A Cheerful Thought...

"Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles."
~ Helen Keller

An "Aha!" Moment...

I love it when I have those little "Aha!" moments that give me a little clearer insight into a principle that is important to me, my family, or those people that I am serving. I had just such a moment when I was reading Chapter 6 of Wallace Wattle's The Science of Getting Rich.

One of the first principles that Wallace teaches in his book is that God does not want us to be poor, but actually wants us to be abundantly rich. This is evidenced by all his creations. A tiny seed is planted and grows to be a large tree, shedding hundreds of seeds to create hundreds of more trees that will do the same.

People struggle with the concept that all the wealth of the earth is theirs to enjoy. Some struggle because they feel poverty and self-sacrifice is more pleasing to God. These are those who believe that the scriptures teach that "money is the root of all evil." What they actually teach is that "the love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Tim. 6:10) and that "it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom." (Luke 12:32) Others may struggle due to the belief that there is not enough to go around and so some people have to be poor. And so they sit at home at night in front of their T.V. lamenting their lack as they watch those who believe that there is plenty to be had as they accumulate far more than they need through their faith, efforts and persistence.

In the sixth chapter, titled How Riches Come To You, Wallace shares the story of a student that struggled to believe that all wealth was his. He was very poor, living in a rented house and struggling to survive on what he made day to day. He wanted to believe he was meant for more so he decided to follow Wattle's instructions to ask for more than he then had. He didn't feel it was unreasonable to ask for a new carpet for his best room and a small stove to heat the house during cold weather. Following Wallace's instructions, he had both within a few months. It then occurred to him that he had not asked enough. He proceeded to go through his home making a list of all the improvements he would like to make to the home and what furnishings he would like to fill it with. Holding that complete picture in mind, he started to live in the Certain Way and to move towards what he wanted. He ended up owning the home and rebuilt it after the form of his mental image.

The "Aha!" moment in all of this is encapsulated in Jesus Christ's statement to two blind men who sought him for the purpose of restoring their sight: "According to your faith be it unto you." (Matt. 9:29)

The man in Wallace's story had little faith that all wealth was his, but he had enough faith to try for the rug and the stove. When his faith was rewarded it grew to the point that he believed he could create the home that he wanted. And as that was accomplished his faith grew even more and he moved on to get greater things.

What things have you wanted in your life that you never received? Where is your faith in relation to those desires?

If you are not at the weight you desire or don't have the figure you want, where is your faith? Do you have faith that you can have that slim figure? Do you have faith that the exercise is going to pay huge dividends? Do you have faith that when you are slimmer you will be able to enjoy your favorite foods without feeling guilty and still keep your slimmed-down shape? Or do you have more faith that you will never reach that size because the exercise will never work, and why should you put yourself through that torture anyways only to never be able to eat a bar of chocolate again without adding back 20 pounds?

If you don't have the income you desire, where is your faith? Do you have faith that there is more money available to you? Do you have faith that you deserve it? Do you have faith that you can increase your income without becoming a greedy person or without sacrificing your marriage or your relationship with your kids? Or do you have more faith that God never meant for you to be rich, that you will never get paid more than you are right now, or that only workaholics that end up divorced can get the kind of income you want to earn?

If you don't have the relationship you desire, where is your faith? Do you have faith that you are worthy of love? Do you have faith that you will meet the person who is right for you? Do you have faith that the person you meet will find the love you have to offer to be fulfilling and never have any desire for anyone else? Or do you have more faith that nobody will love you completely, that your chances of finding Mr. or Mrs. Right are astronomically not in your favor and, even if you did meet just such a person, they would eventually end up leaving you or cheating on you?

Look to the desires of your heart that haven't been fulfilled and analyze what faith you have, if any, in your achieving that desire. If you have a deep and abiding faith that you will obtain the desires of your heart, I am willing to bet that you are happily working and waiting for your desires to be realized, enduring any challenges or trials that come your way. And those trials will come for all faith must be tried and tested to prove it is strong enough.

If you feel hopeless and despondent when you think of those desires, then consider where you have placed your faith that is not supporting you. Reject those weak beliefs that are holding you back and give yourself hope again! You are worthy, capable, ready and able to receive those desires of your heart! Have faith in that and act on the promptings and inspirations that will open you to receive it!

The order has been placed! Your desire is being shipped direct to you! Have faith that you will receive!

Today...

"Today will never happen again. Don't waste it with a false start or no start at all. You were not born to fail."
~ Og mandino

The Formula for Failure and Success

by Jim Rohn, America's Foremost Business Philosopher


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!

Those who eat too many of the wrong foods are contributing to a future health problem, but the joy of the moment overshadows the consequence of the future. It does not seem to matter. Those who smoke too much or drink too much go on making these poor choices year after year after year... because it doesn't seem to matter. But the pain and regret of these errors in judgment have only been delayed for a future time. Consequences are seldom instant; instead, they accumulate until the inevitable day of reckoning finally arrives and the price must be paid for our poor choices - choices that didn't seem to matter.

Failure's most dangerous attribute is its subtlety. In the short term those little errors don't seem to make any difference. We do not seem to be failing. In fact, sometimes these accumulated errors in judgment occur throughout a period of great joy and prosperity in our lives. Since nothing terrible happens to us, since there are no instant consequences to capture our attention, we simply drift from one day to the next, repeating the errors, thinking the wrong thoughts, listening to the wrong voices and making the wrong choices. The sky did not fall in on us yesterday; therefore the act was probably harmless. Since it seemed to have no measurable consequence, it is probably safe to repeat.

But we must become better educated than that!

If at the end of the day when we made our first error in judgment the sky had fallen in on us, we undoubtedly would have taken immediate steps to ensure that the act would never be repeated again. Like the child who places his hand on a hot burner despite his parents' warnings, we would have had an instantaneous experience accompanying our error in judgment.

Unfortunately, failure does not shout out its warnings as our parents once did. This is why it is imperative to refine our philosophy in order to be able to make better choices. With a powerful, personal philosophy guiding our every step, we become more aware of our errors in judgment and more aware that each error really does matter.

Now here is the great news. Just like the formula for failure, the formula for success is easy to follow: It's a few simple disciplines practiced every day.

Now here is an interesting question worth pondering: How can we change the errors in the formula for failure into the disciplines required in the formula for success? The answer is by making the future an important part of our current philosophy.

Both success and failure involve future consequences, namely the inevitable rewards or unavoidable regrets resulting from past activities. If this is true, why don't more people take time to ponder the future? The answer is simple: They are so caught up in the current moment that it doesn't seem to matter. The problems and the rewards of today are so absorbing to some human beings that they never pause long enough to think about tomorrow.

But what if we did develop a new discipline to take just a few minutes every day to look a little further down the road? We would then be able to foresee the impending consequences of our current conduct. Armed with that valuable information, we would be able to take the necessary action to change our errors into new success-oriented disciplines. In other words, by disciplining ourselves to see the future in advance, we would be able to change our thinking, amend our errors and develop new habits to replace the old.

One of the exciting things about the formula for success - a few simple disciplines practiced every day - is that the results are almost immediate. As we voluntarily change daily errors into daily disciplines, we experience positive results in a very short period of time. When we change our diet, our health improves noticeably in just a few weeks. When we start exercising, we feel a new vitality almost immediately. When we begin reading, we experience a growing awareness and a new level of self-confidence. Whatever new discipline we begin to practice daily will produce exciting results that will drive us to become even better at developing new disciplines.

The real magic of new disciplines is that they will cause us to amend our thinking. If we were to start today to read the books, keep a journal, attend the classes, listen more and observe more, then today would be the first day of a new life leading to a better future. If we were to start today to try harder, and in every way make a conscious and consistent effort to change subtle and deadly errors into constructive and rewarding disciplines, we would never again settle for a life of existence — not once we have tasted the fruits of a life of substance!


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How to Cash It In for Success

I was reading the second chapter of Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich when I came across a profound truth that reminded me of a financial lesson I learned years ago. Before I reveal the truth, let me share with you the lesson of Realized Gains and Losses:

If you were to take $3,000 and invest it in the stock market at a price of $10 per share, you would have 300 shares of stock. As it sometimes does, the stock price drops to $7 per share. Emotional investors start to panic at this point. After all, they bought the stock at $10 because it had already dropped to this low price and they expected it to shoot back up. But now it dropped even lower and they think they just lost $900 in the transaction.

But what have they really lost? They bought 300 shares and, even though the price dropped, they still have 300 shares. It isn't until they sell those shares that they REALIZE a gain or a loss. And those panicky people that are dumping their shares at $7 a share are kicking themselves at the end of the week when the price rockets back up to $15 a share.

What does all this have to do with Think and Grow Rich?

In the second chapter, Hill writes of the power of Desire. He lists a number of people who have passed through difficulties and disappointment before they achieved anything of consequence. At the end of the short paragraph on Helen Keller, Hill writes:

"...no one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality."
Much like the investor in the example above, you have only lost when you accept that reality and decide to cash it in. Nobody ever becomes great or successful without having to experience setbacks, frustrations and adversity. Anybody who tells you otherwise is lying to you. It is only those who continue to believe in their personal value and capability for success that refuse to accept that failure and push on until they reach their success.

What would have happened to Thomas Edison if he had believed the teacher that told him he was too stupid to learn anything and that he should seek a profession where he might succeed by virtue of his pleasant personality?

What would have happened to Oprah Winfrey if she had accepted the judgment that she "had no business anchoring the news in a major market" when she was fired as a TV news anchor?

What would have happened to Walt Disney if he had accepted the assessment that he lacked imagination and had no original ideas" when he was fired by a newspaper editor?

What would have happened to Michael Jordan if he had hung up his basketball shoes when he was cut from his high school team?

What will happen to you if you accept defeat at any stage of your journey? Then nobody will know the real you and the greatness you have to share with the world. Don't let that happen! Do not cash it in until you stand in the winner's circle, triumphant!

Tips for Overcoming Temporary Defeat:

1. Keep your dream firmly fixed in your mind at all times. Create visual reminders like a dream board. Spend a few minutes every morning and every evening visualizing you accomplishing your dream and the benefits that will bring. Really live it!

2. Trust in the value of your dream. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen were rejected by 144 different publishers that didn't believe a book of short stories would sell when they tried to get Chicken Soup for the Soul published. But they persisted because they knew people wanted what was in that book. People were asking them all the time where they could read the stories they shared in their presentations. When someone rejects you and your dream, trust that there are people waiting for you to succeed; if for no other reason than to believe that it is possible for them, too.

3. Treat each setback as a learning opportunity. Napoleon Hill said that "every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit." Find the lesson in each in every failure and learn from it. It is these lessons that teach you how to become successful.

4. Trust in the power of numbers. Athletes are great examples of the fact that those who are persistent enough to endure failure will succeed. The year that Babe Ruth set the major league record of 714 home runs, he also set another record by striking out 1,330 times. You have to be willing to fail and fail again in order to be successful. This is true in sports, business or any other area of life you are seeking success in. The only people who never fail are those who never try to begin with.

5. Believe and reaffirm your capability of success. I love the quote by Michael Jordan where he says: "I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is precisely why I succeed." This quote may seem to be more in line with the last point, but I use it here because it illustrates the confidence he had in his ability to win. Our egos, our self-esteem can be so fragile at times and they can take a major hit with every setback or failure. When this happens, be like Mike and just keep shooting with full confidence that your shots are going in. Because when you start hitting your shots, you achieve a mind-body-spirit connection that makes you unstoppable!

Are You Being Robbed?

"It isn't the burdens of today that drive men mad. It is the regrets of yesterday and the fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves that rob us of today. "
~Robert Hastings

Welcome to Living the Law of Attraction Lesson #11

Author: Jack Canfield

MESSAGE: Abundance is your natural state of being. Anything you wish for can flow effortlessly into your life if you understand, apply and “live into” the Law of Attraction.

We live in a world that seems to emphasize scarcity and lack, and yet the truth is, this is an abundant universe. There is no scarcity, there is no lack. There is more than enough food, money, joy, happiness, spiritual fulfillment, and love for everyone.

If you want to create an abundance of love in your life, then focus on love. Be the love you want to attract. Become more loving and generous with others and with yourself.

By creating the vibration of love, you will automatically draw more love into your life. Focus on whatever it is that you want to create more of in your life, and remember to be grateful for that which you already have.

Gratitude itself is a form of abundance, and the vibrational frequency of gratitude and appreciation will automatically attract even more to be grateful for.

If you want to create financial abundance in your life, then start by focusing on prosperity and money flowing into your life. Envision the checks coming in the mail. Write yourself a check for the sum of money you wish to manifest this year, and post it in a visible location.

Every time you see it, believe that it is possible. Make a donation to your favorite charity, and know that you can afford it. You must be willing to give in order to receive. Imagine just how amazing it will feel to have complete financial freedom.

Envision the various things you will do, the places you will go, and how it will change your life. Really let yourself feel it as though it were already so. Now, think of how you will use your financial prosperity to contribute and give back within your community.

Imagine how good it will feel to help others and to really make a difference in their lives. Remember to take a moment to be thankful for everything that you already have. By doing this, you are creating a vibrational match for the financial abundance that you want to attract into your future life.

The entire universe will support you abundantly in every way when you are moving with this kind of purpose and intention in the direction of your dreams. It will respond to the vibration of your passion and commitment.

So, start paying attention to the many synchronicities in your life and become aware of all the opportunities, ideas, people, and resources that you are attracting. Be open to them, and be willing to think outside the box. New opportunities will often present themselves in surprising ways. Do what you love to do, be passionate about it, and believe in yourself.

If you are willing to invest yourself wholeheartedly in your dreams, then all the necessary resources, including the money, will follow.

ACTION: Ask yourself how you can have more ABUNDANCE with your health. Can you take the stairs instead of an elevator when the opportunity presents itself? Can you drink a few more glasses of water, or perhaps take on a yoga practice?

BENEFIT: When you think and act more ABUNDANTLY about your physical health, you’ll find that other parts of your life automatically improve for the better. You’ll think more clearly, have more energy and do everything you normally do with a little more intensity.

About the Author:

This year, after two years of research and work, Jack Canfield released a phenomenal new product to the world – it’s called the Dream Big System. A longtime success and self-esteem coach for people around the world, Jack Canfield is also renowned for his role as Co-Founder of Chicken Soup for the Soul (the most successful publishing empire in history) and Master Teacher in the blockbuster movie, The Secret.http://www.thekeytobetterlife.com

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Welcome to Living the Law of Attraction Lesson #11