But when I first started playing around with it, I was a bit disappointed.  At first it seemed that the quality wasn’t as good but then I had been testing it on those days when the sun wasn’t out in full force.  Most digital camcorders have a reputation for not performing very well indoors but I was told this one did – at least in comparison to SONY’s.  I almost returned it in haste but decided at the last minute to give it a shot.  What you’re about to see in a few moments is what I was able to do with it. 

Have you ever heard of Ho’oponopono?  It’s an ancient spiritual teaching that was brought to light by Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len from Hawaii (and others) to help us heal parts of our inner selves that create negative outer experiences. 

According to ancient Hawaiians, errors of our ways arise from thoughts that are tainted by painful  memories of the past but we are not always aware of them because they are often deeply embedded within our subconcious.  This spiritual philosophy teaches us to let God handle what we can’t do for ourselves, which would be wiping the slate clean and allowing for divinely inspired thoughts to come through and take immediate action on. 

I heard of this teaching about a year ago but over the last few weeks, I had been running across Ho’oponopono from various articles on other blogs, emails and random Google searches.  It finally dawned on me that the universe was trying to bring this to my awareness for another look.

After researching the subject, I decided to try it for myself.  A few days later, I realized I had an opportunity to make a video post with the new camcorder and share with you my thoughts on Ho’oponopono.  If you are an email or RSS subscriber, you are invited to click on the title of this article so that you can be transported to the Adversity University blog for the 5 minute subtitled video:

In short, here’s the mantra (or prayer, as I’d like to call it) along with the meaning of each phrase:    

• “I’m sorry” – for whatever is going on inside me causing memories to replay
• “Forgive me” – for whatever is inside me that is causing negative outer circumstances to occur (i.e. financial hardships, negative people, illness, etc.)
• “Thank you” – trusting that God, your higher power or the universe will clear away old memories, allowing for inspired thoughts to come through for you to take action on
• “I love you” – unlocks the healing to take place from within

As I promised, here are a couple of useful links to learn more about this ancient spiritual philosophy:

• What is Ho’oponopono?
• Ho’oponopono Basics
• Do you Ho’oponopono?
• Saul Maraney’s Notes of Zero Limits

It’s too early to tell whether it’s working for me but I do want to share something that happened almost immediately after I began reciting the mantra.  First, I experienced a sense of lightness – a peaceful feeling, if you will.  Then the following day, I received an email from a potential client who had seen my demo speaking tape at my speaking website (you can see the demo tape by going to the “Hire Stephen” tab above). 

The man wanted to know, “Was a DVD copy available to show my steering committee while they decide on a keynote speaker for our conference in 2009?”

A coincidence?  Would he have asked me for this anyway?  Who knows?  It’s hard to say but I couldn’t dismiss the timing of this man’s inquiry.  It made me wonder if my work with this spiritual philosophy unlocked hidden memories that were wiped away by divinity (defined as whatever you like it to mean whether it’d be God, the universe or higher power).  Still too early to tell but I’d think it had something to do with it.

What about you? What do you think of this spiritual teaching?  Does it resonate with you or does it sound like something far off?  Your thoughts and comments are always welcome!

Until next time, enjoy the beginning of your week.  We have the final part of my interview with Karen Putz coming up on Wednesday plus updates in connection with my win in the BeTheNextBestsellingAuthor video contest!

Stay tuned……

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As you know from the guest article I did for Problogger last week, I’ve been using the compact SONY MPEG4 Net Sharing Camcorder for Adversity University video posts.   

While I’m grateful it served its purpose (i.e. “training wheels”), I became increasingly more conscious of the need for a much more powerful digital camcorder in case I ever want to submit better quality videos to places like SellingPower.   They have a huge video collection from professional speakers, best-selling authors, popular bloggers and the like.   Having a couple of mine in there could very well expose me to potentially lucrative speaking engagements that I might not have otherwise known about.  You wouldn’t want me to be using a compact camcorder for that, would you?

After making today’s video with SONY’s Cam for the last time, I took it back and ordered in its place the Canon ZR850 MiniDV Digital Camcorder.  For only $100 more, I’ll be getting everything the compact had plus a wireless remote control, superior zoom capabilities and a bigger viewfinder, to name a few.  On top of that, I’ve been told Canon does better under low lighting conditions.  I’ll have it in my hands in ten days.

If you’ve been viewing my video posts from the beginning, you’ll notice I’m gradually growing more comfortable in front of a camera.    

But there’s also something else I’m noticing.  Making videos over the last few weeks has made me aware of my tendency to repeat certain words and phrases over and over again.  Words like “That,” “In fact,” and “So”, etc. 

Corinne Edwards told me tonight in an email, “We’ll take it.  Even after 50 years on the air, Larry King can still be heard to say things like Ummmm and I mean, etc. “  

Well, thanks Corinne, but my life-long goal has always been to become a succinct speaker.  You know, one who uses fewer words for maximum impact.  The cool thing about doing a video post is that it’s giving me an opportunity to watch myself speak and then take appropriate corrective action.   Isn’t that the name of the game?

Thanks for hanging in there with me - you’re witnessing a transformation!

Without further ado, if you are an RSS or email subscriber, please click on the title of this post to see the video.  Thanks a lot!

PickTheBrain Article:  3 Words That Forver Changed a Deaf Boy’s Life

Food for thought:  What are you grateful for this week?

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Yesterday while writing my gratitude list for the week, I was suddenly inspired to do something different this week.  

I thought to myself, why not do a video post for this week’s gratitude post?  It’d be fun, not to mention something different!

photo credit: Ian Broyles

Note for RSS and Email Subscribers: Please click on the link of today’s post for you to see today’s video(s). There are two of them today. Thanks!

Bloggers and Articles Mentioned in the Video:

• Problogger Article:  How to Make Your Video Posts More Accessible to an Untapped Market of Millions
• Creating a Better Life article by Lyman Reed:  I can’t do it, because……….

The 10 Minute Professional Speaking Demo Tape

Note:  This video is not subtitled yet because it has a voiceover throughout the entire tape, which I obviously cannot lipread.  But as soon as I get someone to help me with it, I’ll have it done. So please bear with me. 

Other gratitude of note:

• Almost immediately after Lyman posted my “contest video” at his site, Alex, the famous “Chief Happiness Officer” from Denmark, followed suit at his Positive Sharing blog, “An Inspiring Story.”  He also posted the same video Lyman did.  Thank you Alex!
• Shortly after the Chief Happiness Officer posted my video, Neil at TeamConnections wrote a curious and somewhat perplexing and fascinating article, called “When EyeWitnesses Agree.”  While Neil lavishly heaped praised and accolades on Adversity University, it seemed like he was making a case study, triangulating Darren of Problogger, Alex, the Chief Happiness Officer and myself.  I wasn’t exactly sure I understand what he was postulating but it made for an interesting read.
• While thousands of people viewed the contest video from last week, a good handful of them promoted this particular video on their blogs with a mention and a link like Kirsten Harrell of Think Positive Blog.  Thank you!

Food for thought:  What are you grateful for this week?

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Shermaine Hobbs, a long-time Adversity University subscriber, alerted me to a video contest that was taking place at the BeTheNextBestSellingAuthor.com website.

The challenge was too irresistible to pass up, especially after the success of last week’s video post. It represented a great opportunity to incorporate many of your suggestions on how to better improve the next video. For example, instead of sitting at my desk (and being too close for comfort for some of you), I stood in front of a bookcase in another room, giving you wider berth.

Contestants were given a choice between two topics for the 2 minute video. It was either “The Funniest Moment of My Life” or “The Most Life Changing Moment of My Life.”

After thinking about it for a few days, it occurred to me that while I’ve had plenty of humorous and life-changing events, which one could I convey with true meaning and significance in less than 2 minutes? (More accurately, one minute and forty-five seconds because each contestant was required to state their name and other information, taking up approximately fifteen seconds of precious time).

Which one would it be?

It came boiling down between the fifth grade teacher story or how I became a pilot, both of which were major life-changing experiences. I knew that having less than 2 minutes to share the teacher story would have done it grave injustice so I decided to go with the pilot piece instead.

As you can imagine, it was a HUGE challenge because I consistently ran over 2 minutes, forcing me into several retakes. It was very frustrating. But at one point, I felt led to move the tripod to a different part of the room, primarily to get better lighting, and that’s when I hit paydirt: 1 minute and 59 seconds!

While playing it back, a warm sense of calm enveloped me – it could only be described as a sense of knowing. It was time to stop.

I’ve experienced that feeling before. One time, I was involved in a humorous speech contest and they were about to announce first, second and third place winners. Right beforehand, I was hit with a warm sense of calm and knew that I had won first place.

Sometimes the same feeling would save my life. Several years ago, while living in New York City, I was about to step off a curb but immediately pulled back for no apparent reason. Two seconds later, a speeding cab that I hadn’t seen whooshed by, missing me by a hair.

At any rate, I knew I had to surrender when that feeling hit me. Contrary to what some people think, surrendering doesn’t mean giving up. It simply means letting go of the results, knowing you did the best you could. There were a few words in this video (more like grunts) that I wanted to take out but that would have meant several more unnecessary retakes.

It’s now in God’s hands.

If you are an RSS or email subscriber, you will not be able to see this video in your feed. Please click on to the name of this post to be taken directly to the blog for viewing. Thanks!

Here it is:

UPDATE: I won this video contest – see the results here.

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One of the advantages of having a blog is that when you tell your readers that you will do something, you’re making yourself accountable.  If a number of your readers (or clients or associates, etc.) tell you that they are looking forward to whatever it is that you said you’d do, then the pressure is on you to meet their expectations.  At that point, it becomes a priority to make sure you get the job done because it’s now a matter of integrity.  If you say you’re going to do something but you put it off or not do it at all, sooner or later others will start to say, “Yeah, right, I’ll believe it when I see it.”  

Last week I purposefully told you a few times that I was going to make my first video this week because I knew if I did that, I’d find a way to work through my techno-phobia and make it happen.

It was no small feat, trust me, but the funniest thing is that making this video (with subtitles to boot!) turned out to be a lot easier than I thought. I’m so grateful I took the necessary steps to take our level of communication to a whole new level.

After a week of looking around for a camcorder, I purchased one on Sunday, February 10, 2008.  The very next day, I practiced playing around with it, read the instruction manual and charged up the internal battery.  So far, so good. 

On Tuesday, I took a deep breath and began taping myself.  I must have gone through 10 retakes before finally settling on the one you’re about to see.  It’s only 2 minutes and it’s pure, raw footage because I have yet learned the fine art of editing. One step at a time, right?

It was strange talking to a small camcorder instead of a live person.  That took getting used to.  Then I had to learn how to begin and stop recording, a challenge because all the buttons were located at the back.  That meant my fingers had to feel its way around to the start and stop buttons.  For some reason, it took several clicks to start recording and another several clicks to get it to stop.  That was rather annoying – I may return it if I continue to experience this inconvenience. 

But the nice thing about this camcorder (and one of the reasons why I bought it) was because of its rotatable viewfinder.  I was able to flip the viewfinder 180 degrees so that I could see myself throughout the recording process.  That made things considerably easier compared to the flip camera that was made famous on the Oprah show.

Once I was finished, the video file was easily transferred to my hard drive through the use of a CD and USB cables that came with the camcorder.  After that, I had to find a way to subtitle it so that everyone on the planet could be included.   Eventually, I was led to a free do-it-yourself captioning website.  It took me over 2 hours to subtitle a 2 minute video – I’m not kidding – but it was nothing I couldn’t master.  In fact, it was a lot of fun and the next time I do it, it’ll be considerably easier.

Here’s the subtitled video (NOTE:  If you are an RSS or email subscriber, please click on the title of this post to see it because this video won’t show up in your feed):  

Update a/o February 20, 2008: Due to maintenance and other issues at Overstream, my subtitled video is temporarily unavailable until further notice. You can still see the video without subtitles at YouTube.

Well, what did you think?  Feel free to leave comments and tell me what you thought of it.  I know it’s not perfect because for one thing, the video ended a bit abruptly. I probably could have relaxed and smiled a little more.  But the fact that I finally did it makes me very proud.  If I can do this, so can you! 

If you’re interested in a full step-by-step article about my experience, I will write one up over the weekend.  Once again, even if you’re scared of technology, you can do this.  You really can.  Trust me, you’ll be so proud of yourself, because you won’t believe you could have mastered something like this!

While I was experiencing some of the challenges associated with the making of this video, a new subscriber sent me an email reminding me of a very familiar phrase. Can you guess what it was? Look at the very top of this page – what does it say?

Transform Adversity into Success!

And now for some gratitude:

• I am grateful that I finally pushed through my fears despite my technically challenged nature.  I ended up having a ball and can’t wait to make another video.  In fact, long-time subscriber (Sharmaine Hobbs) alerted me to a video contest that I will be entering in hopes of winning a prize!  That would have been unimaginable a month ago!
• Thanks to Karen Putz and Mike McConnell, I was made aware of Overstream, a do-it-yourself-subtitling website.  While the learning curve was definitely present, due to Overstream’s easy-to-follow tutorial, I was able to add subtitles on my first attempt!  
• While the jury is out on this one, I am grateful I made this video with SONY’s MPEG4 Net Sharing Cam.  I say the jury is still out deliberating because I had trouble getting it to start and stop. At least I have another 27 days to play with it and decide whether I want to keep it or get something else.   
• I am very grateful to Michael Werner for teaching me how to create some space around images in my posts. Until now, I had no clue how to do that. Here’s what he told me: 1) go to the editor for your WP post, 2) select the image, 3) click on the green tree button on the visual editor menu, 4) a popup box will appear, showing you a horizontal field – put a value of 10 in there. Voila! You’ve got some space around your images. Thank you Michael!
• I’m grateful that the store that I bought the camcorder from has a liberal return policy.  Because of that, I am free to play with this camcorder for a little while longer.    
• And of course, I’m grateful for YOU because you continue to keep this community vibrant through your value-added comments. I’ve made many new connections through the world of blogging and it’s given me opportunities that might not have come to me otherwise.

Food for thought:  What are you grateful for this week?

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