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Aladdin’s Lamp
The Power of Self-Motivation, Goals, and Time Management

by Brent R. Evans

When I was a beggarly boy,
And lived in a cellar damp,
I had not a friend nor a toy,
But I had Aladdin’s lamp ...
 (James Russel Lowel)

ASK (set a goal) AND YE SHALL RECEIVE.

For yesterday is but a Dream,
And Tomorrow is only a Vision;
But Today, well lived,
Makes every Yesterday
A dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
   (Anonymous)

The Line Between

by Ralph Daniel

Interment services were over now.

All had left and I was alone.

I began to read the names and dates

Chiseled there on every stone.

The names showed whether it was Mom or Dad,

Or daughter or baby son.

The dates were different, but the amount the same

There were two dates on every one.

It was then that I noticed something -

It was just a simple line.

It was a dash between those dates,

And placed there, it stood for time.

All at once it dawned on me,

How important that little line!

The dates there belonged to God,

But that line  ---  is yours and mine!

It’s God who gives this precious life,

And God who takes away.

But that line between, He gives to us

To do with what we may.

We know God’s written the first date down

Of each and every one.

And we know those hands will write again,

For the last date has to come.

We know He’ll write that last date down

Quite soon, we know, for some.

But upon the line between my dates

I hope He’ll write: “Well done!”

The Twenty-Five Powers of Aladdin’s Lamp

Show a copy of the book, Treasure Island, and review the fact that it is a story about search for treasure.  Then read the following quotation by the author, Robert Louis Stevenson:

An aim in life is the only fortune worth finding;
and it is not to be found in foreign lands,
but in the heart itself. 

Take a bag, and place nineteen red chips and one yellow chip in it.  The yellow chip is to represent something you really want, and the red chips just passing wishes.  Each participant takes out one chip by chance without looking to see if he would get what he really wants or just a wish.  That is about the chance of getting what you really want without goals. 

Your brain was designed to adapt to the environment.  That is why 80% of the cortex is uncommitted at birth.  In life, we literally program our brains to meet the needs, opportunities, and problems we encounter.  It is well known that a young child has an easier time learning a new language than an adult does.  This is because his or her cortex is just developing.  The same is true regarding the importance of early exposure to good music or great art in making it easier to develop those talents later.  Even later in life, however, new connections and pathways are continually being made among brain neurons as we learn new information and develop new skills.  Part of the awkward stage we feel when we are learning or doing something new is related to the time needed to physically make these new connections in the brain.  At first a new task or skill is slow and awkward, but then as those pathways are developed, they become smooth and easy.

Video Series - The Brain: Our Universe Within

Your conscious mind is often compared to a working shelf space that has to be cleared and recleared often.  Because your conscious mind (short-term working memory) is limited to 7 + or - 2 items of information at one time, your most important wishes and desires may be out of mind for weeks, months, or years at a time.  Written goals & written plans to reach them can be referred to each day as you make choices on how to spend your time.

In contrast to your conscious mind (short-term working memory), your sub-conscious mind (long-term working memory) is unlimited.  It can work on an infinite number of things at one time, is at work 24-hours a day, and actually grows in capacity the more we put into it.  It is like a magic suitcase in which the more you put into it, the more you can put into it.  It is super powerful, but must be directed by clear, positive, and confident goals or expectations to be used effectively.  Albert Einstein worked long and hard developing his theories, but did you know that his most important ones were almost invariably thought of when he wasn’t working on them?  They came from his subconscious, sometimes when he was taking a walk, doing some other unrelated activity, and more than once first came to him in a dream.  The great composer, Frederick Handel, had the entire music of The Messiah appear in his mind in an instant and then spent 23 days and nights with almost no food or rest to get it written down.  He felt The Messiah was a gift from God that was given to him in his mind to be shared with others.  He would take no money for its performances.  His share of all money received for Messiah performances was donated to the foundling hospital in London.  The Greek Scientist Archimedes made one of his great scientific discoveries as he was just sitting in his bath.  He got so excited about it he jumped up and ran through the streets yelling, Eureka (I Got It!)  Many other great men write of similar experiences.  You have probably had some of these yourself.  Suddenly, an idea or solution comes to you of such depth and clarity that you can hardly believe you thought of it.  It was like going beyond your own ability.

The Power of the Spirit.   (Inspiration & Intuition)

Imagine yourself getting in a car and start driving, but have nowhere in particular to go.  Do you know that people lost in a forest usually walk in circles?  They have no definite direction or specific goal (other than a general desire to get out of there), so they wind up getting no place.  That is why a lost person is often advised just to stay put.  No reason to waste energy if you have no clear direction. 

Also, if you don’t know what you really want, how would you ever recognize it even if it were within easy reach? 

Even if only a passenger on a subway trains,
we need to know our destination or we will miss it.
(Author unknown)

A fascinating sight is to see a rocket sent off into space, perhaps having a distant planet as its objective.  Did you know that the reason it is able to travel with such accuracy is there are constant comparisons being made between the decided upon objective and the current position and trajectory of the rocket?  Literally millions of adjustments are made before the rocket ship finally reaches its target.  That is what goals can do for you.  They give you the power to compare your target with your current position and pathway so you can make the needed adjustments to make your success certain. 

One winter in a place where snow covered the ground, a parent and a child decided to have a contest as to who could walk the straightest path through the snow to a tree some distance away.  The child tried very carefully to see that each step was in a straight line, but was dismayed to see how crooked the resulting pathway turned out to be.  The parent, however, instead of looking down at each step kept focus on the tree, and therefore easily won the contest.

All of these tools become available and act as your personal servants when you decide what your goals are.

Examples of a few of the tools: goal-planning steps, brainstorming, win/win problem solving, action planning,  s-t-p (situation/target/plans), force-field analysis, heuristics, positive imagery, and affirmations.

All Have a Share
(Author unknown)

All have a share in the beauty

All have a share in the plan;

What does it matter what duty

Falls to the lot of man?

Someone must blend the plaster

And someone must carry the stone;

Neither the man nor the master

Ever has builded alone.

Making a roof from the weather

Or building a house for a king,

Only by working together have men

Ever accomplished a thing.

Great it is to believe the dream

When we stand in youth by the starry stream;

But a greater thing is to fight life through

And say at the end, “The dream was true.”

(Edwin Markham)

It is called flow when you are totally involved and challenged in an activity.  Many psychologists now say flow is the basis of joy and happiness in life.

If the Almighty held in his right hand everlasting happiness
and in His left the pursuit of it, I would choose the left hand.
(Socrates)

Goals create the conditions for flow to occur as a regular part of your life.

Day and night dreaming about what we want is a very pleasant activity, and helps us make those dreams reality.

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make our world.   (Gautama Buddha)

The most interesting people are the people with the most interesting pictures in their minds.   (Earl Nightingale)

Imagination is like a telescope.  It enables us to see opportunity long before it would otherwise come into view.  (M.E.)

I Am Habit

It is mighty hard to shake me;

In my brawny arms I take thee;

I can either make or break thee;

 I am Habit!

Through each day I slowly mold thee;

Soon my tightening chains enfold thee;

Then it is with ease I hold thee:

 I am Habit!

I can be both good and vile;

I can e’er be worth your while;

Or the cause of your sore trial;

I am Habit!

Oft I’ve proved myself a pleasure;

Proved myself a priceless treasure,

Or a menace past all measure;

I am Habit!

Harmless though I sometimes seem, yet

My strange force is like a magnet;

Like a great and greedy dragnet;

I am Habit!

Though you sometimes fear or doubt me,

No one yet has lived without me;

I am present all about thee;

I am Habit!

Choose me well when you are starting;

Seldom is an easy parting;

I’m a devil or a darling!

I am Habit!

   (Author unknown)

Song of Life
by Charles MacKay

 

A traveler on a dusty road

   Strewed acorns on the lea;

And one took root and sprouted up,

  And grew into a tree.

Love sought its shade at evening time,

   To breathe its early vows;

And age was pleased, in heights of noon,

   To bask beneath its boughs.

The dormouse loved its dangling twigs,

   The birds sweet music bore -

It stood a glory in its place,

   A blessing evermore.

 

A little spring had lost its way

   Amid the grass and fern;

A passing stranger scooped a well

   Where weary men might turn.

He walled it in, and hung with care

   A ladle on the brink;

He thought not of the deed he did,

    But judged that Toil might drink.

He passed again; and lo! the well,

   By summer never dried,

Had cooled ten thousand parched tongues,

   And saved a life beside.

 

A nameless man, amid the crowd

   That thronged the daily mart,

Let fall a word of hope and love,

   Unstudied from the heart,

A whisper of the tumult thrown,

    A transitory breath,

It raised a brother from the dust,

   It saved a soul from death.

O Germ! O fount! O word of love!

   O thought at random cast!

Ye were but little at the first,

    But mighty at the last.

Why Build these cities glorious

If man unbuilded goes?

In vain we build the world, unless

The builder also grows.

(Edwin Markham)

What you are to be you are now becoming.   (Cameron Beck)

All your great and beautiful goals and dreams become a part of you.

A Small Child
by John Magliola

A small child
Looked at a star
And began to weep.
And
The Star said
Child
Why are you weeping?
And the child said
You are so far away
I will never be able
To touch you
And
The Star answered
Child
If I were not already in your heart
You would not be able to see me.