When I was in high school at one of my junior varsity basketball practices, our coach was a lil pissed.

He stopped practice to give us a little ass-chewing as to how we were playing.  I thought he was going to talk about…

Not passing.

Show-boating.

Launching three-pointers.

Nope.

He said we were trying too hard to block shots.  

And he was right…

Nothing for me was more fun and visceral than blocking a shot.  It was like the ultimate dominance.  Nothing quite says I ‘own you’ like a great rejection.  

It’s cute when see great blocks in basketball, but in our lives it’s pretty crappy.  

This is why so many of us can’t “manifest” what we want.  

The Law of Attraction says:  

“That which is like unto itself is drawn.”   -Abraham Hicks 

So, if you desire something you only need to put your attention on it, feel yourself having it (emotions), and live from that fulfilled desire.  Then, the universe will give it to you.

Ask and it is given.  

Cool.  

That’s spirituality. What does science say? 

We’re composed of atoms and atoms are 99.99999999999  percent empty space or energy.  The atom’s nucleus is surrounded by a large field that is made up of energetic frequencies.

Joe Dispenza in his book Becoming Supernatural said:

“It is only when an observer focuses his or her attention and looks for some “thing” material that the invisible field of energy and information collapses into a particle we know as the electron”

When you take your attention away from that “thing”, the electron disappears back into energy.  

So, you can’t attract your “thing” until you give it your attention.   Don’t give it attention, it goes away.

It’s that simple.  

You keep playing hide-and-go-seek with quantum field.  

So if quantum physics proves what spiritual teachers have  said to be true for millennia, why aren’t we all  rich, skinny and happy?    

Because of BLOCKS.  And we ALL have them.

Blocks come in a variety of flavors like shades of white at Home Depot.  

The most visible block is what Kody Bateman calls “stinkin thinkin”.  Bateman says, “The story you put in your mind becomes the story you live in your life.”

It’s like when you say you want to be, do, or have something, if it weren’t for… 

The Economy. 

Your bad clients.

The Democrats.

The Republicans, etc.

Oh, but it gets worse.  Blocks get even more nefarious.  

Some blocks are invisible to you like the creepy ass villain in Monster’s Inc.  They download directly into you from your environment when you’re a little kid.  You grow up and keep carrying them around like your driver’s license. 

We also create our own blocks with our emotions!  

Dispenza says emotions are “energy in motion”.  So, we’re mostly energy but when we use emotions like control, shame, pain, victimization, etc. and our energy SLOWS DOWN.

It gets stuck.  

On the surface you feel unmotivated.  

Or maybe it looks like procrastination.  Or because your energy is jammed, now you’re more lethargic and new stories start.

It’s my medication.  

It’s cause I’m older.

It’s stress.

It’s those damn liberals!  

We’re like layers of an onion.  Some blocks you can see and others you can’t.  That’s why if you want something like a lot of money and ain’t getting it, you likely have a block.  

Or you’re sabotaging yourself in some way.

Just like with you art, you need to work on your blocks and flush them out.

David Goggins said, “Mental toughness is a lifestyle.”  

Once you look at your results and you’re not getting what you want.  It’s time to start snooping around and looking for blocks.  Even if you got rid of them once. 

Blocks are like relatives, they can come back at anytime.  

Make your mental toughness a lifestyle.  

Because…

The story in your mind becomes the story of your life.  Even if you didn’t do all the writing.

Adam

If you could be a Jedi. Would you?

You know, the heroes from the Star Wars movies. A friend posted this question on Facebook recently. 

Would I want to be one?

Sure, but don’t think I could handle the pressure.  What pressure? 

From The Empire?

Space creatures?

The Jedi Council?

No, from artists when they’re not grateful. 

Sometimes I wanna choke one out with the force. 

To kill them? No! I’m no animal.  Just maybe till they black out.  You know, I just wanna make a point. 

Let me explain…

And I TOTALLY went thru this myself so I’m just as guilty of not following this philosophy.  

You gotta be grateful for what you got and for what you get. 

‘But Adam” you say, “I am grateful for everything I have.”

Really?

But what about when you get a ridiculous deadline?

What about that one client that always pays or shows up late?

Or that one project you did for “family” that you weren’t thrilled to do?

You have to appreciate it all because that’s where your power either shrinks or expands. Wallace Wattles in The Science of Getting Rich put it like this. 

‘The moment you permit your mind to dwell with dissatisfaction upon things as they are, you begin to lose ground. You fix attention upon the common, the ordinary, the poor, and the squalid and the mean; and your mind takes the form of these things.”

Notice Wattles doesn’t say you ‘attract’ these things. He said you BECOME these things. 

It’s like Newton’s third law:

“An object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion remains in motion at constant speed and in a straight line unless acted on by an unbalanced force.”

And guess what, Pumpkin? YOU’RE the unbalanced force!

Imagine this. You’re chillin. 

Painting. 

Cutting hair. 

Whatever you do. 

And then bad news hits. It could be work or it could be your personal life. You wanna get passed it asap! 

You don’t want to be stewing about it or posting on Facebook, ‘you won’t believe what happened to me…’. 

I mean, you can do it. But know when you do you lose your power and break the flow.

I know you can’t go from, ‘my client gets on my nerves’ to I’m so grateful immediately. But YOU CAN play with your dog. YOU CAN watch cat videos, or do Zumba for 60 seconds. 

Anything that you enjoy that will help you raise your state. 

And THEN, be grateful for that. 

Adam

I started thinking, who really needs to worry about AI?  

The skilled masters of our industry?  Or maybe artists that are afraid of being different? 

And let’s not forget about Fake Bitches… 

And by that I mean people who are literally trying to be something different to everyone.  

For likes.  

Or clicks.

Or for whatever kind of dopamine hit they need for that day. 

I don’t know about AI in writing and other fields, but I’ve seen some cool AI art so far.  You probably have too.  

But have you noticed about 80% of it is just a little homogenized?

When everyone starts using the same tool and techniques, things get average.  It may be better than what it was before but average won’t get you to fulfillment.

Average won’t make you happy.  

You know how I know?  You wouldn’t be reading this…

I love the exchange of Dash and Helen Parr in The Incredibles:

DASH:  “Dad always said our powers were nothing to be ashamed of.  Our powers made us special.”

HELEN:  “Everyone’s special, Dash.”

DASH:  “Which is another way of saying no one is.”

I don’t care if you use AI or not, just don’t let the tool smother your voice. 

Be MORE of who you are in your art, online, and in your marketing.

Say something. 

Believe in something.

No matter what it is.

Being REAL is more important now than ever.   Natalie Franke said something cool about the experiences we create for people.

“The beauty and the humanness that only we can offer this world will be even more valuable.”  

Damn right it is.  And it’s gonna grow like Apple stock in 1997.

You may think I talk about Star Wars and Harry Potter a lot. 

I get it. 

But I got news for you.  In my personal life I watch a lot of Star Wars and read A LOT of Harry Potter.

It’s who I am and it’s what I do. 

And guess what?  It’s going to resonate with some people and others will want nothing to do with me.  I’m cool with that.  

My goal for the past couple of years is this.  And I got it from Oprah so you know it’s good….

I want to be the highest expression of myself.  

Which tool do I use at work?

Which friends do I hang out with the most? 

Which books do I read?

Which clients do I take on?

That’s easy to answer. 

The ones that help me be the highest expression of myself.  And because that is my goal I do my best work.  

And when you use that formula you’re happier.  

And you get paid more.

Adam

I’ve been studying imagination a lot lately.  

And I keep bringing it up because it’s so important to you doing your art.  And working the kind of schedule you wanna work and making the kind of money you wanna make.

I could speak tons about the topic and drown you with quotes and case studies.

But I won’t.

I’d rather show you one of my favorite lines from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  These two lines do an amazing job illustrating my point.

Harry:  “Tell me one last thing.  Is this real?  Or has this been happening inside my head?”  

Dumbledore:  Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on Earth should that mean that it is not real?”

When we’re kids, our imagination is off the charts.  

But the older we get the more we live our life believing only in our 5 senses.  The 5 senses are cool but…  I have a one year old Malinois that can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch.

How do we use our five senses to get the good stuff?   

The big goals?  

We don’t.

We use our imagination.  We desire something and we live our lives from that end result.

Cool.  So what’s the problem?  

It works both ways.  

For years I never pursued being an artist.  My art self-esteem was about as high as nuts on a cricket.  My vision for my art was simple.  

I’m not good enough to make a living drawing.  And guess what?  

I never was.

But once I couldn’t stand working for the insurance company, my desire to be an artist went into over-drive.  

Soon not only did I believe I could make it as an artist but in my imagination there was only one question.  

Who would hire me first…  

Marvel or DC?

Robert Frost said, “You’re always believing ahead of your evidence. What was the evidence I could write a poem? I just believed it. The most creative thing in us is to believe in a thing.”

When you believe in a thing a you want, your energy flows.  You get enthusiasm and feel satisfaction.  Even if your life isn’t what you want it to be.

Even if you work a job you can’t stand.  

But on the flip side if you use your imagine to focus on…

Where you AREN’T.

Or what you don’t have or…

What you’re NOT.

You may as well be selling vacuums door to door.

And for the record, there’s nothing wrong with selling vacuums.  I just bought one a month ago.  Many of us need them.  

They make the world a better place.

But YOU don’t have to sell them.  

Work on your art.  

And YOU make the world a better place that way.

Adam

My mother-in-law loves playing the lottery. 

Like…obsession level. 

Like how Harry Potter obsessed over Quidditch.  Or how Voldemort was obsessed with finding the Elder Wand. 

It’s like that….

Well, last week my mother-in-law got the Mega Ball for the Mega Millions lottery but no other numbers. Instead of being grateful for winning a few bucks, she whined and complained. 

I half jokingly told her she got the most important number.  Now all she had to do was  work on getting the other numbers. 

This comment was about as welcoming to her as the COVID 19 virus. 

Today she told me in her angst she mixed up her tickets and accidentally threw it away. So that few dollars she won was gone.

Poof!

This reminded me of a universal truth.

By not being grateful or by not using what you are given, you may end up with zero.

Hell, less than zero.

It reminded me of a story Jim Rohn used to talk about.  It was about the Law of Use and the parable of the talents from the Bible. 

If you’ve never heard of the parable of the talents it goes like this. 

A master had three servants and he gave them all talents.   A talent was a measure of gold by the way… 

He gave one servant 5.

One servant 2.

And one servant 1.

The master wanted to see what they would do with the talents so the master left town for a bit.  When he returned he found out:

The one who had 5 grew them to 10. 

The one who had 2 grew them to 4

The one who was given 1 hid it and did nothing with it.

The master was happy with the first two but lost his shit on the third guy.  

The master took his talent and gave it to the servant who had 10. 

So what is the moral of this story?

Whatever you don’t use, you lose.  But again, it can get even worse that that. 

What if you lose 20 pounds and then you stop working out and eating right. You may not only gain the weight back but you may even gain more than the original 20 back.   

And that happens to dieters every day…

What if you marry the perfect person and stop nurturing your relationship? 

At best maybe you’ll have a mediocre relationship or you may be even worse off before you met. 

My point is this.  Use your gifts.

Do your art. 

Obsess over it!

Make your light shine so bright everyone can see it.  And as Natalie Franke said in her book Gutsy, “no one ever changed the world by dimming their light.”

And when you use the gifts that you are given and stay to true to who you are, IT happens.  

And when you’re grateful for it, synchronicity knocks on your door like solar panel door-to-door salesmen!

And so do miracles.

Adam