To go and perform, sing for the sake of singing, smile, have fun.  That is it.  “Facebook” brings a new element to connection and timing in life.  Around the same time I was experiencing all this I read the quote “I know some people say “Keep your eyes on theprize,” but I disagree. When your eyes are stuck on the prize, you’re going to keepstumbling and crashing into things. If you really want to get ahead, you’ve got to keepyour eyes focused on the path.”~ Russell Simmons.  That really says it all.

Will Smith says “You don’t say “I am going to build a wall” you go and lay a brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid.  You do that every single day, and soon you have a wall”:

Art without expectation is true creative freedom.  Now I can just be myself and sing my songs and it feels great.

Last Tuesday I got a phonecall from Romney the Entertainment manager at the Art House Hotel in Sydney asking me if I could fill in for an artist that had cancelled that night.  I enthusiastically said yes and even changed some plans with friends so that I could go to the gig.

So I went to the Art House and played what I thought to be an excellent gig.  I felt really “on” and was having fun talking to and interacting with the crowd.  After the gig, several people in the audience came up to me to tell me how much they had enjoyed it.  A gentleman from the USA offered to buy me a drink, I accepted so we sat down to have a chat.  Mojan was his name and he said “You deserve a much bigger crowd so I thought the least I could do was buy you a drink”.  I said “Thanks” and we talked for about half an hour about our lives.  I left soon after feeling great about the gig and looking forward to the next one.

Later in the week, I emailed Romney to say thanks for calling me to fill in at the gig I had a great time.  I got a reply back the same day that said “Unfortunately the management and staff on duty on Tuesday evening have mentioned to me that the material was not in line with The ArtHouse Hotel and what we generally offer.  As this is the case future gigs have been filled on the advice that I have received. Thank you again and I wish you all the best in the future.”

“What?” I thought.  ”But it went so well”.  How could the people in the bar love it and go out of their way to tell me and the bar staff had a totally different opinion.  I was really hurt and confused.  I let it get me down.

My wife said “but you know the truth! Why does it bother you”.  To which I replied “Oh, I guess I just want everyone to like me”.  I kind of half laughed when I said it because it sounded so ridiculous.  I thought, does everyone love “Shakira” or “Pink” or “Bono”, no they don’t.  It is a matter of taste.  But it still hurt.  I am a sensitive person.  But in this industry I have to grow a thick skin or I am in trouble.

I think my friend and fellow songwriter Pave Leclair hit the nail on the head when he said:

“You know, there is a large part of your story that I find encouraging.  The more you become of yourself, the closer you are to finding your audience and the easier it is for them to identify with you.  Of course in the process, you are very likely to turn a lot of people off who aren’t into that special thing that you do.  They don’t count though.  Its all quite similar to finding the right girl I reckon.”

Hearing that from Pave really sorted me out.  I am so grateful.

My dream is to be a globally successful singer/songwriter and for my music to reach millions.  It is a huge dream that is sometimes daunting, especially if I try to do everything myself.

Good friendship is always valuable and that value isn’t always tangible, in fact it is rarely tangible.  When you are going after a big dream though, it can become really tangible.

Take my best friend Steve who before I moved back to Sydney 3 weeks ago was already looking for gigs for me.  He got me an audition to play at “the Beach Palace”, a huge bar on the beach at Coogee after pestering them to give me a chance for a few weeks leading up to them saying yes.  I went for that audition and got a gig or perhaps many with them, but that was the easy part, Steve did all the groundwork.

Then the next day Steve calls me and says “Want to play at a cafe in Maroubra tomorrow night?”.  Maroubra is another popular sydney beachside scene.  I played at the “Mr Bigstuff Cafe” the following friday and had a great time.  The owner invited me back.

Steve got me two gigs and now he is looking for more, all this with a full-time job and studying part-time.  He says to me “I will do anything to help you realize your dream”.  That means more to me that he will probably ever know.  When I realize that dream though, he will know!

Imagine if we all did this?  Imagine if we all served each other in this way? Believed in each other and then did anything we could to help the other realize their dream.  I guess one big thing is that not that many people seem to know what their dream is. But for the ones that do, imagine if we cross-supported each other like Steve does.

I know I need about 10 friends like Steve eventually if I am going to make it, maybe more and I am sure they will come.  In Indie Musician circles they call it a “Street Team” and I know mine is forming.  Steve is the undisputed captain of that team.

It is not a one way street though, it is well know that the more you give the more you receive.  So if you are reading this and you have a dream, how can I support you?

Today the twins were playing with there toys on a blanket.  Sequoia picked up a red rubber ring and Ezequiel took it off her.  He is much stronger than her so could easily pull the ring from Sequoia’s hand.  Sequoia didn’t complain, she simply picked up the green ring that was lying next to her and carried on playing. At this stage I stopped watching and went to the bathroom. When I came out Sequoia had the green ring in her left hand and the red ring in her right and Ezequiel wasn’t interested anymore.

The moral to the story is that when we let go we end up with everything.

I am in Venezuela with my wife and twin 8 month olds staying at my wife’s parents farm.  There internet connection is so slow it is almost unusable. So, for now I have put on the backburner all of the marketing of my album and the running of my webportal.  This has been a blessing in disguise because it means I have just been able to spend lots of time with the babies, write songs and walk in the beautiful natural surroundings here in the Andes.

A few weeks ago, my sister-in-law’s boyfriend installed a Nintendo 64 emulator on the laptop here that allows you to play all the old Nintendo 64 games on PC.  He started playing “Super Mario 64″, initially I took the piss out of him but inevitably I got drawn in and then well and truly hooked.  Initially I felt like I was wasting time, that I should be doing something more constructive, but I was enjoying myself.  My wife even said to me “I am glad you are allowing yourself to play video games”.

For those not familiar with Super Mario 64 it basically goes like this.  Mario enters a big castle and in the castle are lots of doors.  The doors lead to rooms or hallways that lead to other rooms etc.  In the rooms there are paintings of various things and if Mario jumps into a painting he enters a “World”.  There are snow worlds, lava worlds, mountain worlds, cloud worlds and much more.

In each world you have to find the big yellow stars.  Some stars are really easy to get and they literally fall into Super Mario’s lap.  Some stars are really difficult to get, sometimes near impossible until with alot of attempts and trying you get the star.  There are normally about 5 or 6 stars in each “World”.  When Super Mario has collected 30 stars he gets to open a big door with a big yellow star on it that leads to other rooms and “worlds” and another big door that requires 50 stars to open.  It goes on and on until he gets all the stars and gets through all the doors to his GOAL which is to rescue his princess.

After playing Super Mario for a few days, the amazing teachings of this game dawned on me.

I thought about my goal which is for my music to reach millions all over the world and to be a globally successful recording artist.

And then I thought If I just do one or two important things toward my goal each day e.g. Send an album out for review, write a song, play a gig and collect names for my mailing list etc…Each thing I do is like Mario when he gets one his big yellow stars.  So if I just get 1 or 2 or even 3 stars a day, pretty soon a door will open.  Then if I press on and get even more stars, pretty soon another door will open.  For some stars I will have to work hard, but the some will be brought to me magically by synchronicity or “coincidence” or whatever you want to call it according to your beliefs.  If I keep doing this and don’t give up then success is assured.  I am sure to reach my goal just as Super Mario is sure to rescue the princess if he keeps going.

The answers to life and powerful revelations can sometimes be found in the most unlikely things! Seems not all computer games are bad for our kids.

My father in law said the other night “Esta es un mundo de locos” (This world is full of crazy people).  I thought, really, I reckon it is full of amazing, lovely people.  I only tend to meet amazing, lovely people.  Funny that.

I am in the city of San Cristobal in Venezuela staying with my wife’s parents in the Andes.  It is an amazing place of stunning natural beauty and the most perfect climate I have ever been in.  The Australia Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) on their “Smart Traveller” website gives this region their highest danger rating “DO NOT TRAVEL”.  When I walk around the streets of this place, during the day and night I think “What a load of absolute shit!!”.  People here are friendly, courteous, beautiful, helpful and just trying to live a happy life and like the rest of us.  I am sure though that the people who listen to the scary news and tune into the violence frequency or worry about it would probably be able to attract it here, but then again I don’t think the location has much to do with that!

The Universe contains absolutely every possible experience, from the most joyful and beautiful to the most traumatic and unimaginable.  There is a huge range of experiences in between.

I don’t feel like anything bad has ever happened to me.  I have never been a victim of violence.  Lately I seem to be able to focus even more on the positive and my life gets even better.

Yesterday in central San Cristobal we were at a fun fair.  Amongst the chaos, filth and noise all I could see was beauty. Beauty in everyone that walked past me.  A few weeks ago, I was so frustrated about being here in Venezuela that I got really down.  I really wanted to just be in Australia now and not have to wait for my wife’s spousal visa.  I hated the place, I hated my in-law’s farm, I hated the city, I hated the people.  It was the worst place in the world.  But here I was, with 2 more months in front of me, so I had a choice keep hating it or change my attitude.  So I changed my attitutude, I still hate it every now and then by most of the time now I just see beauty in this place and its people.  DIFFICULT EXPERIENCES ARE SO AWESOME!! the growth that come out of them is priceless, if you are a willing participant.

I am also so grateful here for my 8 year old Nephew here Francisco Armando.  He is so much like me when I was a kid, expressive, constantly enthusiastic, loud, always singing, always shouting, always wanting to play and has a massive heart.  For the first few months I hated him.  I was even mean to him at times.  Then I realised that he is me when I was 8 and through bullying at school I shut that boy down.  I realised I had an opportunity for huge healing through my nephew.  If I could play with him, shout with him, sing with him, run with him, be enthusiastic with him, be kind to him, and LOVE him I would effectively be healing myself and reconnecting with my true self.  So thats what I did, and it worked.

I am so convinced that we don’t need workshops, books, mind expanding drugs and other spiritual technologies to grow. All we really need to do is to open our eyes to the teachings in front of us.  Our masters that are our parents, children, partners, nephews and every one else we spent time with.  Especially the people who drive us nuts, they are our true masters.  There is always potential for huge healing through the people who drive us nuts.

I am grateful for the people who drive me nuts, like my Nephew.  He no longer drives me nuts, he healed a huge part of me.

The whole purpose of our existance in the “outer world” (Physical Reality) is to ENJOY physically all the things that we can conceive in the “inner world”.

The inner world is everything and anything that has or ever will be imagined.

The inner world is the realm of our thoughts, visions, dreams and feelings.  Our thoughts, visions, dreams and feelings are the ways in which we CONNECT with the inner world.  It is our subset of the inner world.  It is where INDIVIDUAL consciousness seperates from the ONE consciousness.

The outer world is everything that we have CONNECTED with long enough, long enough and with enough focus to bring it into the outer world.

All we have to do to bring something into this ALREADY PERFECT outer world is to focus on it in the inner world long enough and with enough passion to bring it into the outer world.

Here is the good part…

The more you ENJOY the outer world the closer the inner and outer worlds become.

Thats why if you are happy it is so easy to manifest what you want.  The inner world is closer.

I remember coming home from a gig once where I was so high from doing what I love (Performing as a singer/songwriter) that visualizations of much bigger shows came on their own.

I thanked the Universe for such a great gig and the response came “No, no, thank you!”

I realise now that in that state of BLISS I had brought my outer world and my inner world very close together.  The universe thanked me because I ENJOYED myself.  Thats what the universe wants, for me to enjoy myself, nothing else.

Divine masters such as Jesus, Buddha, Babaji etc are known to be BLISSED OUT or to experience eternal ecstacy.  That is why they can MANIFEST AT WILL because they are BLISSED OUT.  At this point of ABSOLUTE BLISS, the inner world and the outer world are ONE.  Hence all manifestation is instant.

That is why in “the Secret” it says to FOLLOW YOUR BLISS.  Because the more you FOLLOW YOUR BLISS the close the inner world and the outer world become.  The closer the inner and outer world are the less time it takes for things to appear in the outer world once conceived in the inner world.

This also explains why positive thoughts are hundred of times more powerful than negative thoughts because positive thoughts cause JOY and bring the inner and outer worlds closer.

This also explains why gratitude is so important.  True gratitude feelings are measures of how much you are enjoying your current reality.  The more authentic GRATITUDE you feel the more BLISS you are experiencing and the inner and outer world get closer.

Wow.

Walking back to the farm an answer came racing into my head.  When I am in a restaurant, I KNOW that what I want is already done.  I read the menu, I choose what I want to eat, I place my order with the waiter/ress and I know that in 15 minutes or so what I have ordered will be in front of me and I will be enjoying a good meal.

I then took that thought and applied it to my recent life and I realized that to manifest what I want to have in my life is really as simple as ordering a meal in a restaurant.

It is that simple…

But then I…

-          Change my order several times and the Chef (The Universe/God) has to start all over again every time I change my mind.  Not only that, I get charged for the previous orders too (Lost Energy)

-          Place my order and then keep telling the waiter (The Universe/God)  my order over and over again.  The first time I repeat my order the waiter says “Yes I know sir you just ordered that”. The fifth time I ask he just walks away.

-          Am so focused on what I want to eat that I forget to ask for the “Chef’s Suggestions”.

-          If they don’t have what I ordered I get angry and forget that the Chef (The Universe/God) has something even better to serve me.

-          When my food arrives, I find something wrong with it rather than appreciating the miracle that is in front of me.

-          And so on…

So today I decided that from now on, I am just going to place my orders once and then have total faith that what I want will turn up with no thoughts to the contrary.  I.e. I can place the order “I am now a multimillionaire” and that dish will be delivered.   But then in my day to day life if I then worry about money I am in effect cancelling that order.

KNOWING something is done means placing the order and no further ordering needs to be done.  The work is to keep your thoughts away from the things that are not aligned with what you have ordered.

For example, back at the restaurant, I place my order for a “Veggie Burger” and the waiter (The Universe/God) says “Veggie Burger coming right up”.  I don´t then sit at my table thinking “Oh what if the burger doesn’t come” or “They are going to run out of buns”.  I just know my veggie burger is coming.  The same applies to the Law of Attraction.  Place the order and sit there happily anticipating its arrival.  Nothing else.

Visualization could be likened to a menu with pictures. We see a picture of a dish we want and we order it.  We then KNOW the dish is coming.  We don’t then keep staring at the picture or record it in our minds eye in order to try and get the dish to arrive because we already KNOW it is coming.  Visualization is just a means of perfecting the vision of what we already KNOW is coming and as the vision becomes more perfect we know what we want is drawing nearer.

I have read so many things about the Law of Attraction and manifesting what I want.  But now I really think I get it! Wooohooo! It is so simple, it is only me who can complicate it.

My thoughts then turned to my 7 month old baby twins and I thought “Wow, If the Universe can create these two in 9 months with so little work from me ;o) then bringing me anything I want is easy”

In that moment my wife said to me “If you go for another walk today Franscisco (my nephew) wants to go with you”

So I said “Ok, let’s go Now”

So I set off for another walk in the hills with my nephew Franscisco.  We came over the hill and lo and behold we arrived just minutes after a cow had given birth.

What a magic moment.  It was like the final word from the Universe telling me “Yeah, it is that simple”.

Oh and don’t forget the most important thing: When you leave the restaurant thank the waiter leave them a tip and send compliments to the Chef!

I have been at the entrance to this bridge for a while, wondering how to cross it without falling off into the depths below.  It wasn’t until yesterday that I really “got it”.  I really realized how to cross the bridge.

I am a huge fan of the movie “the Secret”, for me “the Secret” contains alot of truth, it also profoundly moves me everytime I watch it.  “the Secret” though focusses on how if we change our thoughts we change our reality.  I have been trying to change my thoughts ever since I saw “the Secret” back in 2006 and with some success but not to the magnitude that I know is possible.

Yesterday I was reading a book called “Spiritual Marketing” by Joe Vitale (one of the Secret teachers) and something clicked.

There is no use trying to change our thoughts, we have to change what is beneath our thoughts, which is our beliefs.  Our beliefs are the source of our thoughts.  Change our beliefs, which are the source of our thoughts and our thoughts change automatically.

So I have a whole lot of beliefs about myself and the world including “You have to work hard for money”, “Noone buys my album” and “When I get back to Sydney I am going to have to take an I.T. job because I could never make a living from music” etc etc.

But there is a belief that underlies all of them: “I’m not good enough”.

So today in the forested Andes of Venezuela I shouted “I’m not good enough” several times really loud.  It just made me laugh.  Now that I am at ease with not being good enough, I can replace it with “I am so good enough”.  I can cross the bridge.  And who cares if I fall off into the depths anyway, as Randolph Stone said “We are as afraid of the depths as the ancient mariner was of falling off the Earth at the end of the sea”.  Maybe the sign at the bottom says “Where all your dreams come true and more cause you just let go”.  Letting go, what a concept.  I am letting go now, really I am.  Sometimes I see images of a big hammer (gods hammer) smacking at my fingers.  God’s love in a hammer – let go my child I am trying to give you more than you could ever imagine.

I will.

Tomorrow.

I just want to suffer in my drama and mediocracy for one more day.

Why?

*sigh*

I can choose lasting bliss in an instant by changing my beliefs and letting go.

It is there for the taking on a silver platter.

My wife and I are putting together her application to immigrate to Australia and I had to find out where the Australian Consulate and Argentine Embassy were in Caracas.

Finding the Australian Consulate was easy and took me 2 minutes.

I “google mapped” the Argentine Embassy and it found a street way outside Caracas.

So I tried again and I found the same street, but on the other side of Caracas.

A little voice said “You don’t have to go to the Argentine Embassy”

I ignored it.

I kept looking.

I searched on other map sites with no luck.  I went back to google maps and tried to find the street manually (on a map of Caracas with thousands of streets!)

Google maps then did a big scroll off the page and I ended up in the ocean.

So I went back to google maps.

And it did the big sroll off the map again and I ended up in another ocean.

The I started yelling “F^&%$$£ Google Maps”

My wife said “You know, maybe you should leave it”

I said “I know but it is so frustrating”

So frustrating, that the universe is trying to save me work. hahahahaha

So I went to Caracas.

And everything went so smoothly…

I even found the Argentine Embassy.

They informed me that they could not help me with the matter I was there for.

And without going into it, that made life alot easier for us!

When will I learn?

That the Universe is always working in my favour?

I even write songs about it.

Those songs are still my teachers, everyday.

Something very funny happened though…

When I was in the office of the Argentine Embassy oficial, at one point she asked if she could see my wife’s passort in order to determine whether she could help with our request.

I was carrying my wife’s passport in my money belt.

So I stood up, and loosened my pants to get the money belt out.

To get it out I also had to put my hand slightly into my pants to grab the money belt.

Well, the poor Embassy official, absolutely freaked out.  Her whole body went stiff, she had a look of horror on her face and let out a stifled shreek.

I don’t know what she thought I was going to do!

I think she thought I was going to pull out my wife’s best friend (thankyou Monty Python) rather than my wife’s passport!!

When she saw the money belt emerge from my pants other than something else, she took a big sigh of relief.

Perhaps I should have been a little more discreet.  But it made for a funny story!

It certainly brought bliss into my day, I am not so sure about the Embassy Official!

Have a blissful day all.