Dreams, TM, and GNA

Dreams



My Pure Rest from Usana finally came in the mail yesterday. Holy crap! I had what felt like a 2 hour dream movie. It involved the Revolutionary war and then went forward in time to the 1970s. It was crazy, vivid, colorful, frightening, and intense. Then when I woke up, I wasn't that sleepy. I didn't have coffee or anything this morning, and I felt more awake than usual. I thought it would take a couple days for this stuff to work, but Nope. It works just fine. Wow...

TM

Toast Masters was this morning. It was a lively meeting with 4 speakers.

Bethany spoke about what not to do when making a Power Point slide which is pretty obvious to me at this point: 1. Don't overcrowd your slides with text 2. Never use full sentences or read off of the slides 3. Don't use crappy or distracting background images if they don't help convey the theme or point of your presentation.

Then Leonissa spoke/sang/ did gestures. Her charisma was off the charts and it was greatmazing. I learned W.A.T.C.H. =Words, Actions, Thoughts, Character, and Habits which all comprise YOU.

Then Doug spoke about issues found in Darwin's Theory of Evolution. Apparently Darwin was a big fan of pigeons and found that when he bred pigeons he could isolate certain traits and make them consistent with the offspring. He also found that each pigeon shared common traits. ll this led him to the conclusion that, if you wanted to breed something to become something else eventually down the line over many many years it could happen. A mouse could essentially evolve into an elephant. He also believed because of this, that all beings came from one source and changed and diversified over time due to natural selection. This was the notion in 1859.

Darwin met with many critics. Besides the church-going enthusiasts who weren't big fans, there were a lot of people in the scientific community who said that fossil records showed large gaps in beings evolving. These "Transitional Species" that could link one type of animal to another through evolution just weren't there. And Darwin basically said they just hadn't found those fossils yet and would in the future. But now scientists say that the evidence is even more compelling that these beings could not have evolved from one another because those gaps have increased.

Then another scientist came along around Darwin's time, named Grendal? -something like that, just going off the notes I took during Doug's speech... Grendal studied pea plants and found that there wee these things called Genes that limited the amount of changes and variations that could happen within a species. You could get certain dominant genes to repeat in offspring, but that didn't mean they could change from one plant to another. There was too limited a gene pool and therefore a mouse who did not have the same genes as an elephant could never become one.

In 1941 the Geological Society -who was on Darwin's side and wanted to preserve his line of reasoning- got together to sort all of this out. They came up with the theory that things called "mutations" add info to the gene pool increasing its possibilities to evolve into other things. These mutations are random and can create greater variety.

But there were issues with this theory that can easily be found. "Mutations" in genes that most people are familiar with now are things like Cancer. As Doug explained, Genes are like Software. The programing is very specific and very complex. Randomness is the enemy of Software. Randomness occurs when codes interrupt and corrupt the software process causing errors and malfunctioning. These events are obsolete, rare, and almost non-existent. You also can't select a mutation to isolate and get a pure quality gene because there are too many other genes to isolate out. You would end up with nothing. Essentially Mutations are Rare and create Breaks in the Genetic Code, Not Greater Variety to it.

In the 1960s bacteria were examined and even those microscopic simple organisms had complex systems of functioning that they were comprised of. Francis Crick said that the origin of life itself seems like a miracle because it would have to be under the right circumstances at the right time which would all have been about as rare as it gets, and yet it did. It's hard to call it just a coincidence that life occurred, because the odds were ultimately against it happening.

Then Oscar gave a speech about being an effective salesperson. He recommended a book called The Autonomy of Persuasion. He said that the more money a product costs and the more a consumer will have to invest in it, the more time a consumer needs to think about it. You should act like an HR person trying to match an employee to a specific business or job if that person fits. Match-making via customer and product.

GNA

Then I went to the weekly Genuine Networking Association meeting. It's a group for people who have their own business and want advice for running it better and getting more customers. Sice I'm in 2 network-marketing businesses and 3 of my friends from TM go there, I decide to go and have been going for the past month or so.

Today a woman named Christi spoke on how to get organized and get the most accomplished with in the least amount of time. Some suggestions included: The 20/3 Rule -get a list of 20 names and call 3 of those names each day, Time Block when you are most effective at accomplishing tasks and then schedule that time to do them, Create Templates for setting p appointments with people, make sure you have a Standard Operating Procedure, Prioritize 6 tasks you want to accomplish each day and list 1 of those as the Top Priority -preferably something you have been procrastinating about doing, Keep track of your progress and make plans for each  day... She also recommended the books 7 Habits of Effective People and Eat the Frog.

Lastly she suggested making a mission statement. A "Compelling Vision Statement" will help you stay focused on the Why of what you are doing when you work towards a goal. It's something to keep you focused on your business. For her it was to be free of work after building up people to delegate work to so she could spend more time at home with her family.

My Vision Statement:

Goal 1: To earn enough money to 1. ensure my financial stability and retirement and 2. have enough money to also donate to causes in financial need such as charities and other organizations.

Goal 2: To become free to spend my time by my choice and no one elses to devote that time to 1. Growing my soul and developing as a person and 2. Finding ways to encourage others to do the same.