iMindShift with Steve Chandler

Like friendship caught on fire

  

           "Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.”

~BRUCE LEE

     I have been re-reading my favorite book on relationships, The Relationship Handbook by the subtle genius George Pransky.

     This book is truly amazing, and I've given away many copies over the years to friends and clients struggling in their relationships. People who struggle are trapped in their personalities. As you know by now. As Byron Katie says, "Personalities can't love. They want something."

*     *     *     *     *

     I did an interview yesterday and the interviewer asked a number of interesting questions. I'll share a couple of them:

     Q: You don't do blogs like everyone says one is supposed to. You post erratically, and you often promote your own programs. Why is that? Won't you lose credibility?

     SC: You are right. I don't do it like one is supposed to. I have a couple rules I  follow. 1) Always have every word be authentic and helpful, and don't post till you're ready to do that and 2) Don't worry about what anyone thinks.

     Q: For example, you posted the ASK program you are doing twice, in two straight blogs. Was that a mistake?

     SC: No. It was intentional. This program is the culmination of everything that has WORKED to free people up from their frozen position financially. It's simple. They don't ask. They are so hung up on what others are thinking of them, they don't ask for what they want. I want people to know it's available. I don't care what others think.

     Q: But isn't the program rather expensive? Ten thousand dollars for six months.

     SC:  Club Fearless members get a thousand dollar discount. For one thing. For another, it would only be expensive if you attended and didn't do the process. The process will get you your course fee back right away. The process will then have you learning how to make many many times the course fee. So how can that be expensive? I'll tell you what is expensive, fear is. Fear is our most expensive indulgence. Because it keeps us from entering the conversations that would give us everything.

     Q:  Why do we fear conversation?

     SC: Old myths and beliefs from childhood about never being selfish, never being pushy, never doing anything other than PLEASING the grown ups....they carry on. We get scared and drop into the child self ... the childhood beliefs ... none of which apply to adulthood. At all. But we live as scared children looking for new parents always. Maybe the government will be my new parent! There's a video circulating on the internet of a woman who is jumping for joy after President Obama was elected saying that she would no longer have to worry now about her car payment or home payment!

     Q: So we have to re-learn asking?

     SC: Learn it really for the first time. For the first time ever. And then practice it. Practice is everything. People who look courageous to us are not ... they are just PRACTICED.  Even my own amazing coach, Steve Hardison, who is better at enrollment and persuasion and conversation-that-leads-to-results than anyone on this whole planet ... even he insists in all honesty that he has no special talent for it at all..... it's just that he does it. And if you do something long enough you start to relax into it and become good at it, then you become better than good and it becomes a source of self-esteem, and soon you are looking forward to doing it. It becomes mastery, and at that stage you are loving it. Absolutely loving it. Can't wait to wake up and do it.

*     *      *      *      *

    For those of you not in the geographical area to get into the ASK program, which ideally would be the Phoenix area (although we have a California member signed up who will make that trip) since you'll be meeting with me for three hours two evenings a month, here's something I recommend:

      My dear friend Stephen McGhee is a graduate of my own coaching school and mastermind program. Even prior to attending those programs, he was one of America's most sought-after leadership coaches and speakers.

    He has a prosperity school going on that you'll want to check out:

    Stephen has two or three more seats available in his Life Prosperity School and Club Fearless members can now get in at a $500 discount and pay only $2,000 instead of the usual $2,500. Go here for details:

http://www.miracleleader.com/life_prosperity.html

Or contact Stephen by email at:

stephen@mcgheeleadership.com

Use whatever reality gives

“Hurricane Katrina led a path of destruction through my home. However, she would not destroy my faith in God and my love of music and my fans.”
~Fats Domino

     In SHIFT YOUR MIND I wrote a lot about how freeing and exciting it is to drop your personality and just let your soul express itself...like going on a moonlight swim. I wrote about this, too:

     When I live based on my personality, my whole world is about hurt feelings. That's really it. That's my life.

     My daughter hurt my feelings when she didn't call me on my birthday. You hurt my feelings when you didn't answer my e-mail. I swing like a monkey from hurt to hurt because it's all about my personality that I'm trying to hold together. This thing I think is "me" that can be hurt and can be bothered and disrespected -unappreciated.

     When people live from this personality and not from their purpose, no longer is life creative and no longer is life fun. When they live from purpose, everything simplifies. Soon you can be like Fats Domino simply walking to New Orleans. (I remember when I was a teenager listening to him rocking and rolling and singing "I'm walkin' to New Orleans" and I just thought about how simple his life had become! That's all he was doing-he was walking to New Orleans. That was it. That was how it worked.)

     The other side of that (the dark side, the flip side) is my complex personality. The thoughts and beliefs that drive me crazy. Soon my mission on this flip side is to change other people so they won't hurt my feelings so much.

     But if I pay attention I can allow experience to show me that wanting other people to change is insane.

     Wanting myself to change is the ultimate in mental health.

    But why would I want to change? Well, maybe I'm up to something. Maybe the way I'm behaving or the way I'm spending my precious imagination and mental energy is not taking me there. So what can I change in me? I'll sit down with myself. Or maybe I'll even sit down with a mentor, or my coach, and I'll say, "Here's what I'm up to, and here's where I'm stuck."

     He says, "Are you willing to change and practice something that you're not used to practicing?"

     "Yes."

     "Practice it until it becomes second nature to you?" "Yeah, sure, because I'm up to something big." "OK, let's work on that."

     So now I'll practice something.

     Recently I saw on the sidelines of a pro football game one of the players screaming at his coach. He was just losing it. Yelling at his coach and the coach was telling him to "knock it off," and yelling back at him. Pure public tantrum.

     "You hurt my feelings when you don't put me in! I'm being disrespected! How do I look on national television when I sit out two plays that are important to the team? How am I coming across?"

     There was another player on the same team who for almost the whole season wasn't put in. He used that situation for his higher purpose.

      He took what reality gave him and said to himself, "I will rest. I will save my strength. I will learn. I will train. I will work out. I will be so fresh and ready when they do put me in that my purpose will be fulfilled."

      And so it was. In the playoffs he was stronger than ever.

* * * * *

“It's kind of fun to do the impossible.”

~Walt Disney

* * * * *

     Are you ready to fearlessly create the impossible?

     Join my friend and Club Fearless member Michael Neill in the launch of his new interactive coaching program on Creating the Impossible.

     July 1st to July 30th

     A 30 day project challenging YOU to CREATE THE IMPOSSIBLE in your life and in the world!

“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”
~Christopher Reeve

      All you need to do to get started is to choose an “impossible” project to take on this July - anything from writing your first novel to losing 30 pounds to earning $50,000!

     Here are the only prerequisites for your project:

     1. You must believe you have a less than 50% chance for success in the 30 days of the program.

     2. You must be so passionate about what it is you want to create that you will be glad of any time you spend invested in creating it, regardless of how things turn out!

     Michael's “impossible goal” is to enroll 1000 people onto this program, and he is offering members of Club Fearless an unprecedented 100% discount on the program!!!! (If you are not a member of Club Fearlessor Michael’s Solutions Cafe, you can sign up for the Creating The Impossible program for $99 by clicking here.)

     By joining this program you will receive:

     - A downloadable jumpstart workbook on the 1st of July.

     - Audio messages each day throughout the program that will encourage and guide you towards the creation of your “impossible” project.

     - Each week, there will be special “action days” where you can go online or phone into a tele-bridge and use the energy of the group to get yourself into action and build momentum towards making your dream a reality. - You will be allowed access to a private online forum throughout the month, in which Michael will be an active member of helping to answer any questions you have and unstick your stuckness if you find yourself struggling to move forward! To save $99 and begin creating the impossible, join us in Club Fearless today!

Closer to the next home run!

 
"Every strike brings me closer to the next home run."
-Babe Ruth

    I love Babe Ruth's quote and I love baseball and I will be there opening day to see the first pitch thrown out in Phoenix next week and I'll have a little notebook in hand this time because I am writing a book about baseball right now with my entertaining friend and coauthor Terrence N. Hill. It will be the 4th in our two guys series....books not about personal growth or self-help, but just about the joys of being alive.

    Self-help is made fun of by intellectuals in the New York Times, but it saved my life. However, I realize that I tend to take it too far. Not everyone wants to keep hearing about the latest program for enlightenment and motivation.
 
    My own dear wife Kathy keeps me honest. When she catches me dispensing a little too much wisdom about the power of positive thinking at a family gathering, she will roll her eyes and say something funny about me.  Which reminds me of a joke:

    A woman is told by her doctor she has six months to live. "Is there anything I can do?" she asks.
 
   "Yes there is," the doctor replies. "You could marry a motivational speaker."
 
   "How will that help my illness?" the woman asks.

    "Oh, it won't help your illness," says the doctor, "but it will make six months seem like an eternity."    

*     *     *     *     *

     Here's a short letter I wrote to Terry Hill while we were writing TWO GUYS READ JANE AUSTEN (a book that has sold way beyond our expectations… something that has, I believe, more to do with the popularity of Jane herself than it does with us...). This was written right after Heath Ledger's overdose death hit the news.

     Dear Terry,  

     When you and I were 20 years old a movie came out called "The Pleasure Seekers" with a dream cast of Ann-Margret, Tony Franciosa and Gardner McKay. Do you remember it? It was warning us. Where does such shallow pleasure-seeking lead? Yesterday the news was that the young actor Heath Ledger was dead. Empty pill bottles all over his apartment. Sleeping pills.

    But sleep won't come. The whole night through. Your cheating heart. Will tell on you.

    Because it's cheating to want inner peace to be so immediate and easy.

    This I have to remind myself every day. Just like your own disciplines of writing and walking and journaling do. I use something I call The Stravinsky Code to remind me of where real joy (versus shallow gratification) comes from. It's a quote from the composer Igor Stravinsky. He said, (and I've read this a thousand times by now striving to have it sink in really deep), "My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self of the chains that shackle the spirit."

     Here's to obstacles,    s.

*     *     *     *     *

     And here's a cool poem just sent to me by a talented young woman who is a member of that club I write so much about:

REINVENTING MYSELF

After much circumspection, I am reinventing myself
Sick to death of recalling the drama on the back shelf
It's a fruitless effort to live in the past
Cuz the present is flying by too fast!!

Though it's always what I've been accustomed to
There's no point in letting shit brew
Best thing to do is just let it all out
Rather than allowing myself to brood and pout

Letting go is the greatest feeling ever
Now all binds from the past I can completely sever
Time to start fresh and anew
Have no clue what the future will lead to

Fear of the unknown is what's really exciting
Garnering brand new material, which I'll be reciting
Ah yes, that's where I am at home, on stage
No longer will my doubts keep me in a cage

Time to live abundantly, distributing my humor and wealth
Which I will do, now that I am reinventing myself

*     *     *     *     *     *

It takes a coward to be courageous

       These are the words of my friend, the leadership coach and author Stephen McGhee:

       It takes a coward to be courageous.

     My heart skipped a beat as she walked into the room. I could not take my eyes off of her. There seemed to be a knowing that went beyond words.

     My heart opened and the feeling that began to move through my body was warm and wonderful. I want to meet her. It felt as if I had known her from before and yet I knew we had never met. What should I do, I wondered? My stomach was feeling like I was swaying on turbulent ocean waves. Should I get up and walk over to meet her?

     Then, like an ice storm the fear came. What if she says no? What if I offend her? She may not find me attractive? I might be embarrassed. I will look like a fool if she already is in a relationship. The other people in the coffee shop might laugh at me?

     How many of you can relate to the following experience? Some of you may have felt that way before in other scenarios. The fearful feeling tends to sneak up on us. It can show up in many different scenarios.

     Perhaps you are in a meeting and you know the solution to the problem. Nobody else can see the solution because they are stuck in stinking thinking and trying to be right about the “way it is”. As life and business leaders we must learn to abate the sinking “icey” feeling and speak our truth. If we don’t speak our truth or reach out our hand to life…it can pass us by quickly and decisively. Then, we can look back on our years of life with a sense of complacency.

     Consider that in most of those situations, the moment will never be the same again. Those moments come and go and it requires courage to “stand” up for our beliefs or to say yes to an intuitive feeling. Many times feeling like a coward can help? What you say? Most people think cowardice is a bad thing. No not really, because most people pretend to have it all together. They are just cowards in disguise. Those people are just as afraid as the next person. The difference is they don’t want to look bad, because they are so invested in looking good. This requires tremendous false energy. It is a waste of creativity.

     The person that is cowardly…like the lion in the Wizard of Oz isn’t worried about looking good and will tend to try more things than the person holding on to some false identity. Think about it? Kids are great at speaking out…or trying new things. They are not generally worried about doing it right. They learn that latter from us the adults.

     I promise you the courage will come forward for you. As a coach, I am constantly inviting (pushing) my clients to go to the edge with their courage. We grow from these moments. We grow from the experience regardless of the outcome. We grow if we are willing to take the step. You don’t need to know the sequence of steps; only the very first one.

     I have heard it said that “spirit meets us at the point of action.” I believe that to be true. It makes sense. Spirit is not stupid and why would spirit move for me while I sit on my butt.

     So, I took a deep breath. I stood up and walked over to the table. I knew not what to say. I reached out my hand and spoke: “When you walked in this coffee shop, my heart opened and I saw you as the most beautiful woman I have ever seen”. My voice was steady. Suddenly, I felt light hearted and clear. I said, “I could not leave here today without at least meeting you.” She smiled and we began a conversation. It’s a good thing I was a coward on that day. If not for my cowardly lion I would not have met Leslie and we would not be engaged to be married.

     This concept applies everywhere with everything we do. It applies with our kids, our business, our relationships, our money, our health, our sense of adventure. Courage is needed everywhere. Fear sucks and courage rocks.

*     *     *     *     *

     If you live near Mesa, Arizona, this is good news:

     Julia Gresham is leading a meet-up group to discuss the bold issues thus far presented in Club Fearless. The event is coming up Friday, March 27th in Mesa, AZ:

http://www.meetup.com/Club-Fearless-Steve-Chandler-Meetup-Group/

*     *     *     *     *

     What will you do the next time you need to find your courage?

     For a lifetime of courage, go to www.clubfearless.net and join members from 17 other countries.

        

Don't take the path to the dark side

      My friend Keith Johns, who runs the Myriad Music School in San Mateo, California, told me he was "Listening to a mind shift lesson this morning and being 37 years old with a 6 year old son, Star Wars is never far from the brain. Some of your teachings are very similar to that of Yoda, the Jedi master. I once heard an interview of Joseph Campbell talking about George Lucas. Lucas talked frequently with Campbell about the universalities of religion and spirit when developing his theme of the Force and Yoda’s teaching. I thought I would share a few of his best quotes. Perhaps you could use them when addressing a crowd of 30-somethings. Thanks again for all you do!"

     Keith then gave me a number of Yoda's quotes and the one I choose to use today is this marvelous one:

     “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

*     *     *     *     *

ESCAPE THE RAT RACE?
    

 Jim Thompson sent me this email:

    Steve -

    Have you found any fear that is universal? I mean any one fear that everyone has. I have asked this question and have yet to find one. Makes me realize how much we scare ourselves.

    I read your club fearless emails and wonder how did he know that about me. It scares me because I wonder how you know what is going on in there!

    Keep up the great work, look forward to someday meeting you.

    ~Jim Thompson

I wrote back:

Dear Jim,

    I am told by a wise mentor gifted in NLP that the only fears we seem to be born with are the fear of falling, and the fear of loud noises.

    Other than those, we add them as we go based on the thoughts we believe. You are right, we scare ourselves!

    But we don't need to.

    Therefore: club fearless, so that the most possible people at the lowest possible price can see that and begin to unravel all these unnecessary additions to their lives.

   ~Steve

Jim Thompson has allowed me to make this available to readers of this blog:

Get your FREE copy of NY Times Best Selling Author ROBERT KIYOSAKI'S "PERFECT BUSINESS" Audio CD shipped to your door... CLICK HERE

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WILL YOU BE MY APPRENTICE THIS YEAR?

   My first apprentice has just come to the completion of his year with me, and we have had a wonderful time! His coaching and speaking business has grown in leaps and bounds, and he made back his apprentice fee many times over with what he learned to do this past year.

     If you yourself are a coach or speaker and want to be my next apprentice, please know that the fee is $50,000, and there will be an application process that begins by sending me an email telling me about yourself and why you would like to work with me as my apprentice for a year. Then we will talk on the phone to get to know each other. Both of those experiences have been a lot of fun so far for all the people who have applied in the past. I wish I could have accepted you all.

     Once you are accepted, we will design our program together. You will attend as many of my seminars, keynotes and workshops as you wish. You will be certified by the end of the year to teach and present all my seminar material, and you will have the rights to all that content. You'll receive personal life coaching as well as business coaching from me throughout the year. The many other benefits to you will be discussed in our phone conversation. If you are interested in this program, send an email to me at: 100ways@compuserve.com and once I receive it, we will talk. I base my acceptance of an apprentice on his or her potential to become extremely successful in this work.

*     *     *     *     *

   If you are courageously deciding to go against the grain a bit and make some investments, here's a book I highly, no, let me say it this way, I HIGHLY recommend that you purchase immediately:

 

    The author Jack Calhoun is a witty and highly creative investment consultant who told me last week that the early response to his book has been surprisingly enthusiastic.....just when you thought no one was investing anymore!

*     *     *     *     *

 

   In these times it's no longer powerful for a business to spread the spectrum and try to be all things to all people. The more laser-sharp your appeal is, the faster you get business in a down economy. My friend Jeff Youngs is a business consultant and coach who helps his clients create powerful strategies that grow their business and develop brand strategy for their offerings, all while making sure it works in their lives. He’s committed to seeing business people receive the full benefit of their businesses and fulfillment in their work. Small businesses or FORTUNE 500, doesn’t matter. He helps them all. If you want a clear picture of who you are, where you are going, AND how to get there, call Jeff:

v 310.392.2951 | c 310.663.3643  Email: jeff@youngscom.com http://www.youngscom.com/Home_Page.php

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Click HERE to find out more about this club.

     This club is growing rather rapidly! We now have members in Australia Canada, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Singapore, Sudan, Sweden and the USA!

If you are terrified to be seen

  
    "I accept chaos. I am not sure whether it accepts me. I know some
people are terrified of the bomb. But then some people are terrified to be
seen carrying a MODERN SCREEN magazine.
Experience teaches us that silence terrifies people the most."

~Bob Dylan

 

*     *     *     *     *

        Terrified of being seen carrying a MODERN SCREEN magazine is a terror I can identify with. I used to carry all sorts of things that I thought would give me a clue to the rich and famous, believing, erroneously, that they had some secret to living.

    I wanted to live larger.

    And actually, there was always a secret. It wasn't in the stars.

    It was this: practice a little more deliberately and creatively and extensively than others do. That was always the secret. But I carried PEOPLE magazine around, and SPORTS ILLUSTRATED and so many others to try to find out how to live larger, play bigger, on a bigger stage.

    Most people I meet have this same yearning inside. This nagging feeling that
they are playing life WAY TOO SAFE!

    But what if you saw me with these magazines? Or, worse, with a self help book! What would you think of me? And that was the terror. Afraid of what other people think. Not knowing that people who are admired and respected most in the world, and down through history, figured out long ago that it didn't matter at all.......it didn't matter at all what people thought. Just do your fearless practice and create....and create and create.

*     *     *     *     *

A FOOLISH FEARLESS PROJECT BEGINS!

"Start a huge, foolish project like Noah.
It makes absolutely no difference
what people think of you."

~Rumi

    The whirling dervish poet Rumi is onto something here.  I put his quote in a recent book I wrote about living a fearless life.

    So what's my foolish project?  A mastermind group open to the whole world to join.  With a billion members in it.  From all over the world.  Club Fearless.  All in this moment.

  Some people-upon hearing of my foolish project have said (rather loudly), "That's impossible!"

  Perfect.  Then I am on the right path.

  Formula for doing the impossible: creativity and courage!  From my experience with myself and my clients and friends and family we are either creating or we are not creating.  Either or.  One or the other.   No messing with mister in-between.  Mister in-between is the devil himself.

    Is it possible to live a fearless life?

    Let me answer that difficult question this way:  it is possible to be fearless in this moment.  In this moment right now.  Even as you are reading.  Even for me right now as I am writing this.

    And this moment is your life.  Your life is now.

    But we complicate it. We pull a chain of links of worry from our worried minds and throw that chain out into the imaginary dream-up screwed-up frightening FUTURE! We imagine that's our life.  Terrorism, socialism, bankruptcy, divorce, suicide and our favorite show being cancelled.

   The future, when projected from the chained up, worried mind, is fear itself.  But when we CREATE and SERVE people by being in ACTION in this present moment, no future is necessary for peace and happiness.

    What happens when I am not creating?  I am reacting.  When I react (emotionally, all reactions become emotional, and not in a pleasant way) . . . when I react I offer up all my precious God-given power to others.  I let them intimidate me.  I am no longer creative, because I am no longer creating the life I want; the love I want.

*     *     *     *     *

  "We waste time looking for the perfect lover,
instead of creating the perfect love.”

~Tom Robbins

*     *     *     *     *

    Whatever happens during my day I always have two choices: 1) I can react emotionally to what happens, or 2) I can ask myself,  WHAT DO I WANT TO CREATE? 

    I might get a nasty email.  I get those now and then.  I am tempted to react with anger and send something even nastier back.  (It's war!  I must win!)

   Or, I can create, I can create the relationship I want to have with this person given what I am up to in life.

  Ask yourself this:  What, exactly, am I up to?  This gets thrilling, when practiced, because when you have a purpose, an impossible wonderful dream (a billion members?  Are you kidding me?) it is then possible NOT TO REACT but, instead, to create.  So I create a response to the nasty email.  That has me love the sender of that email.  And have him be a member of my most beloved club.  My heart begins to melt.  I read his email again.  Oh by gosh, I agree with him?  Oh my goodness, he's right?  I tell him so.

*     *     *     *     *

    So many of you have thanked me for recommending MAN ON WIRE, the movie about fearless creativity and what life can be when one laughs at death.  Laughs in the face of death.  And creates art instead of indulging fear and playing life safe.  Please see it if you haven't.  God grant me the courage.

 *     *     *     *     *

*     *     *     *     *

 

"Every time we choose safety, we reinforce fear."

~Cheri Huber

    I have always enjoyed and admired Cheri Huber, her writings and profoundly insightful, fearless and peaceful books. One of her many wonderful observations is this: "Egocentricity is that constant concern with how I feel, what I think, what I'm doing, what I want - looking at what is and seeing it as inadequate."

  Cheri Huber also says,

" It does no good to search frantically for
peace, to seek anxiously after love, joy or freedom.
If you want joy, be joyful. If you want peace, be peaceful."

   Light in every word. And this is where we are headed when we are fearless in this moment.

*     *     *     *     *

 CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE!

A fearless movie lifts me up

       And MAN ON WIRE is a movie that was so stunning and inspiring that I  knew while watching it that my life had been changed forever. If you've ever wondered what a fearless, creative, artful, joyful life would be like if someone ACTUALLY LIVED IT watch this movie...it's out on DVD now so you can rent it. It is the movie version of club fearless.

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Inspiring books lift me up

     Inspirational books are great, but there's a better way . . . there's an even more effective way to STAY encouraged and inspired and I'm building a club around this new way. It was something I have longed for so many years I finally decided to just do it myself.

     Books lift me up until I put them down.  Then the inspiration starts to fade.  I can't wait for the writer's next book . . . but I do have to wait.  Sometimes for years!

     So I wanted to create something that would revitalize people's thinking ...  over and over, in an ongoing way and always be fresh and new.  Like having a new book every week.

*     *     *     *     *

"The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage."

~Thucydidies

*     *     *     *     *

     That's why when you join this club you get a weekly email and something in the mail from me every two weeks.  Always fresh.  Always new.

     I, myself, like being inspired.  When I read about something exciting that someone has done, I know I could do something like that, too.

     So that's why I created Who's Fearless In This World? as my monthly report to you.  It's part of Club Fearless. It's a counter to the everyday news of doom and gloom and missing children and horrific politics.  Too much of that kind of news and I can get disheartened.  DIS-couraged.

     I would rather be encouraged than discouraged.  So my whole purpose behind Club Fearless is to encourage and inspire.  That's it.  I was put on this earth to encourage and inspire . .  myself and others.

     So how do I inspire myself?  How do I encourage myself?  You will know.  Because I'll be sharing my personal diary with you . . .  The journal I keep of ways to create wealth, to reinvent myself, to create the courage to change the things I can.

*     *     *     *     *

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."

~Anais Nin

*     *     *     *     *

      Your bank account also shrinks or expands in proportion to your courage. So does the energy, strength and leanness of the human body. Those who boldly step into an exercise program, who courageously build the body into something brave and beautiful, are rewarded with expanded life.

       British researchers have recently concluded that the size of a man's belly and the bulk of his biceps provide a far more accurate forecast of his mortality than body mass index (BMI) alone, reports Reuters Health.

      The team from the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London analyzed data on 4,107 men ages 60 to 79 over a six-year period. During the study period 713 of them died. Those whose waists were greater than 40 inches and had above-average muscle mass were 36 percent more likely to die than the men who had smaller waists and bigger-than-average muscles. Those who had big
bellies and small muscles had a 55 percent greater mortality risk. As people age, they typically gain belly fat and lose muscle mass, changes that are not picked up in a BMI number.

     "In older men especially, we should not just be measuring just weight, but also their waist circumference and their muscle mass as measured by mid-arm muscle circumference," lead study author Dr. S. Goya Wannamethee told Reuters Health. He said the findings underscore the importance of life-long fitness, especially in the abdominal area.

    This is Clarence Bass who is in his seventies. I recommend all of his books, easily found on Amazon. His books are not just for bodybuilders, they offer practical inspiration and help for people like me, too.

*     *     *     *     *

     "Realize that ultimate success comes from the opportunistic,
bold move, which, by definition, cannot be planned."

~Ross Johnson

*     *     *     *     *

     The most fun part of anything for me is the most unscripted, unplanned and innovative part---and in the club (starts Monday), that will be the monthly seminar where I'll go LIVE with spontaneous answers to the most interesting questions on earth (yours).  You'll be able to tune in to that seminar LIVE every month---and you'll be sent the audio from that afterwards so that if you happen to miss it or you just want a refresher, you can listen at your leisure.

     You become what you think about.  Many great people have said that.  It's even in the Bible.  So how much creative direction do I give to what gets into my thoughts every day?  What do I think about?  My fears? My worries?

     This will be a club that changes that; a mastermind that inspires creative thinking.  And  courage.  Combine creativity and courage?  Amazing what happens when you do that. 

      Is it all too rare that you do that?  Join the club

*     *     *     *     *

        It's that time again when another apprenticeship has opened up. If you would like to be my apprentice, learn my trade, work behind the scenes with me, take possession of all my material to present as you will, be taught and coached by me for a full year, learn how to build a very lucrative coaching and speaking and internet practice, then email me (100ways@compuserve.com) and tell me so. Also tell me your level of commitment to success. I've had one person who experienced apprenticeship tell me it was worth over a million dollars to him, and he got no argument from me.

How to live out on the street

"Nobody ever taught you how to live out on the street,
but now you're gonna have to get used to it."

 - Bob Dylan, Like A Rolling Stone

*     *     *     *     *

Worst crisis with no end in sight?

     In the final months of 2008 The Wall Street Journal announced:
“Worst Crisis Since '30’s, With No End Yet in Sight”

    Astonishing Families International, a local business serving individuals and businesses to effectively declare an END to the crisis, has joined internationally-known speaker and corporate trainer, Steve Chandler, to bring you the message that is making the difference: “FEARLESS: Creating the Courage to Change the Things You Can.”

     Justin Rohner, founding partner of Astonishing Families is sponsoring this intense two-hour seminar for local businesses and professionals. “We understand that good business and the fearless application of something already inside us - NOT government bailouts - will clean up the trouble we’ve experienced”, says Justin. “We’re excited to be joining Steve Chandler in calling out today’s leaders to come together and make 2009 the year that turns it all around.”

Join us:
Saturday, January 17th
from 9-11am
@ Sky Harbor Hilton
2435 S. 47th Street - Phoenix, AZ 85034

     A seat at one of Steve’s events usually commands a $275 ticket price. As our “stimulus package” to you and your cause in 2009, reserve your seat for only $74. Seating is limited to 150 and must be reserved online here: www.FearlessInPhoenix.com

     Attendees will receive Steve’s newest book “FEARLESS: Creating the Courage to Change the Things you Can,” along with a few surprises to support you in 2009.

*     *     *     *     *

            "Three groups spend other people's money: children, thieves and politicians. All three need supervision."

                          -  Dick Armey

*     *     *     *     *

Steve Chandler answers a few short questions:

Q: What will your club fearless give people?

A: A way to break free.

Q: From what?

A: From the huddled herd of fearful people, groups who have based their gatherings on projecting a future...a future of victimization.

Q: How will the club help people break free from that?

A: Those feelings of fear, and that need to huddle with others, are all originated in thought...it's all based on thinking; not reality. So when someone allows herself or himself to be inspired and encouraged to be fearless, everything changes, and the breakaway begins.

Q: You'll tell them how to do that?

A: The word is encourage.

Q: That sounds weak. I might want specific instructions.

A: The word "encourage" is not weak. There's courage in that word.

To change the things you can

     Clint Eastwood has made a movie about having "The courage to change the things you can" called GRAN TORINO and wow is it good! I recommend it highly.

*     *     *     *     *

Basketball is in my blood

     And for those of you who like basketball, I recommend this book, in which you'll get more than great basketball stories.....written by my friend, basketball coach Ryan Cuff, and edited by his talented writer-wife Lisa. Below the cover is the review I wrote for it on Amazon:

    More than a basketball book, December 16, 2008
By Stephen Chandler 

    BASKETBALL BLOOD is more than a sports book...it combines the best of fun basketball stories with personal growth lessons and a philosophy of life that is so welcome in today's chaotic world. Ryan Cuff is a coach who knows his subject and has a thoroughly entertaining touch to his writing. The short, enlightening chapters pull you right along...and anyone who likes basketball will love these true stories....and yet throughout there is also a philosophy of life...of self-reliance, and personal integrity, and pride in one's effort, that is so badly needed in this world today. I give it my highest rating.

    To purchase BASKETBALL BLOOD just click here.

*     *     *     *     *

     And now for The BEST SIGN ever seen in a grocery store:

*     *     *     *     *

      You knew I would love that sign because CLUB FEARLESS members may also be getting an espresso and a free puppy sent to them, although maybe not right away......but one of the benefits of the club is that unexpected gifts will be sent to club members. As well as a LIVE Steve Chandler teleseminar each month (also sent to you on CD in case you missed the excitement)....and a studio CD audio program on the latest breakthrough concept in personal growth and creating health and wealth.....as well as a printed copy every month of my personal motivation diary, a candid journal of the breakthrough ideas that further the work done in 100 Ways to Create Wealth, Reinventing Yourself, 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself, The Story of You and FEARLESS. Those updates will be quite interesting. And, too, club members get my ANSWER, my COUNTER, my ALTERNATIVE to the mainstream media's attempt to scare the world, a kind-of newsletter called WHO'S FEARLESS IN THIS WORLD? A new kind of media report that only reports acts of courage and creativity (to inspire us all.)

     Do you feel that the reports in today's media leave us less than inspired? Then join the club. 

     Oh, and are you wondering why I would use my blog to advertise this club? Against all the internet advice that says DON'T SELL on YOUR BLOG....well, that won't be the first time I ignore good advice. This whole project is called fearless. And I hinted at it in the end of the book by the same name...what I was up to....what I would do.

   Because we all have two choices. We can be victims, and just lie down and wait for the O Team to save us with hand-outs and a job re-painting the highways, or we can rise up. We can take ownership and create the future....and not worry about catching the next bubble or riding the next dark explosion of greed and heartbreak, but rather to create and serve, to create the courage to change the things we can, and to serve the world and EARN our way home.

   God grant me the courage to change the things I can.

Happy new year from Kathy and me

   My wife Kathy has never been a big fan of my work. She's a wonderful editor of my books, and she will be a big part of organizing the Club Fearless membership in 2009, but she is not much of a follower of business success books or the latest in personal growth psychology. In fact, one of her biggest benefits to me is in not letting me get too carried away with my inflated career and false sense of self importance ... she never wants anything I do to ever be taken too seriously... which is good....HOWEVER she did pass this along to me recently ... she said she got it from a friend:

CALMNESS IN OUR LIVES

    I am passing this on to you because it definitely works, and we could all use a little more calmness in our lives. By following simple advice heard on the Dr. Phil show, you too can find inner peace. Dr. Phil proclaimed, "The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started and have never finished."

   So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn't finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of White Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream, a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos, and a box of  chocolates. You have no idea how freaking good I feel right now. Pass this on to those whom you think might be in need of inner peace.

*     *     *     *     * 

   "Courage isn't something you're born with; it's something you train for."

     - TANYA STREETER

     Tanya Streeter has been called The World's Most Perfect Athlete ....  she is a world champion free diver, who made her first important breakthrough in 1998 when she dove for a record total depth of 370 feet. Streeter has been known to hold her breath under water for up to 6 minutes.

     Streeter was inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame in March 2000. In 2002, she broke the men's no limit world diving record by diving to a depth of 525 feet near the Turks and Caicos Islands.

     She says, "But I grew up a total chicken. I trained to be brave. Fear doesn't have to be a negative. I take energy from it, harness it."

     If you, too, grew up a total chicken, join the club. My own book FEARLESS starts out this way:

     They say never push a coward.

     They say if you push a coward far enough, he will snap like no other. Like no brave man will snap. Push a brave man, and the brave man will push back. He won't allow himself to be pushed.

     Push a coward and he won't push back. Push him more, and he'll still take it. But push him too far….well, then you must watch out.

     Because a coward will come back out the other side. He won't just be a brave guy, he'll be insane. You'll be introduced to his wild animal insanity.

     I'm a coward myself.

*     *     *     *     *

Don't be afraid of CREATIVE DESTRUCTION

   The great contemporary economist Thomas Sowell writes, "A renowned economist of the past, J.A. Schumpeter, used to refer to progress under capitalism as "creative destruction" - the replacement of businesses that have outlived their usefulness with businesses that carry technological and organizational creativity forward, raising standards of living in the process. Indeed, this is very much like what happened a hundred years ago, when that new technological wonder, the automobile, wreaked havoc on all the forms of transportation built up around horses."

*     *     *     *     *

  Samuel Adams (American revolutionary):

    "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than
the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your
counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you.
May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!"

*     *     *     *     * 

   A good thing to read regularly in these provocative times is Tom Peters' blog.  I go there at least once a week, and am always uplifted.  Recently he shared this:

     "At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut informs
his pal, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more
money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel
Catch-22 over its whole history. Heller responds, "Yes, but I have something he
will never have ... enough."

  —John Bogle, "Enough. The Measures of Money, Business, and Life."

*     *     *     *     *

     We are launching club fearless: world mastermind in a few days. If you have always imagined living a fearless life, join the club. It is a club for people who are tired of being afraid...............and tired of being made afraid by the media and family members who buy into all the latest fears. People who would rather be inspired and unafraid, and therefore in action CREATING the COURAGE to change the things they can.

    If you've been chicken to do that, join the club.

Hallelujah

 

Light in every word

 

There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

- Leonard Cohen
  HALLELUJAH

     Leonard Cohen's song "Hallelujah" made British chart history Sunday when it became both number one and number two in the Christmas singles charts -- although both versions were covers.

      Alexandra Burke was almost guaranteed to take the top slot with her version after winning television talent show "X Factor" this month, and the song became the fastest-selling single by a female solo artist, figures show. But in what appeared to be a protest at the manufactured music industry, fans of US musician Jeff Buckley kicked off an Internet campaign to get his classic version to number one instead, through downloads. It reached number two, making it the first time in 51 years -- and the first time ever at Christmas -- that the same song has held the two top spots in the singles charts, the Official Charts Company said. The last time was in January 1957, when Tommy Steele and Guy Mitchell held the top two places with "Singin' The Blues." In another twist, Cohen's own version of the song -- which he first released on an album in 1984 -- entered the charts as a new entry at number 36.

    It's a long way from Singing the Blues to Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, but maybe not.   In fact, now that I look at my own life, it's truly a journey from singing the blues to singing hallelujah.

    I put a quote from Leonard Cohen into a key section of the book FEARLESS, because Cohen is one of those songwriters whose poetic words are unforgettable to me. There's a blaze of light in every word he writes.

        I lived in Mexico City after dropping out of my first year in college. I studied Spanish and I drank a lot. I was an alcoholic but I didn't know it. And I hadn't hit the real depths of consumption back then. I lived in a boarding house and only Spanish was spoken. It was 1963 and I had a nasty housemate and one day when he came in to my bedroom to tell me my president had been shot I thought he was just taunting me with inappropriate humor until later that evening when I heard street vendors who were selling papers yelling "Kennedy Asesinado" and "Kennedy Muerto!" Things weren't as dangerous then. I was truly young.

     Someone somewhere feared John Kennedy.

     Alcohol seems to solve the fear problem really quickly. In the old days they called whiskey "false courage." But because fear is by nature an imaginary problem-a disease of the imagination-the solution is also imaginary, and not real, not lasting, not forever, not anything you can trust.

     I love the Mexican countryside. So often we used to travel by bus or train from Tucson to Puerto Vallarta or Mazatlan or just Nogales. Even the dead horses are beautiful, in the right frame of mind. I've also always felt that most of the beauties of travel are due to the strange hours we keep to see them.

     It's funny that when my mind is dull and weary and full of worry it sees the world the same way. It sees everything wrong with the world. But when I'm refreshed and illumined on the inside, I start seeing how good people are to each other. How everyone wants to help everyone else. When I visited Terry Hill in Mexico I saw this spirit of help everywhere. Except for the one incident. When our airport van backed over a crippled guy sitting on a sidewalk. We didn't exactly kill him (and I saw someone rushing to his aid) but we didn't start his day off in the best way. That I was pretty sure of. Terry Hill's wife Miranda told Kathy when we were there that when the two of them decided to retire and devote their lives to travel, they really wanted to travel authentically, into the heart of the countries they were seeing. I almost said into the heart of darkness, but it's more like going into the heart of the light. That kind of travel polishes the glass of observation.
  
    Polish the glass, and you'll see more. A lot of people thought that J.D. Salinger's great character in fiction, Seymour Glass, was named because of that idea. "See more glass." He was a seer, a poet and a modern day saint. When I was young and reading Salinger I used to wish more people were like that. Back then I thought people had permanent personalities and finite characters and they were either like Seymour or they weren't.

     What I'm glad I've learned since then is that we can all be like that. We can all see more. We can all polish the glass and see more. We can all have the illumined mind that Emerson speaks of and with it we can see that the whole world sparkles with light. It doesn't sparkle with light all by itself. Which was Emerson's point when he said, "To the dull mind all nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light."  It sparkles with light when you shine the right mind on it. And what we're talking about here is the fearless mind.

*     *     *     *     *

    Someone who attended our Power of Optimism in a Down Economy seminar wrote to ask about CLUB FEARLESS (a world mastermind that is forming in January) and he asked me:

     1) What is your vision of the impact that Club Fearless will have and on whom (individuals, companies, families, churches, nations, the world, etc. Ludwig Von Mises says that all human institutions are made up of individuals.)?

     I WROTE: Individuals. Von Mises is right. (About almost everything he wrote about.) But especially about this. Club Fearless will be a paradox in that it will be a club to help you not join clubs....especially victim clubs, which is what most organizations are.

     HE WROTE: 2) What is your vision of how that impact will be carried on after you are dead and gone?

     I WROTE: The people I am bringing in to help create, launch and give life to club fearless are so creative and talented that when I am dead and gone, in that very moment, the club will improve.