1,200 Posts in 1,200 Days

How to pick a lock, heal cancer and follow the career of your dreams … with a bobby pin and an allen wrench.

I just picked a lock. I had never picked a lock before. I also never really tried. But tonight I needed to as I left the keys in my office. This wasn’t some bathroom door lock with the little hole in it that you can open with a paper clip. This was a lock with a real key–the kind you hope people can’t pick.

“Wow, I’m impressed with your determination.” My wife at 1 a.m.

I also just hit 1,200 posts in 1,200 days. It’s perfect timing. Here’s how and why.

Here’s exactly how I picked the lock:

1. I told myself that I was going to open the lock and not give up until the door was open–no matter how I got in.
2. I gave it a try with the knowledge I had (which wasn’t much). Tried the wrong keys that fit inside, but didn’t open the door. Tried some paper clips. Tried pushing really hard.
3. When that didn’t work, I asked others. My 9-year old said, “I know how to do it,” he tried for a while and asked, “Don’t you have the key?” It boosted my son’s confidence that I asked for his help, but we still didn’t have the door open. He went to bed.
4. My other son went to YouTube to find some experts in the field. When there was a 13-year old boy doing the YouTube video on lock picking, I figured I was OK. But I couldn’t get it open. We had a little discussion about what a 13-year old boy was doing making YouTube videos about how to pick locks. We did learn about some tools of the trade, though, and found a bobby pin and paper clips.
5. I took a break and did something else to take my mind off of it.
6. I weighed options options: locksmith, break door down, etc. Good to know what your exit strategies are.
7. I went to bed with the strategy that I’d be fresher in the morning and would go at it again with a new set of eyes.
8. I went to YouTube (in bed) and found “How to Pick a Lock” from The Art of Manliness and a true expert in the field–not a 13-year old thief-in-training. I watched it three times while I tried to do what the video was doing. I added an allen wrench to my arsenal. I also found that I had a set of at least 25 allen wrenches that I didn’t know about. Bonus!
9. I educated myself about the construction of a lock (shear line, driver pins, key pins, plug) so I could increase my knowledge and increase the probability of my success. I also studied what the tools are for: the bobby pin is used to “rake” the pins, to move them. The allen wrench is a lever to push up and down with but also to turn with once you’re ready.
10. This step is key (ha, little pun there). I stopped trying so hard and just let my fingers feel the bobby pin and the allen wrench moving around inside of the lock, listening and feeling my way through the pins move and drop. I was educated and practiced. I was about to give up and I didn’t care anymore if I opened it tonight or not. I heard some clicks. I felt some movement. It opened!

I screamed to my wife! “I did it! I did it! I got it open!”

You may have noticed my reference to healing cancer in the subtitle of this article. I’ve personally met people who have followed the strategy laid out above and read about loads more who have healed their bodies of cancer. It’s just about the same process. (Please note that I’m in no way taking cancer lightly. If you know me at all, you know that I don’t. It’s all the more reason I am infatuated with the process.)

I also quickly glossed over following the career of your dreams. Surprise! Same steps. I can summarize 47 of the top books on success with these steps. Again, I don’t take this lightly, but then again … I do. Step 10 is an important one: stop taking it so seriously. You’ve done the hard part: tried, consulted, called in experts, tried more, believed in yourself. Then you need step #10: let it go, allow your success. Get out of your own way. You know when you know what you’re doing, but you need to get out of the way to let success happen.

Greatness Slumbers Within Us

You know you have it in you, you can feel your future inside of you like some horrific scene from the Alien movie. But your future is safe in there. It’s quiet and doesn’t cause any commotion. You stir it awake and it doesn’t want to come out. You have to coax it out, trick it into coming out, not give up, know it’s yours and you own it, know that you and only you can bring it to life. No one else believes you–no one else may believe in you. But you believe in you.

Sit down. Look at the lock. Learn it, work it, feel it. Educate, practice, keep at it. Open the lock to your future.

• Possible: call the locksmith
• Impossible: don’t go in that room anymore
• Repossible: never, ever give up

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