Life is full of ups and downs. The ups, the good times, we tend to treasure and they seem to take pride of place in our head's filing cabinet, our memories. The kids one special birthday, the wedding, the job promotion, the sporting 'moment', the births, the loves. But in our life we also get our share of the bad times. The tragedies, the suffering, the grief and loss. The times when we are shattered. In my book I talk about the 'Degrees of Devastation'. How badly we are shattered. And this of course is determined by the severity of the shattering. The loss of a child is one of the most devastating. Such unwanted chapters in your life can leave life long scars if you let it. Any tragedy, hardship, or in fact any type of suffering will leave you shattered for a time, some for a very long time. One of my favourite authors Melody Beattie, in her wonderful book "The Grief Club" writes about losing her son Shane in a skiing accident when he was only 12 years old. Melody had been through a lot of personal suffering in her life being a former drug addict, adopting out another son when she was addicted, excrutiating lifelong pain from a chronic back, and the list goes on, but she describes in detail how the loss of her son was almost life ending for her. It is some time since I have read her book (I would have read it at least a dozen times!), but one of the sayings remains etched in my own memory forever. She is talking to her daughters friend, trying to console her having lost someone herself. The girl apologises to Melody for crying. Melody in trying to comfort her says "....it's OK to cry. Once I cried for 8 years...."
I have read many books and articles where people have not just lost a loved one but entire families, and the resilience these people have shown in rebuilding their shattered lives, is simply remarkable. When I get DotsHQ going I will have an application where we can access these stories so that we can draw energy from those of us who can comfort by sharing their experiences and how they recover from life shattering experiences.
But I mentioned earlier about tragedies leaving life long scars IF YOU LET THEM......... and in that bit of guidance lies a secret. All of us need help and support when we are shattered in one way or another. The Degree Of Devastation depends on how you are conditioned to handle the pain. It is when you need a God, or spiritual awareness, to help you cope. It is when you need to access the LOVE in the world that is beckoning, the love that surrounds us all, the LOVE that wants to give. 
The secret that I am talking about, the resilience we all need to handle the shattering, is the ability TO LET GO. This ability will unfortunately only come with personal experience and the pain of suffering, but if we can condition ourselves to accept the pain for what it is and surrender to its darkness, then the shattering, the loss, the grief, will provide us with the experience to help our brothers and sisters in need. There is never a truer statement than "EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON"
The more suffering, the more experience, the more resilience to be able to cope and to show others how to cope......

Back in 1988 a man in the USA, Dan Wieden, who founded a world renowned advertising agency, Wieden + Kennedy, was having trouble.
He had a huge contract to develop some advertisements for Nike and had prepared 8 of them featuring the world's top sports stars. He had until the morning to present them to Nike executives. But he knew there was a missing link. A caption. A slogan to 'connect' them. To make the consumer sit up and take notice. He had been thinking about something suitable for months but he couldn't get it right. Time was running out. At midnight he was playing around on the computer (a very slow one back then!) searching for something but he didn't know what. Earlier that day he had heard a work colleague talking to some others about Norman Mailler who authored a book about Gary Gilmore, who was executed in Utah under controversial circumstances (he requested the death penalty). Dan read the story that Gilmore, when facing the firing squad, was asked if he had any last words and he said "Let's Do It". Dan wrote the words down doodling while he read. When he finished he looked at the pad with the words. Something made him change the "Let's" to "Just" and probably the greatest advertising campaign was launched.
Dan still doesn't know why or how the creative process to produce the slogan came about, other than to confirm that creativity can be very spontaneous and seems to happen when people are in a relaxed stress free mode. A time of reverie.
People ask me why I continue to live in La Chateau Tento. Right now, I need all of the creative influence I can muster up for the STEPS that I am taking. I know that I have been able to put together the design of DotsHQ purely because I have been able to think my way through it. No busyness. No distractions and plenty of knowledge accumulation. Wherever I lay my hat is inconsequential.
If you research the great creators and entrepreneurs and inventors over the years you will find a common link. During their greatest creations they were in an environment where reverie, daydreaming, stillness, meditation, were abundant.
So if any of you are seemingly tired of a pointless life, or have reason to re-invent, and have something that you have a passion for, then....

                                                        JUST DO IT !

Like a lot of people I don't remember much of my childhood but I remember my Mum who died of breast cancer when I was young. She was born Ruby Mary Kathleen Kelly, a very Irish Catholic name which she was. One thing I do remember was that she absolutely adored this song called "Let It Be". At the time I remember how I thought my Mum was really 'hip' and super cooool because the song was by a bunch of long haired louts called 'The Beatles'.
Those Beatle boys, particularly Lennon and McCartney, created the most amazing songs. The two 'special' visionary songs were Lennons 'Imagine' and Paul M's 'Let It Be'. If you need a bit of a reminder the lyrics of Let It Be were:

When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom
Let it be

And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom
Let it be

And when the broken hearted people
Living in the world agree
There will be an answer
Let it be

And when the night is cloudy
 There is still a light that shines on me
Shine until tomorrow
Let it be
I wake up to the sound of music
Mother Mary comes to me

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
There will be an answer, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be


It took me a loooong loooong time to really understand why she liked the song so much. She knew she was dying of cancer at the time. Now I understand. Every man, woman child on this God given planet will have dark times when they need some words of inspiration and encouragement.
Simple hey mum?

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
THERE WILL BE AN ANSWER, let it be..........

Damn it. I cry every single time!

Oh, yeah, good one Wilson, oh faithful security guard! When I got home, well, back to La Chateau Tento last night, I noticed the tracks. Straight away I knew..... Visitors, uninvited ones! Anyway  La Chateau had been ransacked. I hate it when I come back at night time and you can't find anything in the dark. Of course my friendly robbers had taken a fancy to my torches and reading light, so I didn't know what had gone missing APART FROM MY BRAND NEW GUITAR! Aaaaarrgghh. Damn. And I had just spent the day before with my friend Red learning chords and I was just getting into it. They took some of my clothes, some brand new shirts, all of my smelly stuff, deodorants, after shave and some other stuff. Anyway it's happened a few times before and you just have to learn to live with it. It's risk I must take. They didn't take any of my 4 million books so I reckon if I look for some well lit up nice smelling dumb musicians I'll get'em!! I'm very disappointed in Wilson though. Of course Robbers Inc. didn't even think to take HIM. He just sits there with the same stupid look on his face. he probably even made them a cuppa!
To be honest though I don't react to stuff like this anymore. If you are stepping right you just concentrate on the big picture, the dream, the vision.
But on a more positive note I really am having a ball BEING ME.
Howzat you ask? Well now that I have totally exposed myself to the millions, which you know is part of the plan, I am now talking to lots of people, sponsors, Councillors, promoters, and I tell them my story. More often than not I get "Yes, we know. We saw you on tele". And I think it's just great that they know of me, even though I am depicted as a high flying hobo living in a tent that lost the lot! This re-inventing myself has done wonders. I am using the exposure as I said I would in the book, and so far it's just working dandy (just fine). I can be totally honest and BE ME! Just about the whole planet knows about me so there is little culture shock, no embarassment, no dented ego. No more reason to try and impress for sales, no more delusions of grandeur, no more wanting, no more attachment. Just a smile. It really is the best feeling not caring what others think and knowing what the future will bring. Without feeling smug I sure am a lot happier being me, doing what I want on the journey of my life. Each day I just continue the journey, the STEPS of my life.....
                                                        ......and BEING ME!......
                    I can recommend the change. You should try it!

I've told you how I have re-invented myself. I've gone all sorta arty which is something that I would have ridiculed a few years ago. "Arty" just wasn't me. As a matter of fact, in the true sense of the word it still isn't. But if you have been following, you would have noticed that I am becoming more and more CREATIVE......by choice. After a whole lotta pain and suffering, and a whole lot more spiritualism and searching for the real me, my inner self, I am beginning to find some BALANCE in my life.Now you may think living in a tent might create more of an imbalance, no? But to put it very simply, I am getting a lot more kick from writing a song than writing a Financial Plan. I am getting a lot more satisfaction from writing a book, than writing a Business Plan. I am a lot more excited developing a network like DotsHQ, than writing a home loan for a Bank.
Arr haar (like "I gotcha" aarr haargh!). Yes but at least you can pay the bills, you say!
Yep, I agree 100%. You got me. Back to the old 'money' thing again. Needing money to survive. You are dead right. BUT......
I was quite successful as a Financial Planner, I won awards everywhere for helping raise money for home loans, business loans, I got promotion after promotion in the BIIG Corporate world. In the end it was worth nothing to me. Yep, my fault, I took risks to try and create fortune. I failed.
But if I was as successful as I was proven in various areas of my professional life, while not enjoying one single second, apart from the commissions and pay dayss, THEN how successful can I be doing something I actually ENJOY doing. And is money the valuation stick to assess success? Nuh, I don't think so. Money is the effect from the cause. I'll back myself in from hereon in. I know the path I am taking is the right path. That CREATIVITY is the tool that I will use to implement any future success. Money will simply be the measure of acceptance by those who will be the recipients of my  creativity.
One of the beautiful things about Working Backwards and Living Backwards is that I can tell you what will happen in my future because of the reverie time I spend in La Chateau Tento, doing what I am good at which is anything creative. So the books, songs, poems, films, television scripts which you will eventually see or have access to, I can share with you all before I have actually created them.  Make sense? Hmmmmm......
It is well known that many of the great philosophers, theologians, artists, poets and musicians over millenia create their most famous works during periods of reverie or daydreaming. Some of those reverie times last for years, in some instances decades, before the rush of creativity can be accessed. Then when finally the time comes, these great achievers will stay awake for days documenting their revelations. It's just part of the package. But these people are not usually 'normal' people.
But then again what's to say that these creative maestros are the 'normal' ones and everybody else are the 'abnormal' species?
But there is one message in this whole 'creativity' exercise that comes through loud and clear. Every single one of us is creative in some way. We are all artists, or actors, or musicians. We owe it to ourselves to find out more so that we can take advantage of the opportunities that life has offered us.
Don't be caught in the rut. Don't let apathy breed. Find YOU. 

                                                    ....."BE" Your Potential.....

I love this photo. I love the authenticity. I love the togetherness. I love the solitude. And I love the love. Anyone can make a meaning out of a message. What I find beautiful about this photo is that it provides a great exercise in using your imagination, using your creativity to create a story.
When I see pictures or photos like this one (and I see plenty because I am always LOOKING for them, just like OPPORTUNITIES!) my creative juices just flow. As a matter of fact I could make a film out of this one photo. So let's do a mini version and see what I can come up with, huh?
These two siblings, seven year old Jake and his sister five year old Jesse have been kidnapped by evil gangsters who have demanded a 10 million dollar ransom from their well to do New York celebrity parents. They have taken them to a deserted ghost town Chugga Bugdud, an old gold mining town 500 miles from any other towns. The bad guys have left enough food and drink for two days which is how long they have given the parents to come up with the ransom. They have told the kids to stay where they are until they come back in two days. Jake and Jesse are scared. They are alone. They only have each other. Jake grabs Jesse and they go outside and this is what they find.......NOTHING! Jake has to protect his little sister. He has to make a big decision. Will they wait or will they take a chance?
He looks at the horizon. He can only see nothingness for miles and miles. Jake has to quickly sum up the risks of leaving against the return. The return is not only his, but THEIR, destiny. He sees the train line but it looks abandoned. He grabs Jesse's hand. "C'mon Jesse". He takes her to the train line and they look ahead. Jake can see something. It's a vision of his mum and dad smiling. It is then he knows. They must take a risk. The train line must lead to somewhere otherwise it wouldn't have been built. Jake KNOWS that ahead is their DESTIN-EE.
"C'mon Jesse, let's find where this leads to..................."
They start taking STEPS, each one taking them closer to their destination, their DESTIN-EE. As they move forward Jake smiles. After a while they stop. Jake takes some food and drink out of his pocket. He gives some to Jesse and together they smile. They are happy because they KNOW.

                        THEIR DESTIN-EE IS AHEAD, one step at a time.......

You know what's funny. They're on the same journey as me!

As you may have guessed by now I have this ....wot you say....aaargghhmm.....fascination for all things death! Do you think it's paranoia dot? Hmmm maybe I should see someone, d'ya think?
Nuuuh, it'll pass (when I'm dead!)
Anyway some stuff for your UIB (useless information book). Didja know that.....Since the beginning of time (or maybe the beginning of man, hmmmm????) it is guesstimated that there have been around 106 billion of us. Yep, that's right....BILLION. So if you aren't too good with maths, arithmetic or book keeping that's 106 thousand million which is 106 thousand thousand thousand. Which is.....aaargghhmm LOTS. So if we subtract (take away dot!) the current (no, not food take away....no dot...sorta take off from the figure!) population of around 6 billion (it's actually 7 but for rounding off purposes...) it leaves 100 billion bodies that have got deaded. Which means that there are approximately 100 billion skeletons that are underground (less of course a few that have been fried or whatever you call burning the bodies). Now I'm not being disrespectful to you because I am assuming that if you are reading this you are one of the 6 billion and not one of the 100 billion, which  should be comforting. But have you ever tried to buy a skeleton, you know, like for the study of medicine at Uni or college. I mean there's 100 billion of them not too far away from us. I mean you' d think  supply and demand would keep the prices down a bit, wouldn't you? Anyway I'm probably getting off the track a bit, no?
Now if 100 billion bodies have gone before us, can you get some sort of an idea the enormity of the task by our maker, our God if you believe, the Divine, our Universal Director, or whatever you may call the power that made up all of these bodies?
So what I am getting at is that our bodies have a finite life. When we get deaded the flesh falls off the deaded body and leaves a skeleton, which is really not much good to anyone but say the medical students who might keep say a couple of thousand of the 100 billion. So...
With all of these skeletons mounting up underground, it should be coming clearer to you that you and me aren't part of the eternity club. And yet the bodies and the skeletons keep on coming, billion after billion. So...
There has to be more to life....and death. So....
Don't you think it's time to give a little thought to becoming the BEST you can possibly be before becoming 100 billion AND ONE!
I know it's funny, I know it's a bit morbid, but it's very very serious....

                                                    "BE"  YOUR POTENTIAL
........................................."BE"fore joining the underground !

Since I became an international superstar after being depicted as a desperate, dateless homeless man living in a tent in front of 1.42 million viewers, on A Current Affair, I have been recognised by quite a few people who have stopped me and said something like "Ooooohhh, yoooouuurr that guuuuy" to which I normally act dumb which proves that I am obviously talented as an actor because they really believe that I am (dumb that is!)!
But what is even fuuuunnieeeer is that when I own up to being "that guy" and respond with a smile and "Trigger" I have been getting quite strange reactions. For example this lady at the library was mesmerized that she had met a 'celebrity' albeit a very destitute one. Although she didn't ask for my autograph, which was rather disappointing because I had the black marker in hand, she was very complimentary in telling me that I inspired a lot of people by going public with my very embarrassing saga of destitution and depression! She was particularly inspired by my publishing a book, and is a regular reader of my blogs. She continued that she wished she had the ability to do something like me. When I told her she does have the ability she began this rather loud laugh and nearly fell off the adjacent chair. When I quizzed her about the reason for her hilarity, she said she could NEVER write a book because she didn't have a story. She continued that she had just been married for 20 years and had 4 kids. That's all.
It's fuuunneee that I have had quite a few people say the same thing, that you can't write a book if you haven't got a story. It's what I just don't get!
In previous blog posts I have talked about what I am doing. I don't think my story is anything to write about either, if I only think of the past. But if you use the past EXPERIENCES with a story of your future, about what you WANT to achieve, about your DREAMS, and then THINK how you can CREATE a story, or journey, then I am sure plenty of people will be interested, just as many seem to be interested in the path I am taking.
Every single day something happens in each of our lives. Stuff that we take for granted because it is part of our routine lifestyle, might be of interest to others because they are unfamiliar with your daily routine and maybe, just maybe, they may be even a little inspired by YOU.
YEP, everyone has a story. People are interested in YOU. What you do, what you like, where you go, what your dreams are......
Only YOU know your story. All that you have to do is THINK about your life, your past experiences, the funny times, the romantic times, the sad times......
Your fellow dots are interested in you.
It's what CONNECTING THE DOTS is all about. Sharing experiences. Sharing stories.
Everyone has a story.
Yep, even YOU.
I'm interested........

Pretty funny sorta word, huh?
Hello.
What?
I said hello.
Depending on what sort of a mood you are in usually dictates the way you interpret the word.
If you get out of bed in the dirtiest filthy mood you have ever been in and one of your good friends from the Glee Club bounces in and blurts out "Hello", you may be likely to take that good friend out, I mean with an upper cut! But if you are the reincarnation of the Glee Club itself, then you may run over, kiss good friend and "Hello" him/her right back.
I mean, I know I sound like I'm one suck on a sauce bottle away from complete insanity, but really what is the point in saying "Hello"?
Yeah, I know, It's just a greeting. Yep, you say it to be polite. Uh Huh, it's a pleasantry. Mmm Hmm, it starts the day off nicely. Yeah but, aaarrrgghhmm.....but what's it mean, dot?
I mean why not have another way of greeting. Like say, aaaarrgghhhmm, say like poking your tongue out. Or, aaarrgghhmm, grunting. Or even, aaarrrgghhmm, farting.
Wot's that? Why am I asking such a stupid question?
Well, somebody questioned me!
See, I've put together this interactive kid's concert called wouldyoubelieve "Trigger's Kid Gig".
I have made up some songs (don't I always???) so that the kids can have a bit of fun interacting with me. Anyway the first of these songs to begin the concert is called "Hello, Hello, Hello" where we all get into it and sing Hello (fast slow high low) at various parts of the song. The idea is to get the audience participating, and it will. After that I am going to ease the audience into "Doe, Rey, Me..." you know from "The Sound Of Music". And then once I have the audience crankin' we are going to CREATE a Number One HIT called "Nursery Rhymes".
Well that was the plan.
Until someone questioned me on why I am starting the concert off with "Hello". But then I realised, the girl that asked me the question......
WASN'T IN A VERY GOOD MOOD!
I think if I had suggested machine gunning the audience she would have celebrated but, well that's just not me (plus I don't have a machine gun!).
Anyway the point of this rather long non-sensible piece of blog is to show you that, no matter what others think of our thoughts, ideas and creations, there is only one person that matters, and that is the CREATOR, in this case MOI.
So, if you greet anyone with a beautiful cheery love filled "Hello" and you get back a grunt, or a mumble or a total disregard, then in my opinion, being the epitome of peace, calm and understanding that my spiritualism has converted me into, then don't react, don't show anger or contempt, just smile....then.....
......EXTERMINATE......

At my library, my daily home, there is an actual book section dedicated to dreams. Can you believe that? An entire section. It makes me giggle. There are several 'Dream Dictionaries' and there were two 'Dream Encyclopaedias', along with soooo many other topics about dreams.
Now being an avid dream fanatic I have read several of them that took my interest. There is one book on Wet dreams. Seriously, I kid you not. Of course I only had a very quick look (mainly at the pictures!) and I made sure that nobody else was around so that I didn't instantly go the colour of my blood!
And yet I suppose it gives some sort of an indication that there are a lotta peoples out there who are very interested in the subject. And I have no doubt that a lot of that has to do with the fact that we are becoming more spiritual in the Western world.
I have to admit that I am a chronic dream maker. I have to dream. I NEED to dream. Dreaming is healthy and very, very necessary.
See, to dream is to wish for something that you want to come true in the future. And to think about something you like is very healthy for your well being. It gives you positive energy. It gives you motivation to achieve. It makes you SMILE and anything that makes you smile has to be good for you, no?
A little example. I have one HUUUUGE dream as you all know, and that is to create my DotsHQ network. I have already designed it. It will be good for me but more particularly it will be good for all of us. It will benefit us all big time and because my purpose is to help others the dream WILL come true. But let's downsize my dream a little. My BIG dream consists of a whole lot of little dreams that I need to have come true in order to get to the big one. In other words I call these little dreams STEPS.
One of the dreams I originally had was to publish my first book, not because I want to be a writer but because I need to tell a STORY, and the book was a good way to begin. Then I dreamed of creating a whole lot of exposure for my story and I recently had that dream (which I spoke about in the book!) come true with National television coverage, newspapers, radio, etc.
So that's all pretty cooool because the STORY is evolving. But I needed other means to get out there. So I created this website and blog. The blog is growing nicely. So another dream of mine has come true. The little dreams are helping me STEP forward. For me it is frustratingly slow but it is building, and the end production will be so much more professional because I have put more thinking time into it.
Everything I do now, until I take my last breath will be within the confines of my dream. You see, my dream, because I have chosen to re-invent myself, is all about my story. The story of LIFE. Not my past life. That would be very very boring. My dream is about my future life. It is about creating my future. It is about getting to my DREAM by WORKING BACKWARDS from it. I have realised a lot of little dreams along the way. I have taken STEPS, one at a time.
I don't expect you all to do what I am doing but you really should start building a dream for your future. Something you can make come true. Something you really WANT to do before pop off time. Once you have set your dream, chasing it is going to become ONE WHOLE LOTTA FUN.....
DREE-EE-EEAM, DREAM, DREAM, DRE-EAM, ....DREE-EE-EE-EAM....