The con men that promise quick, easy, effortless solutions have left a lot of people convinced that visualization doesn’t work. And it doesn’t – their way. It does work, and you should use it. But it’s not magic, so it’s important to understand what it does, and why. Here’s some of the most common mistakes and how to use it right. Mistake #1: Creation By Visualization Many people think, because the con men told them, that they can just visualize stuff into existence. So they visualize with enthusiasm, day after day, and nothing happens. The object of their affection – (….)
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action,
attitude,
mind,
visualization
“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.” Mark Twain Humans have always played games, and many of the sporting games are violent. In football, rugby and soccer, collisions, injuries and broken bones are common. But there are no shortages of testosterone-fueled young men and in some sports, young women, willing to put their bodies on the line in the name of winning. Why is it that people who are so willing to risk their bodies in sports can be so cowardly when moral courage is required? I have been (….)
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action,
compassion,
courage,
discipline,
fear
“If at first you do succeed, try something harder.” Ann Landers I think that our friendly advice columnist, Ann Landers, is on to something very helpful here. She’s given us two lessons for the price of one quote. That’s pretty good! The first lesson is in how we train ourselves to be successful. We start small. Take a little task, an easy task, and do that. Then do it again. We’re practicing doing new things and getting things done. As we do that, we build confidence. That’s important, because we’ll need it as we move on to bigger tasks. Some (….)
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action,
attitude,
habits,
learning
The world lost a unique genius with the passing of Steve Jobs this week. In his honor I’d like to reprint the commencement address he gave at Stanford University in June, 2005. In it he covers some of the important topics that we talk about in the Daily Gratitude newsletter and the courses that I offer on business and personal success, telling how he applied these ideas in his life. It’s inspiring, and he will be missed! ———————————————————- I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never (….)
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action,
learning,
passion,
persistence,
risk
“There is no labor from which most people shrink as they do from that of sustained and consecutive thought. It is the hardest work in the world.” Wallace Wattles In our quote today, Wattles has given us the secret key to success. It’s the kind of secret that you can leave out in plain sight, because there are very few people that will use it. As he says, it’s the hardest work in the world. It’s about taking control of your conscious mind. Controlling your thinking instead of letting it run on autopilot. Now what does he mean by “sustained (….)
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action,
mind,
persistence,
thinking,
thoughts
“There is a science of getting rich and it’s an exact science. There are certain laws which govern the process.” Wallace Wattles One of the big mistakes that many people make about wealth is thinking that you have to be a particular kind of person, or be in the “right place” or have the right background. Nothing could be further from the truth! If it were true it would be a big surprise to well known success teachers like Jim Rohn, a country boy from rural Idaho in the western USA, or Bob Proctor, a Canadian high school dropout! We (….)
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discipline,
success,
thoughts,
vision
“It’s in the use of material things that a person finds full life for the body, develops the mind and unfolds the soul.” Wallace Wattles Continuing our series on the writings of Wallace Wattles, we see that he is pointing out that it’s an error to think that material things, like money, are not spiritual. We need things to nurture and comfort our body, engage and stimulate our mind, and feed our soul. Poverty makes this difficult. But, look carefully. He says the “use” of material things is necessary. This choice of words is to make it clear that the (….)
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attitude,
beliefs,
Spirituality,
thinking
“No one can rise to their greatest possible height in talent or soul development unless they have plenty of money.” Wallace Wattles This is the first in a series on key ideas from Wallace Wattles writings. His book, “The Science of Getting Rich”, is one of the best known and most continuously studied personal development books ever written. One of the biggest errors that many people make is to consider money as non-spiritual, or even anti-spiritual. The inevitable result of that thinking is a lack of money. Resisting money just blocks the flow. In Wallace Wattles classic book, he addresses (….)
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abundance,
attitude,
money,
Spirituality,
subconscious
“I am responsible for my reactions to the events of my life, even though I may not have created them.” Howard Thurman One of the ways that we punish ourselves and others is with the false assertion that we have attracted or created everything that happens in our life. Do we have an influence on what shows up for us? Of course we do, but we live in a society of creative beings and we all interact. We have to live our lives in a world in which others are creating their lives, too. Sometimes their creations and our creations (….)
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action,
attitude,
compassion,
nonresistence
“As a single footstep will not make a pathway on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again.” Henry David Thoreau Every day by the choices we make we create our life. When we make the same choices every day, we become a prisoner, a prisoner of habit. Although there are some parts of our habits that were suddenly created by events that had a lot of emotion or fear attached to them, by far the majority were created the way Thoreau describes (….)
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habits,
motivation,
persistence
“The body, like everything else in life, is a mirror of our inner thoughts and beliefs.” Louise Hay Are you grateful for your body? I hope the answer is yes. After all, it’s your body that lets you enjoy this plane of existence. If your first thought when you see your body in a mirror is criticism and not gratitude, you have some mental work to do. Because, as our quote says, our body is just mirroring our thoughts about it. It’s not only true for our appearance but it’s true for our health, too. It’s no longer controversial to (….)
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attitude,
health,
thoughts
“Dietrich Bonhoeffer taught me, as few others could have done, that standing for truth has consequences and if you are not willing to pay that price or run that risk, nothing you do will ever be worthwhile. ” John Shelby Spong We all have times in our lives when we are given the choice to speak our truth, or not. Most of the time we can do that without having to suffer serious consequences for it. That gives us an opportunity to practice. We get to boldly state what is true for us in the face of mild disapproval of (….)
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action,
fear,
motivation,
risk,
Spirituality,
truth
“Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings.” Elizabeth Gilbert At first glance, it appears that our quote is telling us that we have to work hard to be happy. And we do, but not in the way that it might seem. Our hard work takes place in the mental realm first. We have to decide to be happy, no matter what our circumstances are, and train our thinking to agree. That’s Gratitude Principle #3, from the Gratitude ebook. We can be happy, but not satisfied. We seek to (….)
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action,
attitude,
happiness,
visualization
“Change is the natural order of things and not something that you benefit from resisting.” Neale Donald Walsch Have you ever had the experience of thinking you were close to figuring something out, and then change happened? Have you ever felt like standing in front of the train of progress and yelling, “Stop!”? Well, you’re not alone. I think we’ve all had that experience. But the flip side of every problem is opportunity. If you can train yourself to look for the opportunity in times of change, you’ll be ahead of the game. Philosopher Eric Hoffer has pointed out that (….)
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attitude,
learning,
nonresistence,
timing
“The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought.” Emma Goldman Since today is Independence Day in the United States, a few thoughts on independence are in order. We as individuals have a daily struggle for our own independence in several areas. We want to be independent in our finances, in our lifestyle, in our relationships and in how we spend our time. But as our quotes suggests, the most important and difficult area to be independent is in our thinking. Why would Emma Goldman call independent thinking an unpardonable sin? It’s because when we really start to think (….)
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family,
friends,
purpose,
risk,
thinking,
vision,
wisdom
“Before an idea can work in your life it must be accepted by the subconscious mind. When the idea is accepted by the subconscious it MUST work in your life. Knowledge that is only in the conscious mind can have no practical effect. It is when it is accepted in the deeper layers of the mind that it becomes dynamic.” Emmet Fox One of the key ideas that I learned from Bob Proctor was the importance of the subconscious mind. It is the most powerful part of the mind, using about 97% of our total capacity. But, since the conscious (….)
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mind,
persistence,
purpose,
subconscious
“Perfectionism is not a quest for the best. It is a pursuit of the worst in ourselves, the part that tells us that nothing we do will ever be good enough.” Julia Cameron There are lots of reasons why so many of us never get started on our dreams, but I would have to say that the belief that we’re “not good enough” is one of the biggest. Many times we bring this perfectionism on ourselves by comparing ourselves to someone with years of experience and thinking, “I could never be like that.” Do you think they started like that? (….)
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action,
fear,
risk
“The task is not to see what has never been seen before, but to think what has never been thought before about what you see every day.” Erwin Schrodinger Most of us are living with blinders on about what opportunities we have in our lives. It’s the curse of the familiar, in which we discount what we see around us and seek something new instead. This is particularly true about our own abilities. We ignore what we have and seek something better, some new training, some new mentor, before we start on our goals. There’s a famous story by Dr. (….)
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perception,
science,
Spirituality
“The presence of excuses in your life is evidence that you are focusing on what you can’t do or don’t have, rather than what you desire.” Wayne Dyer Dyer has a great point in this quote about excuses. The fact that we use them tells us about our thinking. We have lots of excuses for why we don’t do things, try things or achieve things. Just look at how this works. Suppose we allow our thoughts to revolve around problems, worries, and what can go wrong. This thinking leads to two possible outcomes, which are clues to the fact that (….)
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mind,
purpose,
thoughts
One of my recent newsletters struck a responsive chord, judging by the comments I received back, so I wanted to elaborate on it here. The subject was inspired by this quote, from poet E. E. Cummings: “To be nobody-but-myself – in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make me like everybody else – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting.” Now the casual reader might think that this means that it’s you against the world, but that’s really not the meaning at all. The real battle (….)
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mind,
passion,
subconscious