Earlier, when Craig and I were talking, I asked the question, what is wisdom? And it's interesting we Craig actually even mentioned two of the words that are connected with wisdom. A lot of times we think of knowledge as being something that's connected with wisdom. So all of those books on the piano there, the books that Ernst Holmes wrote, or any books you might read, those can be knowledge, and you can gain that. And you could, up to this point in your life, look at all those things that you read and go, Okay, now I have knowledge. And when you think about going back to school, a lot of times when we were young, we would go to school. And what happened at school was the teachers shared knowledge with you that basically you were there, you were a vessel to for them to fill every fact that you needed to know. And we have teachers that are amazing at doing that, although probably the kind of teaching you do Diane is more stimulating interest that the students themselves have and participating in that, as opposed to like when I was in second grade, and they're like, No, you must learn how to read, people that take your class 15 years later. But we go to school, and in that back to school season, it's all about the idea of someone filling more knowledge in. But if you go into school and you think you already know everything, because you already have so much knowledge, are you really going to be open to what new can come to you? So I wanted to start looking at two definitions. This was interesting. Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. So that's knowledge. This is a common thing. You probably all the ones that are laughing know this knowledge tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad. Now maybe I don't know, I've never had a fruit salad with a tomato in it. It might be good, but I don't imagine that you would do that. So that's the difference knowledge and wisdom. So we can talk about those two things, and often wisdom is used with a phrase, which is conventional wisdom in science of mind, we might refer to this idea as race consciousness, meaning everyone's going to tell you all the things that you can do, should do, shouldn't do, maybe aren't for you could never do that sort of conventional wisdom of telling you what's possible based on what's happened before, based on what's happened in their rear view mirror, it's all but that's all behind you now. So if you look at life and think about, well, what if I didn't listen to conventional wisdom? What if I didn't live listen to race consciousness? What could I possibly do in life? I'm going to share a quick story about a gentleman, a doctor about 100 years ago. Etienne Stefan tarnier, he worked primarily, as we think of it now, as a pediatrician, but with newborns, and 100 years ago, in the time when he was a doctor, if a baby was born prematurely, they didn't really have a way to nurture that baby to health and eventually for them to be able to live a meaningful life. So what would happen would be, in his time, premature births had a 75% mortality rate. They didn't, they just didn't know. And conventional wisdom said, well, that's just the way it is. We just all know, all the doctors said, we all know that if a baby is born prematurely, you know what, one in four will survive and the rest won't, and it's a tragedy. Except that guy didn't accept that. He looked around at something that was unconventional, and he said, You know, when I go to a farm and I see little baby chicks. What are the baby chicks in? They're in this little incubator, and the Incubator has a little glass thing on it. It keeps them warm. And he said, Well, why couldn't we just do that with infants? And everyone said, Well, that's crazy. First of all, you're comparing baby chicks to infants. And everyone, the conventional wisdom told him that was not possible. But he built a prototype, and he went out and started trying to evangelize people to say, what if this could work? Some other doctors took this up. They actually took it all over the world, bizarrely enough, to World's Fairs, where they would take these little incubators, and the parents were like, well, sure, why not? My baby's not going to survive anyway. So they would have the babies in these little incubators. And over time, enough people saw that maybe this was possible to the way that it could work. And so 40 years after tarnier started this whole idea. Went from 75% mortality rate to an 85% survival rate simply because one guy didn't accept conventional wisdom. He didn't accept what everyone else said was possible. So there's a quote that I want to round out this with on conventional wisdom, which is this Chinese saying those that say it can't be done shouldn't get in the way of those that are doing it. There were lots of people in tarnier's experience who told him it couldn't be done and were trying to get in his way of doing it. And he said, No, I believe there's another way for this to happen. I believe this is possible. So the title of my talk today is clean slate, and it fits perfectly. Thank you so much sunny for that beautiful song. Because what sunny sung about was this idea of everything that's happened to you is in the past and right now, wherever you happen to go, if you think of every moment as your own personal school session. It is a clean slate. You've all probably had that experience where you see a clean board and you can put literally anything on it. Imagine that anything that you want to create, anything that you want to have in your life, any experience that you want, any new relationship that you want is a clean slate for you to have now. Ernest holmes in signs of mind, we have a saying for this. Being open at the top meaning we're open to anything that can go on that slate, any experience, any possibility. If you have an open at the top mindset, it means you go, you know what? I don't know the way as to the conversation that Craig and I had about you get asked a question, and you go, I don't know the answer to that question that Dr James is asking me. But if I did know, if I was truly open at the top and I believed it could flow through me, then that is possible. That's the way I can think of that. There is a quote that ernest holmes has about this, and he says the infinite knowingness. So he's talking about the god, this creative consciousness, this energy that is in all, through all, he says, that becomes our wisdom only in such degree as we embody its intelligence. Embody, for me, that's the key word. He's really saying. You have to make that part of who you are. It's one thing for those books to be over there, but when you embody it, when you truly live it, that's when that infinite knowingness, it becomes your wisdom, because now you are, in fact, embodying it. I'm reading this amazing book right now, which I commend to everyone. This book is called from strength to strength, finding success, happiness and deep purpose in the second half of life. It's an amazing book, really fun to read. One of the things that he talks about in this book is very much the kind of experience that we can have later in life. And he has these two ideas, and he talks about fluid intelligence versus crystallized intelligence and fluid intelligence, he describes as being something that often we have earlier in life, and people who are mathematicians, people who are physicists, they're very good at Fluid intelligence, and what happens is they get to a certain point in life, and their facility, their ease with that fluid intelligence, starts to go away. And a lot of times they'll despair about what's next. He gives the example of the guy who I'll think of in a second. He's the most famous scientist when it comes to evolution.

Darwin, yes, thank you. Darwin theory of species, he developed theory of species, and then after that, nothing happened in his career, and he grew he despaired like, Wow, I did this amazing thing. And now what and so fluid intelligence often is something that happens to us earlier in life compared to crystallized intelligence, which we can think of as wisdom, crystallized intelligence. As you get to a certain point, you know knowledge so many things, but now it's what you do with those. And he has a really interesting graph here where he talks about, as you get older, you can see that sort of curve of fluid intelligence. It peaks at a certain point and then it drops off. Doesn't mean you don't have it, but you're just not as big a facility versus crystallized intelligence, which you have much later in life. So what the sort of main thesis of the book is, you can jump from one to the other. Hence the title, from strength to strength. You don't have. Think about where you are, do where you were going later in life. If you imagine that you're you're jumping off onto this new idea of crystallized intelligence. So I go back to the Holmes quote and the word embody. If you embody that infinite knowingness, then it will become your wisdom. So the question a lot of us could then ask is, how do you embody it? How do you take this clean slate and make it your experience? And one of the things that in my former career as a writer, the most terrifying thing that you could ever see was when you open up a Word document and there's nothing there, yet that white page the tyranny of the white page, because it meant, the way that I used to think of this was I had to create all of that. So as we think about my life as a blank slate, my life is a clean slate. It can be anything. For a lot of us, that can be quite scary, because you could say I could do anything, which is exciting and also terrifying. It can be if you think, Well, I can do anything, but what am I going to do? And you ask, well, what am I supposed to do with this clean slate, this blank slate, and we can also look around at everybody else and think, Well, you know, they're living a great life there. They seem to have it all figured out. What's wrong with me? Someone else has made this jump to the crystallized intelligence, and they're doing great with their life, but, but I'm not so how do we overcome that when we're looking at other people, when we compare ourselves to others. I'm so happy to have my daughter in the room today, because six years ago, just about last week, I think I said goodbye to her when we dropped her off at college. And this is a picture of Aaron and I about an hour after the lowest point of my life. Sorry, Sarah. Because for for, for 18 years, I had been kind of a stay at home parent. I was my whole identity. The thing that I was wrapped up in was being a father, and then we dropped Sarah off, who went on to have an amazing life. And then Aaron's like, we should go to a bar. And so this picture's at a bar. I'm smiling outwardly, but inwardly, again, probably the lowest point in my life because I didn't yet know what I was going to do. So in a way, that was kind of a clean slate for me, yet I didn't know what I was going to do. And what a lot of times can happen is when you get to that sort of moment, and this will happen with many of us, if you have some change in your life, some transition point in your life, whether you're leaving a career, maybe something happens. You lose a loved one, maybe you are starting off in a new place in life. You You don't know where to go, but you have this feeling that I should have it all figured out for the rest of my life. And that's how I felt in that moment, I looked at it and said, What's my purpose for the rest of my life? Which is utterly the wrong question to ask, because how could you possibly know at a bar in Georgetown, Washington, DC, what the purpose of the rest of your life was going to be? You can't. So for a long time, I struggled with that idea of, how do you move on to that new thing, but not yet know what it is, and at the same time feeling like you should know what it is. So I go back to that clean slate. How do you design your life at that point? Well, I came up with this idea. And if you've ever had this experience, have you ever done a trial subscription of something where you're like, they're like, they try and convince you, like, just try this for two months and you'll see if you like it or not. Or if you go into Baskin and robins. And maybe you don't know what ice cream flavor you want. What do you do? You ask for little scoops of flavors until you see the one that you like, right? Or if you are going shopping, maybe you go to Macy's. Probably no one in this room goes shopping at Kohl's or Macy's or target, and you just pull something off the rack that you've never had any experience with. What do you do? You go into the dressing room, you try it on, you go out, you look at yourself in the mirror, and you decide, do I like this? Well, this concept. We do this all the time in our lives, of trying things to see if we like them, before we make a decision of whether this is something that we want permanently. So if. Thinking about this more. I'm like, You know what I don't have to think about the rest of my life. All I really kind of have to think about is some small period of time that I could try out this thing. And this is the idea that I came up with this two month purpose, where what you do is you decide what's an identity I'd like to try on, much like going into the dressing room at Macy's. I'm gonna try this jacket on and see if I like it. I'm gonna taste this scoop of ice cream and see if this is a flavor I like. So for two months, you try something, and then you see if you would like it. Now maybe you just go, that's not for me. You might say I'm going to go and run a 5k in two months. So I'm going to train for that, and at the end of two months, I'll run the 5k and you might go, not for me, that wasn't an experience, but the good news is you just go and try another new one for two months. So as I thought about this, this seemed, for me, something that gave me it felt much more calm and relaxing to me to not have to think about everything and the huge, big picture of my life, but I could think about little segments. So the way that for me, this works is I would pick a period of time. Two months seemed to work. I would pick something that I wanted to try for that two months, and in the back, if on your way out, I made a printout list of a whole bunch of ones that you could consider looking at and seeing if it's something that that you like, and for two months, I'll try that thing out. Now the key is, at the end of the two months, you need to do something that allows you to say, I am. So, for instance, one of the ones that I'm on my list, I think, finalist that I might do is cook a recipe, a French recipe that I've never made before, and have a dinner party where I, you know, might be something that is an elaborate enough thing, where it's going to take some practice, and it's going to require me to do something. And at the end of two months, I'll do this thing, and now I can say I'm a French chef. I mean, I'm not ever going to say I'm Julia Child, but the idea is, you get to a point where you now have this, this identity in mind, and then you can decide, is this something I really like? Do I do I love doing this? Do I want to try something else? Do I want more of this? A lot of times, people will run a race 5k and they're like, I really, I enjoy this, and I want to do more of this. And that is something that can happen for you, so something that can last for two months. Now, one suggestion I have is make it fun. People, a lot of times, when I've shared this idea, they're like, oh, you know what I could I could clean up the garage. That would probably take me about two months. I suggest that you do something that is fun, not something that feels like an obligation. Do something that at the end of it you feel good about, like I'm enjoying this experience. I had a good time doing this thing. Also, it should have a completion point, like I said, something that you do that celebrates the end of it. And then finally, it has to be just you, in my estimation, because I could say I'm going to take a dance class with my wife, Aaron now, that could be fun, and maybe in some way, it is me doing it and having a new identity. I could say I'm a dancer now, but don't do something that feels like you can't come away with your own sense of identity.

So the goal of this at the end is that you want to be able to say, I am so you say I am a swimmer. I am a painter. You could become an artist. You could sing a song. Maybe learn how to sing a song. Go to Kara, you know, karaoke night. All these things that you could do that are easily accomplishable in two months, and at the end of it, you're done. I mentioned the Julia Child cookbook. You probably maybe have heard that movie, Julia, and Julia where the woman set out, over the course of a year to cook every single recipe in the Art of French Cooking. And that became a blog that she wrote, and then a whole movie was made around this. So there's someone who super embraced this idea of the identity of who she was. I want to return to that Holmes quote, because at the end of the day, this idea that if the wisdom, if we embody it, and this is really the idea of this two month purpose is you get a chance to embody this and decide, is this something that is meaningful to you, and you will have a personal wisdom at the end of that experience, if that is right for you. So at the end of the day, when you do this, remember, you know we talked earlier about wherever you stand, and Sunny's opening. Song you are here. Think about this experience that you have, this identity that you create is not outside of you. It's who you are, if you embody it, if you choose to make that the experience that you you have in life, if you choose to jump to that fluid intelligence, that crystallized intelligence, and have that all of the wisdom that's happened in your life you bring with you to that new place that is the experience you'll have. So where you stand, that's who you are. So as you think about this, know that as we say, I am is a complete sentence. So whatever experience you choose to have for yourself in your life, when you say I am and you think about that thing that is who you are. So if you are inspired by this, if there's something that you want to do over the next two months, I'd love to hear from you. I'm going to be here in two months. I'll share what I have decided on for my two month purpose. I'd love to hear what you bring to the classroom of the next x months that you are here. Think of this as your choice to be in school for yourself and to learn more about who you are and what you are capable of. Namaste.

Item descriptionMusic, because this morning I want to talk about dreams and what interrupts dreams. So this morning, the song that you heard, Xanadu, you might like go. I've heard that, that song before, that that word before. And you're wondering, where have you heard it before? Well, there was a poem written a couple of 100 years ago, and it's relatively famous as English language poems go and the poem is, see if I can make this go forward. There we go. Kubla Khan, so this guy wrote this poem. And what's interesting about the poem was it started in a dream. He was dreaming, and literally the entire poem came to him in his dream, and when he woke up, he grabbed a piece of paper and started writing it down, and he got 10 lines into the poem. And if you think you've heard of this, this is the first couple of lines of the poem in Xanadu. Did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree. So the rest of the poem, he's writing it down very quickly. He gets 10 lines into writing it down, and he gets interrupted, and then he forgets the rest of it, and he tries to write it down based on the best of his recollection, but he doesn't, you know, writes whatever he can come up with. And in case you're wondering, Xanadu was the English way of pronouncing Chengdu, which was the place in China where Kublai Khan had this palace. So that's where we get the word Xanadu. Very appropriate, I think, because in a way, it is a dream poem. It was started in his dream. He wrote it down. He got interrupted, and he did his best to continue with that poem. So my question this morning is, do we have passions? Do we have something that we're passionate about, a dream that maybe we start on and then we get interrupted? So what do you do? And that's what I'm going to talk about this morning. And I want to start with if you got the email that we sent out on Friday, I suggested that you take a look at a list of statements that we can sometimes make when we're talking about what's possible for us. And I called them I can't statements where you would say I can't do something because and, and it's interesting, if you think about the word, I can't, the statement, I can't, in a way, it is an affirmation. When you say I can't do something, you're essentially affirming that, right? You're saying, I can't do that. You may not think it's an affirmation, but you are essentially programming yourself to believe that's what's happening. And when you say, I can't, because now that becomes a belief, I can't because now you're telling me the reasons why you're saying, Oh, well, you know what, I can't because of this reason, and then you're gonna give me the reason. And if you looked at that printout that I have, and we have some out side here, that you might identify with, I had 100 reasons. I didn't think that there would be that many. But when you start looking through it, and you're like, these are all the things that we can say. And so, for example, you might say, I can't because I'm too old. I can't because I don't have the education. I can't because I don't have someone to help me with this. I can't because I don't know the way to do it. We can come up with all of those reasons. So we're like, that guy who had the dream, the perfectly realized vision of what we were passionate about, that we wanted. And we wake up, we start writing it down, and then something comes along and interrupts us. And for a lot of us, we can have a dream, and we get interrupted by all the other things in the world. And I want to mention one this morning that can interrupt a lot of us, and it is this. Swan, would you advance that next slide? Thank you. You might be familiar with the idea of Netflix being something that can consume your time, right? You can get into Netflix, and before you know it, how many hours have gone by? Lots of lots of time. So you that is something that gets in the way. I don't know that anyone would say I can't because I've got an appointment with Netflix, but essentially, that's kind of what happens. And what's interesting about Netflix, if you look at you guys all know the screen on Netflix, it's got all those little categories. And one of the categories is it says, We think you'll love these. That's a category we think you'll love. I like, like, how we know it's an algorithm, but Netflix is like, we think you'll love these. Like, there's actual human beings there that go. I know Dr Tiffany, and I know Dr Tiffany is going to love these. So it's fascinating, because essentially, the idea behind we think you'll love. These is based on what you've done before, Here's more of the same. Based on whatever you've watched on Netflix before, here's exactly more of the same. So it's going to say, I don't want you to try anything new. I want you to be really super happy with what you've always watched before, and only have that you can tell from the tone of my voice. I'm not saying that's such a good thing. So the truth, though, is that if you you think about the choices that you have in life and to think about what's possible for you, Sloan, will you advance that next slide? Thank you. You can choose anything. So I again, I'm not denigrating Netflix, because, in fact, Netflix represents something for me that's like one of my biggest ambitions, the biggest thing that I can possibly imagine for me, which is that I would have a show that I created on Netflix. I've now said that publicly for the first time ever, and that's a little scary. This is what happens sometimes when we talk about something that we're passionate about, we can hold it in. It's safe. That would have been way safer for me to hold that in, right? Never have to say it. But now I've said it, and so now I know there are people that are going to say, Well, how's that? How's that Netflix show going? How are you doing with that? How is that coming along? And what's fascinating is the the more that you hang on to something, you can you can think it's not possible. So you need to create. We know, in science of mind, we have something called the idea of a mental equivalent. You create an image, a picture, of what you want. So what did I do? I created a picture of my show. So if you look up there, I hope it didn't seem unusual to you that under we think you'll love these. There's a show called come back new. That is the name of the show that I imagine creating on Netflix. And this is swan. Would you advance a slide? This is the artwork for come back new. The idea of this show is that it would be a documentary where we would take people to an amazing destination, teach them science of mind principles, and show them that they can create a new life so that when they come back home, they're a new person. Come back new. So that is the the idea of the show that I have come back new. And in order for me to keep that passion in my mind, I created this image so that I could continually go, Yes, that's possible. So the title of my talk this morning is passion fueled life. What I just demonstrated was I created a picture of something that was my passion. And we need to do that. We need to keep that passion in our life, because that's what drives us, that's what sustains us through all of those those moments of interruption, or those moments of doubt we don't think something's possible. So that's, that's a passion fueled life where you live with that you know the outcome, the thing you want, the dream you want. Kind of the opposite of that is, if you living, if you're living Swan, if you hit that, you're living a to do list life. Now I don't, I don't want to say, like making to do lists is a bad thing, because I do it all the time. I have lists of all the things that I have to do. But if you are living a to do list life, essentially what you're doing is you're saying, here is where I am today. Here's all the things I have to do. And for many of us, we have a very full life, which we're blessed to have, but what it means is you've got a lot of things to do, so you can get caught in that, that relative part of your life, but over here, this is Xanadu. This is your dream. This is the thing you want, the thing you're passionate about. So when you're living a Tudor ludulist life, you're over here, but you got to keep your your eye on that. Now I want to go and Swan if you have the next slide, the opening lyrics of that song that many are sang for a Xanadu, a place where nobody dared to go, literally, the first line of the song, that's Xanadu, that's that's the place where your passion is. And how many of us stay over there? We stay over where our to do list life is, and we don't dare go over there, because if I told you that my dream was to have a show on Netflix, that would sound crazy and that, and I'd open myself up to judgment, which I'm okay with. Thank you, ministerial. But it's interesting, if you think about what your dream is and so on, if you go to the next slide, this is a word cloud of the number of times each word appears in that song.

Not uncommon in a song that the title of the song gets repeated a lot. But I think it's instructive for us, because this is how whatever you're passionate about should appear in your life. It should be the biggest word that you. Think of it should be the thing that lights you up. This is your Xanadu. This is what you're passionate about. This is what you dream about. So again, if you go to that next slide, a passion fueled life, it can start, if you look at that little image there on the far left, it can start as one little spark, and then it becomes this huge rainbow. In the song, there's a lyric about the spark, that rainbow of shooting star. That's when you have a passion fueled life, your gas Gage, your accelerator is all the way over because you've got your foot on the pedal for what lights you up. Now, a lot of us, this is what our dream can look like. This is the journey to get to the dream, right? So you're at the start, and you're going to take this path it's going to wind and you're going to get to where you want to go. So you start on that dream, and then what happens? You stop somewhere. You get stopped because you go, I can't, because the author of that poem woke up, and he started writing it down, and then someone interrupted him, and now he can't finish it. So maybe you push through this, you push through that one, but then something else along the way stops, and you go, Well, I can't because, because you get to a step and you go, Oh, now I realize I need this, and I can't do it because, so maybe you keep going, and you get to another one, and suddenly this journey that was full of possibility the very beginning now is filled with I can't, because is, and what happens is that that thing that is a check mark at the beginning now it becomes a question mark, because now maybe you won't get there, maybe because of all the times that you said I can't, because now you're not going to get there. So this word because is a powerful word. Because any time you say because, and it's funny, if you listen to the video I recorded on Friday, I even used it without even thinking about it. I said I was saying something, and I said because, and I'm like, oh my god, I can't. It's so pervasive, this idea that we make excuses and we really want to own them, right? We really want to say, I've got the receipts for this. If you and I were having a conversation, I could tell you all of the reasons why I can't do something, and we're so proud of it, like, oh, you know what? Check out these receipts. You want to talk about someone who really can't do something. Check me out. That's how we can feel sometimes, is that we're so proud of the reasons that we can't do something and the I can't be all sorts of different I can't one is that personal experience, something has happened to you, where you go, Oh, you know what that thing happened to me before? So now I can't do this. Another one, and we're very familiar with this in science of mind, the idea of race consciousness, which is that this, there's a consciousness that can be in any sort of group, whether it's a country, a region, a state, this room, we can have, we can have a positive race consciousness. But a lot of times, the idea is that it's something that stops you, because you go, Oh, our group doesn't do this. We can't do this. And finally, you might have misinterpretations or false thinking. Things that you think are true, they're not, things that you've heard that are not, and you misinterpret them. So I just want to say this about the idea of this. Richard Bach said, argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they are yours. So if you want to go around and go, these are my receipts. Check this out. Here's all the reasons I can't do this. The universe is like, Okay, fine. I'll give you more of that. But when you know you're living in a speed limit infinity universe, why would you argue for your limitations? Why would you say I can't because, because, here's the thing, you can change, I can't because, by removing one letter, you can change, I can't because to I can because you can change it in a very simple way. Now, 30 seconds, little plug. In two weeks, I'm doing a workshop where we are going to change I can't because to I can because so if this interests you and want to learn this process can be on Zoom, and we're going to basically take something that you think is true about you, and we're going to change it from I can't to I can. So you will come out of there knowing how to change that statement that you have, that limiting belief that you have, into something that is positive and affirms you. It's online. You go to our website on the calendar page, you'll see the link for it. I'm taking 30 people. It's on Zoom. Saturday morning, two hours. If it speaks to you, I'd love to see you. So this morning, I want to share three ways to live with passion. The first is to find your Xanadu, to know what it is that lights you up. And the biggest piece of advice that I can give you on this is forget what is possible if you're like if I thought of a Netflix show, I would be stopped after. After half of a second, because I can, I can give you, I could pull out the receipts of all the reasons why I have no idea how to get to a point where there's a show on Netflix. I could. And we all have that in our life, something that we want. We can give you the reasons, but forget what's possible. Instead, think about what you would love. Ask that, would you love to have a show on Netflix? Would you love to have that thing that you're passionate about? All of us in this room would say, yes, good, go with that. That is the first step is finding what your Xanadu is. And the reason this is we know this from ernest holmes, he tells us the word which carries power is the one that has conviction back of it. So the word the thing that is possible, that thing that you want, if you have conviction behind it, if you believe, if you have passion behind that, that's what's going to carry it. He also tells us that, and this was, I think, alluded to this morning, when Reverend Pam was saying this, we don't have to create passion. We allow it. He says, We do not put the power into the word, but we do let the power of the law flow through it. So if you think that you have to create this passion, if you want to manufacture it, no, it's going to flow through you if you allow it to. So the second way to bring more passion in your life is gather new proof. I love that image of like going out and think about gathering strawberries, because we all have had baskets of strawberries where you get them from Ralston, like 48 hours later, they're moldy, right? Gather new ones. If you're going out there and you want to find proof that something is possible, gather new proof. Instead of going on this journey where you say, I can't because what if you looked around and said, everything is unfolding perfectly, no matter what I will give you. And I shared this with John this morning, I will give you the most amazing synchronistic, synchronistic thing that happened this morning. I was driving here listening to the 70s channel on Sirius XM and Casey Kasem. Do you remember, like American top 40, how he he would do the countdown? So he's about to play a song, and the song he's going to play, he tells a little story. Do you remember how he would tell you the story of the this is the story. He said, This next band, and it was deep purple. He said they were in 1972 going to some this amazing recording place in the Swiss Alps on Lake Como or something, and they were going to record their new album in this location. And they had gotten all these amazing engineers and sound people, they set everything up they were ready to record the album, and two days before they were gonna record the album, the entire hotel burned to the ground. That would seem like a pretty big I can't because right, like you would think, Oh my god, this is, this is a sign we're not meant to record this album. Well, do you know what Deep Purple did was they they made plans to figure out, Where can we now record it? But now they had some time. So what did they do? They went and wrote a new song based on what just happened, and that song was the one that Casey Cason was about to play, which is the song, Smoke on the Water. Smoke on the Water, fire in the sky. That was they were writing about that. So think about that. They wrote, they took that everything's unfolding perfectly, no matter what is there no better demonstration of that, like, Well, I I guess the hotel burning down that was turned out really good for us, because now we get the opportunity to write a song that will be the biggest song on that album. And I heard that this morning as I was driving here again. If you're looking for things that to prove, if you're looking for proof. What you're going to see is, oh, I can, because, instead of seeing all the evidence of I can't, because, when you train your mind to look for signs that I can because, and that's what you're going to see, and it's so important, because as as Holmes says, Actually, I'm go back. He talks about. He says, the law says that we can only, that we can only have what we take. So you have to take this. You have to be out gathering those strawberries. You have to look, gather the strawberries that are the fresh ones, gather that proof. So I want to ask you now

the third one, which is what's the biggest thing that you can think of? I love this image of a giraffe whose head is above the clouds. Here's the giraffe is already pretty tall, and he's above the clouds. So this is where Holmes told us. The law says that we can only have what we can take. So if you can take. Anything. Why not take the biggest thing possible? Why not go for that instead of the smaller thing? Because, as he says, we can expand the infinite, but we cannot contract the infinite. Expand the finite, but you can't contract the infinite. So why not go for the infinite? Because that is un non contractible. Not a word. So the question for you in whatever you imagine, whatever passion you have, what's the biggest venue you can imagine? Yesterday, as I said earlier, we saw someone who saw his passion come to life. This is Dr James standing on the stage yesterday at the Garry Marshall theater before the presentation of his musical. Now does Dr James, is that the end journey for this No where is the biggest venue that Dr James will be thrilled to see this play on Broadway. There. It took, it took an hour into the service before we actually said Broadway. But no, that is where he imagines it. He doesn't go, God. You know, I'd really love if I could put that play on at the the high school stage at Burbank High School. No, if you're an Olympian and we're watching, if we're watching the Olympics, no Olympian, or would be Olympian sits at home and goes, gosh, you know, I'd really love to be able to execute the perfect dive at the country club hotel pool. Craig, what is every what is the dream that everyone has? They the Olympics, right? That is the biggest venue possible. If you're a baseball player, what home where do you want to hit your home run in the seventh game of the World Series? A football player wants to win the Super Bowl. That is. Everyone dreams of the biggest venue possible. Why not you? Why not imagine something bigger for yourself? And while you're at it, see yourself at the podium, see yourself with that metal around your neck, because that's the energy that's going to drive you towards that. If your dream is to have a show on Netflix, why not create the image and put it on there so that you can see it? So I want to close with going back to Xanadu. Xanadu, the movie not great. The songs were way better than the movie, but the movie had a very simple and I think for us, relevant message. The movie was a story about a character who had a dream. He wanted to open a nightclub. And because it was the disco era of the 70s, it wanted to be a roller skating nightclub, because that would have made sense in 1980 and Olivia Newton, John, her character was the muse for him. She was the person outside of him who said, this is possible. This can happen for you. And you know, we don't think of we don't think of that power as being outside of us. In science of mine, we know it is who I am, but as a demonstration of what's possible, that that belief in yourself is there. The song that she sang, this was for a movie that wasn't great. This was on the Billboard chart for four weeks. Is the number one song. So when you think about that, there's a reason it appealed to people and Swan I'm not going to play the video, but I just want to to go to that next slide, which is the lyrics, you have to believe we are magic. Nothing can stand in our way. And she's saying, when we think of magic, the way that we look at is not magic, like the magic, Castle magic, but that power, that infinite, expansive spirit that allows us to be anything, because that is who we are. Swan, would you go to that last slide? Yes, thank you. Swan closes with building your dream has to start now there's no other road to take. You won't make mistake all she says in the song, but really we think of it as you will be guiding you building your dream. It has to start now whatever your passion is. Go find it. Go announce to people whatever it is, and then start to take steps. Because I can promise you, since the time that I've been talking about what my passion is, the ideas for what that show will be have come to me. I've been gathering evidence, and I never would have done that if I stayed in that place of like, Oh, that's not bad. Not possible. That's never going to happen on Netflix show that's crazy, but because I allowed myself to be carried with that passion, that's what I believe. So I I encourage you to ask for yourself, what dream, what passion Do you have? Start building it now, because do you know what you the spirit within you will be guiding you every step of the way, once you start to take that and move forward. Namaste.

I was here six months ago, and I gave a talk. It was kind of the beginning of the year. It was January, and I gave a talk where I suggested that the next year you might think about, what do you want to accomplish this next full year, and that you would be in a starting line of a race, not a race where you're competing with someone else, but but with yourself. Thinking about what do I want to bring into my life? So now we are six months later. It's the first week of January. So there's one thing that I want to say as we start today, July. Yes, thank you. I'm thinking January, 1 week of July. So the thing that I want to say to you is, happy half New Year. Did you know this was a thing? I think it is. I couldn't find a slide that said half New Year, so I had to make one myself. But I think this is it's important. Because when you think about in January, when we say we're going to resolve to do something which, for some people, lasts maybe a couple of weeks, if we're lucky, there's something about it that makes sense, like, Oh, I'm going to do this thing over the course of a whole year. I mean, a year is a big amount of time. So what if you now think about, well, it's the first week of July. We're ending the first week of July, and you have six months left in the more of 2024 so if you had those six months, go back and look at what was the thing you said, maybe I'd like to do this for the entire year. Well, now you've got an easier amount of time to deal with. Now it's not like a whole year. Now you have six months. So I'm going to ask you, do you have any Half Year resolutions? Given that it was news to you that this there is such a thing as a happy half year I'm guessing nobody's making half year resolutions, but that's one of the things I want to talk about today is, what can you do between where you are now and where you are at the end of the year? So I can tell you, as I began the year, there was one Dr James would teach us when we read the book, the one thing he'd say, there's one thing such that by doing it makes everything else easier or irrelevant, and you do that one thing, and then everything else will fall in place. Well, you can imagine, for me, my one thing was that that email address doesn't exist yet because I'm still, I'm still fighting with Google to figure out how to make that happen. But that is something that that eight of us went through and accomplished and got to that place in life. Genevieve taken in a deep breath like, yes, that was a significant thing. So that's one thing that that was meaningful to me. But as I look at the second half of 2024 and this is really my encouragement to you today, and what I want to talk about is what's possible for you in the second half of the year. What are ways that you can add even more, more that feels like more and more, but even more to 24 How can you do that? So that's what I'm going to talk about. I want to go back almost one month to after we finished that whole ministerial journey, I went to Hawaii with with Aaron and Sarah, my daughter. So these are a few pictures that I took of our trip to Hawaii. The one on the left is the place that I used to live when I lived there. In the background, that's me at the beach out for a run, and then on the right was I was there for my 45th I had to do that math in my head, my 45th high school reunion was there, and we celebrated. And that was an amazing time. So I got to have all of these experiences, which in Hawaii is pretty incredible. I also would go out for a walk or run every morning and see the most amazing sunrises right minutes from where we were staying. This is in Queen Kapiolani Park, looking towards the east where the sun is rising. Just beautiful. The other thing that I got to do a lot was spend time in the water, and that was what I had said to everyone before we went. I said, you know, there was so much going on in spring, with ministerial, with family issues going on, that I processed that I just wanted to sit on a beach and I just wanted to relax. That was the most important thing to me. You can probably get a sense that this is not where my vacation ended up going, and if so, you would be right, because one of the things that we did, and this is what I'm going to talk about today, is zip lining. This was something that our daughter was there, and I didn't know this ahead of time, I was pretty clear that I wanted to sit on a beach with a book, and she's like. Like, well, you know what I really would love to do is go zip lining. And she had already found places, researched it. She's like, this is actually the greatest part of having a 24 year old. If there's anything you want to know in the world, you just go, Sarah, what's the answer to this? And she's going to find it in two seconds flat on her phone. So she finds a place and says, you know, it's going to be a one hour drive up there because it's on the North East Shore of Oahu, and a one hour drive back. So I'm thinking my beautiful day sitting on a beach is now me sitting on a in a car, which doesn't that sounds kind of like home. It doesn't sound like Hawaii. So I wasn't terribly enthusiastic about it, but I said yes. And it was a real Yes. And it was interesting, because I you know, our daughter has been in this teaching enough that she gets when you say something if you don't really mean it. And she's like, don't say yes if you don't mean it. And I'm like, okay, in the moment, that was my work, because it would have been really easy to go, fine, I'll go. And she wouldn't have wanted that. Like, nobody wants that kind of energy. They want congruent energy of Yes, I really want to do this. And so I took a moment and I thought about it, and I go, this is time I get to spend with our daughter, with my wife, and I'm going to be open to it being amazing. So the title of my talk today is,

is add more zip. There we go. So this is not me. The other picture, just to be clear, was me. This is not me. This is Dr Laurie found this picture. This is just for reference. I'm going to give share a little bit of zip lining knowledge with you here. This is called a spider man. And I realize this is because in the original Spider Man movie, I guess there's a scene where spider man descends down Upside down, and kisses Mary Jane upside down. So that's what this pose is. I will tell you up front. I never did this one, but what I want to talk about today is ways that you can add more zip into your life, and especially in the next six months. So first, a little bit about how zip lining works. Because in my estimation, when I did this, I'm like, Oh, this is kind of like science of mind. There's something about this that really resonates with me. So in zip lining at this course, anyway, there are eight lines. You go to the top of a mountain. You start on the top line, you go down and you end up back at the bottom again. One of the lines was half a mile long. One of the lines you go 50 miles an hour. Now, not having ever done this before, I had a little bit of trepidation about this. Probably any time you try something new, especially this kind of thing, you might feel a little bit of anxiety about that, but there's good things about this. So you can see the way that that zip lining works, basically is you've got this harness that supports you, and it's, it's a fairly substantial harness. It's got a hook there, which you can see the guy on the right, you can see his hook. And what happens is, you take your pulley, it attaches to that, they stick you on the wire, and then you're good to go. And just so that you're safe that fence there, they won't let you pass that fence unless you have a safety harness on. That's the beige strap. So you put the safety harness on, you walk out there, you stand on the box, well, they put you, they hook you up, and then you're good to go. And they're incredible. They made it a lot of fun, like very sort of it was almost felt like I was on Jungle Cruise, where the guys do all the jokes on Jungle Cruise at Disneyland. But we felt very safe. It didn't ever feel like they're not taking it seriously. So as I think about this and the this idea of getting on a line where you're going to go from one place to another place, felt like a perfect metaphor for what the next six months could be. So when we think about more in 2024 and you think about what are the next six months, I have a question, which is, what would you do in those six months if you knew you couldn't fail? Because when you look at the zipline experience, once you do the first one, the very first one, and you go, Okay, I see how this works. Now I'm not afraid anymore. Now I know that this will work. And I know that when I jump off this platform, it will work. So. So I have a question, even though I know I'm supported, why don't we do those things that we said we would do, like if I look at the next six months and go, Well, I could do this. Question is, why don't we do it? Well, Aaron and I saw a movie. I'm not going to spoil it. We saw a movie Thursday night, it was inside out too. I don't know if you've seen the first one, but the second one is equally as brilliant. I highly recommend it. In a nutshell, in this movie, The protagonist is a in the first movie, she's like 1112, years old, and the movie demonstrates all of the emotions inside her mind, and shows how those emotions are driving her behavior. There's joy, there's sadness, there's anger, there is fear, and what's, oh, wait a second, that's the first one. But in the second one, she is now 13 years old, about to enter high school. So there's a new cast of emotions that come in, and this is the one that steals the show, literally steals her mind in the second movie, anxiety. Those are the original the OG emotions from the first movie. So why think? And I was saying this to Genevieve this morning, I don't think I've seen a more brilliant demonstration of how experiences become beliefs, become the guiding principle of what we do in our life, because that movie demonstrates it. She has all these experiences in the mind. They take them and they put them in this pool of water, and then the pool of water, they become emotions, beliefs that guide what she thinks about herself. I can do this, I'm smart, I'm capable, or she has disempowering beliefs based on what anxiety does. So anxiety, I think, when it comes to doing something new, is a really profound experience for us. This is the platform, one of the platforms at the zip line. So you can imagine being at the top there. You might have a little bit of anxiety about that experience getting all the way to the top there, you're hundreds of feet in the air. And you know that this zip line looks substantial enough. It's concrete. There's huge wires everywhere, like that part of it, you go, this is the most amazing thing that's ever been built. I don't doubt that that will work, but there's still that part of you that wonders. So I want to do a small little experiment here. And Sherry, would you mind? I need a volunteer, and I see is that who's sitting over there, I can't see Anne. I'd love for Anne to share. Would you take the mic over to Anne, who is, by the way, let's give it up for Anne and the amazing team of volunteers, Wanda, who are preparing our breakfast this morning. So this is going to be really easy, and I'm not going to. I want to make sure the mic is on for Anne so and you see off to your left there the light switch the far one on the wall. Okay, so that light switch currently is off. And let me ask you, if you look at that light switch, you know how to turn a light switch on right? Tell me affirmatively you do yes. Okay, good. So will you go over and turn that light switch on, please? All right, it's just a trick question. It is not a trick question. It is the simplest. I'll do it there. That was it was that simple. Thank you, Ann, big hand for Ann, you're completely done now. Thank you for asking so the light switch. We all know how to turn on a light switch, don't we? There's no doubt in our mind. Anne stood up. She didn't have to go wait. How do I get over to the light switch? I'm not sure what that process is like. She didn't have to guess which part of the light switch to turn on. She knew. She knew it would work, because we have electricity flowing through the walls here, and you've turned that light switch on and it works. We have things like that in our life. Every day, all of you are going to get in a car after this and go home, you're going to know, hopefully, usually, that your car is going to work. Carol, laughing. It doesn't always happen, but usually we depend on it, right? It usually works. So that's the way we go through our life. We don't usually have to have things explained to us. Except here's a diagram I felt found that, in case you wanted to know, scientifically, how does ziplining work. This is it here. This shows you the angles and the inclination, angle the drop of the section. They actually misspelled length of section there. I can't believe that, but this shows you, in case you needed to know, from a scientific standpoint, how does that work? We have that too in our teaching. We could explain it science. Specifically, but we have an even simpler term to explain how it works and what we bring to any process that we're in. Does anyone know it's one word? Does anyone know what you depend on when you are trying something new for the first time, I heard it, faith. Absolutely. You have faith. You have faith that it will work. You know that we are surrounded in this universe, that this harness that I'm wearing, that I'm going to put on the zip line, that is the universe. It's got me, I am supported by that. I don't need to see the zip line to know that it works. Actually, I did the first time, the first time we jumped off, I needed to see it. But from that point on, I knew how it worked. This word is so important. Do you know how many times this word appears in the science of mind? Guess how many? 200 that would be a lot. Actually, it would be interesting to see what's the most used word I should someday when I have nothing to do, which would be never pull up the concordance and go and see which 82 times. In fact, there's an entire chapter in the science of mind called Faith, where he ernest holmes, talks about faith, and he says in that chapter, Faith is an affirmative mental approach to reality, reality, capital R.

He's not talking about relative. He's talking about reality. Whenever he uses that capital R, reality, he's talking about truth. So faith Affirmative, meaning positive. I expect it. I have the highest expectation of it working. It's a mental approach to reality. Same page, he talks about fear, he says fear is nothing more nor less than the negative use of faith. It's faith misplaced. So that is helpful. When I think about the zipline experience, if I'm afraid there, it's just me not using faith. It's misplacing faith, not using it in a way that is helpful to me. So when I'm standing on that platform and I'm thinking about jumping off, that's me getting ready to go. And when I think about that, and I'm looking at that line, and I'm trying to convince myself that I have faith that this will work, I'm reminded that faith is the substance of things. Hoped for, the evidence of things not seen like that caption, substance of things. Hoped for that the line I'm hoping is there. It is the substance of things, the evidence of things not seen. Meaning that you may not see this amazing, awesome power in the universe, but because we see the demonstration of it, the effect of it, we know that it's there. So because this, the line was successfully navigated. When I went across the zip line. I know that it's there. So I'm going to now, gosh, twice now you've been encouraged to stand up. So really quickly, I'm going to ask everyone to stand up and and I'm going to tell you why I'm asking you stand up and don't worry, you can sit down quickly. Imagine right now on July 7, that where you stand right now is a platform. You are standing on the July 7 platform, and you are now going to get on a zip line that will take you to the December 31 platform. So in those six months, you will accomplish something, you will do something, you will create something that's going to happen during those six months. So when you have a thing doesn't have to be the most amazing thing ever, but when you have that thing, please sit down.

The July 7 platform through the December 31 every single day, you stand on a platform where you can jump off and do the thing that you is in your heart to do the thing that you want to do. And you have a zip line from where you are to where you want to be. So if I think about my next six months, I was talking about this with Mindy, I think before no with Robbie, talking about, what would I do if I knew that I couldn't fail? And I thought, well, you know what I might do? I might write and apply for a second TEDx talk not get one that that might be something that would take longer, that's in somebody else's control, but what's in my control is I could, I could write a new talk that I want to give. So now I want to ask you, having stood up on your platform, what about you? What's something that you thought about, that you. Do in the next six months. Maybe it take a trip somewhere. Maybe you want to go see the fall colors. Maybe you want to go visit a relative. Maybe you want to go to Yosemite. What about starting a book? Maybe there's a book that you in your heart that you want to write that speaks to you. Maybe you want to go rock climbing. And if this is your one, I'm going to suggest this will be the easiest thing you ever have to do, because about 100 feet that Ray way is a rock climbing wall. Did you guys know this? There's a rock climb boulder. Dash is right there. You literally turn out the door here, go in there, and within 20 minutes you could be rock climbing. That's how easy this can be, if you allow it. Maybe what you want is to find a new place to live, or to spruce up your place, to declutter, to create more energy in your space. Or maybe you want to meet someone new, or to Yes. That resonates with you. Yes, I love that. So as you think about all of those things, what can come up first, remember that anxiety character with a crazy face. We can think of, oh, there's reasons not to. Of course. I can think of, if I thought of the second TEDx talk, I could go, what if? What if it doesn't work like, what if you discover that you come up with something and you get turned down, and now you're the thing that was you were so proud of before now is going to get tarnished because you think something's wrong or that people reject you. So there's all sorts of reasons that we can come up with not to so i want to go back to the zip lining. When Sarah said that she wanted to go zip lining, there were things that I thought about reasons not to go zip lining. Chief among them was I was in the middle of a book, and I wanted to sit on the beach and read the book. This is a great book, by the way, expiration dates. This author, Rebecca Cyril, writes metaphysical themed books that are that are kind of fun, but they always have, like, some interesting twists. So this is what I would have rather done. But I will say that because I listened to Sarah and I allowed myself to consider that this is now the favorite thing that I've done this entire year, and I almost didn't do it. I almost if it had just been Aaron and I, we would have probably been very comfortable doing what we've normally done, but this new person said, Well, what if you tried this thing that is sort of outside of your comfort zone? And what was fascinating was, on our last night of vacation, we were at dinner, and I asked Aaron and Sarah, I said, What was your guys without prompting them about me. So what was your guys' favorite experience on this entire trip? Both of them said ziplining was their favorite experience of the entire trip. This is us in walking on one of the bridges that goes in between them. So in order to do this, though, in order to make this experience happen, you have to take that first step. The zipline experience starts with the very first platform, and you have to step up there. You have to take that step. So I want to go back to the song that we sang at the very beginning. We using the royal we sorry, walking on sunshine. Do you now see that's a zip lining person, and their sunshine at their feet. This is why I love this song, this idea that wherever you are walking, you are lifted and supported by the universe. Wherever you take a step, you are supported, as I said at the top. This is a song that is kind of ostensibly about a love relationship, but when you look at the lyrics, you can also read it as the relationship that person has with the dream, the thing that they want, the thing that animates them, the thing that excites them. At the very end, I just want you back and I want you to stay. That's what we all want, whatever this dream that we have, this thing that we want, we want it to stay. We want to walk on sunshine. And I love at the end, it's time to feel good. When you pursue that thing that you want, you're going to feel more good. So I go back to add more zip. I'm going to give you three ways that you can add more zip in the next six months. So you might ask, how would you do that? The first is, try something new. Maybe it's something that's slightly outside of you. You can tell like that was zip lining was not something I'd ever done before, that was outside of my comfort level. Another one is, does this take a little convincing? If it does, that's probably a good thing, because it means that someone's cajoling you to think about something beyond you. And if a release form is required, it's probably also it's going to be a little bit of a challenge. I actually didn't read my shouldn't tell you this. I didn't really read my release. Form you probably did, though, didn't you? Of course, an attorney will always read it. So that's the first one. Something new. Start from easy. Start with the easiest platform. First, when you're riding a bike, you don't immediately get on like the most elaborate bike possible. Do you know you get on a bike with training wheels? That's okay. Make it easy. Maybe, if you if this is the thing, for six months, you're going to do something, you're going to try it for a month, and then at last, enjoy the feeling. When I looked at that picture, it reminded me, and I think, I think this is true when you are with a parent. If you can remember back when you learned how to ride a bike, it was probably with a parent or someone in your family that you loved, what was the first thing you said when you were taken off on your own, that first time they gave you the nudge and you were doing it, you looked around him and you probably said, I did it. Look at me like you were so excited, that feeling. So this is what I'm hoping that you will think about. And then the third thing is to commit to the thing that you say that you want to do. There's, you know, and zip lining. There's not a well, if it doesn't work out, you know, like they take you to the top of the mountain on an ATV, and they don't ever say to you, well, you know, if you get to the top and you just find it's not for you, we'll be happy to drive you all the way back down in the ATV, just you. It'd be like the drive of shame. They don't say that if it doesn't work out. So you just know that you're going to do it. And again, we have a very technical term for this, and it's decide, just decide you're going to do it. So if I go back to that, that idea of decision, Ralph Waldo Emerson says, Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen. Once you decide to do that thing, that harness you're wearing, that perfect attaching to the zip line, all of it is going to work perfectly for you, and it will take you to where you want to go, that destination. And then the last way is have fun along the way. This is actually on the very last zip line. And I'll say that I wasn't quite comfortable enough yet, doing all the trick things that the guys who were, you know, with the tattoos and everything like they clearly had done this a lot. But in the very last one, I stood on the platform, and I turned around backwards, so that when I went off the platform, I was doing a way where I couldn't see where I was going. That was as far as I was well, like that was my comfort zone. So this is a picture of me going down backwards. That guy like that. He was crazy. I couldn't imagine that. So once again, I'm going to ask you, remind you right now you were standing on a platform July 7. There's something you could do, something that is your brilliance to bring into the world. I'm going to suggest today that if you choose, at the very end to avail yourself of working with one of our amazing practitioners that you think about what is that thing that you want to do, and allow them to know the truth for you, that it is already done. It is perfectly as complete. So that is my suggestion for you today. Think about the next six months. Think about what you want to do, know that the universe is that that thing that supports you, that guides you, that you are on a zip line where you're going to go from right where you are now, you will end up there, and when you do it will be an amazing experience. You will have had fun. You will lift yourself up because you will say, I did that. You look back like that kid on the bike and say, Look what I did. Namaste.

I want to start with a little experiment, and it's going to involve all of you. What I'm going to do is play a sound, and I want you want to tell you, in a moment, to close your eyes and listen to the sound, and when the sound is done. I'm going to ask you a question. Are you all okay with that? Okay? Everybody close your eyes and get ready to listen. [SOUND OF SUBWAY CAR ARRIVING PLAYS] You can open your eyes, and here's my question, where are you when you heard that sound subway? A racetrack. I thought surely the one person who lived a majority of his life in New York would recognize the sound of a subway. That's right, that's the sound of the subway. That is the sound you hear when you go into a subway, and what do we know about a subway? It is the place where it's below ground. You're up on the street where you are. You take steps down an escalator down, you go down, and you stand on a platform, and a train arrives, and that train is going to take you to where you want to go. It's a really simple process. You choose the destination, and the train takes you where you want to go. Do you guys see a little metaphor here? The thing about it, though, is you have to step onto the train. You can stand on the track, but you have to actually get on the train for it to take you where you want to go. If you stand on the platform and you watch trains go by, and they keep passing you by, and they keep saying, this is the place you want to go, are you going to get there? No. So you have to get on the train in order for that to happen. Now, one of the things that's interesting about trains, if you look at this one, so that's the platform you see there. And then there's the yellow part, that's kind of the caution part, to tell you something is about to happen. You're going to move. And then there's the train door, and you can see it's open here. Now, if you look at between that bright yellow line and where the door is open, what do you see there a small little gap. There is a little gap depending on the train, between the platform that you're standing on and the train that is going to take you where you want to go. So the gap is the difference between where you are and where you want to go. Now, I thought this is such a good statement. It became the title of my talk, which is, Mind the Gap. Now you probably have heard of that phrase before, but you might not know where it came from. It actually originated in the 1960s in London. So the London Underground would put these signs on the platform that said, Mind the Gap, because I don't know why were people falling into a gap? I don't I don't get that part, but this was popularized in London. Maybe that is kind of a big gap, so maybe they just thought, we don't know, we want people to be paying attention. So they look down. They see the sign that says, Mind the Gap and they're going to be safe. So the key though, is they're looking down right? They're reminding you look down because there is a gap that you could trip on, you could twist your ankle on, you could injure yourself, and then you're not going to get on the train. Basically, what they're saying with look down is they're saying, look at the conditions. There are conditions ahead. There's a gap where you might suffer if you don't pay attention to it. Earlier today, I went for a walk, and I was reminded this happens all the time, not just on subways, but if you go for a walk, how often do you find yourself if you're walking on a sidewalk, and especially around here, where you've got trees with roots that are uprooting the sidewalk, what are you doing? Chances are you're probably looking down at the ground because you don't want to trip, right? That's conditions down there. You don't want to trip and fall on the sidewalk. So rather than look out and see all of these amazing things that you could see, you're looking down because of conditions. Earn. Holmes said we are practicing scientifically, meaning correctly, when the mind refuses to see the apparent condition and turns to the absolute. Now that's not quite so easy to do, but that's why we use our mind where he's saying, you have to refuse to look down at the conditions. You have to look at where you want to go, the thing that you want, so that you are training yourself to keep that perspective. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, the good mind chooses what is positive. You get to choose what is positive, what is advancing and embraces the affirmative. I love this. I'm inspired by it, and it also sometimes can feel a little prac impractical in life to say, oh, embrace the affirmative. So let's say that's the gap in your life. That person on that little tightrope, is it easy for them to say, I'm going to embrace the affirmative, I'm 70 feet above the ground on this tiny, little wire? Sometimes it doesn't feel possible to us. That gap in our lives feels challenging. Which brings me to the thing we want, and I'm going to call it your dream. I know there's eight people in this room tonight who have a dream. There's something that all of us want, something that all of us has worked very hard for. But beyond those eight people, I would say every single person in this room has a dream. They have something that they want, something in their life that excites them, that thrills them, that maybe scares them a little bit, but it is their driving passion. So everybody here, all of us, you have a dream. Now, what's fascinating about this is there's where you are now, and then there's the realization of your dream. So there's a distance between the two of those, right? It might be a short distance. For instance, I want to say the next word in the sentence, and it's right here. That was a short distance, but it can seem larger to us. And so that distance between where you are now and where you want to be in between, it is the gap. So when we talk about minding the gap, what we're talking about is the process to get from where you are now to where you want to go. So it might the gap might look like that, or the gap might look like that, where it completely obliterates where you are now and where you want to go, and all you can think about is the gap. And science of mine, we call these conditions. You're looking at all these conditions that say why you can't do something, why something is a challenge. I want to return to the subway and say that when you are doing that you are looking down at conditions. When we say that you're looking down, when you're minding the gap, just ask yourself, are you looking at the conditions? Are you letting the conditions determine what you can do in your life? It's so perfect that you shared my experience when you first met me, because I'm going to share my first experience, and it matches what you said when Dr James first met me and we would work on things together. I could tell him, as he said, all the reasons why something can't be done. I don't know why I did that, but that was maybe my default was give me time to remember who I am that I can figure it out, and once I do, then I can come back to you with a solution. But I think a lot of us will do this and look in your life and say, when someone asks you a question, is your default to first protect yourself, and I think that to some extent, that's what we're doing, is we're giving ourselves space to figure it out. But do you answer with the reasons why something won't work? Or you go, you know, that's interesting, but here's why, and part of it for me, I will say, I think I felt like it made me feel smart, that I could figure out something way in advance, and I could tell you, it was like the the three dimensional chess that Mr. Spock played, where I could tell you all the reasons why something wouldn't work. So is it just me, or could you say maybe at some point in your life, you have had that same notion, where, when someone asks you, your first thought is, let me think of the reasons why it might not work just a thought to consider. And speaking of thoughts, ernest holmes goes on and says, the thought that any given condition is a thing of itself tends to make it appear to be. A thing of itself. So he's saying, if you consistently look at conditions and you go, that's a condition, that's a condition, you are making it a thing. So now it is a thing. And we know thoughts are things. So if I continually put up that reason why I can't do something, it becomes a thing. It becomes in your mind, it was my identity for a while, I was that person that couldn't do that. Let's go back to the subway for a moment, and I want you to to the extent you can see it here. Notice on the right, that's the platform maybe you're standing on. Look at the color. On the opposite platform, there's people with all sorts of vibrant color, let's say maybe that represents where you want to go, but what's in between that are the rails the track. So there's where you want, and then there's that track. And it can seem, in this case, that seems like a really wide distance between what you want and where you can go. And it's not only wide, but in our minds, it can be dangerous, because if you know anything, and you've all heard this term, I'm sure, if you know anything about a subway, how do subways get powered? Many of them get powered by electricity, right? There's a rail on the platform, on the ground. It's called the third rail, and the third rail carries electricity. Well, you may have heard of this term because what they it's often used in politics, where they say that, like cutting Social Security is the third rail of politics, meaning, if you do it, you will die. So the third rail, metaphorically, the third rail is the thing that you don't want to touch. So not only is that that distance challenging, but now in our minds, it can also feel dangerous. So going back to mind the gap, if we know that in our minds that this distance, this all the conditions there are challenging, and we see that sign Mind the Gap. How do we get over the gap in life? You erase the gap with your mind.

Go back to your dream for a moment. I have a box here. And don't worry, there are no cats in here, no radioisotopes, no poison. But this box could represent your dream, what you want can both be in this box and not in this box, depending on you and your mind and how you use your thought. Now, right now, this box is empty. It hasn't been filled yet with my dream. I'm going to share with you a dream that I had, but when I do be thinking about something that you want and see if you can imagine it being in that box. So way back in the 1990s if you wanted any sort of personal development material, you would listen to audio tapes. I know there are some people in the room now who are like, you know, if I said cassette an audio cassette, they'd be like, What the hell is an audio cassette? Well, this is probably one of the most popular ones of the time. These are Anthony Robbins's tapes, personal power tapes, so little cassettes. This is a huge way that people got information. At that time, I went to a Tony Robbins event. Listened to these tapes. I was so inspired. I had this idea, this dream. I was a writer, and I thought, you know, what would be a great way for me to advance my career, is go and find other people who've done what I want to do, interview them and figure out what made them successful. So my dream was to interview successful screenwriters and talk to them about a movie they did. And I thought, well, this would advance my career. So the hubris of youth, I picked the most successful writer that I could think of at the time, someone who was an Academy Award nominated writer, and that was my target. I'm going to interview him. This was my great idea. I was filled with lots of enthusiasm, not necessarily, well, I don't want to say common sense, but it was a challenge. I knew this would be a challenge, but I knew that if I interviewed the writer of this movie, Dave, one of the many movies he wrote, he went on to do the mocking Hunger Games. He was the director of Hunger Games, so, but in the 90s, he wrote this movie, Dave, so. But I thought, if I interview him, and I can get him to be the first person that I interview, then it'll make it so much easier to go to other people. Because now it can be like, well, you know, Gary Ross was my first interview, and so and so, this is my, my, my great idea is just go right to the top and try and get the biggest get that I possibly can. Well, like, in the 90s, we didn't have social media. You didn't have DM so I couldn't be like, you know, DMing, Gary Ross and going, Hey, would you like to be on my my show? I almost said podcast, which is ironic, because this would have been so much easier now, but back then, we had cassettes. So I've got to make the call, and not to Gary Ross, but to his agent. The agent does not give a crap about me. Gary Ross maybe, like, you know, if I got to speak with him, he might care about me, but the agent is just sees it as pure commerce. So there's so much pressure in that, in that experience, to say, Okay, this whole endeavor is riding on my ability to make a call and not be completely terrified. I'm just I'm realizing now I remember everything about the room where I sat there with that choice, does that have you ever had that experience where, like, why am I thinking of that room? And I can visualize every detail. I think it's because it was drilled into me, the emotion of it was so terrifying. So in that to move that forward, I just had to make the call very scary. So I want to say at this point I haven't made the call. The box is still empty. There's nothing in it, the realization I have not collapsed that possibility, and in my mind, the gap between where I was and where I wanted to go, it felt huge. Genevieve set something up this morning, and I want to touch on that when something feels impossible, we use impossible language. And one of the biggest words, in my experience, that we use is the smallest two. What did you say that you were Oh, you were told you were too, too little. So we hear that word a lot. We're too something. And there's a whole bunch of them too big. Something I want is too big. It's too far away. It's too scary. This is Mount Everest. This actually happens to represent all three of those. It is too big to climb. It is too far for many people to get to, and it's too scary. So break each one of those down and how we play them out in our lives. So too big. I don't know where to start. You could imagine ernest holmes going. I have this idea for this book, and I have all these things I want to say, and I think it's going to be like six or 700 pages. Where do I start? And maybe he just says, You know what? I'm going to start with the thing itself, and I'll go from there, and then I'll just find creative ways to sort of repeat things, or you might say something is too far. And I think that when we say something is too far, it feels like we'll never get there. A project is so far away, like, if I'm standing here, this is the starting point, and that part of the stage over there is a year away. That feels like forever. So when I go back to here, I'm just like, it's it's too far. How could I ever get there? So again, we're using that word too to talk ourselves into looking at the conditions. Now, the most insidious one, I think, is too scary. I'll fail, or metaphorically, I might die. That's the one that I had when I was sitting there thinking about making the phone call. Was this is too scary. What if I fail like what if this person laughs at me and says, Wait, what? You want to interview Mike? Who are you? This guy has an Academy Award nomination. He's written movies. You have written nothing. You were nobody. Now, no agent Hollywood probably would ever say that, but that's what's going through my mind, all of those scary thoughts. So go back to mind is, can my mind help me cross that gap? Well, yes, and the good news is you can use mind. And here's how I think of it. Mind, make it no big deal. Now I recognize that that's not a perfect acronym, but here's the deal. If you make up an acronym, acronym, you get to make up the rules. So that's why there's a little dash there. No big it's all make it no big deal. So. So let's go back to that. If I'm, if I'm using mind, make it no big deal. And I go to, what is it? Too big? No. Spirit, quantum knows exactly how to start. Are you kidding me? All of those ways that can be started are out there. I just have to step into one. And quantum is like, Dude, I got you. Let's go. Is it too far? No, just take the first step and the next one will become clear. Have you ever noticed that, like when you do something then, oh, I didn't even see that possibility there. And look, there it is. What about too scary? Well, I do you remember who you are? There can't there cannot be anything that you can't do when you remember who you are. And here's the most awesome news of all, in the quantum what you want already exists. You at the top of Mount Everest, if that was your goal, already exists. You just have to move up the trail there to get to the top of that. So mind Make it no big deal. So let's go back to your dream. I'm going to ask you right now to think about specifically something you want. And we're going to repeat the exercise we did at the beginning. I'm going to take you into the subway, and we're going to play that sound again, and I want you to imagine a couple things. You're thinking about your dream, the thing you want, you're reminding yourself, make it no big deal. So here's the subway. You'll have something in mind that you can see for yourself. Close your eyes and listen to your train arriving. You

it open your eyes and step onto that train. I will conclude now with my story, and I'd love to be able to tell you that this story worked out, that I made the call and that it worked out. I'd love to be able to tell you that in that moment 30 years ago, Thor that doesn't have the consciousness of now, Thor knew how to do exactly that, and talked himself past that. I'd love to tell you that I knew about mine. No, no, make it no big deal. But here's the thing. We talked about this box, what you want both exists and doesn't exist. Your dream can exist and both exist. The key is that you have to take action. So as I said, I would love to be able to tell you that I picked up that phone and called that agent and that I got Gary Ross to do the interview. I'd love to be able to tell you that that interview got more interviews, and that it became something that was out in the world. I would love to be able to tell you that,

and I will tell you that that's what happened. This is the result of the phone call that I made. This is the business that I started, where I interviewed Siri a series of writers about what they did. It exists in the now, in this reality, because I picked up the phone and I made the call, you have something in your life that you want. You may be looking down at the conditions of what says to you, it's not possible, but I am telling you Mind the Gap, use your mind and take the steps that you know you can make it no big deal. And the thing that you want, that thing that you can imagine yourself having, will go from being a quantum possibility to a reality in your life. Namaste.