The Next Step

The first step needs action to start it,
The last requires patience to end,
So we question, which one's most important,
When we realize our dreams' our best friend.
Well, the answer is neither, they're equal,
But the one that will help you win through
And connect what you start to the finish,
Is the next step that's waiting for you.

Life's dreamers are great Goal Achievers!
Their faith and persistence just blends
Into one awesome cocktail of knowledge,
That whatever they want they can get.
You see, they never visualize failure,
It's success that they see shining through.
It's essential to start and to finish,
But the next step is what you must do.
(from Alison Wilson - check her out)

Rejections - Give me a break

Rejection takes many forms. You didn't make the team. The college you want to attend turns you down. The woman you asked out said no. You didn't get the job. You were passed over for a promotion. Your wife/husband left you.

Whatever form it takes, being rejected stinks. It is a blow to your ego and challenges your ability to cope. It makes you question yourself. It makes you angry. In its most extreme and painful forms, it generates self-destructive thoughts and behaviors - ranging from rage to drinking binges to suicide.

The tricky thing about rejection, though, is not to avoid it - you can't anyway -  but to choose a positive way of reacting to it. After all, everybody suffers rejection. That is not meant to minimize anyone's pain at being let go or turned down; it is simply to say that you aren't alone. Others have lived through similar - or worse - things. The only way to avoid the risk of rejection is to fail to live - to be more specific: not to live at all -, dream, or dare! And that is a far worse thing than being courageous enough to apply for the position, to accept a leadership challenge, or to invest your heart and getting turned down.

In a not so recent interview reported in the Wall Street Journal, Warren Buffett spoke of his rejection by Harvard Business School at 19. "The truth is, everything that has happened in my life . . . that I thought was a crushing event at the time, has turned out for the better," he said. He continued, life's setbacks teach "lessons that carry you along. You learn that a temporary defeat is not a permanent one. In the end it can be an opportunity." 

In Buffett's case, a second-choice application to Columbia put him under the tutelage of two professor-mentors who taught him the essentials he has used in a successful investment career. More important still, the disappointment he thought his father would feel over his failure turned into a positive expression of "unconditional love" and "unconditional belief in me."

Rejection is the challenge to find a new way, a better path. Rather than curse the job you didn't get or the person who didn't hire you, rethink your skills and find another venue for their use. Instead of hiding from life because a relationship has ended and your heart is broken, learn something about yourself from what has happened and know there is someone who needs what you have to give. Temporary setbacks become permanent defeats only if you allow it.

It isn't rejection that determines the outcome. It is your reaction to it.

Great day!

Is Happiness Around The Corner?

Yes, I haven't been posting lately. Maybe because I was busy doing other things, maybe because I didn't know what to say. Second one is more probably though my ex wife would say that this is impossible. Well. The thing is, I cought myself being busy finding reasons not to be happy. I was bitching and complaning about everything and missed precious moments I otherwise would have enjoyed. Stupid me! How could I forget the most valuable principle I live by every single day? Maybe it's becouse I am human to.

For lots of people, happiness is just around the corner. They just need to get their degree, a particular job, a promotion, or a raise. Maybe they're waiting to get married or have a child. Perhaps they will be happy when they retire.

Alfred D' Souza said, "For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, or a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life." John Lennon put it another way, "Life is what happens while you are making other plans."

The point is our lives are happening now. If we are to get the satisfaction and fulfillment we want, we have to learn to draw pleasure and joy from everything that happens to us and around us because these experiences are the very essence of our life. The more conscious we are that life consists of the journey, not the destination, the more likely we are to get the most out of it.

So, if there are things you want to do, begin to fit them in now or accept the fact that you can be happy whether or not you do them.

Happiness isn't just around the corner. It's now or it's never.

The good news is you have everything you need to be happy. Philosophers, poets, and scientists all agree it can't be attained through money, prestige, or power. Happiness is not a fact, it's a mindset. All you need is optimism and gratitude.

So, back in track, today I will enjoy every single moment I am allowed - to be.

Have a great weekend and ...

be happy!

The Garbage Kids

Inteview for G1 (Globo.com) from february 2011 regarding new documentary due in aprlil of this year.

The Genie Principle - A Reminder of a Book we all heard about

Your Wish Is My Command!




I am going to take a little idea from The Secret - and expand upon it - and also introduce a principle to those of you who haven't yet seen The Secret. I recommend that you do see it as soon as possible!


OK - here's the principle: That each and every thought you have is actually heard by your very own genie!


Stick with me here - because I do understand just how challenging this suggestion might be to some of you. I'm asking you to look at this light-heartedly - as it doesn't have to shake your foundations completely - it can be absorbed in a light-hearted way - and used in the same manner.


We've all been getting told for years to "be careful what you ask for - you just might get it"!


Some of us have been told this in a light hearted way; some in the form of a joke; some in the form of reference to prayer in a religious sense; and some in a very serious way. Whichever way we tend to view this - it is in itself part of the relationship we have with our genie... our thought processes.


The Law of Attraction which is the main focus of The Secret, is about owning what we create within our lives - and taking responsibility for our thoughts and understanding just how powerful they can be.


OK - the genie principle.


I truly believe that if each of us can embrace the simple idea that we have a friendly genie paying attention to each and every thought we have - then we will learn to grasp in a light-hearted way that we do actually create our own results in life.


If we can imagine that each thought (and our verbalizing of those thoughts) is being heard, and responded to like this; "OK - your wish is my command"! "I'll get right onto that for you"!


Whether the thoughts and words we use are positive - or negative - the results will be in alignment with those thoughts and words. Too many sages down through the ages and into the present have been agreeing on this for too long for it not to be true!


Remember - the votes have been unanimous for centuries!
What we think - we will manifest!
What we think - we will become!


What we think - we will continue to think - unless we take action to change our habitual thinking.


Thinking that has been put there by life; by our experiences in life; by other people who have had the same thought patterns put there by life; by their experiences in life; and by other people in their lives... and so it goes. Generations of thoughts which have created reality for millions of people - have been passed down to us.
Right now we all have a choice: To continue living under other people's opinions passed down to us about life; or to embrace change here and now and begin to create our own positive thoughts based upon a few pinnacle principles...
Unconditional Love; Abundance; Forgiveness; Spiritual Awareness; Inner Peace (which will spread to your community, then to your state, then to your country, and eventually globally); Deserving; Kindness; and Mind/Body/Spirit balance.


Of course there are other pinnacle principles on which to base new thoughts and ideas - but those just given above are some of the main ones necessary for each of us to manifest abundance, good health, a balanced lifestyle, peace and happiness in our lives.


I am very aware that many of you reading this will already be relating to your own genie as being God, and of course I encourage and respect that thought process, and the feelings surrounding those beliefs. My reasoning in writing this is to encourage a light-hearted aspect to our relationship with our thought processor.
A genie is something that most of us can actually visualize - so being capable of visualizing someone taking notes - then acting on those notes - is one slightly different way to view the importance of how our thoughts turn into reality!
May you and your genie have a sensational week together.


Remember: "What others do or say is their stuff; how we react, or not, is our stuff"!

Miracle of Life

Whenever I feel sad, something happens to me that makes me forget all the troubles. Doesn't matter if the reason to my sadness is of small or huge nature, it all comes back to one, nothing is so big that it can bring you down forever.


So I might as well stop worrying at all and just enjoy life. Sure, sad things still might happen, but since I know that, that is the way it is, I give them just the necessary attention and go on from there.


And, since I started doing so, more and more great things began to happen, or, I came more aware of them, after all I wasn't wasting precious time worrying. The more I think about it I believe, that these great things always were happening to me. I just couldn't see them. I was busy complaining.


I am a lucky person. I have all I need, I am pretty healthy, I have good friends, I do what I like and whenever I like to do it. Life is working out for me and I am very thankful for it.


I'd like to share a very special moment I was allowed to live in the very recent past. I was invited to catch on film the birth of a friends firstborn son. It was february first when little Léo was supposed to be born. When I left home heading to the hospital a very heavy rain came down and I thought I wouldn't make it on time. But our little new friend wasn't in any hurry. I arrived at 9PM at the hospital and after several hours of labor, little Léo entered this world at 4:09 AM on february second. 


Here is what happened. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.


Love, Robert

The Garbage Kids

Ongoing documentary airing march 2011. For you to sense my latest work in production. I hope you feel as much watching as I felt and still feel doing it.