Auld Lang Syne

Last post I suggested that you take a look back at 2010 and on this post I recommend that you consider the possibilities for 2011.

Now, I am not referring to your goal list, I am asking you to think about yourself.

If you have any understanding of the ‘law of attraction’ and even if you don’t, you can look around and see in the past and present, people who have achieved great success after having overcome many obstacles. So you can easily see that whatever goal you set can be attained because if they can do it then so can you, right?

Only if you see that if it is possible for another then it is possible for you and then allow yourself to have it. I hear people say things like; I’m never that lucky or I wish or a dozen other things that show their true belief-they know it’s possible but not for them. So I say; why not? Why wouldn’t you get that lucky? (As if something such as luck really existed anyway) Why shouldn’t  you wish? Because it is true that if one person can succeed then so can another (and by another I mean you) just by believing and acting on that belief.

So give some thought  to who you are and what you can do and be and have. Every day is a new opportunity.

Happy New Year!

Take A Look Back

Sometimes we all need a reminder of where we have been and to compare that with where we are now. The end of the year is a great time to take a bit of time to do just that.

If you keep a journal that makes it easier to go back and see how much progress you have made in your journey of personal development. Has your attitude changed and if it did, was that a change for the better? Have you achieved many of your goals or at least made progress? Have you forgiven anyone you felt hurt you and ask anyone you might have hurt to forgive you? Did you let go of any useless feelings of guilt, anger or frustration?

Will you end the year happier than you started it? Did you help make anyone’s moment, day, week or year better? The list of possible questions is endless.

Yes, at the heart of all of these questions is the real question; are you moving forward, backward or standing still? Well, okay, there really is no such thing as standing still, the law of momentum means that you are always in motion, but in this context I mean are you taking one step forward then one backwards because of habits? If you are then consider that moving forward. Why? Because you are working to move forward and each time you do that you are taking a bigger step forward, so if you slip and step back it’s not as far as you went forward. It’s also acquiring a new habit-one that will develop and allow you to move forward without any steps back. And if you are a regular reader of this blog or any other self growth material then you must be making some forward progress.

How far will you move forward in the coming year? Hmmm, that is another thing to think about, right?

The Magic In Your Mind

Today I want to share an excerpt from a book by a man named Uell S. Anderson. The title of the book is The Magic in Your Mind and more of it is available online at; http://uellandersen.wwwhubs.com/

 

We exist in order that we may become something more than we are, not through favorable circumstance or auspi­cious occurrence, but through an inner search for increased awareness. To be, to be­come, these are the commandments of evolving life, which is go­ing somewhere, aspires to some un­sealed heights, and the awak­ened soul answers the call, seeks, grows, expands. To do less is to sink into the reactive prison of the ego, with all its pain, suffering, limitation, decay, and death. The man who lives through reaction to the world about him is the victim of every change in his en­vironment, now happy, now sad, now victorious, now defeated, af­fected but never affecting. He may live many years in this manner, rapt with sensory perception and the ups and downs of his surface self, but one day pain so outweighs pleasure that he suddenly per­ceives his ego is illusory, a product of outside circumstances only. Then he either sinks into complete ani­mal lethargy or, turning away from the senses, seeks inner awareness and self-mastery. Then he is on the road to really living, truly becoming; then he begins to uncover his real potential; then he discovers the miracle of his own conscious­ness, the magic in his mind.

Mastery over life is not attained by dominion over ma­terial things, but by mental perception of their true cause and nature. The wise man does not attempt to bend the world to fit his way or to coerce events into a replica of his desires, but instead strives for a higher consciousness that enables him to perceive the secret cause behind all things. Thus he finds a prominent place in events; by his utter har­mony with them he actually appears to be molding them. He moves effortlessly through the most strenuous action, the most per­ilous times, because his attunement with the mental force that con­trols the universe guides him to perform the work that needs to be done.

If you liked that excerpt then I also recommend meditation audios by Kelly Howell which are based on the works of Anderson.

Merry Christmas!

An Example of How The Universe Works

Some of my readers are also on my distribution list for the daily inspirational quote I send out Monday through Fridays and also my Facebook Friends so you will understand this story in greater depth than other readers, all the same the example is there for anyone to see.

I select the picture and the quote for the daily quote several weeks in advance and then select them at random from my drafts. I do not know until I open it what the quote will be.

Last Friday, one of my friends learned of a betrayal and has been understandably upset since. Last night when I opened the quote to load it in the queue for Monday delivery I was struck by the quote; It is from Suzanne Somers ‘Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself.’

I wondered to myself if she would think I had picked that just for her but I knew that the Universe arranged for that quote to show up at just the right time.

And that is how it works, before you even know that you need something the Universe is arranging for it to be there for you. But, for me, the story is even more telling; She and I had lost touch years ago and then out of the blue she sent me a friend request on Facebook and we got back in touch and she ended up being on my distribution list. Not that many of my Facebook friends are on that list. Had she not felt the nudge from the Universe we would not be in touch right now.

The Universe lines up what you need whenever you allow it to, all you need to do is your part; to listen for your cue and act. It’s like the Universe puts out all the dots and all you need to do is draw a line from one dot to the next so you can see the big picture.

If you give this some thought I am sure you can think of examples of how the Universe has worked in your life too.

Sharing is Caring

I receive an email once a week from The Secret Daily Teachings and the one I got this week was so good I just had to share it with you;

From The Secret Daily Teachings

Know yourself! Watch how you manifest the small things in life and think about how you felt inside with those things. Think about how easily they came. You will find that you thought of a small thing once and never thought about it again, and then it manifested.

What really happened was you didn't think any thoughts or speak any words which contradicted what you wanted, so the law of attraction was able to do its work.

May the joy be with you,

Rhonda Byrne

If you give this one some thought I am sure you will think of many examples of how you ‘placed an order with the universe’ and that order was filled. Imagine if this information made you realize that you are the creator of your life and gave you confidence to become a more deliberate creator of loftier goals and dreams. Namaste.

Blinders or Glasses?

I heard an interesting statement the other day; the person said that there is no such thing as objectivity. You might think you can make an impartial judgment about something but really you have an opinion or bias about everything. And it’s not just you, we all have that in common, we think we can be objective but always there will be something that influences our judgment.

I’m sure that you have heard the expression “beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ and you know that what one person thinks is beautiful another might think is not even a little bit pretty, but do you know why that is? You might think that it’s a matter of taste and that it is something you are born with but really that is not true, it’s a matter of perception and perception is learned.

Perception is why you can never be completely objective and it is why you need to pay close attention to what or who you allow to affect your perceptions. Whether or not you realize it, everything and everyone in your life has an impact on your view of the world. So why is this important? If you want to create a life that you love to look at then you need to know what you are allowing to influence you, not just in obvious ways, but in the more subtle ways. How do you do that? By listening closely and thinking about what you hear.

If you listen to those around you and the things they often say are of a complaining or negative nature, your perception of what kind of a world you live in will change (of course that’s assuming you aren’t already thinking negative things like ‘life is hard’ or ‘people are bad’) and you will find ‘evidence’ everywhere you look. What’s around you doesn’t change but what you see can. I know someone that hunts morel mushrooms every Spring. He says that when he goes out hunting he puts on his ‘mushroom eyes’  so he can find the morels. What he is saying is that when he goes to find morels, his expectation or perception is that he will find what he is looking for as long as he is in the right frame of mind. He also said that when he tells himself he is putting on those mushroom eyes he is deliberately putting himself in the right frame of mind by telling himself that he has an enhanced ability to see the morels. He never comes back from a  hunt with less than one pound but usually several pounds of mushrooms, even during seasons when others are finding few. Of course they are the ones sitting around talking about what a bad year it is for mushrooms, he just chooses not to listen to them.

What you listen to does matter.

Joy To The World

No matter what you desire; that great career, the love of your life, health, wealth or anything else under the sun, that desire is for something that you believe will make you happy. The career, love, health, wealth or whatever is just what you think will provide that happiness. With this in mind I share an excerpt from a book that could have been included in my last post.

This book is The Law of Attraction, The Basics of the Teachings of Abraham by Esther and Jerry Hicks;

I Want More Joy, Happiness, and Harmony

Jerry: What if someone would say to you, “Abraham, I want to be more joyful. How can I use what you’re teaching to attract more joy, happiness, and harmony into my life?”

Abraham: First, we would compliment the person on discovering the most important desire of all: the seeking of joy. For in seeking and finding joy, you not only find perfect alignment with your Inner Being and with who-you-really-are, but you also find vibrational alignment with all things that you desire. When joy is really important to you, you do not allow yourself to focus upon things that do not feel good-and the result of thinking only thoughts that feel good would cause you to create a wonderful life filled with all things that you desire.

When you hold the desire to be joyful and you are sensitive to the way you feel, and therefore guide your thoughts in the direction of things that feel better and better, you improve your vibration, and your point of attraction becomes one that will only attract-through the Law of Attraction-things that you desire.

Deliberately guiding your thoughts is the key to a joyful life, but a desire to feel joy is the best plan of all…because in the reaching for joy, you find the thoughts that attract the wonderful life you desire.

 

So, what are you thinking about today?

Tis The Season

We all know that this is the time of year that people are busy preparing for the holidays and stressing themselves out deciding what to get for Aunt Mary or Uncle Joe, for a coworker, for Mom, for Dad, doesn’t it seem that your list gets longer every year? One thing everyone needs whether or not they realize it, is the gift of self growth. And so you have a golden opportunity to share that great book or audio that can make such a difference to someone's life. Today I am limiting myself to recommending ten although there are so many more out there.

In no particular order;

Mike Dooley ‘Leveraging The Universe’ (I would recommend  Manifesting Change but feel that one should start with either Infinite Possibilities or Leveraging The Universe)

Claude Bristol ‘The Magic of Believing’ (an oldie but excellent)

Louise M Hay ‘You Can Heal Your Life’ ( especially for anyone you know that has health concerns but great for anyone)

Napoleon Hill ‘Think and Grow Rich’ (another oldie but still relevant)

Bob Proctor & Mary Morrissey ‘The 11 Forgotten Laws’ (based on the book by Raymond Holliwell

Joseph Murphy ‘The Power of The Subconscious Mind’

Dr Wayne Dyer ‘Excuses Begone!’

Zig Ziglar ‘See You at The Top’

Jim Rohn ‘The Twelve Pillars’

Anthony Robbins ‘Awaken The Giant Within’

And like I said there are many, many other books, audios by the above mentioned and others and sure, your list might be different than mine if you are already familiar with this section of the bookstore, but I feel these cover a range broad enough to provide a great gift for anyone you might be shopping for.

What are you waiting for? Online bookstores are open 24/7!

And So Are You

I was watching Survivor tonight and two of the players wanted to quit. They held a ‘tribal counsel’ and Jeff Probst, the host, asked the two why they wanted to quit after making it more than halfway through the game. They said they could no longer endure the hardship, the weather, the hunger, the discomfort. then he asked one of the other players what advice she would give to the two that wanted to quit. I listened to the advice that player offered, though truth be told once she started saying words of lack & limitation I only half listened, and I thought what a great opportunity this woman had to reach out the the world and what would I have said had I been her. I am not on that show so I won’t have that platform but I have this one and my advice is;

In life one of the critical elements is your focus. If you are in a situation that is not to your liking and all you think about is what you don’t have, what you don’t like, what hurts, then your situation becomes unbearable. This is because what you focus on increases. Ever have a headache but then get busy with something and hours later realize that your headache is gone? It’s because you stopped focusing on the headache and started paying attention to something else. Ever been to a twelve step program meeting? The people that regularly attend would tell you that they would be overwhelmed to think of facing an addiction for a lifetime so they focus on one day at a time. Ever hear the story of an Olympic athlete (or any great athlete for that matter) and hear about the sacrifices they make day after day, year after year in order to compete? They can do that because they keep their focus on what they are working for. Ask any woman that has ever had a child and she will tell you that once the child is born any pain or suffering is set aside and only the result matters and that the result is worth it. If I can do this so can you, so don’t quit because it’s hard, stay because you can. If you stay you will never regret trying, but if you leave you will always regret quitting.

I Believe I Can Fly

I believe I can fly, just not like Superman does, although I have to wonder if my belief was true and strong, could I? I know that the only limits we have are those we place on ourselves so my answer is; probably. But flying is not my subject today, belief is & the title of this post was just for fun.

Long time readers know that my theory for creation is; belief + expectation = actions + results. Every aspect of your life is your creation and has come from your beliefs because belief is the starting point for everything. You expect what you believe will happen then you take whatever action you take based on that expectation and the results you get come from the actions that you take.

Why is understanding this important? Because if you want to achieve a goal but your belief in your ability to achieve that goal is weak then you have little or no real expectation of realizing that goal so your actions will be, at best, half-hearted and you have little chance of success.

It has been my experience that when a person lacks confidence in their ability to achieve a goal it is because they feel inadequate, Oh sure, it may be disguised as something else but when you peel back all the layers, all that is left is that mistaken notion of inadequacy.

The good news is that is hard slap upside the head will fix that. No, I do not mean a literal slap I mean a metaphorical slap. Thinking it through and realizing that we are human and equal. Study history and success and you will see that smart people, not so smart people and not at all smart people have succeeded so its not intelligence that predicates success. same with luck, family connections or whatever. People that succeed do so because they believe that they can and because they believe they start moving in the direction of their goal fully expecting to reach it. And so can you.

How’d Ya Do?

The challenge on my last post was to not complain about anything so the question now is; how did you do on that? Yeah, me too, but I am not discouraged because I get a little bit better at it every day. It helps that the little voice in my head has already developed the habit of saying ‘are you complaining?’ because that is like a splash of cold water in my face and I can then make an immediate about face and start appreciating.

I am very grateful for this practice of not complaining because I find myself laughing at some of the things my mind comes up with to turn the complaint around. Like that comment I made about new shoes in my last post, I could have complained that my new shoes made my feet hurt but I thought about it for a second and realized that I am grateful to have feet and feeling in my feet which is something some diabetics don’t have. That I have feet at all, that I have new shoes, that I can walk, run, hop, skip and jump so who cares if those dogs are barking? That’s just a reminder of a blessing!

The result of letting go of complaints is that I see so many more things to be grateful for and a serious reduction of things to complain about and I know that you will too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Wednesday Warm- up

If you live in the USA then you know that Thanksgiving is this Thursday and we all know that Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks. At least it is supposed to be, even if for many it means lots of food, family and football and often all this activity distracts us from spending much time giving thanks. I want to share a simple way of being that makes giving thanks automatic.

Now notice that I wrote simple and not easy. Simple & easy are not synonymous and therefore not interchangeable. All the same, this is a simple exercise that with regular practice, can become your habitual way of being.

So if you are up for the challenge, it starts on Wednesday and all you have to do is not complain about anything, and I do mean anything. If your food is cold, burned, bland or whatever don’t complain about it be grateful that you have food (and maybe especially grateful that you have other food options more to your liking in the fridge). If you come home from a long day of work and the house is a mess, resist complaining about having to clean it up and be grateful to have a home to clean & the ability to clean it. My personal favorite this week is being grateful that I have feet and those feet will take me wherever I want to go (new shoes can really make you remember that you have feet can’t they?) And while you are at it be grateful to have a job to come home from.

When you truly embrace this exercise then you quickly find that thoughts of complaint lead to insight about what in that situation is something to be grateful for (because that little voice in your head will point out that you are complaining and urge you to turn it around) and when you do that you start to make a shift. You become happier because you see that there is a lot of great things in and about your life. When you complain about anything you are focused on what you don’t like, what is not good, and that blocks your ability to see what is good and this steals your joy for life. You don’t arrive at happiness, you find it all along the way but not if you are spending all your time trying to find the complaint department.

So give it a go; don’t complain about anything on Wednesday and see for yourself that you will enjoy the day much more. Then go for another 24 hours of no complaining and repeat until…..

Sugar Pills

So last post I talked about mental viruses & how things that people say, things that you read & things that you see often end up influencing beliefs and actions.

I think that just about everyone that reads this blog has heard about cultures & people, not only in the past but even today, that believe in shamans, healers or witchdoctors. And you might think that the people that believe in these practitioners are from primitive societies or third world countries and that their believers are deluded however, the placebo effect is well documented in every area of the world. I read about people who were, with the permission of their families, given ‘sham’ surgery for knee problems. Since this was a real study, they had several groups, one that had the surgery & some that one thought they had gotten it but had not (though incisions were made in the skin the make it look like they had gotten the operation) and one that the surgeon actually ‘spoke’ the procedure over the sedated patient, with accompanying sounds that would have occurred had the operation actually happened. They followed up with all of the patient’s after one year. An overwhelming number of the the subjects in the study reported a vast improvement in their condition as a result of the surgery. And this is just one example of the placebo effect, you know there  are many more.

The bottom line here is that when someone that has authority, that has ‘expertise’, that has stature says a thing is so, people tend to believe that person, or that news program, that article, that expert. And it is that belief that controls the result. Now, that is a good thing if what you are being told is beneficial to you but is it always? We live in a world that is on information overload and we rely on ‘experts’ to tell us so much. Then we believe just about everything they tell us without giving it much thought.

Am I saying don’t believe anything you hear? Not at all, but you have been told all of your life to take everything with a ‘grain of salt’ which means that information should be examined before being adopted or that it should not be blindly accepted and believed without any doubts or reservations.

So, now you have read two posts on this subject and you may be wondering why I chose it. You are inundated by information and misinformation every day so I want you to be clear that what you choose to allow yourself to be exposed to, through the news, ‘experts’, your next door neighbor and even me, is your choice so make that choice wisely and with a grain of salt. Although I could just be saying that if results follow belief then what do you believe and why do you believe that?

Mind Control

Interesting title eh? Bet you are wondering what this post could possibly be about-a conspiracy theory perhaps? But no, and yet what would you say if I told you that your actions, your health, your whole life even is being and always has been affected by the things that others have told you?

Sure you might admit that on a superficial level you are persuaded to buy that certain car, house, clothes, gadget or whatever but some of you are probably thinking to yourself that you have never been a conformist and you do your own thinking. Hmmm, got bad news for you; we ALL have our fair share of programming, of mind control, of mental viruses.

What is a mental virus you say? Why, its a belief or attitude planted in your mind by someone else. We all have them but we do not all realize that we have them. I was reminded of this today when I was talking to someone about Botox. She said that she had read a book by a woman that said that all efforts to fight off an aging appearance led to a person living an inauthentic life. When I heard that I remembered a friend (that apparently read the same book) telling me that coloring your hair to get rid of grey hair is inauthentic. She did not say if she planned to never color her hair but I believe that if she did the authors words would echo in her head every time she looked in a mirror.

To me the interesting thing about this is that someone postulates an argument or theory and explains their reasoning and some people adopt that belief without thorough examination of that argument or theory. What both women said was that fighting the appearance of aging was not only fighting nature but leads to a person feeling not good enough to be themselves. Really? Well, like most arguments there is a certain logic there but is it more than superficial? I have no idea because I did not, and likely will not, read her book. And I am not here to knock her, I am just using this as an example of how a person can be and is affected by what others say. For me, if one chooses to use Botox, color their hair or any number of other things to look better, then I say why not? I don’t see those things as any different than wearing makeup, jewelry, dressing well, exercising to maintain health and figure or having your hair styled, just to name a few.  How you look on the outside is reflective of how you feel about yourself on the inside. A good example of that would be Michael Jackson and Phyllis Diller. What was on the inside of each showed best when ‘enhancements’ were made.

So have I explained mental viruses well enough yet? NO. So I will continue this on my next post.

Dwell On This

 

“True abundance has nothing to do with anything that I am having & everything to do with what I am being. And when I share my abundance of beingness abundantly with all those whose lives I touch, everything I sought to have came to me automatically without my even trying to have them.” Neale Donald Walsh

I am sure that if you ponder that quote for a bit you will find the meaning that is right for you. For me, what Neale is saying is that it is all about feeling good; about yourself and about what is possible for us all and then sharing that feeling of good with the world. I do know that when you feel great good things seem to happen and that helping others is a great way to feel good and to share your abundance of being-just ask Mother Theresa-yeah okay, she is no longer available for interviews but I think you still get my point.

I’m Back!

Yeah, I know it’s not like me to miss a post and for sure not two of them but I decided to give myself a vacation-even though it was technically a 'staycation'. It was interesting to me that I ended up spending more time thinking about blogging than I would have had I just done my usual posts. I think that is because several things happened that I felt could only be the work of the universe-and yes by universe I mean God-and I have to say that I am very grateful.

I wish I could show a video of the one that struck me the most (not because it was the most beneficial but because it was the most unique) alas, I have no video. Words may not be adequate to explain but will have to suffice. We were driving down a rural road, one with lots of little hills, open fields, a creek to cross and patches of trees. We were traveling about thirty-five miles an hour and a deer came running out toward the truck. Because of the terrain we could not see the deer until it was already in the road and it was clearly headed full speed right at the side of the truck and then, in a motion I can only describe as looking like a character in a cartoon performing on stage and the ‘hook’ coming out and grabbing the character by the neck to jerk him offstage, the deer turned. And I hope that I have painted a vivid enough picture for you because I have never seen a deer move like that, especially not one running one way and then changing direction in such an odd fashion-it’s head didn’t lead, it’s body didn’t but it’s neck-that is what turned first, as if pulled by an unseen hand. I was gobsmacked.

So you are sitting there thinking what does this have to do with self growth? We follow the laws of the universe including the law of gratitude; when we go anywhere we give thanks that we always have safe journeys-before we go anywhere. We give thanks after we receive favor but we give praise in advance, not just in expectation but also of appreciation and the results of that have shown up for us in too many ways and numbers to even keep count of. Conversely, when we do not take the time (rare as that is sometimes we get in a hurry, are preoccupied or whatever) to follow the law our results have not been as positive.

So that’s my belief and I’m sticking to it & I highly recommend you give it a try.

Good Vibrations

I love the Claude M. Bristol book “The Magic of Believing’ and I highly recommend it to everyone. I am currently rereading  the book and came across a part that talks about vibrations so I wanted to share a bit of it-but in my own words.

Everything puts out a vibration and like attracts like. Your senses take in information by vibration; you hear sound waves or vibrations and your brain ‘translates’ them into something you can understand (at least most of the time ha-ha) and its the same for what you see, light pulses or vibrations and voila, the brain interprets. All living beings take in vibrations and emanate vibrations so how you feel at any given time has much to do with how things are going for you. You might think things are going bad so that's why you feel bad but no-the ‘bad’ feeling started before the ‘bad’ things happened.

I was reminded of this today as I watched one of my Facebook friends post a status update this morning. She wrote; things started off bad today but it seems to be getting better. I read that and I thought, great, she is focusing on what can go right and then I read the next line; I guess there’s always tomorrow. I knew at that moment her day was not going to be getting any better because she had already written it off and sure enough later on she posted an update asking if it was possible for things to get worse so yeah her day did not get better.

No one has perfect days every day but most of us usually have at least one thing that is less than pleasing happen on any given day. The challenge is to let that go and stay in the positive place and if you are wondering how to do that here are some examples; use music to keep a good mood or bring it back, use photos of happy times to remind you of how good your life is, affirm frequently the things that move you forward and forgive those that annoy you because it is likely they don’t annoy you on purpose not to mention that annoyance is a vibration that doesn’t attract positive stuff or count your blessings because when you do that it makes it really hard to complain. And these are just a few ways to work on a good vibration-try to think of some more-like right now.

Are We There Yet?

So I did a bit of a review to help new readers with an overview of personal development and some of you may be wondering if this is everything. Of course it is not everything! This is an overview and there is much more to this and yet if you apply what I have gone over, you will have good results. You never arrive, you are always in the process of growing. Every day of your life you need to be feeding your mind with the positive messages and information that keep you focused on your goals because the world is only too happy to feed you negative information and you have to counter that.

This doesn’t mean that you must spend every moment studying, a mere twenty or thirty minutes a day is enough. So if you are interested in seeing where this can take you why not start right now by checking out James Allen’s book “As A Man Thinketh”. It’s available free online and is just a few pages so even a slow reader can do this in less than a month reading only two pages a day although I advise you to study it not just read it. Here’s the link;

http://jamesallen.wwwhubs.com/think.htm

Funny How Things Work Out

I usually post on Monday and Wednesday. This week I had to leave town for a couple of days so I had my post in my draft folder all ready to go-but I forgot to post it before I left. Funny thing is, I realized that I had neglected  something important in my overview so it ended up being a good thing that I forgot to post that draft.

And that is how things generally work out in real life too. It may seem like a mistake, it may seem like a bad thing but often it happens just the way it is supposed to and works out for the best. That said, let’s get on to what I forgot; persistence & confidence.

If you never give up you can never fail, if you quit you will never ‘arrive’. Rome wasn’t built in a day and it wasn’t built without a challenge or two so understand that if you persist sooner or later you will achieve what you want to achieve.

I could say that while you are persisting, do so with confidence but you should do everything with confidence and many people have an insufficient supply of that so instead I will say pretend! Sometimes you just have to ‘act’ the part before you get it. The first time that I was told to ‘act as if’ I had absolutely no idea of how to do that. And you might not either, so you might be sitting there saying something like, I am not wealthy and I never have been so first of all how do I act like something I don’t know how to act like and second, how do you act rich if you are not? Good question and easy answer; it’s not about spending a lot of money, it’s not about acting like what you think wealthy people act like, it’s about confidence. Wealthy people do not sit around and think about money, bills and debt all of the time. Well, okay, some of the wealthy people think about money all of the time but not the same way people with little or no money do. They are thinking about how to grow their capital while poor people are thinking about, worrying about, fretting about, how to get more of the stuff. When you lack something that you want, you tend to think about that lack constantly and when you have what you want, you tend to think about your life, almost taking for granted that what you want is in abundant supply-that is confidence. So to pretend or act as if is simply being confident that your supply is there-no need to constantly think about it.

And that is the key to acting as if; be confident that what you need is in abundant supply whenever you need it.

Of Course There Is More!

Yes, I am writing more about the ‘bits’ and today that includes Attitude, Interest & Habits.

Interest is the things that you focus on and that means the good, bad or indifferent thing you focus on. When you give thought to the things you don’t understand-like why would anyone ever allow themselves to become overweight for example, you are inviting the universe to show you exactly how that can happen. This is true whether or not you accept this & you know you can always try it out for yourself for ‘proof’. Just remember that if you are not careful about what you are interested in you might not like the result. Instead of trying to understand why someone is the way that they are, spend you thought where it can do you the most benefit-like in being interested in what wealthy or healthy people do for fun. Wonder how they spend their idle hours, wish you could understand how Warren Buffet decides what to invest in.

The benefit of being interested in things, events and people that focus your thoughts on positive things is that it affects your attitude. As the saying goes; what’s in the projector is what is playing on the screen! If the people that you have attracted into your life are crabby, unhealthy, miserable, or any other negative you can think of that is because you have that in common with them. Sure they might be less or more unhealthy, crabby, depressed, or whatever than you but birds of a feather! Sometimes  you just have to change the film and keep an eye on it because mysteriously, that old negative film can creep back in so you might have to keep changing it for the good film.

Why does that film mysteriously change itself back? Habit. Your attitude is a habit and just like all habits, you must be vigilant in the application of new habits or else the old habits will creep back in.You change a habit a little at a time and very rarely overnight and the good news is that you can change any habit at any time you choose. And if you find that old film in the projector, don’t get upset, just put in the new film as many times as it takes until that positive film is your attitude.

And More Bits

No overview or review of self growth is complete without including all of the aspects of personal development and that includes today's subjects; forgiveness and praise.

You should already know what forgiveness is so I won’t have to go into much detail on that one but I will say that forgiveness is not forgetting, it’s not allowing yourself to be a doormat but it is freeing yourself of the negative emotion that hurts you and not the person or situation that caused you any upset. And you do that for yourself not for someone else because you are the one that suffers if you don’t and you are the one that benefits if you do. If you want to read more on forgiveness, look back thru my posts because I know I have written about this before.

And this brings us to praise; when you learn to praise prior to an event or interaction you will find that things go much better than you ever imagined possible. Why is that? I can’t say for a fact but I would guess it is because you create an expectation of a good result. It’s kind of like appreciating before receiving, being grateful for what you are about to receive puts you into a better vibration so that the universe can match that with its own good vibration. When I know that I am about to contact someone, maybe a company that I am not on the same page with, I always take a minute to self talk, saying things like, I am so blessed by doing business with company X, I always get fast, efficient service and they correct any problems immediately. And guess what? I have found that this works like a charm nine times out of ten. But you be the judge; next time you need to contact a company, next time you are standing in line at the store, next time you go out to eat, praise the people that work for the company, be grateful you will be interacting with a good company and the best, fastest, nicest people that work for that company and then keep track of your results.

The Bits

You might be asking what is left? We have covered what some say is the formula for success; ask, believe and receive, but many are surprised when this is not enough so today I want to go over allowing and resisting.

Now, you might be thinking that when you stop resisting you are allowing and that these are flip sides to the same coin but no this is not true.

Resisting is a sort of default position for most people, we are often looking for the other shoe to drop. Things might be going good but its too good to be true because in our family nobody gets those good breaks, because I never win anything, because nothing ever lasts, because it never worked out in the past or because fill in the blank.

Resisting comes from deep inside and it comes from a secret feeling of being unworthy, from not believing or from a feeling of fear. And it will not go away until the day that you wake up and realize that you are worthy just because you are or that the only thing to fear is fear itself (a great quote that I couldn’t resist! Thanks FDR) & you believe what you choose to believe because you always have and you always will. Resistance creates roadblocks out of thin air but you can let go of resistance whenever you want by remembering to affirm what you want and why you deserve it.

Now for allowing; if you find yourself saying he should, she should, they should on a regular basis then you are not allowing. A great quote for this is by Jim Rohn; “I used to say that liars shouldn’t lie. I no longer do that. Why? They’re liars, that's what they do!” Jim would have been the first to tell you to allow people to be who they are. That doesn’t mean that you let a liar lie to you it means that you don’t expect them to tell the truth, you don’t ask them to be something that they are not. It’s not that they cannot change-if they choose-it’s that they get to be the one to decide if they will change. Of course, you can always direct them to materials that you feel may influence them toward a more positive direction. And I mean that for anyone that is in your life, whether they are a liar or not, you allow them to be who they are without judgment (yes, of course if they are like serial killers, drug addicts or whatever you’re not going to want to allow them to do that but really truly how many of those kinds of people are in your life & why have you attracted that if the answer is one or more?) because it is not your job to judge (unless you are actually a judge-hahaha) and judging people hurts you & them (and if you don’t know why that is send me an email & I will explain it) & slows, in not stops, your progress.

Of course, there is more to allowing and resisting but this is a good start.

A Penny For Your Thoughts

Okay, now that you have all read my last post, you understand that your thoughts have created the things and events of your life. Today it is all about creating by design instead of default.

How do you do that? It is simple; you stop thinking about anything you find less than pleasing and start thinking about what is good. Now, this is not to say that you ignore problems because that is not a very good idea but I am saying that if you are full of anger then what you will create is more things to be angry about. If you think about sickness instead of health then guess what, you will not be the healthiest person on the block. If you worry all he time, you will have plenty to worry about. And if you are sitting there thinking that you think about money all the time but it hasn’t shown up that is because you are thinking about not having enough and that has shown up.

So if you dwell on what is good, what is beautiful, what is special-in short all the things in life to be grateful for, then you will have many more things to be grateful for.

It’s the thoughts that you allow to dominate that create those things and events of your life. And when there are things and events that are less than pleasing you don’t think about the problems, you don’t think about what angers you, let that go, forgive and put it aside and remember that what you think about is the solutions for situations.

And one last thing, do not talk about problems-ever-talk about solutions because which do you always want to find? The problems or the solutions?

Give This Some Thought

For the past several posts I have been reviewing the process of creating a life you love and today is all about thinking, so I am sharing a long excerpt from the book The Magic of Believing by Claude M. Bristol.

You may ask why I am sharing this excerpt and the answer would be that I could have given this information in my own words but this is a book I have recommended before and if you have not already gotten the book you might decide to do so after you read this;

Your very life is your thinking-and the result of your thinking processes. Your flesh, bones, and muscles can be reduced to 70 percent water & a few chemicals of small value, but it is your mind & what you think that makes you what your are, The secret of success lies not outside, but within the thoughts of man.

Figuratively, thought makes giants out of pigmies, and often turns giants into pigmies. History is filed with accounts of how thought made weak men strong and strong men weak, & you see evidence of its working around you constantly.

You do not eat, wear clothes, run for a bus, drive your car, turn on a TV or read a newspaper-you don’t even raise you arm –without a preceding thought-impulse. While you may consider the motions you make as more of less automatic, perhaps caused by some physical reflexes, behind every single step you take in life, regardless of its direction, is that formidable and powerful force-thought

The very way you walk, the way you carry yourself, your talk, your manner of dress, all reflect your way of thinking. A slovenly carriage is an indication of slovenly thinking, whereas an alert upright carriage is the outward sign of inward strength & confidence. What you exhibit outwardly, you are inwardly. You are the product of your own thoughts. What you believe yourself to be, you are.

Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries & inventions, & of all achievement. Without it there would be no medicine, no great museums, no great plays or novels, no modern conveniences-in fact, there would be no advance over life in the most primitive ages.

Your thoughts-those that predominate-determine your character, your career, indeed, your everyday life. Thus it becomes easy to understand what is meant by the statement that “A man’s thoughts make or break him.” And when you realize that there can be no action or reaction, either good or bad, without the generating force of thought initiating it, then the Biblical saying “For whatever a man soweth, that also he shall reap” & Shakespeare’s words “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” become more intelligible.

Undoubtedly, we become what we envisage. There was a time that I would have laughed at people who talked about the magnetic force of thought, how thought correlates with its object, how it can affect people & inanimate things even at great distances, But I no longer laugh, not do others who know something of its power, for anyone who has any intelligence sooner or later comes to realize that thought can change the entire surface of the globe.

George Russell, the famous Irish editor & poet was once quoted as saying that we become what we  contemplate; & he certainly demonstrated it in his own life by becoming a great writer, lecturer, painter & poet. However, it mist be kept in mind that many of the thoughts we think are not all outs at all, at least not of our originating. We are molded by the thoughts of others; but what we hear in conversation, what we read in newspapers, magazines & books, what we hear in the  movies, on TV, & on the radio, even chance remarks from bystanders, And these thoughts bombard us constantly. Some of them, which harmonize with our own inmost thoughts & open the way to greater visions in our life, are helpful. But too often these thoughts are upsetting, weaken out self-confidence, and turn us away from out higher purposes, It is these outside thoughts that are the trouble makers, and later I shall explain how you can keep free of them.

 

So that’s it folks, I trust you will find it as valuable and insightful as I do. The go get the book because it is a great read and you know you want to know how to keep free of those trouble maker thoughts.

As Promised

If you have been following my posts and doing the exercises you now have goals and plans on the ways that you can reach your goals and the last step before you start taking action is to figure out just what it is that you believe about yourself.

Why is that important? Because if you have no confidence in yourself or what is possible for you then you will fall down many times and risk that one of those times you won’t get back up. The worse part is that if deep down inside you have no belief then you won’t even really try. Oh you may take a step or two but the first strong wind that blows and you will be gone.

Many people tell themselves lies each and every day. What kind of lies? All kinds of lies the worst of which are lies about who they are; ‘I’m so stupid’, I’m so forgetful’, ‘I can’t do that ‘, or I’m so whatever’. You are who you affirm you are and you are capable of whatever it is that you decide you are capable of. You are as strong as you choose to be, as smart as you choose to be, as skilled as you choose to be, or as whatever as you choose to be. As the quote goes ‘As a man (and I know they meant woman too) thinketh in his heart, so he is. But if you tell yourself a lie for long enough you end up believing it-totally & completely. So if telling yourself that you are capable, strong, smart or whatever feels like a lie then keep repeating it to yourself until it no longer feels like a lie and then repeat it because it is the truth.

And while you are doing that begin taking the actions that are in line with your plans to hit the goals that you have set for yourself keeping in mind that if you never give up you can reach any goal!

Step Two

Last post I wrote about setting goals so you should have a list of what you want and now it’s time to look for ways to hit your goals.

So get out a fresh sheet of paper and write as many ways as you can possibly think of to get what you want. Why are you doing this? Because you cannot realistically expect that you will decide the only and only way to get what you want and have that happen with no challenges.

For example, say that you want a college degree but you cannot afford the tuition. You could decide that you will get a student loan and have no alternate plan. But what if you can’t qualify for that loan? And that is why you do this exercise.

Still using this example, lets say you start this list and it goes something like this; get a student loan, get a grant, join the military full time or part time to get the money, get a job with tuition benefits, etc. Now you see that if one way doesn’t work out you don’t have to be discouraged because you already have ‘back up plans’.

I remember that when I got out of high school I had no interest in going to college until a few years later when I attended a friends college graduation and then I decided I wanted to go to college & that I would graduate with honors. But I had no idea of how I would do that because I could not afford the tuition and yet I had the desire. A few months later I got a phone call and was told about a job at a local private university & I was qualified for that position. Yes, I got the job and got the tuition remission so I got my degree-well I actually got two and with honors-for almost no money and it was a great job to boot.

This happened for me because I set a goal, I didn’t know how it would happen but I knew it would happen (belief), I kept my eyes open for opportunity and the universe showed me the way and I received that opportunity with open arms (action). More on belief and action in a future post.

Getting Back to Basics

Sometimes I forget that some people come across this blog and have never heard that we create the events and circumstances of our lives or how we do that, and I am posting about various aspects of self growth without any background so I decided that it is time for a refresher course.

It has been said, by many different people, in many different ways for thousands of years, that we become what we think about, we get what we think about and that like attracts like-that is the basis of the universal philosophy. Now, if you are happy, wealthy, healthy and popular that is great and I know that you are using the laws of the universe whether you realize it or not but if you are sitting there and you are unhappy, lonely, broke or unhealthy it is because that is what you have focused on whether it was because you worried, because you have anger you have never let go of, a bad or negative attitude or because you never set a goal and worked to achieve it or for the negative images and thoughts you have allowed to dominate your thoughts-then it is time to consider making a change.

And that change will be as hard or as easy as you decide it will be, after all, thoughts and behaviors are simply habits and habits can be changed at any time and we will discuss that soon, today is for deciding; do you want to make a change or do you want to stay right where you are? If you want to make some changes then the first thing to do is figure out what it is that you want. Sit down and write a list of goals; health goals, wealth goals, educational goals-you get the picture-and then decide which are the top three from each category. Rank each goal by how long you estimate it will take to reach them; 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 1o years. A variation of this is to write your top 50 goals which usually includes lots of small things that you can cross off the list fast, and that works well for people who are developing a new habit and want to esteem boost that crossing something off a goal list gives them.

Next post we will discuss what to do with your new goal list.

The ABCs of Personal Development

 

Avoid negative sources; people, places, things and habits

Believe in yourself

Care about,communicate and connect with others & they will care about, communicate & connect with you

Don't give up and don't give in, decide and take action

Employ yourself, every good thing that you ever had came from work, so do more to have more

Focus on your goals & your blessings, be grateful for what you have; feel the joy

Give more than you planned to everyone and everything in your life

Habits will make or break you, develop good habits and lose bad ones

Imagination is key; visualize to materialize

Just do it

Keep a positive attitude and know that if you are determined you will achieve your dreams

Love yourself and your love for others & from others will multiply

Make it happen. Remember if its going to be its up to thee

Never make excuses, either do or do not; why is not important

Open your eyes and see how wealthy you already are, see your gifts of abundance & be grateful

Practice makes perfect so stay in action every day

Quitters never win and winners never quit

Read, study and learn something new every day. Never stop growing

Stop procrastinating, learn the value of your time

Take responsibility for where you are and where you are going

Understand the law of attraction & become the most attractive person you know

Visualize what you want and then go get it Visualize to energize!

Want it more than anything

Xtraordinary people live extraordinary lives so be extra ordinary

You have the power to manifest your dreams & goals & nobody can do it for you

Zero in on your target & you will hit it

Strange but True

If you look over my profile, somewhere on here it says my name is Joy. That is not true, my name is actually Sandra. So why did I not use my real name when I set this up?

I could tell you that I was protecting my identity or I was using my pen name but the truth is that I was hiding out. What does hiding out mean? That means that you justify whatever it is that you do to avoid something; some responsibility, some attention, some whatever.

It might be a small thing, that I used a nom de plume however it is why I did it that matters. At the heart of every situation where a person ‘hides out’ is fear. And that fear is usually groundless and useless. So now I get to the reason that I am bringing this up. It’s not to ‘fess up’ it is to show you that fear is a waste of time. I was worried that I needed to cushion myself from the world because after all, I am a good writer, I am writing about stuff everyone wants to read and yada, yada, yada. Now the laugh out loud part, I have been writing this blog for almost two years and look how many followers I have. Yeah, I know that some people just bookmark my blog and don’t ever become a follower but all the same it should be clear that my fear was for no reason at all. And it’s pretty much the same for all fears-just a waste of time & energy.

So whatever it is that you fear today, you gotta ask yourself, is this fear useful or useless? My guess is that it is useless for 99.9% of all people at all times.

My name is Sandra and I write this blog-hope you benefit from it!

Time for a Tune-up?

I know that long time readers have heard this before but really you can’t hear it too often; your vibration brings what comes to you.

If you focus on what is wrong, if you complain, if you find fault, if you criticize-your vibration is not in harmony with what is good but if you compliment, if you appreciate, if you praise-then you are in harmony with what is good.

This does not mean that you never have challenges to overcome, difficult people to work around or situations that are less than perfect, it means that when these things happen you do the best with what you have without having the focus be on what is wrong.

If you have a flat tire on your car you don’t stand around and complain, you just change it and get on with what you were doing before it went flat and its the same for all the rest of your life. It’s not that you forget that you had a flat, you just don’t let it become the focal point of your life.

So if your normal mode of operation is complaining, if it’s being unhappy then its time to tune up your attitude and you can begin by looking for things to be grateful for, people to praise and appreciate and you can start that right now.

Do You Dream?

I realized today that it has been quite some time since I mentioned dream boards and how important they are. For those of you that may not know what a dream board is; a dream board is an item, usually made of poster board, that one affixes the objects or items that one would like to have and then places the board in a conspicuous place so that said dream board is noticed several times a day.

Why would anyone want a dream board you ask? Simple, a dream board is an easy way to visualize your dreams and goals and visualizing your dreams and goals is a very good thing.

There are a couple of rules however, if you want an item of a certain color, like say a red car-do not put up a picture of a black car and also be sure that whatever you put on the dream board is something that you really want. So if you haven’t got a dream board yet, I guess it’s time for you to go shopping for materials including magazines, poster board, glue-you could even buy matchbox cars and glue those on your dream board-just put it together and when it is completed you will find that just seeing the boards will draw your attention and fuel your expectation.

The Echo Effect

I am sure that anyone reading this knows what an echo is; sound reflected off hard surfaces like a wall or hard surface with a small time delay so that the sound seems to be repeated exactly or in other words, what you send out into the world is what gets sent back to you.

The important thing to notice there is that you are the originator, it is you that starts the process so what you give is what you get.

So what will you be sending out today? Whatever it is, make sure it is something that you want lots of in your life.

Patience is a Virtue

The other day I wrote about people that need to learn a new step, today I want to add something to that post.

Lots of times people give up before they realize their goal because they don’t see results fast enough. maybe they lose faith in themselves, in whatever they are pursuing or they just let life get in the way.

So what do I suggest if you find yourself working hard but not seeming to move forward? Keep doing what you are doing and don’t focus on anything else.

Think of it like traveling down a long road at night; you can only see as far as the headlights illuminate but you know that the road continues ahead of you-well okay it might end but there will be signs that tell you to stop or turn before it ends-so you can drive into the night knowing that even if you can’t see the road ahead it is still there and it will take you where you want to go if you just keep driving. And its the same for your goals; if you take the actions that you know to take and you become the best whatever it is that you want to be then you can’t help but reach your goals sooner or later and you know, even if it takes you twice as long as you thought it would that won’t matter to you because it will be worth the wait.

A New Dance Step?

Sometimes when I talk to people about their progress in achieving their goals they will say that they seem to take two steps forward and one step back. If you are one of those people it is time for you to learn a new way of moving, like say two steps forward and no steps back.

How do you do that? I know that this will sound funny to some of you  but you do that by discontinuing your practice of blaming anyone or anything for what happens to you, including yourself. Blaming only causes anger, anger causes you to move backward-it’s that simple.

Monitor yourself for a day or two; are you impatient? Do you have a ‘short fuse’? How many times do you feel frustration, anger or upset in a typical day? No matter how much personal development you are doing in a day, if you are holding onto anger nothing else matters.

When I tell this to people they sometimes say, ‘You don’t understand who I have to deal with’ or “It’s not my fault the economy is bad’  or ‘Well, you don’t know what he/she did!’ I don’t have to know because it doesn’t matter, anger even justified anger hurts you not who or what you are angry about. This doesn’t mean that you never allow yourself to feel anger, it means you limit the time you feel angry, you forgive, let it go and move on. You don’t do it for others, you do it for yourself. It doesn’t mean you forget but it does mean that you let the passion around the incident fade until it doesn’t burn you because it is never going to burn anyone or anything except you. And I am certain that you are not taking the time to read, listen to or watch personal development material and then not put any of it into practice-what would be the point?

Praise!

Today I spoke with a friend of mine that recently moved into a new apartment and she was happy to report that a method that I shared with her had worked ‘a charm’.

I learned this method from one of my audios and have found it to work just about every time I have used it and it is all about praise.

When you want something to work out to your benefit in any area of your life before you approach that situation you must praise the person you will be dealing with.

If you are at work and about to deal with a difficult person, praise that person mentally before you even speak with them. If you have a problem with a company, praise that company and the person that is representing the company before you call or go into the business. If you want to buy something and want great service or a bargain, praise the salesperson. Whatever opportunity to have to praise someone, do so, before you even start to interact with him or her. You will be amazed by your results.

So what constitutes praise? Mentally thanking the universe for sending you such a pleasant, helpful person to bend over backward to make you happy. Being grateful that the company has such great integrity and wonderful representatives that make your life so much easier. That sort of thing.

My friend, praised her landlord, who has a reputation for not wanting to invest any money in his properties even when there are necessary repairs required. But she praised him mentally before she called him and she also praised him verbally during their conversation by pointing out that he is a man who understands the long term benefits of rental properties that are well maintained. She told him that she was happy to live in one of his apartments because he is a great landlord. Yes, he was flattered but what she was doing was creating in him a desire to be the man she was admiring. People do that, they try to live up to the image they see that you have for them. The only caveat is that you must not step too far out of the zone, don’t say things that you know are lies but all the same create a space for them to fill that elevates them.

Give this the thirty day test and you will see it really works. And oh yeah, the repairs that her apartment needs? He has already scheduled the work to be done.

$86,400

Today I want to share another email I got that really gave me something to think about and I imagine will do the same for you;

Something To Think About!
Imagine that you had won the following prize in a contest:
Each morning your bank would deposit $86,400.00 in
your private account for your use.
However, this prize has rules, just as any game has certain rules.
The first set of rules would be:
Everything that you didn't spend during each day
would be taken away from you.
You may not simply transfer money into some other account.
You may only spend it.
Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with another $86,400.00 for that day.
The second set of rules:
The bank can end the game without warning; at any
time it can say, Its over, the game is over!
It can close the account and you will not receive a new one.
What would you personally do?
You would buy anything and everything you wanted, right?
Not only for yourself, but for all people you love, right?
Even for people you don't know, because you couldn't possibly spend it all on yourself, right?
You would try to spend every cent, and use it all, right?

ACTUALLY, this GAME is REALITY!
Each of us is in possession of such a magical bank.  We just can't seem to see it.
The MAGICAL BANK is TIME!
Each morning we awaken to receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life, and when we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is NOT credited to us. 
What we haven't lived up that day is forever lost.
Yesterday is forever gone.
Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve your account at any time....WITHOUT WARNING.
SO, what will YOU do with your 86,400 seconds?
Aren't they worth so much more than the same amount in dollars?
Think about that, and always think of this:
Enjoy every second of your life, because time races by so much quicker than you think.

What will you do with your 86,400 today?

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley

I hope that you agree with me that this is a great poem but that poetry is like beauty-in the eye of the beholder. One can interpret the poem in several different ways. I personally think that what he is saying is that he didn’t understand that his thoughts created his reality and ended up with lack & limitation but then someone turned on the lights and he saw the promise, the possibility and the prosperity so he says ‘bring it’ because I’ve got this whipped!

So even if you don’t see what I see in this poem you still have to agree with the last two lines-you are completely and solely responsible for who and what you are.

A Good Lesson

Someone sent me an email today and I want to share it with you because the lesson is so valuable;

Clay  Balls        
A man was exploring caves by the Seashore.  In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls.  It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake.   They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him.  As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into
the ocean as far as he could.   
He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock .  Inside was a beautiful, precious stone! 
Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls.  Each contained a similar treasure.  He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left.   
Then it struck him.  He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves.
Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it away!   
It's like that with people.  We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel.  It doesn't look like much from the outside..  It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it.   
We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy.  But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person.   
There is a treasure in each and every one of us.  If we take the time to get to know that person, and if we ask God to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth. 
May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay. May we see the people in our world as God sees them. 

The only thing I want to add to this lesson is that it seems people overlook the treasure inside our own selves as well. I have found that one way to test if you are one of them is to pay attention the next time someone compliments you; do you accept it & graciously say thank you or do you find a way to discount or deny that you deserve it? And that test is good for others, if you compliment someone and they have a challenge accepting it then you know they need lots more compliments or someone to straight up tell them that they are worthy!

Take a Deep Breath

Ever have one of those days? You know, one of those days that is full of set backs or disappointments? Yes, I know that  I have told you to look for the opportunities in adversity but I also want you to understand that when these things happen you have choices even when you don’t see any silver linings.

In every situation you have a choice between responding and reacting. Reacting is primal and has no thought behind it. Responding requires thought separated from emotion so you may need to take a deep breath or two or maybe even several while you think it through.

What does taking a deep breath do for you? It gives you a pause that allows that inner voice to be heard, that one that you should listen to more often, that one that knows that every thing will work out exactly the way it is supposed to.  The one that knows the answer to every question ever asked if you just listen. Call it intuition, call it spirit, call it divine guidance-it doesn’t matter-that part of you will bring you peace and harmony if you just take a deep breath and listen for it.

Value for Value

Many people in the world today have little or no self esteem and you may be one of them. Most of the people who have low self esteem have let others decide what or who they are and what they are ‘worth’. Why is that? Usually it’s because they have never realized that they can decide their own value, their own worth.

So how does one do that? By letting go of all the labels that others may have given, by taking a good look at what is on the inside. There is just nobody that is more valuable than everyone else as a person. Sure, a person may have developed a skill or talent that gives them more value in the marketplace but we are not talking about the marketplace today. Anyone can bring more value to the marketplace at any time they choose to develop a skill or talent-at any point in their life, but who you are as a person is who you were born, its who you choose to be and its who you decide you are.

So you have a choice at any time to see yourself as worthy just because you exist. Worth the time and investment to grow as a person, to develop skills and talents and to go after the things that you truly want out of life.

Just remember there are no limits that are not self imposed.

The Strangest Secret

Yesterday I was listening to a recording by Earl Nightingale called ‘the Strangest Secret’ and if you haven’t heard it before I highly recommend you get it and listen to it ASAP. It’s forty minutes of Earl telling you why it is that we become what we think about in a way that makes people understand how important what you think about is.

I’m not going to go over everything Earl says but one of the things I will share is that he says though I am modifying it a bit;  if you ask one hundred young people (say 21 years old) if they want to be wealthy and successful, one hundred young people will say yes. If you catch up with them when they turn sixty-five you will find that the majority of these people are not only not wealthy and successful, they will rely on the government to support them when they retire. Only five of the one hundred will be financially ‘comfortable’ and only one of the one hundred will be wealthy. Why is that? Earl says its because we conform and I agree with him.

We let others, our media, our peers, our employers, our society tell us what value we bring to the marketplace. We settle for less than we should because we fear to fail, we fear others will mock us and/or we fear we don’t have what it takes. The sad part is that none of that is true but you can’t win the race if you don’t even get on the track.

Tending Your Garden

Today I want to talk a little about results; what you have in your life is a result of your actions which come from your beliefs and all of these things are just a habit.

Say that you decided to plant a garden; you would start by deciding where to have the garden. Then you would prepare the soil and then planting the seeds. Would your ‘job’ stop there? No, you would need to tend that garden, plucking any weeds, watering and feeding the plants and then harvesting at the proper time.

Your life is no different; you decide who and what you want to be, you cultivate that and you tend to it, tossing out any weed-like thoughts that could derail you. You develop the habits or thought and action that move you toward what you want and let go of anything to would take you away from what you want.

Sounds easy but you think its really not right? The reality is that it is only as hard as you decide it is and the bottom line is that you create your life with your thoughts and only you control your thoughts.

What He Said

I send out via email what I call the ‘Words of Wisdom’ Monday through Friday mornings. These emails have a quote that has to do with personal development and a nice picture to encourage reflection/meditation of the quote, and I usually put these together two weeks in advance. Why am I telling you this? Because some of you read this blog and receive the Words of Wisdom so you will have two opportunities to reflect on this quote-hmmmmm.. maybe the universe is trying to tell you something-lol.

“Our life is what our thoughts make it.” Marcus Aurelius

For me that is a seriously deep thought and very true on all levels so when I came across it I just had to share it with everyone. And now, if you will excuse me I believe I will go and give that quote some thought. Hope you do the same.

Another Simple Question

Along the same lines as my last post  I asked a friend of mine to name three things that she would like to be. She said she would like to be successful so I asked her if she was able to dress, feed and care for herself. Can she nurture/support herself, does she have friends and can she learn anything she needs to learn. She said yes to all of my questions so I said then you are already successful so you must mean that you want to be more successful. Why did I say that? Because people are often too hard on themselves and they fail to acknowledge the successes that they do have. When you minimize the things that you have mastered your confidence suffers and you start to focus on the things that you haven’t done or mastered. But everything in life is an acquired skill, almost nothing is perfect or even super good without practice or mastery.

So yes, today’s lesson is to take a look in the mirror and pat yourself on the back. You may have goals you haven’t yet reached but as you know from your past experiences, those are just a matter of time and practice because you can do, be and have whatever you choose. You can and you know you can.

Who Are You?

I am currently reading a book by Dr. Wayne Dyer (and loving it I might add) called Excuses Begone!

I share this with you because he asks a question that I think everyone should ask themselves; If no one told me who I was, who would I be?

Even before you are born you acquire a label, a station, a role, a whatever you want to call it so when you are born there are expectations as to who and what you should be; from family, from society, from peers and even from yourself. Then as you age more and more of these labels are added.

The reality though is that your expectations for yourself are often not from yourself but from around you so you can see that to spend a bit of time reflecting on the question is a very good idea and your answer, if given after careful deliberation, might just surprise you.

So if no one told you who you are, who would you be?

In The Moment

I was out in the yard the other day, tending my butterfly garden and I happened to notice one of the dozens of butterflies looked like it had been mauled by something. In spite of its battered condition, that butterfly was flitting about, going from flower to flower and occasionally ‘interacting’ with other butterflies.

That butterfly seemed to be enjoying itself, living in the moment and loving life. In no way did that butterfly act as if it was less than perfect in form.

Now you could say that butterflies' have butterfly brains and it probably didn’t know or couldn’t process that sort of information but you can see the same sort of thing everywhere in nature if you just take a look. An example of this for me, was when I noticed two of the local feral kittens playing with each other; one of them was obviously injured-it looked as if something had tried to take the poor things head off. A cat may not have a brain that is as advanced as the human brain however cats do express feelings. One might have expected this one to be displaying feelings of fear, pain and/or ‘depression’ but no, this little guy was happy living in the moment. Happy to have the opportunity to play and cavort. Whatever happened happened, and the kitten could stay in that moment or move forward into a better moment and that is what it did. Just about everything in nature is happy in the moment, treasuring every second of life, knowing that tomorrow might not come and enjoying what is right here right now. How about you? Are you happy in this moment?

On The Other Hand……

Last post I wrote about the expression; it’s not what happens, it’s what you do about what happens. Today I want to elaborate on that post for a bit, starting by sharing a quote;

“The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis'. One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger-but recognize the opportunity.” John F. Kennedy

Every challenge presents opportunity and that opportunity is to grow and move forward or to stop and shut down. I don’t believe that many people shut down because they are afraid of the opportunity, I think they do it because they don’t see the opportunity because they are too caught up in the trees to see any forest.

But what if you could catch yourself and remember to look for the opportunity? All it would take is for you to develop the habit of ‘looking for the treasure amongst all the trash.’ So just learn to issue yourself a bolo (be on the lookout) whenever a challenge crops up. You can do it and you know you can.

It’s Not What Happens…..

Today for no particular reason the phrase ‘it’s not what happens, it’s what you do about what happens’ popped into my mind and I thought it a very worthy expression to contemplate and certainly worth sharing with you.

At the heart of this statement is the idea that a person is focused on solutions or else focused on problems. Everyone experiences challenges, tragedies, transgressions and problems. Some people let those occurrences shut them down or even ruin their lives and some people use them to move forward. And it really is in how you respond to things; are you all about how bad it is or do you look for the silver lining?

Uell S. Anderson

Recently I shared an excerpt from a Jim Rohn article and today I am sharing a small part of an eBook by U. S. Anderson that is well worth the read;

THE FORGING OF THE LOCK

Somewhere, in some city, town or hamlet, there is a child being born. Somewhere pure spirit is inspired into form. And even now the Lock takes shape. Mighty is the anvil that forges this Lock, for it is the memory of the Subconscious Mind. Light, sound, discomfort, pain, roughness, dampness, hunger, smells—all impinge on subconscious memory, forging the Lock that bars the door to the infinite.

There is something both sad and beautiful about this—sad because it seems sad to see spirit deny itself—beautiful because self-determination is beautiful. For this infant, wherever it is being born at this moment, is free, even as each member of the entire human race is born free—free to determine his destiny—free to discover the source of his being and the immensity of his power.

FALSE THOUGHT HABITS

Why is it, you may well ask yourself, that the great mass of humanity lead drab and colorless lives, concerned only with fear, frustration, and insecurity? What, you may well wonder, is the point of this scheme into which you have been drawn through no volition of your own and from which you will soon depart, a microbe in a microcosm, a pinpoint on a pinpoint, a flicker in a flash of light? These thoughts are products of your Conscious Mind, and it could not be otherwise. For only the Conscious Mind remembers its beginning and looks forward to its end.

You can read the rest of this at http://self-improvement-ebooks.com/books/tktpapp.php and like I said well worth the read. Enjoy!

For Your Consideration

Martin Luther King Jr said two things that I wanted to share today;

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.

Both are profound statements and are worthy of your consideration and I hope that you do take some time to really think about both of these quotes.

It’s All in Your Head

Yep, today I am talking about self talk, those things you affirm daily that lead to results-good, bad or indifferent.

What do I mean? Ever hear someone say, I’m so clumsy, I’m so stupid, I’m so forgetful, I’m so disorganized? Or any number of other statements that are affirmations disguised as self-deprecation. Those are also things that people say to themselves over and over like a personal mantra and all affirmations lead to results.

So the trick is to form a habit of saying things to yourself that lead to good results like I can and I know I can or any other of a million self empowering affirmations.

You can do it and I know you can.

An Excerpt

Today I share part of an article by the late Jim Rohn. You can find the rest of the article at

http://www.jimrohn.com

 

The Formula for Failure and Success by Jim Rohn

Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight. Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. To put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day. Now why would someone make an error in judgment and then be so foolish as to repeat it every day?

The answer is because he or she does not think that it matters.

On their own, our daily acts do not seem that important. A minor oversight, a poor decision, or a wasted hour generally doesn't result in an instant and measurable impact. More often than not, we escape from any immediate consequences of our deeds.

If we have not bothered to read a single book in the past ninety days, this lack of discipline does not seem to have any immediate impact on our lives. And since nothing drastic happened to us after the first ninety days, we repeat this error in judgment for another ninety days, and on and on it goes. Why? Because it doesn't seem to matter. And herein lies the great danger. Far worse than not reading the books is not even realizing that it matters!

Recommended Reading

I thought I would list some of the materials that are recommended for self growth;

Leveraging the Universe   Mike Dooley (audio)

The Magic of Believing   Claude Bristol

The Richest Man in Babylon  George Clason

See You at the Top Zig Ziglar

The Type Z Guide to Success Marc Allen

The Prosperity Series  Randy Gage

The Art of the Deal  Donald Trump

The Power of the Subconscious Mind  Joseph Murphy

Think Yourself Rich  Joseph Murphy

Your Infinite Power to be Rich Joseph Murphy

Think & Grow Rich    Napoleon Hill

Rich Dad Poor Dad    Robert Kiyosaki

How to Win Friends & Influence People   Dale Carnegie

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind   T Harv Eker

You Can Heal Your Life   Louise Hay

Your Best Life Now or Become a Better You   Joel Osteen

Notes from a Friend   or Awaken the Giant Within  Anthony Robbins                                                

Anything by Jim Rohn

The Secret (video)

Down the Rabbit Hole (video)

I could go on and on but this is a good start for anyone that is interested.

Seeing is Believing?

I decided the best way to illustrate my point today is to share part of a song by the Moody Blues;

 Cold hearted orb that rules the night, removes the colors from our sight, red is grey and yellow while, but we decide which is real and which is an illusion.

That is something to really think about; what if everything you think you see is an illusion? Or maybe you just need to see things in the proper light to see the reality? Either way, illusion surrounds us all because of our filters of education-memes and facts and it is up to us to discover what is real and what is an illusion, to take whatever it is out and examine it in the light and then change it if we don’t like it.

Hitting the Wall

Lots of people tell me that they are stuck because every time they try to move forward they seem to run into a wall and that stops them. There are a few important things to remember here;

Is it really a wall? or is it just a challenge that you must overcome? Are you doing your best with what you have right now? Say you hate your job; do you still do that job to the best of your ability or do you phone it in? You are not likely to get something better if you aren’t doing your best right where you are.

Another thing is that many people start to move forward and then fear sets in or deep down inside they don’t feel worthy to begin with. Recognize that you can have what you believe you can have and that you are worthy of whatever you get.

Also, people often want to decide how a thing will happen. That won’t work; sure you can plan for how you’d like to move forward but if the universe shoves you in another direction then maybe the universe is trying to tell you something and you need to pay attention.

And last but not least; is it just an illusion that feels real? But really, that is a thought for another post I think.

Are You in Tune With Nature?

Maybe you think that is a strange question-or maybe you think I am asking if you are ‘green’ but no, I mean are you moving forward, standing still or moving backward?

In nature, all things move forward and you can try to stand still or let yourself fall behind but nature has a way of making things uncomfortable enough that you are forced out of wherever you are.

So if you are currently being ‘poked & prodded’ out of your element then it is time to embrace that and start studying, planning and putting in some effort to work toward your goals. You have gifts, talents and abilities in a unique combination that makes attaining what you want, possible.

All that is required is for you to have a desire and work toward it, without giving up, until you achieve it. Maybe you’ll have to make some adjustments along the way-that’s okay-we all have to do that. Seldom does everything happen just the way you plan it to, but it can never happen if you give up or settle.

As Nike says; Just do it.

My Words Exactly

Ever heard of the game of telephone? The person at one end of the line whispers something to the person next to them and so on down the line until the last person says what they were told and then everyone has a good laugh because it is always so different than what the first person said. There are several reasons for this; we hear what we want to hear, we filter what we hear through our own experiences and beliefs and we don’t always practice good listening skills.

So this kind of goes with that statement ‘You can be anything you want to be.’ Most people don’t really believe that statement from the get go and an example of that would be telling that to a little girl and having her respond ‘I can’t be the Pope’ which would make me say look at the statement again; you can be anything you want to be. Again, I say what is said is not always what is heard. But I digress; It’s the burning desire that makes the seemingly impossible possible. We only pursue with conviction and persistence what we truly want so if we try for something, don’t get it and then give up, we tend to think its impossible instead of thinking ‘I didn’t want it as much as I thought I did.’

So where am I going with all this? Get our your goal list. These days many people call this a bucket list; how many things have you checked off on your goal list? If it is not several at least, then it is time to ask yourself; what is it that I really want? And then find your answers and then make it happen because no one else will.

Everyone Needs Some Exercise!

Yeah, I think everyone has gotten the word that they need to exercise their body but did you know that you also need to exercise your mind? Indeed, the mind and body both need their own food and exercise. The food part is easy, you just read, watch or listen to the recommended personal development materials and once you develop the discipline, the exercise part is easy too.

The exercise I recommend you start with is easy and will really pay off for you-if you do it. Instead of doing what most people do right before they go to sleep, and no, I don’t mean say your prayers, most of you do this after prayers; most people either run through the list of what they need to do tomorrow or they go over what they did or didn’t do today.

I say why not replace that with the imagination exercise; go to sleep with thoughts of victory. If you want a better job, better car, better house, whatever better you want, imagine yourself already having it. How would that feel? Feel that way, see yourself in the job, car, house, whatever and go to sleep with thoughts of satisfaction. If you want more money, improved health, a new or better relationship, imagine what that would feel like and visualize that til you fall asleep.

I promise if you do this, when you wake up it will be in a better frame of mind, your day will go better and you will move toward whatever goal you have. Don’t believe me? Try this, for the next week, do what you normally do and write down in the morning how you feel when you wake up, what dreams you remember, how your day goes, etc, then try this exercise for a week and track the same stats. And then, when you realize I am right, you can continue doing this exercise for the rest of your life.

Remember When?

I have been seeing a television commercial lately for AT & T. You have probably seen it too, it’s the one that shows a real city and has ‘cartoon’ images in it as well with part of a song and then the announcer says ‘Remember when you were five and anything was possible? Happy fifth birthday again.’

It always makes me wonder how many people are reminded of when they were five and anything was possible. Of course one does not have to be five to think that anything is possible but usually most people don’t believe that just anything is possible so they pass that along to all the five year olds til they no longer believe that anything is possible. So what happens for pretty much all of us is that programming takes over and convinces us that our possibilities are limited. So how do you get it back? Good question.

The short answer is that you study success, you study the people who have done what was thought to be impossible and see how they made it possible. And then you get inspired to make what you want possible.

Why Persist?

I am currently reading a book by Joyce Meyer and she lists some people that refused to give up on their dreams and goals so I thought I would share some of the people from that list.

It is by no means complete and it is not the first time I have seen these people listed for their refusal to quit so I am sure that many of you have heard this before but it cannot hurt to be reminded.

Henry Ford-failed and went bankrupt 5 times before starting the Ford Motor Company

Basketball star Michael Jordan failed to make the cut for his high school basketball team

After his first film audition, Fred Astaire was told he couldn’t act, didn’t have enough hair and could dance a little. He was also told his sister was a far better dancer

Max Lucado’s first book was rejected by 14 publishers before being accepted by the 15th. He became a best selling author.

Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper because he lacked ideas, he also went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland.

A young Burt Reynolds was told he couldn’t act. At the same time his buddy, Clint Eastwood was told he would never make it in the movies because his Adams apple was too big.

Each of these people succeeded not just because they had a dream they refused to give up on but also because they refused to let anyone tell them who they were or who or what they could be.