Happy New Year - Dare To Live Your Life To The Fullest

How have you lived your life until now? Have you lived very safely and in a structured way? Do you do what you are “supposed” to do, go to your job, take care of your friends and families, support those around us and all the while put your desires on the back burner to be taken up for when the time is “right”. Your busy routine continues day in and day out. You trade self-fulfillment for “security” and ignore that persistent voice inside of you that refuses to go away, that voice that reminds you that you are not living your fullest life. You ignore those “aha” moments when you catch a glimpse of all the possibilities available to you, the moments that cause you to remember that life could be and should be a lot more exciting, adventurous and purposeful than it is.

When New Year comes around, you swear to yourselves and others that you going to go out on a limb that year and live the life you know was meant for you, but then you find yourselves caught up in the motions again. “There must be more to life.” I hear people say. Well there is and what better time than now to make some changes. What better way to start off this New Year than by paying attention to your inner voice? That voice tends to stick around reminding you that you were meant for something much larger than that which you may have settled for.

In 2006 would you dare to take the plunge and unlock all your aspirations by making the decision to live unconventionally? Have you ever wanted to cut your hair short, go red, learn Spanish, enroll for a degree, join a painting class, take a trip to an exotic place, support a child in Africa, or learn how to tango?

If a cold climate does not suit you why not make plans to move to a warmer one, fix relationships that need fixing and get professional help if need be, find your soul mate – yes it can be done and for once and for all do not allow yourself to work a minute longer than you have to in a job that is destroying your confidence day by day. Update your resume, put yourself on the market and get some valuable recruitment advice.

Quite simply, for this year stop being the victim of your own life. Make the choice to live more freely, live with spirit, and stop being the good little student and experiment with your life. Go out on a limb and see what happens. Open your heart more, feel more and live with passion. Forget about always trying to be in control. Instead do what feels right and what makes you happy.
Whose standards customs are you going to conform to in 2006?
Why not be your own pioneer and allow yourself to live an amazing life.

Quote of the week

“Nobody can go back and make a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” Mark Robinson

A new years poem (By Jerry, 1993)

It's New Years again, and I would expect
It's time for agendas, and time to reflect.
A time to take inventory, of the year just past,
And a time to confront, our errors at last.
A time to recall, those no longer here,
A time to remember, a time to revere.
A time to resolve, for the year now new,
To change or adjust, those things we will do.
A time to change habits, and really we should,
convert them all please, from bad ones to good,
A time to thank God, who made night and morning,
To see a new day, and enjoy a new dawning,
It's time for us all, to seize the gold fleece,
Release sparkles of stardust, of love and new peace.
A time to embrace, all those we hold dear,
To hold them, and wish them, "A Happy New Year!

Are You Worried? 4 Steps to Peace of Mind

A friend has this quotation on his office wall: "I know worry works because nothing I worry about ever happens."

I think I must believe that, because I worry a lot -- and about the most insignificant things. I worry about the big things, of course, like health, relationships, and finances. But I'm also liable to fret about anything and everything that finds its way into my consciousness.

Because I spend so much time on worry, I've decided to embrace it with a personal research project. Maybe you'd like to join me.

Here are two avenues I'm exploring:

1) I practice catching myself at it. "Hey, I'm worrying again." During a recent morning swim, I caught myself worrying 10 times during one lap! I'm not kidding. On rare days when I don't have anything to worry about, I find something. What I've learned is that worry is a mental habit. I can change habits; I've done it before. There's hope.

2) My second approach is to practice presence. By this I mean stopping my thoughts. In my workshops, I ring a bell to help participants practice centering. The quieter we are, the longer we hear the bell. There's a lovely moment when we all listen . . . until the ring is barely audible . . . then just a memory. I relish that moment of quiet before my thoughts re-engage. There is no future or past, just Now. No worrying thoughts -- no thoughts at all. It's a peaceful place, which is why I stretch the moment. I want to strengthen the connection to something greater than my worries.

3) When I told my good friend Rosie about my worry project, she told me about her approach, which is to do one of three things: decide to address the issue right then; if you can't do anything about it at the moment, give yourself a time to address it later; or decide that it is not important and let it go. In other words, act on it, file it or throw it away.

4) Finally, one of Rosie's favorite worry stoppers (and mine) is to sing. Connect with your self, your creativity, and the place where everything really is okay.

Awareness and acknowledgment are the keys to changing our habits. Morihei Ueshiba, who founded aikido and spoke of it as the Art of Peace, said we must "always practice the Art of Peace in a vibrant and joyful manner." Perhaps my research project on worry will help me to lighten up, smile, and live each day in such a way.

Are you worrying? Stop your thoughts for a moment. Listen to the sounds around you, pay attention, and be present to this key moment. And smile . . . for no reason. You may find that's the best reason of all.

Are You Worried? 4 Steps to Peace of Mind

A friend has this quotation on his office wall: "I know worry works because nothing I worry about ever happens."

I think I must believe that, because I worry a lot -- and about the most insignificant things. I worry about the big things, of course, like health, relationships, and finances. But I'm also liable to fret about anything and everything that finds its way into my consciousness.

Because I spend so much time on worry, I've decided to embrace it with a personal research project. Maybe you'd like to join me.

Here are two avenues I'm exploring:

1) I practice catching myself at it. "Hey, I'm worrying again." During a recent morning swim, I caught myself worrying 10 times during one lap! I'm not kidding. On rare days when I don't have anything to worry about, I find something. What I've learned is that worry is a mental habit. I can change habits; I've done it before. There's hope.

2) My second approach is to practice presence. By this I mean stopping my thoughts. In my workshops, I ring a bell to help participants practice centering. The quieter we are, the longer we hear the bell. There's a lovely moment when we all listen . . . until the ring is barely audible . . . then just a memory. I relish that moment of quiet before my thoughts re-engage. There is no future or past, just Now. No worrying thoughts -- no thoughts at all. It's a peaceful place, which is why I stretch the moment. I want to strengthen the connection to something greater than my worries.

3) When I told my good friend Rosie about my worry project, she told me about her approach, which is to do one of three things: decide to address the issue right then; if you can't do anything about it at the moment, give yourself a time to address it later; or decide that it is not important and let it go. In other words, act on it, file it or throw it away.

4) Finally, one of Rosie's favorite worry stoppers (and mine) is to sing. Connect with your self, your creativity, and the place where everything really is okay.

Awareness and acknowledgment are the keys to changing our habits. Morihei Ueshiba, who founded aikido and spoke of it as the Art of Peace, said we must "always practice the Art of Peace in a vibrant and joyful manner." Perhaps my research project on worry will help me to lighten up, smile, and live each day in such a way.

Are you worrying? Stop your thoughts for a moment. Listen to the sounds around you, pay attention, and be present to this key moment. And smile . . . for no reason. You may find that's the best reason of all.

Be Happy! Why Worry?

Worry is a silent killer. It is like a slow poison. It is a chronic illness. In fact, it is an illness which is many fold dreadful than the physical illnesses. Worry not only affects our body but our mind too.

If you think seriously, you would find that it is really no use worrying about anything. It is really foolish to worry about past or future. Nobody can change the past. Whatever has happened has happened. Why worry? How can something that has yet not come to pass affect us? How are we so certain that the future is so bleak? Things may turn out well. Why worry then? Worrying just tires us and diminishes our capacity of clear thinking and planning. It promotes negative thinking. Instead of worrying we should use positive affirmations and resolutions.

If worry could solve the problem, everybody would worry as much as possible. Problem solving requires clear thinking and planning. But worry makes us incapable of clear thinking and planning. Many things, if they are going to happen, will happen regardless of our worry. If it is going to rain, it will.

We worry for small things. The worst-case scenario may not even be bad enough to worry. You have made your boss angry. You worry that he may fire you. What of it? That is not the end of the world. You are still alive. Perhaps you would get a better job. You dread to go to the office next day. You think of sending in your resignation letter. Worrying you reach office. The boss calls you. He apologizes. It was his mistake!

Not only we should not worry about little things, but we should also not worry about seemingly big things. The things that seem today very big and important will seem trifle tomorrow. In your student life you must have worried for days about the wrong answer you gave, even though you knew the right answer, to an objective type of question carrying just half mark. How much you worried about a dress on a special occasion, meeting a boy or girl whom you fancied, or the change of residence of a friend’s family? Do these matter a bit today? Why worry about spilled milk, or a broken glass, or a missed bus?

Of course, no body worries for the sake of worrying. Worry just comes into mind and then never leaves. But many people never worry. It seems that worrying is a sort of bad habit. As all bad habits the habit of worrying is also difficult to get rid of. So, in the first instance, never make worrying a habit. Secondly, try to divert your mind. Think of positive things. Get busy with some physical activity. Keep yourself away from people who are habitually worrying type and who always see the negative side of a thing.

Instead of useless worrying, one should take positive action—

BE HAPPY!

Innovation Is A State Of Mind

You probably know the myth of innovation as a sudden flash of insight that comes from nowhere. We read about that "aha" moment, or that light bulb turning on in the mind of some inventor or innovator, and this is true to an extent. Einstein really did get flashes of insight while shaving in the morning. However, he was of course working on the particular problems he had insight into, and he didn't suddenly have ideas for new kitchen gadgets or movie plots.

Einsteins innovations, in other words, no matter how "sudden" the original ideas were, came from past and present mental work. It is like a singer who works at his craft for ten years and then becomes an "overnight success." Innovative people only have "sudden" new ideas because they have habitually worked and thought in certain ways for some time. If you want to become an innovative thinker, then, why not start cultivating those mental habits?

Mental Habits Lead To Innovation

Problems can be opportunities. "Problem" may have a negative connotations, such as being a hassle or stressful, but any problem can lead to an innovation that improves our lives. Not knowing the time lead to clocks small enough to put on our wrists. Nasty diseases lead to sanitary sewer systems. Start looking for opportunity in every problem. Even a mundane problem like not having enough storage space could lead to a new innovation. You may just build a plywood floor in the attic, but you could invent a new type of outdoor storage unit.

Innovation begins with understanding the key elements. Metal, wood or glass are not key elements of a door to an innovator. A way to get in, a way to keep others out - these are key elements. Begin with these, and soon you're imagining new ways to make a door. You could design a door that is opened by your voice (nice when your hands are full), or one that shuts and locks itself when anyone else approaches. Think of the key elements in things.

Attitude helps innovation. The creative problem-solving technique of concept-combination involves combining two ideas to see what new idea or product results. The crucial point is that you assume there will be a useful new idea. Starting with that assumption, your mind will work overtime to produce something. A shoe and a CD have nothing to do with each other, but it took just a minute to imagine a CD player with headphones that only plays the music correctly if a jogger maintains his ideal pace. When you assume there is something there you'll often find something.

Playfulness helps innovation. A playful mind is a creative mind, and while high IQ doesn't correlate with creativity, put it together with playfulness, and you have an Einstein. Remember, he imagined himself riding on a beam of light in order to arrive at his theory of relativity. Why not start playing with ideas and things, in your mind and in your surroundings. Innovation should be fun.

Bring Love Into Your Life

So many people are complaining about the lack of love in their life. They act as if some stranger decided one day to take away the love out of their lives. They hold on to lovers already gone since eternity, or they dream about a partner coming into their life to give them everything they are not able to give themselves. They balance between hope and desperation. They look for love outside themselves and believe one day a charming prince on a white horse will knock at the door and take them away to live for ever happy in a castle for away from reality.

Other people are trying to survive in a bad relationship that holds their greatness hostage. They live in fear and anger every day but don’t know how to get out of this prison.

Do you know such people? Does this sound like you? Do you feel lonely, are you dreaming of the right one who will show up one day and end all the misery you’re going through now?

The bad news is this will not happen.
The good news is YOU can do a lot yourself to feel loved.

Let me explain.
Life is like a building. There are a lot of floors : the ground floor, the cellar, the first floor, second floor and so on. The higher you go in the building, the more light there is, the easier and lighter things are, the more friendly and energetic people are, the higher are the vibrations and most of all : the more love there is.

Picture this building of life in your mental eye. In the cellar you will find people like rapers, thiefs, harassers, killers, people who beat their children or companion and others who made a life out of hurting others.
On the groundfloor you will find a lot of people. In fact most of humanity lives here. These are the ones who content themselves by vegetating instead of living. They don’t think by themselves, they undergo life. They do nothing. They live like robots. They go to their job every day, come home every day, watch the same television program every day with a beer in one hand and a hotdog in the other hand. They do not dream. They are stuck in their lifestyle and think everything will always be the same.

Then you go up. As I said, the higher you get, the easier, the lighter life is. Life IS easy, life IS light. The cellar, groundfloor and lower floors are creations from the human mind. We created these lifestyles by our heavy thoughts, thoughts about scarcity, fear, death, anger, sadness, revenge and so on. Here are the lives of those who choose to think low energy thoughts. Those who live in fear, hate, jealousy, doubts, low self esteem, troubles. Those have bad relationships, where struggle and anger and negativity set the tone. They are not happy. They maintain the illusion everything is someone else’s fault and they have either to wait for the other to change, so their life will change, or they have to destroy the other one to have a better life (think of the one who kills the husband of the woman he wants to live with, or those who kill other minded people in order to be free to live like they want). This will never give freedom or love.

So what to do if you want to move up in that building of life and live free and in love?

First you have to make a decision. Yes, you have to decide WHERE you want to be. On which floor do you want to live your life now?

Is it the cellar? No, I don’t think so. Is is the groundfloor? I don’t think it either. Let’s say you want to be at the 17th floor. But you feel you are at this moment in your life at the 3rd floor only. You hate your job, you have a lousy relationship with your partner, you’re in bad shape and your energy is low.
So you decided you wanted a life in the vibration of the 17th floor, where there is love, real friendship, positive expectations, inner strength, power, a job you like, health and wealth.

What to do? You decided where you want to be. What you will do now? Should you wait until someone will knock on your door to take you there? No way! Will never happen! Even if you would meet someone with an energy level of 17, he will never carry you from the 3rd to the 17th floor, because he will be exhausted. It needs to be YOUR decision and YOUR action!!

So YOU have to move yourself up. How? Read! Read more! Read how you can create your life by changing your thoughts and your behavior! Go to workshops where you can learn how to unleash you inner power. Use the wonderful information bank which is called Internet and which offers you a bunch of positive information and e-courses (often for free). Surround you with loving people. Learn how to love yourself.

So first you decide where you want to be. Than you do whatever you can to get there, on your own. You may ask help of course, you may find yourself a coach (which is really a good decision!) but don’t look for somebody to carry you. You will fall down immediately the moment he puts you down. If you didn’t get there by yourself, it won’t last, it is not worth anything because you moved yourself up with somebody else’s energy and you are depending on his energy.

Once you get at the floor of your choice, let’s say 17, you will meet automatically people who vibrate at this level of energy. Energy-17 people. Loving, caring, wonderful people. People who feel good about themselves and who don’t need others to steal their energy. They learned how to generate energy by themselves. They are not slaves. They are not dominators. They love and respect others.

Do you want to meet someone like that? Do you want to share your life with somebody who has a 17-energy (or more)? Go there! Go at their level and you will meet them, that’s a guarantee!

Move yourself up.

If you live in a bad relationship right now, and you do whatever you can to get yourself moving higher, you will see what will happen. Your partner, who is still vibrating on energy 3 or 2 or on cellar-level won’t be able to follow you and you will take separate roads.

Don’t make the mistake of trying to pull someone up who wants to stay at his low level. You will never succeed. Especially women should be aware of this : don’t spoil your energy at trying to get others moving up with you. It’s a waste of time. Everybody should decide for himself. Don’t carry others on your back, you will crack down! Decide for yourself, go for it, and see what happens. The higher you get in energy-levels, the better it will be. There you will agree with me : life is wonderful!

Choosing Happiness

Ever heard someone say,”…so-in-so is great, but I’m just not happy?” Or have you ever wondered why you just couldn’t seem to find happiness? Read on to learn how you can choose to be happy.

Happiness is something you have to “choose” to be. A person could have all the money in the world, and still be unable to acquire what it is they really want, and ultimately remain unhappy. A person could be surrounded by all their friends and loved ones, and still be lonely. And, a person could have to eat bugs to survive, in a cold, wet prison cell, and still be happy to eat those bugs, and happy to be alive. This person has gratefully accepted their surroundings, and has found some good or greater meaning in it, making the experience more pleasurable. This person chose to be happy with what they had, by being mindful of the moment, recognizing the potential it may have.

Getting into the habit of being happy is easy. The first step is learning to appreciate your blessings, seeing the good or greater meaning of things. This requires that you become more aware of your five senses. How else could the smell of freshly baked cookies cheer up your woefully dreary day? How else could the faint sound of your sleeping child’s breathing ease you into your own peaceful resting state? We need to use our senses to become more aware of our surroundings, and accept them. It’s then that we can change our surroundings to become more pleasing to us. This could include some small, but significant changes, like placing candles by the bathtub, or buying a special lamp for your reading area.

Scientific research suggests that colors play an important role in one’s moods. Light green and orange seem to make people feel happier, whereas red makes them feel hungry. Many people have been hiring interior decorators as part of their strategy for feeling better, as interior decorators have studied colors, patterns, layouts, etc., and they use these factors to create a comfortable living area, tailor-fit to your needs. Just remember to research your interior designer, and be frugal. The positive effect that redesign brings, needn’t be boggled down by guilt from over-doing it. The idea is to do things that make you feel good. It won’t make you feel good if you overspend, or overindulge. But it will make you feel good if you shopped around, and you got the best deal, completely fitting all your needs.

Again, awareness is the key to happiness. After you have become aware of yourself and surroundings, you can choose to be appreciative and happy.
If you would like even more self-improvement information, please visit my site listed below.

Be Happy! Happiness is just a Matter of Mind

Though one could be infinitely happy by just enjoying the nature and family and all the human-made things, there are still millions of people who are unhappy. In the developed countries there is very fortunate circumstance of having both God-given and man-made things. Still majority of people there are unhappy. In the developing countries, where for millions there is a real scarcity of even basic needs, people seem to be happy. There are some people who are engaged in difficult tasks and in warfare, and even incarcerated in prisons, and are still happy! We have just discussed the factors of happiness. Millions of people have them, still they are unhappy. There are millions of others who don’t have them, yet they are happy!

You would realize that the mere availability and abundance of God given and human-made things is not enough. There is something else which should be right to be happy. Of course, it is our mind that must have right attitude towards and capacity to be happy.

Milton in Paradise Lost says,

'The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.'

One can give various examples of how mind can influence our body::

• Pavlov’s dog starts salivating at the sound of the bell without any food in sight.
• If we are tense we often get headache, backache, and spondylitis, etc.
• Heart attacks are directly linked to worry and tension.
• Right mental attitude helps in curing many bodily maladies.
• By self-talk, motivation, and positive attitude we can become happy and successful.
• Through hypnosis one can have command over another person’s mind and body.
• Through meditation one can have a healthy body and extra sensory abilities.

Mind has extra-ordinary powers and as far as happiness is concerned it has the ultimate power. We should, therefore, have a positive attitude towards life. Instead of concentrating on bad things in life and people, we should concentrate on redeeming features in them. We should not keep on thinking about past failures and bad experiences but be encouraged by our past success and good experiences. Similarly, we should not be unduly anxious about future as our anxiety is not going to have a positive effect, but we should plan and work hard for the future.

In whatever circumstances you are, you can never have total lack of God-given and man-made happiness. You cannot completely take away nature from somebody; you cannot take away all man-made things from somebody. Even if everything is taken, one’s family and friends are there. One’s precious body is there. And, even if you chain somebody securely in a dungeon, one’s mind is free. One is free to be happy in one’s mind! Mind is difficult to be mastered by oneself, but it is impossible to be vanquished by anybody, any authority, or whatever conditions or situations.

Abraham Lincoln has beautifully expressed it: “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

BE HAPPY!

3 Positive Steps to discover the purpose of life.

In this article we will discuss the concept of life and its underlying principle. We will be going through a step by step procedure, exploring your feelings and options, and by the end of this article, you should have a fairly solid tool you could immediately employ in your life, to give it a meaningful direction.

There are three steps to the process of discovering the purpose of your life:

Understanding the principle of choice
Creating your underlying principle
Aligning your life with the underlying principle

Understanding the principle of choice

Norman Vincent Peale has this to say about the power of choice. “The greatest power we have is the power of choice. It is an actual fact, that if you have been groping under unhappiness, you can choose to be joyous, instead. And, by effort, lift yourself into joy. If you tend to be fearful, you can overcome that misery by choosing to have courage. The whole trend and the quality of anyone’s life is determined by the choice that are made”.

Choosing is the most important activity of your mind, because by making a choice, you are proclaiming your desires to your subconscious mind. Once the subconscious mind get to know your desires, it is going to do anything to manifest them in your life. The choices you make in your life become your goal. And, if you are sincere in pursuing them, there is no reason why you should not accomplish them.

Indecision, on the other hand, not only creates frustration and anxiety, but can also confuse the subconscious mind about what you want. But it is important that the choices you make are made by you, in accordance with your true desires, purposes and aptitude. A lot us of let others make choices for us, or make our choices according to what we think is ‘correct’, even if that means that we go against our wishes. What is right for someone is may not be right for you, and the way to know this is listening to what your heart says.
So, begin with, make a list of things which interests you; things which you have always enjoyed, which makes you feel better, which inspires you to surge ahead, no matter what obstacles you face. Do you like doing something creative, or something artistic? Do you enjoy nature, do you like the sea? Do you enjoy helping others? Do you get pleasure out of making a difference in other people’s life?

What ever it is that interests you, go ahead and make a list under the following headlines:

Things you love to do:

______________________________________

What is it that you love in this thing and why? How you could do this for money, and make a living out of it?

__________________

__________________


Creating Your Underlying Principle:

The next step is to examine the list you just made and find out if there is any recurring them. Maybe, it is the contribution that keeps coming up, or an effect to seek or give love, or helping your parents cope with old age. Whatever it is try to identify the central them of the things you love to do, and try to put it in a short and precise statement. This will be your ‘Mission Statement’. It may even be a quote by a famous person, or a philosophy that has influenced you. Of course, as you grow up, this statement could evolve, but its soul will remain the same. Now, write down your Mission Statement.

Aligning your LIFE with the Underlying Principle:

The final step in this journey is to map your path to your ultimate purpose. Make the little changes in your lifestyle that would accommodate this principle in your life. LIVE this principle each and every day. It might take a few days, but you will certainly feel the difference in your enthusiasm for life. If you realize that you love being amidst nature, plan out your holiday. Maybe an outing with your children could be enough to recoup with your energy. On the other hand, you might even want to change your job, or start a new business, that is more in line with your mission.

Remember – “Do what you love, and money will follow”.

Are you ready for LOVE?

Are you at a place in your life where you aren’t attracting the love you want?Has your current relationship lost its sizzle? What prevents you from being ‘in love’? How much energy do you exert NOT to love yourself or others? It takes more effort NOT to love, than to love.

Want More Love and Joy?

In order to make room for what you do want, you have to release and let go of the things you don’t want. To attract what you want, you will want to let go of everything that keeps you away from Love. Like attracts like.

Unless you want to continue on your current path, you are probably overdue of letting go of emotional pain of a break-up, past failures or the need for approval. Maybe you continuously seek recognition at work or have unrealistic expectations for yourself. Thoughts like, “I’m not attractive” or “I will never have a loving relationship” need to be purged.

What You Resist – Persists

As long as you continue to resist painful memories and limiting thoughts and beliefs you create separation. You create separation from your true self. You separate yourself from what you are ‘love’! And, love remains illusive.

Are you resisting painful experiences from your past? Are you doing everything you can to forget the past? Maybe you think that the more you put your past behind you, the less effect it will have on you.

Do you spend hours contemplating problems? When you focus on your problems, they persist. Your contempt for your problems fuels and strengthens them. The more energy you direct to your problems and pain, you create ‘stress’ and ‘dis-ease’.

Are You Holding on to Pain?

Do you find yourself watching endless hours of TV? Are you trying to escape emotional and spiritual pain by taking drugs or alcohol? Do you overeat to escape the pain? Do you use your computer for hours on end to escape? What distractions take you out of being present with what you are feeling? Stored up pain such as hatred, anger, fear, frustration, apathy, depression etc. become scattered in your body and energetic space.

Releasing Stuck Pain or Resistance

If you have ever been light-headed from hunger and then felt a sigh of contentment as you fed your body the perfect meal, you’ve experienced grounding. If you’ve ever melted into the back rub you got from a trusted person at the end of a stressful day, you’ve experienced being grounded.

Grounding is a simple process of connecting to the Earth that many people do naturally throughout the course of a day. Anything that brings you to the sense of pleasure and release is grounding. When you are grounded, you feel centered focused, and present.

People connect with their bodies and the Earth in many ways: through touch and body work, through eating, through being out in nature or in water, through contact with animals and through healthy sex. Visualizing, an imaginary grounding cord, is a way to release foreign energy from your body so that it can experience love and joy.

Create a Path for Releasing to Feel Safe and Happy

A grounding cord provides a way to flush out pent up energy and emotion so you can feel good about yourself. It is a way to move energy as it comes towards you, rather than letting it get stuck in the body. When foreign energy gets stuck in the body, it stops the natural flow of energy and might manifest as depression, a migraine headache, aches, pain, or eventually illness.

Effortless Release Every Day for More Love

Grounding works much like a drain or waterfall. When you pour water down the drain you probably never wonder ….:”where did it go?” Be patient with yourself and have fun with your new toy. Grounding becomes as natural like breathing or smiling with practice.

Consider releasing other people’s problems, your worries and anxiety that are weighing you down... Keep it simple and stay amused with yourself. Tune into being in harmony with this process of grounding and letting everything go effortlessly.

Grounding is such an invaluable tool in healing yourself that it’s worth taking the time to be sure you can do it easily and comfortably. With practice, you can train yourself to be connected with the earth all of the time. Don’t create any limits for yourself on how much you can release without effort.

Grounding Cord Visualization

To revitalize and refresh your body, mind and spirit take the first step by letting go with grounding. It is always the first step to all the subsequent steps in this book. From the base of your spine, make a connection to the healing planet energy to release excess energy and stabilize your body.
1. Close eyes but stay focused.
• Be aware of own body with your feet flat on the floor.
Create a mental image of line of energy between base of spine and the center of the planet.
• Connect a grounding cord into the center of earth.
• Secure the grounding cord snuggly at the base of your spine.
• Notice your breathing.
• Using the gravitational pull of the planet start to release foreign or stuck energy from your body and aura.
• Notice how your body feels while grounding. Imagine seeing stuck energy draining out of you.

Remember to:
1. Start your day with by grounding yourself.
2. Check in with yourself during the day to see if you have a grounding cord.
3. Notice what happens in your body as you release using your grounding cord.

Grounding is one way to bring your self back into alignment with your essence– love. Practice the following grounding meditation 10-15 minutes each day. The more you practice to better your results.

Amirah © 2006 All Rights Reserved.

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

A Better You: Your 7 days program to self-improvement

I seem to lost count on how many times I've read and heard of celebrity marriages failing almost left and right. Not that I care (and personally I don't), it seems strange that we often see movie and TV stars as flawless people, living the fairytale life of riches and glamor. I suppose we all have to stop sticking our heads in the clouds and face reality.

There are many ways to lose your sense of self-esteem despite of how trivial it could get. But whatever happens, we should all try not to lose our own sense of self.

So what does it take to be a cut above the rest? Here are some of the things you can think and improve on that should be enough for a week.

1. Know your purpose
Are you wandering through life with little direction - hoping that you'll find happiness, health and prosperity? Identify your life purpose or mission statement and you will have your own unique compass that will lead you to your truth north every time.

This may seem tricky at first when you see yourself to be in a tight or even dead end. But there's always that little loophole to turn things around and you can make a big difference to yourself.

2. Know your values
What do you value most? Make a list of your top 5 values. Some examples are security, freedom, family, spiritual development, learning. As you set your goals for 2005 - check your goals against your values. If the goal doesn't align with any of your top five values - you may want to reconsider it or revise it.

The number shouldn't discourage you, instead it should motivate you to do more than you can ever dreamed of.

3. Know your needs
Unmet needs can keep you from living authentically. Take care of yourself. Do you have a need to be acknowledged, to be right, to be in control, to be loved? There are so many people who lived their lives without realizing their dreams and most of them end up being stressed or even depressed for that matter. List your top four needs and get them met before it's too late!

4. Know your passions
You know who you are and what you truly enjoy in life. Obstacles like doubt and lack of enthusiasm will only hinder you, but will not derail your chance to become the person you ought to be. Express yourself and honor the people who has inspired you to become the very person you wanted to be.

5. Live from the inside out
Increase your awareness of your inner wisdom by regularly reflecting in silence. Commune with nature. Breathe deeply to quiet your distracted mind. For most of us city slickers it's hard to even find the peace and quiet we want even in our own home. In my case I often just sit in a dimly lit room and play some classical music. There's sound, yes, but music does soothe the savage beast.

6. Honor your strengths
What are your positive traits? What special talents do you have? List three - if you get stuck, ask those closest to you to help identify these. Are you imaginative, witty, good with your hands? Find ways to express your authentic self through your strengths. You can increase your self-confidence when you can share what you know to others.

7. Serve others
When you live authentically, you may find that you develop an interconnected sense of being. When you are true to who you are, living your purpose and giving of your talents to the world around you, you give back in service what you came to share with others -your spirit - your essence. The rewards for sharing your gift with those close to you is indeed rewarding, much more if it were to be the eyes of a stranger who can appreciate what you have done to them.

Self-improvement is indeed one type of work that is worth it. It shouldn't always be within the confines of an office building, or maybe in the four corners of your own room. The difference lies within ourselves and how much we want to change for the better.

Multiple Steps To Success

Having an interest in online business, I often frequent forums that are for people who have or want a successful online business. There is one theme that recurs time and time again, and one that touches me with sadness. That is, the number of people who sound despondent and want to give up. You may think that such an attitude would be confined to those who had at been trying to get their online business going for a year or more. Often, though, it might just be a month, or like an example today, three weeks.

Such a short term view is totally unrealistic. In that particular case, the person concerned was being given a kick start by a highly experienced and well known internet marketer, for free. He was complaining already, despite not having done anything himself, that he had so far received no benefit, and that the whole idea needed to be rethought, presumably so that he could be raking in a fortune inside another month without doing any work.

That sort of attitude is likely to lead to failure for a tough ambition such as making a decent income online. Success at anything normally involves taking one step at a time, sometimes along several parallel routes that, eventually, run into one and bring you success. With working online, for example, there are a wide variety of skills, methodologies and pitfalls, all to be dealt with methodically en route to success. Success does not come quickly unless you are very lucky; but those who are patient, have a vision, and are prepared to work hard, taking a step at a time, have a very good chance of succeeding....eventually.

I was not sure whether to feel sorry for that particular poster, or annoyed with him for complaining about what was some valuable free assistance from a genuine expert. In the end, I felt neither, and left him to find out the realities of life.

Most visions of success do really need a number of steps to be taken, and success cannot be achieved in one giant leap. A good example is with a professional qualification, such as the management accounting qualification for which I studied when I was younger. The end result, the "success", was a certificate, but you could not just order that certificate. There were several series of steps:

1. 5 stages of either 3 or 4 examinations had to be passed to qualify; a total of 18 examinations in all.

2. To pass a stage, you had to pass each exam individually, which meant being well inside the top 40% of students for each one. Fail in one, and you fail the stage. That meant starting again.

3. Each examination required different skills, knowledge and practical application to succeed. Subjects were varied, such as computing, marketing, financial accounting, organization and management, contract law, business law, and corporate planning. Each was a separate step, requiring a separate approach, with no scope to put a foot wrong. Each a big step in itself, with many little steps along their own route.

Once a stage was passed successfully, it was like starting all over again with another series of steps, each getting progressively more difficult. Many students fell by the way side or had to resit. There was no avoiding the necessary steps.

That is true of most ambitions in which you seek success. If success is really worthwhile in something, it is unlikely to be easy and simple. So it is best to bear that in mind when focusing on your goal.

Once you have a vision of your goal, you need to recognize all the essential steps to the goal's realization. There is no harm in imagining the final success; visualization of fulfillment will help. However, you do need to give appropriate attention to each of the essential steps. In the professional qualification example, I hated business law, but had to give it special attention to pass, otherwise all my work on the other subjects in that stage would have been worthless. Having got through that stage, the next included company law, which was nothing more than a memory test. I hated that even more; but still had to pass it.

Most worthwhile goals have similar essential steps, which you need to recognize, and then devise a plan to address each step with whatever effort, knowledge, skills and practice you may need. Having formed your plan for each step, you can then set about them methodically, carving your way to success, one step at a time.

If you write down your goal, and then the individual, essential steps, you will have the great satisfaction of ticking off each step, and then stand back and see you have reached your vision. Your goal will be achieved.

Attracting Success

We all wish to be successful and yet somehow we seem to be missing the target. In this article we will show you how to become more successful in all your endeavors.

Success often eludes many people. Like the inevitable pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, people set their hearts on following their dreams only to wake up disappointed.

Disappointment can be crushing to people. They sit and wonder what on earth they did wrong. They may have a strong belief in that pot of gold, but a dream alone cannot make your visions a reality.

You may have read a myriad of books and followed all the rules and imagined yourself as the successful person that you want to be. Your vision may be crystal clear and that is a good thing. The Bible says, “Without a vision the people perish”. The problem remains that envisioning yourself as successful is not enough.

What are your dreams?
What are you hopes for the future?
Have you ever written them down?

If you could be anything that you wanted to be and go where you wanted to go, who would you be? What would you be like? Where would you be living?

I want you to take a few moments now and write down the answer to these questions. Be as specific as you can so you can visualize these things as being true today. Crystallize these ideals in your mind.

Don’t cheat here, this is an important exercise, now go and write the answers down on a piece of paper, or better still in a book. You can call this your Dream Book to Success.

Now ask yourself this question: What do I need to do in order to live the life I dream of?

What do I need to do to make my dreams a reality?

The first step is to make sure you do not put off the vision too far in the distance. Don’t live on tomorrow’s sunshine. At the same time, don’t expect to have a change overnight. There is no magic pill that is going to bring about your dream. There is no easy road that will bring you to the Emerald City.

Someone once said “the road to success is filled with hard knocks” and this is reality.

You CAN achieve your dreams only if you systematically prepare yourself to receive them. You also must believe that you CAN receive them.

Henry Ford said, “If you think you can you can, and if you think you can’t, you can’t”

If you believe that you CAN achieve your dreams then it’s time for you to start planning on how you are going to make your dreams of success come true. Don’t let fear sabotage your thinking. If you have faith, you can move mountains! Sometimes though a mountain must be moved a piece at a time.

This takes planning. No amount of wishful thinking will get you what you want. Your vision may be crystal clear but with out a plan it’s just a dream. You need to plan your life in order to get the results you wish for.

You need to set goals for yourself. I know, you hate the thought of setting goals, but unless you put it down in writing and give it a date, it won’t happen. I can guarantee it.

Do you see yourself as slim and sitting on a beach somewhere? Well if you need to lose weight, dreaming isn’t going to make it happen. You must write down your goal for losing weight.

In order for my dream to come true I must lose more pounds. This is a good start. Now visualize yourself standing in front of a mirror weighing your perfect weight. Doesn’t that feel good?

This is your target, your dream, your vision. Now ask yourself, in order to reach that goal, what steps do I need to take today. Is it reasonable to say to yourself that you could lose 10 pounds a month? Too much? How about 4 pounds a month? Can you make a decision to yourself to lose 1 pound a week. In a year that would be 52 pounds! If you lost 2 pounds a week that would be 104 pounds! See how much you can do by breaking your goals down to bite size pieces. Your mountain can literally be moved piece by piece, or pound by pound in this example. Voila ! Success!

There is nothing mystical in making your dreams a success. In every situation you can do it piece by piece until your mountain is moved and you achieve Success.

Mind Power: Tap the Magnificent Power of Your Subconscious Mind!

I am sure those of you who have read self-help books, hypnosis books, probability of you encountering this mysterious word called “subconscious mind” are pretty high. So, you hope that the book that you are reading will provide you with a satisfactory explanation to what subconscious mind is. Unfortunately, the book does not touch on the topic on subconscious mind. Do not go sleepless over this question, as this amazing article will tell you what you really need to know about subconscious mind. So, what in the world is subconscious mind?

Another name for subconscious mind is sleeping mind or the unconscious mind. Both names arises due to the fact that you have completely no awareness that your subconscious mind exists. Your subconscious mind is a very hardworking mind as it stores almost every single experience in your life. The information that it stores can either be helpful or destructive as the data in your subconscious mind ultimately forms the foundation of your belief system. The beliefs that you have will determine how you lead your life. Now that you have a brief understanding of what subconscious mind is and the power of it, I shall tell you how to make full use of your subconscious mind.

Creative Visualization

Before you head off to your dreamland every night, spend 5 minutes everyday visualizing your goals and ambitions. Imagine yourself already achieving it and feel the emotions that you will feel when you achieved it. This simple and easy exercise is super effective in eliminating any negative emotions that hindered your path to obtaining your goals. The time before you head off to sleep is the perfect time to do this exercise as this is the time where your mind is most willing to accept new information. The next step to unlocking the potential of your subconscious mind is doing positive self-affirmations.

Positive Self-affirmations

Every single morning, repeat your life aims to yourself with an enthusiastic tone. You need to say it passionately as only this way that your brain will register what you say. The longer you practice doing positive affirmations, the more you believe in your goals and you already have reprogrammed your subconscious mind that you can achieve it.

Subliminal Programming

Spend about 10 to 20 minutes everyday listening and watching subliminal videos or audio tapes. Subliminal CDs are readily available in your local CD stores. These CDs can improve your life but you need to listen to them on a regular basis. The downside is that the effect is temporary so you need to listen to them daily. They are also very convenient to listen as they are portable. You can place them in your mp3s and listen to them while working out. While driving your car, you can also listen to them.

Creating a Positive Environment

Choose a place where you regularly work. This could be your study room or your workplace. Then, put up positive and motivational posters. The more posters you put up , the lesser the negative thoughts you will think of and the faster your subconscious mind will internalize those positive beliefs. Your mind is an unbelievable thing; it will go on a autopilot to pick up those positive phrases in your posters. Soon, you will feel yourself easily energized in your workplace and get things down quickly. Do the above faithfully and I can assured you that you will see results very soon.

An Age Old Secret For Accessing Knowledge

Over the centuries, human beings have developed many techniques to gain access to their inner wisdom and improve learning.

One technique that many people have found very beneficial is to have an imaginary guide that they can call on for advice and insight.

A modern variation of this technique has been developed by intelligence researcher Dr. Win Wenger and it is detailed in his book “The Einstein Factor”

This exercise is sometimes called “Putting on the Expert’s Head”

This technique enables you to access some of the enormous untapped potential that resides in the mind of every individual. This technique can even accelerate your ability to develop a new skill. It gives you access to parts of yourself that you are normally not aware of.

The first step is to decide what knowledge or skill you would like to develop in yourself. What are you interested in that you would like to do better? You might wish to improve your skill at archery, portrait painting, doing mathematics, or playing a musical instrument.

Once you have decided what skill or knowledge you would like to develop, take some time to think about those people you consider an expert in this chosen field. Whose skills do you admire? Who do you think of as a great role model and expert in the field?

The person need not be currently living. Before you move ahead with this exercise, you may wish to research the life of the person you have chosen.

You might even decide you want to see the world from the perspective of your favorite animal or bird, such as a wolf or an eagle.

When you are ready to do the Expert’s Head exercise, prepare yourself by deeply relaxing your body and your mind. Take some time to get comfortable in a place where you will not be disturbed. Internally scan your body for tension, and allow your muscles to relax. Breathe calmly and smoothly in a relaxed way.

Now think: is there a particular place where you would like to meet your imaginary expert? You might want to meet this guide in your own home, but feel free to imagine another site. For example, you could visualize meeting in a beautiful garden, in a forest, on top of a mountain, or some other location.

You can improve your ability to visualize imaginatively by speaking out loud your inner impressions to a tape recorder, or to another person. Eventually, even the slightest glimmer of imagination will be reinforced and amplified by consistent practice of this exercise.

If you are not yet able to easily imagine a location in which to meet your chosen expert, don’t worry. Simply move forward to the imagined encounter with this person, whenever you are ready.

Your imaginary encounter may go exactly as planned, or there may be surprises in store for you. Perhaps someone you weren’t expecting shows up. Perhaps your chosen expert does not want to participate. If no one appears in your mind’s imagination, ask for someone to come forward, and then wait.

When your imaginary guide appears, handle the encounter with as much politeness and respect as you would a real life encounter with a real person. Do you feel comfortable in the presence of this expert? Do you have the sense that the expert feels comfortable with you?

Even if these guides are figments of your inner mind, you still need to be sure you are accessing a part of yourself that wants to promote only the best for you.

If you get any sense of discomfort between you, thank the expert for coming, and politely dismiss him or her. Think of another expert you admire in your chosen field and create an imaginary encounter with that person. You may even have to create a totally fictitious character to be your imaginary expert.

Once you have established a meeting with your chosen expert, mentally picture yourself and your visiting expert standing facing each other in an attitude of great respect. Gently put your arms out and slowly remove the expert’s head from his or her body. Since this is only an imaginary person or animal, the head should come off quite easily.

Place the expert’s head above your own, facing the right way, and lower it over your own head. Now believe that you are looking out at the world through the eyes of your chosen expert, hearing through the expert’s ears, smelling through the expert’s nose.

Take the time to allow the expert’s mind to slowly merge with your own mind. Now gently pull the expert’s body towards you, and step into it. Feel as if it fits you perfectly. Feel that you have merged with the expert’s body and can feel and do the same things.

When you feel that you are actually in the expert’s body, notice what seems different to you. Does the world look different in any way? Do any of your attitudes feel different? How does your body feel different? Can you feel the confident attitude of the expert? Memorize the sensation.

Focus on the differences you notice and start to talk about them out loud. Spend at least five minutes doing this step. When you have finished, gently step out of the borrowed imaginary body and carefully remove the expert’s head from you own. Respectfully return the head and body to the expert. Thank that person for allowing you to have this experience.

You can use the Expert’s Head technique to improve your skills at some desired activity, or to accelerate your ability to learn to do something you have never done before.

First spend a few weeks performing the Expert’s Head exercise daily to familiarize yourself with it. Once you are accustomed to the process of donning the expert’s head, you are ready to use this technique to accelerate your skills development.

First spend a few minutes performing the desired skill entirely in your mind. Feel as if you are actually performing perfectly it and that you really know how to do it. Then move to the Expert’s Head exercise, and spend about 10 –15 minutes, performing the activity in real life, but mentally be the character of the expert, wearing the expert’s head and body.

After about fifteen minutes, gently remove the expert’s head and step out of the expert’s body. Thank the expert for the use of his or her body, mind and talent. Ask the person to continue filling your mind with more of their expert knowledge and ability even when you are not practicing this exercise.

Before the experience starts to fade from your memory, spend a few minutes writing down or speaking out loud everything you can remember. Write down or speak everything you can remember that was really different when you were in the expert’s mind and body, rather than as yourself.

When you wish to improve a particular skill, first spend about 15 minutes mentally doing it as yourself. Then slip into the expert’s head and body to continue the exercise in real life for another fifteen to thirty minutes. If you repeat this process about three times a day, you will experience a greatly accelerated ability to master the skills you desire.

Please realize that advice and knowledge received in this manner is not infallible. Do not feel obligated to act on any advice received from your inner dialogue with your imagined guides unless you are absolutely convinced it is appropriate for you at this time.

This technique can greatly increase access to your inner creativity and wisdom, but you will still need to make informed and reasoned decisions about what you do.

An Article On Perfectionism

What is Perfectionism? Perfectionism is defined as a meticulous drive to attain excellence. A perfectionist is one who has this characteristic.

'Perfectionism' is a most prevalent belief in our civilization. Notice that I used the word 'belief'.

Everywhere in this world of ours, perfectionism is regarded as good and desirable while imperfection is deem as bad or negative. Everybody wants everybody else to be perfect. Bosses want their employees to be flawless on the job. Parents want their kids to be the best. Perfectionists want their work and themselves to be perfect.

Since it is so strongly regarded as being positive, is Perfectionism really an absolute or universal value? In my opinion, it is not so.
To me, it is relative and is born of human conception. Perfection is an idea. It is an idea of a perceived ideal state of affair. However, things are the way they are. For every circumstances, the truth is what is at each instance. Perfection and imperfection are therefore merely attached values.

I am not suggesting that perfectionism is not good. I am suggesting that perhaps perfectionism can cast a controlling net over our expression of happiness. One can reach the required goal with or without being a perfectionist. To be a perfectionist, on the other hand, leave very little room for one to accept and love oneself unconditionally when a desired goal is not met. And when our desires are not met, we feel unhappy or cannot be fully satisfied. However, the truth is we only have each moment of the Present Moment to live in. By being perfectionist, our mind will be forever planning and thinking about the future or lamenting about what went wrong in the past. Because of these tendencies, many perfectionists are unable to feel satisfaction because in their perception they never seem to do things good enough to warrant that feeling of contentment.

From this, we can see a paradox of life. That is:

"How can one have perfect peace, self-love and joy when one is a perfectionist? "

Thank you for reading.

Finish Strong

As we approach the end of the year, we tend to rush forward full speed ahead. With holiday madness and other tasks that need to be done by the end of the year, who has time to neatly tie a ribbon around the last 12 months and call it a wrap? However, finishing strong may be just the thing you need to do to create a strong start for the new year.

What if bringing completion to what has past is as important if not more so than planning for the future? What if you knew that you are essentially sabotaging your future success by not stopping and taking stock of what you have accomplished this year and where you are at present?

In sports, there are many examples of where a strong finish is the difference between success and second best. For example, that last thrust forward of the wheel in a bike sprint to win by an inch or the running back who reaches out his hand with the ball to barely cross the goal line with seconds remaining on the clock.

How can you make the next few weeks a strong finish for your year? What can you do to bring completion to this chapter of your life? Completion is what allows you to leave the past in the past. Otherwise, it is like dragging a wagon of unfinished business along with you every day. Not only is it exhausting but it also prevents you from achieving your dreams in the future. After all, you can't climb a mountain with a wagon in tow.

"There is no room in the future for your past."

As you bring this year to a close, take an hour and consider the following:

- What did I accomplish this year? Make a list of all your accomplishments, big and small from the last 12 months and celebrate!
- What did I hope to accomplish but didn't? Is this something I still really want? (You are not allowed to beat yourself up on this step.)
- Make a list of all the people in your life for which you are grateful. Contact at least 5 of these people and thank them for what they bring to your life.
- Is there anyone I need to forgive or make amends with? If so, lighten your load and do what you feel is necessary to forgive, repair, or let go of this burden.
- Do at least one thing each day that allows you to simply enjoy today. There is no better step for honoring the past and creating an inspiring future than being fully present and enjoying where you are right now.

Ever Wondered Why Everyone Except You Is Moving On?

“I attend courses, read books, listen to CD’s, yet I am still not living the life I want to and am unhappy with the life I have. How can I have the life I want to have?”

This is a surprisingly common dilemma. There are many people out there who could be called “Seminar Junkies”. They go from course to course, book to book, guru to guru desperately seeking answers, yet never finding them.

They watch the people around them have magical transformations in their lives, and feel frustrated and resentful that they are not getting the same results. These people typically continue to attend course after course until eventually they give up and live a life of quiet desperation.

Now, I’m going to share a huge secret with you, though you have to promise not to tell everyone else, because otherwise all these people who make their living from self help seminars and books will get very upset at me for sharing this secret.

The majority of people who attend self-help seminars, read the books, listen to the CD’s are all desperately looking for someone else to change their lives. They refuse to take responsibility for their lives and firmly believe that the only way they can change is if some guru waves their magic wand and blesses them. Then, and only then, will they have permission, and the ability, to change.

Here’s a newsflash.

No guru, no self help book, no seminar, no CD is going to change your life.

The only way you are going to change your life is if you decide to change it.

You can attend the courses, listen to CD’s and read the books, but if you are not willing to take responsibility for what you have in your life and accept your own power and ability to change it, you are never going to get the changes you want.

That’s right. You’ll just stay the same.

People are far too willing in today’s society to give away their personal power and responsibility for their lives. They are always jumping from diet to diet or from health fad to health fad or whatever, hoping that one of them will actually make a difference for them.

If you want to change your life you need to follow these 5 steps:

Make a decision right now that you are going to change your life. There are many different ways to do this, and I teach a number of motivational techniques on my courses and in my workbooks you can use to help you make this decision.

Take responsibility for everything that is in your life, no matter how good or bad. You created and accepted it into your life, and as such, you can change it.

Decide what you do want in your life, what you are going to accept and what you are not going to accept. If you don’t know what you want, look at what you don’t want, and the opposite of that is what you want. Decide on who and what you want to be. Create an action plan for change. Create a plan for how you are going to make these changes.

And the most important step of all, DO IT. That’s right, do it and make the changes. This is the step that separates the achievers and successful people from the dreamers living a life of mediocrity.

If you have been attending all these seminars, reading these books and you still haven’t managed to change your life, then look inside yourself and ask this question.

“Am I taking responsibility for changing my life?”

If the answer is no, then take responsibility and start changing your life today. Whether you work with someone else, or you work with me, take responsibility and use the knowledge of the “guru’s” and the courses and the books and implement them into your life and create the life of your dreams; the life you deserve.

You can wait for an eternity for someone else to make the changes for you, and it’ll never happen. YOU just have to DO it yourself. Stop putting things off now, because the more you put things off the more painful and difficult it will get.

P.S. If you are reading this and saying “I tried” or “I can’t” or something similar then you absolutely need to re-read this article right now two or three times and implement it into your life. It is time to stop trying and start doing.

A Key To Success

Emulating successful people is one key to success. Be careful, though, if you ask them for advice. Often, people don't really know why they succeed, but they will give you as many explanations as you want anyhow. One night on the news, I saw a 100-year-old man explain that smoking a big cigar every day was one of the secrets of his longevity. It might be nice to know why he has lived so long, but I'm pretty sure we won't learn by asking him.

Key To Success - Study Successful People

One key, then, isn't in doing what successful people say, but rather doing what they do. This is how to learn success. Naturally you have to look closely and apply a little brainpower to see what they are really doing that is causing their success.

A successful real estate investor told me he didn't believe in setting goals. However, watching him and listening to him, I came to realize that he knew just where he expected to be with his projects in six months. This, of course, is goal-setting - he just called the process something else.

Never stop listening to what successful people have to say, but read between the lines. Listen for insight into how they think about things, how they approach their challenges. Suppose the advice of a successful basketball player is just to practice more, but he casually mentions "I saw that going in," after a great shot. Isn't it time to start visualizing your shots going in?

Key To Success - Model Successful People

You won't always know what is causing a person's success. Internet marketers promote their websites by exchanging links, but when I first tried to exchange links with other websites, the owners didn't respond to my emails. Then I found a simple email letter used by a successful internet marketer to get links. It sounded silly to me, and I wanted to change it, but I tried it anyhow. It worked repeatedly.

It is more important to do the right things than to understand why they are right. To also understand is great, but at first, it may be best to just copy many of the actions, attitudes and approaches of someone who is succeeding. Try to model success, even before you understand it.

As you learn more, you can drop those parts that aren't contributing, and add elements of your own. If you model a successful parent, for example, and life with your children gets better, does it matter if you know right away which changes were the most effective? Of course not.

Is it better to understand why what you are doing is working? Certainly, but you may not ever understand why some things work, and this is okay too. It is better to have success than to explain it, so find successful people and do what they do, not what they say. It is an important key to success.

How Do You Define Success?

"Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire."
~Arnold H. Glasow

This really is a great quote. Not only is it interesting but also inspiring.

One of the truths that I find most frustrating as a teacher and a coach is that many people believe that success, in whatever field of endeavor they are currently striving, is rather like winning the lottery. In fact, it certainly seems from the evidence that they in fact believe that success is even more random because they aren't even buying a ticket. They are simply passively waiting.

If you listen to people talk you won't hear many people voicing this opinion of success but look around you and watch what people are actually doing--or rather not doing--and you will quickly see what I mean.

Many people want things--they want to be rich, they want to be at the top of their profession, they want a successful marriage, they want to raise great kids, they want to be respected in their community, and so on. But what do they do to achieve this success? Are they working both hard and smart toward their financial goals and living frugally while they do so? Are they constantly learning and striving at their job? Are they showing their spouse love, consideration, understanding, and generosity? Are they spending time with their children both modeling how to be a good person and being generous with their love and understanding? Are they regularly proving themselves an asset within their community by being a good neighbor in every sense of the word?

We all know that we must accomplish these tasks as I set them out to achieve success in these areas. Probably I missed something as well. I am hardly a model of success in every area. I would in fact describe myself as fair to middling. {g} I am certainly not rich but the bills get paid and our basics and then some are covered without too much stress. My boss, peers, and subordinates think I am doing a pretty good job as well as those that I serve professionally. While my marriage is in fairly good shape I know I could certainly put more into it. I think I have a great kid but know well my failings as a mother. I contribute to my community but no where near the level that I could or should.

How do you define success?

Is it money, career, love, marriage, family, friendship, respect, community?

For me, success is primarily about love. How many lives do I touch with mine? How many hearts? Who has been changed by my existence in a positive way? I hope that people judge me as a good person and that if I died tomorrow that there would be great mourning.

If we really want this success then we will set ourselves on fire. We won't wait for spontaneous combustion.