Reb MacRath, Action Manifester! Chapter Five

Many fabulous things have occurred since this adventure began. These include: appearance of real results from the fanatical workouts...near-completion of the 25th anny edition of THE SUITING for August release...steady preparation for my upcoming move to a much better apartment (Sept. 1)...making some wonderful new friends through Tweeter...and the weekly discovery of new tacks for rejuvenating the 5-part rotations I do. It's a little like keeping a marriage alive by contriving occasional reboots.

Still, something astonishing happened this week. I was twice taken by surprise: first by my old boldness in even conceiving the notion...then by the beauty with which the game worked.

A wee bit of back story first, if I may: As some of you may know, I've 'played cards' with rapper/entrepreneur 50 Cent and his co-writer Robert Greene for well over a year. I'd extracted a 'deck' of 52 cards containing key quotes from his book, The 50th Law. Each day I still select five cards from the reshuffled deck. The new combinations I get every day always jolt my spirit.

BUT--thus endeth the back story--this week another player demanded in on the card game. Ladies and gents, nay I introduce you to the late but still great:

JULIUS CAESAR!!!

Now, I know what you're thinking: JC's been dead a good long while--and wasn't he a tyrant, murdered by his own best friends who feared he'd become king? So they say, anyway. And, for all I know, maybe he did go bad from the lust for still more power. Not only that, his being dead so very long presented some real problems in bringing him into the card game.

Or did it? Did it, really? The Caesar I admire, the younger Caesar on the rise, consists of certain qualities that will never die: boldness and decisiveness, unwavering self-confidence, political acumen, charm, physical and mental courage, sexual razzmatazz, visionary brilliance...I saw little gap in Caesar between the vision and the act, the wish and the fulfillment. So I decided to allow the spirit of Julius Caesar into the game I had played all along.

And I'm here to tell you JC plays a real mean game of cards. He's the bomb! Let me sign off with just two examples:
1) The day's question had become: 'How would JC tackle the list of Don't Wants I still waste time thinking about?' 
--JC, I wrote, did not waste time on Don't Wants or worries re defeat. And, though he'd never have gotten into some of my predicaments, if he had he'd have acted boldly and decisively. The lingering sense of Powerlessness that I very much don't want? JC would have laughed, delighted by the challenge of making new alliances, charming and campaigning past the foes who hoped to block him. JC would have laughed again at my 'I don't want to be in second-rate shape, thrilled by the chance to grow in discipline through training.
2) Yesterday's question had become: 'How would JC succeed in imagining his top intentions as already achieved?'
--Thanks to JC, I wrote, my attention shifts to practical, doable measures--strong interim steps I can take on the way to the dreams it's hard to imagine. I need Caesar-style steps. Billiards-style set-ups. Careful orchestrations. If JC were in my shoes, with confidence that had been shaken--in the bedroom and the boardroom--he'd rebuild his confidence through his sense of destiny and the actions he saw himself taking.

No, I'm not out to rule a world empire. And I don't confuse myself with a Roman genius. But I can tell you with great pride: the smartest move I've made in my life has been letting him into this card game.

This is my report.