Crunch times??? Emergency Techniques?

[decterlove]

I got laid off a year ago and have been diligently working towards developing an entertainment service for kids at schools and parties....but am still only getting about one booking (schools...I make about $100 a gig..) a week and am heading into a real crisis in the next few weeks........

I gave up an apt I had and have been house sitting since January hoping that the extra few months would make a difference in getting consistent bookings....and looking for some pt work, developing a few other ideas as well...

I only have a few more weeks...........just got off the phone with my exroommate who is teaching meditation in Thailand........and got a little good news..........have till mid April that I can stay where I'm staying vs April 1....the date I believed was the deadline when I started composing this.....so already a little miracle! (He was supposed to be in touch about 2 weeks ago so I've been sweating in out hoping for a little extra window..)

The bottom line is this.............I've done a ton of work already in promoting this idea I love and checking out all the other pt possibilities that might help stabilize my situation and I'm only getting a little trickle of results back......

I've been using manifestation techniques....focusing over and over again on ;what I want.....listening to cds, reading JV books etc etc....and I'm still facing the radically unpleasant possibility of being homeless in a few weeks...

I've been thru similar situations before and I keep reminding myself that each one ultimately worked out perfectly...........but each new situation presents a slightly different set of variables and hits all the fear buttons again....(I swore after I got back to my last job 5 years ago...an amazing set of perfect coincidences and timing, that I would never distrust God/the Universe again...but here I am!)

My biggest fear is that I'm feeling paralyzed around these issues and I can't focus as much as I think I should be focusing on taking actions steps that could be taken. I'm just plain overwhelmed every few days.......

Anybody got any special techniques they have used personally to get thru the last vortex/void before the "dawns"?

[Honky_Spiritbird]

Hmm. Well, considering you make $100 a week at it... while small, it's still coming in with regularity. You'd think somehow you could be able to make that grow.

To think good thoughts it sounds like you'll really have to focus on thinking good thoughts. Really be strict about where your mind goes at all times right now. If you focus hard enough you can do it. Affirmations work well for me, but they aren't magic, you have to have conviction behind them. Which no matter which route you take the same will apply.

Do you meditate too? Does it help clear your head?

What exactly is your entertainment service? What have you already tried to do to promote it?

[bellbird]

Can I ask what you have done regarding to marketing yourself? Ofcourse IM can work well etc but it would be beneficial as well to get stuck in the networking department. If you do gigs at schools, do you talk to teachers/parents etc? Did you visit other schools to show what you do or talk about it? Do you have a website? Are there other opportunities for you, businesses etc where you could do your gigs? What is the feedback on what you do? Why do people like you coming back at the school once a week to see and listen to what you do? What makes you stand out and be different? Maybe it would be a good idea to write down your skills on one side and interests on the other (this idea I picked up recently from this forum and it's great to see written down what you'r good at etc.) Basically I would say: get out there very activily, network and spread the word (if you haven't already )! Good luck.

[judge45]

Sounds like you're desperate and that's never good. Sit down, relax and ask for the answer to be presented to you.

So far you are consistantly making $100 a week right? and $1000 a week would be better? Ask yourself the question "How can I make $1000 a week (fill in the thing you're doing here) Write it out clearly, look at it, read it aloud and quietly to yourself.

Now forget about it and go do something fun, as long as you stay desperate, you will not get the answer. Leave it for 24 hours, try not to think about it.

If you don't have the answer in 24 hours, go back and write it out again and let it go.

I had a similar problem recently, so I wrote the question out, forgot about it and did something else. I came back and still no answer, so I wrote it out again and within 24 hours, WHAMMO, the answer poppped into my head while I was in the bathroom doing something else

Try it and let go of the desperation, forget about what's happened so far, try to look at it as if you're just starting out and need the anwser, not that you've been doing it for a year.

Let us know how it goes

HTH

Jeff

PS Can you feel how powerful the desperation is? Strong emotion indeed. If you can't let the desperation go, even after writing the question out, then turn all that power into something else.

Take that power and emotion and get determined, say to yourself " this is total BS! I'm better than this, this is a @#$%&* joke, I've have enough of this sh*t, now, show me the answer!!!

Then relax

[OldTex]

I've been where you are now - in a situation where my future was very uncertain, except to compound the issue, I also have a kid I had to keep in school. We lived for almost a year in a hotel.

Then I found a cheap rental.. The house is a junker, but in a good neighborhood. All was sorta-OK until the owner decided to sell, and didn't take my offer, went with another offer - and we're having to move again. In a week.

I have arranged to move into a house not two doors away, BUT the woman living there, who was supposed to be out on the 15th, is still there - no signs of her moving and we have only a few more days to be out.

But I know, and my emotional set-point is one of excitement. Not desperation. So deep inside I know something great is about to happen... what - I can't see.. but it's right here and about to happen!

The last time I had to move I was in a spiral of desperation, and the result wasn't good.

So, take judge45's advice, and get that emotion turned around some how, some way.

I find mediation really can work, but so can a bunch of really funny DVDs. While cleaning out a box, I happened across a VHS of some Tex Avery cartoons which still get me howling with laughter... and my emotional setpoint rises way up there!

[Nneka]

Judge45 is right. The desperation is oozing out and as long as you are there all the visualization and affirmations in the world will not get you out. You need to channel that energy elsewhere.

I was in this position a few years ago (4 months behind on the mortgage, lights about to be turned off, business on the verge of turning a corner). One day I gave up on the desperation. Wrote down what I needed to do in order to move forward. Put it in my God can. Then directed my actions toward getting out of the situation. First a friend gave me $100 dollars. Then we got a spike in sales from the business. Then I found the perfect job for my situation.

Trust God. Do as Judge45 suggested. Write down what you want. If you can't shake the desperation, start talking to God. Yell if you have to until you come to a point of surrender. The point where you realize that no matter what all things are working together for good. That your life will unfold as it should and that all of your needs and desires are met.

In Spirit,
Nneka

[absvan]

Write down what you want. Write it clearly. Carry it with you and make sure your focus is only on what you want.

If you are getting anxious about tomorrow try practicing staying in the present moment. For eg: at this moment you do have a place to stay. All your thoughts about what you will do when you dont have place to stay hasnt happened in reality. Its happened only in your mind...or in other words your mind created it. So use your mind to be in the present and create what you want.

You remind me of the movie Pursuit of Happiness. Hang in there. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

[decterlove]

and grateful......this was the first post I made on this forum...

and just ready to sit down to dinner!

I had a great day today....biking around the town I'm house sitting and doing a lot of promotions for my live snake demos, and dropping off samples of a new energy drink I am marketing (mlm....m2c....) The day just couldn't have gone better in terms of accomplishing what I intended to do....

I started out really stressed/ie rushing around to get out in the morning....but just "showed up" as Woody Allen says and the responses just got better and better. I finished up at a local skate shop where I gave out 5 samples of the energy drink, spoke to the owner about surfing and stuff.......and he posted my full color snake flyer right by the front door!

So thanks........I'm going to go eat and watch Jeopardy but I will read each response in depth later tonight.

[tomcha]

What judge45 advises is sound, I think. And here's what I found works for me in terms of changing my mood.

• Sing a fun song outloud
• Do a stupid dance (like in the movies)
• Look in a mirror and make a silly face
• Remember my funny moment (see below)
• Remember a funny joke
• Do my anchor move (see below)

Funny moment: These are some of the moments that I made myself remember or just did because they were so funny. Usually things that happened to me or that I witnessed that never fails to make me laugh. Usually involves me losing my balance in a funny way and barely saving myself from the fall, but making a complete idiot of myself, complete with sound effects and such.

Anchor move: When I find myself in really good mood or funny mood (this is my favorite mood), then I do what Tony Robins' calls an anchor. It's a simple, but sort of unusual physical touch or movement that you do when you're in a specific chosen state. Keep doing that over and over again, and soon your brain links up that movement or touch with that state and recalls it when you trigger your anchor. For me, I scratch my finger middle finger pad with my thumb nail in a 45 degree angle coming up from the lower pinky side to the upper thumb side. Seems to work for me. But before I do this, if I am in a bad mood, I always try to at least break out of the bad mood first so that I don't end up linking the bad mood to the anchor.

Oh, and regarding the marketing. Here's an idea that you might try.

I was a teacher and maybe this will help. Principals are always tight for cash and they won't easily spend their budget money for something that's not 'for certain'. So first thing I might suggest is to give your performance for free at once school, but with the prearrangement that instead of cash, they'd give you letters of recommendations to other schools or principals or at least a phone call to a few of them recommending that they try you out.

But this isn't enough. With the first gig and the rest, you need an angle to get yourself approved in their eyes. Why do they need your gig for their students? Can you possibly tie it into an educational angle? Or one of the easiest thing to do if your gig is based on some sort of 'wow' factor, is to assist schools in their fund raising. There's always a fund raising going on and it shouldn't be hard to find.

Hope this helps.

Good luck to you.

Thomas