Living the Dream

One of my clients, a well-known solicitor, recently introduced me to her partners by saying “Willie is living the dream!” She was referring to my living in high the French Alps, where myself and my wife moved five years ago with our three children – a better quality of life, skiing in winter, boating in summer, food, wine, the list is endless.

But “living the dream” has nothing to do with location, it’s simply a state of mind. It’s the clear state of mind in which you find yourself every so often – when you’re “all there”, when so much gets done with such little effort. Like playing a perfect golf-shot, skiing, hitting that perfect forehand in tennis – or simply playing with your children.

Or like getting so much done, in such little time, the day before you go on holidays. Doing things – instead of thinking about doing them – that you’ve been putting off for ever. A flight at 06.30 tomorrow morning concentrates the mind.

That’s the state of mind I’m talking about – a clear, focused mind – where you do – rather than think about doing.

But, if you’re normal – and Harvard reckons that 96% of us are – you’re mind is not focused, it’s all over the place – thinking useless thoughts. The list of useless thoughts is endless: worry (all those negative “what if” thoughts); self-doubt (often papered over by so-called self-confidence), guilt (frequently about doing something that you actually enjoy) or just plain distraction (“I wish this guy would hurry up, I’ll be late for my next meeting” “I must remember to call her later” “I should have done that before I left the office” “I wish I was on the golf course” “I don’t like my job”).

The University of Chicago believes that a normal person uses roughly 1% of their mental energy to do what they’re supposed to be doing. If you only put 1% energy into what you’re doing, you’re not going to get a whole lot in return, are you? That’s why normal people, who normally tell you that they’re “not too bad”, get a life that’s not too bad. That’s why they never really achieve anything truly spectacular. That’s why normal people’s New Year’s resolutions are normally the same every year! That’s why normal people aren’t living the dream.

Are you living the dream?

A life where you’re really, really happy. Where you love what you do, you’re really good at it; it makes a positive difference to other people’s lives; you get really well paid for doing it; you spend lots of time doing what really, really turns you on; you have a wonderful personal balanced life – and you’re in the whole of your health.

That dream can be lived anywhere – London traffic on a wet Monday morning, teeing off at Vale do Lobo on a sun-drenched Wednesday morning, doing a job you think you don’t like, putting the dishes in the dishwasher, playing with your kids – really, really, doing all those things – not just 1% doing them.

Living the dream is a state of mind – it’s all about concentrating the mind.

For thirteen years I’ve been helping clients focus, helping them experience the difference between mind-full-ness and normal muddle-headed mind-less-ness. My success rate is based on work done by universities all over the world, from the disciplines of psychology and spirituality to quantum mechanics – and years of my own and my clients’ experiences.

You too can understand for yourself how you work – how the world works. You can experience how high achievers like Thomas Edison, David Beckham, Muhammed Ali, the Mahatma Ghandi, Sir Richard Branson – use their minds – and how different that is from the routine, everyday, not-too-bad, normal mindlessness. The process is so simple, it’s almost ridiculous – you simply re-train your self to pay attention to the here and now.

But, and this is only a little ‘but’, you need to do this for yourself – no one else can do it for you! You need to turn yourself on. Then your useless thoughts and our pre-conceived hang-ups – about you and how the world works – will simply vanish. You’ll be able to fully do what you’re actually supposed to be doing, right here, right now, with a clear mind. Psychology and quantum physics proves that that ‘clear mind’ opens the door to the life you really, really want... now, there’s a useful thought!