What the Happiest People Know for Sure ot how success really works? By Dawn Raffel -

I grew up revering goals of all kinds: big, small, and bite-size; readily attainable; wildly ambitious; broken up, written down, projected on the stars. My attitude was hardly surprising, given the adages that are central to our culture: If you can see it, you can be it; if you don't know where you want to go, you're never going to get there; the road to bliss is paved with goals. Okay, I made that last one up, but a lot of us seem to believe it.


Which is why Stephen Shapiro, a cheerful subversive in casual business attire, comes as a shock to the system: He's making a cottage industry of what he calls goal-free living. (His book is titled—what else?—Goal-Free Living.) If you want to be happy—successful in the broadest sense—he suggests you take your nifty five-year plan and your lifetime to-do list and throw them out the window. And while you're at it, get some air.


Shapiro had a long track record of running motivational workshops for major corporations when he had his epiphany on the road. He had published a book called 24/7 Innovation and was planning to interview business leaders throughout the country for what he envisioned as a sequel. Not far into his research, though, he spotted a pattern: The most fulfilled people were also the most spontaneous and the least goal oriented. Fascinated, Shapiro chucked his agenda and drove 12,000 miles in his techno-wired car (equipped with cellular Internet access, digital recording equipment, and everything else short of an espresso bar), interviewing risktakers and box breakers, and asking for their suggestions about who else he should meet. He spent time with everyone from Doug Busch, a VP and a chief technology officer at Silicon giant Intel, to John T. Martin, then curator of one of the world's only voodoo museums, as well as 148 others thriving in such fields as education, technology, and philanthropy. After learning about the circuitous paths they'd taken, Shapiro was convinced that the key to happiness lies in checking out the detours and back roads, literal and figurative, without fear of changing course. Road maps for life, he believes, might lead to material gain, but there's a good chance that if you follow them unquestioningly, you'll lose yourself.


"I was giving a speech on a cruise ship recently, and the other speaker was a professional athlete," he says. "Her session was on setting goals, and mine was on not setting them. Someone in the audience raised her hand and said, 'I have a question. I've been very good at setting goals and very good at achieving them, and I'm still miserable. Why is that?'"


Give Shapiro a minute, and he'll rattle off the reasons, as he did that day at sea, and as he does almost every day, everywhere he can. "Number one I'm calling 'Whose goal is it, anyway?'" he says. "Most people's goals aren't their own. They tend to be driven by society and family pressure."


Second, he says, when you focus on a goal, "you put blinders on. You lose your peripheral vision and miss out on all the great opportunities around you. Third," he says, hardly pausing for breath, "you're always living for the future. You end up saying, 'I'll be happy when....' You sacrifice today in the hopes that something wonderful is going to happen tomorrow. But it almost never does." Yes, you might win the promotion or bag the trophy, but you rarely feel the lasting satisfaction you'd imagined. "Mountain climbers have a concept called the false summit, where they get to what they think is the peak and then they realize they're only at the bottom of an even bigger mountain," Shapiro says. "That's what happens with goals. You're constantly chasing them. The fourth issue is that you're courting failure." Meaning, he says, you become attached to one outcome, and even if you get it, reality seldom matches the dream in all its Technicolor splendor.

But just a minute here. Aren't goals, however idealistic or elusive, crucial to achievement? How much greatness would be lost to the world if artists, athletes, scientists, and thinkers fled potential disappointment and boredom to wander off in search of delight?

"Goal-free living isn't about being aimless or saying, 'Oh, this is getting tough. I've got to stop,'" Shapiro contends. "It's about being passion-driven in the moment, while knowing you can change course." It's also about "getting out, playing, and trying lots of new things." You can't find out what you love to do by sitting and thinking about it, he says; you must experience it.


Intel's Doug Busch, for instance, started off picking fruit during college, then maintained machinery in a poultry processing plant. "Most people think that's pretty low-end, but he actually loved it, and realized the reason was that he wanted to work with his hands," Shapiro says. "So he went back to school and became a mechanical engineer." Next, he got a job at Intel and grew more interested in other aspects of technology, eventually growing into his current position. "This is meandering with purpose," Shapiro says. "When you're living a life of passion, you're almost always making a contribution.

"Let's say you'd like to be a healer," he says. "You can move down the road to medical school but look around and see that maybe you don't want to be a doctor after all. Maybe you want to be a nurse, or work with the elderly, or start a charity. You don't lock yourself in."


If, like me, you are a goalaholic, you can't be expected to quit cold turkey, nor do you need to. "The question is, do you have the right goals, and are you relating to them the right way?" Shapiro says. Some people abuse goals "as a way of escaping from being present. They distract themselves by looking ahead. I'm much more into enjoying every single moment for what it is and allowing things to unfold." He suggests thinking in terms of aspirations (work in the visual arts) rather than goals (get a painting into a specific gallery by date X) because they give you pleasure today and are more broadly defined.


Even corporations—in fact, especially corporations, Shapiro tells his clients—suffer from rigid planning. No one can foretell how the world will look in just a few years—witness the quick burst of the dot-com bubble. His biggest beef is with the popular institutional concept of goals that are SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, results oriented, and time based. The idea that you'll know right away whether you've succeeded or failed is misguided and crippling: "Not only have you set yourself up for failure but you've put a time limit on everything," Shapiro says.


His antidote to the pain of a failed goal is to step back and ask yourself whether you defined the desired outcome too narrowly and whether you tried to control the uncontrollable. "Life is unpredictable," he says. "So give up control. Create many paths. And play hard."


Above all, trash the "If I don't succeed by Tuesday, I'm a loser" mentality. "You know what?" he says merrily. "I'm not going to be done with what I'm doing till I'm dead. Sometimes I think of things so audacious they couldn't come true, so I just keep playing with them. It's really about applying creativity to every aspect of your life."


And that, if you'll excuse me, sounds like a worthy goal.

Kony2012

A Note from Gary Zukav: Occupy Your Heart

The Occupy movement spread around the world despite beatings, arrests, evictions and the loss of so much personal property, frequently by people who have little personal property. The energy in general, as far as I can see, is not defiant in a superior way or angry in a personal way. As Martin Luther King Jr. said in his famous "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech the night before he died, "There are some kinds of fire that water can't put out." He was on fire and so was the civil rights movement in the United States—with courage, clarity and commitment unto death.


Now another fire is burning. Its intent was not to consume Wall Street, but to occupy it, to make it our own, to become one with it in order to change it for the better. There is no other way to change something or someone for the better except to occupy it first. The only person you can occupy is yourself. That is why the only person who can change you for the better is you. Without your decision to change and your commitment to change, you will not change.

Religions cannot change you. If you are angry, you will be angry. If you are righteous, you will be righteous. No dynamic other than your own ability to distinguish within yourself between love and fear—and choose love—can change you, moment by moment, decision by decision. In other words, the only things standing between you and the compassionate, wise and creative person you want to be are matters of choice. Your choice. No one can occupy your generosity except you. Who can occupy your patience when impatience roars through you? Who except you can choose not to act with judgment when all of your thoughts are judgmental? Your life is yours to live, no matter how you choose to live it. When you do not think about how you intend to live it, it lives you. When you occupy it, step into it consciously, you live it.


At its best, the Occupy movement expresses this, draws from it and creates with it. It is a movement of self-responsibility uniting countless self-responsible participants—an impossibility for the mind to grasp, but not for the heart. Commitment and creativity cannot be captured and handcuffed. Inspiration cannot be jailed. The heart cannot be contained. Who can occupy your heart except you? What will happen when you do?


Love,
Gary

Set your heart Free--By Martha Beck

Our hearts are imprisoned for just one reason: The only language they can speak is truth. Unlike the mind, which can be persuaded to accept the most bizarre ideas ("Look, it's the Hale-Bopp comet! Time to kill yourself!), your heart tells it like it is, without bothering to be tactful or socially appropriate. Free hearts rock boats, break rules, do things that disrupt the system—whether that system is a dysfunctional family, a bloated bureaucracy, or the whole wide world.

As a result, few of us speak the truth out loud. All our lives we've been hearing things like: What you are thinking/feeling/saying/becoming, etc., is stupid/rude/scandalous/sinful/depressing/ridiculous/unoriginal, etc. All the infinite variations on this theme convey just one message: Silence your heart or you will be rejected. Rejection hurts our little social-mammal hearts so much that just the threat of it convinces most of us to cooperate with our enemies. This is a two-step process: First we go dumb, learning never to speak our deepest truths. Then we go deaf, refusing to hear our own souls.

To release your heart, you simply reverse the two-step process by which you locked it up. First you begin to listen for messages from your heart—messages you may have been ignoring since childhood. Next you must take the daring, risky step of expressing your heart in the outside world. It's lucky this process is so simple, because it's also terrifying.

People with captive hearts often spend years thinking very hard about things like reawakening their passion or discovering their destiny. This never works, because such information is stored in the heart, not the brain, and is expressed by feelings, not thoughts.

Not to worry. Paying attention to any feeling unlocks your heart, and if subtle emotional nuance eludes you, physical sensations will do nicely. Try this exercise : Write a detailed description of everything you're feeling in your body. If you do this for more than ten minutes, you'll find that you've also started describing your emotions.

Think of This As "Shock" Therapy:

Once you begin listening to your heart, I guarantee it's going to say some things that shock you—otherwise, you wouldn't have locked it away in the first place. You may discover that your heart wants to spend your paycheck on flowers or wear purple spandex to a board meeting. You don't have to act on these impulses, but you must not judge or repress them.

Treat your heart like a tired, hurt child: Accept its tantrums, revenge fantasies, and pity parties, but don't get stuck in them. Say kind things to yourself: "It's okay that you love your goldfish more than your in-laws" or "Of course you want to stab Billy's third-grade teacher with a meat fork—all the moms do." When you acknowledge your forbidden feelings calmly, you'll find that you actually have more control over your actions. It's when feelings are repressed that they burst out in dangerous, unhealthy ways.

The more you tune in, the deeper the truths your heart will tell and the more intense your emotions will become. You may feel great pain about times others have hurt you—and, worse, times you have hurt others. But as this pain flows through you and begins to dissipate, you'll find something beneath it, something astonishingly powerful, something one philosopher called the "all-pervading radiant beauty" of your heart of hearts.

Defy your inner jailer:

At this point you'll begin to realize that your heart is telling you where to steer your life. You'll know the next step because you will begin to long for anything that connects you to it.

When desire really comes from your heart, deciding to act on it will bring another strong sensation. You'll feel an extraordinary clarity, the sense that something inside you has clicked into place. Of course, your Inner Jailer might not agree. You may be flooded with reminders that your heart's instructions are stupid or boring or rude. Don't listen. Run.

Spread the word:

Toni Morrison said that "the function of freedom is to free someone else." This is the final step necessary for keeping your heart at liberty, and you do it in just one way: by telling your story. However you do it—a journal, an artistic creation, the pictures you hang on your walls, or the way you raise your children—telling your story demolishes the barriers between your heart and the outside world. I won't lie: This means that your heart will be exposed and, yes, broken. But it's important to remember that a heart is imprisoned not by being broken but by being silenced. There will be people (often the people you most want to please) who won't like what you say. It's going to hurt—and it's going to heal.

As you learn to live by heart, every choice you make will become another way of telling your story, calling your tribe, and liberating not only your heart but the hearts of others. This is the very definition of love, the process that makes all-too-human people and societies capable of true humanity. It will chart you a life's journey as unique and authentic as your fingerprint; send you out, full of hope and breathtaking exhilaration, onto paths you never thought you could travel. It is the way you were meant to exist. If you stop to listen, you'll realize that your heart has been telling you so all along.

How to Escape the Matrix By Edwin Harkness Spina

The Matrix was one of the most popular and thought-provoking movies of all time. Viewers all over the world were captivated by the film’s primary message: People get into deep trouble when they mistake what they perceive for reality.

What most viewers do not realize is that prior to the release of this groundbreaking film, western intelligence agencies were already using the term "the Matrix" to describe today's world. This was in contrast to their work with remote viewers, who would "escape the matrix" to gather intelligence. Art truly does imitate life.

In the movie, the Matrix is an elaborate Artificial Intelligence computer simulation that's so captivating that people mistake it for reality. People perceive they are walking about and interacting with others, but their physical bodies are actually submerged in fluid-filled pods, "plugged into" the Matrix, while their vital life force is harnessed to power the Matrix.

After Neo (Keanu Reaves) learns the truth, with the help of Morpheus's (Lawrence Fishburne) training, he is able to overcome his misconception that the Matrix is reality. Neo rebels against the machines that create his false reality and, eventually, he escapes the limitations of the Matrix. To others, he has developed superhuman abilities, but, "in reality," he has merely recognized the truth.

Escaping the Matrix is a metaphor for the mystic path to enlightenment.

The Matrix can be defined as the world that we perceive, which includes the physical world, as well as higher planes of emotions and thoughts, which also affect us.

Within the Matrix are countless fear-based thoughts and emotions that condition us to accept limitations. We are taught that we have little power, and what little power we do have, we are advised to delegate to authority figures and experts. Swimming in a sea of negative thoughts, we are prompted to use our creative ability to imagine even more negative thoughts. Without introspection, the Matrix gets darker and more dense.

Anyone who blindly accepts these prevalent, negative thoughts will have his or her life path dictated by the Matrix.

But those who recognize that it is our collective thoughts and beliefs that power the Matrix will recognize the way out.

When we incarnate on earth, we temporarily forget the higher truth of who we are. Our life mission is to remember, to connect with our innermost self, so that we may transcend the Matrix.

The reality we perceive with our senses is not the true reality, but merely a small portion of reality, masquerading as the whole. But, unlike the "alternate reality" that Neo must extricate himself from, in our "reality," there is no need to rebel. Rather, our goal should be to transcend. We want to "be in this world, but not of it."

The outer world is a reflection of our inner thoughts and beliefs, whether individual or collective, which have been conditioned by our experience in the Matrix. Consequently, the Matrix is a learning environment, where we get feedback on how our thoughts manifest. Thankfully, our negative thoughts do not (typically) manifest instantaneously. Otherwise, we would risk the spontaneous destruction of our world by thinking negative thoughts

Using Meditation to Escape the Matrix

Clearing yourself of negative energies through daily meditation can provide a direct link to the "ultimate reality," i.e., the pure consciousness residing within each of us. As your negative beliefs are purified through regular contact with the "light" of your divine nature, unhealthy emotions, such as fear and anger, will naturally begin to diminish, and you’ll be free to transcend to higher states of consciousness. You will "download" more of your own true self, while simultaneously and automatically attracting others of similar vibration

Your world will become more synchronistic. You will repel angry, fearful people, and those who stick around will become calmer and more centered. You will radiate love. By simply being in higher consciousness, you will have a greater effect on the world than the most gifted orators and political leaders.

The higher your consciousness and energy are vibrating, the faster your thoughts will manifest. When you align with your innermost self, you are aligned more closely with the Source of all creation. At the apex of your individual consciousness, you are connected with The One. You then have at your disposal the entire universe to help you manifest the highest good for all.

In actuality, we are single points of awareness in the Oneness that is Reality. What we interpret as the physical world is the projection of this awareness, which is taking place in the Mind of God. We are, as Shakespeare pointed out, merely "actors" in a divine play.

When we wake up to this knowledge, the play does not stop. We are free to act or interact, in bliss and peace, unattached to the Matrix. We have within us the power to create "heaven on earth."

In my new program I teach various methods you can use to release fear, eliminate anger, dis-identify with your emotions, take back your power, listen to your inner master, and be yourself. The goal of all of these exercises is the same: to help you escape the Matrix.

The Universe Always Says Yes By Aine Belton, Creator of Matrix Shift

Miracles are natural. When you awaken to the true nature of reality and discover it is not the solid world it appears to be and that you are its source not subject, you begin to experience life as the magical dream that it truly is.

The more you acknowledge yourself as the powerful co-creator that you are, the more you will step into a whole new way of living, creating and experiencing your life where synchronicities and serendipities abound and miracles no longer surprise you (in fact, you come to expect them!).

"There are two ways to live your life - one is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle." —Albert Einstein

Your world is not separate from you; what's more it is malleable. Your heart and mind hold the keys to its mastery. What you believe to be real 'out there' are wavelengths of energy that correspond directly to your thoughts. It is you that determines what exists from the infinite field of possibility.

Your reality is a hologram of your consciousness, a reflection and extension of the entirety of your mind. When you change, so does your world. You are a miraculous manifesting machine creating your reality in every moment! You can't not create. The key is to become conscious of how you do so. This is the art of true alchemy.

You can create miracles by harnessing the tools of your consciousness. These include:

• Your beliefs, attitudes, thoughts and feelings
• Your desire - the fuel that breathes life into your dreams and seeds your intentions
• Your imagination - the boundless palate with which you craft your world
• Your positive emotional resonance - love, trust, gratitude, fun, etc.
• Your connection to your bright future - experiencing it 'for real' in your heart and mind NOW to engage future causation
• And your power of choice itself - the flagship of free will, that can direct and determine all preceding elements.

Not only can you create miracles consciously, you can also invite them into your life by the grace of co-creation, by allowing the universe to gift you, love you and bless you simply by asking and being open and willing to receive.

You both consciously and unconsciously create the world around you, yet you are not alone in the process. You are a co-creator with the source of life, what ever name you hold for such, that ever conspires in your favour and will perform any amount of miracles and magic for the attainment of your desires.

You deserve all that your heart desires. You are the only one that can stand in your way. Expand your vision of the possible and open to receive. The only limits are those that exist within your own mind. The universe always says yes. Will you?

The more you recognize that you are eternally connected to an all-loving infinitely abundant source, the more you will allow in the grace of co-creation. The fastest way to activate miracles in your life is through the gateway of love. Love is the highest vibration in the universe. You are a spiritual being born of love. The essence of who you are is love itself. You are inherently lovable and have always and will always be loved by the heart of creation. Miracles are love in action.

The universe loves you more than you are able to fully know. It loves you more than you love yourself. It loves you totally and unconditionally. There are no bounds to that love. You are loved beyond measure. There is nothing you can do to lose that love, and nothing you need do to win it.

The more you connect to this truth, the more magic and miracles you will allow into your life and the more effortless your successes will become, for you will realize there is no separation between you and the love of Source and anything you desire can be yours by choice.

The more you connect to the truth of who you are, your innocence, worth and magnificence, the more negative self-concepts and beliefs fall away as you experience yourself as the love of who you are and become an irresistible and miraculous magnet to the realities that you desire.

GOING BEYOND THE LAW OF ATTRACTION By Ton Pascal

Our mind is in a constant dialogue with itself, sending out messages that will create our living experience according to our present perceptions. This mental chatter is our consciousness deciding whether or not we should have this or that, whether to run to or from, whether to think this or that, and what we are going to do next.
Our brain is incessantly working, the complex organic electric signals generated by our inner self, even when we are dreaming. What we perceive now as true and good for us, is instantly converted into a powerful energy. This force will support all actions, people and experiences, for what we think, at this very moment in time, are our personal needs or desires. And le voilà, we sent out our message into the cosmos. These thoughts are a powerful energy that will seek out and connect us with a similar, complementary twin force. This is what we call The Law of Attraction.
Did you ever stop to think about all the people, incidents and experiences that have come into your life? People come into your life for "a reason, a season and a lifetime", says the old prayer. But, why? This doesn't happen by sheer coincidence. In this instance, you have to look beyond the Law of Attraction for the reason. Someone is in your life because you have expressed, either consciously or subconsciously to yourself, a need or a wish.
In our ever-evolving society, even the most timid, reserved or reclusive person has someone or something connecting with him or her every day. Whether it is by telephone, Internet, fax, or direct contact, people are coming into our lives, creating for us a new living experience every moment, every day. With these connections, we are constantly creating and recreating our own reality with every thought and action we take. This is how the Law of Attraction works.
Be very careful here and pay good attention to your thoughts-this power doesn't discriminate. It will bring to you exactly what you had in mind then, be it good or bad. The Law of Attraction will bring everything you wish for into your life. Just for you, a vast supply of the most incredible gifts are stored there, in the "warehouse" of the universe. Good and bad, heaven and hell, neatly stored for you to choose from and take home.
The perception you have of yourself, be it conscious or unconscious, is the guide and the road map with which this universal force will match up and populate your life. Just remember, this reality will change every time you change your perceptions, as will the world around you. For some people this principle is somehow frightening! They are usually people who are not even aware that their perceptions are of the negative kind. Life for them looks like a lovely movie going bad all of a sudden. All that they consciously wanted, needed, or desired was a good husband/wife, a great job or a good place to live. What did they get? A moronic, abusive, disgusting partner, or a boss who is a bully. and let's not mention the living conditions!
What went wrong? People living this kind of nightmarish reality seem to be still attached to perceptions from a past that is no longer healthy and fulfilling for them. Very often, they perceive themselves as the "bad boy" or "bad girl" that their parents often told them they were. They are often moody, distant and lacking in self-confidence. They haven't yet been able to detach from their early perceptions inflicted on them by parents, friends, companions, or the system. If you find yourself in this predicament, get out of there fast!
A simple test is to look at yourself in the mirror and say, "I love myself." What did you get back, a beautiful smile or resistance? Do you need help? Look for articles on affirmations and start studying them at once. You know that you are in a state of attachment when you feel that what comes out of your mouth doesn't bounce well with your heart; or that when you do your daily affirmations, there is a sense of panic and a need to control your thoughts.
Being detached is being non-resistant, transforming panic into peace of mind. In this state of mind you allow life to flow normally, positively and peacefully. It is only in this state that you can create the reality you truly desire. You maximize the power of your mind and align yourself directly with the energy source, thus quickly manifesting your desires-you went beyond of the Law of Attraction. This cosmic force and energy is not there to judge or suggest a different path for you. It accepts your thoughts and wishes as law.
When you know, understand, and live your life as one universal mind, detachment comes easily and you'll see and create your world quite differently. A good exercise is to start your day with positive affirmations. You will immediately find out if you are still attached to old perceptions or not. Work on it! When you feel good and positive about yourself, the path for your positive energy is open, and the planet and your community succeeds.
Now that you have learned how to build the emotional foundation for positive living, life becomes quite enjoyable. You can now move on and be the teacher, support and friend other positive people want so much to connect with. Have a great and happy journey.