In this lesson, we're talking about focus, where you place your attention, and how you can choose your focus. The late Wayne Dyer said, where focus goes, energy flows, where you placed your attention makes a huge difference. I learned this lesson quite a while ago, when I was young and establishing my own identity separate from my parents, I was talking to a mentor about how I did not want to be like my mother. Don't get me wrong. My mother was a wonderful person, and I loved her very much, but you know how it is, you know, like some of the things your parents do, and you declare that when you grow up, well, I'm not going to be like that. And then as you begin to grow up, you find yourself doing the same things.

Well, that's how it was for me at that time. And I was quite emphatic in my declaration. I was going on and on. After patiently listening to me for a while, this wiser and more mature man just calmly looked at me. He held out his right arm with his palm down. And he asked, you don't want to be like your mother.

No, I answered, wasn't he listening to me? He said, You don't want to be like your mother. Then he turned his arm up so that his palm was facing up. He said, then don't be like your mother. Wow. At that moment, I was speechless.

And thoughts were racing through my head, because it hit me. Who were what was keeping me from being different than my mother. The answer was, and still is no one. All I needed to do was make the decision to be who I want it to be. Instead of focusing upon and resisting what I didn't want to be. At that moment, I learned that whatever I want in life, is what I need to focus on.

Not what I don't want. That's where I need to use my creative energies. Because I'm creating all the time. Our thoughts and feelings, beliefs, words we use all create our world. And the law of cause and effect is always working. So remember, put your creative energies on what you want to create.

The future is what you make it even as the present is what you made it. If you do not like it, you can change it. That focus is very, very important. And when you focus on what you want to be what you want to create, it does not mean that you ignore your current conditions. Yes, you handle what needs to be handled, but that's not where you put your creative energies. So focus on what you want to create and put your creativity Thinking toward making that happen.

So your exercise for today, I want you to create a stretch goal and focus your attention for at least 15 minutes per day, for the next seven days. Now, I want you to see that goal fulfilled. So it's a matter of using your imagination and visualizing. And then I want you to think deeply and ask yourself, How can I make that happen? Just contemplate How can I make that happen? I want you to record all the ideas that come to you.

And by focusing this much attention and energy on the goal every day, you will find many creative ideas that come to you. Then I want you to shape a strategy and a plan for filling your goal and write it down. Research shows that people who write down their goals and their plans, fulfill them and are far more successful for those who do not. So this is an exercise that's going to start to get you into creating a goal and something that you want to experience in your life by placing your attention upon it, by visualizing it by imagining it by feeling it like you're there. You are literally experiencing being there. Have fun with this.

It's a it's a wonderful thing to do. And record all your experiences in your journal. I'll see you at the next lesson.