Raymond L. Burton - The Happy Soul

Hi Ray,

This is Joel In San Antonio. The workout is going great and I’m already seeing some good results after only a week. I got more accustomed to the diet and am eating a bit more so I’m not hungry all the time. I’ll send you some pictures after a month or so when I see some really discernable differences from my before pictures. (Joel is doing the Fat To Fit Weight Loss Program)

My question today is I have a good friend that is just starting college and he has always been interested in bodybuilding and nutrition. He was thinking about being a personal trainer and I think he would be great for it. He is always motivating people to think positively and is very self driven. Now though he sees all the different degree plans at school and is starting to think maybe this isn’t the path for him. He is kind of confused right now about finding his path in the world and I was wondering, as a motivational speaker and trainer, what inspired you to start your business? What advice would you give to someone in my friend’s place?

Thanks again for all your help Ray. I actually look forward to waking up and going to the gym now! Take care of yourself and stay in touch.

Joel

I’ll start off with the wide approach and say that I have always taken the step right in front of me that was lighted up. From there I let the rest of the path unveil itself.

I’ve never known what I was “supposed to do” but I’ve always tried to do what I wanted. You should never pick what is easy over what you want. Almost everything I have ever done, I had no idea how to accomplish when I started. The learning process never bugged me because I was doing something I wanted to do at the time and so it wasn’t really work.

I’ve done a lot of soul searching over the years trying to be an enlightened person that contributes some overwhelming change to the world. Despite many hours in meditation and sitting with pen and paper, I could never define my life’s mission in a paragraph. I just wake up and do the best I can for everyone on any given day and have fun doing it.

Some days I wake up and I get an email that a piece of advice I have written really helped someone out. Other days maybe my happy attitude or a moment I take to talk with someone is my contribution. Other days it may be a buck or two I give to save the environment. Whatever gets put in front of me, I take as a gentle shove from my ‘angels’.

The one thing I did know all my life was that I like to help people out and I love to move my body. These days, people call that exercise. It used to be called dancing, or fun, or messing around. Now for some reason, people figure that its rocket science and its not. Just like anything, you can make it complicated but the fact of the matter is that as long as you are putting stimulus on your body and not eating an excess of calories you will be healthy and maintain a reasonable weight.

I joined the army because I wanted to help. I wanted to help keep the peace. I wanted to defend my country. I wanted to rebuild war torn areas. I did that stuff and then I got bored, so I moved on. It wasn’t fun anymore.

Since I liked to move and I liked to help, personal training seemed like an option. So I had to figure out how that was done and if I liked it. The best risk free way to learn anything is to work for someone that is already doing it. So I worked for golds gym. Then I worked for World Health Club and then I stepped away a little and worked as an independent trainer for small personal training company. The next step was to set out on my own.

Its important to note that I never had any idea how this was going to work itself out. I just had the intention of being free, helping people and being able to play all day. That’s what I got too. I heard someone say once that you should never desire what you don’t expect and never expect what you don’t desire. Desire what you expect and it will work itself out.

Your friend has to decide what he would like his life to look like and let everything work itself out. If he picks his career based on something else like money, in 10 years when he is fed up wit life, he’ll be right back here trying to figure out how to feel fulfilled.

I would advise a couple books for reading:
How to Make One Hell of a Profit and Still Get to Heaven

You Can Have an Amazing Life . . . in Just 60 Days!

These books are by Dr John DeMartini and along with Bob Proctor, he is one of my favourite people to listen to for guidance when I need a shove in the right direction. I attended one of his guest speakings at the University of Calgary when he was touring with the movie The Secret (Extended Edition). Both Dr Demartini and the movie the secret blew my socks off and really gets you thinking outside the box. You know you are on the right track to an extraordinary life when you say something that makes perfect sense to you and the person you want to help just stares at you. What you are saying is so far evolved from the persons daily life and the normal grind that it sounds bizarre to them. This is when you are starting to set yourself apart.

This being looked at as weird or bizarre is best sign that you are on the right track. If your friend wants to live a normal uninspired life then nothing else is required of him. Tell him to take the easy route, don’t dream, and never aspire to anything great. That’s what most people do, think and therefore…have.

But if your friend is at a crossroads. Tell him to dream. Tell him to expect what he desires and desire what he expects. People become what they think about most of the time. Your friend doesn’t need to figure out the “how” he just needs to know the “what” of where he wants to go. Make sure your life is fun, this is the fastest way to doing what you were designed to do. Worst case scenario, even if you never accomplish anything…you had a hell of a time!

Technorati Tags: The secret, picking a career, finding your purpose, Dr. John Demartini, Bob Proctor

Part 7 - The knights path

With all his affairs in order, Lumen was hungry. In the spirit of change he decided to treat himself and have someone else prepare his meal for a change. Having cleaned out his house of perishables he didn’t have much choice in the matter anyway.

He entered the dark and musty Inn and stopped for a second at the heavy oak entrance. He was not used to this sort of situation or establishment as most warriors didn’t eat with common townspeople. The King fed Lumen his 3 squares and tuck food filled in the rest.

His calm pause was seen as a silent but confident announcement of his arrival by others already seated. Not a trace of doubt was revealed in his pensive actions. He seated himself and hoped the 30 pieces he had was adequate to cover the cost of his dining.

Once he was seated he realized that despite what felt like a thousand dagger like eyes scanning his arrival, no one actually took notice of his presence.

“Its funny how often we feel that our actions interest other people when in fact they are actually consumed by their own thoughts of insecurity. How terrible it would be to mould our daily actions, which eventually become your life into something that no one may notice anyway! Its better when given the choice of making two people happy to make yourself the happy one!”

He waited nervously for the attendant and his chance to look at what was offered for dining. The only problem with being a warrior is that you view most situations as a confrontation and not an exchange. Everything is about attack, defense and honor. The problem with defending honor is how close the emotion lives to protection and insecure ego.
The attendant approached and spoke a few words followed by a smile. Lumen felt his face relax as he pointed to what the man at another table was eating. The attendant smiled, nodded his head and patted Lumen on his broad shoulder. A touch that in another setting would have ended with the attendant on his back with a foot at his throat.

Strange, thought Lumen, “ A smile, and nod and a touch broke through a host of uncomfortable emotions. I feel at ease.” He felt comfortable in the presence of strangers once he realized not everyone had fighting as their first intention.

He ate his meal, gave thanks and left. He felt like a question was being asked or answered inside his head but the comment would not materialize into a solid thought. He walked for a while until he found himself as “his” garden. He hadn’t done a cleanup in a while because of the exciting changes going on around him. Alone and able to line up random thoughts, he sat and stared at the massive oak.

Technorati Tags: Confrontation, Knight, Raymond Burton

Here is Brandas take on a few days of our mexcio backpacking trip.

OK everyone, here’s the update. After spending 3 insanely crazy days in Guadalajara (pop. 8 million) Ray and I boarded a bus to Puerto Vallarta for the last leg of our trip………to get to Sayulita! Tonya had told me about this small town when we were living together and I’ve always wanted to visit. We got to PV almost without any hitches, except the 4.5 hour bus ride it was supposed to be turned into almost 6 hrs!! On the Sayulita website it says to get to the Gigante accross from the Sheraton to catch the bus. WELL, there is no Gigante accross from the Sheraton, sooooooo we ended up hoofing it down main street PV with our back packs in the hopes of finding someone that knew where we were supposed to go. Some drunk guy stopped us at one point and said “are you going to Sayulita?” How wierd. How the hell did he know?? Maybe because we had back packs? Who knows. God must have been watching and feeling our frustration.

The one good thing is that we finally found where Mexico has been keeping the sunshine. IN PV!!!! Freakin’ hot and beautiful.
OK, so we finally find the bus and are on our way. We can not wait to get there and see where we’ll be spending the night as we decided to wing it and not book anything ( I know, soooooo not like me) We met a nice guy on the bus that pointed us in the right direction once we arrived as to where to find most of the hotels. Well, apparently no-one sits in their office waiting for people to check in cause we kept finding hotels with vacancy signs and no-one there to talk to!!!!! We went to one condo complex and ran into a man that was renting there (he’s from Kimberly, BC) who said, “just throw your bags in my truck and I’ll drive you around to find something”. HOW NICE!! By this point it was about 6pm and we had been going since 7am. I was so done. We found a great place for 390 pesos/night. Which is $39 usd. Not too bad for being a stones throw from the beach.
Now, let me tell you about Sayulita. I fell in love with it as soon as I got off the bus. It’s sooooo small. It takes about 15 minutes to walk the whole town! Full of surfers boys (hot, hot, hot!!!) unfortunately along with that comes the surfer chicks. I’ve never felt soooooo self consious in a bikini in my life. I’m about the only girl here without a six pack!!!

I thought life in Maz was laid back, well, you should see it here. I totally understand why Tonya stayed here for so long. If I could think of a business they need here, I would move here in a heart beat. Last night after having dinner we went to the center plaza and some guys were playing the bongo drums and dancing. It was so cool! There are dogs EVERYWHERE, so Ray is in heaven. He gave his sausages to one this morning and she became his best friend. Slept at his feet all through breakfast:)Just to give you an idea of how small it is here, Ray and I have to catch a bus today to go to a town about 20 min away for the bank machine!!! YES, there is no bank machine. I’ve never heard of such a thing!!

Well, so here we are. Our first entire day here, the sun is shining, I have food in my belly, a place to stay tonight, and a gecko in my bedroom!?!? Yes, last night we were just falling asleep and our little room gecko decide to start barking. It’s a good thing we knew the souns though, cause if we hadn’t it REALLY would have hreaked me out.

Sorry about all the snow you guys got. I wish you all were here. I think we’ll be staying here for a while. At least until tuesday, but possibly longer. Ray’s going to take some surfing lessons today so hopefully that goes well. I’ll be watching from the beach in panic mode. Maybe I’ll have a cerveza to calm my nerves:) I’ll keep you updated on our travels. Love you guys!!

B:)

PS I just remembered 1 thing I had to tell you about the bus trip from Guadalajara to PV. WE just get settled in and the girl beside Ray starts singing with her i-pod on!! If you’ve ever heard someone sing when they can’t hear themselves, you know it doesn’t sound good. I was laughing soooooo hard, tears were rolling down my face and somehow Ray didn’t lose it. To make it worse, she was trying to sing in english but truly had no idea what the words actually were. Gad, it was funny. Then she whips out her nail polish and starts giving herself a manicure. I thought Ray was going to chuck her out the window cause he HATES the smell of nail polish. KInda funny:)

Technorati Tags: Mexico, backpacking, Sayulita, Guadalajara, Puerta Vallarta