Self Improvement and Law of Attraction Link Love, Volume 17

This week's self improvement and law of attraction information runs the gamut from productivity to happiness to visualization to wake up calls. Check it out! Link to Full Story

The New WWW: What’s Worth Wanting?

If you could have anything at all that you ever wanted, but you could only make one wish, what would you wish for?

QUICK! Don't think - just answer!

The problems start when we start thinking, which is where the whole process of getting what we want out of life starts to break down - almost immediately.

We are powered by our conscious minds which control all of the decisions that we make seemingly "on purpose," but our subconscious minds are the real powerhouse behind our thought processes - and thus - our results in life.

In the example above, you may have had a gut reaction to the question, like wanting a million dollars, or world peace, or the perfect mate, etc. However, as soon as your conscious mind started to analyze the situation, it immediately started throwing out reasons why you can't have whatever it is that you thought of.

So the challenge before you now is to ignore for the moment what you think you can have, and be totally honest with yourself about what you would want if you could literally have anything that you could imagine. Is it something Worth Wanting?

Dr. Rob Williams and Dr. Bruce Lipton are the founders of the amazing Psych-K system of destroying the self-limiting belief systems that are often responsible for holding us back from attaining our peak potential.

However, in an interview that Dr. Williams recently did with Kelly Howell of BrainSync.com, he explained that getting rid of self-limiting beliefs is just the first stage of personal development.

It isn't really that difficult for our conscious mind to grasp that unhealthy, unethical, or irresponsible practices are not good for us. However, many people fail because they are then stuck with answering the question of what it is that they do want.

Based on our almost instinctive ability to rationalize or use logic to determine whether or not it is even possible for us to attain any given goal, most human beings simply lack the internal programming needed to allow ourselves to believe that we can truly attain our most heartfelt desires.

So, rather than actually wanting to attain something that we have a burning desire for - something that we deem Worthy - we instead "settle" for what our internal programming says it is possible for us to actually get.

In the Psych-K workshops, Dr. Williams, Dr. Lipton, and several dozen other instructors around the world use a popular belief testing system called "muscle testing" to determine if the statements that we make about our lives are deeply rooted in the subconscious, or if those statements are just our conscious minds rationalizing and categorizing our beliefs about the world around us.

So, although this post is far from an infomercial for the Psych-K system (I've never been to one of their workshops), I do feel strongly about at least bringing up the very real truth that many people are going through their lives chasing after dreams that they think they can someday catch.

Knowing that is the case, ask yourself the following:

"If I could have anything that I wanted - no matter how far-fetched or unrealistic it seemed - what is worthy of me actually wanting it?"

When you have your answer, you'll also have a direction for your life.

Pretty cool, huh?

And then it all came crashing down…

Apocalypse: any universal or widespread destruction or disaster: i.e. - the apocalypse of nuclear war.

Skipping the non-biblical references (for the purpose of universal agreement on the term), the above definition of the word apocalypse should illustrate for you - dear reader - just what we are talking about here.

Or, to be more specific, we are talking about the end of all things here in the blogosphere:

What would you do if the concept of "blogging" was about to suddenly and completely go away forever? Would you shed a bitter tear? Would it matter to you at all?

More importantly, would you have succeeded in getting your message across to the people who needed to hear it??

These are the kinds of questions that have been asked by The Urban Monk in a group blogging project for charity that he has coined 'The Blog Apocalypse'.

Having started my own project called Simply Successful Secrets, and then also partnering with Alex Shalman for Gotta Get Goals, I was originally not very excited about the idea of running through this again.

However, The Blog Apocalypse has the potential to truly open up some hearts and minds about why people do what they do in the blogosphere, and more importantly - if you should even care!

So, with no further introduction, I invite you to check out The Urban Monk's instructions, and I implore you to see this as a chance to really learn something not just about bloggers, but about why you read what they write, and the Urban Monk will make a donation to charity just for you making the effort.

Also, if you see the value in this project as I have, you can participate by putting together your own apocalyptic blog scenario and sharing it with your readers! Here we go.

The end of the Blogosphere

Well, Grasshopper, it looks like you are finally going to be on your own.

I started this blog when I realized that blogging was the best way to consistently and easily share knowledge with you that would one day allow you to become empowered and self-reliant, and to embrace a true excitement about your life.

I have worked at attaining those goals by holding absolutely nothing back when I have written to you, and it is my sincere desire that you have recognized that fact as you have read my words.

When I taught you about the Law of Attraction, I gave you workable strategies for using that amazing belief system, but I kept it all grounded at the same time by maintaining an objective point of view whenever possible.

When I taught you the unlimited power of Gratitude, my own heartfelt gratitude should have jumped from the pages as you read those words, because I am truly grateful for you, for me, and for this existence as a whole.

When I taught you ways to consciously create your life, or to get rid of your self-limiting beliefs, it was my sincerest desire that you actually practice the methods that I taught you, and not just continue to cruise through your life without making the positive changes I knew you were capable of.

When I taught you about positive thinking, personal development, and self improvement, I truly gave you every bit of knowledge that I had, hoping that just one more word, or one more moment of clarity would help you to finally leap the barriers that you had put around yourself, and allow you to finally become the person that I always knew that you could be.

But, alas, our time has come to an end, Grasshopper, and you must now stand upon your own two feet, as my teachings will no longer be available to you.

As the blogosphere comes to an end, so to does my means of continuing to be a guiding force in your life. However, I walk away from this teaching post with neither a regret, a concern, nor even a tear, for I know that you have been taught well!

I know that this tome of knowledge - this "blog" - contains all of the answers that you will ever need in order to literally do whatever it is that you want to do with your life.

You can have, do, or be anything - and the knowledge of how to make that happen is indeed contained in the very pages that are before you at this moment.

So I will end my final message to you, Grasshopper, not with a final bit of a advice, one last nugget of wisdom, nor even a parting vote of confidence.

Those trinkets are unnecessary, because, you see, the power that is inside of you right now - the very knowledge that fuels your existence - has always been there.

My words simply helped you to awaken it.

Remember to seek not the advice of others, but to realize that your answers are - and always have been - right there inside of you.

It is up to you to let them out, Grasshopper.

I will not say Goodbye at this time, for we are all one, and I will most certainly see you "out there".

Create Life in Your Image!

Personal Development Roadblock: Are you specializing too soon?

Human beings have no shortage of motivation once they have decided to do something, but is it possible that you may be jumping the gun in your personal development efforts?

Most people get involved in a personal development or self improvement program with a very specific end-result in mind. For some people it is to lose weight, for some it is financial success, others are looking for fulfilling relationships, while some people are simply trying to figure out what to do with their lives.

However, in each case we tend to jump on the first great idea that comes to mind, thinking that this one concept or plan for success is going to be our ticket to fame, fortune, and happiness.

Now, that is not to say that any given idea won't serve as a huge step in the right direction. However, if you think about the original mission, you may realize that you have purchased your ticket to Success Land a bit prematurely:

PERSONAL development.

SELF improvement.

These terms say nothing of financial windfalls, incredible career opportunities, rapid weight loss, or romantic bliss. Those may be the results that you are looking for, but if you haven't "taken care of your own backyard" so to speak, the opportunities for success in those areas will still only lead you right back to where you were when you started.

People who suddenly find themselves with a lot of unexpected money almost always find a way to either lose that money very quickly, or to allow their lives to fall apart as a result of suddenly having a lot of cash, yet not knowing how to handle it.

People who hire a top-notch personal trainer and lose 50 lbs in 6 months tend to invariably end up putting the weight back on because it wasn't their own state of mind that allowed the weight loss, but rather the order-barking, non-yielding personal trainer who forced that person to clean up their act.

People who have consistently failed to maintain happy and fulfilling long-term relationships will continue to fail in that area of their life, even if they suddenly find themselves surrounded by an excessive amount of potential suitors. Until they figure out the self-destructive trigger that has caused them to sabotage past relationships, no amount of new relationship opportunities is going to change how they handle a new partner in their life.

Each of us carries around a nasty little virus called the Self-limiting Belief. It causes us to find ways to sabotage our own success, no matter how great of an opportunity or a learning experience is put before us.

Self-limiting beliefs cause us to shoot ourselves in the foot, as it were, to make sure that we are never able to cross the finish line of any success path that we put ourselves on.

The only way to ensure success - in any area of life - is to find out why we have failed to be successful in that area in the past, recognize our own shortcomings, and then take whatever action is appropriate to eliminate the self-limiting beliefs.

The irony of this situation is that once a self-limiting belief has been recognized, the mere act of recognizing it is often enough to eliminate it's negating effect on our lives.

If you want to practice personal development or self improvement, don't run right out and buy the newest program or system that is going to walk you from point A to point B to point C.

First, ask yourself why - deep down inside - you haven't already achieved success in that area.

When you have that answer, then it will be time to specialize in bringing that success into your life by finding the proper system for doing so.

Personal Development Sabotage: Playing the Blame Game

Blaming your lack of blissful happiness on anyone but yourself is a crutch - period.

This habit that human beings have of allowing people or circumstances to dictate the level of happiness in their lives boils down to nothing more noble than sheer laziness.

We always want to look at every situation like we did everything 100% perfectly, and if the situation did not turn out 100% perfectly, there most certainly must be someone else to blame for that.

It is certainly easier to find a flaw in another person or in the details of any given event than to admit the fact that we ourselves could have probably worked harder in order to manifest a more positive outcome to that event.

Believers in conscious creation, the Law of Attraction, and even Ho'oponopono will have no problem admitting that anything that has happened in their lives is there as a direct result of the things that transpired prior to that event.

However, you don't have to believe in or understand concepts such as those in order to admit that YOU are responsible for whether or not you are happy with your life. Here are some examples:

Blame: I can't get a good job because the economy is bad

Truth: No, you can't get a good job because you have not applied yourself enough. Maybe you need more education, maybe you need to work harder at the actual job search process, or maybe you just need to improve your self-confidence and attitude about the entire project. If your life depended on it, I bet you would find a way to get a good job.

Blame: I can't lost weight because I have poor metabolism and I don't have time to exercise and eat right.

Truth: Although genetics do play a role in the overall health of people, there is no genetic condition - including metabolic rate - that cannot be modified, and normally it can be done fairly easily.

As far as not having enough time, that it total crap. Every person who has ever lived has had 24 hours in their day. If they could do it, you can do it.

Blame: My spouse or significant other is completely unreasonable and is causing chaos in our home.

Truth: Your spouse or significant other could be a cold-blooded killer, but unless there is an actual danger to you or your children, you CHOOSE to allow that person to affect your life in a negative way.

Either step up to the plate and do what it takes to be happy with your situation, or leave the situation. And no, I don't want to hear "It's not that easy." Yes, it is.

I am going to stop with the Blame/Truth scenarios now, because if you are reading this with an open mind and an ear towards the truth, you have already absorbed and internalized this message.

However, on the other hand, if you are the "victim" in every scenario of life that you are finding less than perfect, no matter how many examples I give, you are still going to answer with the thought, "Yes, but…"

No buts. If you don't like an aspect of your life, then change it.

Will it be hard? Probably. Will it cause chaos in your life? Maybe. Will it cause you to make some hard choices, face some hard realities, and let go of some of the security that you have had in your life up to this point? Very likely.

Or, you could just do nothing and stay unhappy with your circumstances. After all, it is fast, easy, and sometimes even rewarding to point the finger at everyone else as being the cause for YOUR unhappiness.

If it's everyone else's fault, then by default, YOU must be perfect, right?

The Agony of Victory: Personal Development Breaking Point

This could very well be the single most important personal development concept that you are ever exposed to.

I give my wife full credit for saying the following, although I don't know if she originated the saying or not. Regardless of who the original author was, you would do well to read, remember, and internalize the following words:

In order for people to change, the pain of change must become less than the pain of staying the same.

That concept is so telling about why people do or do not achieve lasting self improvement results, and I want to thank Steve over at The Fast Lane for his post that reminded me to share that quote with my blog readers.

There are very few people (if any) who do not have dreams, ambitions, or fantasies about living a life that is an improvement over their present life in some way. Although we should all be living in and enjoying every single moment, this urge to move forward is a part of the very evolution of our species.

Why, then, do so many people fail to make the positive changes that they want so desperately?

The answer is so simple and has been in plain sight all along: It is simply easier for a person to stay where they are and to deal with whatever discomfort is in their lives than it is to make themselves uncomfortable enough to effect permanent, positive, long-term changes.

Most people want more money or some other form of abundance, yet they don't actually strive for it because their day to day needs are already being met.

They must have enough food, shelter, and clothing to survive, because if they didn't, they would be dead! However, find someone who is about to lose the job that pays their bills, or are about to lose their home to bill collectors, and you will also have found someone who will literally live without sleep in order to turn their circumstances around.

The world (especially the United States) is full of overweight people or people who have negative health conditions that could be eliminated or lessened as a result of eating right and exercising, yet they don't do everything and anything in their power because the pain of continuing to be out of shape is still easier than exercising and eating right every day.

However, find someone who is constantly ridiculed, shunned, or who is repeatedly the victim of prejudice because of their weight or their physical condition, and often times that person will "flip a switch" that turns them into a workout junkie because they have decided that leading a healthy lifestyle is easier (less painful) than the alternative.

People are constantly visiting online dating websites, message boards, and chat rooms in order to find romance and friendship, yet when push comes to shove, they don't make the long-term commitment needed for successful relationships.

The occasional bout of lonliness or sexual frustration by an unattached person is still easier to deal with (less painful) than the risk of getting emotionally and/or financially involved with a long-term partner, roommate, or even just a good friend.

However, someone who has finally "had enough" of their solitary lifestyle will pull out all the stops in order to achieve relationship success. They will also achieve that success because they have decided that the pain of taking a chance on a relationship is less than the pain of being emotionally and/or financially alone.

You can plug this formula into any human equation that you can imagine, and the results will ALWAYS be the same!

People don't make the changes in their lives that they "claim" they want to make because when push comes to shove, even if their life isn't perfect, it is still easier to keep walking the same path than it is to carve a new path through a dense and potentially dangerous jungle.

So, the next time you feel like whining because you don't have enough money, or because you're lonely, or because you're fat, I invite you - with all due respect - to stop whining about it, and to get outside of your comfort zone and to do something about your situation.

You are - after all - the only person who has the power to do that.

The Top 3 Law of Attraction Secrets - Especially for Non-believers

Well, if we were in the movie “Wayne’s World” I guess the appropriate phrase at this point would be…

GAME ON!

Now that the Law of Attraction concepts have hit the mainstream, both the believers as well as the non-believers are coming out of the wood work.

A search on Google for the term “law of attraction” brought back well over 2 million websites, although it also won’t take you long to find plenty of people who who think it’s all a bunch of nonsense. Check here, here, and here if you would like some examples.

Now, any regular readers of this blog know my views on this whole concept, and this post is not meant to discuss my personal ideals, but rather to plug some of these concepts into a typical life scenario to see if they actually hold water.

To that end, I picked 3 specific practices that are commonly used by the LOA believers, who also call themselves “deliberate creators” since they believe that via these practices they can literally create their existence here on planet Earth.

So, whether you are a believer or a skeptic, if you truly feel that your point of view is the correct one, then you shouldn’t mind a little bit of close scrutiny to see if these concepts are worth considering.

If they are, then here are 3 possible ways to use them. If they are not worth considering, then you now have 3 great examples of the uselessness of these tools that you can use in your on-going crusade to debunk this whole affair. Here we go…

Visualization

One of the primary weapons of mass abundance that the teachers from the movie ‘The Secret’ endorse using in order to invoke the law of attraction is visualization. In fact, Joe Vitale goes even further to say that you should use “holographic visualization” which is basically the art of both mentally and emotionally putting yourself inside your vision of success. You experience those moments so precisely in your mind that it seems that you are actually there.

Proponents - From a believer’s standpoint, this type of visualization will send actual vibrations out from the visualizer into the Universe, and will in turn attract similar vibrations. Done consistently over the course of time with a high level of emotion and belief, and the vibrations will all coalesce into a series of circumstances, people, events, or inspired actions that will eventually lead to the visualizer actually being in the situation that they visualized.

Opponents - People who do not believe in this concept simply say that there is no scientific basis for this idea, and that there is no way to prove that doing this will be anything other than a complete waste of time. They believe that if you want to have an experience in your life, you need to take whatever action is needed in order to marshal the resources that will allow you to have that experience.

The Benefit for Non-Believers - Believers in the LOA do not need any further convincing of the validity of this practice. However, for non-believers, the act of visualizing has one very, very important side effect that has nothing to do with the Law of Attraction, and that benefit is FOCUS.

Even if you do not believe that some magic genie is ripping around town on a magic carpet finding ways to turn your daydreams into reality, any reasonable and logical person will agree that staying focused intensely and consistently over the course of time on any particular goal will bring about positive steps toward that goal.

Those steps may come in the form of financial or career maneuvers that will lead to the goal, or they may come in the form of the simple ability to keep from getting distracted by things that would normally take the person off track. Taking your eyes off the prize runs the risk of delaying or preventing the attainment of whatever it is that is being focused on.

A simple example of this is weight loss. It is a common belief that if you eat a lot of junk food, you will not have a body like a super model. If your goal is to have a body like that, and you consistently visualize yourself having that body, it is going to be very difficult for you to believe that scarfing down an entire pepperoni pizza all by yourself is a good idea.

Will your weight loss be “magic” or will it be a result of you continually taking part in healthy exercise and eating habits as a result of having a super model picture of yourself that is playing over and over again in your head? Well, once you have that super model body, who cares HOW it actually happened?

Affirmations

Affirmations come in many shapes and sizes, but in a nutshell, it is the act of writing down what you want to have in your life, and then repeatedly saying it either out loud or in your head for the purpose of changing your mental point of view regarding those desires.

Proponents - Believers in the power of affirmation basically think that by continually repeating something to oneself, that thing will eventually become a reality. Where the LOA comes into this part of the equation is that the common belief behind conscious creation is that the vibrations that are sent out into the Universe are acted upon in order to bring our goals into existence. However, as most people carry around years worth of self-limiting beliefs, the only vibrations they are sending out are those of NOT having whatever it is that they want. By consistently practicing affirmations, the vibration is changed to one of confidence and belief, thus attracting the object of desire.

Opponents - Non-believers in affirmations once again cite the fact that there is no evidence to support the belief that anything less than taking action will bring about goal attainment. They may even go so far as to say that by repeatedly talking about something that you don’t have will actually only serve to make you even more convinced that you’ll never have it.

The Benefit for Non-Believers - By repeatedly affirming that you want something, you assign the task of finding a way to bring that thing into your existence to your brain and your subconscious mind. In order to do this, though, you must ask for solutions, not affirm non-existent realities. For example:

“I am independently wealthy and I never have to work another day in my life.”

vs.

“How can I create a situation that makes me independently wealthy so that I never have to work another day in my life?”

The first example stated something that wasn’t true, and by continually saying that statement over and over again, you may not activate the amazing power of your subconscious mind in order to help find a solution.

However, by continually asking yourself that question over and over again, your mind will be constantly looking for a solution as you go about your day to day business. Eventually - maybe sooner or maybe later - you will get slapped in the face with a great idea or the beginnings of a plan of action that will lead you to that life of riches and relaxation.

Positive attitude

This is probably the oldest and most well-known tool that is in the bag of tricks that believers in the LOA carry around with them. Long before today’s gurus were touting the power of positive thought, yesterdays authors and visionaries were extolling the benefits of this practice.

Proponents - People who believe they can activate the Law of Attraction by living in a constantly positive state of mind will once again point to the power of their vibrations as the catalyst for attaining their desires. By staying in a constant positively-charged state of mind, they also maintain a constant positively-charged emotional state. In so doing, they will only attract vibrations that are in resonance with theirs, thus attracting “fuel” that will drive their machines of success. That fuel may come in the form of intense coincidences that are in line with their desires, or they may take the form of opportunities or circumstances that will eventually bring forth their dreams.

Opponents - Non-believers in the power of positive thinking will say that just thinking about good things will do absolutely nothing to bring those things into your existence. They will point out the fact that everyone wants health, wealth, and happiness, so if just thinking good thoughts about those things was the key to having them, everyone would already be living happily ever after.

The Benefit for Non-Believers - Having a positive mental attitude is something that can - and does - benefit everyone. Even if you don’t believe that your positive state of mind will help you to actually attract good things into your life, at a bare minimum, keeping a good attitude will help you to enjoy life more.

This could fall under the umbrella of what people call “managing their expectations” or it could simply be called being “mentally prepared” for any given situation.

For example, if your job is lame, and you know that it is lame, you can’t simply “think” yourself out of having to go there. However, by setting your mental set point to one of being prepared for the experience, you will help yourself to not be as miserable as you otherwise would be. On the other hand, if you just sit around thinking about how bad your job is, there is no way that you are going to see anything but how bad your job is when you get there.

Another example is finances. You could sit around thinking about how much you don’t enjoy watching prime time on your 19″ television with bad reception because you can’t afford cable and a big flat-screen TV, or you could turn the situation around to actually be glad that you have that opportunity. In order to do so, just consider how bad it would be if you couldn’t even afford your own home or apartment, or if your electricity had been turned off because you couldn’t pay the bill.

You can apply that same formula to any situation in your life in order to receive the benefit of positive thinking. By simply taking on the habits of mentally preparing yourself for a potentially negative situation, or by showing gratitude for the fact that things aren’t worse (and they always could be), you will slowly but surely pick up the habit of being happy about situations that in the past made you miserable.

Who Wins?

Now that you have seen some common ways that the LOA is used by people to “magically” manifest the lives that they want, you should also see that there is really no magic to it. The same practices that the believers are using to bring success into their lives will help non-believers to improve their quality of life as well.

Also, there are 3 potential benefits that a non-believer gets from this whole process:

1. All of this is completely free of charge. You don’t have to spend a dime to visualize, affirm, or to keep a positive attitude.
2. Each of the practices that were discussed will have a positive impact on your life, even if you are just using your copy of ‘The Secret’ as a coaster or a Frisbee
3. What if it works? What if the Law of Attraction actually works, and you stumble upon that truth by practicing LOA techniques, even from a non-believers standpoint?

After all, not only are these techniques free, but no one even has to know that you are doing them. How cool would it be to achieve some amazing success in your life without having to admit to anyone - even yourself - that you ever considered whether or not the magic actually works?

Something to think about…..

Why the BLEEP isn’t the Law of Attraction Working?

This is Volume 1 of an on-going series of posts that I am calling “What the Bleep…”.

On a regular basis, probably weekly, I will be tackling some of the finer points of how to actually make certain things happen in your life, and I will be detailing those thoughts in descriptive posts characterized with BLEEP in the title. For example:

“What the BLEEP is…”

“How the BLEEP do I…”

“Why the BLEEP isn’t…”

Look for frequent posts in this area as I put forth the Intention of helping people take control of their lives by getting into the “nitty gritty” of how to use some of the common self improvement and conscious creation methods.

For this entry, let’s get on with discussing the question of why you (think) the Law of Attraction isn’t working for you.

I put the word think in the previous sentence in parentheses for a reason, because there is no such thing as the LOA not working. It is always working, around the clock, for all people, no matter if they believe in it or not.

To say that it isn’t working because you don’t understand how to use it would be the same thing as saying that the Law of Gravity only works for people who believe in it.

If you drop your favorite glass coffee cup from a significant distance onto your tile floor, that cup is going to break. Do you think that the cup believes in the Law of Gravity?

Moving forward…

Now that we have established that the Law of Attraction is always working, regardless of belief levels, we now have the task of determining why it “seems” to work for some people, but not for others.

Steve Pavlina recently put forth a post along these lines where he uses some common examples to describe the difference between wanting something, and bringing forth the energy that will actually manifest that thing into your life.

Steve is 100% right, because that is exactly where people fail to get exactly the results that they wanted when it comes to consciously creating their lives. It’s not the method they are using that is at fault, but the way that they feel about the method that they are using.

In order to actually get what you want when using the Law of Attraction, it is not the thing that you want that is in question. You could want anything from a shiny penny all the way up through a million dollars, and the Universe is going to apply exactly the same energy and methods in order to bring you what you want in both of those instances.

In fact, the Universe applies exactly the same energy and methods to everything that it does. It is only our “human” beliefs about what is easy or what is difficult that get in the way, because we then put out vibrations (via our emotions) that send the clear message to the universal powers that we believe that getting [insert your goal here] is going to be difficult.

The only way that you are going to be able to manifest the things that you want in your life is to put out vibrations that are in resonance with the things that you desire.

It is not possible to sit around and think about how broke you are, yet magically manifest a pile of money.

You cannot lament about how depressed you are every day, and then expect that you are going to be delivered into a life of utter happiness.

You can’t drive your piece of junk car every day, think about how much of a piece of junk it is, and expect that the Universe is going to drop a brand-new Mustang into your driveway.

Do you see the pattern here?

In each of those examples, the thing that you wanted and the feelings that you were putting out to the Universe were completely opposite of each other.

That’s like trying to turn left and right at the same time. It’s not going to happen!

In order to manifest the things that you want in your life with the Law of Attraction, you have to do what James Arthur Ray calls going “three for three.” You you have match up your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions.

1) Think about what you want on a regular basis, preferably many times throughout each day.

2) Feel what it will be like to have the thing that you desire, and feel joyous about having it.

3) Take whatever action you are inspired to take in order to bring that thing into your existence.

How do you feel like you have something that you don’t actually have? The Theater of the Mind, dear reader, the Theater of the Mind.

If you can imagine it, and you can believe that it is possible, then you can manifest it into your reality. W. Clement Stone said “Anything the mind of man can conceive, it can achieve” and Mr. Stone was absolutely correct.

Here is the problem, though. Most people don’t spend enough time seeing their goals in their mind in order to then bring those goals into reality! They make a token effort here, and a token effort there, but the majority of their time is spent not thinking about and feeling about the things that they want.

I posted awhile ago about how desire is the single most important part of self improvement. It doesn’t matter whether you want world peace, or if you just want your lawn mower to start on the first pull. You have to want your goal so badly that you can’t NOT think about it. Then, the power of your desire will lead you down a path that is absolutely 100% guaranteed to bring that desire into your life.

So, the question now becomes, “How badly do you want it?”

Do you get excited just thinking about your goal? Are you afraid to talk to people about your goal because they have heard about it so many times already that they stop taking your phone calls? Do you write poetry, compose music, or draw pictures about your goals? Are there visual, auditory, or tactile reminders about your goals placed all over your house, your car, and your place of business?

Is your goal the driving force that gets you out of bed in the morning and powers your very existence?

Do you think that those types of examples are silly, or far-fetched? If you do, then I now pronounce you an official graduate of ‘Why the BLEEP isn’t the Law of Attraction Working University’.

You have discovered why the LOA isn’t working for you. The question is, what are you going to do about it?

See How Easy it is to Make a Million Dollars?

If someone were to ask you if it was possible for you to make a million dollars in just over 3 months, would you believe it could be done?

Check out the following story swiped from an email I received from my friend Namaste:

“Michelle Goering of Vancouver, British Columbia, read the book THE ONE MINUTE MILLIONAIRE in December of 2005. The book is co-authored by Mark Victor Hansen who co-created the Chicken Soup For The Soul series. She was excited about the idea of making an enlightened million and a few weeks later, on January 12, she formed a team that met together for the first time. They called themselves (ok this is cheesy but it worked) the MillionHares. It took four weeks of incubation for them to come up with a GREAT IDEA. By February 16 they were testing and marketing the idea. By March 11 they had found a buyer for their idea and negotiated a seven-figure contract. Michelle went from idea to payday in 99 days!”

Michelle certainly made it possible to make a cool million in a very short period of time. Is Michelle’s story a rare occasion?

Sure it is. Bob Proctor - a man who has been studying and creating wealth for more than 40 years - says that only about 1% of the population of this planet control around 96% of the wealth.

So, yes, Michelle’s story is rare, but that is actually the entire point that I want to make. Michelle is one of the rare people who will ultimately fit into that very small 1%.

Her success story is rare, but only because we believe those type of stories to be rare!

If I had started out this post by asking if it was possible to make a million dollars, most people would have said Yes. The world has plenty of people who have made a million dollars or more in their lifetime.

It was the question of whether or not that million dollars could be made in 3 months that threw you for a loop and kicked your “I don’t believe it” engine into overdrive.

If I may quote the sage wisdom of the mighty Yoda:

“THAT is why you fail.”

You see, our beliefs power our very existence, and it does not matter if your beliefs are steeped in poverty, or abundance. Whatever you believe is the truth IS the truth, simply because you believe it.

The question of whether or not it is possible to make a million dollars elicits a completely different instinctive response than the question of whether or not it is possible to make a million dollars in only 3 months.

As long as you continue to allow your beliefs about health, wealth, and happiness to be limited, your results will directly correspond to those belief limitations.

If I may once again quote a great teacher, this time a living, breathing human, Dr. Michael Beckwith from the movie ‘The Secret’:

“We are Unlimited beings!”

So, the only question that you have to ask yourself is if you are going to continue to be shocked when confronted with something as staggering as making a million dollars in 3 months, or if your gut reaction will be something more along the lines of “I don’t need 3 months. I’ll do it in 2!”

The Consistent Inconsistency of Self Improvement

The Self Improvement industry is booming. What started with the likes of Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill, and Earl Nightingale has morphed into one of the biggest and most densely populated industries in the world today.

You can’t read a newspaper, watch TV, listen to the radio, or surf the Internet without seeing or hearing about people who are trying to make their lives better.

Self improvement products are available in all shapes and sizes, people are flocking to personal development seminars by the thousands, and even the pseudo-amateur Blogging population has taken up the Self Improvement gauntlet.

So why isn’t our world a utopia full of enlightened individuals who weigh less, have more money, enjoy incredible business success, and partake in decades long picture-perfect romances?

I’ll tell you why, and considering my own positive outlook and teachings that I bring to the world, please understand that this is an observation of fact, not an opinion:

Most people aren’t doing it!

Yes, they are learning about it. Yes, they are talking about it. Yes, they are spending plenty of their time and their money on the concepts. However, there is one absolutely mission-critical thing that is still missing, and that thing can be summed up in one simple word:

Consistency.

Everyone is jumping on the self improvement bandwagon, and there is room for all. People who want to lose weight, get rich, build successful careers, find true love - the list goes on and on. The masses are flocking, but one concept is standing a head and shoulders above the rest, and that is a serious lack of consistency.

Think about it. The methods for how to lose weight and be healthy have been known for decades. The power of positive thinking, visualization, and even affirmations have long since been proven to be effective. The methods for making at least a decent living - if not an opulent one - are no mystery to anyone who takes the time to learn them. Even relationship success can be had by anyone who cares to make a consistent effort with that goal in mind.

So why is that even though the answers are clearly available, people still fail to follow through on their self improvement efforts?

For a lot of people, it is nothing more mysterious than falling victim to their own self-limiting beliefs. No matter how much someone truly wants to succeed at any given endeavor, they are so used to not having what they want, that they will unconsciously sabotage their own efforts to achieve success.

Here is the real kicker, though: All of the methods that we know - and have known for decades - WILL work if you only consistently put them into practice.

Even if you don’t have a lot of faith in the beginning, by simply going “by the numbers” and consistently applying the success principles that are freely available to all who want to learn them, success is not only possible, but it is a guarantee.

Between the readership of this Blog, and my own newsletter distribution list, there are quite a few people who have access to the knowledge about self improvement that I write about in my articles, products, and blog posts.

I have decided to start leveraging that reach (Yay - I got to use a corporate term!) in order to start turning the tide in the favor of those who truly want to start making positive changes in their lives.

If you’re interested in seeing what I’ve put together, simply click on over to the Self Improvement 30-Day Challenge that I am sponsoring. See if you’re up to the challenge of realizing how much progress you can make if you will truly commit yourself - even if only for 30 short days.

Do you need my help in order to start improving your life? Absolutely not! You have that power inside of you at this very moment.

However, if you want some assistance, check out the program, and feel free to send me an email if you have any questions.

Whether you check out my program or not, I do implore you to take the message of this post to heart:

Your “knowledge” about self improvement won’t do you any good unless you use it - over and over and over again. You know, consistently!

How to Help Yourself and Everyone Else at the Same Time

Would you subscribe to the point of view that there are problems in the world?

For that matter, would you agree that there are problems much closer to home, such as your job, your friends, and even your own household?

Most people would answer “yes” to both of those questions, and most people would also back up that answer by pointing out that a whole pile of other people are either the cause of those problems, or that they keep the “problem engine” running by not cleaning up the way that they handle any given set of circumstances.

You will get no argument from me that there are plenty of problems that need to be solved, and I’ll even put my own “stuff” out there by saying that there are plenty of things in my own circle of influence that I would like to see happen differently than they do.

However, what if everything that happens around you is actually your fault? Which, by the way, is another point of view that I subscribe to, at least on a “local” level, if not worldwide.

Awhile ago I put up a post about the self improvement system known as Ho’oponopono. Although Ho’oponopono is based on healing imbalances with others, it is actually a system that is completely internal, and practitioners of that art claim to be able to solve issues with other people without even meeting or talking to them.

There is some very convincing evidence that we have the ability to influence others by working on our own inner-thoughts, and I will recommend that you grab a copy of Zero Limits by Joe Vitale as soon as it is released, and I will also refer you to this excellent post by Steve Pavlina where he gives some examples of how this concept has benefited his life.

For my part, I want to take it one step further, however, and explain a vicious circle that you can find yourself in that will keep replicating itself over and over until you find a way to break out of it.

In a nutshell, Ho’oponopono and similar beliefs state that our surroundings are powered by our own inner beliefs and perceptions of the way that we think things are, or should be.

To keep it “local”, I will stick with the example of your spouse or your significant other.

If you expect that your spouse is going to get mad at you because you spent too much money, or you stayed out too late with your friends, or because you shirked your responsibilities around the house, there is a very real chance that is exactly what you will get because you expect it.

However, the real truth of the matter is that the anger or disappointment that you expect to see in someone else’s eyes is merely a reflection of what you are already feeling.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize that you won’t feel 100% happy with yourself if you allow yourself to succumb to a desire that you know for a fact is not in your best interest, or in the best interest of the people that you care about.

So, whenever it comes time to “face the music” with the person that you believe is going to be angry with you or disappointed, most of the time you will find that anger and disappointment waiting right there for you, just as you expected.

Then, to make matters worse, as you have already beaten yourself up (usually without even knowing it) because you know that you did something that wasn’t up to your own personal standards, your spouse or significant other reacts to you in a negative manner about what you did.

Does the term “rubbing salt in an open wound” mean anything to you at this point? Not only have you done something that you consider to be wrong, but then you have to face it out in the open, usually with people that you care about and whose opinions you respect.

It’s like stubbing your toe, and then falling over in pain only to hit your head on the wall on the way down!

Also, this concept is certainly not limited to when you have done something that you consider to be wrong. The same thing applies whenever you see things in other people that do not please you.

When you expect your children to not make enough of an effort in school, you are actually coming face to face with the fact that on some level you feel that your own education is not up to par.

When you expect your co-workers to find the most effective way to cause your job to be more difficult, you are actually choreographing their performance due to the fact that you feel your own work ethic is not high enough, or that you are unhappy about your career status.

When you expect your neighbors to be loud and obnoxious, what you are really coming face to face with is the fact that you have not achieved the level of success that will allow you to live in a big house on a private lot, or that you have self-limiting beliefs about money.

Fortunately, for every instance that you find your negative expectations of others to be 100% fulfilled, you are actually being given a wonderful opportunity. You can help them to be the kind of people that you want to be around, and help yourself at the same time.

All you have to do is start managing your expectations of yourself as well as the people around you in order to keep those expectations at a happier or more harmonious level.

It all starts with you being honest with yourself, and working on your inner beliefs.

The next time someone does something that you find displeasing, simply ask yourself why you find it displeasing. Dig deep and find the true answer, not the answer that you think is appropriate.

As is often the case with self-limiting beliefs, your reaction to the circumstances of your life can be colored by the self-limiting belief, simply because that is what you are used to.

However, by simply coming to terms with your own “inner demons” you will then start to project happiness, confidence, and prosperity to all who are in your immediate vicinity, not to mention the positive vibrations that you will be sending out into the universe as a whole.

So, the next time you get upset with someone, find out why you are actually upset with yourself. You will then have found the path to your own resolution, which will spill over onto every circumstance that is affected by your new level of understanding.

Think about how great it is to have control over every single moment of your life - even the circumstances that right now might seem hopeless!