“Imagine” by John Lennon

So yesterday, I left a morning meeting in Philadelphia and drove to a presentation in King of Prussia, Pa. If you know the area, you know I drove on the Schuylkill expressway to get there. You also know the odds of there being a great deal of traffic are pretty good.
Lucky for me I left plenty of time as I ended up in a traffic gridlock.

After sitting for some time, I could feel my energy going to that dark place. I shifted my car into park (yes, it was that type of congestion) and decided to change the radio station from sports talk to music, and just as I did, the song “Imagine”, by John Lennon started to play.

Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today

With my car in park and not going anywhere quickly, the music enveloped me and I allowed my imagination to take over. That’s the great thing about practicing my wingman philosophy, messy situations like traffic jams no longer throw me into a destructive place. By doing my one minute practices I am able to stay in control of my feelings, which usually enables me to be more productive, more efficient, and certainly, more calm.

As the music played, I began to have fun with the words.

Imagine there’s no traffic
It’s easy if you try
No cars around me
Open highway all the way
Imagine always being early for every meeting you attend

Imagine there’s no worries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to stress you out for
And no deadlines too
Imagine all your pressures, dissolving in thin air

You may say I’m a Wingman
but I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

As I sung these words in my car, I began smiling. My energy immediately shifted and I could actually feel my vibration rising. As the song finished on the radio, and my words still hung in the air, I recognized the traffic had begun to loosen up.

Yes, it really happened that easily. Perhaps it’s because of all the positive momentum I’ve now built up over the last few years, but it now seems when I’m able to change my thoughts, I am able to change my world.

The ability to quickly change a poor situation into a more favorable one does not happen overnight. Nor does a positive attitude, but if you begin consciously practicing tonight, I assure you, tomorrow will look a little bit better. As a client of mine said to me yesterday afternoon, “staying upbeat requires work”. Yes it does.

The good news is I shortened the time required to just one minute a day.

As a Law of Attraction Life and Business Coach I often give my clients one minute of homework. Perhaps you would like to try it, so today, take one minute and let your imagination take over. Imagine you in better health, thinner, wealthier, in a more loving relationship, more confident, clearer, and/or calmer. For just one minute imagine your world as you would like it to be. As you do, you’ll allow your vibration to begin improving, and one thing I’m certain of, when your vibration improves, your relationship with everything around you, health, money, people will improve as well.

Give it a try for the next three days, maybe you’ll surprise yourself with the positive momentum you will gain.

Thanks for letting me be your wingman today.
In Appreciation,
Michael

Is Your Check Engine Light on?

So lately I’ve been discovering how my outer circumstances are a direct reflection of my inner being. How if some misery is taking place, such as I’m not happy with my financial situation or I find myself fighting with loved ones, then most likely there’s something off kilter going on inside me.
And lately, I’ve learned a fantastic lesson.

If I can see the problems going on inside of me, I can change them from the inside out. Change the unbalanced feeling inside of me and my outer reality changes as well.  Sort of like when Wayne Dyer says, “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change”.

That’s when I saw the above sign and realized that maybe what we as humans need is a “Check Engine Light” to let us know when something is amiss inside us. Perhaps then we could change it before our bank account, our relationships or our health takes a turn for the worse.

The real lesson though, is that as humans we believe it is easier to fix our “situation” by focusing on our outer circumstance. I’m finding it easier and more efficient to focus on how I’m feeling emotionally, for when I’m able to calm myself, or improve my vibe even slightly, my physical situation changes as well. The good news is there are many practices to help us do this, and by definition of the Law of Attraction, when we can raise our vibration even by the slimmest of margins, the things around us change as well.

I had a perfect example of this last week. My son and I have been “banging heads” for a while now, and I haven’t felt particular good about it. He was being forced by his mother to go to a self help/bible study class given by a teacher she really enjoys and I was drafted to drive him. An hour drive each way, lunch, plus the class, gave us plenty of time together which usually ends with us fighting. I realized I’d been very focused on how much we constantly fight, and how he “needs to change his attitude”. I’d also been very aware of not feeling particularly happy around him lately. I felt frustrated. I felt guilty. I felt blame. I felt disappointment.

I decided to try a practice I read about from Abraham-Hicks called “Which Thought Feels Better” in the hopes that by raising my vibration I could begin enjoying our relationship much better. The first step was to identify how I’d been experiencing him.

He never helps me.
He’s very stubborn and even though his way doesn’t seem to make sense, he doesn’t listen.
He doesn’t seem to care about me at all.

I then began the process by reaching for thoughts about him that felt better. As I wrote my thoughts down, I also wrote if the thought felt better, worse or the same as the vibration I was currently feeling.

I began…
I wish I had taught him better. (worse)
He has so much potential. (better)
He’s not working to his potential. (worse)
He’s very irresponsible. (same)
He’s a pain in the neck. (same)
I remember when he was such a sweet, nice boy. (better)
I know he has a lot on his mind. (better)
I remember the difficulties of being his age. (better)
I don’t have to “fix it” today. (better)
Things have been getting better between us. (better)
I want to have a better relationship with him. (better)
I know he wants us to have a better relationship. (better)
I know I am able to change my attitude and by doing so I can make things better. (better)

As I consciously worked on raising my vibration around our relationship I noticed a slight bit of relief. My next step was to set my intention to spend some quality time with my son, enjoying his company. This practice helped change my internal temperature, allowing me to reduce my resistance and begin the steps toward approaching him differently. I’m happy to report we had the best day we’ve had in a while, filled with heartfelt conversation, laughter and hope.

If your “Check Engine Light” is on, I urge you to try this practice and hope it works as well for you as it did for me.

Thanks for allowing me to be your wingman today.
In Appreciation, 
Michael

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude.” William James

I mentioned this quote on my radio show on Wednesday night, www.talknangels.com and many people responded to it. I decided to do some further research and found William James http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_james to be quite a brilliant man. It was then that I decided to turn this quote into one of my one minute practices.

Do I understand it correctly?  Is Professor James saying all I have to do to alter my life, my situation in life, is to simply alter my attitude.
I can practice that.

Do you understand what that means? You don’t have to do anything major or anything drastic. All you have to do, is alter your attitude. Smile. Laugh. Or maybe you need to cry and get it out. Either way, it’s a great time to start being a better you. To start doing more of what you want to do, to start enjoying the best life you can imagine.
And you can start it so easily.

Just by changing your attitude.

My wife points out however that when we’re really deep into a feeling, she doesn’t believe it is that easy to “just” change one’s attitude.
She even had the audacity to point out that when I was in a “mood” the other night I wasn’t so quick to just change it because I, like so many of us, get invested in our feelings.

So what are we mere mortals to do?
Practice baby, practice. But how do we do that?

As I walked this morning I was stressing about something so I thought it would be a good time to practice getting my “William James” on. I did it by repeating the quote over and over in my mind to begin the process of turning a theory into a belief.

I practiced saying and thinking about the quote.
Instantly, yes, really instantly, not only did my mind change and I started feeling better, but I also started seeing positives, and was soon laughing and coming up with some wonderfully creative ideas and strategies for the coming year.

Perhaps for some of you another idea would be to approach it like a science experiment. Pick a time of day or an event that occurs daily; your morning commute, standing in line at the coffee shop, your boss droning on and on at the morning meeting, your kid not emptying the dishwasher again.

Make the decision ahead of time that you will enter into that scenario with this practice in mind. So as this ongoing event happens once again, what is changing is not the event, but realizing it’s your choice to shift your thoughts and feelings towards it. This will take practice.

I find comfort and joy in the quote. Just knowing that anytime I choose, I can change my life by changing my attitude, brings an easy smile to my face.

So give it a try for yourself. Think about what this quote means.

It doesn’t mean to rush out and try to alter your life, it’s too big a job. Start easy by practicing altering your attitude, either when you’re struggling with a situation or when you’re in a great mood and want to stay there. If someone as brilliant as William James said it, you and I can certainly be open to the possibility it is true.

It may not seem it, but you are in a fantastic place right now if you are reading these words. For if you can now realize that you can alter your life, change your circumstances and create a life you desire, just by “altering your attitude” then your life is about to get a whole lot better.

Thanks for letting me be your wingman today.
Michael

A View from the wing…

I’m happy to share with you this guest blog, written by my wife and wingmate, about finding angels and wingmen in the unlikeliest of places.

Imagining how the US Postal Service even begins to organize, manage and distribute all of its millions of letters, packages and boxes and actually sees to their accurate delivery is for me akin to understanding how airplanes fly. I know there is a science to it, but I figure there must be some divine intervention at play as well. And so, as I made my way to my town’s Post Office with a package for my daughter addressed to some strange sounding place in Kathmandu, Nepal, my confidence level wasn’t high.

At the counter the harried clerk asked me the destination of the package as she gave me the customs form and instructed me on how to fill it out. “What’s in the box?” she queried. I made a mental list: Airborne and Pepto Bismol, shampoo and lotion, probiotics and vitamin D, anything from the drug store that might keep her safe and healthy, there was her favorite childhood storybook in case a sad and lonely night ever surfaced, a pair of earrings, and some games and toys for the children she is working with in an orphanage in Kathmandu. And cards, birthday cards from me and my husband, “I miss you cards” and little love notes. “What’s in the box?” she asked again. “My heart”, I blurted out. The clerk, the harried, busy, overworked, clerk, stopped and peered at me over her glasses. “Is she your only one” she asked, I replied” Well, I have two step- kids as well”. She looked at me squarely. “So she’s your heart.”

This woman behind the counter, this stranger proceeded to tell me how she was an only child, an only daughter and when her mother was sick and dying she stopped everything to care for her round the clock. “I didn’t care about anything else, “she said, “the job, my routine, my life, nothing mattered but being able to care for my mother”. In awe, I replied, “She was so blessed to have you.” She smiled, “I was blessed to have her.”

She took my box then and taped and re-taped the seams, she covered the address so it wouldn’t smear, she marveled at the faraway journey my daughter was on. I asked her, “What are the chances this package will make it to her?” having been made doubtful by my on- line investigation of the Nepalese mail system. “I’d say 85%”, she offered, “but we are going to have faith and believe it will make it”.

So, there is a package out there moving toward a faraway place, held aloft by the USPS, the hands of strangers, airplanes, delivery trucks, and magic and faith. Kind of how we walk through life, how we send our kids out there into the universe. Just like that package, we tape it carefully, insure it fully, track its journey online as far as we can, and then pray. Pray that the box doesn’t break, doesn’t get lost or into the wrong hands. That it makes it to where it is heading, helped along by unlikely angels, who are all around us, even disguised as postal workers at the local post office.

A One Minute Practice…

For this morning’s practice I pretended the situation I can’t get out of my mind and is causing me stress, happened for a good reason.
Again, it’s only for one minute.
Perhaps there’s a lesson I’m to learn.

The practice… is to find it.
Think about what positives can come from it.
I knew when I hit on it, for it gave me a bit of relief, actually even felt good.
Try it if you’re stressing about something. It will help raise your vibration and give you some momentum towards feeling better and accomplishing more.

It certainly helped me this morning.

In Appreciation,
Michael

Much to be Thankful for…

I hope you have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

As I think back one year, to last Thanksgiving, I am thrilled with how much I have to be thankful for. While the health and happiness of loved ones and friends certainly tops the list, equally as important is my belief that I have truly taken control of my own life, my own experience.

Is it really as easy as one minute per day? For me it has been, for since putting it out there, and actually practicing what I preach, I look back at what has been a very exciting year for me.
It began with my car breaking down last Thanksgiving morning and asking my wingman (who happens to be myself), what I should do?
I shot back, “Practice what you preach, find the positive.”

What are you working on?

That day, I started working on me.
By being consistent and practicing for 1 minute each morning, doing something fun which helped me feel just a little bit better, my energy started to become more positive.

There were days I didn’t practice, although as I built up some consistency it got easier, the down times less frequent. Once I learned how much it helped, how much better I felt and how much more productive I was when feeling better, I embraced it.

I began looking forward to my one minute practices.

Could I really improve my situation that easily?
Would I really be able to feel better, have more enthusiasm and be more helpful just by doing one of my practices for one minute?

I’m happy to report I’ve been able to. And not just me,  Others I’ve been honored to have assisted, who’ve allowed me to do what I love, which is be a Wingman to them, have reported the same findings.

Simply by practicing for one minute each day, they’ve created more success in their lives.

If you would like to receive the one minute practice I’ll be working on each morning, please send me an email, or click here to follow on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/BeYourOwnWingman#. 

Of course, please try the practice for one minute. If it resonates for you, you’ll be well on your way to better peace of mind, improved clarity and a greater sense of thankfulness at next year’s Thanksgiving.

Hoping you find much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving,
Your Wingman, Michael

“May I clean your windshield”?

This past Friday, I stopped to fill my car up with gasoline and had the opportunity to be served by a young man who clearly makes it a practice of “Going the Extra Mile”.

Not only did he do his job of filling my gas tank, but he did it promptly, with courtesy and a smile. In today’s society, that in and of itself, would be considered going the extra mile. When he asked if he could clean my windshield, I was so surprised, I did not answer him immediately. When I finally said yes, he did so with a cheerfulness that had my wife and I discussing long after we got on the road.

It got me thinking of how often in my life I haven’t gone the extra mile, and how I felt those times I did. Talk about us all being connected. Not only did the person I was serving feel they were being well taken care of, but equally as important was how I felt about myself at those times. I never felt taken advantage of, quite the contrary, I always felt pleased with myself, satisfied and full of pride.

Interestingly, on Saturday, having returned home from an all day conference, I naturally asked my wife about her day. “I had a really great day” she smiled. “You know how we discussed going the extra mile? I got to do it today”. She was beaming and I couldn’t wait to hear more. She described being at the drive up window at the bank when an elderly man pulled into the parking lot, got out of his car and proceeded to ask people how to get to a particular address in our town. No one, including my wife knew where it was. “He looked so forlorn” my wife said, “and I realized I have a GPS and could look it up. As I started telling him how to get there I could tell he was confused. So I offered to drive there and he could follow me”. My wife’s grin was now spreading wide across her face. “He was so appreciative. It made me feel so great.”

And so, by driving a couple miles out of her way, my wife turned an ordinary Saturday into an exceptional feeling. It is an attitude worth developing.

Napoleon Hill said it best with his Extra Mile Formula.

“Render more and better service than you are paid for, and sooner or later you will receive compound interest from your investment. It is inevitable that every seed of useful service you sow will sprout and reward you with an abundant harvest.

Going the extra mile is not the sort of principle that can be put into practice in a few easy steps. Instead it is a state of mind that you must develop, so that it is a part of everything you do. There is a subtle, but powerful, mental attitude connected with it. Remember, your best recommendation is the one you give yourself by rendering superior service in the right mental attitude.

My new practice is easily defined. At least once each day I am going to look for an opportunity to be of service to someone, to do so with a smile on my face and in my heart. I can’t imagine a better technique on my path to being my own wingman.

Therefore, I’m honored to offer my wingman of the week award to Jimmy, the gas station attendant who reminded me of a forgotten, but surefire method for staying upbeat, and keeping a positive and confident outlook as we go about our day.

Thanks for allowing me to be your wingman today.

In Appreciation,
Michael