Give to Others of What You Know

On the way to your Dream, others helped you — others whom you couldn't possibly repay. The old saying comes to mind, "Don't repay a kindness; pass it on." Another saying comes to mind, "Others do not give to you; they really give to themselves."

After fulfilling a Dream or two (or twenty), we will be called upon to pass on some of what we have learned to others. This can be in many forms. Just as, "When the student is ready, the teacher appears," so, too, "When the teacher is ready, the student appears."

When it comes time to teach, teach from your experience. Go out and do, learn from the doing, then teach from the knowing. If you read a lot of books on the subject, memorize a lot of platitudes, and set yourself up as guru, that's not teaching; that's hiding.

When you know, others will know, and they will know to ask the right questions. And, as busy as you might be, you will stop and give them the right answers. Why? Their intention pulls it from you.

Also, you'll be an even nicer person.

"The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic, and self-complacent is erroneous," wrote Somerset Maugham. "On the contrary, it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind. Failure makes people bitter and cruel."

Cast not ye pearls before swine — but it's noble to pass on a few gems to properly eager pearl divers.

The Tools for Achieving Material Goals Can Be Used for Achieving Non-Material Goals

The inner reflects the outer; the outer reflects the inner. What we learn from fulfilling Dreams in the outer world can be used for pursuing Dreams within ourselves.

After obtaining several material Dreams, you may wonder, "Where are these Dreams coming from?"

Important question. Seeking the answer to that question may begin an important inner quest.

"Try not to become a man of success," wrote Albert Einstein, 'Taut rather try to become a man of value."

The DO-IT Decade

As we mentioned at the start of this book, we refer to the last ten years of the 20th Century as The DO-IT Decade.

It's a significant period of time. It comes at the end of not just a century, but of a millennium. All the desires, aspirations, wishes, wants — Dreams, for short — that humans have had for the past thousand years can, in goodly measure, come true in the next ten.

It will take a lot of doers doing, however. That's our purpose in writing this book. We want people to know how to make Dreams come true — to become masters of manifestation.

When people give to themselves — when they fulfill their own Dreams — they are filled to overflowing. There are two interesting things about the overflow: (1) it is abundant, and (2) it can't be stored. What can one do with the overflow?

There's only one thing to do with it — give it away.

"Giving it away" is not standing on a street corner dispensing hugs. One gives of what one has. Whatever ability one has developed — in whatever area one has developed it — that's what is given.

Robert Ingersoll wrote at the end of the last century:

My creed is that:

Happiness is the only good.

The place to be happy is here.

The time to be happy is now.

The way to be happy is to make others so.

And there we have one of the great open secrets of life: giving to others gives us more than we give away. When people discover this, there's no stopping them. The idea that doing for others is a reluctant duty — like paying taxes, or picking seeds out of a watermelon — vanishes.

Giving — like fear, guilt, unworthiness, and all the rest — was put here for our upliftment.

Doing for others feels good.

Don't take our word for it, however. Give it a go. See what you think. Go ahead.

DO IT!

Humor and Fun

Life is a game. Like all games, it's only fun when we "take it all seriously" — when we get lost in the illusion, when it seems really real.

If someone stood over us while we were playing Monopoly, reminding us, "That's only paper; it's not real money. That's just plastic; those aren't real hotels. It's not a real jail they're going to send you to; it's just a square on a board," we'd throw him out of the room.

We want to believe the illusion is real, or else it wouldn't be any fun.

It wouldn't be any fun, either, if the competition wasn't very good and the score wasn't very close. Without that, it would be like playing tennis with a three-year-old. Lots of "victories," but very little fun.

"In terms of the game theory," explains George Leonard, "we might say the universe is so constituted as to maximize the play.

"The best games are not those in which all goes smoothly and steadily toward a certain conclusion, but those in which the outcome is always in doubt.

"Similarly, the geometry of life is designed to keep us at the point of maximum tension between certainty and uncertainty, order and chaos. Every important call is a close one. We survive and evolve by the skin of our teeth.

"We really wouldn't want it any other way."

Playing this game of life, something occasionally reminds us not to take it all too seriously. "Enjoy yourself," it says, "you'll never get out of this alive."

It's called humor.

"Humor is something that thrives between man's aspirations and his limitations," explained Victor Borge. "There is more logic in humor than in anything else. Because, you see, humor is truth."

Alice-Leone Moats described Philadelphia society in this way: "The parties all reminded me of the Gay Nineties — all the men are gay and the women are in their nineties."

Humor is truth, truth is humor.

Humor is probably most refreshing when we use it to look at ourselves.

"You grow up," said Ethel Barrymore, "the day you have your first good laugh — at yourself." Friederich Nietzsche wrote: "One is healthy when one can laugh at the earnestness and zeal with which one has been hypnotized by any single detail in one's life." (What other book in the world would have Ethel Barrymore and Friederich Nietzsche agreeing on something within the same paragraph?)

When things are going awful, terrible, horrible — it helps to remember that, in six months, you'll be telling this "tragedy" as an anecdote. You'll have your friends laughing hysterically about it. If it'll be funny then, it's funny now. By remembering that in the middle of the chaos, you can take a deep breath and say to yourself, "Relax. This is funny."

"Humor is emotional chaos," James Thurber explained, "remembered in emotional tranquility."

"Humor is an affirmation of dignity," said Romain Gary, "a declaration of man's superiority to all that befalls him."

¯

And so we come to the end of DO IT! But not really. Come back often — review the tools of achieving Dreams.

"If I had more time," Blaise Pascal wrote, "I would write a shorter letter."

And if we had more time, we would have written a shorter book, but we didn't. But at least we DID IT.

We will close with this from Guillaume Apollinaire —

"Come to the edge," he said.

They said, "We are afraid."

"Come to the edge," he said.

They came.

He pushed them...

And they flew.

About the Authors

JOHN-ROGER, an educator, has been very busy during the past twenty-nine years. He has traveled the world, teaching, lecturing, writing and presenting seminars on just about every conceivable area of personal growth. He has founded several organizations dedicated to a broad range of projects including health, education, spirit, philosophy, service, integrity, corporate excellence and individual and world peace. He has written twenty-nine books, recorded hundreds of audio and video tapes, and has a nationally syndicated television show, "That Which Is."

PETER McWILLIAMS published his first book, a collection of poetry, at the age of seventeen. His series of poetry books went on to sell more than 3,000,000 copies. A book he co-authored on meditation was #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, as was DO IT! Let's Get Off Our Buts. He is the co-author of How to Survive the Loss of a Love. His The Personal Computer Book was a bestseller. He is a nationally syndicated columnist, teaches seminars, and has appeared on the "Oprah Winfrey Show," "Donahue," "Larry King" and "The Today Show."

[1] Those who study the Bible and would like to know the Scriptural reference for much of this book, please read Matthew, chapter 7.

[2] For the purposes of simplicity, while talking about the comfort zone, when we mention "actions," assume we've included "thoughts," too. It will save cluttering up the next few chapters with several hundred "(or thoughts)."

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