Summary: Podcast Note: Podcast name has changed to The Successful Life Mindset. Interview with Jim Stovall The guest for today’s podcast is Jim Stovall, author of A Christmas Snow (the novel), and The Lamp, originally written as a play about 15 years ago. When his novel, “The Ultimate Gift” was made into a movie, his publisher suggested he rewrite “The Lamp” into a book, which he did about six or seven years ago. Jim gave the book to Tracy to read. Tracy read it, understood the message and collaborated with Jim to turn the book into a movie. The Message of The Lamp Paraphrasing Jim’s words, the message of the The Lamp is the story of a couple (representative of every man, every woman) that go through life’s struggles, financial issues, relationship issues, and with careers they are not totally happy in, but when real tragedy – the loss of their only child – occurs, everything falls apart. They are comforted by a lamp and messenger that come into their lives. The messenger grants them three wishes, as long as each is something they can’t achieve on their own. Their first thought is money, lots of money; next is a true sense of family, repairing their relationship, and finally success in their careers. While they work on the list of wishes, they come to understand life is a gift and the real magic is already in us. They find when the messenger returns in 30 days to grant the wishes, they already have the things they wanted. The Magic Formula Some people look for a magic formula to take them where they want to be, but if they first believe, then put plans into place to make it happen or at least work toward their goal, they will, with God’s help achieve those goals. Cliff quoted Paul R Kovatch, “The difference between a dream and a goal is a plan”. Jim had planned to become a pro football player, but when he was in his teens, he was told he would eventually lose his sight. His goal of becoming a football player was not be to reached, but he refocused his athletic abilities and turned to wrestling. He was able to earn a gold medal in wrestling before losing his sight. One day he was listening to a movie he had seen several times before losing his sight and had the idea that if you added an additional track on the film itself, a narrative track, blind people could “watch” movies. That led to 100 hours of narrative being sent to the networks, and from that, a very successful career has emerged. Jim believes that our biggest dreams are alive and well inside us. God wouldn’t have given us those dreams unless they were achievable with His help – the gifts and talents He gives us. God rarely changes plans, but He changes people and people change plans. Belief in our dreams is what turns us to action. Belief is down in our core. Our circumstances can change and we don’t always have a choice in what happens, but we do have a choice in what we do about it. Dreams change – we can only see to the next horizon, as life goes on our view changes and our dreams change. A New Dream Jim told Tracy he is very satisfied with his life today. He changed his dream to write. He has been successful with that; however, his new dream was to write movies where he had complete control over the message. He and Tracy met three times within a week – at an airport, in Dallas, and again in a restaurant. They believe it was God’s intervention, His way of presenting an opportunity for them to talk. Together they have fulfilled Jim’s new dream of controlling the movie’s message. The Mastermind Tracy talked about the “mastermind relationship”, based on a Napoleon Hill belief, that you should align yourself with positive, like-minded people that share your beliefs, have their strengths where you have your weaknesses and that can open doors you couldn’t on your own. You help them and they help you achieve each other’s goals. God places people in our lives for a reason.
