Na na na na na na na na Batman!

Batman! da na na na na na na na Batman! da na na na na na na na, BATMAN! da na na na na na na na batman! da na na na na na na na BATMAN! Batman! Batman! da na na na na na na na... !!!

Before there was Michael Keaton, before sexy Val Kilmer, before most eligible bachelor George Clooney, or dark brooding Christian Bale... there was the one... the only... ADAM WEST.

And if any of you were actually singing to the opening da na na na na na na, theme song to this post, then you know the legend of whom I speak.

BLAM! KAPOW! BOOM!

And tonight, at the largest comic convention in the prairies, Mr. Adam West warmly returned my handshake accompanied by words so flattering they would have melted dark chocolate on a iceberg floating in the Atlantic on a cold January morning.

To anyone but a trained eye, it would have looked (and sounded) a lot like he was flirting. And to my boys, the story will always be:

"Remember the time when Batman hit on mom?"

But keeping my fragile female vanity in check (and to be fair to all the other adoring fans), he was, upon keen observation, simply portraying the true picture of grace and appreciation that he is.

On some level, here was a man who understood that adoring fans (and the timeless popularity of an iconic series based on one of DC's greatest heroes), were directly responsible for affording him this unbelievable life.

Think about it. He gets to make people happy with his mere presence. And makes a lot of money doing it. Bonus!

But not all celebrities feel that way.

There are enough stories of celebs who make no bones about their distaste for the paparazzi and adoring fans to make you wonder why they ever chose acting in the first place.

But then again, like everything else, it all comes down to that feeling thing again.

And I bet Adam West is a lot happier than someone like Megan Fox whose negativity on set is becoming legendary among crew members (who long for the day when she is a has-been doing porn for less than a hooker makes on nickel day as punishment for being evil to people who have done nothing but show her unwarranted civility).

It may sound corny, but being grateful for the little things is a big deal when it comes to the quality of your life. It has to do again, with perception.

As you think, so you shall be.

And experience has taught me that people who are grateful for where they are in life and what they have regardless of what it is (ie; dreams achieved or not), are simply better off on all levels.

Ironically, being grateful usually brings it own reward in the form of serendipitous events that carry within them seeds of opportunity that hold the potential to propel one forward to the very goals that elude them.

But in the end, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun without those struggles.

Our best stories - the ones shared over drinks at the bar, or at backyard parties - are comprised of the struggles we endured along the way and how alive some of those challenges made us feel as each one tested our character to the limit.

I'm sure whoever set up the game, had this in mind.

Or in the words of Robin:

The way we get into these scrapes and get out of them, it's almost as though someone was dreaming up these situations; guiding our destiny. - Robin

So whether Adam West was destined to be Batman, or Megan Fox destined to be the hot chick in action flicks, or whether I am destined to be a best-selling author is something we'll never know.

But we control the journey to a large extent, with our attitudes.

And I for one, would like to thank Mr. Adam West for reminding me.

Once more with feeling...

Just so y'all know... acting "as if" is not about owning a BMW.

It never was. It could be, if that's what floated my boat. But it doesn't have to be.

It's all about the feeling.

Manifesting principles are all about working and feeling your way to a better life, to a better frame of mind.

And in my books, the best kind of life has to do with quality - not quantity.

That means quality of living, quality of time well spent. Less 9-5, more doing what I was designed to do in life (and from wherever I choose), while balancing that 'career' with a bucket list that sounds more like a permanent adventure vacation mixed in with rest periods of rejuvenating hedonism.

How do I feel getting up in the morning, about to face another day of what it is that I do? Am I doing what I do best? Or am I just doing what I am doing because those are the cards I was dealt?

I believe in stacking the deck in one's favor.

Ferriss refers to quality of life as that which gives you the most freedom. In doing so, he compares relative income to absolute income. Relative income uses two variables (p. 36) - dollar and time, while absolute income uses one -dollar.

If you make $100,000 a year by working 80 hours a week, you've worked a total of 4,160 hours - minus your 80 hours vacation per year - 4,080 hours. $100,000 divided by 4,080 = approximately $24.50/hr.

That's your hourly wage.

And if you're lucky, you've had 2 weeks in the sun as a respite from all that stress. But your absolute income is $100,000.

Say you make an income of $50,000 a year, but work only 10 hours a week, you start to factor in the free time you have. This becomes relative income. 10 hours a week works out to 520 hours a year. 50,000 divided by 520 = you're making approximately $96/hr.

Dude B is making almost four times as much as dude A given the amount of time each spends actually working. It's all relative.

If you love what you do to the point where those hours feel more like fun than work, then by all means, knock yerself out. But my guess is that's the exception, not the norm for most people.

And to participate in a lifestyle that is based on relative income, you have to have an idea, a job, or a platform upon which you can slowly extricate yourself from the rat race, one hour at a time, until you are performing your 'duties' either remotely or without so many hours of stress-inducing office-environment obligations.

Hence the book. Which requires (almost always) an agent, who is part of a hierarchy without which your chances of having publishing doors open are practically nil - guaranteed.

(We are practically invisible in this world without the chains of command that bind us to each other).

Here's where that 'feeling' comes in again: It's only a good feeling when you control it and make it so.

If someone in the chain of command of your life - someone to which you have given certain power, responsibility or emotional authority - either doesn't step up to the plate, falls short, or is too busy to do so, then that feeling you have managed to sustain may be in jeopardy - UNLESS, you have a backup plan.

As I am slowly discovering, I will be waiting for weeks before anything I wrote will be read by my agent, let alone sent to a publishing house because, "That's just the way it is. Things move slowly in the field of publishing." One client at a time...

I won't get into the details that made me feel like I should have been mailed one of those numbers you pull from the dispenser at a deli along with my contract, except that I am in a 'queue' patiently waiting my turn.

And I have no choice. Or do I?

After getting over the shock that I am insignificant in the large scheme of things because I am unknown, unproven and unpublished, I turned once again to the thing that drives me forward...

Call it a feeling

It took me a few days to generate that feeling again that told me a combination of faith and hard work was my surefire recipe for success, but I got it back.

After managing to successfully generate and sustain a limitless possibilities feeling, based purely on speculation alone, unrecognized talent and sheer determination I am ashamed to admit, one conversation was all it took to send me spinning backwards into doubt mode.

And it wasn't even my agent's fault. She's just swamped and busy beyond. I could hear it in her voice. (That, and she asked me the same questions she did before, the answers to which she already knew).

I still think she's a gunner. I just have to give her time. But that's not the point.

Like I've said before - we are entirely responsible for our own 'feelings'. And those feelings are largely what dictates our successes and our failures.

I may not be able to control what anyone else says or does (or doesn't say or do for that matter), but the one thing I can control is how I respond.

That was a huge lesson for me this week. And it took me a few days until I could even write about it because I was so choked.

Now however, I'm back on board and ready for a new strategy. After all, if I want things to clip along more quickly, nobody's holding me back.

Except me.

Time to get out of my own way.

"Acting as if" - How the Adventure Played Out

Since the Audi dealership was on the way to BMW, it was my AP's turn to go first. Besides, she was better than me at acting "as if" - I had seen her do it before - so I needed to see how things were done.

I parked my car in the adjacent lot and we walked up to the Audi showroom. I had my camera up the left sleeve of my jacket ready to capture an "as if" snapshot at a moment's notice.

When the salesman approached us, I watched in awe as my normally soft-spoken AP pulled off an Oscar-worthy performance, as she (without so much as batting an eyelash) asked the friendly salesman if he had an Audi "cab" she could look at somewhere on the premises.

"Someone just took it out for a test drive. They should be back in about twenty minutes if you care to do the same."

"That would be nice", she said.

Please God, no.I thought.

It is my firm belief that at that moment, the Gods heard me and set up a traffic jam to prevent such an occurrence as this vehicle never made it back in time before we left.

Once we were actually in the showroom, I bantered far too much with the salesman (a transparent ploy to hide my nervousness) as my AP gracefully climbed behind the wheel of a vehicle that vastly exceeded my yearly earnings and asked me to take a photo of her from every angle.

Every angle???All I could think was they would suspect we were setting things up for a B & E Hollywood style like bank robbers do with hidden cameras before a heist.

But, never to cower before a challenge, I proceeded to tell the salesman an 'insider's' tidbit - "She just wants to see how she looks in it before she buys. She thinks black washes her out - she's an 'autumn'" and looked at him with that 'you know' to emphasize that innate fashion sense every woman is born with.

Much to my relief, it worked. We left shortly thereafter but not before my AP promised the salesman she would be in touch by Tuesday if she was interested to discuss her order.

Nice touch.

Now it was my turn.

As we made the trek to BMW, as good as I felt and as valuable as I found this exercise to be, there was NO WAY ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH I could legitimately pretend I was buying a Beamer.

The best I could muster was "Just looking". And on that note, I wasn't budging.

I had to work my way up to the extreme role-playing mode until such a time as the thought that God might smote me down for such folly was completely eradicated from my mind.

The way I saw it, guilt was bound to defeat the prupose of this exercise. Better to start small, then go big over time. I was after all, only in the process of building up to the belief that I was worth it. On many levels, my AP was already there.

So we compromised.

I found my chosen convertible BMW cabriolet in the parking lot and meekly asked my AP if she could take my picture leaning against it so we could call it a day and go for beer n' Nachos. I was starving.

NO

So we entered the showroom guided by a devilishly handsome salesman with a dry sense of humor who knew the ins and outs of the BMW body the way bunnies do the Playboy Mansion. He then explained that "BMW owners are a fun, active lot, who seem to enjoy life more than most".

That's me! This is good! I could feel my comfort level rising. Keep talkin'.

And that's when I saw it:

the 2010 BMW 6 series Cabriolet in black.

Her top was down and she was calling me.

We stepped towards the car and suddenly the grin on my face was unmistakeable. As the salesman went to his office to fetch the brochure my AP asked him to get for me, she turned to me and said:

"Get in."

With some trepidation, I climbed into the driver's seat cognizant of the fact that I was only there for the experience and looked around me at all the gadgets wondering if it would ever feel the way it did for my AP back at Audi.

Slowly, I realized - She was beautiful.

Before I knew it, I had run my finger across the real wood finishing, gently caressed the heated steering wheel with awe, and stroked the leather seats that I was now convinced were mine.

Oh yeah babi. I was all over it.

By the time the salesman had returned with my glossy brochure, my AP had taken four shots of me in the car from various angles. But I was in my own little world.

As the salesman opened the car door and smiled down at me, there was only one thing on my mind. I turned to him and said:

"Does it come in white?"

I was hooked.

And I finally accepted that I was having fun. I felt like a kid in a candy store.

Suddenly it was easy to let the salesman talk about all the features of each car and tell me in great detail about the craftsmanship and engineering genius of BMW and the color combinations available in each series, because I was genuinely interested in a way that exceeded mere curiosity.

I was relegating this information to memory for future use. For my future self. And I was as giddy as a school girl experiencing the joy of her first crush.

Yes indeed. In that moment, I OWNED my future self. And it felt great.

By the end of our little adventure, I was sold on a white, Series 6 BMW Convertible Cabriolet with a tan top and tan interior. Or "at the very least", I told my new 'friend', "I'm going to lease one some day soon." and meant it.

Piece o' cake.

Next - Celebrating the half-way point - Where do we go from here.

Acting "As If" - the morning set-up

I woke up Saturday with the sore throat I had been fighting all week and said to myself: As if! Not today of all days!

...and decided right then and there that nothing, and I mean nothing was about to distract me from the task at hand.

So I prepared.

I knew I had some time before I had to pick up my AP and thought I should get into character from the get-go.

So after winding myself up to a degree of enthusiasm exceeded only by the jackpot winnner of the nickel slots in Vegas, I managed to choke down two cups of a Tibetan tea recipe that challenged my gag reflex but knocked my startled virus into different time zone.

Happy with my progress thus far, I set about thinking:

Today is all about me. So what would make me happy?

Well, the sun for one thing.

It had been unusually cloudy of late and frankly that was starting to piss me off. Not that I suffer from S.A.D. or anything but a sunny day is like medicine for the soul. So I decided I was going to get me some.

I hit a tannning salon for 8 minutes of glorious manmade UVA rays and imagined I was in Hawaii catching a few while waiting for my surfing lesson to start.

Then I washed my car. After all, if I'm about to trade it in for a BMW, I would make sure it was clean!

Then I went to the store and picked up a box of organic green mix (not something I normally do as it's pricier) and then adamantly refused to buy the option 2 box of chicken I wanted as this was after all, suppose to be a day when one does not settle for second best. So I didn't.

Yep, I am proud to say I silenced the bargain shopper in me faster than the mob silences the idiot who leaves a witness protection program of their own volition.

Then I went to the gym. Great workout. Not too much, just enough to feel good, not sore or strained.

Came home, showered, napped briefly, changed, grabbed my camera and left.

So far, it was the perfect day.

First stop - Audi

Virtual visualization

It's "Act as If" day tomorrow.

And I'm going shopping for a Beamer.

That's right. I'm going window car shopping with my AP as part of the Six Month Experiment.

You can't get what you want out of life without a combination of planning, hard work and some seriously kick-ass visualization techniques. And if you can't have a little fun doing it, what's the point?

Now I have to admit that I originally found the thought of doing this mortifying.

If I lived in a big city like Chicago, I could care less about walking into a dealership and telling someone I want to "test drive your new BMW Convertible Cabriolet".

I'd take 'er for a spin, drop 'er back off and never be seen again.

But this place is like living in a fishbowl. I mean, if I can run into my son and his friends at the entrance to Carlos n' Murphy's on a Friday night, chances are...

So here I was, practically arguing with my AP about how I was, "Fine doing this as long as I can tell them it's part of the Experiment" while she is telling me, "If you do that, then you're missing the whole point! You're suppose to be acting as if. Telling them defeats the purpose. We don't have to tell them anything."

She finally agreed that I could tell them I was 'just looking.' However, it's one thing to tell that to a clerk at a shoe store and quite another to tell a finely tuned salesman at a pricey car dealership.

But the kicker is, I have to get behind the wheel of the damn thing in a showroom while my AP takes my picture for a dream board (our follow-up activity).

Now THAT should be interesting.

And it's not that I actually want a Beamer - though there is something enticing about the coupe's carbon-fiber roof, which keeps weight down to less than that of the M5 by about 100 pounds, or that seven-speed sequential manual gearbox which can pop off shifts in the blink of an eye -rather, it's getting comfortable with the idea that you deserve one.

Or for that matter, anything else that comes your way as a result of hard work and dedication. Enjoying the fruits of your labor is an art.

It's all about accepting success as part of your life. And when you're not accustomed to it, that can be a hard egg to crack no matter how much you think you deserve it or how hard you've worked for it.

A good AP knows these things about you.

So what does she do today? Buys me the Exotic Car Magazine Buyer's Guide 2010 with a Lamborghini on the front cover and says: Your BMW M6 is on p. 50.

Looks like we're going tomorrow.

But I know it's all for the best and part of my reintegration to an abundant frame of mind. And it's an absolutely essential part of the manifesting process. Because if you're not ready for it, you'll never be able to hang on to it.

In Success Principles Jack talks about a Come as you will be 5 years from now party he once attended as part of an exercise in visualization.

I realized that the people who had those dreams were just like me. And every single one of them who attended that celebratory bash as the best version of themselves, went on to achieve all they had pretended to that evening and more.

Every single one.

Including a duo of women who imagined they were best-selling authors but had not yet even written the outline for their book.

I don't know about you, but I find that inspiring. And I'm one step ahead.

So before I lay out how I'm going to up my game for the next 3 months, (two posts from now) I'm going to spend tomorrow plowing through some blocks by acting 'as if' everything I ever dreamed of being, doing, or having was currently possible in this, present moment.

After all, it's the only one that exists...

coming soon: Tales from a day As If