Self Improvement Information

Everyday life is often busy–overwhelming with pressures and demands. Daily chores and deadlines can leave little time for finding the motivation and inspiration you need to get through the day and make each moment of it a pleasant one. After time, this lifestyle takes a toll–sapping your drive, focus and even the capacity to set meaningful goals.

Inspiration is a vital force that helps people regain control over an overwhelming life. It can eliminate those apathetic and dreaded cycles. It helps you tune in to your values, find purpose and achieve goals — when you’re inspired everything seems to meld together.

Inspiration not only rejuvenates your focus and restores your emotional well being, it’s a passionate ingredient that’s vital to motivation and the next epiphany. Sure, unsought epiphanies do occur, but they’re rare. Those fantastic ah-ha moments most often arise from inspiration - the things that inspire you most are born of the internal longing to live aligned with your fundamental values.

While the whole inspiration process may sound easy, it often requires real planning. Often, inspiration is gained when people devote their energies to seeking it out — through the beauty of nature, the insights of friends and even the ingenuity of free thought and values exploration.

So how do you discover this inspiration? How do you harness it to change your life and achieve success? According to LifeManual, a values-based, self-help program that provides “a blueprint to an extraordinary life,” inspiration is the real driving force of meaning and success. It makes things happen, gets things done, and is a guide for setting and accomplishing meaningful goals in alignment with your values. LifeManual offers these suggestions for discovering inspiration:

Find your Place: It is important to have a special place to think, reflect and feel inspired. Seek it out. Spend some time there. Make it a routine part of life.

Learn Constantly in Life: Creativity and brain activity fuel inspiring experiences. Keep yourself active and stimulated using books, puzzles, games, music and other mind-challenging activities. No matter the age, a limber mind challenged by new exploration is a great way to get inspired.

Spend Time with Inspiring People: As the saying goes, “To the world you may be just somebody, but to somebody you may just be the world.” You, and everyone around you, provide inspiration. Children, for example, have a surprising effect on people. Just by interacting with them on their level, or even watching them play can revive your own childhood dreams – dreams that have ‘gone on vacation.’ Consider others who might inspire you, and seek them out.

Keep an Idea Book: Immediately write down all those little inspirational thoughts that pop into the head when you least expect them. Interestingly enough, these ideas tend to happen during the most everyday, mundane tasks: while washing dishes, taking a shower, while driving, mowing grass or fixing the vacuum. But just as quickly as those thoughts come into your head they disappear. Grab them while you can and then review your book whenever you need inspiration.

Switch Gears: Recognize when you need a change of pace or different environment. Take a long walk on the beach or through a park. Use the opportunity for free thought and reflection … you may find inspiration is just around the corner.

Once you discover inspiration, you’ll also discover ways to use it. For artist Sean Landers, it’s the jumping off point for new adventures. “Over the years I have learned to put myself in a position where accidents can happen and where I can take advantage of small mysteries. This is a strange process of discovery. I know my initial idea is merely a point of departure, never the end.”

But you can’t wait for “lightning to hit you with a bolt of inspiration,” says LifeManual author Peter H. Thomas. “Some of the world’s most inspired and successful people find ways to inspire themselves.”

So, if you need a bit of inspiration to find your own, then you’re in good company. Great men and women throughout history have all had their personal rituals.

To get in the musical mode, Beethoven dumped ice water on his head.

Rudyard Kipling apparently wrote only with a certain type of ink.

Charles Dickens slept with his bed pointing north; he believed the Earth’s magnetic field stimulated him.

The famous poet Maya Angelou might suggest simply opening your eyes: “Life offers us tickets to places which we have not knowingly asked for.”

Finding your inspiration could be as simple as opening your eyes, but it might take extraordinary steps to do so. Whether your inspiration is waiting for a walk, a creative challenge or a day away from work, it’s waiting in the wings. And once you discover inspiration you’ll be sure to discover ways to hone your personal inspiration trigger.

What are you waiting for?

Additional Resource

Additional information, tips and strategies for values-based motivation and career planning are available in a lifemanual.com/index.php?page=read_one free online download at lifemanual.com/ LifeManual.com

Don’t worry.

How many times have we heard that ludicrous and totally unhelpful statement? Clearly if we were able to not worry, then that’s exactly what we’d be doing – isn’t it? After all, worry is no fun, no fun at all, and we’d all much rather be having fun than worrying – wouldn’t we?

I would like to introduce to you something that psychologists call a schema. Another word for a schema is a strategy – something that achieves something we want to achieve. Or more accurately something we believe achieves what we want to achieve and frequently mislead ourselves into continuing to believe despite evidence to the contrary – like not achieving what the strategy is supposed to achieve.

Let’s go way back to childhood, where the first schemas develop. Schemas develop by virtue of intelligence and noticing what works. Babies cry. How long does it take a baby to develop a crying schema. I’m hungry, I cry, someone puts food in my mouth. Only at the developmental level of a baby it’s more like uncomfortable feeling that isn’t understood, cry when uncomfortable. And babies aren’t aware of separate people being separate individuals. The whole world is just an extension of the baby. It’s the parents that quickly train the child into those connections with the thing the parent does and that is to make the baby comfortable by noticing whether or not the problem is hunger, pain, soiling, or just wanting to be held. And so the battle starts of the baby learning strategies to get what it wants when it wants and the parent who attempts to socialise the child into eating at regular times, going to the toilet at regular times, sleeping at regular times and getting cuddles at regular times. Sometimes the child wins, sometimes the parent.

So we learn very quickly the schema that crying makes us more comfortable. When was the last time you cried when you wanted something to eat? So it seems reasonable to assume that sometime between babyhood and now you either learned a new eating strategy or modified the old one. And you probably did this because Parent decided that it wasn’t in your best interests to grow up believing that the world would satisfy every one of your needs instantly. And they did this in your best interests because to allow you to grow up with that belief would turn you into a spoiled, selfish, self-centred child with no empathy for others.

We developed other strategies by watching what other people did and emulating it.

There’s something else quite different about young children and adults. Young children are very healthily present-moment oriented – this is why instant gratification makes sense to a child. They aren’t unduly concerned about tomorrow or next week, because what’s going on now is okay and the world is full of interesting things to explore and learn about and develop strategies to deal with. A child’s mind has enough going on right now to keep it fully occupied and entertained.

Until we adults decide to screw that up for them.

Santa will bring you that for Christmas if you’re good!

What a wonderful way to teach a child to worry.

In that simple sentence we teach the child that the future is important. We teach the child that they need to be concerned about whether or not some unknown, hairy old man (a bit like a God is to adults) will approve of them enough to bring them their heart’s desire. We teach them that they have to please someone that they don’t know and will never meet (except perhaps at a Grotto, but then we introduce the confusion of different Santas at different grottos) and have no way of knowing what pleases this person and what doesn’t except that displeasing Mum and/or Dad usually brings the suggestion that Santa won’t be pleased either.

Birthdays are another way we teach children to focus on the future rather than the present. When you go to school. When you go to big school. When you go to college. When you go to University. When you get a job. When you grow up. When you earn lots of money you’ll be able to… When you have babies. When we go on holiday. And maybe even – when you die?

We expose our youngsters to a barrage of future oriented thoughts and suggestions that slowly but surely switch the focus from Now to Then. But we never ever tell them that Now is the only time they will ever experience and that Then is always imagined.

And this is how we learn to worry. We become so focused on what might or might not happen; we become so focused on whether we please or displease others; we become so focused on outcomes… that we forget to experience who and what we are. We forget to experience and enjoy right now.

Now I have to admit that some people excel at worrying. And some people don’t. But most of us seem to have the capacity to do it. It’s just that we don’t all worry about the same things. Some people worry about getting in an aeroplane and others worry about money and whether or not they can pay the bills. Some people worry about going to the dentist and others worry about whether or not to get new curtains.

What you worry about doesn’t matter and while it seems that if you had to choose a worry then where to go on holiday probably would win hands down over waiting for a cancer diagnosis – but if you are worried then you are worried and for you, in your world, with your life circumstances it’s a serious problem because it’s hanging around in your mind and stopping you from enjoying your life and being free and expressive in the way that young child was that we were thinking about earlier.

Having experienced lifelong training in the art of worrying, and having perfected worrying schemas that suggest a worrying strategy is somehow dealing with a problem in a way that is much better than not dealing with it at all, it is insane to suggest to someone that they should stop worrying. Worry is like a virus. Once you’ve got it you get attacks of it all your life. It drops into dormancy for long, or not so long, periods of time, always ready to re-emerge at the slightest sign of Life not moving in just the perfect way you would like it to.

The easiest solution to worrying is just not to do it.

But to someone who has a deeply rooted worrying schema, this seems like an impossibility because the schema itself suggests that terrible will things will happen if you don’t worry. And you know this because if you ever find a moment when the worry isn’t present you soon start to worry about not worrying, because serious things are going on around you and you SHOULD be worrying (while at the same time feeling envious of those who seem immune from worry).

If you’d like to break the habit, then you have to take the risk of not worrying for just five minutes and see what happens. If nothing bad happens and the problem is still there, and you are still there, then you may well survive not worrying for five minutes some other time. And so you teach yourself a new strategy. You see, if you decide not to worry for just five minutes, the schema doesn’t feel too threatened because It’s all about the future and It knows that five minutes is only a short time and that after five minutes It gets control back.

For a specific concern you are worried about right now, get a pen and a piece of paper and write down in big letters at the top of the page
“I am worried about…”
or,
“I am worried… …might happen”.

Then underneath write down all the consequences you fear.

Let’s take an example “Fear of Flying”.

I am worried about going on holiday because I have to fly.

The plane might crash
I might die
I might panic
I might panic and look foolish
I might feel embarrassed
I might faint
I might fight with the Flight Attendant to get out when she’s closing the door.
I might throw up
I might be too frightened to come home and be stuck
The tyres might explode
The wing might fall off
The engine might catch fire
We might get hijacked

Then on another sheet of paper rewrite the whole lot only this time put them in order of importance with the biggest fear at the top of the list and smallest fear at the bottom. And then on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is total uncontrollable screaming panicking fear, and 1 is feeling calm and peaceful, give a score to each of the items.

Then have a look for a theme.

With Flying Phobia common themes are fear of death, claustrophobia, fear of embarrassment, inability to have any impact on your own destiny for the time you are locked in the cabin, or fear of being different.

The theme is the real problem. That’s what you need to explore either on your own, using self-help books or tapes, or with a therapist whose approach you feel comfortable with.

One other thing… If you are an habitual worrier, then you might consider what you would be doing with your mind should you have nothing to worry about. Consider learning meditation, self-hypnosis, or a new skill or hobby to occupy, or train, your mind so that you are the one in the driving seat and no longer a passenger being dragged along to all the Hells that your thoughts can create for you.

Michael J. Hadfield MBSCH is a registered clinical hypnotherapist. You can experience his unique style on a popular range of hypnosis CD’s and tapes at hypnosisiseasy.com hypnosisiseasy.com Here you can also obtain treatment for a variety of problems and explore his approach to health, healing, and hypnosis.

Drugs and alcohol—two highly dangerous substances—have hundreds of people under their grip, as their slaves. What starts as a mere relief given by drugs or alcohol is soon turned into habit and with time, into addiction. To free individuals from their clutches and help them to lead normal, problem-free lives, drug and alcohol Treatment centers exist.

Some centers which are dedicated in their efforts to bring a change in the drug-addicted lives of people include the following: Able to Change Recovery, Brookside Institute, The Bridge to Recovery, Burning Tree Ranch, Choices, Recovery Center, CMR Recovery Residence, Newport Coast Recovery, Connor Ranch, Sober Living By The Sea Treatment Centers, Drug and Alcohol Rehab Services, Promises Treatment Center, Comeback Treatment Centers, Hazelden, Spencer Recovery Centers, Narconon Southern California, Mount Regis Center, and Support Systems Homes.

Proclaiming its success, Narconon Southern California offers to readmit its students free if any problems arise within six months of the treatment completion. Having a variety of treatment procedures like ‘inpatient treatment’, ‘detox treatment’, ‘intervention treatment’ and much more, it helps to drive away the addictions.

Support Systems Homes has centers of treatment spread all over California and other parts, and involves a ‘social-therapeutic treatment’ which includes educating and counseling the patients enabling them to successfully integrate into the ‘recover society’. Inpatient treatment programs, detox programs, and others are all used by the aforementioned center.

Hazelden has separate programs suited for adults, adolescents, and others. The center guides individuals slowly towards progress following its programs. The center is equipped to suit different age groups. Before treatment, an accurate assessment of the addiction is tested and diagnosed. Only then, proper medication is prescribed.

Offering programs like rapid detox, intervention, and others, Spencer Recovery Centers also helps. Recommended by personalities like Bart Allen and Sharon Osbourne, Comeback Treatment Centers follow a 28-day rehabilitation program and ‘fast-track’ drug addiction treatment which includes ‘family care’, ‘peer level groups’, and other treatment procedures to get rid of the addiction.

Depending upon the intensity of addiction, usually rehabilitation centers use a number of treatment procedures such as intervention, detox, sober living, extended care, residential treatment, inpatient treatment, outpatient treatment, and much more. Programs can also be divided into several types depending upon the individual such as woman, man, teenagers, young adults, and many more.

e-AlcoholTreatmentCenters.com Alcohol Treatment Centers provides detailed information on Alcohol Treatment Centers, Drug and Alcohol Treatment Centers, Inpatient Alcohol Treatment Centers, History Of Alcohol Treatment Centers and more. Alcohol Treatment Centers is affiliated with e-AlcoholTreatment.com Alcohol Treatment Centers.

If a Think Tank is going to provide solutions then it must draw from many sources of information. A Think Tank must consider all the experiences, education and observations of its members and it must scour the Internet, Libraries, Conventions, White Papers and read books, both recent and old. Why you ask? Well, it is simple really, you have to look for clues wherever you can and you must take all those clues and cross-pollinate into other fields of study, industries or areas of thought.

Let me give you a for instance. This last week the Online Think Tank divided up a number of books on all sorts of subjects and pitted each chapter and piece of information from those books, most of which were ten years or more old, against the current paradigm, direction and trends of today. Interestingly enough, things have drastically changed in many ways however you might be surprised to learn how similar things are and how frequently history actually repeats. Listed below are some of the books we reviewed and a few thoughts on each one of them:

A. “The corporate Warriors - Six Classic Cases in American Business” by Douglas K. Ramsey. There were many quotes in this book and one which stood out was; “War is simple: its success lies in its accomplishments,” — Napoleon Bonaparte and another quote; “war is capitalism with the gloves off.” In the book was Ted Turner VS the networks, Pepsi VS Coke, deregulation of the airlines, General Motors VS Japanese in the damning years, MCI VS AT&T. However, it could have been any time period; the book could have easily been about Microsoft VS Google by simply changing the name of the businesses involved - it would be hard to tell the difference. Some other quotes that were quoted;

“In guerrilla warfare, small units acting independently, played a principal role.” Mao Z dong.

“The gorilla in advance his own tactics for each movement of the battle in constantly surprises his enemy.” Che Guevara

“It is essential to understand the flow of the opponent’s personality, to find out his strengths and weaknesses.” My young Miyamoto Musashi

“Offense is defense, don’t kid yourself.” from Me.

B. “His Excellency — George Washington.” By Joseph Ellis. Contrary to popular belief, George Washington made a number of mistakes and probably was not the best general for the job and he lost many battles and many men. Benedict Arnold went down in history as a traitor and probably would have led the Patriots to a more swift victory, had he not become disgusted and switched sides. Often, our presidents are misjudged by history, and it seems that the victors of battles generally write their own history. Today we see the media reshaping our current history, and yet in the future. We may see the current conflicts much differently and rewarded in the history books, our current president for his great timeliness in taking action in the Middle East.

C. “Vegetables and Fruit” by James Crockett, 1972. It is amazing the amount of knowledge, that is stored in older books on how to do things. It is amazing that no one takes this advice seriously and yet currently, everyone is talking about organic foods and trying to shop and buy them. There is lots of talk about roof-top gardens, as if this is something new. In reading this book and the various chapters such as; Joys of Growing Your Own Garden, Planning and Planting, How to Raise Fruits, Nuts and Berries, and Practical and Pleasing Herbs; it appears to be quite evident that everything you need to know about eating right is most likely available in a book that you can buy at a garage sale or Thrift store for about $.50, thus, I wish to ask a question; how can anyone say that no one can afford to the right or that those who are poor, lack the information necessary to protect their health and eat healthy?

D. “Reengineering the Corporation — A Manifesto for Business Revolution.” By James Champy, and Michael Hammer. 1993. As we watch such corporations as Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Delphi Corp. tried to reinvent themselves, we should consider it that they are doing nothing that is new and they should’ve learned from past mistakes during the damning years. What does reengineering mean? Does it mean starting over, fixing things with duct tape and baling wire, getting rid of the bureaucracy and inefficiencies? Does it mean starting a steering committee to see what to do or hiring a Machiavellian dictator or Czar of reengineering? Why is it that every corporation knows what to do, yet continually gets into these problems?

E. “Bankruptcy 1995 — The Coming Collapse of America and How to Stop It.” By Harry E. Figgie Jr. and Gerald J. Swanson Ph.D. written in 1993. Apparently, the United States of America did not have an economic collapse in 1995 and apparently, our government woke up and stop spending money, and eventually pay off the debt and enjoy a surplus. There are too many doom and gloom anti-capitalists predicting the downfall of America or the collapse of our monetary system, it simply is not so. In fact, although the stock market is readjusting, and housing is down quite a bit, we only need to look at the equity markets to see all the trillions of dollars waiting to be invested; in fact, in 1993. The Grace Commission Projections, The FED, the OMB and the Secretary of Treasury were all off on their projections, nevertheless, the problem was solved.

F. “Best Practices for Transforming Your Organization.” By Price Waterhouse, change integration team 1995. It is interesting to watch stock prices tumble when companies make big mistakes, and yet it is no secret, what Wall Street is looking for. When a mistake is made, then change needs to occur and corporations need to keep up with the changes in the market and the economy. Fluidity of motion is important in corporate America, just as it is on the battlefield, those who forget these truths will be doomed to repeat them.

G. “Marketing Myths That Are Killing Your Business — That Cure for Death Wish Marketing.” By Kevin J. Clancy and Robert S. Schulman, 1994. This book is about business performance, market share, partnerships, and in just reading the table of contents; it is in education. Then there is a place at the beginning to test your own working IQ in marketing, you might be surprised. Why do companies and small businesses keep making the same mistakes?

There are certain things you do in marketing and certain things you do not do and it is amazing to watch our government agencies make public relation mistakes, and some of our largest corporations do some of the dumbest things or launch the most insidious marketing campaigns. It’s not like this information is a secret, it is written in all the books, and it is quite available to anyone with half a notion to surf the Internet or buys a marketing book at a used book store.

H. “Maestro — Greenspan’s FED and the American Boom.” By Bob Woodward, this book takes us from 1972 to 2004 during Greenspan’s reign at the Federal Reserve. Alan Greenspan was successful, due in part to his philosophy and his strength of character to do what he knew was right regardless of those who criticize and wanted things to be easy.

Today we see many complaining that Mr. Berneke needs to lower interest rates to save the stock market and that is ridiculous, because the stock market has turned into a gambling casino, and it is time for it to realign itself with the reality of our current market. It is amazing how similar situations were handled long ago, and how they are still handled today, despite the whining snivels from Wall Street. It is not the Federal Reserve’s job to make sure that everyone on Wall Street makes tons of money, nor is it in the best interest of the United States economy to prop up a stock market, which needs to right itself. We live in the greatest nation ever created in the history of mankind, and we ought to protect our economic resources with sound decisions, not on the whims of the stock market.

I. “Science on Trial — The Whistleblower, the Accused, the Noble Laureate” by Judy Sarasoni 1993. This book written over a decade ago and shows that science and cheating in research has been going on a long time, this was a different story than the current story in the news of the problems with science and the cover-up in the cloning discovery in North Korea. Obviously, we should not be surprised; this is nothing new.

J. “Net Trends — The Saturn Cyber Trends That Will Drive Your Business, Create New Wealth, and Design Your Future” by Chuck Martin 1999, who was also the author of “the Digital Estate - Electronic El Niño” this book talked about, brick-and-mortar stores, online brochures, the future of content, e-mail marketing, intranet systems, enterprise software, e-business wired workforces, customer data and E-learning. It dealt heavy into intranets, which united the customers, the vendors and the employees with instant feedback. It also explained the problems that we now face with identity data and the sharing of e-mail lists. Perhaps we should have listened to Chuck Martin in 1999, as now we are spending millions of dollars at the Federal Trade Commission trying to figure out how to stop identity theft and we have all sorts of rules now to enforce the protection of the data. This issue might have been able to be headed off at the past long-ago, too late now, as now we are all desperate for a solution and it will not be convenient or inexpensive at this late stage.

K. “The Course of Mexican History.” By Michael C. Myers and William Sherman; Oxford press, 1987. One interesting thing about old history books is that they often present the information slightly different, this is because every decade or so we change the perception of history in order to make us all feel good. The tortilla wars and riots in Mexico City, should not be so unexpected, neither should the riots that followed the last presidential campaign in Mexico. Likewise, we should not be too surprised to find 5 million people living in slums outside Mexico City or the officials and the Catholic Church telling people to come to America to work and sent back money. It seems the border problem with Mexico and the number of illegal aliens entering the United States of America has been a problem since well before the Jordan Commission and in 1987, the problems were nearly identical. Without knowing the true and correct history of Mexico, our nearest neighbor to the south, it is hard to put together a reasonable and rational plan to fulfill our mutual interests.

L. “Only the Paranoid Survive - How to Exploit Crisis Points that Challenge Every Company and Career” by Andy Grove 1996. The most interesting concept in this book has to be the concept of; Strategic Inflection Points, which discusses product life cycle curves and how to ride it to the top and then as you are going prepare another start to continue to ride up the chart without going down the other side. Why is this relevant? Well, consider the United States of America and the 200-year civilization curve. Think about how we are starting to drown in political correctness and might end up like the Roman Empire if we continue on this tract.

At the Online Think Tank, we read many of the latest new books, lots of history books, books that describe events and concepts of decades the prior and Sci Fi and in all that we can get a much better understanding and better predict the future, see problems approaching and prevent crisis. Name another Think Tank that does that and I will show you a Think Tank that is on the ball - Consider it.

L. Winslow is an Economic Advisor to the Online Think Tank, a Futurist and retired entrepreneur worldthinktank.net worldthinktank.net Currently he is planning a bicycle ride across the US to raise money for charity and is sponsored by Calling-Plans.com Calling-Plans.com and all the proceeds will go to various charities who sign up.

It’s perfectly natural for people to come in and out of our lives. Everyone you come into contact with makes an appearance on the stage of your life; depending on the purpose of the visit, it may be very brief like the barber, Mrs. Jordan, the bully or it may be a lifelong relationship (if you’re interested, grab yourself a cup of coffee, a glass of wine or whatever it is you drink for enjoyment and go see my stories about the barber, Mrs. Jordan and the bully).

Whether they are there briefly or for several years, I’ve learned a thing or two along the way:

1. Listen with your eyes (stay focused on the person talking to you - don’t let them wander - if you have A.D.D., force yourself to stay focused and don’t interrupt!)

2. Help them get what they want without any expectation of return (Zig Ziglar says if you help just enough people get what they want, you will get what you want - but you have to help them FIRST).

3. Give them sincere recognition and thanks by sending unexpected thank you notes, taking them out for dinner or stopping by their place of business/home and saying “hello.”

4. Mean what you say - let your spoken words be worth its weight in gold. If you say you will do something, then do it. Action speaks louder than words - demonstrate integrity. People should understand that they don’t need a contract to do business with you…a firm handshake should suffice (unfortunately, this isn’t much of an option in today’s litigious society. But you can certainly try and build your reputation on that).

5. Recognize that each character in the play of your life is there to teach or show you something. You could be shown the light at the end of the tunnel or courage you never knew you had. You could be given the opportunity to go in a different direction with your life that you hadn’t thought of before. You get the idea….

Food for thought: Have you helped anyone this week? Recognized them for their talents? Did what you said you would do? Do you see each new person in your life as someone who has a potentially life changing message for you?

Profoundly deaf since birth, Stephen Hopson is a former award-winning stockbroker turned motivational speaker, author and pilot. He works with organizations that are ready to explore and overcome adversity because no one is immune from it - adversity does not discriminate. His professional speaking services, Obstacle Illusions, include fun and passionate presentations, especially the story of how his fifth grade teacher forever changed his young life with THAT’S RIGHT STEPHEN! You can view his website at sjhopson.com sjhopson.com Stephen also maintains a blog called “Adversity University” at adversityuniversity.blogspot.com/ adversityuniversity.blogspot.com/

Overcoming Obstacles to Success

It is your duty to be rich.

It is a sin to be poor.

George Bernard Shaw said these words in the early 1900’s

Money is the reward that we get for the service that we provide to our fellow man. If we are not receiving adequate money in our lives, then that must mean that we are not providing adequate service.

Our lives are shaped by our beliefs. How many of you believe that the Spirit of Christ lives inside of you? How does this belief effect the way you view the world?

How many of you believe that God wants you to prosper?

Let’s look at some of the beliefs about money that may be holding you back from the success you desire.

“I’m not worthy of success”

“I’m not good enough to be successful”

“I have tried and failed”

“Money comes from hard work and I don’t want to work that hard”

“All rich pole are crooks”

“There is no honest way to earn $1,000,000″

“I am afraid that my life will change for the worse if I had more money”

And my all time favorite excuse for not being rich:

“Poor people are moor spiritual”

I recently heard a speaker call these people poverts. They take pride in spreading poverty.

But I will ask you this who has more resources to be spiritual rich or poor? Poor people are way too concerned with money to think about spiritual matters.

The only way we can be successful is if we believe we can be successful. Just like I taught in my health class, we must believe that we are healthy to have good health. We must believe that we are prosperous to have prosperity.

Let us now look at how we can change these beliefs:

“I can be a success”

“I am making progress toward my goals”

“God desires me to be successful”

Philippians 4:13

13 I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.

Are there any limits on this promise?

Lets be careful not to take this promise out of context as many like to say who doubt the promises of God. Paul here is talking about opportunities for service. And as we have already established money is what we get in return for service. I invite you to read this whole chapter when you get home and see if you can find any limits God places on his promise.

“I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.”

What does he say we can do? Everything.

My friend used to have a poster on her office wall that said: “Doubt your limits.”

The belief that we can do “everything” is a core belief in being successful.

Now lets look at 1 John 5:14-15

1 John 5:14-15

14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

If you don’t truly believe that you will attain your goal, then it does not matter how hard you work, how persistent you are, or how committed you are. You will fail because you believe you will fail. Your beliefs shape your reality.

Remember the words of Yoda when he was teaching Luke Skywalker how to use the force, Do or do not, there is no try.

If you want to know what your true beliefs are, just take a look around you. What you see is a mirror of your beliefs.

If you believe in beauty, then you will find beauty everywhere you look. If you believe that beauty is rare, you will see ugliness everywhere you look.

If you believe that the earth is a peaceful place, then you will see peace and tranquility all around you. If you believe that the earth is a dangerous place, then you will see terrorists and violence everywhere you look.

Now focus your thoughts on your money situation. Do you see abundance or do you see lack? Do you see prosperity or poverty? Which ever it is you will get more of what you see.

No you may argue that you are in fact a realist and that you only see what is there. You think you see the truth.

But I say to you that all observations are filtered by you beliefs. I saw this demonstrated in my college physics class where we could set up experiments that prove that lights is either a wave or a particle depending on what our theory was at the beginning of the experiment. In other words our beliefs effected the scientific truth.

But I also have very good news for you. We get to choose what we believe.

I choose to believe that God wants me to prosper. I choose to believe that God has already provided the abundant resources that will enable me to meet my goals. I choose to believe that God will support me in manifesting my desires.

1 Thessalonians 5:24

24 The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

Remember the to do list tool I showed you a few weeks ago?

Take a big sheet of paper and divide it into two columns. At the top of one column write My to do list. On the other column, write God’s to do list. In your column, write he things that you enjoy doing and that you are good at. Put all the rest in God’s column. Add verse 24. He will do it!

Just let God handle his part. Don’t start micromanaging him. Let him handle it his way.

2 Corinthians 9:8

8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

Here is how to create your own reality:

Start by writing down your goals. Less than 3% of the worlds population have written goals. 100% of successful people have clear goals that they focus on daily. Get clear on what you want by writing down your goals and reviewing them daily.

I writ mine down every day. I use a process called scripting. I have a magic notebook where I write down the things I expect to have happen each day.

I write them as if they are happening in the present moment. Like I am having a happy and healthy day. My dog is happy and healthy. I am making at least two new ales today.

I also try to add at least one goal that is a bit of a stretch. Like last week I was inspired one morning to write, I am receiving $100 form and unexpected source. Later that week I received an email out of the blue asking about some race car parts I had left over. When he asked what I wanted for them I immediately thought of my statement. I priced them at $100 and in a few hours time I had an unexpected $100 cash in my hand. I placed that $100 bill on top on my computer to remind me to expect miracles.

One of the most effective tools that you can use to achieve your goals is the process of visualization. That is picturing in your mind what it will be like to accomplish your goal.

Imagine what it will feel like to have or do what ever you desire. Create as much detail as possible. Combine these visualizations with he belief that you are succeeding and your results are guaranteed.

We were taught not to daydream in school and as adults we often think daydreaming is a waste of time. But all successful people use visualization as a tool to achieve their goals.

Put the power of your faith to work for you in creating the life you desire. Just don’t get caught up in the how it is gong to be accomplished. This is the biggest mistake I see people make. Including myself. We get caught up in wonder how we can achieve what we desire. The only thing we need to do is tell God what we want and let him figure out how to give it to you. Your job during the waiting time is to expect a miracle and do whatever you can to serve others. Let God handle the details. After all, we don’t try to tell out heart how fast to beat, we just know we want the right amount of blood to flow to the right spots to lift our arm. Let God handle your desires for success in the same way.

Here are ten tips on how to be more successful:

Affirm with confidence that God has given me everything I need to be what he wants me to be. I have all the resources of God’s creation at my disposal to accomplish my goals.
Remember that God has promised to make a way where there is no way.
Build your own list of scripture verses that boost your courage, faith, confidence and belief. Write them down and carry them with you. Remember the Torah boxes that the Pharisee used?
Ask God for help. Pray the promises of God. Remind yourself of these promises.
Be thankful for what you have. Take inventory of the resources that you have at your disposal. Take time to thank God for them. Focus on what you already have instead of the lack. You will get more of what you focus on. Being thankful makes sure you are focused on what you want more of.
Make a list of character traits that you wish to manifest in your life. Find people who exemplify these trait and emulate them. This is actually what the system of Greek gods was all about. They created legends of people who had the traits that they wanted to identify with in their lives. For example if you want more confidence, think that you are James Bond.
Reframe negative thoughts. Anytime you find yourself thinking about what you don’t want, as quickly as possible reframe the thought to be what you do want. For example instead of thinking I don’t want to be sick, think I want to be healthy and energetic.
When and obstacle pops up on your path to progress, boldly claim God’s power to overcome it. Last weekend, I went Jeeping with some friends. We purposely sought out obstacles that would challenge us. The best way to get over them was to boldly tackle them with just the right line and use the skills and equipment that we had to it maximum ability.
When the demons of doubt and fear attack, rebuke them in the name of Christ. You have the power within you to conquer any fear or doubt that Satan may through at you. Use it.
Remember that God is always with you. Jesus lives in your heart. The Holy Spirit is here to guide you. It is you guide at all times.

Expect success. Accept nothing less than the best life that God has to offer you. Trust God. Ten allow him to take action in your life.

Don’t try to achieve success alone. Use the power of Christ within you and let God bless you with success. God wants to bless you but you have to let Him.

When you pray and ask for God’s will, you don’t have to wonder if God wants you to succeed. The blessings have already been promised in scripture.

When you pray for God’s will to be accomplished you are allowing God to do things his way. We often get in the way of God’s blessing by thinking that what we desire has to be accomplished in a certain way. God may have a different plan and we have to be open to that possibility.

Hebrews 10:35

35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

Psalm 55:22

22 Cast your cares on the LORD
and he will sustain you;
he will never let the righteous fall.

Romans 15:13

13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

You can be successful

You can achieve your goals

You can count on God

God is always with you

As Wayne Dyer says, you will see it when you believe it!

This article was originally presented by Mike in Sunday School Class at North Cleveland Baptist Church.

Mike Strawbridge is the owner of

The Gap is the space between where you are now and where you want to be. If you know what you want but don’t have it yet, you’re in the gap. Getting what you want is just a matter of closing that gap - which means aligning vibrationally with what you want.

Problem is, many of us aren’t making progress on closing this gap. Rather, we’re closing on the opposite gap! The gap between where we are and what we don’t want!

When someone asks how your day was and you talk about what went wrong, you’re closing the gap on more things going wrong. When you complain about your aches and pains, you’re closing the gap on more illness. When you say there no good men left, you’re closing the gap on a lackluster love life. Because whatever you give attention to is what you’re aligning with and thus creating.

When you give attention to what you don’t want, you’re closing in on it!

With that in mind, which gap are you closing? Are you closing the gap on true love, financial prosperity, ultimate health, and dreams come true? Or are you closing the gap on bad lovers, stupid bosses, shortage of money, and a destiny of disappointment?

We’re rarely in limbo, friends (although sometimes it seems so). We’re always closing some gap, based on what we’re thinking and feeling. Make sure you’re closing the gap you want!

Jeannette Maw is an Attraction Coach and founder of Good Vibe Coaching in Salt Lake City, Utah who helps clients get what they want using the Law of Attraction. She is co-author of “101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Vol. 3″ and “Inspired Attraction,” and speaks regularly on the topic of deliberate creation.

Free tips and strategies to begin using the Law of Attraction to make your wish list come true are yours by signing up for her fluff-free “Get What You Want” bi-monthly ezine at goodvibecoach.com goodvibecoach.com Real world manifesting is the topic of her blog at loaplayground.blogspot.com loaplayground.blogspot.com .

No matter where you go, someone’s going to make you mad. That’s just the way it goes. Welcome to life, right? Of course, it’s part of nature’s way of showing everyone that life isn’t a bed of roses. People can be so rude and vagabondish that it can sometimes be ridiculous.

I travel quite frequently across America. I love America. I love all of the towns that I visit. Sometimes, you’re just going to encounter that person that doesn’t like you. This has happened to me on numerous occasions. I find it quite funny. I consider myself average looking, nice guy, real polite, and pleasant to be around. Could it be that I have “one of those faces?” I say that jokingly, but it’s true. Have you ever encountered someone that you just didn’t like, for no apparant reason? Of course you have, everyone has.

I was in the South last year, visiting my family there. I stayed at an RV park that was out in the country. It wasn’t very spacious, but it was nice. I was barbecuing, minding my own business and the owner of the place asked me to leave. I’m not going to disclose his name or the name of the RV park, because I’m not that kind of guy. Simply put, the guy just didn’t like me. I thought about going on an internet crusade to tell the world what kind of business this guy ran, but I didn’t. I let it go. I figured that if he would do it to me, a somewhat noted personality, it was a hopeless case.

I give the above example to state that: It’s going to happen. People are going to make you mad. How are you going to respond to the next person that offends you? In America, you have to act in a civilized manner with everyone, or you’re suppose to. The next time someone insults you, call them by their name in a polite manner. Address them as Mr. or Mrs. and simply state, “How have I offended you?” In most cases, if you weren’t doing anything wrong, they won’t know how to respond.

The message of this article is to just show tolerance and respect for one another. You never know who you may be talking to. That person may be a celebrity or a relative to the President. You just never know what doors may open for you by being kind. You also will never know what doors just closed for you by being cruel.

Jeffery S. Miller is the author of Higgins: An American Story. He invites you to visit his website freewebs.com/jefferysmiller freewebs.com/jefferysmiller. While there, browse around and sign his guestbook and if you’d like, pick up a copy of Higgins. Miller is a published author, national award winner, former talk show host, inventor, and retired professional wrestler.

I find it fascinating that our nation is mourning two famous individuals whom hardly anybody knew. People all across America are talking about President Ford and James Brown in glowing and endearing terms, almost as if the two of them had been our next-door neighbors. Only they weren’t, but it doesn’t seem to matter. We mourn their deaths because both of them were important to us as a nation. President Ford took over when President Nixon resigned, at a crucial point in our history. We had just suffered through Watergate, the worst example of political incompetence and graft we had ever seen. We were wounded as a nation, and Gerry Ford became our First Healer. James Brown came around when Afro-Americans in America were disenfranchised, when music in this country truly sounded like “white-bread.” He revolutionized the musical industry, and we are a better and a more sophisticated country thanks to his efforts.

But aside from those who were personally involved with them, most Americans did not know, nor ever meet, either one of these larger-than-life individuals. And yet, we mourn them as if we had known them. What’s going on here?

I will call it “The If Factor.” In short, what goes through our minds and hearts when a famous person dies is: “if they could do it, so can I.” Both President Ford and James Brown were “little people,” just like you and me. Their roots were nothing special, neither one was born into wealth or guaranteed success, yet both of them became men who achieved personal fulfillment, and were revered by others for what they had accomplished. You and I look at them with longing, as if to say: why can’t I do what they did? What is stopping me from rising up and becoming an influence in this world? Surely I have gifts and talents, as they did, so “if” they could change the word, so can I!”

So what do we really mourn? The fact that they died? Yes, and that is perfectly normal Their deaths are a loss to this country. But what else do we mourn? Do we mourn that we cannot rise to greatness like they did, that we are powerless to achieve because _________(you fill in the blank with why you think you’re stuck)? If so, stop mourning and start living—remember, “if” they could do it, so can we!

yourgriefmatters.com yourgriefmatters.com

Resentment isn’t a spectacular emotion, but it is long-lasting and it easily becomes a way of life. When this happens, it blocks all possibility of successful and healthy relationships.

When people feel resentment, they draw back into defensiveness to avoid the possibility of still more hurt. Good performance, good relationships and good become impossible. It’s also an entirely negative emotion. Nothing productive ever comes from it, while it easily progreses into more violent states like anger, hatred and cruelty.

The Rule of Resentment

People hurt by others often inflict identical hurt of their own in a vicious circle. The abused child becomes a child abuser. The despised failure seeks weaker people to despise. The bullied employee becomes a bullying manager. Resentment seems to cause us to repeat the behaviors we resented. We become still more sensitive to further sources of resentment. We find still harsher ways to hit back.

Resentment is endemic in many organizations, revealing itself in petty cruelties, pointless obstructions and childish acts of sabotage. When you enquire into the causes of the resentment, you mostly find multiple acts of unkindness and cruelty. Managers, browbeaten by their superiors in the all-out demand for ever higher profits, take to crushing their own subordinates with similarly impossible demands. Afraid of losing their jobs, people plot to put others in the firing line.

The “Golden Rule” exhorts us to treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves. The Rule of Resentment seems to be a direct perversion of it, causing us to treat others as badly we were treated — or even worse.

The Rule of Reciprocal Behavior

Yet this rule of reciprocal behavior — of doing to others what was done to us — also holds good for positives. People treated kindly are more likely to be kind to others. People who are helped and encouraged become helpers in their turn. If bigotry and scorn breed ever greater negativity, tolerance, openness and honesty produce their own harvest of growth and mutual support. In place of the vicious cycle of carping and frustration, it’s possible to set up a cycle of ever more positive behaviors.

When people consider ethical working behavior and ask “What’s in it for me?” the Rule of Reciprocal Behavior gives a major part of the answer. Unethical behavior is a potent source of resentment and so will nearly always provoke an unethical response.

If you want to be treated ethically by others, you must start by being ethical yourself.

Adrian W. Savage writes for people who want help with the daily dilemmas they face at work. He has contributed more than 25 articles to leading British and American publications and has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and The Chicago Tribune.

You can find his blog on ethics, diversity and living life to the full at adriansavage.com adriansavage.com