I see a huge monstrosity protruding above the horizon. The cruise ship is in. It must be Wednesday.

I have heard and used the term “Island Time.” This term is generally used in reference to the importance of things and if I’m late it doesn’t mean I don’t care.  It simply means I’m on island time. When I was growing up in Southern California we used to speak of “mañana time.”  Island time is quite similar. I bring this up because since my wife and I have no formal schedule or predefined routine yet, we have often lost track of what day it is. I know that on certain days there are certain farmers markets (not all are created equal). Beyond that, we take each day as it comes and enjoy the experience that is Hawaii.

The knowledge that the cruise ship is in also tells me that today Kona will be busier than normal. That’s a good thing. The economy hit this place pretty hard.  Then there was the tsunami which took out a number of businesses and beat down the spirits of a lot of good people. With the economy stable now and recovering you feel the spirit of hope returning to the people. Last year saw record tourism in Hawaii, 2nd only to 2007 at the height of the economy. Hope springs eternal.

So, we are driving down the coast to meet with some friends in Kona.  What’s on the agenda for today?  Getting into the ocean, lunch, shopping, and probably some giving of tourist information. It is interesting, to now be on the other side of the tourist info exchange. For years we were coming here and asking people how they enjoy living here and what they love about Hawaii?  What were some of the challenges they had in moving here or adjusting to a different culture?  We always knew with every question we asked we were one step closer to living our dreams of living in Hawaii.

We encourage everyone to live their dreams. Remember, step one starts with a dream.  Step two is planning.  Step three is action steps towards achieving your dream.  What would you do if you knew you could not fail?  What’s your dream?  Ours was to live in Hawaii and go snorkeling with the sea turtles and tropical fish and eat fresh passion fruit daily.  I’m here to say, “Our ship has come in.”

James Christopher

ThruJimsEyes.com