“You are what your deepest desire is. As your desire is, so is your intention. As your intention is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.”  -Unknown

As the New Year began, some Rhino Living’s fans have emailed me with questions about achieving their goals in 2010.  Many Rhinos seem overwhelmed by the daily activities and responsibilities of life and being able to focus on their most important goals. Some of these issues could be managed by simple time management improvements; while others needed true commitments to their goals, thereby eliminating distractions. Another valuable way to get focused on your goals, and rapidly achieve them, is to focus on your intentions. By making your intentions clear to yourself, your family, your friends, and the universe, you bring powerful forces to your aid. Deepak Chopra has written extensively about the subject and his insights are very useful for Rhinos living a busy life. 

"Intention is the starting point of every dream. It is the creative power that fulfills all of our needs, whether for money, relationships, spiritual awakening, or love. Everything that happens in the universe begins with intention. When I decide to buy a birthday present, wiggle my toes, or call a friend, it all starts with intention" -Deepak Chopra

An intention is like a mental seed that can grow and blossom into an amazing success or goal. Intention, like a seed, needs nutrients and fertile ground to be able to grow.  Your intention, or in this case, bold Rhino idea, is very powerful. Once it becomes a permanent part of your subconscious mind, it grows and develops with very little effort on your part. You are naturally drawn to the right opportunities. You naturally make the right decisions and are constantly on the right path to achieve your goals.  When your intention becomes so intense that it is who you are, you naturally fill the original intention’s objective.  When you master this skill, you can use the power of intention to create anything you desire.  Here are five tips originated by Dr. Chopra-- enhanced with a little Rhino Power!

1.  Create Quiet Time to Think
This is the crucial stage of clearing the clutter! If you are stressed about achieving your goals and feel the real world getting in your way, you have not taken enough time to clear the daily noise and focus on your goals. Take time to harness the power of your subconscious mind by taking time to think about your goals.  Harness the power of your intentions by letting them sink into your fertile subconscious mind. Close out the noise, the emotions, the memories, and focus on your most important objectives.

2.  Tell the Universe What You Want
When you determine your goals, desires and objectives, and they are firmly implanted in your mind, release them! Tell the universe what you want, act as if, and change your home and work environment to remind you of your most important objectives. Send the message out and you will be surprised how the world around you responds to your intentions. Remember the world responds to you based on the energy and message you send it.

3.  Stay Strong! Tip the Cows in Your Life and in Your Head
Be confident and have faith that you will become your intention. Don't act out of fear.  Trust in your goals, your passions and your gut. You achieve your biggest goals when you have a rock solid, passionate commitment to them. Frantic fear and negative comments from others will weaken your focus, and take you off course. If right now you are feeling frustrated, tired and feel like life is too complicated to stay the path, it is because you are not staying strong and focused on your bigger vision. Your inner Rhino knows what to do; follow your gut and your passion.
   
4.  Let It Happen   
If your goal is implanted firmly in your head and your intentions are consistent, allow the universe to help you make it happen. Sometimes you will not know how it will work, sometimes it will seem impossible, but if you trust in your goals, your efforts and your intentions, it will bring about your desired results. Remember one of the Laws of the Jungle--the Law of Cause and Effect--everything will work out is based on your intentions and your actions.

5.  You Don’t Know and You Won't Know All the Answers!
The Universe is an extremely organized place operating by natural laws.  Specific actions and clear intentions put all the energy and intelligence in the universe at work towards your goals.  You will not know all the details to make your dreams a reality. Sometimes you will learn from mistakes, sometimes from hired experts, and sometimes good things will just happen. Start with the right attitude, focus on creating clear intentions, take actions consistent with that intention and watch the order and structure of the universe provide you with people and opportunities to make your dream a reality.

Achieving your goals rapidly in 2010 will result when you become your goals--when you simply become what you think about. Keep your intentions clear.  Focus on your most important desires and then act consistently with those intentions.  These steps will make achieving your goals faster, easier and with less stress a reality.

Charge!
Dave

Happy New Year Rhinos! I hope you have all enjoyed time with family and friends.  Maybe you took a trip or got a well deserved rest! I am writing to you from sunny Key West! Sunny and 80 degrees today. A great place to take time to think about the past year, and more importantly, plan for this year. Key West is an amazing town. I bought a home here a few years ago and it has remained my place to take a break from the world, to reconnect and refocus.

The Rhino Ghosts of Key West are part of what makes it a magical place. So many Rhinos have called Key West their home at some point in their lives, and they all leave their mark on this little island. Key West has been the home to President Harry Truman, writers like Hemingway and Tennessee Williams, musicians like Jimmy Buffet and even Madonna owned a home there. Billionaires, millionaires and some of the worlds most creative entrepreneurs, like my buddy Pat Croce, call Key West home. It is the most diverse four square miles on the planet. Which is one reason I am drawn there. Rhinos respect all different cultures, dreams, and people. They understand that by allowing other Rhinos to live their dream, it doesn't take anything away from their dream!

Being here helps me see through the limits of society or the limits of where I spend the most time. Key West is home to people that have lived an impossible dream; people that have tried and failed and people that have tried and succeeded. It reminds me that despite great adversity, you can achieve your dreams. Others before you have done it and others will continue to do it!

On this trip I was doing a 5 mile morning run with my daughter Ivy and we took the path that runs by the historic Key West cemetery. People of all races and religions are buried in this hodge podge above ground cemetery. Passing by tombstones of people that lived 100 years and people that lived only 20 years, it helps put life into perspective. What if tomorrow was your last day? Would you be happy? Would you feel you accomplished all that you could? Would you feel you lived the best life you could live?

I think most people would answer, "no." Maybe 2009 wasn't a great year for you. Maybe there were things you would like to change about yourself, your family, your career, your finances, and your hobbies. Well, DID YOU? If not, what are you waiting for? It's a brand new year, it's time to hit the reset button and create the life of your dreams! Nobody will create it for you. You can't just think about it--you need to ACT! The things you didn't like in 2009 will just continue to play out in 2010 if you don't change your path today.

Take time TODAY to Change Your Path!

I don't want you to make some silly New Year's Resolution that isn't important to you and that isn't consistent with your self-image. I want you to think about the things that really bothered you in 2009 and I want you to take steps to change them. Make sure they are ideas you are passionate about and make sure you believe you can accomplish them.

Here are a few examples you can use to plan your 2010 to be your best year ever:

More Family Time: Put it in your calendar now! Map out a day during the week for family dinner and let nothing else fill that spot. You are booked on that day at that time.

Better Health: Stop watching TV at night before you go to bed! Turn the TV off, get to sleep 30 minutes sooner and wake up 30 minutes earlier in the morning. Run on a treadmill, do a weight workout, do a workout video or go to the gym every morning when you roll out of bed! Do this before you do anything else everyday!

Better Career/Better Pay: Set you career goals for the next 3-6-9-12 months. If you work for someone else, share your goals and the goals for the company with your boss. Let your boss know you want to do more and earn more when you deliver on your goals! If you want to make more money in 2010, provide more and better service then you did in 2009! If you are your own boss, then you need to clear the distractions and put your eye on the big goals for 2010. Focus on your biggest goals and visions for yourself and make it the top priority.

New Hobbies: How many times in 2009 did you say you were going to start a new hobby or get back into an old hobby? It could be running, tennis, music, or collecting. Whatever it is... the key is to commit to your new hobby now! If you want to play tennis, sign up for lessons today. Whatever the hobby, get involved with a team, a group, lessons something that keeps you involved.

New Friends: Did some of your friends drive you nuts in 2009? Were they lazy, did they let you down, were they a bad influence in your life? Well time to pick your top 10! Remember you are the average of the 10 people you spend the most time with. Maybe you should create some open spaces for new friends and ditch the cows in your life!

2010 is totally up to you. On New Years Day, 2011, you could be looking back happy, proud and excited about your incredible past year... or you could be like the majority of people and look back on a year that wasn't much different then other years. A year where events and people impacted you instead of a year where you made an impact on the world!

As I finish this New Years letter, I am on a giant catamaran sailing back into Key West Harbor after a sunset snorkel, (yes even my little 2 year-old, Rhino Grady, got out in the ocean and loved it). As I look at Key West, I can see the magnificent hotel built by Flagler. He was an amazing Rhino! He built a railroad from Miami to Key West even though everyone told him he was crazy! Every cow in the Florida thought he was a nut, but he completed his dream and today there are roads, hotels, a college and even towns named after him! What is thought of crazy by current society may be seen as genius by future generations. Flagler put his entire empire on the line to make his railroad a reality even during the Great Depression!

They say if you took America and shook it up, all the biggest nuts would fall to Key West. I think it's actually where all the Rhinos go to live their dreams!

Happy New Year, Rhinos. Now get out there and create YOUR 2010!

Charge!
Dave

Success Comes from Charging through Failures

Even the best Rhinos will make mistakes and the more audacious your goals the bigger your mistakes will be!  The point to remember is that mistakes are the foundations of success.  You cannot be successful without having a string of failures in your past. Full grown Rhino's understand this and realize that Charging on and learning from the big and small failures is how you will become a huge success.

There are two ways to look at the world: the benevolent way (the Rhino way) or the pessimistic (Cow) way. The cow worldview takes a victim stance, seeing life as unfair, seeing the world oppressing them and observing nothing but obstacles preventing a happy, successful life. The cows expect problems and misery and that's exactly what they get. They see the world as hostile, negative and unfair.  As a result, their perception creates their reality.

Rhinos have positive worldview.  They see the world around them is filled with opportunities and possibilities. They look for the positive in all situations and they focus on positive events rather than negative setbacks.  Most importantly they see the universe as benevolent, conspiring to do good and help them achieve great things.  The benevolent universe approach helps the Rhino charge relentlessly at their dreams because they know that by following the Laws of the Jungle, the world will provide exactly what they need when they need it. It may not appear that everything is going to plan but the rhino knows if they continue to charge the right solution, the right rewards will present themselves. Rhinos approach their lives, their work, and their relationships with optimism, and a general attitude of positive expectations. They expect a lot of themselves and others, they are seldom disappointed.

Think and Act Like a Rhino... Eliminate Cow Thoughts

When you are charging through the jungle do not let cow thoughts penetrate your mind.  You will make mistakes its part of life in the jungle. When you make a mistake determine is it is worth your time to correct it or if you need to just move on. Sometimes you choose the wrong location for a business, hire the wrong employee or develop the wrong product.  Think with a Rhino mentality and determine if it is better for you to work through the crisis or if you should simply learn from the failure and charge on.

Eliminate Cow Actions

Failures and setbacks can allow the cow disease of inertia to set in according to Scott Alexander.  The worst result of failures is to develop cow fears, cow tendencies and then to take "safe" cow actions which might be no action at all.  Don't let fear of failures or actual failures paralyze you. Be aware of passive aggressive cow actions that become excuses preventing future success. You may have to fail 9 times to succeed on the 10th time. You may have to fail thousands of times before you are successful, just like Thomas Edison did.  Rhinos believe with positive emotion that eventually they will succeed if they continue to persist.  Cows hate change; Rhinos welcome change, mistakes and failures because they know standing still is the surest way to fail. A charging Rhino will out smart, out create and out last the Cow every time.

Learn from your mistakes, realize success will eventually be yours and charge into this benevolent universe.

Charge!
Dave