700 Million Miles an Hour
Living Your Dreams, Achieving Your Goals
at the Speed of Light
Gloria Attar RN BSN
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2009 Gloria Attar
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard word of this author.
“Even if you’re right on track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
Will Rogers
We all have things we want. Tangible things. The stuff we want to buy. We can go to a store and ‘see’ what we want. When it comes to living our dreams, however, there is no ‘Dreams Are Us’ shop that stocks the merchandise. Is it any wonder that they are harder to attain? Some people need a ‘visual’ when working toward a goal. We have all heard of creative visualization, or cutting pictures out of magazines that typify a lifestyle we want to live. We can surround ourselves with aromatherapy, colors and sounds to get us into the mood to meditate or visualize our dreams, and all of that helps. Concepts become blurred sometimes by money worries, kids running around and the neighbor’s noisy lawn mower. That is when we need concrete steps on which to focus.
I have lived every one of my dreams, and along the way I developed a system, a formula, if you will, for achieving them quickly. I have amazed even myself with the speed in which this system works. It took me 15 years to learn and perfect it, and I have used it so often, if there was something faster than the Speed of Light (and there could be as I’m no scientist), then that is probably the speed I have for achieving my goals. I present the formula here to you in these few pages. If you begin applying them now, I can almost guarantee that you will not need 15 years of learning and perfecting a system to reach your goals.
I will give you two methods for achievement. Notice I did not say painless methods or painless achievement. This is going to be work. If you are not up to a little work, well, hand this book off to someone else, because you are probably happy right where you are in your life. Right? Wrong? Listen, I have used both of the methods. I have traveled all over the United States, lived in Cleveland, Chicago, Los Angeles and the high desert of Utah and Arizona. Then, I moved to Italy to live my dream life. I have been a legal secretary, a paralegal, a public relations consultant, a stage coordinator for fashion shows, a business manager, a greeting card designer, a radio personality, a seminar leader, a publicist, an editor, a teacher and always a writer. A gentleman once said to me, ‘just call yourself a producer, because the one thing you do better than anything, is produce results!’ I do not have a doctorate in psychology, an MBA or an honorary degree that enables me to spout off psychological mumbo jumbo, and I will not bore you with New Age techniques and mantras. I am a shmoe, just like millions of other, but I am a shmoe with street smarts that turned herself into one smart cookie. This book is meant to hit you between the eyes and get you into action. (The motivational quotes alone should light a fire under you.) I will not sugar coat words and try to lead you down a path lined with roses. Life is messy, get in there, and mix it up.
“There is no finish line.”
Nike Corporation motto
SPEED. The two methods are At the Speed of Light, and At the Speed of Sound. Sound travels slower (approximately 760 miles an hour) than Light and sometimes it seems our lives travel faster than both. You will still reach your goals faster than if you traveled at the speed of a turtle, and even then you would eventually get there, but the light and sound travelers will be whizzing by. There will be times everything is going great guns in your life, everything is clicking, you are moving at the Speed of Light and then BAM… LIFE enters, and you must slow down. Take a breath and try moving at the Speed of Sound. It is a little slower and still it is very effective.
The first thing you must do is, know what you want. Don’t have a clue? Sure you do. It is all part of your inner knowing and saying ‘but I don’t KNOW what I want’ is just an excuse you use so you do not have to get serious and take responsibility for yourself and your life. Dump it. Most likely you are not satisfied with the results that you have now, otherwise, you wouldn’t be reading this.
“Life is a great big canvas, throw all the paint on it that you can.”
Danny Kaye
Step One: We are going to paint. Not literally, but figuratively (unless of course, you love to paint, then knock yourself out). I want you to imagine you are 25 years old. You have no responsibilities. Your basic needs of food, clothing and shelter are met. You have no responsibilities of children or a spouse or a job. You are sitting in the middle of an apartment, in an empty room. One wall is a canvas (and yes, you have artistic ability) and you are going to paint your life. What are you going to include? Put everything in it that you want and nothing you don’t want. Anything that gives you a twinge of resentment or a feeling of obligation should be left out. We are focusing on happiness. We focusing on dreams. You can either do this by drawing pictures on a sheet of paper, literally painting a picture OR making a list of what you want.
As yourself the basic questions of who, what where, when and how. WHO is in your life? WHAT are you doing for a career? WHERE are you living? By WHEN do you want to achieve these things? HOW do you want to achieve them?
If you get stuck as you are working through the questions try asking yourself these questions to jump start your imagination. Who are the people that are most important to my life? Which people in my life are ‘toxic,’ the ones that never believe in me or themselves, the ones that never try to achieve their goals and hold me back from mine? (You may want to think twice about putting them in your picture or list…you don’t have to cut them out of your life, just cut them out of your picture or list for now. We want ONLY positive things) What do I wear to work everyday? What type of clothing do I feel best in? (For me, it’s always yoga togs and a baseball hat.) You don’t have to look glamorous, just be comfortable. Where in the world have I always wanted to live? What is the climate like? Do I really want to shovel snow for the rest of my life or melt in the desert sun every summer? By when do I want to achieve all of these things? What do I want my life to look like in 5, 10 or 15 years? At what age do I want to retire? How am I going to achieve all of this? Through invest-ments and financial planning? Owning my own business? Or a long-term career with good benefits?
When you are finished with your picture, put it away for 24 hours. Do not look at it until a full day and night have passed. After 24 hours retrieve it, and edit in or out anything that doesn’t quite ‘sit well’ with you.
“The best way to predict the future is to invent (or create) it.”
“Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin;
but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”
Harper Lee
Step Two: Decide which one you’re going to work on first. There is ONE of them that is really bugging you, more than the others. It is eating away at you that you do not have it. Which one is it? Which is the second most aggravating? The third? We’re going to take three goals and ONLY three goals, to work on. Again, take a day to think about it if you cannot immediately decide which is the most important. You are not moving at the Speed of Light yet, so you can relax a bit. At this point, we’re merely warming up the engine.
Step Three: Take your three goals and redraw the picture or remake the list. Include ONLY those three things. Put the other picture or list away.
Okay, are you ready? Set? Everyone fasten their seatbelts because we’re taking off!
“We have liftoff.”
“Motivation is when dreams put on work clothes.”
Psssst. This is the Plan.
You will take each one of your goals through the following plan and we will use the first goal as the starting point.
RESEARCH. We cannot accomplish anything first without knowing how we are going to get there. The research is your roadmap to the finish line, and yes, you are going to win because you are the only entrant in this race.