September 19, 2007

Pray Rain in Action

As promised, here's the story of my first experience with a pray rain journal.

I was in the corporate world and had just gotten out of a staff meeting where we salespeople were told if we didn't turn our numbers around FAST, we were out of jobs. They'd pull the plug on the whole department.

Nothing was going right in the year the department had been up and running. I'd been on board four months and from day one was immersed in the struggle to make something good happen. We were having miserable results. No internal cooperation, our product wasn't well-received, and management had this pool of amazing 401k experts COLD CALLING prospects to try to sell this thing. It was ridiculous!

And it wasn't working.

So coming out of that meeting, I felt like I'd been fired. I thought, well, what they told us to do hasn't worked (cold calling, script sheets, etc.) so I may as well try something new.

And I thought about a pray rain journal. I'd heard of it, but never practiced it.

I knew a hairstylist who'd achieved her dream of owning her own salon by using a pray rain journal, so I had reason to believe it could work.

I also knew I didn't have a lot of time to get results, so I needed a very short journal.

Guess what I found in my drawer? A little 25 page $0.88 notebook - maybe 2" wide by 3" long - I mean TEENY. I could whip through that thing pretty fast. Didn't know if it'd be fast enough to save my job, but - it was worth a shot. After all, nothing else was working!

So I pulled out my new notebook, and on the first page I wrote about how excited prospects were to find me. I wrote about how much they loved my product. I wrote about what great instant rapport we had, and how they couldn't wait for me to implement the product, and how perfect it was for their company.

It was pure fantasy! Everything I wrote in there was the exact opposite of what I'd been experiencing.

But for those four minutes it took to write a handful of sentences about what I wanted as if I already had it, I was vibrating alignment with it. (And we all know that's where the magic is.)

So after my first entry I did another unheard of thing. I asked myself what felt good to do next.

"Lunch."

I hadn't had lunch since my first day on the job when the big wigs took me out.

I'd been eating Snickers and Grandma's cookies from the vending machine because we were under immense pressure to make a certain number of phone calls every day and track our results, and report back to management, etc. etc.

So after asking what felt good, I did something different. I went across the street (whoa - left the building! ha ha!) and ate my favorite Greek food at an outside table on a gorgeous spring day. I kicked my feet up on another chair and leisurely fed leftover pita bread to the sparrows. I goofed off. And it felt GOOOOOD!

After an hour and a half of enjoying myself and the beautiful day and the amazing food and friendly birds, I went back to the office. I was feeling refreshed. And better.

In the elevator on the way up, a gentleman asked me who I was. I told him my name and the company I worked for.

When I told him I sold small business 401k plans, his mouth dropped open. "You HAVE to follow me to my office." Which is where he showed me his desk - covered with sales literature from 401k vendors.

"I've been going through this for weeks and haven't been able to make heads or tails of any of it. Can you help me?"

Ha ha!

Can I help him?! It's only what I was born to do!! I mean, in truth, I LOVED 401k plans, I loved talking about them, I loved helping people understand them, I loved helping them figure out what would work best for them.

I finally got to do what I LOVED!

I had my satchel with me and pulled out my sales literature. We had a very nice chat.

After 15 minutes he got up and walked me down the hall to his HR Director. "Sherry, meet Jeannette. Jeannette, meet Sherry." He tells Sherry I'll be implementing their new plan and to sign whatever I need her to sign.

He turns to me and asks "How soon can you get that to us?"

I was more than a little shocked, you can imagine. Where were the objections? Where was the dance to try to get a second appointment? Where were the other decision makers who I had to get on board?

This was supposed to be a six week process to even get to the point where we prepare contracts for signature.

From that day on, I became a pray rain journal junkie. I mean, I didn't even have to get to the end of the BOOK before my first dream came true ... it happened before the end of the DAY!

I've used them on various things ever since. (Building my ideal coach practice in amazingly short time, for one.)

Have fun with yours.

And I just want to officially say thank you, Universe, for being so good to me. That was a really good day. : )

22 comments:

  1. This is a little gem!

    I have varying degrees of success with keeping a positive vibe going, but this sounds like a really good way to turn a slump around. When you had broached the topic earlier, I thought, "yeah, I can't even stick with daily journaling long enough to fill up a journal, much less fill one with pie-in-the-sky dreaming." But seeing the big results you had from a teeny tiny notebook (definitely doable in my book) has won me over.

    Examples make all the difference for me; thanks for sharing your awesome experience with this! :)

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  2. Yeah, and I used to HATE journaling, Star! (Ever since my mom read my diary when I was a teenager. Mortifying!)

    But this writing about what you want as if you already had it ... whew. Very different thing.

    I can't say I could fill this blog with stories where it all happened for me after just one entry .. lol .. but the process works.

    Glad you enjoyed the example, and thanks for writing, Star! :)

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  3. Okay I have a comment--just one--I just have one little thing to say here.....
    !WOW!
    wait I think I need to say it again!
    !WOW!
    and again....
    !WOW!

    (Cool story, no wonder you love to pray rain)

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  4. No doubt, Karen! lol In fact, there were times when I'd have two journals going at the same time (separate topics). That was a little much and I probably wouldn't recommend it, but .. yeah. It was cool.

    You might like my first scripting success story, too. ha! I'll blog about that one soon!

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  5. Great story. Yeah, the detail of the tiny notebook is a terrific one. Let's hear the scripting story!

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  6. There can't be too many people in the world who can claim to LOVE 401k plans! You crack me up, Jeannette. But I have to say that I'll be taking up this apparently bizarre habit as soon as I pick up a little blank book.

    In mostly unrelated news... well, maybe not unrelated, because this is all about what is important, actually important. Anyway, I read this today and wondered if you might find it useful.

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  7. Glad you liked the story, Martha. Thanks for saying so! Scripting coming up. :)

    John - LOVED the part about "brick walls being there to let us prove how badly we want something." How true is that, huh?

    Also, how helpful those walls can be in ensuring we DO get on our true path. Because when we run into trouble on something we don't want badly enough to surpass the obstacles, it redirects us toward something we DO want more.

    At least, I think it CAN work that way.

    That offers a whole new perspective on challenges, huh?

    Wow. I'm liking this, John. Thanks for a new way of thinking about walls. To prove to ourselves what's important, get straight about what that is, and find our way through.

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  8. Hi Jeanette
    I loved the example and am off to buy a really "lush" journal tomorrow. I however currently write a Gratitude journal every night, thanking God/ the Universe etc for all the things I have been given each day. How different is this from the rain journal in terms of positive alignment? Do you think I need to keep both? Do they both do different things? Also do you write in your Rain Journal everyday, or only for certain projects?
    Any advice would be so appreciated.

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  9. I finally posted that meme you tagged me for! Sorry it took so long.

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  10. Thanks for sharing the wonderful story...wow I am all excited to try this now ! Thanks a million !

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  11. Good question, Vanessa. I'd like to hear your answer ... do you feel any different when you make the different entries?

    I personally do, but I suspect for some people that wouldn't be the case. Pay attention to your energy and how it shifts as you do a gratitude entry vs. a pray rain entry, and let that be your guide.

    As to your other question, I learned fairly early on that I can burn out on journaling if I don't take a break from it between projects. So I only do it for certain topics and alternate with scripting and other exercises designed to raise the vibe.

    But it is still my favorite. I've got a shelf-full of completed journals that are SO much fun to go back and read, seeing how things unfolded so closely as I described that it's a little spooky!

    Hope that helps. :)

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  12. Thanks, Priscilla, for playing!

    And thank you, Mr. Biggs, for sharing your enthusiasm! That stuff is contagious and ALWAYS welcome here!

    woo hoo!!

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  13. Thanks Jeannette for answering my queries. Well I went and bought a lovely notebook today and I can't wait to start my Rain Journal. I will certainly check "my vibe" as I write in it and hopefully report back with some success stories.

    Love this thread!!!

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  14. I'm imagining, Vanessa, that you're unlikely to find a more powerful combination than regular gratitude and immersing yourself in the virtual details of what you want (by doing a gratitude practice AND pray rain journaling).

    I think you're going to like it! :)

    (Well, after I say that, I think of self-love as one of the biggest keys as well to successful manifesting. But just those two ingredients (from above) will yield you a very nice pie, I'm sure.)

    Enjoy!

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  15. Hi Jeannette
    I really wanted to update you on my first experience with the Rain Journal. WOW!!!! I have never had feelings of positivity like it before. I have visualised for years, done visual boards etc but nothing created that feeling of positivity that I felt doing this. As you know I keep a Gratitude Journal and I was interested to see how different each made me feel. The only way I can describe it is that my Gratitude Journal which I do every night, gives me a warm glowing feeling. The Rain Journal which I decided to do first thing in the morning, literally gave me a "burning fire of passion" in the pit of my stomach.It has literally left me buzzing (even though on a physical level nothing has changed "yet"!) I have never felt so aligned before. So Jeannette, I want to thank you for introducing this method to all of us who had not heard of it before.Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

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  16. Yay, Vanessa! That's pretty much the difference for ME too!

    Hey, I thought it no coincidence that after I read your comment I opened this Abe quote in my email:

    "We want you to get the sense that in the absence of things that you have identified as goals that you want, there still can be frolicking. And when you learn to frolick BEFORE the manifestation -ahhh, that is our wish for you - frolick before the manifestation. Frolick on your way to the manifestation. Frolick because frolicking is natural to you."

    Los Angeles, CA, 8-4-07

    It seems to me the journal helps us FROLICK now. : )

    Glad you're enjoying it!

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  17. Well, this next Abe quote fit really well, too, I thought:

    "What true patience is, is knowing that you want it and knowing that it's coming and
    actually enjoying the unfolding along the way... "

    --Abraham-Hicks
    Larkspur, CA on 1997-08-30

    In that the journal helps us enjoy the manifestation process along the way. : )

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  18. Wow! What a great story. I once worked at a place like that, too, where it felt so daring and wrong to -- gasp! -- leave the building for lunch!! I get inspired by concrete examples, too, like someone else said, so thanks for posting. :)

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  19. Glad you enjoyed, Abigail, and thanks for sharing your thoughts.

    For some reason it makes me feel better to know I wasn't the only one who had that experience at an employer's! lol

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  20. A few days ago I read your posts about the Pray Rain Journal.

    I just HAVE to tell you what happened.

    I'd been feeling really frustrated about my situation with my
    boyfriend of 3 years. He stopped coming over, didn't ever want to
    hang out, and our phone conversations were often very short and ended badly.

    One night I was just so overwhelmed with feeling unappreciated that I started writing him a letter (on normal notebook paper). After
    three lines, I was crying really hard and realized, this isn't making me feel better.

    Then I remembered the Pray Rain journal and decided to change my tone.

    I skipped a line on the page, indented, and started a new letter. I wrote to him, saying how much I adore him and how glad I was that he cherished me so much. It was all the polar opposite of how I truly felt. I stopped after only eleven more lines and went to sleep.

    Eventually, I got a call from him which lasted longer than all the
    calls of the previous week added together. We went out and had a
    great weekend after nearly a month of thinking we would break up.

    I didn't immediately see the magic, but when I thought about it, I realized I got that call only one day after writing the pray rain journal. One day!!!

    OMG. =) Thank you so much, Jeannette!

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  21. Yesterday morning, I started dwelling on not getting a new job. I caught myself and immediately got out my journal and wrote the perfect scenario of my new job. I really got into the feeling of it.

    So I wrote my new story with all the trimmings around 9:15 am and got a call for a job interview at 11:30 am.

    cool, huh??

    Only took 2 hours for that to manifest. I started laughing again and said, "I am back!" ha, ha.

    The funny thing was when I called, the hiring manager sounded just like Jeannette on the phone...same voice and mannerisms. I was waiting for her to start talking about LOA. It was really cool because her voice got me in a feel good vibe like Jeannette's does. Isn't that great!!!

    The phone interview went very well (no surprise) and I have a second interview tomorrow.

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  22. I love these success stories! Thanks for being willing to share them with others - they're very inspirational!

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