New Goodness Coming Up!

 

Well, it’s been wild one—between unique screenplay projects and personal delays due to a death in the family—but have no fear, I’ll be back next week with greatness, (or at least a really fun, passable facsimile). Be good and do some good!

P.S. I might even do a post about visiting the David Bowie exhibit in New York City, or I could talk about my alma mater SUNY New Paltz’s production of Avenue Q that I’m seeing over the weekend. We shall see. :)

#MondayMotivation: Each Day Brings a New Opportunity To Create Something

Each day brings a new opportunity to create something...

I just want to drop you a line and remind you about your creative opportunities. Every day brings a new opportunity to create something: a moment, a dance, a friendship,  a blog post, a song, a project, a job, a work of art, a work of craft. You can do ANYTHING THAT MOMENT GIVES YOU! Just play around, and see what you can come up with, and  follow your bliss!

#MondayMotivation: How To Get What You Really Want: Nine Principles

Another installment of #MondayMotivation all about the mentality that helps you get what you really want out of life (or at least can get you there much faster than worrying).

The nine principles below illustrate Dr. Wayne W. Dyer's nine principles of manifestation for getting that which our most loving of hearts long for: purpose, direction, love, and happiness and the truest joys of life. They show us how to lift ourselves from the all too common doldrums of "I  have a desire to be something,' to "I am something." As you go through the list, take a few moments to visualize each step as you read it.

As I have written about this topic at previous sites, I come from a more secular humanist angle here so that these nine principles apply to religious and secular readers equally. These techniques are cognitive techniques to train your mind to be more allowing of good things and positive thoughts in your day to day.

 

Nine Principles of Manifestation

 

1. Live from Your Highest Self - "I have an ability to manifest and attract all that I need and desire." 

 

This is not a call to do drugs or to float whimsically out of your body and suddenly obtain that beach house in Miami you've wanted since you and Beach House Barbie dreamed of it when you were seven. It means to know you have a reason for existing and have found meaning in your work. Find meaning in your life's work and you'll find that even working long hours is a joy.

 

2. Learn to Trust Your Inner Wisdom - "I trust in myself and in the wisdom within." 

 

Simply put, know yourself and what works the best for you. We all are different in this regard. Some of us are athletes, some doctors and some of us store clerks. Some of us are funnier, while others more serious. But what truly is paramount to success is knowing your strengths and weakness for your strengths give you confidence and your weaknesses keep you humble. It's all about knowing how you can help, but also recognizing when you need help from others.

 

3. Honor Your Worthiness to Receive - "I deserve to experience good things."

With many of us growing up with traditional Christian concepts of being "unworthy of the grace and love of God," this step can be a tricky bit of business to explain. This step is not saying you don't make mistakes or that you aren't capable of doing wrong. It is to say rather that you are to think of yourself as intended to be in connection with that which made you, (what I call God) like being plugged into electricity moving through existence to serve your specifically gifted purpose.

 

4. Realize that You Are Not Separate from Your Environment - "I am one with my surroundings, aware of the connective energy between me and my world."

 

On a basic level, to realize that each thing that exists is part of and connected to a larger whole allows you see purpose and possibly opportunity for growth in each experience, good or bad. Also where direct human interaction is concerned, in India's ancient traditions there is the philosophy that says when you can see yourself in all others, you're no longer able to have true enemies and your anger turns to pity for the person who wishes you harm because you realize that the harm that you once thought only went one way actually goes all ways. In this mode, you'll now have a greater desire to be helpful, kind and the best you can be on all levels because the good you used to want only for you now extends to everyone and everything in some way.

 

5. Attract What You Desire - Visualize things working out and be solution minded if they don't.

 

In religion, Jesus in The Gospel of Matthew expresses that the Father desires to give good gifts to his children. You must believe you live from a source of giving, not lack. Think, "Good things are possible!" and they will likely show up. Please test this theory and write me back.

 

6. Connect with Unconditional Love - "I express the energy of unconditional love to all people and all things in my life."

 

Love big! Don't return negative actions with more of the same, but less. Always try to see the purpose as I said earlier. Love is the opposite of selfishness and the weird paradox of this love thing is that the less you care about the outcome, the more likely you are to receive great things with loving generosity.

 

7. Detach from the Outcome - "I trust that what need can come. I will take positive action rather than worry."

 

Stop worrying and do your best. Your stress is just a simple test of whether you have the will to succeed. Go forward and believe. If you fail, be adaptive and creative, and you will get through almost anything.

 

8. Acknowledge Your Results with Gratitude and Generosity - "I am deeply thankful for all that I've received, and I enjoy giving to others in the spirit of love and service." 

 

Think of as many things to be thankful for as you can each day. You'll be be surprised how much more you get out of life when you do this. Express love in some way every day as well and be of service to others.

 

9. Meditate to the Sound of Creation - "I meditate each day to increase my awareness of the divine power within me. Through meditation, I am able to realize the beauty, grace, and love that directs my life and fulfills my deepest desires."  

 

This just means notice and become aware of everything more: the sound of a laugh, the look of a bird. Yet, sound specifically takes a deeper concentration to notice and appreciate, and I think that's what Dr. Dyer's point is all about: appreciation.

 

Inspired the words of Dr. Wayne W. Dyer and by his book Manifest Your Destiny: The Nine Spiritual Principles for Getting Everything You Want

Thanks for reading. Leave a comment. :)

 

#MondayMotivation: Drake Gave Away a Million Dollars In 'God's Plan' Music Video

Drake Gave Away a Million Dollars In 'God's Plan' Music Video

In this installment of #MondayMotivation, we see what happened when hip hop superstar Drake decided to give away his $996,631.90 music video budget to everyone in a struggling black community: from a college essay winner and shoppers at your neighborhood grocer to your average Joe and Jane on the street.

It's something I've even considered doing in my own life (upon reaching my future business goals at FreelanceMikey and beyond). In saying that, it occurs to me that there's really no reason any of us can't decide to give away a smaller amount to another person in need. $20 well shopped can buy dinner for a single mother of two. It's clear (to me at least) that this wasn't done to self-agrandize on Drake's part. I believe he's showing we can all do one small thing to change our neighbor's world if we want to do it. Let's do good because we want to and we can. 

Buy Books and Donate Books at betterworldbooks.com!

Buy Books and Donate Books at betterworldbooks.com!

Hey guys, this is a great cause that I really love! Check it out:

You can support reading and literacy in underserved communities with a great company called Better World Books. Literacy charities are a big cause for me, and I'd like to share this video with you to encourage you to help give a book to someone in need by going to Better World Books' website here or at the link above. For every book sold, the company gives a book away to someone who needs a book to read in literacy programs all over the world. I love this cause, and I encourage you to use the site to buy your books or go to their Better World Books Amazon storefront and give there. All books get FREE STANDARD SHIPPING as well!

I just bought a book I can't wait to read called The Renaissance Soul: Life Design for People with Too Many Passions to Pick Just One by Margaret Lobenstine. I'll let you guys know how it is when I'm done reading it. :)

Thanks in advance and happy reading!

How to Build Your Confidence 101 With Thomas Edison

I feel like flow and intuition—with also a willingness to believe great things are possible—are the keys to pretty much every success. When your mind, body, spirit, and actions, don't conflict, WATCH what happens! Inventors such as Edison have always seemed to know this. There is power in this kind of knowing. 

Mikey out!

A Manifesto of Sorts on Achieving Your Dreams, Failing, Being Adaptable, and Going for It

Dear Dreamer and Innovator, 

I haven't really known what to write about specifically due to all the "busyness" of business going on in my own life, but I wanted to touch base with you regardless as a means of reaching out to anybody patiently waiting for a reason to comment or contribute to the blog. FreelanceMikey is the culmination of a decade plus of tinkering, cultivating and conversing with all that has been inside my life: from the grand visions to various intermittent ideas and all points in between. Yet, most of all, everything I do for you and all of our clients is out of the belief in the dreamer, the doer. It is a realization that we have but one life to do everything we want to do in that life and that I want to help you do that thing, the special, superlative, awesome thing inside you and help you to reach for those things which bring you the greatest joy for your creativity and your business. From the screenplay in your heart that you may need some guidance on, or that multilevel website that seems too big to even know where to start—or that small woodworking shop that you want to open on the side because your heart calls you to it—FreelanceMikey was created for and to these ends. It is these things that make us human: they make a strive to be self-actualized and self-made (in so much as we can be in is that no person is living on a vacuum-sealed island away from the oxygen of other humans).

In creating FreelanceMikey, all involved strive to take your ideas and make them less scary and more exciting to you, to inject the verve, passion, creativity, and ingenuity that you feel you have been shouting into a void and to make them real and help you to realize that dream or something even better than your original dream: to boldly go where you haven't gone before in order to know that you can go there and grow even more confident in that dream and in that vision and clarify it.

We created this platform of FreelanceMikey because my colleagues and I wanted to bring more joy to the projects, to the purpose, and to the passions that you feel and give them a boost if they should need it. You've had people tell you all your life that your dream is going to be hard, that it's unrealistic and unmanageable; people have told you that the safe route is the best route, but that route has left you dead inside. Your best dreams keep you up at night with excitement and zest for life! I want to cultivate that zest, that power, and that flame inside of you that refuses to be extinguished. I want to do everything to make you feel that your idea is doable from concept to execution, or if it isn't doable, I want you know that you can fail, try again and try something else. FreelanceMikey aims to show you that, as Twitter co-founder Biz Stone says, your creativity is a renewable resource. What you do and what you want can have an audience and can be viable to a very willing group of people. I believe you were very likely born to be your best you and the only thing that can keep you from it is your willingness to go for it with a sound mind and a courageous heart.

So without further ado, please allow me and all of us at FreelanceMikey to welcome you to your sanctuary, your laboratory,  your motivational center. Welcome to a safe place that encourages experimentation and the willingness to fail and try something new and adapt to whatever comes to you in life—because you only get one life to be awesome, and it helps to have somebody along the way to have your back. Welcome to FreelanceMikey.com!

Keep tinkering,

Michael LaPenna, Founder and CEO