My Long Term Plans Are Firmly Set In Jello
My Unplan
My Unplan
A wise man once said, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans," and I am inclined to agree with him. My plan is to get in agreement with God about who I am and what I can do with my life. It's not that I don't have any plans. Rather I have a general direction to my life and my bucket list is half a mile long, but my time is in God's hands, and his plan is better than anything I can imagine. God is going to take all of my choices, mistakes, and failures and turn them into something good. That's my plan, and I'm sticking to it.
I am the man with the unplan. What is the unplan? The unplan is simple: my long range plans are firmly set in jello, and are therefore subject to revision, reversal, and massive change. Although I know who I am and where I am going, I don't have any long term plans set in concrete.
My life is full of maybes, perhaps, and possibilities, but real long range plans are clearly out of the question. Three of my colleagues who had long term plans are no longer alive, and the handwriting is on the wall and in clear focus. The message says, "Today is the only day I have, and I need to make it count for something good."
I used to be a man with a plan, When I was halfway through college, I made a plan to go to medical school, and I did it right on schedule. But after that, the unplan took over. When I was an intern, I planned to become a pathologist, but instead, I became an eye surgeon. I planned to practice general ophthalmology, and instead became a retina and vitreous surgeon. I made a plan to work overseas in Saudi Arabia for five years, and instead stayed for eleven years before I set sail on the ocean of my dreams. I planned to spend two years sailing around the world on my yacht, and it took eleven more years to complete my circumnavigation.
Life has been full of twists, turns, and reverses, and it's easy to see why I am the man with the unplan. I didn't realize I was the man with the unplan until I had a car accident in New Zealand. When I rolled the van I was driving, I broke two legs, five ribs, one scapula, and I punctured one lung. I spent nine days in the intensive care unit, had three operations, and received seven units of blood - all of this was quite unplanned. I stayed in the hospital for two months and gradually regained my ability to walk. It took six months to be able to bend my right knee ninety degrees, and that made it difficult to climb on and off my yacht.
While I was hobbling around on crutches in Whangerei, New Zealand, I passed a real estate office that had an advertisement in the window for waterfront property - one kilometer of ocean frontage. At the bottom of the advertisement were the words, "For long term plans." I looked at those words and burst out laughing. Those words - long term plans - were massively presumptuous in the world in which I lived. In my world, I didn't know if I would ever walk normally again. Skipping and running were out of the question. First, I had to progress from hobbling to limping. Even my trip around the world on my sailboat was up in the air; I didn't know when or if it would ever continue.
I realized then and there that I was the man with the unplan. Although I had a general direction to my life, and I had a list of things that I wanted to do, I no longer had solid plans or even a schedule. My life was full of possiblities, but long term plans were a thing of the past. When you are fifty years old, and you don't know how much time you have left, you leave the long term plans to young whippersnappers who feel like they are immortal.
Since that time, I have been living more in the moment, and I have a general direction to my unplanned existence.
The truth is, I was never very good at squeezing my life into any type of mold, and plans are sometimes the most restrictive molds of all. Anyway, the majority of my plans have turned out different, maybe even better, than I had hoped. So I have decided to stick with my unplan and see what happens. One thing you know for certain, we will be surprised when we see how it all turns out.
By the way, God, if you happen to be listening, I would appreciate it if you would extend my unwitting and unplanned existence for another forty or fifty years, because there is so much to do and so little time, and I want to make the next fifty years into a real adventure. I promise I will do better this time. Amen.
THERE ARE NO LIMITS, ONLY LIMITING BELIEFS
Positive Thinking Doctor
Dr. Dave is the Encourager In Chief of the Positive Thinking Network. He believes there are no limits. There are only limiting beliefs. Dr. Dave is committed to make a positive difference in your life. The wheel of change always turns in the direction of what you put into your mind, and Dr. Dave and the Positive Thinking Network have the resources to turn your life in a positive direction. It's time to develop a persistently positive focus so that you can have a consistently positive mind. It's time to change your world.
The Positive Channel
The best place to get your daily dose of positive thinking is The Positive Channel. Positive thoughts are just a click away. This is your opportunity to change the way you think and feel about who you are and what you can do with your life. If you want to change your life, you must first change the way you think. When you change the things you think about, the way you think about things changes. When you change the things you talk about, the way you talk about things changes. Your new life starts today when you start putting positive things into your mind.
YOU WILL SEE IT WHEN YOU BELIEVE IT
UNSTOPPABLE, RELENTLESS TENACITY MAKES DREAMS COME TRUE
Dr. Dave Says
At the end of each decade of your life, you should sit down and write a short essay entitled "What I Have Learned So Far." Each decade is different, and the lessons you learn are different as well. It's almost as if you get a new life during each decade. Your beliefs change about who you are and what you can do, and you actually become a different person.
Maxing Out
Join Team Maxing Out as they sail around the world on their Privilege 39 catamaran, Exit Only. Experience their adventures as they sail through pirate alley and up the Red Sea. Find out what it like to sail through a global tsunami in Thailand. Sail up the Kumai River in Borneo and visit the endangered Orangutans of Kalimantan. Ride out a storm at sea as Exit Only sails from Gibraltar to the Canary Islands. Discover what it is like to sail on the ocean of your dreams.
Words Cruisers Never Say
We have been sailing around the world for eleven years on our catamaran, Exit Only, and what a trip it has been, full of agony and ecstasy, and everything in between. Captain Dave nearly died in a car accident in New Zealand, and I reckon that qualifies as agony. In the ecstasy department, we sailed 33,000 miles around the world, and have seen the things sailing dreams are made of.
POSITIVE THINKING BOOKS FROM DR. DAVE
Eight Books of Positive Self-Talk
More Than 700 Power Graphics
This is your opportunity to push your mind in a positive direction with Positive Power Graphics from Dr. Dave
Positive Power Graphics
Self-Talk Podcasts
Give Your Mind a Push in a Positive Direction
The Wheel of Change Always Turns in the Direction of What You Put into Your Mind
Owner's Manual For Your Mind
The Owner's Manual for Your Mind contains thirty-one Change Principles that empower you to make a life. You no longer worship at the altar of security, content to only make a living. The Change Principles show yo how to make a life. Don't timidly tiptoe through life waiting to go for your dreams. You have only one life. The clock is ticking, there are no timeouts, and there is nothing to wait for. Today is the only day you can make your dreams happen. Seize the day. Live as if you are a great person. Renew you mind with positive and empowering thoughts. Achieve excellence in at least one area of your life. Adopt zero tolerance to negative thinking. Don't accept any limitations. Never quit working on your dreams. The Owner's Manual for your mind is now available in ebook format at Amazon, iTunes, Kobo and Barnes and Noble. Don't just make a living. Instead make a life using the thirty-one Change Principles found in Owner's Manual for Your Mind. There are no limitations. There are only limiting beliefs.
Programmer's Manual For Your Mind
The Programmer’s Manual for Your Mind contains the tools you need to reprogram your mind with a positive operating system. It’s your Personal Tool Kit that shows you how to change the way you think and feel. Your mind is actually being programmed all the time without you being aware that it’s happening. The problem is that someone else is doing the programming. Make no mistake about it. If you don’t program your mind, other people will. Whether you like it or not, you are engaged in mortal mental combat, and your mind is ground zero. If you let your culture, the media, the government, and politicians do the programming, you will be in real trouble. You will not be running your own mind. They will be running it. You will not be living your dreams. You will be living theirs.The Programmer's Manual for Your Mind is now available in ebook format at Amazon, iTunes, Kobo and Barnes and Noble. Start reprogramming your mind today using the tools found in the Programmer’s Manual for Your Mind. Remember, if you want to have a positive mind, nobody can stop you.
Real Power: Maxingout On God's Love
God is love and works by love. The power and presence of God in my life is love. Every time I see love, I see God's hand at work. Every time I feel love, I experience God's presence and power. When my mind is full of thoughts consistent with God's love, my thoughts are healthy, and my mind is exactly the way God means for it to be. When my heart is full of emotions consistent with God's love, my emotions are healthy, and they are exactly the way God means for them to be. There is no limit to how good my life can become when I open my heart and mind to the power of His love. God loves and accepts me the way I am, but He loves me to much to let me stay that way. He loves me from the top of my head to the tip of my toes, and it does not get any better than that. For the rest of my life I will max out on God's love. Real Power: Maxing Out on God's Love is now available in ebook format at Amazon, iTunes, Kobo and Barnes and Noble.
Zero Tolerance To Negative Thinking
Overcoming depression is hard, perhaps the hardest thing you will ever do. But if you want to have a mind free from depression, nobody can stop you. Your emotions are a reflection of your thoughts. When you change your thoughts, your emotions automatically follow. You don't have to battle the negative and twisted emotions echoing in your mind. Instead you need to learn how to change the way you think, and your emotions will naturally take care of themselves. The challenge you face in depression is to change the way you think. If you want to change the way you think and feel, you are going to have to change your inner dialogue. You are going to have to talk to your mind in a different manner. A persistently positive focus creates a consistently positive mind. The battle for a positive mind is fought on the battlefield of focus. In order to break the back of depression, you will have to learn how to persistently and consistently control your mental focus. Zero Tolerance to Negative Thinking is now available in ebook format at Amazon, iTunes, Kobo and Barnes and Noble.
Quantum Self-Talk
Too many people have a false model for change. They try to change their life by trying to change their life, and that is the recipe for failure. They are skipping all the steps that make change possible. Big changes don’t involve tweaks. They involve jumps. This book contains quantum self-talk that you need to have in your mind so that you can make a quantum leap to the next level. One hundred Power Graphics make it easy to put positive self-talk into your mind. The power of positive repetition is immense, and when your mind starts repeating quantum self-talk back to you, hang on tight, because you are ready to make a quantum leap to the next level. You have thousands of quantum leaps to make in your life, and quantum self-talk is a great place to start. Happy quantum leaping. Quantum Self-Talk is now available in ebook format at Amazon, iTunes, Kobo and Barnes and Noble.
Positive Self-Talk Yellow Book
Many people believe change is impossible. Most of the time they are confusing personality with personal behavior. The basic human personality is relatively constant over time, but human behavior can and does change. Personal change happens when people change the way they think. I have numerous patients formerly addicted to meth, cocaine, heroine, and alcohol, who escaped their addictions without ever going to rehab for treatment. They simply arrived at a point in their life where they no longer wanted to be prisoners of their addictions. They had experienced enough misery to last ten lifetimes, and they said no more. They changed their belief about who they are and what they can do with their life, and they became a different person who was chemical free. I am grateful to those patients, because they proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that people in the worst circumstances can and do change. Because of them, I am committed to helping people change their lives one belief at a time using positve self-talk. Positive Self-Talk Yellow Book is now available in ebook format at Amazon, iTunes, Kobo and Barnes and Noble.
Positive Self-Talk Gold Book
Mark Twain wrote, “Life does not consist mainly, or even largely, of facts or happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever blowing though one’s head.” Mark Twain was right. Life consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that blow through your mind. The events of life can be trivial, tragic, and even monumental in nature, but the events themselves have little power. It’s the storm of thoughts about those events that controls our lives. Surviving the storm of thoughts is how we spend most of our time. No matter what we do, the storm still blows, and to a significant degree shapes our lives. Surviving the storm is something we do every day all day long. An entourage of thoughts accompanies each event in our lives. Those thoughts can be positive, negative, or most likely, something in between. Those thoughts are the battleground where we come to our agreement with life. Those thoughts define who we are and what we can do. You need to learn how to control the storm of thoughts blowing through your mind. Positive Self-Talk Gold Book is now available in ebook format at Amazon, iTunes, Kobo and Barnes and Noble.
Positive Self-Talk Silver Book
You can change who you are by changing what you say when you talk to your mind. Just be sure you are speaking a language your mind understands. Your brain speaks to you in its own language, and if you speak to it in the same way, it immediately responds in a powerful fashion. That’s why change proceeds most rapidly when you talk to yourself using the language of the mind. If you don’t speak the language of the mind, you may as well stop talking until you learn it. The three most powerful components of the language of the mind are images, sounds, and emotions. When my brain wants to get my attention, it does not send a text or an email. It blows me away with sights, sounds, and emotions. If you want to get your brain’s attention, you need to do the same thing. Send a message full of sights, sounds, and emotions. Start speaking the language that your mind understands. Positive Self-Talk Silver Book is now available in ebook format at Amazon, iTunes, Kobo and Barnes and Noble.
Maximum Strength Positive Thinking
Maximum Strength Positive Thinking tells you what to say when you talk to your mind, and what to say when your mind talks to you. You have a lot of things to discuss with your mind, and Maximum Strength Positive Thinking tells you what you should be talking about. You don't need to spend years searching for empowering ideas that make it possible to live your dreams. It's already right here in a self-talk format. The Law of Positive Self-Talk states, "You can change who you are by changing what you say when you talk to your mind." If you don't like what you hear when your mind talks to you, you have the power to change the message. Although the wheel of change turns slowly, it always turns in the direction of what you put into your mind. When you fill your mind with positive self-talk and more than one-hundred Power Graphics, your life improves by leaps and bounds. Maximum Strength Positive Thinking is now available in eBook Format at Amazon, iTunes, Kobo and Barnes and Noble. Make your life better today by putting Maximum Strength Positive Thinking into your mind.
Positive Christian Self-Talk
Positive Christian Self-Talk is as much about God as it is about you. The self-talk contained in this book is designed to change your life. You learn to think the way that God thinks and speak the way that God speaks so that your self-talk has real power. It's time to get in agreement with God about who you are and what you can do with your life. It's time to speak your new life into existence. Jesus said, "As you believe, so shall it be done unto you." Jesus was talking about positive expectations. You don't get what you want, you get what you expect. It doesn't matter if your expectations are positive or negative, you still get what you expect. If you want positive self-talk to work in your life, all of your self-talk must be forged in the fires of positive expectations. It's time to jump into God's ocean of love and have a life changing experience. Positive Christian Self-Talk points your life in the right direction and gives you the power to make the trip. Positive Christian Self-Talk is now available in ebook format at Amazon, iTunes, Kobo and Barnes and Noble.
Positive Self-Talk Purple Book
Living small serves no great purpose. Living as if you are a great person is a powerful idea that changes lives, and those who take it seriously change their world. Living as if you are great means you live as if your dreams are possible and work each day to make them happen. You act as if you cannot fail. In order to live as if you are great, you have to think the way great people think, talk the way great people talk, and act the way great people act. Great people think, talk, and act their dreams into existence. If you ever become great, it will be because you think great thoughts, repeat great self-talk, have great expectations, and act as if you cannot fail. Some people wrongly believe that change is impossible. Leopards don't change their spots, and zebra stripes are forever. But people are different. People change their stars. They change their stripes, and their spots disappear in an instant of time. That instant happens the moment they develop positive expectations and believe they have the power to change. Positive self-talk and positive expectations can take you anywhere you want to go. Positive Self-Talk Purple Book is now available in ebook format at Amazon, iTunes, Kobo and Barnes and Noble.
Positive Self-Talk Red Book
A persistently positive focus creates a consistently positive mind. The same is true of your self-talk. It must be persistent, positive, and specific to have maximum impact. Lack of persistentce has laid more dreams to rest in the cemetery of failure than any other cause. There is zero chance that you will succeed on your first attempt. If your dreams are great, You will fail again and again on your way to the top. Before you can be great, you have to be good. Before you can be good, you have to be bad. Before you can be bad, you have to try. Millions of people stop at try. Thousands get stuck at bad. Hundreds quit at good. A few go all the way to great. If you don't have persistence, you willl never make the trip from try to bad to good to great. Positive Self-Talk Red Book helps you develop a persistently positive focus so that you can develop a consistently positive mind. More than one-hundred Power Graphics contain powerful thoughts that you need to have in your mind. Positive Self-Talk Red Book is now available at Amazon, iTunes, Kobo and Barnes and Noble.
Jesus said, "Did I not tell you, that if you only believe, you would see the glory of God?" God has unlimited power, but He needs people who believe to manifest that power in the world. When you believe, you take the handcuffs off God, and miracles start to happen.
GOD NEEDS A FEW GOOD MEN AND A FEW GOOD WOMEN WHO WANT TO CHANGE THE WORLD.