Bob Crawford Online

This is part two of a three part posting. Part one can be found here. Part three will be published soon...


Now that you’ve gotten your day off to the right start by following the guidelines I suggested in part one of this article you need to continue to try to affect your day in positive, inspiring ways. (You did read part one didn’t you? If not you can find it here...)

Did you adopt or adapt any of the suggestions that I mentioned in part one? If you did, did you notice an improvement in the way you faced your mornings? I suspect that you did. The important thing to achieve is a feeling of eagerness to start the day – no matter what you think you might be facing that day. Using a set of positive affirmations and eliminating or at least reducing those things that bring negativity into your morning will go a long way toward keeping you focused on your desires.

Your desires. That’s what creating your day is all about isn’t it? You want your day to bring you only those things that feel good, that are in harmony with your dreams and that are to your benefit, right?

Well, I don’t know exactly what your dreams are or just what kind of a day you’d like to create for yourself, but if you follow the method I’ve outlined below you’ll have a fantastic shot at achieving your dreams, and it doesn’t matter what those dreams are!

It’s called BOB, and not because I’m partial to the name, it just worked out that way. Sort of. Okay, maybe I am partial to the name and maybe it’s entirely possible that if my name was Ted or Larry that I would have found a way to name this process using the acronyms TED or LARRY. Who knows? Anyway, BOB is easy to remember and that’s the important thing.

As you might have guessed the first step of this process begins with the letter B.

BE.

That’s it.

Just BE.

Whatever your dream is, whatever your goals are, whatever it is you desire to achieve... just BE that desire, be that dream, be that achievement. Your want to feel as if you are actually living your dream right now, right here, right in this moment.

Do you want more money? A better job? A nicer place to live? A partner to love? Peace? Happiness? To lose weight? To quit smoking?

What do you want? The answer to that question is exactly what you have to become... before you can get what you want. Yes, it sounds like a paradox, but it is a fundamental truth that can’t be broken. You must BE what you want before you can get what you want. It sounds hard, but you’ll understand it in a minute.

Let’s look at a couple of examples. We’ll start with money because that’s such a common desire. Money is really a catchall for all the material things that we intend to buy with the money once we get it, but no matter. Your desire is for more money. Your goal then is to BE a person who has ‘more money’.

Of course you’ve probably heard me teach that your goals need to be specific and detailed and ‘more money’ is neither. So the first thing we’re going to do is change your goal of having more money to a goal of having $100,000 in your bank account. Substitute whatever amount is right for you, if $100,000 is an astronomical figure for you then maybe your goal would be to have $10,000 in the bank. Maybe you already have $100,000 and your goal is one million dollars... it doesn’t matter.

Now, simply BE a person with $100,000 in the bank. How do you do that? By thinking like a person who has $100,000 in the bank. By acting like a person who has $100,000 in the bank. By BEING a person who has $100,000 in the bank.
I can hear you snickering back there. I know that it sounds absurd, but that’s the way it works. It always has, and it always will.

If your dream is to have wealth, then you have to think like a wealthy person and you have to act like a wealthy person. You have to develop the habits of a wealthy person. Ask yourself, what kinds of thoughts do wealthy people have? What kind of actions do they take on a daily basis? What kinds of habits do they have? Observe wealthy people and see what they do. Read books they’ve written or that have been written about them. Don’t look at the details of what kinds of deals they made, look instead at the attitudes they developed and the habits they created that not only made them wealthy, but that keep them wealthy.

Then ask yourself if your thoughts, actions and habits are similar to theirs. If they’re not similar you’re going to have a hard time becoming wealthy.

Let’s say you look around at some wealthy people and you discover that they all seem to share certain traits or qualities. Perhaps you notice that most of them seem to have developed the habit of saving a certain percentage of their income. Do you? You notice that they are doing something they are passionate about. Are you? You notice that they live within their means, in other words they don’t spend more than they make each month. Do you? Maybe you notice that they aren’t hanging out at the bowling alley every Friday night, that maybe they use their free time to pursue their passion. Do you?

How do your thoughts and actions stack up against those of the wealthy people you see around you? Until you begin thinking and acting like a wealthy person you are going to be constantly struggling with attaining and maintaining wealth.

You begin right where you are, with whatever you have right at this moment. You can’t wait until you have wealth to begin creating wealthy thoughts and wealthy habits. It’s the wealthy thoughts and habits that make you wealthy. If you don’t develop the wealthy habit of saving money you won’t ever be able to build a wealthy person’s bank account. If you don’t develop the wealthy habit of spending less than you make, you’ll never have any extra money to create your wealth with.

Do you see how it works? You can’t be wealthy until you become a person with wealthy thoughts and wealthy habits. Until you BE a wealthy person. You have to learn how to develop the mindset of a wealthy person and feel with every fiber of your being that you ARE a wealthy person right now.

You need to approach any dream with this attitude. If you want to be a teacher then look at what teachers did to become teachers. They put in the class time, they read the books, and they did the work. Maybe they studied early in the morning or stayed up late at night working. They probably traded most of their free time for activities like studying that moved them toward their goal, without thinking of it as a sacrifice.

If your dream is to become a champion race car driver then you would discover what race car drivers do and then do it. The same is true of anything that you want to become, but let’s look at becoming something less material than getting rich, or less specific than dreaming of becoming a teacher or a race car driver.

Let’s say your dream is simply to become happy or peaceful, or to live an enlightened life, or to find love – that’s a big one. How can you BE happy when you’re not happy right now? How can you BE peaceful when your life is in turmoil?
The answer is the same. Just BE. If you want to be happy you need to model happy people. If you want to be peaceful or enlightened you need to find and model peaceful or enlightened people. What do they do? How do they look at life? What traits do they have that you don’t? Are they constantly looking for the best in every situation? How do they think? What habits have they developed?

This is the key to understanding step one of this process. Anything that you want to become carries with it a series of thought patterns, attitudes, and actions, that when you begin to apply to your life can only result in you becoming what you sought to BE!

So, step one of the BOB process to creating your day is to BE. BE your dream.

Step two is OBSERVE.

OBSERVE your life as it is right now in this moment. Ask yourself, “How am I doing?” Are you BEING your dream? That is, are your thoughts in alignment with your dreams? Are your actions in alignment with your goals?

This is where you pause and analyze your efforts. If what you are doing is working and moving you toward your desires then keep on doing what you’re doing! If your thoughts and actions aren’t congruent with your goals and dreams then you need to ask yourself why they aren’t. Where did you get off track?

In the beginning you will need to OBSERVE your progress quite often during the day. Just keep asking yourself “How am I doing? How am I doing? How am I doing?” Do it every time you think of it. Step back from your SELF and try to look objectively at yourself. How are you doing?

Do it every time you notice that you thought or acted in a way that doesn’t move you forward. You might not catch yourself every time, in fact it might be some time later before you realize that you faced a situation and didn’t act or think in a way that you feel you should have. Don’t be discouraged! Simply notice your error and form and reaffirm your intent to focus on your dreams. Read your dream card or repeat an affirmation or two. You will soon be refocused on your goal.
The problem most people have with making the kinds of changes you are attempting is that they don’t check their progress often enough. You can’t wait until you get home at night to look at your day. By then it’s too late! If you wait until the end of the day you are going to look back and see dozens if not hundreds of times during that day where you faced challenges of one kind or another. How many of those times were you successful in maintaining your desired thoughts and actions? How many times could you have done better?

I hear what you’re saying, tomorrow’s another day, right? You can always do better tomorrow, right?

WRONG!

You don’t even know if you are going to be here tomorrow! (Sorry to be gloomy, but it’s the truth and you know it... you may not want to admit it but you do know it.) I know you’re planning on being here tomorrow, I am too, but the reality of life is that the only time that you have to do ‘better’ is right now.

OBSERVE yourself right now. How are you doing? Are you BE-ing your dream? What do you need to do or stop doing to get back into the mindset of your desires? Figure it out, and then do it!

Finally, OBSERVE your dream itself. As you move toward your desires you will gain a deeper understanding of them and may decide that what you thought you wanted isn’t what you want now. Your goals and desires may have changed. No problem, simply return to step one, BE, and learn what it takes to BE your new dream.

Let’s recap:

Step 1 is – BE!

Step 2 is – OBSERVE!

Now step 3 is – BE AGAIN!

Once you’ve paused and OBSERVED your progress you need to get right back on track and BE AGAIN! This is another point in the process where many of you have difficulties. After you ask yourself how you are doing you have to move forward again. Don’t get sidetracked. Don’t fall victim to your own negative self talk. In step two you check your progress by OBSERVING, now in step three you take what you observed and BE AGAIN!

If you find that when you ask yourself how you’re doing that you are on track, that your thoughts and actions are in alignment with your desires, then keep doing what you are doing now. Keep BEING your dream.
If, however, your thoughts and actions are NOT in alignment with your dreams then you need to make adjustments that will get you back on track.

How do you do that? There are several ways. Remember, your goal is to keep your mind focused on your dreams and desires. Pull out your card with your goals and dreams written on it and give it a quick read. Now ask yourself how you got off track and see if you can discover what went wrong.

You might be struggling because of a situation or person who you feel is blocking your progress. Sometimes life offers us many challenges and we gladly take them and wave them around and say, “See what I’m up against? See how hard it is for me? Look at this! This is why I can’t achieve my dreams!”

This is a perfect time for an ‘even though’ affirmation. Practicing using the phrase ‘even though’ and create a positive, affirming statement that negates whatever difficulty you are currently facing.

“Even though I am afraid, I am going to do it anyway.”

“Even though I was rejected this time, I am confident that I will succeed.”

“Even though I didn’t get the job, I am still on the path to my desires.”

“Even though I am feeling frustrated right now, I am a peaceful and happy person and will soon return to my normal state of being.”

“Even though I ______, I am ______.” Fill in the blanks with whatever you are experiencing right now and see how that feels to you.

The important thing is to acknowledge the obstacle in your path and move through it, or around it.
BEING AGAIN is simply continuing on your course after making adjustments. Think of it like driving a car. Steering a car requires you to make constant minute adjustments to your path. Even on a straight road your hands are constantly moving slightly left and slightly right to compensate for the unevenness of the road.

Your path through life is the same way – it’s full of bumps and potholes that you need to compensate for. The quicker you get back on course the quicker you will get to your destination.

That’s the core of the BOB method to creating your day. BE. OBSERVE. BE AGAIN. Put the BOB method into action in your life today and you’ll soon be amazed at the changes you’ll manifest in your life. You truly can be or have anything you want!

So there you have it – the first two parts of the BOB way to creating your day! In part one, Your Morning, available here, I showed you how to structure your morning, how to maximize your focus on your dreams.

Now, in part two, Your Day, I introduced you to the BOB method and took you through it step by step, highlighting the importance of monitoring your thoughts and actions throughout the day.

In step three, Your Night, we’ll look at ways to unwind from the day and how to use your time both before and during your night’s sleep to your advantage.

I know many of my readers have begun incorporating the BOB Morning into their daily routines. The feedback has been fantastic. I wish each of you luck in achieving your dreams, and I hope you’ll add the BOB method to your daily practice with similar results. Let me know and watch for part three of Creating Your Day the BOB Way to be posted soon.

Peace.