What do you believe?

I give myself the green light to move forward, and joyously embrace the new! - Louise L. Hay

The quote by Louise reminds me of our beliefs. We live up to the thoughts which we continually hold. Our beliefs need to change before we are able to move froward. Old beliefs must be replaced before we can make headway. This is what the above quote is referring to. We have to give ourselves permission to move on. It's not enough to know what we think or believe, we need to change the though process.

For us to move on we need to address the beliefs that brought us to where we are. They can simply be beliefs that we learn from others, parents, teachers and or our social group. They hold us where we are.

What are some beliefs?

I don't have time.

No one likes me.

No one has done it before.

Food makes me fat.

When we can identify where we are (beliefs) it is important to identify where we want to be so that this gives us freedom (permission) to form new ideas. Beliefs aren't bad, we simply need to acknowledge that they hold us where we are at this moment in time.

Remember that to move on into new things/ areas we first must accept that our beliefs brought us here. In order to move you we must change the beliefs we hold.

What thoughts are you holding? Did you need to do some rewriting of your thoughts?

Remember to ignite the fire within.

Fraser

Taking control

I was thinking about yesterdays post and thought that there was still so much to share. How do we get conscious of what we are doing and take control?

• Take 100% responsibility for your life. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter who's fault it is. What are you going to do about it? Abdicating responsibility doesn't get you off the hook for making something happen. Instead, it renders you powerless and a victim. Stop blaming and finger pointing and look inside at what you do.
• Get clear about what you want. Just like ancient mariners used the compass to maintain direction during storms, your clearly defined objectives point the way forward when all hell breaks loose. You can steer yourself to clear waters instead of getting dashed against the rocks. The clearer the outcome the better likely you will be to achieve it.
• Purposely look for opportunities. To build your unshakeable mindset, you'll need a little practice. When you are clear about what you want, consciously look for ways to get closer. Soon enough, you'll retrain your brain to show you the best path through. Tune into things you want.
• Pay attention to your dominant emotions. When life strikes, are you drawn to finding blame or to correcting your course? I don't mean for anyone to ignore the emotions that pull us back, but don't give them all of your power. Grieve, mourn, get angry...but then bring your emotional awareness back to possibility. This is huge. Notice what you are feeling, this is a guidance system warning or encouraging us to think more of the same.

Remember my desire is to see you develop a fire that drives you to success.

Are you feeling stuck?

Have you been feeling stuck?  Is it like you are hitting a brick wall?  Here are some ideas on how to get moving again....

1) Challenge your Self-limitations : 

The biggest culprit in destroying Dreams is our own self-sabotaging thoughts.   We need to work on these before even considering further  progress. There are a lot of ways to do this including by working on what I call your 'Golum' thoughts and creating empowering Beliefs.   Golum is the personification of the protective thoughts  that run in our heads at times and which limit our life  by putting excessive fear in risking and in trying out  new things.   Our Golum might tell us things like: 'You've failed before, what's to stop you from failing  again' or 'Don't go out of your comfort zone or you will get pain'.  Challenging these thoughts and creating new empowering  beliefs is a crucial step to trigger off your journey  towards life success.

2) Charge your Body and Language: The way we move our  body and the language we use have a powerful effect on  our feelings and emotions.   Working on particular body movements and specific words we use can create a shift in our emotional status and  motivational levels. By energizing our body movements  and using transformational words we can shift our  mental states to more empowering ones.  Action is key!!Anthony Robbins talks about the hour of power.

 3) Clarify your Principles and Values: We all need a  compass to direct our journey.   We also need to be aware of who we really are - what  innate qualities dwell within us that are just waiting to be tapped and celebrated. Clarifying your Core Values  through specific Values clarification exercises is a  vital step towards empowering you to take clear decisions without too much hesitation.   Clarifying your Values will help you to identify your  personal gifts and what direction you will choose to honor in your life.  I have several tools to help you identify your key passions if you are unsure?

 4) Connect to your Dream and Life Purpose: Clear Values  will help you to delve deeper and identify your Life  Purpose. Through exercises such as the Universal Life Secrets program you can discover the True Mission and meaning of your life as well as tap the BIG Dream you want to achieve.  Until we have a reason to live, we are merely filling a void. Start living now. What gets you up in the morning?

5) Create it in your Mind: Once you discover your Dream and Life Purpose you need to start working on Manifesting it.   The first creation is in the mind. By believing in  your Dream and doing specific visualization exercises  you will pave the way for success.You have to first see it in the mind.  I have several tools and tips to help if you need and or would like... 

6) Commit Yourself Completely: Commitment is a crucial  factor in ensuring success. You can't look over your  shoulder once you have a passionate Dream to follow.  There's no turning back when you have inspired yourself  to achieve higher standards and identified what you will no longer accept in your life. There comes a time when you will need to 'burn the bridges' and march forward with a clear sense of commitment.  No more excuses.  Make a choice.

7) Convert your passion into Action: There is no such  thing as effortless success. Don't believe anyone who  tells you that you can just sit back and attract good  luck and abundance simply by thinking yourself into it.   In order to succeed you must take massive action - right away after you take the decision to live your Dream.  If it is to be then it is up to me. Chase your dreams.

8) Continue persisting with consistency: Persistence  and perseverance is what finally births success.   It is the sheer will to continue on your chosen path,  the focus of consistently hanging on to your Dream,  watching the signs that Providence provides and immediately acting on them. 

9) Consolidate and Expand: Once your Dream starts  manifesting it's important to continue raising your  standards, expanding your boundaries and taking time  to recreate yourself. Consistently doing things that  raise your standards will ensure that you develop yourself to your peak performance.  Am I better today than I was yesterday.  This can be small gains..walk to the lamppost and back. $1 in the bank....build it bit by bit. 

10) Contribute to a Higher Cause: Achieving self mastery will prompt you to look beyond your self-fulfillment.   Your new confidence and success will attract others to  you and you will find yourself able to lead and  communicate a shared Dream. Your ability  to create a Legacy that will outlive you will be  the apex of True Life Success.  Looking back over the years I just marvel at the  amazing changes that these 10 Vital Keys have brought  into my life. 

I am also marveled each time I experience  the powerful and life changing effects that occur in  the people I coach when they start applying these keys in their life.

I love coaching people to ignite the fire within themseleves. When we stop hiding behind our excuses we then are free to light the fire for the things we want, rather than doing what others want us to say and or do.

Make the choice and ignite the fire within today.  Be so on fire for your passions that people cant stand the heat you radiate.  

What a kick up the back side does?

Last week I was blind sided and hit from behind while waiting at an intersection. It reminded me of the importance of living my life and not allowing others to live it for me. Eg others making my decisions and or just watching TV...filling in time.

It is so important to be living in prime time, rather than watching TV in prime time. On your way to success make certain you grow friendships, not just bank and mutual fund accounts. Life is a collection of memories, not of material things. The Egyptian pharaohs were buried with all their treasures, and were mummified in hopes that they could enjoy their bounty in the next life. But we are only caretakers of possessions. There is a big difference between standard of living and quality of life. Standard of living is based on income earned. Quality of life is the enjoyment of the millions of minutes in between accomplishments.

Having money is only one aspect of wealth. To the sick person, wealth is health. To the lonely person, wealth is someone to talk to and share with. To the estranged person, wealth is hearing words of love and forgiveness.

Borrowing the free verse style from Brother Jeremiah's classic poem, I'd Pick More Daisies, here are a few things I'd do, the second time around.

I'd laugh at my misfortunes more. Spend more time counting my blessings than my blemishes. Spend more time playing with my children and grandchildren and less time watching performers in the arena. More time enjoying what I have, less time thinking about the things I don't have. If I could live my life again, I'd walk in the rain more without an umbrella and listen less to weather reports. I'd spend more time looking at trees and climbing them, less time flipping through magazines made from dead trees. I'd spend more time fully involved in the present moment, less time remembering and anticipating. I'd smile more, frown less.

And most of all I'd be more spontaneous and active, less hesitant and subdued. When some spur of the moment idea came up to go hiking, playing Frisbee, coloring Easter eggs, singing in a chorus, going kayaking, or watching an eclipse, I'd be less likely to sit in my chair objecting, "It's not in our plan."

I'd be inclined to jump up and run out the door next time and say, "Yes, we can!" Although I can't live my life again, I'm still going to live the new way every day any way. I'll never have all the moments I've missed, but I do have all the time remaining.

Hopefully I don't experience the feeling of that afternoon again. However one good side is that it has got my thinking back on track.

Action Idea: Choose one activity this month that you really want to engage in, but that you have been putting off because it isn't a priority. Schedule that activity in your planner, as if it were a "must do" business or financial commitment. When you have done it, while you are still feeling good, schedule one for next month, and do it as long as you live.

How one man made his seminar a success.

I am a very avid fan of Bob Proctor.
Here is his personal recount of how he got his self started...

As you step in the front door of the home I lived in on Maple Wood Lane in Glenview, Illinois, in 1973, there was a room immediately to your left I referred to as the den. Imagine a small room, approximately 12 feet by 12 feet. There are two very comfortable chairs on one wall, with a window in between. The opposite wall is a love seat. There are a couple of plants and pictures on the wall, a rug on the floor and that would be it.

As I go back in time, I see myself sitting in the first chair on the left hand side as you enter the room, with a pen and a pad. I'm beginning to write a description of the company I am going to build. I feel myself experiencing emotional discomfort. I have just left my position as Vice President of Sales with the Nightingale-Conant Corporation. I had been there for 5 years, and I am feeling a little insecure having left there. I know it is my old paradigm having flashes of control over me.

It's an odd thing. Intellectually I knew feeling insecure was silly. I had built a very successful company on my own prior to joining Nightingale-Conant; I could do it again. I had well over a decade of serious study of the human personality. I clearly understood why we do what we do and why we don't do many of the things we want to do.. Regardless, that feeling of insecurity was there. I am sure you know what I am talking about. I had worked with Nightingale-Conant for 5 years, and I realized that working for someone else, receiving a paycheck from them over a 60- month period had created a relationship in my mind where the company and my security were connected. They were writing the check; they were looking after me so I was secure.

Intellectually I knew that was a false concept, but I wasn't dealing with my intellect, I was dealing with my emotions. I was dealing with my old paradigm. We're raised with the idea, get a good job, you'll be safe. It's such a false idea and yet it's one that a high percentage of the population believes in.

Fortunately, I understood what was causing this emotional discomfort. It was the paradigm, and I would not let the paradigm win. Intellectually I knew if I built one company I could build another and that's what I intended to do.

With pen and pad in hand I began to describe what I was going to do with my life from that point on. I had once heard Earl Nightingale say that we should find out what we love to do and then dedicate our life to it. When he said that I made a physical and mental note of it. I had an innate understanding that that was one of the beautiful truths we should all live by. And that idea was running around my mind as I sat preparing to mentally create my company.

I knew what I loved doing. I loved teaching people the Truth. I loved showing people how their paradigm is nothing but a multitude of habits that had been fixed in their subconscious mind by other people. It was robbing them of their dream. It was controlling their thinking. It was controlling their life. I love teaching people how to recognize and change that.

I made up my mind sitting in that little 12 x 12 room that day that I would dedicate the rest of my life to this work. With that decision made, quitting was not an option. My dream had to manifest. There was only one way to go.

Initially my new company consisted of just a few notes on a lined pad. But those few notes triggered a picture in my mind that was awesome. And I had enough experience under my belt to know that all you have to do is hold the picture and then follow your feelings. Your feelings will direct you on what your next step is. I think Thomas Carlisle put it very well when he said, "Go as far as you can see; when you get there you'll see how to go further."

The first step became obvious. If I was going to teach a seminar I would have to write one first. I had sufficient information but it had to be organized into a seminar format. Another thought came to my mind almost simultaneously -- go ahead and sell the seminar and then you'll have to write it. I had two people that wanted to work with me. One lived in Belleville, Ontario, about 150 miles East of Toronto. The other one was in Gary, Indiana. I was planning on moving back to Toronto from Chicago. So I decided we would do a seminar in 3 different cities each week: Belleville on Monday night, Toronto on Tuesday night and Gary, Indiana on Thursday night. It would be an 8-week seminar, 3 hours each week from 7-10pm.

I sold it, wrote it and taught it all at the same time during that 8 week period. I wrote the first seminar and the week I was teaching it I wrote the 2^nd one and so on. It was a busy 8 weeks. I clearly remember the last week of the seminar series . the last seminar was on leadership. I worked all night and then lay down on the floor and went to sleep. The seminar was taken to the printer. When it was delivered to the hotel in Belleville on Monday night for me to teach, the ink was still wet on the paper. That was a crazy 8 weeks. Although the experience was worth millions, I sure would never want to do it again.

That's where it all started.

Then I sold the seminar to The Prudential of America Insurance Company. It was highly successful.

The seminar was showing people why they weren't doing the things they really wanted to do. It explained how their mind operated on two different levels. The Conscious Mind is our thinking mind. It's where we make our plans. And sometimes that is where the plans stay - they never see the light of day as the Subconscious Mind controls our behavior. If you are going to realize your plans and turn them into results, you must deposit those plans in the treasury of your Subconscious Mind. That requires changing the conditioning.

Right from the beginning we were very successful. The word of what we were doing was spreading. We were invited into various companies and into other countries.

Every cent that we earned was pumped back into the Company. I believed this was a safe bet because I was betting on me. I had eliminated all options. The company must grow; it must continue. I could not lose. I often wonder about people who want to be in business for themselves but don't want to spend any money to do it. A lot of people start a business and say "I'm going to give it a try." That never works. You must give it your all.

I was invited to Australia to do a seminar. I had to go to the Australian Embassy to get a Visa to enter the country. I got talking to the man that ran the Australian Embassy in Toronto, and I ended up selling him a license to operate our company in Australia.

Based on a write up in Success Magazine, I got a call from Malaysia from a man in Kuala Lumpur. I ended up conducting seminars for all the insurance companies in Malaysia and Singapore. Our company was selected over a number of other companies to conduct a complete program for all the personnel of Malaysia Airlines from the Captain to the baggage claim personnel, from the board of directors to the ticket counter representatives.

I was virtually living on an airplane. Fortunately, I don't mind flying, and I get a lot of work done when I'm in the air. However, I knew that if the company was going to continue to grow I could not be the only one that was teaching seminars.

It was then that we decided that we would set up a consulting/facilitation division where individuals who had a desire to do what I was doing could purchase a license to teach all of our material. That concept has been very successful and enabled LifeSuccess Productions to be represented in approximately 90 countries around the world.

Like any business, ours had its ups and downs, but I always refused to quit. After all, I had burned all my bridges.

I can't think of anything where I could get more satisfaction than that which I enjoy in this business. As I'm writing this, I am getting ready to fly to Zurich in a few hours, from there to Los Angeles, then to Phoenix, then onto Helsinki in Finland. That's this month. And that's only a part of what I'm doing. I believe this has to be the most exciting business there is. I've been in it since 1968. Every year I enjoy it more than the prior year.

Bob Proctor

How to stay motivated

Just been on holiday with no TV, radio.....internet...zippo...nothing and I was still highly motivated, and was reminded of this great article by Chris Widener.

Some time ago, someone wrote me an email and said, “I would love to know what motivates YOU!” So I took them up on it and I want to tell you how I stay motivated.

It is a valid question, this one of what motivates me. After all, each and every day I have to stay on the top of my game whether it is because I am giving a speech, marketing my materials or just trying to keep my kids energized!

As I thought about it, I realized again just how simple life can be if you put the right processes in place. I realized that me staying motivated revolves around a few basic things that I do. And they are things that ANYBODY can do. So if I can stay motivated, you can too! If you want to stay motivated, try these basics that I use to keep myself motivated:

• Read good books and magazines. I am an information junkie! I read all of the time. I don’t care what you say; you cannot be successful without reading! I read books, magazines, etc., all of the time. I read a breadth of information so as to develop myself on a wide variety of topics. Keep reading them on a regular basis throughout the month and not just in reading binges.

• Listen to good information. Get yourself into some good tapes. Listen to what others have to say. Give yourself a budget to spend on materials that will make you into a motivated animal! Above all, as you listen, apply the truths to your life in your head and they will become what you live.

• Maintain a positive group of friends and colleagues. I broke this rule one day and went to coffee with a real downer. I am still recovering from him! One of the best things you can do is to surround yourself with positive people who will build you up and encourage you to pursue your dreams. They will be honest with you, yes, but they will also challenge you to shoot for the stars!

• Focus clearly on my goals. I know where I am going and what I want to accomplish. They are firmly rooted in my mind and heart. Because of this, my mind and heart are in an attitude of motivation all of the time. I want to hit my goals and since they are present in my heart and mind, I put my energies into them.

• Discipline myself to live out my priorities. Most of the time, this takes plain old hard work. We have to discipline ourselves and as we do we find ourselves becoming more and more motivated. If we discipline ourselves, it gives us wins and victories, which makes us feel good, which motivates us for further action. If we don’t discipline ourselves, we feel defeated and we fall into a downward spiral of despair.

Are you keeping yourself motivated? You can. I know you can because I have seen these principles and actions work in my own life. Take a moment right now and see if you are living out the principles for keeping motivated:

- Do you regularly read good books and magazines?
- Do you regularly listen to good material?
- Do you surround yourself with positive and supportive people?
- Do you know and focus on your goals?
- Do you discipline yourself to action even when you don’t feel like it?

Commit yourself to these and you will find that you become a much more motivated person. This is what I do, and why I can continue to motivate others!

Upward and onward my friends!

Why Prepare?

Before every NFL Super Bowl, it seems the forest animals also play a football game. It's the little animals versus the big animals. In last year's game, the big animals jumped out to a huge lead of 49-0 at halftime.

To start the second half, the big animals were to receive the ball. The mouse kicked off for the little animals. The ball sailed down to the goal line where the rhinoceros caught the ball, tucked it under his chin and took off. He had gotten only as far as the one-yard line when from out of nowhere, BOOM! The rhino was hit so hard he fumbled the ball and the ball bounced into the end zone where the rabbit recovered it for a touchdown.

The coach of the little animals was so excited that he ran onto the field and asked, "Who tackled the rhino?" The fox said, "Coach, it was the centipede!"

"The centipede? The centipede? Man, that was a great tackle!" He walked over to the centipede and said, "You are a great player! That was the hardest hit in the history of football. Where were you in the first half?"

The centipede said, "Coach, I was putting my shoes on!"

The moral of the story is: be prepared. Preparation compensates for a lack of talent. Preparation is a key element in successful selling. The better prepared you are, the fewer surprises you encounter during your day.