Goals are not Dreams

Dreaming is something we all do. They are part of what keeps us going. They are our hopes for the future. I'll share one of mine. I'll hear a great piece of music and I dream of the dance I can choreograph with it or I am the musician playing the violin or the guitar. I can build an active scenario round that and its very pleasant to enter a trance state and to be wafted away to some other space. Dreams are key for without them we just wouldn't have got off the starting block. They provide us with the ideas that can the propel us towards creating something special in our lives. Thank heavens for the dreamers

However they are essentially passive, something we can do laying on our backs. Only perhaps the unseen brainwaves can reveal a level of activity taking place in our minds. With goals on the other hand we need to be taking action of some kind towards delivering those dreams. The dream is the wish. The goals are the steps you will take to activate that wish. Which is why it is often recommended that when we make our goals, they are SMART - a specific objective, positively worded and that can be actioned by us in some way. Some questions that may help in developing our goals would be:

• What exactly do we want?
• How exactly will we know when we have achieved it?
• Is this something that can reasonably be accomplished at this point in your life?
• Is it doable and real?
• When exactly do we want to have accomplished this?

I think very often where I and others have become confused is in not making the distinction between goals and dreams. My son's dream to become a footballer is just that, a dream. His goal however would involve planning and actioning the steps he can realistically take to achieving this particular dream, and the more steps he takes and commits himself to, the greater he draws the dream to himself to create the reality. And he is an inspiration to me in his level of committment, energy and effort to making this dream come true. And a key learning to motivate us is in making our dreams exciting and compelling for then are we most likely to want to take the actions necessary for success.

Blessings for today
1. I am thankful for the delicious pumpkin soup, warming and healthful and that my son drank it in spite of himself. Indeed I am grateful altogether for all the food on the table. I was reflecting again today on how fortunate we are to always have our food needs supplied. The squashes and marrows harvested from my friend's allotment and adorning my table are a very visible reminder of the bounty of this earth.
2. I am grateful for the warmth outside that enabled me to tend to my garden in comfort.
3. For finally being able to fit the pieces of a puzzle together and the insights I got for resolving this particular difficulty in the future.

Personal Development and Success
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Vibrating success

Yesterday I wrote of the importance of creating quiet times in our lives for reflection and to connect with what our hearts are telling us. Today I went to a Bhrama Kumaris evening event called 'The Mind's a Magnet - be careful what you think.' I was really looking forward to a great seminar on the Law of Attraction but it turned out not so coherent and barely addressed the subject.

I was a little disappointed yet some things stuck and followed on from the need for 'heart space' I wrote about, so I guess I was meant to hear this again from someone else. The speaker talked about creating 'space' through meditation. Its a time when we do not allow negative thoughts to attack us but instead focus on creating or vibrating positive energy. When we do, we become a beacon for the right people and circumstances to happen in our liives.

When we exude positivity, the universe just wants to give it right back to us. The right things will come to help us towards achieving our visions. When we give out good thoughts and wishes to others rather than sit in the judgemental mode, we open channels for good things to happen to us back in return.

Apart from anything else, meditation calms the mind and in that space, we are more open to solving problems, exercising creativity and questions such as 'What must I do to live this dream?' can become more apparent if we are quiet enough to hear the wisdom within. The next step of course is to take action on what we are hearing.

So, yes creating a stillness of the mind attracts a more positive frame of mind and a vibrational energy which can be picked up like a radar can and reflected right back to us so we are more open to getting what we want.

Blessings for today
1. For all learnings great and small, the generosity of the people of Bhrama Kumaris who know about giving and receiving, and the commitment of the speaker to give up his time to share his thoughts with us and provide a moment to still the mind.

2. I am grateful for the beautiful trees I noticed today at work, resplendent in their autumnal glory and lighting up my life.

3. My gratitude to my son for being such a stalwart with his homework and for still caring.

Personal Development and Success
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Be Still and Listen to your Heart

I understand that the Chinese have 2 characters for the word 'busy' meaning heart and killer or death, meaning that when a person gets too busy, their heart becomes 'dead' or at any rate that a lot of busyness in our lives could have fatal implications for us.

I don't know many people who do not have increasing busyness in their lives and when that happens it means it becomes very hard to find the time to be quiet, to experience a stillness that allows us to really listen to ourselves. The human heart was meant for times of quiet when we can learn to become calm, to connect with who we are and to dream of what we are to become. We need stillness and time for contemplation so we can ask questions of ourselves and listen to the answers contained within. Rushing around numbs us to what we are really feeling and thinking. It separates us from so much that is of value to our beating hearts, the things we hold dear. Do you know the answer to the question 'What does your heart desire?' Be still and listen to your wise woman/wise man heart.

• What are my values?
• What 3/4/5 things in my life are most important to me?
• Who do I most admire?
• What is my purpose in life?
• If I had all the spare time in the world, what would I be doing?
• If I knew I couldn't fail, what would I do?
• What brings me most joy?
• What makes me feel most alive?
• Where would I like to be in 5 years time?

I say this knowing that sometimes my life can be hectic, demanding and overwhelming. I can scurry from this activity to the other, my life gets packed with 'must dos' and its easy to end up going round in circles and feeling that I never quite achieve as much as I wanted to. And I have to remember to still the busyness and allow some quiet space to enter my life.

Its important to consider what's really important and make the time for that. Take the time to be still, listen to what your heart tells you and dream a little of the life you want. I wonder what the chinese for 'heart saver' would be in English?

My blessings for today
1. Absolutely, a warm safe bed awaiting me. A place to be still, to contemplate, to dream.
2. I am thankful to Elaine for her help in reconnecting with someone I had lost touch with
3. For my husband's safe arrival in Colombia

Personal Development and Success
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Transforming Limiting Beliefs

Most of us have learnt how to sabotage our success through the power of the limiting beliefs we hold, quite simply the myths and lies we hold that keeps eroding our self beliefs and our results. You know the ones that say "I know you. You're not good enough ,are you?" - or it could be about others as in "Rich people are ruthless/egotistical/uncaring/some other negative." (so I don't want to be like them therefore I'll make sure that I never become rich whatever I may say to the contrary).

Well. if we have some awareness that that is what we do and we want to change that, what's to be done? Once we start to work at the level of belief, then we can start to change our thinking, which in turn changes our behaviours and leads to actions that are entirely congruent with our beliefs and values. And then we find that we can start to get the results we want because we are free to engage in actions that will take us there. There are several techniques that can de used to demolish these beliefs and here I describe one.

Simply wanting to 'think positively' is not enough to deal with limiting beliefs. We need to recognise what those limiting beliefs are and then replace them with more empowering statements. So if the belief is "I'm ugly and no one likes me" then replacing that with "I am excellent as I am and liked by people who matter to me" resonates in a very powerful way. But you also have to put some other things in place.

Firstly search around to find compelling evidence that what you used to believe is neither true nor fair. For example that you can find evidence that there are others who achieve success and are warm, caring, fair minded individuals or that there are other people who appear ugly yet are loved and cherished by others. They do exist.

Secondly find a way if you can, to take some action, or if it seems apppropriate, that is the opposite to that limiting belief. For example, if you think you are ugly and no one likes you, get dressed in something that makes you feel good and arrange to meet with/ talk with someone else in a friendly manner.

It won't always be possible to find an opposing action but perhaps something that raises the bar on that limiting belief could be found. Write down your more empowering statement and keep several copies that you can distribute to places where you happen across them -in your chest of drawers, on your desk, by the telephone, near the front door, in your car, inside coat pocket and so on.

When you construct an opposite statement, try if possible to use the same sentence structure as the limiting belief. For example "I am powerless" would become "I am powerful," and not "I am very strong," or "I can overcome anything." Also keep 'nots' out of it. "I'm not ugly" doesn't work because the mind can't not think about the uglyness.

Don't expect the change to happen overnight and also because different people need different approaches, know that this is but one way and that there are others you can use to challenge the limiting beliefs that are hindering your success. Do expect however that once you have cleared this particular demon, new possibilities start to open for you to achieve the things you have set your heart on. Do expect too to have to deal with your beliefs one step at a time - they didn't all get formed overnight.

Transforming limiting beliefs is crucial to our success in life and its worth spending time on this in order to realise our true and full potential or we will surely find ways to sabotage our success.

Be sure to say your new empowering beliefs to yourself when you find them and think of the evidence you gathered already e.g. the successful person who was also compassionate. Resolve to find some action you can do that day, however small to counter your belief. Sometimes there is no action you can take and that's OK.

If you have difficulty finding evidence to the contrary of that limiting belief, let your mind create a picture of it. For example if your old belief is that people won't like you if you say no to them, and you really can't find any evidence that there are people who are liked in spite of saying no, then, create scenarios in your head where you are seeing and living the opposite reality using all of your sences to make it real.

If you do this often enough, you are on the road to retraining or reprogramming your subconscious mind to accepting a different belief. You won't have to do this forever and you will undoubtedly sometimes hit on circumstances that may tempt you to say "See. I knew it. I knew I was ugly all the time." Keep going with your new strategy because surely in time it will become your new reality. And yes this does take effort but perhaps not nearly as much as the effort it took us to mess with our minds in the first place.

My Blessings for today
1. Today Maria spoke about 'Standing on the Shoulders of Giants' and I found it very comforting to consider that I don't have to reinvent wheels. Others have gone before me and from them I can learn and grow.
2. A safe journey into London and back home and the unexpected provisions that were laid out for me.
3. Meeting someone else who was interested in the formation of the new mastermind group. She may have resources to share that will help the group along. I give thanks for her.

Personal Development with Success
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Are We Sabotaging Our Own Success?

For weeks I have been looking for Ade's business card. I needed to contact him to help me with a business problem and he had offered to assist me. I spent many frustrating hours wrestling with a problem that someone like Ade could have helped me with in a matter of minutes. When I finally found it covered up on the notice board, I had to ask myself what that was about. Why did I 'lose' a valuable resource that would have helped me achieve my goal. I have to take some time thinking about what I may have been responsible for in sabotaging my own success.

Many of us say we want certain things but self sabotage prevents us from taking the appropriate actions to achieving them. We may neglect opportunities that arise, we find ourselves being late for important meetings, we choose partners who are not able to commit to a relationship, we delay actions that may produce results till the last minute, we only settle for perfection which we cannot readily achieve.

There are a myriad ways we can sabotage ourselves and this often happens when we associate certain fears or pain with getting what we want and when we cling onto negative self limiting beliefs.

If there is a deep seated belief about not being good enough, or fear of failure, or thinking people will not like you if you do well or any other self limiting beliefs, then guess what? We've closed the doors on ourselves and achieving our goals.

Of course we don't do this consciously. Its just that our behaviour will tell a diferent story from what we say we want. The subconscious mind is at work detecting the ambivalence and finding ways for us to impede our progress. It knows the fears we have and acts to protect us from the things we fear. If our goals have some fears attached, the subconscious will find a way to sabotage our success.

Can we only be led by the subconscious? Or are there ways to deal with self limiting beliefs?. Well its certainly helpful to be able to identify what the self limiting beliefs we hold are about
and to start to demolish them. One technique would be to practice Positive Acceptance I wrote about a couple of days ago. This isn't about practising positive thinking which is quite different and often doesn't give us quite the desired results. We all have our demons and gremlins but what we believe and think is a choice we make. I will deal with transforming self limiting beliefs in another posting.

In the meantime I leave with Liza Jimenez's words from Conquer Fear:
Change your beliefs and you change your behaviour
Change your behaviour and you change your results
Change your results and you change your life

My Blessings for today
1. Thankfully I have found Ade's card and I took action by contacting him immediately. I am grateful for finding it as I was allowing frustration to get the better of me
2.For what I learnt eventually in trying to solve a problem by myself. Hopefully I will be able to deal more affectively with this in the future.
3. For the love and caring that still shines through when we got stressy under pressure.

Personal Development with Success
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Dare to dream dreams and step beyond

We'll never really know what goes on in the dreaming minds of other animals, but for humans it seems unstoppable and unquenchable. The desire to step beyong where we are right now is part of the human condition and that goes into the realms of our physical, financial, emotional, and spiritual lives. Having those dreams can sometimes lead to enormous dissatisfactions. But without them there would also be no advancement for us as a species or as individuals.

They are so much an important part of our beings that it seems quite amazing how often dreamers have been scolded - head in the clouds, ungrounded, out of touch and so on. Whether its Leonardo DaVinci or the humblest schoolboy staring out the classroom window we are too ofetn not encouraged to heed to our dreams. The difficulty lies, I believe if all we ever do is dream and not attempt to lay down some plans and strategies and then to take action in pursuit of these dreams.

How do we dream dreams? Well, its important to make time to really listen to ourselves, and that means to make some quiet time when we can be alone with our thoughts. Armed with pen and paper, you can start to play around with some of these questions about what drives your passions.

• What excites and thrills you?
• What do you love to do?
• What would you love to achieve?
• If you knew you couldn't fail, what would you do?
• If you could live your life over again, what would you do differently?
• If you could make a difference in the world, what would it be?

Let your mind wander in all places big and small, however way out they may seem. When you think you've done, challenge yourself to dream some more. And then ...ask yourself, if I come to the end of my life and look back, which of those dreams will I be regretting never having tried to achieve? Then instead of the disappointment of never having tried or succeeded in attaining those dreams, start to plan for ways that you might be able to begin moving towards them, one step at a time. Sometimes that takes us just outside of our comfort zones and we have to stretch ourselves a little. Or even a lot. And that is part of the journey that makes life worth living.

My son dreams of becoming a footballer. I admit to silently gnashing my teeth. His teacher tells him he is foolish to have such dreams. Fortunately he is not deterred by either of us and instead carries on dreaming - and acting. If all he ever did was dream however, I guess it would be fair enough to dismiss his fantasies. But he is out there playing and training and laying down more levels of dreaming to get him to where he wants to go. I don't know if he will ever get to play for his beloved football club or any other but I know along the way, he is succeeding at lots of other levels. You go Boy! See you at the stadium!

Blessings for today
1. For live and recorded music that brought fun and pleasure to moments of my day
2. For my son's determination to succeed
3 For all the responses and enquiries I have been getting recently about Success University.

Personal Development and Success
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Commanding Success with Affirmations

I wrote before about the importance of writing out our goals and being then able to build a mental picture of those goals either by imagining or envisioning the results you want, or by building a dream board that reinforces yourdesires. Now a third very powerful flank of our success is being able to command our results through affirmations.

Here I draw on the work again of Catherine Ponder in The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity when she describes the power of words to affect success in all areas of our lives - in health, wealth and prosperity. And of course, it works in reverse that the words we tell ourselves in a negative manner are powerful harbingers of ill health,poverty and stress.

She describes these words as the power of command because they have enormous authority and control over the results we produce in our lives. The secret to using this capacity to producing good things in our lives is to create a positive assertion or affirmation of the good we wish to produce and by continued repetition - preferably daily for about 15 minutes,we can swiftly and easily find that opportunities open to us in unexpectedly amazing ways.

Catherine speaks from a decidedly Christian perspective but in essence, reaches to the core of everyone regardless of religious allegience. But here I shall quote her from the Bible - "Thou shalt decree a thing and it shall be established unto thee and light shall shine upon thy ways." Book of Job 22:28. As a non Christain, I have no difficulty in translating that to my own essence of spirituality. How that speaks to me is that I can trust in the existence of a universal energy to hear my words, but also that I am programming myself for success.

One of the simpliest ways of attracting the good to oursleves is daily practice of verbal and silent affirmation. By daily affirming, we cement in our minds what we desire. You create your world with the inestimable power of your words and people often find this process one of the easiest and fastest for the results it gives them - if itsdone daily, consistently and in a commanding mannner.

Here are some suggested affirmations from Catherine's books and I thank her for them.
For prosperity -
Everything and everybody prospers me now and I prosper everybody and everything now

For a beautiful home -
I give thanks that I am beautifully and appropriately housed with the rich substance of God/the universe

For health and vitality -
I give thanks for ever increasing health and vitality
Let divine health manifest in me and for me now

For harmonious relationships -
Let there be peace within my walls

For inspiration -
Divine Intelligence now shows me all I need to know

It may seem unusual and a little silly, but its most effective said aloud repeatedly for about 15 minutes. This may seem like a long time in a busy life but when you consider the amount of time we may be spending feeding ourselves with negative mesages, and when you consider the positive implications of doing this, that times fades into significance. If however saying aloud is not possible, for example if under scrutiny from others, writing the affirmations out several times daily can also be effective, and can silently affirming in your head.

I have a friend who is in immense pain daily and finds sleep almost impossible. This deepens her depression and a cycle of ill health, poor self esteem and depression is set up. Now I almost dread asking her how she is because she will surely tell me everything that is wrong. One of the things I can best do for her is talk to her about the power of affirmations, let her read about it and offer her one or two affirmations she can use or adapt to suit. I can also refuse to engage in more negative talk - with her understanding of supporting her becoming better. That is the best gift I can give her. Plus I can support her motivation to do this daily if she decides that this is worth trying when all else has failed.

My blessings for today are:
1. I am so grateful to Catherine for her wisdom and teaching. I honour her and commit to following through with my daily affirmations.
2. For when I am feeling dumb and disempowered in my learning Ichoose instead to affirm with "I am letting divine intelligence think through me. I know. I remember. I understand. I express myself perfectly." I am grateful to that divine intelligence for perfect understanding and expression.
3. I am grateful for the understanding that allows me to start using today in a practical way, the learnings I took from the course I was on today.

Personal Development and Success
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Fear and negative beliefs- the battle within oneself

Fear is just one, but a mighty big one , of those emotions that robs us of our potency in achieving successful outcomes in our lives. 'What's there to fear if you're being successful?' you say. Everyone wants to succeed, right? The problem is it often for most of us comes with big, scary questions.
What if I can't keep it up?
What if I screw up?
What if I'm lonely?
What if I'm hated?
What if they turn me down?

I'm so tired of opening the newpapers and seeing mega 'stars' turned into mush. I can't begin to understand what demons must beset them. And what does it say to the rest of us? What do we have to give up to succeed and are we willing to pay the price? Even if we are not talking about living the life and pressures of mega stardom. What has their success cost them?

What is fearful for you might well be different for me. So I conclude that there is something within me or you as individuals that's blocking our paths. I believe at core, that has something to do with limiting beliefs about ourselves which we've doubtless been carry around for years and that is driving how we behave and what we achieve.

Beliefs have such a powerful impact on our outcome, either empowering us or impeding us from actions we will need to take to achive out goals, to attract or repel success. These beliefs will have come to us from diverse significant sources - from our childhood, parents, friends, society in general, media, religion and many more. They can often become crystalised into statements like

• I am not good enough
• Money is evil
• Successful people are ruthless
• I can't make it, I'm a girl/black/gay/disabled/blah, blah

And we seem so often to feed off the negative ones though there are also plenty of positive ones that can also drive our success.

• You can do whatever you set your mind to
• You are excellent in yourself

etc.

But because we tend to focus on the negative ones, at the sweet smell of success, we become quite clever at sabotaging ourselves one way or another. Ask any dieter.

So how do we deal with our fears and limiting beliefs that block us? There are many ways, but the place to start is to become more aware of the messages we are feeding ourselves; listen to what we are saying to ourselves. What's the message, the recurring thought, the limiting belief?

Then, we have to drop the thought of wishing we didn't feel afraid. We can instead of fighting it with "No, no, I'm not/don't want to be, feeling terrified or depressed or anxious or whatever", be willing to accept the experience - for now.

That may seem contradictory for are we not trying to get rid of this stuff? The thing is , what we resist, persists. Far better to say to ourselves "I'm feeling fear/depression/ guilt/jealousy and I accept this feeling that it is an OK feeling for right now. Accept that this is the feeling while choosing not to indulge in it. 'What???' you say? How can I accept feeling this scary stuff? That's no fun! The thing is not to fight it for as we know "what we resist, persists."

There is a power to accepting your feelings whatever they are and the amazing thing is that once you have done so, you've ceased fighting with it and its stranglehold in your life can begin to dimminish and fade away. However, this cannot be the end because we then have to replace that with some kind of action that reinforces a move to a more successful direction.

An example of this would be if you were crippled by anxiety and fear about speaking in public, you would instead acknowledge the feeling and choose to do the opposite action that the feeling tells you to do, i.e. to run away. The more often you do this, the less fear and anxiety will impede you. Its the old saying - 'Feel the fear but do it anyway.' Thank you Susan!

See what is, accept what is, and refocus on appropriate and opposite action.

Today's blessings
1. I am grateful for the things I have learnt today in various trainings that have expanded my mind and given greater clarity to my actions. They have provided me with tools for empowerment.
2.Warmth, acceptance and love in my family
3. Michelle's presence and friendship

Personal Development and Success
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What do I most want my life to be?

Suppose for a moment you could peep into the future and see your life in 5 years time, what would it look like? And suppose if instead of more of what you have now, or just a bleak prospect of getting older, you could have woven and created the life you desired, become the person you want to be? Is that a delicious thought?

Yes, dream on, I heard the skeptic say. And that's exactly what I mean to continue doing. The point is this is not just creating some Walter Mitty dream that remains in the realms of fantasy. I could just dream and drift - even though that can be fun too. The point is I mean to get there, where I'm planning to go so I can have more of the life I mean to have.

First I dream, then I plan my goals, then I dream some more but with more definition and intensity. Now I know just where I'm going. I have a direction and can start taking the appropriate actions, little by little towards having the life I desire. Again I quote the chinese proverb -The journey of a thousand mile begins with a single step.

Today that may be the pulling together of a plan of a internet marketing mastermind group, contacting all the relevant people, making a proposal for the formulation of the group and programming myself for working with this group. Step 2 done. Today I've also been on a training course on the 7 Cs of Consulting which will enhance my coaching/consulting skills. Step 3. I've booked myself onto other personal development trainings for the coming weeks. Step 4.
For me its about dreaming my life, planning, making a committment, taking action and following through.

Noone said its all going to be plain sailing. Obstacles are thrown up from time to time. Life has time pressures for me as anyone else. But I keep going, doing what I can do, recognising what I can't do for today and not give myself a hard time if I can't do it all.

"Do, or do not. There is no try." -Yoda. The Empire Strikes back

My blessings for today
1 The health of my family is good. That's great for me at many levels, one being it frees me from time having to be a carer as well as freedom from worry and concern. This is an enormous blessing.
2.The wealth of personal material available to me at the click of a mouse, touch of a button from Success University. This healps me on my personal journey towards the achievement of my goals.
3. A moment of fun and laughter with my son.

Personal Development for Success
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Goal Setters Succeed

Setting goals, shaping our dreams, provides us with a focus for our ambitions and guides us in the actions we need to take to achieve our ambitions. Whether short or long term, they provide the vision we need to succeed.

Now I admit I have some difficulty in setting my goals within a SMART framework for if I were to be Realistic (the R in Smart), I don't think I'd get much beyond very limiting goals. How realistic is it to think I too can become worth a million within X timeframe, or climb the highest mountain, or go to the moon? Not very you'd think. But that never stopped others from dreaming BIG and setting their goals to a very high level. We'd never have got off the ground if that was the fate of mankind - to accept limitations and settle for less.

Just about every source material on successful living will talk about how important it is to set goals. Not what we think we can, get but what we want. And not just think them in our heads but to write them down. We have to link these with the values that we hold dear and feel a real sense of purpose ( why its important for us to do, be or have what we aspire to) so we can become inspired and move more easily and with real motivation towards the actions that will get us there.

Whatever our passions whether its learning to swim or exploring the depths of the oceans its going to help to be able to :

• reflect and evaluate
• decide what we want
• Write down our goals - this is imensely powerful
• be SMART
• have accountability (having someone or some value that will hold you accountable for the actions you take in striving for the goals)

Best to give yourself some uninterrupted time every now and then when your mind can have the space for quiet reflection. Take a good hard look at where you are in your life right now and write it down. This is your baseline from which you can project forward. When you look back, you'll know that this is where you started out.

Now imagine your timeline stretching right out in from of you and project yourself forward to
1 month
6 months
1 year
3 years
5 years
10 years
What do you want to be happening in your life then?

For me there is a mixture of family, financial, health, career, prosperity, personal development, social and recreational goals. I know when I have written the first 50, I keep thinking of yet another one and another one till I can get to near enough a hundred. Breaking it down into areas is a useful devise for this.

Its particularly helpful to look at these goals often and also to do a lot of visioneering or imaging the achievement of these goals. I'll come back to this later. I'd like another time to share especially what Catherine Ponder has to say on this aspect of having goals.

My Blessings for today:
1. My son came to kiss me goodbye as I was speaking to a friend and she was thrilled to think he would still come by to do this. It made me really appreciate having a loving relationship with him that can express itself in this way.
2. I was really frustrated trying to do some things on the computer today but you know at the end of the day I just got it. All right it felt like I'd wasted a lot of time but in the end I had advanced my own learning. I am grateful for what I can learn.
3.I was glad to make the connections again with someone I hadn't been connected with for a long time. That was a blessing for the both of us.

To all our success. Personal Development with Success.
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What in the name of God?

I started to read Catherine Ponder's book The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity today and boy does it have me buzzing! Gears inside my head are clicking into place wonderfully and the thing I was particularly arrested by was the biblical references to prosperity. I knew from recent other encounters that there was more than one interpretation of many biblical references to wealth and prosperity but I suddenly started to really take it in.

Now I'm not a religious person but hold my own brand of spirituality. I was however steeped from my childhood in religious doctrine which in later years I came to 'reject' while leaving me with some basic moral principles well ingrained. Somehow I always figured that to be wealthy or even to aspire to it was surely an unworthy or unpious thing to do. Actually I never gave thought to aspiring to it at all. Who came up with that notion?

Was there something I read about it being easier for a camel to pass through the eye of an needle than for rich man to get into the kingdom of god? Blessed are the poor. Give away all you have and become poor. That was the unvarnished message I grew up with. In other words, have wealth and be condemned to an eternity in hell. You might guess what messages were engraved in my brain. Limiting beliefs about what the universe had in store for me if I lifted my head above a certain level of financial security or desire.

And here is Catherine, saying again the words I have been hearing oft enough recently. THERE IS NOTHING SPIRITUAL ABOUT POVERTY. That sounds so good I'll say it again.

THERE IS NOTHING SPIRITUAL ABOUT POVERTY.

And then you start to look again at what the bible was really saying and suddenly there are messages of a completely different kind to wonder at from old familiar texts. How come it took me so many years to wake up to this? Now Catherine is clearly a woman with a strong belief in God but I have no problem with translating that to a wider universal consciousness outside myself. I really don't mind what this is called.

It is freeing to realise that not only are we not condemned by this other consciousness for reaching for prosperity, but that the universe is abundant for all of us and it is our right to strive for and achieve prosperity. We don't have to feel guilty for such aspirations. It is in fact a spiritual blessing to be so and the greater sin is to live in poverty- for that way lies wars, crime, addictions, delinquency, ill health, depression, desease, suicide and much more. That way lies hell.

With prosperity there is so much good that you can do for yourself and for others. With it comes taking care of all our physical needs and living more fully mentally and spiritually. The bible is full of references to living this life - words I heard or read as a youngster but had not a clue how to make sense of. Now I must reevaluate such words as:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
But Thou shalt remember Jevovah thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth
I will remember Jehovah God for he it is that giveth me power to experience wealth

Catherine states that the bible shows that we have not been pleaseing God by settling for lack or limitation any more than we have been pleasing ourselves. God, or the Universe is the source of all riches (in the very widest sense of richness). "And he shall be like a stream planted by the streams of water, that bringth forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also doth not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

So I end today with one of Catherine's affirmations. "I stir up the gifts of God within me and around me, and I am blessed on every hand with happiness, success and true achievement."

My Blessings for today:
1. My son came today to nestle in bed with us for a cuddle and a chat. And it was good.
2. There was abundant food on the table and I am thankful for its supply.
3. There was rich autumn sunshine and a clear sky overhead. I had the urge to do some long overdue clearances and cleaning. I believe in the Law of Vacuum!

Prosperity and Success thinking
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The Learning Curve

Educating ourselves is where we start to grow in health, spiritually and in wealth; where we start to change our future; where we learn to become successful in whatever we do. And when we're done with school, there's all the stuff that opens doors that we can teach ourselves or learn from others who've been this way before us. And its never been easier than it is today to access the learning in so many different forms.

Benjamin Franklin said "If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest." That's one of the reasons that led me to join Success University, that so much personal development material was available for me on tap 24/7, to study. to learn, to grow and this blog is part of that process as it allows me to reflect here on some of the things I am learning as I go on my journey of being the successful person I aspire to.

When I attended Topher Morrison's Mental Game of Life seminar recently he recommended a book called The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity by Catherine Ponder. Well it has just arrived and I am. It looks a great read and I can see where Topher developed a lots of ideas from. I am committed to reading at least 4 chapters by the next mastermind group so that's an incentive if I need one to get cracking with it. I will share some of the insights I glean on the blog and that will provide me with another incentive to keep reading.

My blessings for today:
1. For friends who came round to watch the rugby bringing their friendship, allotment vegetables and warm companionship. To be able to share good food with them was a pleasure.
2.That the blocked drain outside was not so damaging that we could not fix it ourselves saving some expense and emotional energy
3. A weekend at home without external demands is unusual these days and I am thankful to have that this weekend.

Persoanl Development with Success
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Keeping On Keeping On

I missed yesterday. I'd had to go to a meeting and by the time I got back I was so weary, I couldn't make it to the computer. My commitment to myself was to be here daily but I'm not going to beatmyself up too much about missing the day. And I think that's it with moving forward, its that you sometimes have to step back in order to give something else back to yourself - like a breather.

Matt Morris says that if you are experiencing interruptions and challenges in your life, that can be good because it brings opportunities to ask questions, learn, shift priorities, adjust, grow. The important thing I think is to pick up your focus again and keep on keeping on. If you've ever been on a diet, you'll know what I mean. The temptation to throw in the towel because you've gone too far one day can be very real and make a dent in your determination to keep going.

Well today I felt the first really cold bite of winter, and we're not even done with autumn yet. I will resist the temptation to hibernate and keep going.

My gratitudes for today:
1. Heck, however cold I get, I bet there are many millions freezing their socks off without the capacity to keep themselves warm. I do have that and I am thankful for it.
2. My book the Dynamic Laws of Prosperity finally arrived today so I can get reading as I have committed to with my mastermind group.
3.I am thankful for vinegar as a home remedy. This one seems to be really working.

Personal Development with Success
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Fear of Success

One of the big barriers to success is fear. Many of us fear being succesful. How dumb is that you say but then we start throwing out a few sabotaging questions.
How will that change my life? Scary... unknown...
What impact wil it have on my friendships, or family life?
What if I lose what I have?
What sort of person will I become? (Successful people are ruthless, always busy, selfish, pushy, don't have time for themselves or their relationships etc....)
What if I make the wrong decision?
Can I make the commitment that doing something different requires of me? (Am I good enough?)

It is questions like these, often lurking just below the surface of our thinking that can freeze us from taking the steps we need to become more successful or cause us to sabotage our own success (never finishing, always late, procarstinating, looking for perfection, being disorganised).

The truth is, without some fear we could end up making some costly mistakes, and some fear can be positively protective. We are born with 3 instinctive fears -falling, loud noises and abandonment. The rest we have acquired along life's way sometimes clouding our actions and out beliefs.

If I ask myself if I have at times allowed fear to keep me from pursuing what I wanted I would have to say, hand on heart, a resounding yes, many times over. Lets see.... fear of rejection that caused me to not pursue a relationship, fear of what others might think if I opened my mouth to speak in a meeting, fear of looking the fool etc. My fear tends to stick in my throat like I was bunged up inside with cotton wool or go running round in anxious little knots in my stomach. Have I let fear cause me to sabotage my success? Yes!

But consider this, when we 'feel the fear but do it anyway' how that transforms us! When we can expose our core fears, they seem to have less of a hold on us. And what are those core fears? Lisa M in Conquer Fear says there are but 2 - Fear of Success when your experiences are around committment, responsibility, change and growing up, and Fear of Failure when your anxieties are around rejection, confrontation, loss and not measuring up

The first - Fear of Success - have negative beliefs that express themselves with statements like:
Success has to be hard.
Its lonely at the top.
I'll become an egotist if I become successful.
People expect a lot from me

The second - Fear of Failure - have negative expressions such as:
If I say no people won't like me.
If I don't finish then I won't fail
I have nothing valuable to offer
I've got to do it perfectly or its not worth doing at all

And the thing that fuels the fears? Negative self limiting beliefs! It stands to reason that reexaming my beliefs about myself and acting 'as if', in spite of the fears are going to help me score a victory for success, determine how I use my opportunities and whether I will attract those things in my life that will help me to succeed.

So here's a challenge I am setting for myself - to make time each day for positive self talk that affirms my belief in myself (e.g. in believing that I am excellent as I am) and to take action around one thing that I have found fearful in the coming week. You heard it here first.

My appreciations for today

1. Those people who have somewhere in my life believed in me enough to give up something of themselves to nurture my growth - like Miss Kirby to whom I am grateful for the help she gave me as a struggling 17/18 year old
2. My husband for his support and encouragement
3. For free fruit from the hedgerows and the abundance of delectable fruit the earth provides for us all - especially mangos, custard apples, pineapples, bananas, gauvas, jackfruit....I could go on!

I have followed through on the remaining contribution I wanted to make.

Personal Development with Success
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Influences, Associations and Success

Who in my life is pulling me back or assisting me in becoming successful?The chances are great that we are all hugely and subtly being influenced in how we behave, think and even feel by the people we tend to associate with. Yes most of us act like sheep a lot of the time and do not even realise extent of influence of e.g. the news we read or listen to or the people we have in our lives.

Key questions to ask are:

• Who do I surround myself with?

• What impact do these associations have on my life including what I wear, eat, activities I indulge in, read, listen to, think about myself, others, world issues and the like, how I behave towards others, what kind of flooring I have in my house, my attitude towards money or debt, whether or not I have a spiritual belief and a host of other things

• Are these associations and influences OK for me? Are they moving me in a positive or a negative direction?

• Am I allowing myself to be the person I want to become or am I being overwhelmed by the influence of others?

If there are influences or associations holding me back from getting to where I want to go, I have options for dealing with them
1. As hard as it may seem, we may have to cut or really limit our assoications with negative people. Yes I know its difficult if say its within the family, at work or people you've known a long time, but there are choices you have to make to preserve the quality of your life

2.Find and spend more time with people who are successful at whatever level in the way you would like to be.This isn't always easy either - you have to find these people, and consider yourself worthy of association with them but if you want to get where you want to go this could be one of the apt way of expanding your circle of influence.

Nothing succeeds like success. As you start to move forward, you start to attract others and become a source of influence yourself and in the meantime, we have to take the chance of initiating contact with people from whom we want to learn who can mentor, guide, teach and influence in a positive and inspiring way. And that may mean they sometimes have to tell it the way it is, both good and bad.

Well, I achieved 2 out of 3 contributions from yesterday and I'm OK with that. I'll do the other tomorrow. Meantime my blessings for today are:
1 A great meal for the family
2. Feeling pleased with myself for the confidence I showed in a meeting today
3. Successful outcomes for a client

Personal Development with Success
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Tithing for prosperity

One of the exercises Jim Rohn proposes in his Personal Development Plan in Success University in becoming the person you want to be a year from now, is that each day for a week you do at least one selfless act for someone. This is actually a very enabling thing to do but the use of the word selfless is also a paradoxical one to me because making a contribution in whatever way feels right for us is one of the Laws of Prosperity which means it benefits us enormously in turn, increasing our own prosperity many times over.

Tithing for example is not just about giving money (a tenth of what you have, ten being the magic power of increase). It is certainly a concept of giving, not getting, and giving of yourself boldly. When we give we need to do so with the right vibrational energy and never out of a sense of guilt. What vibration do you give when you donate? I confess to still feeling guilty when I pass by someone selling Big Issue. Many questions crowd in about whether or not I should. Whichever way I do it ,I feel bad, so whatever energy I am vibrating you can be sure its not so good. If we want to increase our own abundance (what goes around, comes around), we will get zero results giving with guilt.

Therefore we need to give with love and to choose wisely to whom we give. Topher Morrison in the Mental Game of Life recommends selecting a recipient, individual or organisation, committed to evolving humankind and to give systematically - and in secret. Lack of systematic giving leads to lack of systematic receiving. Everyone has something to give - time for someone, a kind word, a smile, a helping hand, a telephone call, and much more.

Tomorrow I will make a special effort in my giving to others that will light up their lives in some way and in turn, light up my own.

Blessings for today
1. For returning home from work safely despite the intensity of the traffic
2. For being able to make a difference in others' lives by being available to actively listen to them
3. For being able to eat well and healthily today

Personal Development and Prosperity
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Planning for Success

Do you know the saying 'If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got.' This is an invitation to start doing something different if we want amore successful outcome than we have already. The results we get is only as good as the plan we have and the execution of that plan. The steps we take may be small indeed but - another saying - the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And with it comes discipline and commitment to take the next step and then the next. So knowing what we want, our dreams, goals and ambitions, working out a plan and going for it even if we can't yet see the whole scenario of how things are to be accomplished will make a big difference between success and failure.

We have to work the plan that fits in with our syles and our personalities, e.g. whether we like a lot of detail or to be more free thinking. So it helps to have a plan that is going to work for us, to establish committed times to take the necessary actions, to keep a log of what we are doing, recording our actions, goals or dreams and for reflection on what we've done already and learnt.

• Take the time to dream and imagine what liife might be like 6 months, one year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years from now.
• Relate those dreams to all areas of your life such as health, finances and prosperity, relationships, career, family. What do you want to see happening in these areas?
• Write down at least 3 things in any one area that will contribute to advancing yourself in that area where you are currently not getting what you want. For example, in the area of health you might commit tomorrow to eating one fruit of your choice if you are not used to having any and walking for 10 minutes only round the block. A feeling that this is achieveable and reasonable is more likely to lead to a feeling of success and something you can build on.
• Celebrate your achievements however small - even a pat on the back will do.
• Practice mentally seeing yourself doing and being what you desire to have achieved. This is a great one for programming your subconscious for success.
• It helps to start being around others who share your visions and can help you stay on track. This is one of the reasons I am part of a mastermind group.

I made several committments in my mastermind group for actions I will do within the next month that seem very doable. They include my reading of a particular book - at least 2 chapters, beginning a Success University online course on Network Marketing, reading and understanding a business opportunity and developing my blog. I know I will have to account for these actions by the next mastermind meeting and have no doubt that that will motivate me to ensure I get them done.

If you didn't have a mastermind group there may be other creative ways of keeping accountable such as telling someone else what you are planning to do and asking them to check on you within a period of time or use a carrot and stick approach of some painful or pleasure consequence of taking action - and of course sticking to it.

My blessings for today are:

1.I was so thankful to my partner to return home to find a meal prepared and waiting for me and enormously grateful for knowing where my next meal is coming from.

2. The roses keep coming out, even at this time of the year and that's a real delight for me, and of course the autumnal colouring all around is particularly wonderful. I thank the universal spirit that I am free to enjoy such sights.

3. I am thankful to the people in my mastermind group who keep me focused and accountable and contribute to my personal development.

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Personal Development - The First Pillar of Success

Life's a journey and developing myself is part of that journey that will continue till I die. What must I do to improve myself in many areas of my life? There are some people who do not concern themselves with this question and yet many thoughtful people know they must continue to evolve their lives in any way they can.

We can't separate success in one area like financial success from success in other areas. Consider for example someone who works hard to build a fortune but falls prey to ill health or loses his/her relationships with family and friends along the way. What kind of life is that? How is that success to be measured? Success is a whole life - physical, mental, spiritual.

If I want real success in my life, I have to get clear about certain important questions:

• How clear am I about the goals or dreams I want to reach?
• How can I change the less desirable parts of myself?
• How can I make a difference in the world?
• What new potentials and possibilities exist for me in this life?
• What plan can I make to realise my goals?
• Who or what can help or influence my personal growth?
• What learning possibilities exist for me to successfully achieve my goals?

It does require the discipline of daily steps towards your goal. Writing this blog is a discipline for me. Keeping on going even when times are hard requires effort. Sometimes it looks easier to just stop. Ask anyone who's ever tried to diet. Remember successful people are willing to do what unsuccessful people are not. To go the extra mile.

What am I here making the committment to do? Some pointers for our success:

• To read more - at least one personal development book per month. I have just ordered The Dynamic Laws of Prosperty by Catherine Ponder and it is my goal to get reading as soon as it arrives. It comes much recommended as one of the great books on prospering in our lives.
• To daily look at my dream board/goals to keep them focused in my mind. Its much easier to do now I have it above my computer
• To persevere even when its hard to do so. Like doing this blog daily or to daily consider 3 blessings. The difficulty is always having too much to do or being tired out of my brain. I will keep my son in mind as an inspiration.
• To take action however small to advance my goals. As a member of a mastermind group, I have the advantage of being accountable not only to myself but to the group. One small action I will do today is to have a look at a recommended site for website development.

My gratitudes for the day are:
1. I met with 3 other old school friends today that I haven't seen for about a year. I am grateful for their continued friendship. Hilary, Stella, Barbara - thank you.
2. When I came home my son flew into my arms and gave me the warmest of hugs and kiss. I am grateful for his love.
3. A little child of about 2 years old smiled and waved at me as I waited for the train today and I returned it. I am grateful for that child's innocent acceptance and friendliness.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES WITH SUCCESS UNIVERSITY
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Part of Being a Winner

Part of being a winner is understanding that successful people do what unsuccessful people are unwilling to do. That means not finding excuses for not taking action, not procrastinating, doing what has to be done, commiting yourself to making things work for you, to learning the skills and to keep going in spite of how tough it gets sometimes.

My son for example constantly astonishes me. He's just 15 and studing hard with his schoolwork. He has a dream to become a footballer, as you do, but I am gobsmacked at his discipline in improving his physical fitness on a daily basis. His schoolwork is pretty demanding at times and he gets exhausted by the end of the day, sometimes so tired he can barely rouse himself to get to bed yet no amount of trying to persuade him otherwise can convince him that he should forgo doing his nightly exercises just for tonight. No excuses.

Now I don't know if he will ever make it to becoming a footballer but I'm pretty sure he will be a winner in whatever he chooses to do with his life. His persistence, committment, determination and sheer hard work works for him and is an inspiration to us his parents. He is a winner to me whatever and I draw strength from his example.

My blessings today concern him.
I am grateful for his loving presence and quiet strengths
I appreciate all he has to teach me about living and loving
I am thankful that he is old enough now to take care of himself before I get home from work

I will be sharing what I am learning from Success University in future blogs about the pillars of success starting with the first pillar -personal development

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Prosperity Thinking

Well, I did it. Finally my dream board is up and I can hold me head up in the masermind group this weekend. Plus I tackled another one of my incompletions - my seminar notes I want to present to the group. Phew, and that feels good.

One of the rules of prosperity I've just been writing about is the Rule of Energy. It goes something like this:
We need to manifest a certain level of energy to create abundance
It takes energy to make energy
Don’t confuse energy with effort
More effort = less energy
More energy = more effortless things are

How do you get the energy?

Incompletions drain our energy and completions restore energy to our psyche. Strategies to get complete include :
Complete it – not the easiest but the most powerful thing to do. Boy it sure felt good finishing those 2 tasks I mentioned earlier, so the level of energy I am vibrating is quite different from the time when I had it all hanging over my head.
Schedule time to complete
Declare it completed. Simply say "I have done with this." while eliminating it from your 'to do' list.

Some of the other ideas I've been working on based on Topher Morrison's Seminar The Mental Game of Life include:

The Rule of Contributions.
Giving of yourself is not just about donating money. When we give we have to do so with the right vibrational energy. Most people donate out of guilt. We will get zero results or we will feel guilty when we receive money. Giving should be done with love and abundance and in return
we would be surprised at what we receive back, like Wisdom and Judgement in using the rest of what we have or the ease with which we meet your obligations. With 10% tithing for example, our 90% goes farther than our 100% would have and we might wonder why we didn’t do it sooner. Lack of systematic giving leads to lack of systematic receiving and if we resent giving, we resent yourselves because we are all one, we are all connected. In selecting a recipient, the individual or organisation should be committed to evolving humankind in some manner.
See everything as spiritual.What matters is the energetic vibration behind the giving (not out of guilt but with joy). Its also sacred and sacred means secret. You don’t have to tell everyone.

The Rule of Emanation
This concerns how we affected by what we are giving out how jealousy, envy (of others' success), resentment and self pity can damage our capacity to prosper. One of the steps Topher recommends as essentail to our success is radical forgiveness. Negative emotions block our energy but radical or absolute forgiveness radically changes the quality of our lives and leads to greater success. How many people do we hold grudges on? Parents, past freinds, work colleagues and yes I've done them all. What a lot of mental energy is spent doing so. It is time to move on and I will come back to this subject in another posting.

My gratitudes for today
1.The large bunch of beautiful yellow roses I received two days before our anniversary
2. Life and liberty to express my thoughts freely
3. The lessons I have learnt from painful or hurtful situations and relationships from the past that give me the opportunity to grow.

To all our success
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Success and tha Law of Attraction

What you think about or conceive, and believe in, you can bring about. That is the secret of the Law of Attraction. That's quite an imposing statement and some may say nonsensical - and actually quite terrifying without clarification. What if I'm thinking about a storm or having an accident or someone dying, does that mean I have the power to bring it about?

The thing is my mind like yours is like an ocean teaming with variety of the impressively beautiful and the terrifyingly scary. Sometimes with billions of bits of information each second zipping through me although. We choose to delete all but a miniscule proportion of that or else we'd go a little crazy. And the thoughts I have left, I have to take care of. When I think about it, I have to stop unwanted obtrusive garbage from building up. What if there was a way to eliminate the useless and accelerate the more empowering ones?

Well the thing is its not enough to stop thinking junky stuff like "I'm not good/smart/beatuiful/whatever enough." I -we -have to replace them with opposing thoughts and build on these repeatedly until our subconscious mind has internalised and accepted them. The more practice, the better. All our success is related to our thought processes, to the right mental attitude. Think junk and I create junk. Think success and my reticular activating system starts to scan the universe for how I can make this a part of my life.

One of the way I can accelerate this process is to create a dream board. Its been on my action plan to do since my last mastermind group and now with the next one looming and the accountability I must show in the group, I now have to put it at the top of my priorities and before another blog posting gets done I will have completed it. After all, my thought is

• I am a person who succeeds
• I take action to get things done
• I orient my thoughts to my goals
• I put my focus on my success

Starting today I will make a collage of the things I dream about. That will be fun and a very visible reminder each day of what I am working towards. I will place it where I can see it every day and make a point of taking my focus specifically and exactly to where I want it. A picture they say paints a thousand words. I am not concerned with the how of making things happen. I just know they will. I am a person who succeeds.

To all our success!
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The True Secret to Success is Desire

I couldn't get to the computer yesterday and returned home late from a network meeting. I told them my dream and got laughed out of court metaphorically. For a while I was thrown into doubt with my tail curling between my legs, and had to work hard to steel my resolve. I promise in a year from now to return singing "They all laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the world was round ... but Ha Ha Ha, who's got the last laugh now!"

Don't we all dream about the great things we are going to achieve in our lives? And many of us end up settling for less. But you know what, there are those who don't - they keep on dreaming and then they take those opportunities to make those dreams come true when they arise. And they recognise those opportunities because that's where they've been putting their focus all along.

The true secret to success is desire, and desire is a product of our dreams. Napoleon Hill said in Think and Grow Rich that "Whatever the mind of man can concieve and believe, it can achieve." His study of a number of successful people revealed a common thread. They were all dreamers who nurtured their dreams sometimes for years. How they must have laughed at the Wright Brothers, or Edison or Ford. What crazy notions did they have! Well, who's laughing now??

We all can have dreams. Big ones too. I choose now to believe in the power of my dreams And I realise this won't happen overnight. Not a lot of dreams do.

Three things I can do right now -

• Write down my dreams (there is immense power in writing)
• Assert my belief that it will happen
• Visualise my dreams

Conceive. Believe. Achieve.

Here are but a few:

• Build a powerful team in Success University
• Pay off my mortgage
• Pay for the necessary operations for at least 2000 children whose lives are to be transformed through the gift of sight and cleft pallet repair
• Provide opportunities for my partner to have much choice about what work he does or indeed if he does
• Improve the quality of life for my sister
• Become an able saxophone player

Now to visualise with stereo surround and full blazing colour! That will help me to crystalise those dreams in my mind. I close my eyes .........and I already have those things I desire. I am training my subconscious mind to believe I already have what I desire. I ......am...... Success!

And today I am grateful for the security and comfort of my home, for my son's self motivation and determination to succeed with his schoolwork so I never have to prod him and that's an enormous saving of energy and bad vibes for me, and finally when I looked out the window today there were not 1 but 2 beautiful pink roses lighting up a corner of the garden and that really cheered me.

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Successful Actions Follow on First From a Successful Mindset

If we want our lives to be successful, guess what? We have to first have a mindset that is programmed for success.. In other words, our vision of ourselves, our imagining, our motivations our thoughts are all tuned into being the successful person we want to become.

Most people find it hard to keep a very clear vision of where they want to be in their lives. We simply get by, doing the usual stuff we have to do, getting on with the job in hand, cleaning the house, taking care of the children, perhaps finding some odd moments of entertainment and pleasure. That's the ordinary reality of our lives and that's where our vision stops.

But we have to learn to change that vision if we want to achieve even better results in our lives and that starts from a fundamental belief level that we deserve something better and that could be a more fulfilling relationship, greater level of peace of mind, earnings far in excess of what we have currently and so on. The hard part is to get our subconscious mind to believe that what we have in your lives right now is not just it, but something more.

The conscious mind is not nearly as powerful as the subconscious mind. So we have to train our subconscious minds to accepting a new belief about ourselves and of what we are worth. One of the ways to do this is to create a vision statement of exactly what we want our lives to look like and say it out loud every day.

Make it specific and allied with the our values, something that will inspire us and be the best we can imagine for ourselves.

And here's another trick for the mind that can accelerate the process. To say it as if it has already happened and add the emotion we would expect to feel if we had that thing we desired.

So something like "Its 31st of December 07 and I'm thrilled to be waking up full of energy, confidence and excitement as I'm getting ready to ....." Saying it daily will give our subconscious minds a clearer vision of what we want and instill a belief that we can make that happen. This very much connects in with the Law of Attraction - that what we think about, we can create in reality, that your thoughts become things.

Don't worry if you are currently lacking energy, confidence, excitement and the things you want to possess. Just try to say it 'as if' you had all that and your subconscious mind will start to remove the obstacles to creating that reality. You will become increasingly motivated to move towards that vision. This is one of the most powerful actions we can do for ourselves right now and something I am reminding myself to do as I write this.

"It is December 2008 and as I hold my bank statement in my hand I am quivering with excitement as I finally realise that my monthly earnings have finally equated with what I had been earning for one whole year. I am jumping for joy. And I thank Success University for the opportunity to make this happen."

My gratitudes for today?

The broad smile on my son's face as he finally achieves scoring a goal with his football team and that he shared this with me with a terrific hug and kiss.

I'm grateful for the chance to put some things into place in my knowledge of network marketing.

I really appreciate being able to stay in bed till nearly 10 today -quite unprecedented in a very very long time.

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How many times do you have to fail to be successful?

There's a story that Thomas Edison that great inventor and father of the lightbulb was asked by an assistant why after so many thousands of attempts of trying to develop a lightbulb, he did not just give in to his failure. Mr Edison is reported to have said that all his failures were in fact successes because at least he knew several thousand ways to not make a lightbulb work and he went on to achieve through his determination and persistence the results he sought which brought the benefits of electric light to the masses.

Thats a great story to inspire and motivate. How many times did we have to fall down as a toddler before we gave up trying to walk? We just kept on trying until we got the idea so that we didn't have to think about it any more. For Edison, failure was an important part of what led to success. Its a part of the learning process. But if failure doesn't teach us anything or if we simply stop trying, then success itself eludes us. I heard tonight a talk in which the speaker described success as a journey not a destination, paved with the cobblestones of failure.

I came to Success University to help me become both financially and more personally successful in many areas of my life and I'm so glad I found it. I also recognise that this is a journey and as I harness the determination and persistence of Edison, walking for a moment in his shoes, I know it is entirely realistic to succeed if I keep on going and enjoy the process of getting there.

The gratitudes I express here are part of this personal journey that lift my spirits and feeds back into my success. So when I expressed apppreciations to my son and partner last night it was great to see their glows and my son actually told me what a terrific mom he thought I was! Success indeed!

Today I am grateful for the time I had to listen to the study programmes I am using. I got a good way along with that and had no interruptions the whole day. I appreciate the peace and quiet. And I'm glad for my family too that Leeds had another football win. They'll be so cheerful when they get back tonight!

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What's an Attitude of Gratitude got to do with Success?

One of the things that can catapult us an arena of success is developing a mindset where we notice and give thanks for the things that are already in our lives. Doing this on a regular basis encourages us to notice more of the everyday things that are great about our lives. The things we might otherwise take for granted like the liberty to speak our minds, the people who love , care for and support us, for always knowing where the next meal is coming from, to be able to hear an amazing birdsong, for coming home safely from work despite the traffic problems, for being able to flick a switch and get light, heat, power so we can do a million other things that enhance our lives.

When we start to appreciate what we have we begin emitting an energy that draws more positive things into our lives. Wallace Wattles in The Science of Getting Rich writes about the Law of Gratitude as one of the fundamental components of a richer life. Showing appreciation is just simple infectious. It spreads around us and we become a magnet for more good things happening. It helps us put our problems into perspective and to express the joy of living. What we put our focus on will surely manifest more clearly in our lives. We will get more of it. That's successful living.

So today before I go to bed I will thank my son for being wonderful and just himself, my partner for his embraces and for being such a supportive listener, and for some higher power for the gift that is autumn with its astonishingly beautiful colours and the sunshine that lingers still.

One of things I have been getting from being part of Success University is a wealth of personal development resources that continue to enable me to develop with success as a person. I want to share some of these in this blog. I am grateful for this online education that lets me grow and build a financial future at the same time.
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Greatest triumphs

Even on a day when nothing much seems to happen I need to remind myself about even the smallest things that counts as blessings. And then I realise they're not that small after all but a major triumph.

How about 'I have no health concerns at the moment'. Money cannot buy that.

How about 'My son still talks to me about his day at school.' Or 'I still get hugs and kisses with him.' Fantastic!

And one more for the road - 'The sun shone and cast a wonderful light over the garden.'

Blessings indeed. Success! Read more!

Success!

Yea! My first post on Blogger. I'll keep it short and sweet for now. For people who've been doing this blogging thing for years, its all as standard as having a cup of tea. What I primarily want to do on this blog is to share my journey with Success University as I connect into some of the greatest success minds on the planet and earn myself passive income in the process. Its a way to log my success as I develop my own mind and learn in such a simple and accessible way how to achieve success in so many areas of my life while I'm also earning an income doing so.

However I also want to celebrate what I already have in my life which are blessings from the simple to the more advanced. This is success to me also to be able to express gratitude for life's blessings. So here are 3 from today.

1 I am incredibly grateful for the time on my own today and the opportinity to direct my day's activities in whichever way I choose.
2. In a shaded area of my garden, a single pink rose has just opened up and was a delight to see
3. For the peacefulness and comfort of my family life I give thanks

Who else wants to join me at sucess university? I'd be delighted. http://yvonnem.successuniversity.com Read more!