Bloggovisionless

Hi,Another great read from Phil Gosling of www.homepublish.com Sorry that last week was bloggovisionless. It would seem that the beginning of each new year results in Denise, Sheelagh and me going to bed under doctor's orders, fortunately in sequence, not all at the same time, he added hastily.
Last week was my turn. * * * There are milestones in life that move you, lift you, place you on a higher level or on a different path. I'm not talking about the negative events but the positive ones. The trouble is that the negative ones force themselves into your consciousness, whereas the positive ones have to be 'noticed': you have to make a conscious effort to see them. A milestone that affected me not once but twice was the Luscher Colour Test. This test involves placing eight or more coloured cards in order of personal preference. I like this test because it doesn't need a degree in advanced metaphysics to do it. Indeed watching adverts on TV is only slightly less demanding.
This is a psychological profiling test and it can be illuminating or even a little scary. It certainly makes you rethink who and where you are. I did this test in the early seventies when I thought I was 'of scientific bent' and it turned out I was as much of a scientist as Fanny Adams and should have been an artist. That's when I realised, for the first time, that I liked writing.

That test changed my life. I did the test again about eight weeks ago, but on the internet, which is debateable regarding the results. The test relies on pure colours and as anyone even slightly computer literate knows, the colours shown in a browser vary from browser to browser or from screen to screen. The best test uses colour cards and can be obtained in book form (search in Amazon). Even so, I did the test.

I will not reveal to you the results of the latest test. You know I'm weird. You just don't want to know how weird. But what the results did show me was that I was off-track and as a result I have re-embraced goal setting and daily snippets of high-value, self-improvement DVDs and CDs. So, seeing as I have written a book on goal setting, had I lost faith in it? Absolutely not. I have just been reminded that even when you have reached the goals previously set, you cannot stand still. You need to set new goals, new targets that stretch your imagination even further than before.
So I do more than urge you to set goals; more than urge you to listen or watch good speakers every day. I can tell you with perfect honesty, and complete conviction based not only on years of research but on my own personal experience and that of many others I have spoken to, that if you don't have goals, you cannot attain them.
I did not say 'might not' I said cannot. It's universal law. If you don't know where you are going you'll never get there except by the luckiest of chance. And even then chance favours the prepared mind.

Dreaming and wishful thinking is not goal setting. A goal is not a dream you wish to come true. A goal is a dream you know will come true. You've probably read, or more likely skimmed through, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. It's not an easy book to read because it was written in 1930s America and the language, phraseology and examples are all highly dated, as are the names used, like O. Henry (who calls their child 'O'?). But I'm reading it again and I'm getting even more out of it this time around than the first time.

The first time I was earning about 10K a year as a shipping clerk, had a net worth of minus a lot, and was desperate the break out and be independent, earning - ooh - say 50K a year. I am now a writter (Not a writer. Tolstoy was a writer.) with a net worth of plus a lot and I would regard 50K a year as a half-decent pension. And yet I'm getting more out of this book than before. Why?
Because I NOW know it's true, every bit of it. Because, reflecting back, I now know that everything I have achieved followed, if only accidentally, the advice in this book and everything I haven't achieved was as a result of not following the advice in this book. So, go take Dr Max's Colour test and frighten yourself witless. Then read Hill's epic and relax again. You can find many free downloads of Think and Grow Rich in Google.
Take time to read a little very day. You will not regret it. In Blott on the Landscape by Tom Sharpe one of the characters, a gnarled old colonel, made a very true political comment. "Old style politicians - looked stupid - were clever. New style politicians - look clever - are stupid." That's why a good place to look for wisdom is old-style stuff. Best regardsPhil "In times of radical change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves perfectly equipped for a world that no longer exists..." - Eric Hoffer ...

Thanks again to Phil Gosling.
Al