“Building Your Toolkit” 

Tools for Building Dreams:

 It all starts with a dream, a dream of your life as you’d like it to be.  It’s a vision that you will turn into a plan, a plan you will turn into a reality.  From here to there is a journey, a journey which will marked by challenges, victories, and if you set your standards high enough, also will be marked mistakes.

This is the Quick Start 7, wherein you will be given seven tools with which to build the life of your dreams, seven tools to accelerate you down the path of experiencing life at your best.  In the next section, The Elevated 8, we will be making applying these tools, for now, we simply want to fill your toolbox with everything you will need to build anything you have ever dreamt of.

Uncovering your Dream:

No matter where you are on the journey of life, we each hold a dream of what we would change if we could.  The tools in this tool box are about making those changes.  Let’s get clear right from the beginning, this is a journey with many destinations along the way.  The tools, your plans, your dreams are all part of this journey, but it is the journey itself where we find our experience of life at our best.

 You will arriving at many goals, fullfill many dreams, and this is a wonderful thing.  But more than that, there is the journey itself.  Arriving, accomplishing, these are delightful experiences, but nothing is so important as how we get to there.  That is what these seven tools are all about, getting you to where you want to be, helping you to build the life of your dreams, and making the experience of building it as good in the present moment as it will be when you accomplish the goals and dreams themselves.

Learning to Fall: For Beginners

 I want to start out with an example, a long time ago I was a Power Skating coach.  I taught hockey players and figure skaters the subtleties of the art of skating.  I worked with accomplished athletes, and I also worked with total beginners, people who had been skating competitively for years, and people who could not even stand up on saktes.  

 The first lesson was always the same no matter the skill level:  HOW TO FALL DOWN and GET BACK UP GRACEFULLY.  This is an important idea, so I’m going to ask you to visualize these three groups of skaters:  The Athletic and Tough Hockey Players, The Elite and Dedicated Figure Skaters, and the Never even put on skates before beginners. 

 The beginners, many of them were so afraid of falling, that they could not even focus on skating, they became stiff, locked in their fear of failure.  I had them sit on the ice, literally, just sit there, we talked about why they wanted to learn to skate, how they heard about my class, who they were, whatever they wanted to talk about until they got bored and cold.  I’m would wait until someone finally said, “When are we going to stand up?  My butt is freezing!” 

At that moment, when they wanted to be standing up on that ice ten times more then their fear of falling, that was the moment to begin. I would have them stand, then sit back down, then stand again, then sit back down, over and over for as long as it took to shake the fear of falling down out of them.

  It didn’t take long either, cold ice is an exceptional motivator!  After just ten minutes of getting up and down, they were ready to skate!  They had lost their fear of falling, they had to learn to get up and down gracefully.  Now that they had let go of fear they were ready to glide across that ice, fearless, they were ready to soar! 

Competitive Falling:

 Have you ever seen a cat stumble or have a missed step?  Did you notices how embarrassed and angry they look?  Everyone hates to fall.  Everyone hates to stumble.  Everyone hates rejection.  Let’s look at the same exercise with advanced athletes.   Figures skaters hate to fall, they don’t normally practicing sliding around on the ice, they hate falling even more than cats do!  Hockey players don’t really care, in fact, they think falling is funny.  As a coach, they expect me to help them find their limits, they expect me to help them push those limits until they break through to the other side. 

So let’s remove the fear of falling, let’s make falling a competition! We need to get over the fear of failing immediately!  So, we need to learn to fall safely.  We need to get past the embarrassment of stumbling immediately,  So let’s see who can fall the best.  Who can fall the fastest?  Who can slide the furthest?  Who can slide perfectly to the edge of the group?   Who can fall the most gracefully? Who can control thier fall the best?  Athletes, just like career people, don’t need to be encouraged to compete, they will create a competition all by themselves. Everyone wants to do well in life, everyone naturally strives to their best, so let’s see who can fall the best, whatever that even means!  When falling became a game, everyone starting loving it, having fun, smiling and laughing!

Learning to Get Back Up!

 Let’s go further!  After a few tries these skaters have learned to bounce off the ice and back to their feet when they fall!  Falling becomes easy, natural, effortless.  Now, they’ve lost the fear of falling, so they can truly begin to soar!  They don’t feel embarrassed anymore because they understand that if we challenge ourselves and we push our limits we will all fall from time to time.  They understand now that how we take those stumbles is more important than never stumbling.  They know that getting back up is easy, they know that getting back up is much easier then giving up!  They’ve learned the most important lesson in the Power Skating Course, they’ve overcome the fear of failure, now they’re ready to challenge themselves!  Now they’re ready to push their limits.

Are you ready?

Are you ready to push your limits?  Are you ready to face your truth in the present moment?  Are you ready to challenge yourself, to ask more from yourself then ever before?  Are you ready to stumble gracefully?

This isn’t a get-rich-quick-with-no-effort guide.  This is the real deal.  If you’re going to achieve the life of your dreams, you will abandon your fear of success, and turn the occasional missteps into a dance.  Will you let go of what others might think?  Can you forsake the fear of rejection? 

Are you really ready to meet yourself at your best?  To live at your best?  To fulfill your dreams?  Are you ready to claim the health, wealth, and relationship you always wanted?  Are you ready to begin experiencing life at your best?

If you’re ready, I want to give you the tools to create your life as a living dream, I want to give you the tools which will speed you down the path towards experiencing life at your best. 

Let’s waste no time with who I am or where the tools came from, a good hammer is clearly good without knowing where it came from, so let’s get to the hammers and let their quality speak for themselves!  The Quick Start Seven:  First Tool - A Unified Perspective “Science and Spirit Unite”…

“The Law of Attraction and Soul Healing” 

Tool Number 6 - The Law of Attraction

The sixth tool is the law behind the principles, the Law of Attraction.  We often paraphrase this law and say, “Like Attracts Like”.    The Law of Attraction governs everything in the Universe and explicitly says, “likes Align and Congeal.”  This means, that those things in the Universe which are alike will align with one another and come together.  This is the truth underlying ht workings of the world, and when you know something to be true, it is a very powerful thing.  When you know something and you abandon doubt, you create a foundation, a foundation which can be used to build upon.

Carpenters use a tool called a level, a level is a very simple tool.  It tells the carpenter exactly how much something slopes, or tilts.  If something is perfectly level, it is called “True”.  Carpenters use this tool, the level to make walls perfectly vertical, also called, “True”.  If a building is true, then the floor is level and the walls are vertical, this becomes very important if the building is going to be large, or have many layers.  This ‘level’  and the idea of ‘true’ is a very important, so important that we use it to describe people saying, “They’re on the level” meaning honest or true. 

In our tool kit, the Law of Attraction is that level.  It is true.  Likes Align and Congeal.  “What are you being like? What do you want to be like?”  Whatever you are being like you will create in the world around you.  If you act depressed, defeated, hopeless, angry – then these things will align and congeal around you. Of this there is no doubt, it is true.

In the same way a carpenter uses this tool to check the trueness of a board or house, we also may use this tool to check our level.  We know that “Likes Align and Congeal” so we check our level by asking ourselves “What we are being like…”  then we make the shift, “What do I want to be like?”  In this way, the fundamental questions ask us to take the act of actually making the shift to be the way we want to be, and the law behind it is the Law of Attraction.  The common paraphrase of this law: “Like attracts like, you will attract to yourself whatever you are being like.”

Tool Number 7 - Healing the Soul

The Last tool is Conceptual and very powerful.  The Seventh and final tool we are putting in the tool kit is the concept of Soul Healing.  Much like the GET cycle, the concept of Soul Healing is the idea of improving the condition of yourself at the very core.   

Allow me to make the distinction between the GET cycle and the concept of Soul Healing.  The GET cycle is the based in adding, growing is thought of in this case as the process of adding more to what is already there.  Soul Healing is the concept of removing any damages or blockages at the very core. 

Once again we face a subtle distinction, the two illnesses of the soul hinge around Servility and Cowardice.  Let’s look at Cowardice for a moment.  We can think of overcoming cowardice in two ways:  1. Adding Bravery.  2. Removing Fear. 

The GET Cycle and the concept of Soul Healing form perfect compliments to each other, like a nail compliments a hammer.  One without the other is only half of what is needed.  Through Growing, Empowering, and Training we add bravery, through Soul Healing, we remove fear.   

There is an entire section on Soul Healing here at Full Spirit, where we will address every challenge involved in succinct, clear steps.  For now, what we want is to merely introduce the concept as summarized in this way:  Your Soul is the source of every choice you make and every action you take.  The Condition of your soul will determine the quality of your choices and actions.  So doesn’t it make sense to get your Soul in the best condition possible?

But how?  How do we begin to apply these 7 magnificent tools?  The concepts are great, but how do we put them into practical use?  The next series, The Elevated 8, will guide you through the step by step process of applying these tools to the sculpting and building of your personal living dream.  Each article in the E8 Series includes a daily lesson and a printable exercise sheet.  Remember the Fifth Force, the Material Force of Inertia?  The Quick Start 7 was designed to get you rolling, after the next 8 one a day lessons, you’ll find yourself gathering speed and momentum  as you race towards experiencing life at your best!  Elevated 8 – 8 Practical Lessons for Experiencing life at you best…(available December 3, 2007)  

“Taking Action with the Five Forces” 

Action, Inaction, and Distraction:

A special note on action from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who said, “I am so busy, I have so much which needs to be done, the only hope I have to getting it all accomplished is to spend a day in meditation and prayer.”  This is the subtle power of action.  Meditation – clearing and emptying your mind, and prayer – cultivating faith and tuning into the divine force are the sublime actions.  Sometimes the action which needs to be taken is the act of emptying oneself.  This is very important:  Distraction and Non-action are two very different things.  Non-Action is the action of deliberately emptying your mind, clearing you energy field.  Distraction, taking action that does not get you closer to your goal, actually further clutters things, actively taking your further away from your goal. 

Getting your OARS in the Water is and easy thing, using it well, it an art form.  Knowing when to actively become non-active (meditate, empty oneself, clear ones mind), is so different from simply distracting yourself from your goals.  Knowing when to actively distract oneself (deliberately resting or recreating) is also a different from avoiding action.  Sometimes, you need to get away through distraction or recreation in order to take action with a fresh perspective and refreshed energy, we aren’t trying to become addicted workaholics with this tool!  As you use this tool more and more, you’ll come to your own personal artistry of creativity.

Taking the right action at the right time is a matter of maximizing your efforts and results.  Taking action in the wrong direction can be as useless as no action at all, conversely, taking action which goes with the flow of things, action which compliments the nature cycle can function in your life the same way a supercharger functions on a car.  There are Five major forces which influence all things.  Knowledge of these will have the effect of amplifying your every action your life, supercharging you towards your every desire.

Tool Number 5 - Knowledge of the Five Forces

In brief, there are five forces which, like currents in a stream, propel all actions and reactions in our lives.  The first force is called the Divine Force, it is the force which Napoleon Hill calls, “The Force of Infinite Intelligence.”  Thinking of the divine force in terms of being infinitely intelligent is an excellent way to regard it.  This force of infinite intelligence is available to us, we may tap into it at anytime and find ourselves instantly confronted with tools, resources, helpers, and opportunities we could have never foreseen without it.  The key to tapping into the Divine force of infinite intelligence is simple and already stated, “Seek to do the most good in the world possible!”

The second force, the Universal Force is simpler still, yet larger in scope, it is guided by the simple law of attraction, “Likes Align and Congeal.”  Unlike the Divine Force, the universal force has no intelligence, it simply insists that likes align and congeal. 

The third force, the Force of Personal Will, is yours and yours alone.  It is your choice what you will create and manifest into the world around us all.  In understanding and applying this force one thing overrides all other factors, “A button is not the same as a castle.”  Your personal potential is unlimited, but what you are able to actually accomplish is limited by your willingness to make the effort!  Your personal force may be weak and you will be buffeted by situation and circumstance as a cork on the waves of the ocean.  Or your personal force may be strong and you will be able to quickly and easily create your situations and circumstances.  IN the next sections we will be exploring the techniques for building this force!

The fourth force is the force of the Collective Consciousness.  It is the status quo.  It is the force which is created through the shared ideas and intentions of our larger society.  As you come to master your place within the larger whole,  you will find that the force of the collective consciousness can bolster and uplift, or constrain and imprison.   Learning how to navigate this delicate force is the process of supporting it, and being supported by it! 

Last of the five forces is the Material Force, the force of physical and energetic inertias.  This force has three components: 1. For every action there is a reaction.  2. Things at rest will tend to stay at rest unless acted on by an outside influence. 3. Things in motion will tend to stay in motion unless acted on by an outside influence.   

This Force of Inertia, the Material force applies to energetic things as well as physical.  Remember our first tool, the Unified Perspective, we want real science, and energetics, the science of energy is a real science, energy is, although elusive, as material and physical as everything else.  The Force of Inertia, the Material force applies to matters of Spirit the same way it applies to a ball rolling down a hill.  The ball will continue to roll until something changes its course or prevents it from rolling further.  The same is true for a ball at rest, it will remain in stillness until something influences it to move. 

In this way, we see our current path, created by our historical choices and actions as being so similar to that ball rolling along on its course.  The course we are headed down will remain the same unless we make efforts to influence it!   If we have come to a still point, we will remain still until we are influenced to take action. 

Understand that things set in motion will tend to stay in motion; so our goal becomes: Set things in motion which will benefit us and the people around us, halt things already in motion which harm ourself or others.   In our toolbox for creating the living dream, the Five Forces can be thought of as the Power Tools of the set.  Applying them to your goals and ambitions has the effect of accelerating, amplifying, and increasing your personal possibilities dramatically!  But how do we best make use of these forces?  The sixth and seventh tools give us the power and understanding through which the Five Forces can be best made use of: Summary of Tool Number 6 & 7 - The Law of Attraction and Soul Healing.  

“Fundamentals and Basics” 

Tool Number 3 - The Fundamental Questions

Your mind is so powerful that it can become difficult to manage.  It can wander, obsess, deviate, and force you to do things which aren’t in your own best interest at all.  Your mind seeks the gaining of pleasure and the avoidance of pain.  But within your mind, there is special gift the Fundamental Questions unwrap. That gift is this:  Your mind seeks to answer questions which it is asked.

Have you ever noticed this?  No matter what you are thinking about, a question can change you train of thought instantly!  Discussions aren’t enough.  If you are thinking about something, worrying, obsessing, or wondering through daydreams and a friend or colleague begins to tell you a story, you may ignore them completely!  Have you ever experienced this?  We all have.  You’re thinking intently about something, and someone tries to get your attention, and it is as if you can see them speaking, but aren’t hearing anything they say.  It’s like watching a movie without the sound turned.

Questions, now, they are a different thing entirely.  Same example, you are thinking intently about something and someone comes to you with a simple question, your mind switches instantly and to answer the question!  This is a natural property of the mind, so let’s make use of it, by applying the two fundamental questions.

We tell ourselves to do things, to believe things, to act certain ways, and it is accomplishes for nothing, we ignore ourselves as easily as we ignore a rambling associate.  But we cannot ignore our own internal questions!  The Fundamental Question is the tool here, it is the question you ask yourself over and over: “What am I being Like? What do I want to be Like?”  That’s it.  It’s that simple. 

Fifty times a day, 100 times a day, “What am I being Like? What do I want to be like?”  There’s more to this tool, but the question itself sets off a cascade inside you mind which will reach every part of you.  “What are you being like? What do you want to be like?”

These two internal questions break apart despair, destroy malaise, and restore focus!  It all happens automatically!  Ask yourself these two questions and you will immediately shift to being closer to the way you want to be!  Do it right now!  “What are you being Like?  What do you want to be like?”  It is the Fundamental Tool, because whatever you are being like, you life will become.

Tool Number 4 - The Basic Tool: OARS

The Fourth Tool here is so simple, and yet it is the tools used by all the greats before you.  You see, everything great which has ever been accomplished was accomplished the same way, Focusing on and Outcome, taking Action Towards it, repeating the action, starting again…

To build the life of your dreams, you’ll reach into this tool box over and over, grasping for the appropriate tool.  Here’s a tip:  The Basic Tool – OARS is the most powerful and versatile tool in the entire set.  In can be used for anything, in any situation it always works!  You could get confused, scared, or even depressed, sometimes your goals and dreams may seem so big you don’t know even where to begin.  This happens to all of us, we call them ’sticking points,’  but the Basic Tool will always unstuck you!

It is so simple, Focus on you outcome, see your vision, see your dream, and take action towards it, any action!  If you can’t see clearly what the best action to take is, don’t worry, just take an action towards the outcome!  Your best guess is better than no guess at all! So many people get stuck right here, stuck behind this thought, “What if I take the wrong action and get further away from my goal?”  The answer is so simple, “It doesn’t matter!”  We all learn from our mistakes, if we’re brave enough to make them.  Every misstep can become a valuable lesson getting us closer and closer to our living dream. 

Of course, we want to be effective, we want to make the best use of our actions and efforts, and and that is precisely what the Elevated 8 series is all about.   What’s important here to understand is that no matter what the goal is, action, and action alone is the only tool which will get you there.

Making use of action is the single most important tool in the toolbox, however, you don’t want to waste your efforts by rowing your boat of life against the currents.  Understanding the Five Forces which govern the Universe we live in can only help you as you meet yourself at your best.  Let’s keep moving along in this summary and take a look at how Action, Inaction, and Distraction relate to the Five Forces…

“Reviewing Your Toolkit” 

 Planning, Collecting, and Doing:

There are three distinct parts that go into the process of building or creating anything: Planning, Collecting, and Doing.  They occur in overlapping cycles, and are not separate from one another. 

Planning is little more than beginning with a dream or a vision, turning that into some goals, and then creating the step by step instructions on how to achieve those goals one after another.  A good plan will tell you exactly where you are going and what tools you will use to get there.  Once we have an idea of where we’re going, we start Collecting and assessing our tools and resources.  From the moment we had a dream we had already begun the Doing.  Doing is the journey, a plan is like a map, tool is like a car, and Doing is the actual journey to your destination. 

You already have an idea what your life would be like if it were a dream come true.  You had taken the crucial first step before you even arrived here, that’s why the Quick Start 7 begins with giving you seven tools which can be used to create anything.  Let’s do a quick review of all seven tools, and then progress into putting them to use.  

 Reviewing the Seven Quick Start Tools:

Once you understand each of these tools clearly, you’ll begin to see how their interrelatedness amplifies one another.  The Seven Tools are:

1. A Unified Perspective – Uniting Faith and Science

2. The GET cycle – Asking more of yourself

3. The Fundamental Questions – “What are you being like? What do you want to be like?”

4. OARS – The Basics of Creation: Outcome, Action, Repeat, Start Again

5. The Five Forces – Divine, Universal, Personal, Collective, and Material Forces 

6. The Law of Attraction – “Likes Align and Congeal”

7. Soul Healing – It all starts from within

Taken one at a time, these are each powerful tools, but when taken together, they begin to compliment one another in powerful ways.  Let’s briefly summarize these one by one and I think you’ll begin see how they fit together to creating a tremendously powerful concert of creative potential.

Tool Number 1 - A Unified Perspective:

We begin by Unifying our Perspective.  As we saw in Science and Spirit Unite,  there are basically two perspectives: One perspective asks you to have improvable faith, the other asks you to abandon faith and accept only proof.   Having a Unified Perspective frees you from wasting time!  We are here to create the life of your dreams, not to argue about it, we are here to do it, not waste time with theory or contradictions.  The Unified Perspective tool is so simple and so powerful, it states:  Faith has been proven scientifically valid.

Here’s the trick of applying the Unified Perspective Tool: Faith is real, Scientifically Valid and proven, being real, it is therefore measurable:  You can have a little bit of faith, or a lot!   

With the a Unified Perspective you understand beyond any doubt, small goals require little faith, large goals require large amounts of faith.  The bigger your dream is the more faith it will take to get there.  This leads us gracefully to the second tool:  How Do You GET more Faith?

Tool Number 2 - The GET Cycle:

If faith is real and scientifically accepted as such, the more we have of it, the more we can use it to create whatever we want!  Enter the GET cycle…  The second tool in the box is the GET cycle: Growing, Empowering, Training… This tool is about as subtle as a kick in the shins.  There is nothing complex about it.  It works in your life, in every ones lives no matter what. 

The GET Cycle it repeats over and over throughout with or without or guidance, so why not take hold of it?  It is happening with or without or help, why not make use of it?  Like a raft makes use of the current in a stream without effort, you can use the GET Cycle to get wherever you want to go, to get whatever you want to have.

Here’s how it works:  We are always Growing.  We grow stronger, or we grow weaker.  Physically, mentally, and emotionally we continue to grow until we reach a threshold, a threshold is a limit where we can grow no further without making a change.  That change is called: Empowerment.  We become empowered to see things in a new way, do things in a new way, to do new things.  We think differently, act differently, behave differently, and our very view of the world becomes new.  Empowerment is the idea of insisting that we grow for the better, that we continue to improve on our present situation and circumstance through our willingness to grow.

Once we accept our new power, see things in a new way, we begin the process of Training.  Training is making our new skills, talents, and strengths part of our very character.  Training is consciously guiding growth.  Training is the decision and actual practice of growing for the better.  At first our newly empowered skills are difficult, but through training they grow easier and easier until they become part of us and then the cycle repeats again.

What you need to understand about the GET Cycle is that it is a cycle, it repeats without ever ending.  You never arrive at the end.  When you accept that the journey is the destination, at that moment you become free.  People often think their life will become better once they achieve their goals, only to be devastated when achieving a goal accomplishes nothing. 

Immediately begin  to celebrate the journey.  Understand that the Universe will not let you end, that every destination is just another destination on an unending journey.  Continue to ask more of your self, continue to raise your standards, and enjoy it, every step of the way! But how?  How do we make the journey as satisfying as the destination?  Enter the Fundamental Principle.

Developer’s Corner for the week Nov. 26-Dec. 3

The many faces of support.  Funny things have been happening since I launched Full Spirit.  The Universe has been showing me over and over just how true and powerful the Principles in these lessons are.

One principle we’ll be talking about is the concept of “Persistence.”  Sometimes, you just have to keep grinding away at something, making small, tiny progress, until suddenly, out of the blue something big happens. 

In the case of Full Spirit, this couldn’t be more true.  You see, technology changes fast, super fast.  I stepped out of the technology game for three years to work on the Harbin Temple.  When I came back into technology to build Full Spirit, everything had changed.  Not just a little either, it had changed completely!

Let me explain, Websites are coded in a computer language.  That means, in order for a website to work, there is an underlying source code written in a language computers can understand, the computer reads that code and turns it into a web page.  You can use the “view source” function in your browser to see the code for any webpage.  In some cases, the code for a one page may be 10 pages long! 

What that means in practical terms is this: Every time I write a piece, every time I put up a video, every article, image, graphic, clickable link, etc.  I must also write a computer code to display it correctly. 

Here’s where it gets interesting, in those three years I stepped away from technology, they changed the code!  Completely!  Literally, they changed the language in which the code is written, about the only thing that stayed the same is the alphabet and the numbers, everything else changed, it doesn’t even function in the same way anymore, it’s an entirely new game.

Persistence Pays Off:

This is Full Spirit, and the mission is to uplift and empower people all over the world.  So, just because I had to learn a new language I persisted.  Here’s the catch, when you learn a new language, you don’t speak very well at first, with time you get better, but for a good long time, you make tons of mistakes.  It’s the same with computers.  So there I was, struggling to make the project come to life.  Month after month I just kept at it.  Tons of mistakes, some of you may remember them!  Links that went no where, videos that didn’t work, graphics that fell apart, articles that got stranded… 

But I persisted.  In the Five Forces Series, you learn about the Force of Inertia - Things in Motion tend to stay in motion, things at rest tend to stay at rest.  This is exactly what I’ve been experiencing with Full Spirit!  It was at rest and it wanted to stay at rest!  I pushed and pushed and it just didn’t want to move.  But I stayed dedicated and determined, and the Law of Attraction says that, “If I am dedicated and determined, I will attract dedicated and determined people towards me.” Dedication is a tricky thing, the only way to prove your dedicated is to actually do for some time, so I did. 

POW!  Somehow, the people who could support started to show up one after another, dedicated, determined people.  My struggling with the new language was made up for by Darren Hoyt’s mastery of it.  Darren did Crutchfield’s Sony section, he’s a major big league designer.  He donated the entire framework code of the Full Spirit site and has been teaching me how to modify and customize it! 

There are a bunch of others who’ve been helping as well, and I’ll write more about each of them soon.  For now I wanted to send a special thank you to Darren Hoyt for being my translator and guide!

Coming Next Week Quick Start 7 pdf:

This week you get the Intro and Summary of the Quick Start 7.  Now, I am working on the downloadable version of the entire series.  It looks like it will run about 90 pages, and be available in PDF format.

The reformatting is actually turning out to be more work than I thought it would be, so I don’t know if it will be available next week or not.  I’ll sure try to get it up!  My big goal on that is to make sure it’s up before Christmas, so you can print it out and give it as a gift if you’d like.  Right now it prints really nice, and there’s a cover and everything, so it could make a really nice inexpensive present for people you love.

A note on the printable version:  It is interesting reading the series in the different formats.  Seeing it in 1000 word chunks on screen is great, but having the hardcopy, holding it in your hands, writing on it, taking notes, seeing it as one long piece is even better.  Even if you’ve read all of it, I suggest you print it out next week and see how different it reads and feels.

The Elevated 8 Series Begins next Week:

I’m also super excited to launch the Elevated 8 series next week. I’ve been working diligently on the articles and will now begin the process of editing them down and graphicking them up.  In the Elevated 8 series you’ll begin to really get down to applying and using the tools as well as getting some fresh tools.  Every article in the series includes a printable worksheet, so get ready, the Elevated 8 series launches next week!

The Quick Start 7 Podcasts:

Are you ready for some audio?  I love audio books! I especially love audio self help / self improvement stuff.  I listen to some motivational speaker nearly every single day.  If you’re a big fan of this sort of stuff have I got a treat for you!  The entire Quick Start Seven will be available in streaming audio online (listen at your computer), or downloadable audio (play in your portable or make a disc and play it anywhere). 

I’ve made the first tests, and am ready to plow into this side of production this week!  We’ve got the equipment now, and have set up our home recording studio, so the audio formats are right around the corner!  We’ll see how smoothly the Quick Start Seven pdf goes, once it’s done, then I’ll start releasing about 4 audio programs per week!

That’s all for this week, I hope you enjoy the new articles!  Keep sending your prayers, blessings, good vibes, and emails!

Did you see that cat giving that dog a massage?

I love this week’s video!  That little kitten giving that dog a massage just melts my heart every time I watch it!  I want to thank Cosmos for the musical contribution.  In all the videos, and podcasts, Cosmos provided the intro and outro music.  I wanted to give you a bigger sample of his work, so I added it to the Cat giving the Dog a Massage Video.

Quick Start 7 Introduction and Summary Now Available!

For those of you who have been following the Quick Start 7 Series, you’ll be excited to check out the new introduction I’m adding this week.  Introductions are historically the hardest part to write, you write them before you do a piece, rewrite them while you do the piece, and then rewrite them again after you finish!  The Intro to the Full Spirit Quick Start Seven is no different.  I first wrote it about 7 months ago and it ran over 20 pages!  I’ve rewritten it so many times, my beloved partner and fiancé can just about recite it by heart.  Last week, I thought I could polish it off in a few hours.  To no one’s surprise but my own, it took three full 8 hour days!  In the end, that 20 page introduction has been culled down to just one short post and I am actually pretty happy with it.

Quick Start Summary Now Available:

Last week turned out to be a monster on the work front for me.  The Introduction took ten times as long as I had planned, so it was more 6 am sessions to get the summary done.  The summary came out pretty good, as you read through it, I think you’ll really begin to see how the 7 Quick Start tools work together.

There’s something about having all seven tools in one post that really ties them all together neatly.  I guess that’s why you’d call it a summary!  You can check it out here: The Summary of the Full Spirit Quick Start Seven.  Leave some comments and let me know what you think!

Thank You for the Support:

I want to close my post this week with a thank you going out to all of you.  I know things have been a little buggy in this early stage of the project, and you all have been so supportive and tolerant.  Most of the bugs have been worked out, and it looks like we will definitely hit our Valentines Day Grand Opening. 

I want to encourage you to keep inviting your friends and sharing the site with people you care about.  Every single visit, every page view gives me tremendously valuable information about how the site is being used, what people like and want more of, and what isn’t really interesting people.  One funny thing that has surprised me is how many people are reading my little weekly greetings!  So I’ll be working on enhancing them as we continue to progress.

Lastly, I want to thank you all for the emails of encouragement.  Every time I get one it just makes me soar to the top of the world!  You folks say the nicest things, I just blush and blush…  So please don’t hesitate to send feedback and comments directly to me.  A little secret I’ll share:  I print out your emails and carry them around with me on my clipboard.  Sometimes I get tired, occasionally even down hearted, and I just reread one of your amazing emails and it snaps me right out of it.

So thank you so much for those kindnesses…  You all are my inspiration!

Love and warmest regards,

                                       Daniel

Under Development for the week Nov. 19-26

I’m still getting the hang of this weekly update section.  The whole idea of this Developer’s Corner is to give you a week by week look at what to expect for the coming week.  I think I’d also like to give you a glimpse into some of the challenges in some of the added features we’re developing.   

All seven of the Quick Start Articles are now done and available.  In total, it prints out at 80+ pages with almost 100 graphics!  This week, I’m working on the Introduction and Summary for the Quick Start Seven, so you can look forward to those next week!

Quick Start Seven Downloadable Versions:

With the Quick Start articles nearing completion and only the summary and introduction left, I now get to shift my focus to preparing the downloadable, audio, and video versions.  Anybody want to write a forward for me?  I think the ebook would be nice with a forward written by someone else.

So next week, you can look forward to the introduction and summary coming out as well as the first article in the Elevated 8 series.  In about two weeks, I’ll be releasing the downloadable format.  In this version, you’ll be able to get the entire series in one coherent printable version with no adds and no need to click!  In the end, it should run at just over 90 pages!  All for free!

One hurdle has presented itself (you guys love to hear about the hurdles I’m told), which is, every single graphic has to be redone!  The series has over 100 graphic elements, and for the downloadable version they all have to be reformatted.  How’s that for a minor hiccup?

That’s it for this week’s coming soon section, tune in next week to hear more about the upcoming audio section of the site!