Tools of the Trade

Vision Boards, Affirmations, Mastermind groups, Paraliminals, Visualizations/Meditation, Book, Audios, Movies…the list goes on and on. So how does a person know where to start on that path to self growth?

You listen to that inner voice. You read the pitch, the dust jacket, the ad, the whatever that is telling you about the product and you listen for your inner voice. But here’s the catch-you need it all. You need to visualize what you want. You need to read, and watch and listen to things that change the way you look at everything, things that make you really think, things that help you see what's possible.

But you want more help than that don’t you? Ok, look for how the information you are taking in is making you feel. Some stuff is like cotton candy, really nice and gentle and some is like a bat upside your head-right between your eyes. Sometimes you need for someone to be blunt and sometimes you need nice, but all of the time you need what speaks to you at the place you are at right now. And that place changes as you change. Use the tools that make you feel good.

So get started. Today.

Check this out!

I just received an email that was so on point I just had to share part of  it with everyone. It came to me from Vic Conant, who heads up Nightingale-Conant, the world’s largest producer of self growth materials.

What if I were to follow you with a camera crew 24 hours a day 7 days a week for the next 100 days while you went for your goals?

I bet three things would happen....

1. You would START doing the things you say you need to do.
2. You would STOP doing the things you know you shouldn't be doing.
3. You would MAKE monumental performance gains and change your life.

Why? Because you would be motivated by a strong sense of accountability. Accountability serves and protects your character, credibility and commitments. It ensures that what you want to accomplish gets accomplished.

It's important to understand that ALL unfinished goals, projects and relationships, in every area of your life, are the result of broken promises, unfulfilled commitments, and lack of accountability.

I hope that as you read that you were thinking ‘that is so true!’ and maybe you were so intrigued by what you read that you visited the Nightingale-Conant website. I’m putting in the link but no guarantees; http://www.startfastfinishstrong.com/index-c.php   you can go there and check it out if you want. I’m not an affiliate or anything but the 100 day challenge is interesting isn’t it?

Even if you don’t go visit the website; what if you did a small experiment? What if you pretended that you were being filmed? Or if that isn’t motivation enough what if you have someone film you and see if you don’t start getting a lot more done in a day?

Memes

I just happened to be channel surfing recently and came across Dr Wayne Dyer presenting ‘No Excuses’. I didn’t get to see the entire presentation but what I saw fascinated me. He talked about memes or mind viruses. Hmmm, mind viruses?

I went online and found a site that had done an interview with Dr. Dyer, Coast to coast with George Noory and I want to share a quote from that; “I use the term "habitual mind," instead of what Bruce calls subconscious, said Dyer, explaining that people have a lot of "excuses" in their head as to why they can't effect change-- such as 'I'm too old,' 'I'm too busy,' etc. But when you change the way you look at things, things start to change, he commented. You can overcome limiting ideas, he advised, and not always believe everything you think-- most of what you think doesn't hold up.”

Imagine that. Imagine that most of what you believe, about wealth, about health, about people, about pretty much everything, is not something which you believe because you thought about it but because society or your parents or someone or something thought for you and you accepted it! What could you change, right now, today, if you thought something new? Is there something that you could be, do or have that you have used an excuse not to be, do or have? I believe that it is time for us all to put on our thinking caps!

I will leave you with one more quote but the origin is not known to me as I have heard it attributed to more than one source; “Change the way you see everything and everything you see will change.”

What is Success???

If you are like me then you receive a daily inspirational, a quote or some other sort of positive message everyday. I actually subscribe to several & I send one out myself.  Sending & receiving those messages of prosperity are a great way to not only enlarge your vision of what is possible but also to keep yourself focused on your goals.

There are many definitions of what success is. Many people have the mistaken notion that success is measured only in monetary units. I believe the late Earl Nightingale said it best “Success is the realization of a worthy ideal.” So think about that for a minute; it does not say anything about money. Money can certainly be a part of success but it is not the only component. How successful are you really if you are financially secure but have no love, for example? What if you have lots of money & a family but your health is poor? When you are deliberate in creating your life you understand that your thoughts manifest your life. Disease is dis ease—that is a mind that is not at ease, a mind that is not truly happy with the life that has been created. Unhappiness of any kind is the same and will bring that same dis ease into a life.

So now, are you sitting there thinking that disease is inevitable in life isn’t it? That there is no mind/body connection? I suggest to you that a study of just such a link can easily show that what I am saying is not an opinion. Science has show an indisputable mind/ body connection.  Disease is not a synonym for decline, eventually we live long enough to wear out our physical body, more on that in another post.Disease is only inevitable because not all people on the planet will likely, all at the same time, understand what it takes to live into their dreams. And they will pass that along to their circle of influence; their children, their partner, whoever they associate with for.

And what does disease have to do with success? Have I strayed from the subject? Not at all; when you have a goal or an ideal and you work toward it each and every day until the day you realize that ideal, that is the day that you are truly successful. For me, that ideal is who I am not what I am. It does not matter if I am an a butcher, a baker, a candlestick-maker or the next Oprah because everywhere I go there I am. I want to be the person I want to go places with, so my ideal is to live a life of integrity. All else falls into place when I do this. Wikipedia has an entry about integrity which starts with; Integrity is consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations and outcome.

Maybe you wondering how? How does a person live a life of integrity? You get out your goal list. Look it over, how many goals do you have that are based on character of personal development? Do you have education goals on that list? Do you have spiritual goals? If you don’t start a new list and include  the  who you want to be on it and what it would take to achieve that. Then; ACT AS IF you already are that person. The reality is that you already are that person but somewhere in time that was forgotten. Deep inside you know this or you would do nothing to move forward in life, you would do nothing to improve the quality of your life.

Affirmations? Yes or No?

People often ask me if I recommend doing affirmations and I always reply that everyone does affirmations every day whether or not they realize that so one might as well choose the right ones. If you question that, think through an average day for yourself; are you always worried about being late? About traffic, family, money etc?  And then having what you feared the most come to pass? Repeated thoughts whether they are thoughts of increase or loss, intended to or not,will affirm. And worry thoughts are always negative because they are always caused by a lack of belief, plus worry thoughts create, not just the things you don’t want, but also negative feelings about yourself. You have to turn that ship around and affirmations can help you do that.

So what are the right affirmations? That depends. An affirmation should be custom fitted so to speak because there just isn’t a one size fits all affirmation. An affirmation can be something simple like; I can do it and I know I can or it can be complex and more along the lines of; infinite intelligence now guides me in the direction of my goals and I am grateful for all of my blessings. I prefer simple but with variety so I may just thank God for all of the wealth, success, health and happiness in my life. I also tend to think of a song whenever I do an affirmation, often its the theme to Star Trek Enterprise because music makes putting emotion behind my desire easier. For the next few days, pay attention to songs that evoke a good feeling for you, whether those are theme songs or elevator music doesn’t matter. I coached a lady, Kara and the theme song she chose was from Sponge Bob Square Pants.  The only rule about songs is that they must bring a positive feeling to you. Why? Because good things happen when you feel good. I have covered that before. I know that some people sing their ‘theme’ song to themselves whenever they find themselves in a tense or stressful situation without attaching any affirmation.

What an affirmation should not be; a request. A request would make it a contradiction,  you have already placed your order now its time to believe, not only that you will have what you want but that you are worthy of having what you want.

So go ahead, empower yourself because take it from me—you are worthy, you do deserve and you can do, be and have what you want. Affirmations are a reminder that if you keep your focus on what you DO want & take action every day, you CAN achieve whatever you want. You can do it and I know you can.

The Ultimate Source of Happiness

I know its too simple an answer. I know that people want it to be some secret ritual, formula or tool that they can use—something external that they can acquire to make them happy but the truth of the matter is that happiness comes from within. That the secret to happiness is feeling good. All the time.

And I know that some of you are reading this and thinking, this is ridiculous, how can a person who got fired from their job or lost a loved one feel good? Reread that last paragraph, I said simple I didn’t say easy. When you experience a loss of any kind, you will also experience grief, that is just human nature, but it is in the way that you think about your loss that determines your true feelings. If you get that change is really the norm of life and that in order for new things to come to you--like a job that is more to your liking or takes to your goals faster—some old things must fall away. And as for grief about the loss of a loved one, I know some of you will not like this but I don’t believe that I can be anything less than blunt; you are feeling sorry for yourself (and that is okay because after all you just lost something very special to you, something irreplaceable) but truly, these sorts of occurrences are not common occurrences is most peoples lives now are they.

But what is common is for people to wake up in the morning and have thoughts of dread; dreading school, traffic, their schedule or work or whatever they have going on that they see as a struggle. These people wake up to a feeling of unhappiness and the day usually goes according to that feeling. Think about when you go on vacation; do you even need an alarm clock to wake you up? Probably not and yet on other days don’t you have to have one and likely it must have a snooze button? The only real difference between a vacation morning and non-vacation morning is how you are feeling. So what if you decide to wake up everyday as if you are on vacation? Being unhappy is disbelief; in your supply, in your ability, in your future and/or in what's possible. We are always unhappy when we do not trust (believe) that everything will work out to our satisfaction and promotion.

So let’s opt for happiness. I do know that most of you have not yet created a life that you love. You have to start somewhere and that somewhere is always decision. You make a choice as to what it is that you truly want, you put goals in writing, form a plan and work on your plan everyday. Then you get feedback from the universe blocking you when you are trying to force it & throwing opportunities (that may not look like opportunities at the time) in your path when you are allowing. And sometimes, you are going to be very uncomfortable in your growth. Why? Because you can’t see how what is happening now can possibly take you to where you want to go maybe or maybe you are doing things you never thought you would want to do, like say, gasp, public speaking. Later when you look back you are going to see that it was all necessary and not so bad after all not to mention it turned out even better than you had even planned.

To be happy is a choice; its a decision to enjoy life. And as I said before, sometimes things will happen that are uncomfortable. When this happens it is one of two things; growing pains or else your predominate thoughts are of what you don’t want not what you do want. The former is temporary and necessary to get you to where you want to go the latter will only get worse until you focus and think about your goals to the exclusion of all other possible outcomes.

So now you have decided to be happy where do you start? The easiest way is to count your blessings. No matter where you are there is so much to be thankful for and true gratitude will always bring a smile and that feeling of peace, serenity and happiness. So make a list right now and be grateful for the ability to do so.