It's the last day of January. The New Year is getting older by the minute and you may find yourself wondering where has the time gone. Perhaps you started the year off eager to tackle some major challenges, or create some new avenues of creativity and even professional success. Yet, now as a whole month has sped quickly past, you find your faith in reaching those goals is dwindling. If so, I urge you to reconsider your position and realize that anything worth having in one's life is worth reaching for. You may not have succeeded yet but if you BELIEVE in yourself you will soon succeed. Choose to participate in the process of achieving your goals, take action and most importantly - no matter the circumstances - keep the faith. Remember, as James Allen stated in As A Man Thinketh, "When he realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow; he then becomes the rightful master of himself."Many of the greatest teachers of our time have shared similar messages of harnessing our own power. Encouraging us to BELIEVE that we are each endowed with the ability to do great works. This is the premise behind The Power Plan - to actively participate in creating great works every day of our lives. Those who get the best results understand they need to believe to succeed.
If by some chance you've never seen The Wizard of Oz, you may not know the story of the cowardly lion. The lion known to most as the king of the jungle is anything but in this wonderful classic tale of self-discovery. This lion is lost in a prison of his own fears and limitations. Fears that cause him to lash out at the world rather than rule it but soon finds hope in the promise of a magical wizard.
It is only when he finds himself engaged in a journey to success that he discovers his inner strength and the courage to stand up for himself (and his traveling companions). The cowardly lion learns that he must stand tall in the face of adversity if he is to stay on the path to see the wizard. Even though his knees are shaking he defends his right to be successful and in doing so finds his faith and courage renewed.
We could all learn from this icon of courage to overcome our fears and strike out in the direction of our dreams. First, we must believe in our desires more than our fears, next we must take one step after the other in the direction of our dreams, and finally we must accept that everything we need has been deep within us all along. The way is not made easier for those who fall prey to fear but those who feel the fear and face the challenge anyway. With every small victory our confidence continues to grow until the drive to succeed becomes unstoppable.
Have you been running yourself ragged lately? With tax time passed and the year speeding along you may feel like you need a bit of balance back in your life. If so, you are not alone. People who push themselves to get a never ending list of to do's done without a single hour left for doing "nothing" often find themselves in debt and out of balance.
The power behind one's financial success or struggle can be glimpsed in the management of our priorities on a daily basis. If we feel as if we are starting off the day, behind the eight ball, and running on empty from the prior day's hustle, then it is unlikely we'll feel like we have anything left to give - let alone anything left to save.
While it may not be easy the simple answer is that the only way to stop the merry-go-round of scrimp and spend is just to STOP. Stop saying yes, when you should say no, stop spending to feel like you can -instead of planning to spend what you want when you can, stop ignoring the 10% savings rule - instead remind yourself regularly 10% of ALL YOU EARN IS YOURS TO KEEP!
A key that is revealed in the great book, The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Claton. In one pivotal chapter the reader is reminded to create a plan for getting out of debt and stick to it. I like to help my clients take a new view of financial success and put themselves in the driver seat - I have them STOP, reevaluate their needs, prioritize their goals, plan their budget and save for their future.
What if, just for a change, you BELIEVED you could change? What if you chose to buck the failure statistics of New Year's Resolutions. How would your life be different? Consider this as January comes to a close and the New Year morphs into This Year.
You can be open to possibilities, if you choose to be open. It is not the possibilities that are lacking but our willingness to accept that things we desire are truly possible. A wise man once said, if you can dream it you can achieve it. As a creator of THE Magical Kingdom, Walt Disney, knows a thing or two about believing, dreaming and possibilities. I believe that as long as we are breathing anything is possible. Those burning desires that can keep us up at night or send us into a daydream in the middle of a board room meeting are the tale tale signs of our natural inclination to grow. A Human beings natural drive to have, be or do more with our lives.
Luckily, I am in the midst of making my own dreams a reality. This time has been both exhilarating and challenging but I know that it is truly for the best. I am excited to be able to help others find and embrace their own paths. It has always been important for me to help people feel comfortable and happy in their own skin. To me, there can be no greater gift to the world than to be your personal best - no matter what that looks like. The trick then is discovering, after years of turning your dreamer off, how to stay open to new possibilities.
What if wishing did indeed make it so? Many of us are conditioned that only hard work will prevail; suffering, sacrifice and dutiful service are the only worthy ways to build a successful life. However, I've found in my own work that the same people who choose that philosophy are the ones who harbor resentment, fear and even anger at the people who's philosophy embraces the idea that life is meant to be lush, happy, and abundant. It is this very resentment that produces seemingly karmic results of continued struggle and tragedy.
I've listened recently as small groups of people have discussed the wanton ways of the idle rich, building mansions, owning multiple houses, traveling just for traveling's sake - all for their own gratification. Each persons comments dripping with a bitter disdain. I wondered if they could ever entertain the idea that life really doesn't have to be a struggle and that racing headlong into your grave may actually leave them feeling like a failure in the end.
Then there are the lucky ones, who when introduced to a new view of life as abundant, joyous, and even rewarding, grab hold of it like the brass ring and let it carry them to a new plateau.
For myself, the choice is clear, wishing for the best will always serve me better than worrying about the worst. So, today I wish you all the best.
This is a great question to ask yourself when you find things aren't going your way. Take a look around your life and if you stand back with an objective eye I'm willing to bet that you'll find everything you have is something YOU created in your own mind. Whether it something negative or positive the original point of its creation was the constant, focused, image and thought you held as a belief.
The great news is - once you realize that you created the negative situations - YOU can change them. In my work I've found that one of the most common tools for creating negative situations is FEAR, or worry, or concern or whatever name you'd like to use. When a person becomes focused on the fear of something they play a movie of it's outcome over and over again in their own heads. Since thoughts are like magnets to the universe the more you worry the stronger the magnetic pull your thoughts have. So, if you spend all of your energy creating the things you are worrying about why not choose to change your mind and your life?
When you feel yourself falling into a habitual worry (oh, no I'm going to be late...) simple pause and ask yourself, "where's my head?" and then use this break in the thought train to switch the tracks to something positive. A quick change from the worry about being late is simply telling yourself you are going to be there just in time. Once you focus on this thought you'll be happy to see little "coincidences" adding up to bring the newly desired outcome to pass.
Having used this one myself a few times, I can attest to the fact that I've rushed to the appointment only to find the person I was meeting with needed to reschedule, or perhaps they too were running behind and I ended up beating them to the meeting, even better somehow things (traffic, buses, green lights) seemed to smooth out and I literally arrived on time or even a few minutes early.
So, when worrisome thoughts are tangling with your success just take a deep breath and ask yourself, "Where's your head?".
How do you eat an elephant? As the saying goes… one bite at a time. Often when we are facing a big issue or project it can seem overwhelming. The trick then is to break it down into little pieces and take a bite (or an action) at a time. To be victorious one must face the challenge - but even the greatest leader knows that a clear plan of attack will help to ensure victory. One step, even the smallest step, creates a universal shift. Take a deep breath, start where you are, with what you have and begin. A successful ending will come - one bite at a time!
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