Intentions

I don't set goals-benchmarks-that I must hit.

I do have intentions. That is,  visions that I have conjured, that portend a life I'd love to live.

Goals are achieved, driven by fear fueled motivation.

Intentions are received over time. 

Goals are often set in a negative pallet: "I won't eat junk food".  "I'll quit smoking by…"

Intentions are voiced positively: "I am a smaller person as time passes, I am able to eat less by accounting for calories each day".

I voice my intentions and then I set out to work on myself. By being calm each day, by affirming my intentions in the morning,  by becoming a whole person,

I am ready to rejoice 

for receiving my intentions for the day when I sit down in the evening. 

Go rejoice.

Goals or Intentions?

"80% of new years resolutions fail. Most by February," according to Johnathon Alpert author of "Be Fearless, Change Your Life in 28 Days."

He lists three reasons for failure. One cause of doomed resolutions are that they are often framed negatively. Things like: "Stop wasting money." "Stop eating junk food."

I call these types of resolutions "No dog, bad dog resolutions". And just as slapping a dog for peeing creates a cringing frighten mutt, so too do negative affirmations create cringing failed goal setter's.

But even positive sounding, specific goals can end poorly. Driven by a need to accomplish, we depend on fear driven motivation to hit our mark. And when we have our goal attained, have our goals achieved, we find that we are no less miserable than before. Goal setting leaves us unfulfilled. So why try?

The answer next month.

Legacy, Attraction, Exercising Age

 My 2020 dreamquest attracted a question that I've asked myself often: can I start the attraction process late in the game? Can I start dreaming for greater things when I'm 60 years old or older? 

Legacy. 

What will be my legacy? In this phase of my life I can look to build a grand example. And just what might that example be at my age 75, 80, 85, 90…? 

What Is my example to others as a spiritual man?

What is my example to others emotionally? 

What is my example of mental acumen?

What does superb physicality look like?

How does my material world shape up?

There was a time when being an elder meant you were one from whom others gained inspiration.

 For others to look up we must be grand examples...

Go dream.

Example of Dreamquest Dreaming

Day 2

"2025-2026 has been such a magical time! Louise and I have returned to Texas after our December stay in our Santa Fe home. January and February were spent in Sun City and we are surrounded by friends. We love this community and my February performance of "A Guru Named Frank" is a sellout for Austin Classical Guitar.

$50,000 so kids can have music in school.

AA meetings, and the Sun City Jewish Community fuel my spiritual quest. Sun City Torah study is sublime.

I wrote a line in my song "Cross Your Heart" that went like this: "We have kept a promise, time has given us what vows can't do." That line calls to the fact that love becomes stronger over time, and ours certainly has.

I can speak Spanish understandably and continue to study each day. I have finished the studio work on my fifth CD.

My wife is impacting the world by helping scientist commercialize their technologies. 

I am a fit 75-year-old man. My weight is 155 pounds, and I stretch and exercise every day. COVID-19 has been eradicated.

My G-d what a wonderful life!

I have written this in the year 2020. This is my 36th Dreamquest.

I am merely exercising my dream muscles as I spend each of 21 consecutive days imagining a period of time--sometime in the future. I have cut out piles of pictures that represent a time and space that looks much like these events. I try to imagine how my life will be shaped spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically and materially.

Is it probable that all this will occur on time?

Are these benchmarks that I will check off by working hard?

Are these daunting tasks?

Not probable-but possible.

I may receive bits, pieces, or parts or all of everything I have written. And if I do, as I do, I will celebrate the fact that G-d created the ether that allowed me to imagine and shape such a wonderful life!

Dreamquest 2020

Thanksgiving Day 2020 and this morning starts a day of reflection. Reflection and thanks for all that I have been given, all that has been taken from me, all that I have attracted to me, and all that is left behind.

I will start this day by writing on a lined sheet of paper the five areas of endeavor that shape my life:

Spiritual

Emotional

Mental

Physical

Material/Fiscal 

And I will ask these questions:

"Have I developed a spiritual discipline? Has my spiritual discipline developed over the years? How has my life been shaped as a result of these practices?"

"Have I become more balanced emotionally? How is this balance reflected in my relationships with my family, friends, employers, and employees?"

"Am I a lifetime learner? Am I studying my subject? Am I pursuing music, literature, language?"

"How is my health?"

"Are my surroundings comfortable?”

“Am I grateful for the life that surrounds me?"

The first day of my Dreamquest is a day of reflection and gratitude to an unseen power for all that I have been given, all that has been taken from me, and all that has been left behind.

We Can March to Either Drummer

Good-bad, right-wrong, faith-fear, love-hate, positive-negative, dark from light.

All within the parameters of the powers of choice, that we as human beings have at any given time.

Rabbi Byron Sherwin (of blessed memory) once said to me that "G-d loved man so much that he gave him a power that even G-d did not possess: the power to choose wrong over right." G-d can't do that. Gave that power to Satan I suppose.

The power we are seeking in our quest is the power of positivity. The constant positive banter that tends to attract positive results.

Each morning, I set my positive intentions for the day with about 30 minutes of meditation, positive affirmation and the exercise of gratitude. In that 30-minute period of time I am on the side of faith, on the sunny side, on the side of calm.

My daily task, then, is to test each moment against the quiet that came in the morning. Will this decision lead to a calmer life or a more frantic one? Am I furthering the cause? Am I on the side of right? Am I maintaining my positive mental attitude, am I choosing a positivity bias? Am I helping or will I harm someone?

G-d doesn't have this quandary. Only you and I.

The Art of Saunter

Most of my life has been carried out in a dead run, dashing from point A to point B as fast as I possibly could. I'd rather a hare than a tortoise be. That's the way of life isn't it?

In my 70th year a very wise man, Dr. William Tullis ( of blessed memory), challenged me to "learn to saunter." He challenged me to take my dogs on a slow walk -- without a jogging app in my hand. No heartbeat monitors, no pedometer.

Learn to enjoy the journey, outcome be damned.

I thought to myself--slow down? That will be no challenge at all. Well I was wrong. But let me digress.

In a book of daily meditations, one that I've been reading for well over 40 years, I stumbled upon a small passage that suggested I learn to "go slowly from room to room."

The similarity of those two commands? They gave me something to do, rather than some way to be. Bill instructed me to walk with no pedometer. Challenged me to wear no heartbeat monitor. My meditation guide suggested I move slowly from room to room. In both cases I'd been asked to take a positive measure that would lead to a calmer state. How do you perfect a difficult guitar passage? Move slowly on the fretboard. Very slowly.

And finally, clichés are clichéd because they're most often true: haste makes waste, the tortoise beats the hare, easy does it, a stitch in time saves nine, measure twice cut once.

Here Comes The Judge

Prejudice means judgment in advance.
A Bigoted person is intolerably devoted to his or her own opinion.

Prejudice comes from the Latin words that mean "pre" and "judge". We all have it; we wouldn't be human if we didn't.

It's also called opinion, that thing that is formed by our culture, by our experiences, by our environment, by our neighborhoods and schools. Where we live and who we live with. All of that shapes our opinions. It shapes the first impression.

I've felt the sting of prejudice. Let me tell you a story.

Now, I admit I'm a bit of an eccentric. I don't fall into a typical category. Not a graduate of any university, I barely made it through high school. I graduated from a trade school--local 1266. I've helped run a Ranch as a working hand. I also built a financial consulting business and had, at the time of this story, my own TV show.
I dress when I fly on an airplane. Oxford shirt, bowtie, chino pants, loafers, the whole thing.

I was connecting to a difficult flight out of Chicago one winter. Our connecting flight had been canceled three different times.

We were at the third kiosk being informed that that flight would not be in for several more hours. The airline employee was being bombarded by all kinds of fury. When she saw me, she grimaced.

When I got to her I made a point of smiling and saying, "Wow I bet you've had a hell of a day. Hey, if you can get me on another flight, fine. If you can't, that's fine as well." What she said next is my point. "Oh Gee, thank you so very much! You know when I first saw you I thought there is some asshole college professor just gonna ream me out because he hasn't been able to connect with his most important flight."

She then told me to standby till she cleared out the crowd, and she'd see what she could do to upgrade me to first class and get me out immediately.
Her grimace, however, told me all I needed to know about how she felt about nerdy looking college professor-types. Pre-judged, you see. We all have it.