My dad recently retired after many years working in concrete industry. He suddenly had extra time on his hands, so he started doing some fun things with concrete. One of his most successful projects is unique concrete leaves that he molds from real rhubarb leaves.

He gives his leaves away to grateful friends and family, even though leaves just like them are showing up in many landscaping magazines as garden sculptures. Concrete leaves are also being used in expensive fountains. My dad thought about selling them, but freight is just too expensive. And besides - he's supposed to be retired.

I talked him into making a website to show other people how to make leaves for themselves. It took a few months of nagging, but he finally agreed to it.

The whole family got in on project - his wife helped him write it, and was very patient when we grabbed digital camera and made her pose. My daughter helped with some design ideas, and my dad took all pictures. My job was to put website together.

This family project was a lot of fun, and gave us something that we could all work on together, even though we live in three different cities. And, thanks to AdSense, my dad's website is more than paying for itself.

What do all of these have in common? They influence and change your thinking and paradigm over time to whatever it is they espouse.

James Allen wrote “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”. What we continually dwell on—consciously and unconsciously is what will shape our thoughts and world in which we operate. That is why optimism allows some in poverty to believe they have a wonderful life. And another person in same home, living same conditions - yet suffering from a pessimistic attitude, will hate and struggle within their circumstances.

Self-hypnosis tapes work on our subconscious when we are relaxed so that we do not fight message, nor answer it in our minds with refuting negativity as we overcome obstacles that we need help with. Music, repeatedly heard, eventually floats through our minds almost unnoticed. Its message—beyond just lyrics, begins to be woven within our ideology and outlook. There are enough news reports of teens over years acting out in alignment with what artists call “just music”. And there are as many within religious organizations that call upon inspirational music as what carried them over through rough times. Also, between scriptures, sermons, classes and books… those within any religious setting begin to shape their lives according to basic tenants and premises of that line of thought.

But what about you?? You have goals, dreams, ideas too. You have things you wish to accomplish, things you wish to strive to. You have ideas about way you want to feel when living on target. So how can we take a clue from programming in three situations above to allow YOU – yourself, to begin to program your own destiny?

Perhaps you have heard of technique of writing down your goals daily in order to bring them into reality. Well that works well if you are one of society that learns through writing and visualization. We all learn in different ways. I have tried this method without much success mostly because I am not a visual or written only learner. And partly because I forget to keep at it day after day.