My wife sent me an e-mail message with a You Tube link attached and said, “Jim, check this out – it will inspire you”.  I immediately clicked the link and waited in anticipation as the video uploaded on my computer. 

The next thing I know I am observing a video of a very common looking, middle-aged woman being interviewed in some sort of waiting room or lobby.  In the interview I am experiencing her as a plain, very simple spoken, down to earth, authentic woman. 

I remember noticing a stream of doubt and negative judgment streaming through my mind, attempting to distract me as I continued to observe this interview.  I was intrigued as this woman spoke.  The more she answered the questions the interviewers asked the more captivated I found myself.  But the doubting, negative voice in my head kept demanding that I exit the video and move on to something more productive.  It harshly judged this person and doubted her capacity to inspire others.

Thankfully, through a lot of arduous work, I have developed an ability to quiet these limiting, negative, judgmental impressions that often attempt to derail me from that which I have chosen to focus my attention on.  Rather than joining the chorus of doubt and negativity I simply said to this judgmental voice, hush!  Let’s just watch the clip and see if it inspires.

This heckling presence in my head quieted itself in disgust as I commanded my mind to pay closer attention to the interview that was unfolding.

What happened next amazed me, lifted me up, enlivened me, caused my heart to overflow with the energy of unlimited possibility, transformed my mood, and brought me to tears.

It turns out that this normal looking woman being interviewed on the video was Susan Boyle who lives a quiet life at home in Blackburn, West Lothian, England with her cat, Pebbles.  She’s a contestant on the 2009 television show called Britain’s Got Talent.  Susan is a 47 year old, unemployed dreamer who entered this competition as a way of fanning the flames of a vision she has been feeding since she first began singing at the age of twelve.

Suddenly the interview moved from the pre-contest setting of the hotel lobby to the big stage of the actual competition.  Now Susan was standing in the center of a huge stage, set in a large theatre, filled to its capacity with energized onlookers.  Seated in the very front row in an elevated section sat the show’s three, well known and sometimes controversial judges, Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, and Piers Morgan.

Simon began to ask a few questions to give the audience a sense of the contestant before she performed. He asked the usual what is your name and where are you from questions. When Simon asked her how old she was, Susan said 47 and the audience gasped while Simon rolled his eyes. 

Then he asked Susan, “What is your dream?”  Without pause she boldly proclaimed, “My dream is to be a professional singer!”

With that response the camera began to pan the judges and audience for their response. I saw people smirk, roll their eyes, and nonverbally shout “yeah right!”  The same doubt-filled, heckling voice that had invaded my awareness a few moments earlier was now raising a ruckus in the minds of everyone in that auditorium.  I noticed myself wanting to join them.  Once again I attempted to command my inner cynic to be quiet.  I have to admit that at this point I was not completely successful.  The cynical voice in my head was no longer willing to wait for Susan’s performance to let the facts determine her vocal quality and capacity to inspire.  It demanded that I prejudge and doubt.

Simon continued, “Why hasn’t the dream worked out so far Susan?”  She replied, “I’ve never been given the chance before, but here’s to hoping that this will change that.”

Simon followed up with, “Who would you like to be as successful as?”  To which Susan replied, “I want to be as famous as Elaine Paige.”  The audience literally laughed aloud at that one!

Finally Susan announced to the judges that she would be singing the song, I Dream The Dream From Les Miserables. 

Now, the moment Susan had rehearsed in her heart, in her mind, in the shower, and in front of her bathroom mirror thousands of times over the past half a century was dawning in her actual experience.  The camera panned backstage where they queued the music.  The audience held it’s breath, expecting a total flop but quietly hoping it would not be too embarrassing.

The music began to play.  Susan then gracefully and confidently held the hairbrush, I mean microphone up to her lips and began to sing.  Eight simple but powerful words into her song, the hecklers were silenced, doubters became believers, nervousness gave way to awe, limitation was lifted, hearts were moved, and enthused support filled the concert hall.  I felt as if I had been transported from my kitchen stool in front of this You Tube video right into the music hall.  I sat there along with the judges and the rest of the audience completely mesmerized by Susan Boyle and her splendid performance.  Tears of admiration and appreciation welled up in my heart and began to flow down my face as I allowed myself to be inspirited and transformed by this beautiful, 47-year old unemployed dreamer.

Susan had a dream.  She dared to picture herself as a successful singer.  She persisted in nurturing this picture of herself no matter how many people rained on her parade.  Even though the opportunity had not presented itself in nearly four decades of dreaming, she playfully and patiently kept singing in the privacy of her own home or for anyone who would listen.  All the while, Susan imagined herself performing on enormous stages and delighting huge audiences. 

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Britain’s Got Talent offers her an opportunity to share her unique gift with the world.  When this opportunity knocked, Susan Boyle boldly stepped forward and answered the call by accepting the challenge.  She put her hat in the ring and dared to sing.  And sing she did!  As of this writing over four million people have experienced this performance on You Tube.  Many of them, like me have been forever changed by her performance. 

Susan Boyle has reminded me just how powerfully and creatively magnificent we are as human beings.  We truly can create whatever we can imagine.  When we dare to clarify what we want, picture it in our mind’s eye, feed the picture with positive energy, infuse it with rich sensory perception, we seed our subconscious mind with a powerful imprint.  When this imprint is nurtured and fed on a regular basis, it gathers strength, fuel and momentum and one day it leaves the launch pad of our minds and begins to inform our thoughts, direct our feelings, express powerfully creative words, guide our behaviors, attract opportunities… and the next thing we know… just like Susan Boyle… we find that our dreams have become our reality.

May Susan’s example inspire you to create the life of your dreams?

Jim M Anderson - Samurai of Self-Development

PS If you haven’t had a chance to view this yet, do yourself a big favor and take the time to experience it.  Her is the link.  Enjoy!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

I just finished an incredible conversation with a friend of mine who is experiencing some very challenging times physically and financially.   In the past two years he has suffered two severe injuries.  Two years ago he shattered his pelvis in a skiing accident, which required 18 months of healing and rehab.  Then four months ago a bicycling accident resulted in a severely broken hip.  This required emergency surgery followed by another round of long and arduous rehab. 

In addition to these physical challenges, while putting three kids through school he experienced a default on the sale his successful business that had been built over the past ten years and had to place a start-up business on hold while focusing his full attention on healing his hip.  All of this during one of the toughest global economic conditions many of us has ever witnessed.  I don’t know about you but in my mind I think this set of conditions qualifies as “hard times”.

Now many of you may be thinking, “wow, I bet that was a depressing visit.”

Well, I am happy to report that I left this interaction invigorated, inspired and uplifted by this courageous soul that I call my friend.  Through out our entire conversation I did not hear one slight hint of misfortune, not even an inkling of despair, doom or gloom.

Quite the opposite…although we were very forthright about the reality that my friend and his family are facing, we focused our conversation on all he was learning from his set of circumstances.  He excitedly shared various profound and practical insights, inspired ideas, uplifting music and compelling goals that were emerging from the challenges he faced. 

This amazing guy also updated me on the progress he is making in his rehab.  His strength, flexibility and range of motion had improved significantly over the past few weeks.  He has retired his crutches and is now moving about gracefully with only a bit of assistance from a lightweight aluminum cane.

One of the things he was most enthused about is that he was able to resume his trips to the gym to begin working out again.  During his most recent workout he successfully achieved a new personal best bench press.  Not only that, but he also immediately set the bar even higher with plans to achieve a new personal best within a few months.

While I was driving home from this visit, tears of appreciation and awe began to flow down my cheeks.  My friend reminded me of something that is near and dear to my heart – he reminded me that HARD TIMES HONE HUMAN EXCELLENCE!

My friend could have chosen to whine, complain, agonize over some worst case doom and gloom scenarios, worry about his seemingly insurmountable challenges, haplessly sit around hoping someone would come and save him from his circumstances.  But instead, he chose to fill our interaction with positive energy and uplifting words and phrases like, learning… excitedly sharing… profound insights… inspired ideas… uplifting music… compelling goals… progress being made… improved strength, greater flexibility… expanded range of motion… successfully achieved a new personal best… immediately set the bar even higher… plans to achieve…

It takes a rare individual to embrace hard times as a perfect catalyst to hone skills, grow capability, expands capacity and increase self-confidence.  My friend is one of these rare individuals.  I am grateful for his presence in my life. 

May the hard times you encounter inspire you to find and express your very best!

Jim M Anderson

Samurai of Self-Development  

I just returned from an amazing solo retreat in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  This is one of my favorite national treasures here in the United States.  The mountains vibrate with an ancient wisdom, the forests abound with beauty and diversity beyond measure, and abundance of fresh, flowing rivers cleanses my heart and soul every time I visit.

When I first set my intention for this restorative time in the mountains I envisioned my most profound insights occurring deep in the woods, while sitting quietly in the shade of an old tree watching a river roll by with power, grace and ease.  Much to my surprise I ended up having one of my most profound revelations while sitting in a the Super Suds Laundromat on the east edge of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. 

After loading my dirty laundry into the washing machine, adding the detergent, inserting the correct change and pushing the start button, I settled into a chair and entered a deep state of reflection.  As I listened to the trance-inducing sound of the washing machine going through its prewash, scrubbing and rinsing cycles, it dawned on me that my solo time in the mountains had had the same effect on me.

When I first entered the mountains on Monday my mind was cluttered, conflicted, confused and racing about.  Day one in the mountains was like the pre-wash cycle in the laundromat.  Some rigorous hiking interspersed with some qi gong amidst the natural beauty, fresh air, and flowing rivers allowed me to mentally let go and begin to relax.  It freed my mind of clutter the way the prewash cycle was loosening the crud from my clothes.

Day two acted as the scrubbing cycle. Most of the mental and emotional clutter and contradiction had been loosened up and released the first day in the woods.  With my mind quiet and my emotional field calm it was time to sit still, enter the subconscious zone and do some deep scrubbing.  Taking a seat in a secluded, heavily forested area along a beautiful river I was able to closely examine and clean up some old, worn-out, bullshit beliefs that have been stinking up the place.  Oh how good it felt to off load this contradictory mental baggage and watch it float away on the mountain stream!

Day 3 –It’s time to rinse and reload.  Now that I had successfully cleared a patch of my subconscious mind of b.s. belief and it was time to rinse it with some high altitude mountain breeze and reload it with some power-packed, inspiring intentions. For this stage of the process I chose to ascend a 6,000-foot peak of Mount Le Conte and allow my imagination to soar with the eagles.  After an amazing six-mile hike to the top I found an incredible cliff overlooking miles of unobstructed rolling mountains and a clear blue sky.  This provided the perfect spot to reload my subconscious mind with mental images of what I wanted to create.  It was also a great place to begin carefully feeding and nurturing these seedlings of intention with laser-focused, white-hot desire.  After an hour-long exercise where I filled the realm of my imagination with powerful, three-dimensional holographic images of what I intended to create, I found myself buzzing with an abundance of creative energy.  I took out a note pad and began reflecting and writing about the types of thoughts, feelings, words and behaviors I would exhibit over the coming months in order to bring my intensions to life.  Then I crafted a plan in enough detail to inform a set of daily actions I am taking take to support my objective.

While hiking the six-mile trail down to my base camp I began thinking about and choosing one action I would take before the sun set that evening to move my plan forward.  I chose it and completed it by 5pm that afternoon.  I’ve been persistently taking action each day since and the momentum is building beautifully.

Walking in nature has a way of clearing my mind, calming my emotional field, heightening my senses, and restoring my physical body in the same ways a Laundromat cleans my clothes and restores them for another round of wear.  As always, I Ieft this retreat experience feeling inspired, refreshed, invigorated and ready to engage life with newfound gusto. 

I hope this story inspires you to take time to retreat, restore, refuel and reinvigorate your dreams and goals.  Whether you take a weeklong retreat in the mountains, a half-day reprieve in metro park, or 10 minutes of quiet time in your favorite room matters little.  What matters most is that you take time to pre-wash, scrub, rinse and reload your mind on a regular basis.

Restore yourself, 

Jim M Anderson

Samurai of Self-Development

PS You may be wondering, what was the powerful, three-dimensional holographic image that I held on the screen of my mind that day at the top of Mount Le Conte?  Well, it just so happens that I imagined myself launching and sustaining a successful information publishing company dedicated to serving the self-development market.  One of the action steps I identified that day was to create and launch my own personal blog to support this effort.  With this first post I bring to life one of the images I held on the screen of my mind while standing on top of Mount Le Conte.