Radical Abundance $27 HERE.
I don’t want you to have to wait as long as I did.
Specifically, over the holidays when I returned home, I found a childhood photo I’d never seen before.
I was born on July 2nd and it’s Christmas, so I’m one and a half years old in it.
Obviously, we first have to applaud my mother’s fashion sense.
Yet, much more importantly, please note the puppy on the left.
It’s taken more than a few decades for him to actually arrive, but here and now he’s finally all mine.
I suppose I could say that I’ve finally manifested Vladimir….
And even though I’m unveiling a new course HERE on that topic regarding Radical Abundance, I’ve learned to (mostly) suppress my cringe-response whenever anyone uses the word “manifesting.”
Since The Secret premiered in 2006-–and has since sold over 30 million copies––the term is not just overused and wrongly used but quite frankly abused.
Listen, I have several 2-inch thick 3-ring binder in my office filling cabinet filled with printouts of highly legitimate scientific studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of positive thinking.
There’s real data proving that our thoughts have power.
In fact, I’m particularly drawn to recent studies exploring what used to be called “multiple personality disorder” and is now known as “dissociative identity disorder.”
These studies strongly suggest a radical rethinking of how consciousness worksand even how the universe is constructed.
(More about that in the future.)
And yet on the most basic level, you don’t need to read The Secret to realize your attitude has a pretty big impact on your life.
That’s about as factual and as obvious as gravity.
Another thing that makes me cringe––and I realize the irony of this––is the inspiration industry.
Specifically, inspirational quotes.
This is ironic because obviously I’m very focused in the transformational sphere and, more significantly, for as long as I can remember, I’ve been drawn to the wise saying.
Far before Instagram took over the planet, I found myself collecting my favorite adages.
Note: This may be genetic since my mother’s refrigerator is plastered with her favorite quotes, all of which she’s transcribed by hand.
It’s not so much the quotes themselves that bother me.
Rather it’s the implicit belief/hope that pastel memes alone can fix our lives.
They feel both truthful yet spiritually and psychologically lazy.
Unfortunately, nothing meaningful comes that easily.
Such quotes might thus best be seen as invitations, rather than a solutions.
And, if that’s the case, indeed it’s always nice to be invited.
SIDEBAR: There’s yet another level of irony here.
Namely, whenever I find myself personally quoted, it’s nearly always wildly out of context, if not a bit embarrassing.
Rather than anything heartfelt and spiritually sincere I’ve written in my many courses and books, 9 times out of 10, the quotes are from my novel Downward Dog, about a bad boy yoga teacher in NYC.
I wrote the book, of course, but the opinions offered are through the very specific lens of an extremely flawed charmer who does grow up a bit in the course of the narrative.
Nonetheless, I’ll get a google alert to see I’ve appeared on some website basically as “Snarky Quote” by Edward Vilga, as though I’m advocating my own personal worldview and not my character’s.
My favorite of these quotes––which has recently appeared not only on serious psychological websites about relationships but also even on one bizarre porn site with an oddly literary bent is:
“The Buddha of casual sex, I remain detached at all costs.”
––Edward Vilga––
In fact, I just stumbled on a site where that quote’s lead-in is “As author Edward Vilga advises us…”
(Sigh)
I’m also cringing a bit because for the new course 21 Days of Radical Abundance, I’ve shrunk away from some of the required self-promotion.
I beta-tested it with 100 people earlier this winter and yet I’ve failed to ask permission to cut and paste the many unsolicited endorsements it got for the sales page.
(It’s been a busy few weeks and I’ll do that soon enough.)
Mostly, however, even though I have ample proof that what I’m sharing is not only resonating, it’s truly helping people, I tend to pull back.
I most often believe, as Jack Kerouac said:
“I have nothing to offer anybody, except my own confusion.”
Yet I also know that sometimes that’s the most powerful thing we can do, sharing what we’ve learned from our struggles––even those still mid-process.
That’s what the course is all about in fact.
Rather than pastel memes, it’s about the profound struggles and hard-won victories I’ve experienced with Radical Abundance.
And that’s why I want to share it with you.
One final thought on inspiration, one that often keeps me afloat and helped inspire this new course.
Zig Ziglar, when confronted by people saying that motivation doesn’t last, responded with:
“Well, neither does bathing
––that’s why we recommend it daily.”
Unlike lots of other folks out there who promise you that you can manifest anything you desire, I’m not doing that.
I’m just saying thatsomething amazing might just manifest if we hang out together for 21 days…maybe even the 1st Christmas puppy you’d forgotten you wanted.
Finally, here’s the biggest mistake I’m making:
As journalists would say, I’ve buried the lede:
Vlad’s in all 21 short videos in the new course HERE.
Honestly, you can just mute me and simply watch him for 3 minutes every day…Doesn’t that seem totally worth it?
