If a guy named Justin, 5’11”, blonde, good looking, comes to your door offering to clean a room of carpet for free, go ahead and let him in.
He will do a good job.
You don’t have to buy what he is selling, but by the time he is done you will probably want to.
Getting clear on what you want: For most people, this is the biggest obstacle living the life they desire.
From what I have seen, a lot of people focus so much on the means that they lose sight of the ends. Say, a person wants to have lots of money, but feels as though every rung of the success ladder must be ascended along the way. Consequently, some miserable spot one quarter of the way up the ladder becomes the goal, even though it is not the desired end at all.
As Michaelangelo said, “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”
When setting a goal, ignore the means, at least at first. Instead, start by sitting quietly and envisioning the desired outcome. (Sitting quietly can be a challenge in itself, for many reasons. Let me know if you have a problem with this, and we can probably find a solution.)
Once I am able to sit quietly and focus on my goal, I become conscious of my emotional response to the goal. Fear is usually the first thing to surface. First comes the fear that I will never be able to achieve my goal. This fear manifests as frantic energy in my body and an anxious mind trying to escape itself. After that, I realize an even greater fear, the fear of actually succeeding. For example, being the man I truly want to be, or know that I can be, actually kind of scares me, which is probably one reason why I tend to take small, incremental steps towards being my fully empowered self.
Once I have fully experienced and moved through these fearful responses, I can begin to imagine the joy of what it would feel like to reach my goal.
To envision the final outcome can take a lot of revision and refining. Perhaps someday I will be crystal clear on what I want on the first try, but for now, I still have to work at it.
For example, say my goal is financial wealth. For a long time, I wanted to be free of debt, and I wanted to have a large disposable income, and I wanted to achieve this in a way that did not involve sacrificing my principles. I was clear about this for a long time. Yet, if you would have asked me what my life would look like in this financially independent state, I would not have had a clear answer for you. I just wanted to no longer live in lack. Logically, however, this put the focus on the lack, which kept me in a condition of lack.
It was not until I started to imagine what I would do with my wealth that wealth started coming my way. The clearer I became on the amount of money I wanted at my disposal, and what I would do with it once it was in my hands, the more it became a reality, in the form of profit-making opportunities that I had not foreseen.
In order for actual money to come my way, I had to teach myself what it feels like to have lots of money.
Keep your eyes on the prize. Focus on the ends, and stay focused on them. Teach yourself what success feels like, and embrace that feeling.
The means will sort themselves out.
I read this in the comments of an article on the Obama UAW speech today:
“Obama and his regime have created a vast and rapidly expanding constituency of voters dependent on big government.”
Entitlements or whatever you call them are complex. They consist of issues that make my eyes glaze over when the facts start coming in. So, I am speaking mainly from intuition when I say I think there is some truth to the above statement. How are we supposed to assess what is a reasonable entitlement and what is not? Why isn’t this something that businesses and the people who work for them can work out between themselves? Why does the government have to get in the middle? Where do entitlements stop? Who is qualified to make reasonable decisions about this? How is the voter supposed to know what to make of it?
I heard the UAW speech. I think Obama’s demeanor is admirable in some ways, definitely contagious. It generates enthusiasm, makes things happen. He certainly had the audience going. He even had me going. However, I don’t like seeing that kind of energy used to promote political objectives. I think that is called demagoguery, and we really shouldn’t encourage it. We need more hard facts and logic, something to indicate there is some balance and thoughtfulness going into the decision making. If we allow ourselves to get too excited with the rally-rally-rally and turn off our reasoning, we’re definitely in trouble. Maybe Obama is the best candidate, don’t ask me, but supposing he is a shoe-in, let’s not encourage him to grandstand all the way to the finish line. I would rather see this time used to ask some fundamental questions, get clear on policy.
And one more thing. I oppose rhetoric about how the government needs to create jobs. It makes it look like we are supposed to rest on our laurels until the government conjures something for us to do, when we really need to come up with ways of doing that ourselves, preferably in an ethical, healthy, responsible, sustainable way that does not squander our resources (in case you were thinking I support reckless corporations and excess consumerism and pipelines and coal trains and that I have a great big crush on Mitt Romney. No, I’m a wanna-be-granola who believes we ought to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and work on our communities and try to do as much as we can for ourselves before seeking government support. If we set our minds to it, we can do most things better and more efficiently than the government can.) Can we please put the government-creating-jobs rhetoric to rest?
I could go on, but I am kind of focused on survival right now.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave a comment and some hard facts for me to consider. And if you think I’m an idiot, that’s okay, too!
This first painting I made while preparing Valentine day promotional materials. I refer to it as “fiery love.”
The second one was influenced by an artist I met. I asked her about her style, and she described it as “flow.” She creates this by laying the paint on thick and in a smooth, flowing motion. I think this has a little flow to it. 
This was a good time for lovers in Eugene, with Valentine’s Day coming up, and with the Oregon Wedding Showcase in town. For anyone wanting to set the perfect stage for a romantic moment, there was no shortage here of ideas, venues, and foods, not to mention, people, to make it happen. Photographers, musicians, caterers, and more showcased their work simultaneously. It felt kind of like … an actual wedding festival.
D’n'A performed, providing, in someone else’s words, a “tasteful blend of classical and traditional music.” Doug Heydon on guitar and Amey Herman on violin can really talk music. One of their interests is tracing the musical folkways of French music in America over generations, from Canada down to New Orleans and back to Paris again. In addition to being incredibly smart and talented, they are just fun, easy people to be around, in my opinion. For more information, go to www.ourdnamusic.com. The Dover String Quartet also performed, playing some classical music along with some string versions of Beatles tunes. Check them out at thedoverstringquartet.com.
Photographers also presented their work, including: www.seanhoffmanphotography.com , www.mccloudphotography.com ,and www.cheastudio.com.
Valentine’s is Coming.
That’s right, it’s time to do special things for your loved ones, and here are a few ideas to set the stage.
First of all, book your reservation with Agate Alley. 
To add to the chemistry, the Lab serves this cocktail that some people are calling “love potion.” It’s called Stone Roses. I’ve tried it, and I personally think it actually tastes like love would taste.
If you need something to counterbalance what I would call Stone Rose’s feminine essence, try the Lost Barrel. And if your bartender finds a happy medium between Stone Roses and the Lost Barrel, go ahead let me know.
At any rate, this is probably the time to start thinking about Valentine’s gifts. You know, if you start now, you will be a lot farther along later than if you start later. Personally, I recommend getting in touch with Mija at MECCA art supplies. Check this out:
These are by Christine Hendry.
Oh yes, flowers. (My personal favorite is Dandelions Flowers and Gifts. The florists are very good with the personal touch.) That’s all for now. Get started on that Valentine’s checklist: reservations, flowers, DIY gift, love potion. Think: Love, love, love. Beatles, Love is all you need, right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9_vhYpR9xo&feature=related . And if your Valentine’s is still not shaping up the way you hoped, just keep the faith that that magical moment is going to happen unexpectedly. If you can convince yourself to just see it and believe it, even for just a moment, there’s a good chance it will happen.
Hey, guys!
I just wanted to let you know that my new job is in advertising for a restaurant. They actually want me to use my skills from running this blog to spread the word about their restaurant.
More to follow. Until then, you might enjoy these pictures I took along Amazon Creek in West Eugene.
Every day, I wake up to beautiful views of tree covered hill sides. When I step outside, my eyes meet countless shades of green and brown, usually against an overcast sky, although it has been quite a bit sunnier than normal this winter.
Some things just can’t be captured in photographs, and that goes for the richness and depth of these moss covered branches when seen in person. I spent some time trying to find the right angle, and this is the best I have to show for it.
Not all views are pretty. Half-dead vegetation hangs over the side of a concrete pot, built more for function than style. In the background looms an electrical structure.
Big moment for me, web-loggers.
After some travails, I landed a good job doing what I love.
Thank you computer, thank you WordPress, thank you bloggers.
Details to come. I just had to tell you.
