iMindShift with Steve Chandler

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere someone set me free

My new book, Creator, has just been released and in the back Recommendations section it tells you to come here to this blog site if you want to listen to two of the songs mentioned in the book.

“The Middle of Nowhere” was written by Fred Knipe and myself back in our music business days when we did songwriting and music publishing for a living. “In Your Right Mind” was written by Fred a few years later after a long conversation we'd had about how natural creativity is for children and how it gets disconnected later in life when social anxieties take over a grown-up's life.

“The Middle of Nowhere”:

Middle of Nowhere

 

“In Your Right Mind”:

In Your Right Mind

 

I hope you enjoy this music.

 

And here's a little piece of Creator:

For many years my job was songwriter. I co-wrote songs with my brilliant collaborator Fred Knipe. One of my favorite songs we wrote was called “The Middle of Nowhere.” One line was, “Out there in the middle of nowhere, someone set me free.”

Normally the idea of being “in the middle of nowhere” is not so good. But something about that phrase was haunting. And it’s funny what happens when you take a second look at a phrase like that. Even funnier when you put music to it. It changes. What seems bleak and hopeless changes into something else.

Just like a person’s life when you add the awareness of eternal creativity to it. It’s like putting music to words that never would have been heard.

Writing that song got a small premonition of insight started in me back then. The insight that opens more every time I hear my recording of Fred singing it. What I now see is that there’s freedom in the middle of nowhere.

In my mind, the middle of nowhere is where creativity seems to live when we don’t know we have it. It’s as if we’re in the eye of the storm, in the middle of a hurricane of creative energy. It’s where I drop my preconceived thoughts and beliefs about who I am. Or even what I should do next.

From here, I can open to the source of spirit as taught by Dr. Ron Hulnick in his courses on spiritual psychology. He often invited his students to be willing to enter and stay awhile in “the divine unknowing,” a place the ego always wants to avoid, but a place where you will feel your true creative power.

What Kind of Fool Am I?

Last year at the Reinventing Yourself Weekend I was happy one of the evenings to go up in front of the room and sing some songs. I'm not a professional singer but I love to sing especially when it borders on being "entertaining."

I can make a fool of myself quite easily. In fact, one of the songs I'm going to sing this weekend at the Weekend is a medley people like called "Serial Fool" ... a mix of songs that all sing about being a fool.

Reinventing Yourself Weekend tends to bring that out in everyone...that impulse to be okay with being foolish and imperfect. So I am urging you to come experience the Weekend this year: find more info here: Reinventing Yourself Weekend 2017

Also my new book will come out that weekend and will be given to all of you. It's called Right Now, and here's a little preview from it...speaking of being okay with being perceived as a fool:

Not long ago I listened to a webinar wherein one of my favorite authors and teachers Dr. George Pransky talked about his early days of going into organizations to teach them his psychological principles that led to greater performance, productivity and morale.

There were many times when he was at a loss for what to say to his audience. Learning about the nature of thought and about the importance of their employees’ state of mind seemed off-subject. The group wasn’t getting how his teaching related to performance and their team’s productivity. Telling the story, Pransky laughed and said, “We were in over our heads!” But that didn’t stop him. He hung in there until they got it. They needed those breakthroughs right now. They didn’t have the luxury of waiting until he was fully prepared to connect with them.

He also didn’t see anything wrong with being in over his head. The opportunity to make a difference was right now, not in some overly-prepared, guaranteed-outcome future. (That future we’re all looking for.)

My friend Fred Knipe who is a genius songwriter and a wildly entertaining comedian created a comic persona named Dr. Ludiker. The humor of Ludiker is in how unqualified (and unprepared) he is to give advice. Yet he gives it freely and buoyantly even though the advice is all bizarre and hilariously incorrect. Audiences love this character. I think they are almost shocked at his character’s childish arrogance in delivering wisdom based on nothing. They love someone being that unprepared and still pressing on with wild unjustified confidence. Always in over his head! They laugh long into the night when Fred performs. His act is in great demand.

Dr. Ludiker is like the Charles Dickens character Pickwick, who, in the words of G.K. Chesterton, “… goes through life with that godlike gullibility which is the key to all adventures.  The greenhorn is the ultimate victor in everything.  It is he that gets the most out of life….  His soul will never starve for exploits or excitements who is wise enough to be made a fool of.”

AGAIN:  Reinventing Yourself Weekend 2017    SEE YOU THERE!

 

 

You are not my God

One of my daughters gave me a gift at Christmas of two CDs (I'm old school tech) of death wish songs. . .songs about addiction, suicide and recovery. This would, under most trees in winter, be a dark, demented gift.

  But for me it was a Godsend. My project (Death Wish) is a new book and series of audios that dive deep into the forest of addiction and suicide and help addicts and families and friends of addicts (in other words, the whole human race) see the path through the woods, to a glorious life.

There are 35 of these songs (and if you have a favorite song or movie relating to this subject, let me know) on my two gift CDs, and I am loving the power of this music.

Keith Urban sings You're Not My God and there is a fierce joyful anger in it that rocks me when I listen:

From the cradle to the grave
Temptations all around
But no matter how good the fix
It's gonna take you down

Now some call it a weakness
Some call it a sin
But it's all the same behind each game
I see your evil grin

But you're not my god
And you're not my friend
You're not the one that I will walk with in the end
You're not the truth
You're a temporary shot
You ruin people's lives and you don't give a second thought

 

  I remember when drugs and alcohol were my only real friends. When they were my gods. When my fear of losing them overrode everything and ruined and wasted my life. I remember that.

  Keith Urban checked himself into a residential rehab center four months after marrying Nicole Kidman, after she and some friends staged an intervention on him. His drinking and drug use was ruining his life and career.

Give a listen:
Keith Urban - You're Not My God

 

BIG HAPPY NEWS

Wealth Warrior is now available in Kindle and eBook version on Amazon:

Go to Wealth Warrior on Amazon here!

 

Also, some of you wanted me to repeat this quote from the great spiritual philosopher Thomas Merton, and thanks for asking me to repeat it because I enjoy repeating it to myself especially when I catch myself living out of lazy habits:

 

"The biggest human temptation

is to settle for too little." 

     ~ Thomas Merton

 

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 “Wealth results from creativity and service. Only always. This gold nugget encapsulates the essence of Wealth Warrior. Steve Chandler has written dozens of life changing books and Wealth Warrior is his best yet. It is as if his entire writing and coaching career is converging in this book. In the midst of all of the political handwringing about creating jobs, Steve Chandler gets to the heart of where and how wealth and prosperity is really created – in the mind. If you want to keep waiting for someone else to rescue you, skip this book. But if you are ready to take charge of your own wealth creation, get this book now.”

- Ron Wilder, Author of The 100 Watt War 

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            "If I don't like what the critics write,

I get into my Ferrari and I drive away."

                                                                            ~ Miles Davis