Then again if you’re comfortable setting your sights on the full cool mill’ here it is: $1,000,000 for YOU…

At this resolution a million bucks looks like a kinda’ nondescript pattern—a table cloth or wallpaper maybe? Perhaps that’s a helpful way to think about such a large figure of money? As I said before, a lot of anything is just a small amount of something replicated many times.

Dig?

And your first million bucks has already started to accumulate in your pocket or purse because, of course, it all starts with a single dollar.

And a single thought.

What do you think?

Warm Soft Cash

Do you believe in the power of the subconscious mind? If so, do you ever use affirmations to send conscious messages to that part of your mind?

If your answer is “Yes” then you’ll probably already be repeatedly saying or writing out something like the opening line above the picture of one thousand dollars in warm, soft cash. Here it is again:

“A large sum of cash has just dropped into my lap.”

If you are doing abundance affirmations maybe you’re already seeing results too? Maybe more money than you’ve previously attracted is now starting to show up in your life?

“More money than ever before is now showing up in my life.”

If, on the other hand, you don’t believe in the manifestation powers of your own mind and believe instead that some external force is responsible for your current situation maybe you would like to read a couple of books I’ve had the good fortune to stumble upon (even before StumbleUpon came along) and one I’ve only recently discovered.

They just might change your mind.

But before I tell you about those three great books I’d like to share a bit about me and money. I must first tell you I am only a student of money manifestation. While I have managed to manifest small and large sums ($200,000 in one pop my biggest expected unexpected pay-day to date) I’m still learning about the mind n’ money connection.

And maybe I will always be learning about how reality starts in the brain, deep inside, deep down; some place where imagination begins.

Now, before you worry this is a Disney sponsored post about how all your dreams can come true—don’t. While I do believe in the unlimited capacity of man to create I have also experienced first hand what limitation and limited thought manifests. Namely: not much fun.

But I have experienced some cool stuff too. And when I look back on all the good things that have ‘happened’ ‘to me’ (sorry, couldn’t resist bringing attention to the erroneous idea of humans as only passive receivers of life—instead of the transmitters or instigators of it all) I realize everything good started with a thought.

When I couldn’t yet play guitar and dreamt of doing so (and long before I could get my hands around a G-chord or my mind around a blues pentatonic scale) I IMAGINED myself on stage and performing to an appreciative audience.

Then one day my imagination came true.

When in high school I first had the idea it would be fun to be an actor on stage and screen, and long before I had the training or experience needed to get the big TV and theatre gigs, I began VISUALIZING myself performing and travelling the world.

Then one day my visualization became real.

And when my writing career evolved beyond writing songs and plays to include becoming a novelist I again tuned into the power of creating a picture of what my finished book would look like and how it would appear sitting on the shelf in the Number One Best-seller position to make that happen.

And for one day I did make it happen. My novel was the best-seller in one store for one day!

And it’s still selling…

But of course whether or not you consider my modest worldly success as ‘Success’ —with a big ’S’—depends on who you compare me (and—by default—yourself!) to. I agree there are many much more successful actors, singer-songwriters and novelists than myself but there are also many would-be actors, would-be singer-songwriters and would-be novelists who never got close to achieving their dreams.

At least some of my dreams have come true. Not all—not yet, but some. I guess I am somewhere in the middle. But I am ready to aim even higher now and get more focussed than ever before on manifesting my dream life.

As such I am once again returning to the most basic creative block of all: thought. And in thinking about my thoughts I have been helped by many wonderful books by authors living and dead. As I work on money manifestation I keep reading and practicing. That’s why I bought my second copy of Stuart Wilde’s great ‘money’ book, The Little Money Bible; it’s why I have highlighted many passages from The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D Wattles and it’s why I am currently reading Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

What I have learned so far is while each of these inspirational texts approaches wealth creation from slightly different angles they all share a basic philosophy which might be summed up thus:

Money is good. You deserve to have as much money as you are comfortable receiving but exactly how much you make depends on your willingness and ability to concentrate on GIVING to the world by doing something which you can put your whole heart into. Furthermore it is vital to guard against negative thoughts which only confuse your subconscious mind: visualize what you want, write out what you want, then GIVE MORE of yourself than you ever have before in attracting what you want. 

Simple. Yes?

I think so. But I’m still reading. And I’m still learning; still affirming abundance is natural.

:)

Stay tuned for an upcoming post where I’ll ‘give away’ ONE MILLION DOLLARS to everyone—and anyone—who wants it. Until then here are links to three great books on wealth creation:

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D Wattles

The Little Money Bible by Stuart Wilde

Have a lovely day!

x

HAVE YOU EVER RECEIVED AN UNEXPECTED WINDFALL? HAS A LARGE SUM OF CASH RECENTLY TURN UP IN  YOUR LIFE? PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT.

Who you callin' a hippy?

It’s pretty nifty.

And it goes to show what fun you can have if you’re a curious facebooker.

I’m talking about a little website I found thanks to a friend of a friend of mine on FB. After following a link left in a comment about a phone call I’d just had with my friend I ended up making a little music. Emphasis on the ‘little’.

I call it ‘Love Sound’.

I think I’m addicted.

What shape would you like to hear? Anything goes. Whatever you ‘punch’ in to (in fact you can drag your mouse while clicking down and ‘draw’ shapes too) the matrix at André Michelle’s ‘Laboratory’ you can hear.

Then, you can either sit and stare at the screen while your mini-tune plays on infinite loop or grab your smart phone/video recorder and make a short (or long!) movie and post it in a blog.

I decided to share my co-creation in case you too might like to turn a shape into a sound.

It’s a little fun. Kind of a digital meditation; a symbol, like the love heart, can be contemplated as one might (if one was prone to meditating in this way) a lotus flower: both hold a universe within.

I found it a good reminder to me of the power of sound and how sound is perhaps the next step in a process of manifestation which begins with a thought.

Glad André Michelle had the thought to create this Tone Matrix thingy.

Thanks Andre.

Love,

Ben

This shadow belongs to me

You know what’s funny?

What’s funny is when you make a big declaration (or small blog post) about your (my) plans to do one thing only to end up doing another.

What’s funny is how upon the day of my 100th post on this blog I decided I was going to focus on funny and THEN soon after I stumbled upon a short, slightly intense, micro-post (I imagine we used to call such scribblings…well, scribblings) in my iPhone notes calling out to be published.

Yes, having made plans to sift through my minds myriad observations and pick only the irreverent, witty ones to share at this blog, I seem to be dumping those plans already.

What I’m saying is I don’t think this post is gonna crack your up. (N.B. ‘your‘ is not an error. I have a habit of messing with this inherited language we share.)

There’s a lesson here. For me. The lesson, Ben, is to accept your multi-faceted personality and unbox-upable creativity and be cool with breaking rules—even the ones you set for yourself.

So, here it is. A little piece I blurted out a short while ago and didn’t think would find a home. Now it has.

Here.

The Guru Must Die.

The Guru must die because as long as you have a Guru you are separate from yourself, you are stuck in thinking ‘me and them’. So, kill your Guru by absorbing the otherness; kill your Guru by swallowing the pride of having found the ‘true teacher’; kill your Guru by letting go of the notion someone other than yourself knows what you should do.

Do it.

Kill the idea you need anyone to tell you what ‘to love’ is, what ‘to let go’ is, what ‘to be’ is.

You know?

You know.

A Shadow Tree

N.B. When I say/write ‘kill your Guru’ this is not meant to be taken literally. It is figurative. You might like to take your Guru out for breakfast and let him or her down easily, over a grapefruit and a long black. Phew. Now I’ve got any concerns about inciting violence against long robed ones off my chest if you are into this Guru stuff you might like another post I did called Ricky Gervais is God.

Ta for giving me some of your time. I hope you feel it was worth it. In fact, whichever way you feel, please leave a comment.

★

It's enough to pickle your brain

Has it been 60 days already?

Have I gone that long without a single drink?

Do I only have 305 more days to go?

And…is there anything more annoying that a former big drinker who’s on the wagon and blogging about it?

I hope so. I don’t want to be an AAA (Aggravating Alcohol Abstainer). Nor do I want to be the most annoying booze-quitterer-for-a-yearerer in the world.

But I would like to be the guy who writes Year Of Living Sober, that hilarious (or even ‘sometimes funny’) blog about what it’s like to go from drinking everyday to…nadda.

That’ll be cool to have under my belt.

Please drop by and say ‘Hi’ over HERE.

Ricky Gervais gets cut (pic courtesy of RG)

You know how people sometimes say things like, “You’ll love Shenkiwa, she’s so spiritual!”, then smile knowingly to imply how this Shenkiwa girl really know’s where Gaia’s at?

What is really meant by using this word in this way?

I think I know.

It means Shenkiwa DOESN’T go to church but she’s not a BAD PERSON.

Sure, not everyone who talks about being ‘spiritual’ comes from a religious background—but a lot do.

Like me.

I grew up for ten years going to a fundamentalist church meeting every Saturday (no, we weren’t Jehovah’s, though we followed some of the same fun tenants—like not celebrating Christmas). Fortunately for my mental, physical and spiritual health however, my father quit being a minister in The Worldwide Church of God around the time of my tenth birthday.

Luckily I was saved from having to continue into my teens listening to him or any of the other ministers speculate when Hey-Zeus was going to return and kill everyone who didn’t salute.

But I didn’t completely escape the wide-spreading tentacles of doing-good-isms which, to some people’s way of thinking, manifested in various new forms as part of the New Age Movement, a way of thinking (and wearing tie dyed fisherman pants) which possibly peaked in the 90′s.

Over a decade since my family left the Christian sect I’d grown up in (being taught only a select group of chosen people were worthy of the Universal Creator’s conditional love) I jumped right into reading anything and everything that offered an inclusive alternative.

I started with the seventies classic, Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance then followed that up with Introduction to Buddhism by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso before paying visit to Paulo Coelho. I bought, devoured and recycled books by Dr Wayne Dyer, Shakti Gawain, Dan Millman, James Redfield, Neale Donald Walsch (the first book) and almost everything Louise Hay’s Hayhouse Publishing ever put out (including the collected works of my all-time favourite metaphysical writer, Stuart Wilde).

And I grew to love all this being ‘Spiritual’ talk.

Not that I regret it.

For me, that period of metaphysical exploration, both within (I meditated and did Iyengar yoga for years) and without (the Theosophical book store in Melbourne is still one of my favourites) was immeasurably rewarding.

I learnt some great stuff.

I learnt we often attack in others what we fail to accept in ourselves; I learnt it’s important to question the need to go to another person (priest/guru) for a connection to the divine, and that seeking the approval of such a gatekeeper is not only unnecessary it is contrary to what the spark of Universal Intelligence inside each of us prompts us to do: I learnt we are all God (John Lennon said that; others may have also).

And I learnt the Infinite Universal Intelligence has no preferences; I learnt we are all spiritual.

Because if I took one single idea away from all the different books I read—whether on Buddhism, Taoism, Eckhart Tollism of any of the other isms of spirit (now that’s a good name for a band: The Isms of Spirit)—it was and is that we are all one: ‘I’ does not exist; you am I; I am you; I am that.

Etc…

We are all spiritual beings having a physical experience.

Man.

So, when I saw the above photo of Ricky Gervais, one he posted on Twitter a few days ago, I had to laugh because I knew the decidedly Christian majority of Twitterland (and WordPress for that matter) probably wouldn’t be laughing.

“How dare he?” I imagined more than a few hundred thousand would say.

“That’s sacrilegious!” another million would indignantly chime in.

But not me. I reckon Ricky Gervais is hilarious, brave and very, very spiritual.

In fact Ricky Gervais is God.

Now for something completely different: a guest blogger.

For my first ‘guest blogger’ I chose WordPress.

This also happens to be my first post for 2012 (on this blog—check out YOLS for a post a day about my Year Of Living Sober).

It seems appropriate to take a moment and reflect on the successful growth in readership these statistics reflect before launching head on into a new year of online writing, sharing, ranting, raving and—I hope at least sometimes funny—musings.

So, here we go. Everything after the hashtag #bloggingisfun is from the WordPress blog machine.

However, I did take the liberty of altering the spelling of Sydney from what initially appeared as ‘Syndey’ (assuming there isn’t a similarly named Opera House the helpful statisticians at WP were referring to).

Which way to the Oprah House?

Thank you.

Ready?

#bloggingisfun

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 14,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Tina Fey 'gets' Jack

I definitely laughed more than once a day over the past year but thanks to my ’30 Rock’ desk calendar I also almost always STARTED each morning/day at the computer in my study with a smile on my face. And for my cheery get-going into the cruel world of blank digital pages I have many people to thank. Perhaps none more so than Ms Tina Fey.

“Thanks Tina.”

And thanks to your friends too. And thanks to everyone at the desktop page-at-a-time calendar company who helped deliver—every day—a fresh quote from a scene from my favourite TV show for 2011, 30 Rock.

There is so much to love about 30 Rock:

Tina Fey is awesome. When watching the entire series on DVD I always knew If she’d written an ep I could count on belly laughs from go to ‘woah baby’. And, of course, she’s hysterical too—a wonderful comic actress.

But then the whole cast of 30 Rock is fantastic.

So much so that as I tore off a new page each day throughout 2011, and as I read the tiny scene fragments from various episodes, I could clearly hear the voices and see the mannerisms of the crazy bunch of players who brought me so much joy and happiness and so many inspirational images (like, for instance, Tina in her ‘hot’ jeans).

Whilst I am sad to see the end of my calendar (couldn’t find another one for 2012—SAD FACE) I am grateful for the good times we had.

Goodbye 30 Rock desk-calendar/scrap-paper-generator. I’ll miss you but I’m glad you came into my life.

Here are some other things I am grateful for in 2011.

- iPhone 4. I know it is also a CIA/FBI personal tagging and tracking system but you can TWEET with it too! I think I have a ‘proper’ camera somewhere but since getting my iPhone this year I’ve hardly used my old snapper. (PS. If you are looking for a good camera app I really like Camera Plus Pro—even though I’m not paid to say so.)
- Emerging Writers’ Festival. Melbourne has lots of festivals and I discovered this one in 2011. After attending the pre-launch party and then posting a bit of gonzo journalism (I hadn’t heard that term until 2011) about it on my blog I ended up being one of the official bloggers for the EWF too. Met some awesome writers and got to spruke a bit about my first novel.
- Melbourne Writers’ Festival. Told you Melbourne had a lot of festivals. I am also thankful to Fiona Scott-Norman for hosting the official launch of The Last Great Day at the MWF 2011. Thanks Fiona.
- Nell O’Bryan. If you are in Melbourne and looking for a brilliant book publicist I highly recommend Nell. She’s not just great at her job she’s fun too.
- Stuart Wilde. I’ve enjoyed checking into his website and blog (now merged HERE) all year. A metaphysical teacher with a sense of humour? Really? Yes. In fact, I might do a follow up post about why I’ve bought almost every Stuart Wilde book twice.
- Honey Rose. To say I am grateful for my first child is not only an understatement it surely goes without saying. She may have come into our family’s life in 2010 but Honey blossomed beautifully in 2011 reminding me what is most important in life: not having a nappy full of shit.
- Pauli. Wife is like REALLY preggars as I write this but even with her relatively new role of mother and mother-to-be-again Pauli still finds time to listen to me read first drafts of novels and yap on about new blog ideas—and all while helping me find my keys.

“They were in your jacket.”

This list is in no way exhaustive. I could go on and on about what I am thankful for in 2011 if not for one more thing: I’m also thankful I learned how to blog in under 700 words a post.

Happy New Year!

This affair is just beginning.

Something’s been going on between us and we can’t ignore it any longer. I think we both know already but just so we’re all clear—I’m seeing somebody else. But don’t worry.

It’s you.

Yes, I can’t lie about it or cover it up—and I refuse to feel shame. I have deep feelings for both .Com and .Org.

WordPress, I love you both.

But, and like any relationship will, we’ve reached a point where we need to get real honest (like painful truth time honest) if we’re going to go any further together.

And I want to. I really do.

So, what’s bugging me? I’ll tell you. Both of you.

And I’ll try to be kind.

When .Com and I first got together it was all FREE love and the world seemed new and exciting again. I could write about anything I wanted and be published a second after my helpful ‘proofread’ which .Com offered me (again for FREE) with no hesitation.

As .Com and I got closer I learned about hidden qualities like being able to ‘like’ other .Com bloggers and this became one of my fav things about you .Com.

I really loved that about you. It may have been what I missed most when I hooked up with .Org.

You see even as .Com and I started getting more serious I found myself thinking about moving some of my bloggin’ action over to .Org. I’m not sure where .Org and I first met but I do know I had this kind of vague feeling .Org’d always been around: it was a PRESENCE, an authority, a certain je ne sais quoi?

The truth is I was tempted. Yes, my ego was flattered by the thought I could be like all those big wigs with their fancy url’s. I wanted to strut my stuff with .Org—let the whole world see us together.

And honestly, No, I couldn’t resist the lure of having my own domain name (and mapping which came with the DISCOUNT BUNDLE US$99) and before I knew what was happening I’d moved my latest blog (www.yearoflivingsober.com) over to Dreamhost: I didn’t know I was the sort of person who would go ‘self-hosted’ (a misnomer, I have come to understand) but it turns out I am.

And that’s how I hooked up with .Org. I hope you understand .Com.

So where does that leave us?

Well, .Com I think your community is awesome and I miss it already. Not being able to ‘like’ my fellow bloggers’ posts (easily at least) over at .Org is something I miss terribly and it’s something I am most grateful to still be able to do here at .Com. When I jumped into bed with .Org I didn’t know I’d lose my subscribers and other things I took for granted, like the ability to ‘publicize’ to Twitter (without searching for and deciding on one of the many, many options for a suitable—and bug free?—plugin).

.Com is so comfortable; I know .Com. but .Org is exciting and NEW!

You can see I’m torn .Org, can’t you?

Because with your ‘NO ADS’ .Org and your 1000′s of available plugins you do give me confidence to call myself a ‘pro-blogger’, even if you are more complicated than I’d first thought. I’m sure I will come to understand you in time though, and I really want to work things out. I do.

Like I said, I love you.

I love you both.

So what do you say? Fancy an unconventional relationship? I know I do. Maybe we can all work this out together? I’d love to keep hanging with you both.

Who knows where it will lead?

PS. Maybe we should all go out for a drink sometime?

My wife has good taste.

Blog surfin’s fun. If you’re anything like me sometimes you just jump on that old malibu we call a keyboard-n’-mouse combo and see where the swells take ya. Yesterday I ended up spending most of my day at WordPress beach: where all the hip bloggers hang ten.

Well some of them anyway.

I wasn’t really planning on buying a new domain name and transferring my blog to it but the idea had been gurgling away in the back of my brain for a while. Suddenly yesterday I was action man.

Surfs up!

Having recently decided www.benjamingrantmitchell.com was maybe a tad too long for a catchy blog title, and considering my Twitter handle is b_g_mitchell I thought about what name I should choose to ‘rebrand’ my blog self with.

And, since I wanted some more features, I was tempted into buying the wordpress ‘special’ bundle which, amongst other things, would stop ads appearing amidst my brilliant, witty and gosh-darn hilarious posts.

I take my blogging seriously folks.

But while busily bloggin’ and surfin’ I also had a bit of a laugh, courtesy of my heavily pregnant wife, Pauli.

Let me paddle back a bit.

While working in my study (‘office’ sounds too much like somewhere there’s a water cooler in the corner) I sometimes call out to Pauli for an opinion on any range of things. She’ll come in and listen to me tell her about why I absolutely need to buy six different domain names for one yet-to-be-published novel or maybe I’ll bounce my latest blog post draft off her hard-to-please non-blogging brain.

Yesterday, while deliberating over whether to buy b-g-mitchell or bgmitchell I asked for Pauli’s opinion. She was surprisingly blunt and, it must be said, aggressive when she shared her thoughts.

“Dashes are for people who can’t get what they really want. I hate them!”

I’m sure Pauli meant she hated the dashes and not the people but something about her strong opinion on what I thought would have been another ‘who cares’ subject made me laugh.

Because Pauli is right.

Who wants to type in a dash if you don’t need to?

So, after settling down from my guffaws, I snapped up bgmitchell and got on with some more important blogging stuff like choosing a new blog theme.

I do have an exciting life.

But maybe one day I’ll go to a beach and surf some real waves. It is summer down under after all.