There’s something I’ve been wanting to do for the past month – and I never “got around to it” – until yesterday.
What is it that I’ve been wanting to do?
Well, how about this?
I’ve wanted to get a bird bath and a bird feeder for my back yard.
Not kidding.
Matt Furey wants to feed and flip the birds. He wants to make play around in his back yard. He wants to attract cardinals and blue jays and many other exotic birds.
Why?
So he can sit outdoors and watch them chirp and feed as he reads and writes and consults with his clients.
What a novel idea, but I believe I’m on the right track. And here’s the proof:
Late yesterday afternoon, after a torrential downpour, along wih my son, we pulled out of our driveway and began our journey
to “buy some stuff.”
Guess what happened within 1/4 mile of leaving our home?
A large hawk flew over my car, then trailed me for a couple houses, glided onto a rooftop three houses away and watched as I drove by.
Never had that happen before.
But then – a couple seconds later another hawk appeared to my right. He was flying over us and quickly disappeared above us.
“That’s two,” I said to my son.
Not more than 50 meters further, I spotted another hawk. This one was lighter colored with white and golden feathers. He was perched to the
left on a cement fixture.
I stopped the car and rolled down the window to get a closer look.
“Where’s my cell phone?” I asked, wanting to take a picture.
Once I had phone in hand, I couldn’t bring myself to take a photo. Twas so much better to only take a look.
Upon driving off I noted that I’ve never seen three hawks appear so quickly in all my life. I wondered if there was a special meaning to this.
Later that night my son and I lugged our bird bath to the back yard. Twas heavy – but a good workout for both of us.
After filling it with water I opened the bird feeder box. Read rhe instructions and began to assemble it. Once the feeder was filled with seed I looked outdoors and saw how dark it was.
Oh well, I’ll put it out in the morning.
At 7 a.m. I looked out the window. No birds in the bath water yet.
I retrieved the bird feeder from it’s place on the counter and went outside to hang it.
And then I took a seat outside and waited.
Nothing.
I waited some more.
Nothing.
At this point I had a flash back. It was 1987. I was in Soquel, California. I’d just opened my first gym – a place where I would train young high school wrestlers as well as adult men and women who wanted to get fit.
I took out an ad in the weekly tabloid known as “Good Times.”
The day the ad came out I was beyond excited. The phone would ring off the hook. I’d be filled to the brim with people to train.
I sat behind my desk – waiting for the phone to ring.
It refused.
I began to use my will – trying to command the phone to ring.
It refused even more.
Hours went by.
Impatient, looooooong, arduous hours.
I was hungry. I needed some food. But I didn’t want to miss a call. So I waited some more.
Ultimately I gave in.
An hour later I returned to the gym. A light was blinking on the answering machine (remember those?).
I moved closer to take a peek. Two messages.
I hit play.
Both messages were from prospective clients who saw my ad.
I made a note.
The same thing happened the next day.
When it happened a third time – I saw a trend.
Today I’d like to give you the lesson I learned in 1987 – that I revisted today: “Mind power is effortless power. The more you strain the less you gain.”
It sounds strange, I know. In order to get good at anything – you need to WORK on it.
But with the mind, your work is done with a spirit of relaxation. In a sense, your work is to make your job effortless. To make it strainless, painless and easy.
How do you do this?
Through hard work.
Huh?
I know. It’s an oxymoron. But the reality is that the ONLY way you can get to the state of effortless flow – is to put in your time. You work hard at not working hard WITH STRAIN. You learn to give maximum effort by not tensing and tightening your muscles, your face or your eyes.
You run faster when your body is relaxed. You hit a ball harder and further when your body is free of tension. The same goes with writing, singing, dancing or painting.
“The more you strain the less you gain.”
Now, if you’re the person who strains, how do you stop?
You keep working. And while you work you continually remind yourself to let go of unnecessary tension.
When it comes to the “mental game” – you do the same. You don’t try to force your goals to become reality. You simply picture them and add positive emotion and feeling instead of effort and strain. Most importantly, you get busy doing OTHER STUFF.
Once you get this “mental game” thing down – you get to enjoy what you’re doing a lot more.
If you have something to write – you do some deep breathing to unwind – then you write. You don’t sit and think about what you’d like to write. That’s effort. That’s strain. Just write. And as you write, after you get past the first few paragraphs, your brain is warmed up and the rest just flows out of you.
This is part of what i teach in my Tao of Email Copywriting that Sells program. It’s worked wonders for aspiring entrepreneurs all over the world. Why not be the NEXT ONE?
When you are, you, too, can take some time to smell the roses – or to watch the birds flip and feed.
The birds (and the words) will come. Not by force – not by will – but on their own accord when everything is in flow.
Get into flow first – and watch the good times roll.
Best,
Matt Furey
P.S. By the way, my list of clients back at my gym filled very quickly. Nowadays I have them all over the whirld. And a ton of them tune in to me regularly on the Matt Furey Inner Circle member’s site. I think you’ll enjoy the plethora of free stuff you get with your membership – and a whole lot more is on the way.
