Naked pictures of Antonella Barba Kill Captain America!

NEWSFLASH: A blow was delivered to the American spirit of safety and security today when superhero Captain America was felled by an assassin’s bullet!

Apparently he was caught with his guard down after gazing longingly at pirated naked pictures of American Idol contestant Antonella Barba.

Clay Aiken will be using his Dell laptop computer to record video interviews about the incident that will be posted on both MySpace and YouTube.

Reality Check!

Okay, whether you are a regular reader, or if this is your first time reading this blog, allow me to assure you that my interest in naked celebrity pictures, American Idol, or Clay Aiken rank right up there with my interest in a tax audit.

I do have a Dell laptop, though!

No, the reason for this post is to demonstrate a point about focus and how it is often influenced by the world around us - often in negative ways.

Most people who are familiar with the blog-ranking site Technorati will undoubtedly recognize many of the keywords in my mock newsflash as being recent entries in the list of popular terms that were being searched for on the date of this posting, March 8, 2007.

I used those terms for the express purpose of luring more people to this blog so I could demonstrate that - although entertainment is well worth your time - keeping your reaction to the world at large in check is more than just necessary.

This blog and my entire website are dedicated to helping people to improve and empower their lives, yet whenever I cruise over to Technorati, it is plain to see that most people aren’t searching for ways to improve their lives, they are searching for the latest “buzz” words and concepts.

Don’t worry - I’m not about to throw in the towel and give up on my niche! I’m all about helping people, and that isn’t going to change.

However, I wanted to risk the link baiting title of this post to remind people that although you should by all means enjoy your life, you also need to remember that you HAVE a life!

• Antonella Barba will either be a superstar or she will be gone from the Hollywood scene in 5 years. Either way, you spending hours watching her, talking about her, and surfing the net for information about her is not going to use anyone’s valuable time but your own.
• Captain America may be dead, but his legacy will undoubtedly live on. Also, do yourself a favor and consider the political message behind the way he died. Search Technorati for Captain America if you want those details.
• Clay Aiken will continue to be adored by some, and despised by others. It’s really not worth you hotly debating the issue and burning through time that you could be spending… I don’t know… watching a sunset, enjoying a slice of New York Pizza, or maybe just {gasp!} turning off the TV and spending time with your family.
• Dell will continue to make computers that - like Clay Aiken - people will either love or hate. However, if you do insist on surfing for multimedia offerings about your favorite celebrities, might I recommend that you keep that in mind when deciding which Dell model to buy…
• And finally, the only person in America (or anywhere else) that you should Idolize is YOURSELF! Respect others? Yes. Love others? Absolutely. Help others? Please do.

But idolize others? No way. YOU are the Idol in your life. Don’t ever forget it!

Go

You!

Personal Development Success on Demand

The Internet resources available for anyone who is looking for self improvement or personal development advice are all but unlimited. In fact, as with most information that can be found on the Internet, the trick is not in finding the information, but rather in deciding which products, services, or advice are worth your time or your money.

This blog and the Today is that Day website are both supported by numerous advertising partners, and in most cases, those partners were hand-picked by me.

I have some limited control over the content that is displayed in the Google Adsense advertisements, but the rest of the text or graphical advertisements that you see were specifically picked by me for my blog and website readership.

As I detailed in the post entitled Law of Attraction Naysayers and Rampant Capitalism, I have no problem admitting to the world that my efforts at providing consistent, insightful, and empowering information are funded by the site’s advertisers as well as sales of my own self improvement products.

Normally, that is where my involvement with the buying decisions of my readers ends. If you are interested in the products and services provided by me or my advertisers, you will check them out. If not, then the content of this blog as well as my articles are still free as tools for you to use in order to improve and empower your life.

Today, I am going to take a rare moment outside of that non-interference policy, however, as one of my advertisers has made a change to their offering that I feel is worth you finding out about sooner rather than later.

The advertiser is question is called The Success Training Network, and you have undoubtedly seen plenty of text or graphical links to their website here on the blog. I personally use their information on a regular basis, and you can see some recent quotes from their teachers in the post Your Kung Fu is Weak, Self Improvement Slacker!

Their incredible programming has always been a one of kind service that anyone looking to stay inside the “personal development bubble” would be wise to take advantage of.

However, the recent news they announced that I felt strongly enough about to break my advertising non-interference code is that they are now offering their incredible programming ON DEMAND.

In the past, they had a regular television-style programming guide, and in order to watch any given segment, you needed to be able to be in front of your computer whenever that segment was being aired.

In today’s world where most people have schedules that border on insanity, it was previously not always possible to see the speaker or the program that you wanted to watch simply because of scheduling conflicts.

With TSTN’s new On Demand programming schedule, you can decide to watch what you want, when you want!

Why does that matter?

I have been working in the personal training and/or self improvement industry for years, and if I have seen one thing that consistently happens, it is that people are inconsistent with their lifestyle improvement efforts.

They allow the very lives that they are trying to improve to get in the way of them achieving the success that they want to achieve. The results are plain to see for anyone who hasn’t yet gotten rich, lost the weight, landed the dream job, or gotten into a relationship with Mr. or Mrs. Right.

The most effective way that I have found to stay “on task” with personal development is to constantly stay in touch with your goals by surrounding yourself on a daily basis with empowering circumstances.

There are books that you can read, MP3’s that you can download from the Internet, podcasts easily found using iTunes, free and at-cost eBooks available all over the place, videos on YouTube, and subscription television services such as TSTN and Spiritual Cinema.

No matter how you get your “stuff” into your system, there are unlimited free and low-cost options available for you to surround yourself with empowering and action-oriented content.

With TSTN’s new On Demand service, you now have one less excuse to not follow through with your personal development efforts.

You can choose from their entire library of amazing content, and watch whatever segments resonate with you, and you can watch them when it is convenient for you to do so. A lack of convenience is near the top of the list why a lot of people do not follow-through on their lifestyle improvement efforts.

What kind of Content?

You can take a look at the handy bar to your left to get a quick overview of the type of content offered by each of those speakers, although there are over 70 mentors, coaches, and teachers who make up the Success Training Network.

You can get a much more in-depth review as well as the opportunity to sign up for a free trial by simply visiting the TSTN website.

Also, you can sample almost 50 segments from The Success Training Network on YouTube. Just go to the Success Training channel.

WHY???

Why have I plowed by loyal as well as my new blog readers with such a blatant advertisement?

Basically, because not only do I believe in TSTN, but I believe that it is in your best interest to consider this or a similar method of staying inside the personal development bubble on a daily basis.

There has been so much talk lately about the Law of Attraction being a scam, and about how people who teach others to be successful are just in it for the money, yada, yada, yada.

Whether you subscribe to any of that nonsense or not (and I recommend that you don’t) one concept has been very clear across all conversations that have to do with leading a successful life:

If you consistently think thoughts about what you want, feel positive and confident about getting what you want, and consistently take action towards getting what you want, then your desires will come to you.

The Success Training Network offers an opportunity for you to be frequently empowered, informed, and even entertained, and with their new On Demand service, a good thing just got even better.

So, with all of that being said, feel free to ignore this post completely and go on about your business. Be sure to come back tomorrow, though. Blatent advertisements are the exception, not the rule ’round these parts.

Mini Personal Development and Self Improvement Link Love

I just published the weekly Link Love series the other day, but I have already stumbled across so many other things that I wanted to share with my readers.

For that reason, I have decided to shoot out one more quick version before getting involved with some other posts that I have planned for the blog later this week. Enjoy!

Blog Carnivals

If you aren’t familiar with the blog carnival concept, it is basically the sharing of a large selection of posts from around the blogosphere about any given topic, and the host Blogger then puts that list together for his or her audience.

The Today is that Day Blog has recently been featured in several blog carnivals, and each of them is worth your time to see the great content provided by the other bloggers:

Leadership Edition of the Personal Growth Carnival, hosted by Bryan C. Fleming

Towards Better Life Carnival, hosted by Victor-fam.com

Personal Develop Carnival, hosted by the Balanced Life Center

Success and Growth Blog Carnival, hosted at Cultivate Greatness

Other click-worthy Stumblings

Change your life with a Computer and a Headset - An excellent and totally free way to reprogram your head for success in any given endeavor.

Stumbling on Happiness - This came out awhile ago, but I finally got around to watching it. Very interesting data on our ability to “manufacture” happiness.

The Ultimate Gift - What looks to be a GREAT movie, including a “weekend of giving” that is to coincide with the launch weekend, March 9th-11th, 2007.

No Condition is Permanent - If you’ve ever thought that your past history or your heritage has the ability to keep you from success, this video is well worth the time to watch.

Okay, that’s it for the mini link love break! We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming!

CCSS: The Simple Secret to Empowerment

There is a simple, yet incredibly powerful mindset that you can literally base your entire life upon, and the Living by Design blog coined it with the phrase “Make Like a Mountain”.

Click on over there to learn the specifics of the grounding technique they describe, but here at Today is that Day I want to talk about the massively empowering concept.

You can - and should - live your life by “making like a mountain” using the CCSS point of view:

Be calm. Be centered. Be still. Be strong.

This concept resonates with me for 2 reasons. One of them is the concept itself, while the other is the innumerable times that I come across people who could instantly “fix” their lives if they would learn how to ground themselves in this manner.

Each of us is the center of our own Universe. When someone says to you, “What, does the universe revolve around what YOU want?” you should reply with an emphatic, “Yes! It does!”

I don’t care if you are the lowliest amoeba on the germ scale, or if you are the ruler of an entire continent, your size or your perceived “influence” have nothing to do with it. Every living organism is - and always has been - the center of its own Universe.

Yet, despite that fact, people are still allowing other people and the circumstances of their lives to dictate their happiness.

No one holds that power over you!!

No one can make you happy. No one can make you sad. No one can make you rich. No one can make you poor.

There is not a soul on this planet who can control your reaction to the things that they say or the things that they do. YOU are the only one who has the power to do that.

If you are pining away for some romantic interest who isn’t returning the favor, you are the only reason that you are miserable over that.

If you hate your job and think that your boss is out to get you, whether your job is lame or whether your boss is a jerk are completely irrelevant. You are the only one who can have a negative reaction to that situation.

If you are overweight and have low self-esteem as a result, it is your reaction to being overweight that you do not like. The fact that you ARE overweight doesn’t matter in the least.

In each of these cases, your emotional reaction is the only thing that you can control 100% of the time, which also means that if you are not enjoying that emotional response, you are 100% responsible for that as well.

There are people all over the world who have an unresolved romantic interest, an ex-lover who has fled the scene, or some other intimate desire that is not being fulfilled.

There are scores of people who are in career situations that would be considered by most to be “negative”.

There are certainly plenty of people in the world who are overweight.

However, in each and every one of those cases, there are people who are miserable about the situation, and there are also people who are living happy and fulfilling lives despite the situation.

Are the happy and fulfilled people “special” and that allows them to be happy and fulfilled despite having the exact same circumstances as the people who are miserable?

Nope! The happy and fulfilled people have simply learned how to “make like a mountain”.

They realize that they are the centers of their world, and that as they become still, the world will literally revolve around them.

They realize that by remaining calm and that by staying strong, the world will do what it is going to do anyway, and they will only be as affected by those happenings as they choose to be.

If you want to become your life, then learn how to make like a mountain:

Become calm, centered, still, and strong, and make life come to you.

You have that power.

Self Improvement and Law of Attraction Link Love, Volume 4

This is Volume 4 of the Self Improvement and Law of Attraction Link Love series. This series will be published weekly and will be comprised of links to quality blog posts that have proven to be extraordinary in their ability to assist, inform, or empower the reader. Enjoy!

1) Success Consciousness - Instant or Gradual Self Improvement and Spiritual Growth? - EXCELLENT riff on the truth of how it all works! In light of some of the latest media, this is a timely yet quick to read piece that lays it down like it truly is.

2) Evolving Times - The debate regarding the Law of Attraction in the media lately is likely causing more confusion than is even remotely necessary. It’s really not that difficult, and Edward at Evolving Times hosts probably the best resource on the LOA that exists on the Internet today. Check out his Law of Attraction Blog Carnival, and also be sure to see this blog featured in the latest edition, The Law of Attraction And Physical Health.

3) Practical Personal Development - Alex Shalman has started a great series of posts, and if this edition, ‘Becoming An Outstanding Person | Temperance‘, is any indication, this will be a series worth tracking.

4) Christine Kane - I am always so amazed at Christine’s insightful, yet easy to understand take on how things really work in the world. One of her latest works You Teach People How to Treat You is absolute gold!

5) Breathing Prosperity - I have to say that when I first found Breathing Prosperity, I had also just found about 99 other blogs, and I added it to my RSS reader thinking I would just check in once in awhile. Well, that has turned into a daily check in, and it is always time well spent. A new series going on there is called ‘Personal Development:21 Days and 22 Exercises Towards a Wealthier Mindset’, and I LOVE what was written on Day 3 about Today vs. 5 Years from now.

6) Success from the Nest - Tony Clark just wrote an excellent piece called Finding Your Passion Amid the Hate and if you have ever wondered if you are doing the right thing with your career, then check out Tony’s great insight and advice.

7) The Happiness Project - In her post Don’t let the PERFECT be the enemy of the GOOD, Gretchen does an oh-so-wonderful job of showing that just because you can’t do it perfect doesn’t mean that you can’t do SOMETHING!

8) Live the Power - Karen’s post The Secret is Out addresses the very real fact that the Law of Attraction is far from being a “secret,” and that it has been practiced and endorsed by an amazing list of influential people throughout history, including the formidable list of those individuals that is included with her post.

9) Brian Kim - The Power in Serving Others is an excellent post that shows the difference between helping others for your own good, or helping others while expecting nothing in return. Ironically enough, not expecting anything in return is the best way to GET something in return!

10) Shards of Consciousness - Rick has put together a great resource in his Happiness, Emotion, and Fulfillment series. In Part II of that series, he points out that happiness is not dictated by external events, and then goes on to put together an awesome list of ways that you can keep your internal happiness level exactly where it needs to be.

WOW!

This link love series is always the best of the best, but this week was amazing. I had to turn away a few links I had bookmarked because there were so many!

I truly hope that you take the time to read through the content provided by these excellent bloggers, and more importantly, that you make some positive changes to your life with what you learn!

See you again for Volume 5 in about a week!

Your Kung Fu is Weak, Self Improvement Slacker!

Just what is it that you think you’re doing?

No, really. What are you doing here? Why are you reading this? What is it that you plan to do with whatever self improvement tip that you might pick up?

I only ask because there is a lot of reading, listening, and talking going on in the personal development community, and yet there are still a lot of readers, listeners, and talkers who haven’t really done a whole lot with what they’ve learned.

As I and many others have cited many times, knowledge itself is useless. It is only the application of knowledge that will provide benefit in your life.

Yet despite an inexhaustible supply of learning opportunities, most people are still just collecting information and not consistently doing anything with it. As Brian Tracy says, people are living on “Someday Isle.”

As in:

• Someday I’ll start my own business
• Someday I’ll start eating right and exercising
• Someday I’ll get out of debt
• Someday I’ll leave this dead-end job
• Someday I’ll {INSERT YOUR DREAM HERE}

Someday you will also leave this plane of existence and all of your chances to have been voted off of Someday Isle will be gone!

Another incredible speaker, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones talks about how these days everyone has to talk things out, get some advice, maybe even hold a meeting.

Charlie maintains that people don’t talk to other people in order to get encouragement to follow their dreams. They talk to other people in the hopes that someone will talk them out of it!

After all, success takes work. Who wants to work hard? After all, wouldn’t it be easier to just talk to a bunch of people, get really excited, but then never actually have to do anything?

An individual will talk and talk and talk about their dreams, including as many other people as possible in the discussion. However, the dream is YOURS, not theirs. Sure, you can inform them, even seek their opinion, but then go right ahead and do what you were going to do anyway! If I may quote Charlie:

“Have you ever seen a statue in a park dedicated to a committee?”

So, I’ll ask the same question again:

Just what is it that you think you’re doing? Are you looking for advice? Permission? Persecution?

Get off your butt and Take Action!

Not tomorrow, this weekend, next week, or next year. Right now.

Success is built from the inside out, so if you think you need to wait for the right set of circumstances in order to create your dream life, don’t hold your breath.

Is preparation part of the equation? Sure.

Is education part of the equation? Sure.

Is planning part of the equation? Sure.

You can use all of those tools, and many more as part of your success. However, take a moment to turn your mental clock back a number of years and remember when you first learned how to walk.

I bet you fell down plenty of times at first. You may have even gotten hurt in the process. In fact, in your toddler mind, you may have even used preparation, education, and planning as part of learning how to walk.

However, the most important thing wasn’t what you did before you tried to walk, but the fact that you did try to walk. And you kept on trying until you got it right.

You certainly didn’t hold a meeting to think of the best way to proceed before making the attempt, did you? It was what you wanted, so you risked everything to make it happen.

What happened to that wonderful mentality?

This post was inspired by watching several of the amazing speakers over at The Success Training Network, and I highly recommend you look into their program. However, before you go, I want to leave you with this final quote:

“I’m not gonna ease up, let up, shut up, give up, ’till I’m taken up. Matter of act, I’m just getting WARMED up!”

Related Resources
The Success Training Network
Life Success Productions
The Science of Success
Self Improvement ResourcesAuthor of that quote? Zig Ziglar, who just turned 80 years old.

Have a nice day.

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…..

Personal Development: The Shortcut to Being a Great Leader

The very connotation of improving one’s life has “it’s all about me” written all over it. Truth be told, though, you can create a glorious life for yourself and lead others to victory at the same time.

The industry jargon seems to point to a perfectly selfish course of action. SELF improvement, SELF empowerment, PERSONAL development. To be sure, you can hard wire yourself for success on every imaginable level using every imaginable system.

However, suspend your own needs and desires for one moment and think about how wonderful life would be if you led the people in your circle of influence on a quest for success at the same time that you create that success in your own life.

Let’s start by identifying a few habits that are shared by most successful people:

• Willingness to go the extra mile to attain their dreams
• Ability to consistently apply effective success strategies
• Open to continually learning and applying new concepts
• Flexible enough to roll with the punches when things don’t go as planned

That is a short list, but if you have achieved any measure of success in your life or if you know of people who have, you will recognize those types of traits as common among successful people.

In order to double the return on your personal development time and financial investments, why not practice great leadership by helping the people around you to achieve success as well?

You are probably familiar with the negative effect that “energy vampires” can have on your life. Even if you are keeping a positive and energetic outlook on life, people around you who are not on track to personal or professional success can suck the life right out of an otherwise positive situation.

However, everyone loves a good success story, and by becoming that success story, the people around you will often want to emulate your behavior so that they, too, can experience success. Consider the following examples:

If you have decided to lose weight or start cleaning up your health, you will inspire the people around you to do the same when they start to see you achieving results.

On the other hand, if you tell people that you are going to start leading a more healthy lifestyle, but then you don’t do it, why would they respect the things in the future that you claim you are going to do?

Finances fall under the same umbrella, especially in the home environment. Whether you have a family or if you live with roommates or friends, by making an on-going and dedicated effort to stop living outside of your means, the people around you will at least respect that, if not pick up the habits themselves.

Oppose that scenario to one where you tell your spouse or your partner that you are going to start saving money, but then you squander hundreds or even thousands of dollars on non-critical expenses such as recreation, material possessions, etc.

This concept could even be applied to something non-tangible like keeping a positive attitude. Actually keeping a bright and cheerful demeanor in the home or in the workplace will have an almost domino-like effect on the people around you. Even people who are normally very negative will at the very least start avoiding you, if not actually cheering up themselves.

I’m sure that you can think of many similar examples where this type of thinking could come into play, and the takeaway point for you to remember is that it is only by doing that you will become a Leader who will actually inspire the people around you to start achieving success.

You can talk, talk, talk all day long about how you are going to lose weight, get rich, or stop living your life in a funk. However, talk is cheap, and no one is buying it.

If you truly want to inspire the people around you to succeed, then you have to succeed! Nothing less than proof positive that your ideals are solid will get the people around you to consider following in your footsteps.

Does all of this mean that you need to become a great leader in order to achieve your own desired levels of personal development? Absolutely not.

Personal development and self improvement do not require you to help anyone but yourself. However, before you put the “it’s all about me” cap back on, take a few minutes to think about how great it would be if the people around you started picking up some positive habits.

At the very least, it would keep them from constantly trying to drag you down to their level of negativity!

3 Keys to Better Health with the Law of Attraction

When you consider the prospect of controlling your health with the power of your mind, do you scoff at such an idea, or do you think something more along the lines of it being a possibility, but you would like to have some proof?

Well, just like every other aspect of the human existence, it is your belief system that serves as the foundation for your results. For that reason, don’t even start considering the details of how such a thing is done if you are not even willing to consider it as a possibility.

It will help you to bridge the “doubt gap” by embracing the very real fact that every single thing that exists is made up of energy, including your body. The actual form that something takes is simply a matter of the speed at which that thing’s energy is vibrating.

So, in a universe that is made up of vibrating energy, learning to control those vibrations is the key to creating or destroying all things that are in your existence - including your own body.

The amazing gift that we all have as human beings is the ability to exert conscious control over our emotions, which are also just another form of vibrating energy.

So, if everything is energy, and we can control the vibration of our energy, then we can use the Law of Attraction to bring into our existence only the vibrations that we wish to have - including those that are consistent with vibrant, long-term health.

The thing to realize in order to excel at this process is that although you will probably attract people and circumstances that will be a part of your good health, it will always and only be the vibrations of your own body that ultimately manifest health or illness into your existence.

For example, it is a common understanding that mental stress causes negative physiological responses in your body, and likewise, you can create positive physiological responses by experiencing emotions that you perceive to be happy, uplifting, nurturing, etc.

In short, by consciously being aware of your vibratory frequency, you then become a conscious creator of good health by only sending out vibrations that are consistent with good health. Here are the 3 steps for doing so:

1) Identify specifically what you want. What is good health? What does that look like in your mind’s eye? You can’t just put a vague intention out there that you want “good health” without identifying exactly what that means to you.

That would be like giving someone $50,000 and telling them to go buy you a new car. Without knowing the make, model, color, etc., that you wanted, there us no telling what kind of car you would end up with!

So, if you want to lose weight, you would define how much weight you want to lose.

If you want to be free of arthritis, then your goal would be to live pain free, or to be able to do whatever it is that your arthritis is keeping you from doing.

If your goal was to heal a damaged or diseased part of your body, then again you would need to define what “answer” you are looking for, such as being free of cancer, having full use of an injured leg, breathing freely without the labor of asthma attacks, etc.

2) Focus on your desired end result. ONLY focus on the end result! This is a common mistake that people make with the Law of Attraction, regardless of what they are wanting to manifest.

You have to free yourself of the incorrect belief that you need to be able to see HOW you are going to get whatever it is that you want, and focus only on the end result instead.

If you have a serious medical condition or if you have never had success at losing weight, then it is not possible for you to “see” the path that will take you to your desired end result.

Some of your solution may be in actually changing the vibratory frequencies of the cells in your body. Part of the solution may come in the form of a new medicine, technology, or artificial replacements for damaged tissues - there is no way to know for sure.

It is simply not possible for you see the straight line between your condition and the solution. If you focus on trying to see a line that it is not possible for you to see, you will meet with very limited success, if any success at all.

3) Take action. This may seem like “standard” information for anyone who has ever gotten involved in any sort of self improvement program, but it is standard information for a reason - it’s a necessary part of the process!

When it comes to using the Law of Attraction for health, this step is just as important. Again, by realizing that it is not possible for you to see the entire journey that is going to take you from where you are now to the level of health that you desire, this step becomes even more critical.

As the Universe lines up both the internal forces as well as the external forces that are going to marshal together for the benefit of your health, your job is to take whatever action you are inspired to take.

Most people would say that getting enough exercise is a good health practice, and that eating nutritious food is also part of the process.

For specific disease or injury situations, there will also likely be some well-known or doctor prescribed practices that could be part of your solution.

However, although it is possible and even likely that “standard” practices will be part of you manifesting the level of health that you want, be on the look for other things as well.

The Universe will often tap you on the shoulder to send you in a direction that doesn’t seem to make sense, but that will ultimately lead you down a path that will take you to your desires. See ‘Did you Feel that Tapping?‘ for more information on that concept.

In closing, the takeaway idea that you need to remember is that using the Law of Attraction for health purposes is just like using it for anything else.

You have to decide exactly what you want, focus frequently on the feeling of having it, and then take action consistently over the course of time whenever you are inspired to do so.

That is the winning equation for any situation, and now you know that you can also apply those principles in order to live a long, healthy life!

Self Improvement and Law of Attraction Link Love, Volume 3

This is Volume 3 of the Self Improvement and Law of Attraction Link Love series. This series will be published weekly and will be comprised of links to quality blog posts that have proven to be extraordinary in their ability to assist, inform, or empower the reader. Enjoy!

1) Brian Kim - The Dangers of Motivational Hype

As someone who prides himself on being able to write empowering and motivational texts, I will give 2 thumbs up to this piece by Brian Kim about recognizing and acting on both the motivational side as well as the take action side of personal development.

2) Scott Ginsberg - 17 Reasons to Write a FREE Ebook

If you do any kind of business on the Internet, this post is a must read. However, even if you don’t, the author gives away a GREAT colorful and easy to read eBook that I highly recommend you get your hands on!

3) Breathing Prosperity - Law of Attraction: Why Aren’t You Constantly Creating Your Life?

Excellent take on the fact that not only do people’s “problems” continually recreate their problems, but on the fact that a lot of people wouldn’t even know what to say if they weren’t complaining!

4) Seth Godin - I’m Not Surprised

This one is more of a business perspective (and a great one, at that), but I see where this concept could be applied to your personal life as well. I’m a firm believer in people being anything but normal!

Gratitude Break!

Big props go out to Wendy Piersall over at eMoms at Home for allowing me to be a guest blogger on her site. Thanks, Wendy! And then more major gratitude to Steve over at The Fast Lane for his wonderful words about me on his site. You totally rock, Steve!

Blogging/Tech

5) Technacular - List of Icon/Graphic Generator Sites

Unique stuff for anyone who wants to get in touch with their artistic/brand-building side. Also some fun sites for making silly signs, etc.

6) CopyBlogger - Are You Leaving Your Readers Out of the Conversation? ~ and ~ Let Cicero Build You a Sticky Blog

Both great riffs on sending the right message with your blog, as well as doing so for the right reasons.

That’s it for this week! I hope you enjoyed, and look for the next volume in a week or so!

Law of Attraction Naysayers and Rampant Capitalism

Well, it seems that ‘The Secret’ is no longer a secret. For those people who believe in or have seen the power of the Law of Attraction, this comes as no surprise. What about everyone else, though? What about the “naysayers”?

As with all concepts, products, or services that become known in the mainstream circles of society, there are always going to be believers as well as non-believers.

I don’t personally agree with the naysayers, since I know for a fact that the Law of Attraction works, and that it has been a part of the human experience since the dawn of time - long before today’s teachers ever came on the scene. However, my confidence in the truth of existence allows me to freely consider the point of view of others, as well as to share that point of view in order to better educate my readers.

To that end, here are two wonderfully positive (said with tongue firmly planted in cheek) posts that you can check out to read from a few of the people on the opposite side of the Law of Attraction coin. In fact, I have put a trackback from this blog post to their sites in the hopes that they will allow their readers to see both points of view as well:

Andrew Johnson’s Web Publishing Blog - The Secret/The Law of Attraction Scam

KevinHogan.com - The Secret…The Truth Behind the Lie

Now, I will not debate the content of either one of those posts, simply because I don’t need to. People who truly understand the Law of Attraction and conscious creation know that they create their own realities, and they know that it is not “magic”.

If I were to start a “flame war” with every person who disagreed with the LOA or even with just my personal take on it, this blog would become a war zone.

So, conscious creators, what do we get when we focus on war?

Yes, more war.

On the other hand, what do we get when we focus on more open-mindedness, understanding of other people’s points of view, and a willingness to accept others for who they are?

Yes, more of the same.

All of that being said, I do want to address one issue that has come up repeatedly about the “new” interest in the Law of Attraction, and that is the fact that people are making money from teaching others about it.

I will answer that issue by saying, yes, that is absolutely correct! Why wouldn’t people make money helping other people to live better lives?

People pay personal trainers, nutritionists, therapists, counselors, teachers, coaches, doctors, and pretty much any other profession that you can imagine. People are willing to pay to learn about things that they want to understand.

Ummm… that’s not a crime. To say that people should not make money by teaching other people to create better lives for themselves is the same thing as saying that your doctor should not collect a paycheck, or that your physical therapist should not get any money, or that your marriage counselor, financial coach, or school guidance counselor should do what they do for free.

Everyone deserves to get paid for the things that they offer as a way to help others. If you take a concept like the LOA and teach people how to LIVE THEIR LIVES instead of just doing a one-time service for them, in my opinion, that is far more valuable than any other kind of product or service.

“If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. However, if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”

So yes, people get paid to teach others how to improve their lives, and I am one of those people. I am as transparent as they come. I don’t try to hide the fact that this blog is a source of income for me and my family. I don’t pretend that I don’t want people to buy my products. Sure I do!

It costs me loads of time, effort, and continuing education in order to maintain this blog, produce new products, and come up with new services. However, my goal is to give people FAR more value with my products and with this blog than they actually pay for, and I succeed in doing that every single day.

So, for any alleged non-capitalists who are reading this post, I want you to know that - just like you - LOA and conscious creation teachers get paid to provide a product or a service.

Personally, I am ecstatic about the fact that my products and services related to teaching Self Improvement and the Law of Attraction are helping people to enrich their lives, and empowering them to become whoever they want to be!

In fact, here, I will make it easy for you:

Be sure to NOT save $5 off of already inexpensive products by joining the Today is that Day Newsletter.

You see, teaching people about concepts that help them to enrich their lives should be done with one goal in mind:

To help people enrich their lives!

Whew! That was a tough one…

Are there people out there who take advantage of the fact that “the secret” is out and that the concepts surrounding the LOA are now in the mainstream media?

Yes, there are. Just like there were people who took advantage of the Atkin’s craze, satellite TV over your computer, and people who peddle Hoodia as a miracle weight loss product.

There will always be people who take advantage of the latest social buzz and use it for the sole purpose of making money - at least during this stage of our evolution.

However, there will also be people who can actually help others by teaching them the TRUTH. Whether that truth is thousands of years old, whether it just got discovered yesterday, or even if that truth does nothing but inspire people to believe in themselves, there will always be true Teachers who are willing to share that information.

So, if you personally don’t believe in the Law of Attraction, does that mean that you should look down your nose at it, and bash it publicly? That is totally up to you.

You choose to live your life however you please, and you take the rewards and the punishments that are a result of the choices that you make. Whether you believe in the LOA or not, you ARE a conscious creator of your existence, and that fact will play itself out in whatever positive or negative manifestations that you bring about.

The Secret of Experiencing Perfection

If someone were to say to you that everything in the Universe is absolutely perfect, would you believe them?

I mean, it seems hard to believe that in a world that is filled with at least as much insanity as order that the word perfect could ever even enter into the equation.

Actually, the Universe MUST be perfect, because if it wasn’t, the entire system would have collapsed a long time ago. In fact, it probably would have never even existed to begin with.

Everything that happens in the Universe happens in a very specific way, because that is the only way that it CAN happen based on any given set of circumstances.

Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue if the Law of Gravity suddenly started to just randomly affect different things in different ways? What if jumping off a building one day meant a messy collision with a sidewalk, but the next day jumping off a building meant you were able to leap tall buildings in a single bound?

Imagine what would happen if the electromagnetic field that protects the earth from the harmful spectrum of radiation emitted by the sun suddenly decided to reverse its polarity, just for a change of pace? We would all instantly cease having these types of debates, that’s for sure!

What about if water suddenly stopped being a conductor of electricity, but rubber and wood both suddenly became conductors of electricity? Does the term BIG BANG mean anything to you?

Think of what would happen if the moon suddenly doubled its weight and density over night?

What about if the human body’s immune system completely stopped working?

What if it is really DID start raining cats and dogs???

Okay, maybe the cats and dogs thing was over the top, but do you see the point? Everything that happens in the universe happens because it is supposed to happen that way. That’s the way things are “set up” for lack of a better term.

However, by having access to this knowledge, us mere humans on the blue marble that we call Earth have a decided “edge” over Fate. By knowing and understanding the very basic but unalterable concept of cause and effect, we can manipulate the universal laws in order to create the lives that we want to live.

Any regular readers of this blog will be familiar with the Law of Attraction, which is one of the most obvious ways that as individuals we can practice the art of conscious creation. However, there are other universal laws that also come into play, such as the Law of Polarity, the Law of Relativity, the Law of Vibration, the Law of Gender, etc.

I am not linking to a location for you to learn more about the universal laws because, to be honest, I could not find one location that I felt had all of the information in one spot. If anyone knows of a professional and fact-filled source, please post it in the comments section.

Even without one solid information source about the Universal Laws, it is still clear that they exist, and that they exert control over every aspect of our lives. Here’s the kicker, though:

By understanding that the Universe MUST be perfect, we become conscious creators of our lives by our ability to manipulate the natural laws of the Universe for our own benefit.

To break this down into a simple example, answer the following question:

Have you ever thrown or caught a ball or a Frisbee?

Yes? Congratulations. You just demonstrated your ability to manipulate the laws of the Universe. If you can throw a ball, then you understand gravity, the law of cause and effect, the law of vibration, the law of relativity, the law of perpetual transmutation, and on and on the list goes…

If it is possible for you to throw or catch a ball or a Frisbee, then in the perfect Universe that we live in, it must also be possible for you to do anything else that you can imagine.

Cook some of those concepts on your brain for awhile, or better yet, do some of your own research into the Laws of the Universe. You may be shocked when you realize that perfection not only abounds, but it can be made to correspond to your desires!

For more brain-cooking research into one of the laws - the Law of Polarity, I invite you to check out Steve Pavlina’s post on that subject. However, also be sure to stop by and see Edward over at Evolving times as he claims that Steve’s post might not be entirely accurate.

Hey, I’m just the messenger!

Challenge Solving - An Easy but Powerful Personal Development Mindshift

What happens whenever someone comes up to you and issues you a Challenge?

Do you tend to back away because you fear confrontation, or do you take an attitude that resembles something more along the lines of:

“Bring it on! Anything you can do, I can do better!”

Most people - whether they are willing to admit it or not - will take the standpoint of accepting challenges simply because they don’t want to be viewed as the person who couldn’t handle any given situation.

Now, I’m not talking about drunk people at bars picking fights or challenging you to see how many shots of tequila you can do in 5 minutes…

No, the type of challenges that I am talking about are things that you actually WANT to do, even if it is just to prove that you can do it.

After recently listening to Heidi Miller’s podcast about overcoming challenges, I was struck by her use of the term “challenge solving” and immediately had the idea to put together an empowering blog post about that concept. Big thanks to Heidi for such an excellent phrase!

As with so many other things that have been discussed in the past on this blog, the way that you think and feel about something is the primary driving force behind your level of success in that endeavor.

If you view something as negative, then your results surrounding that thing will be perceived by you to be negative. On the flip side, if you see something as positive, then you will perceive positive results about that thing.

This is the fundamental - yet very basic - mind shift that most people fail to actually fully grasp, and their lack of success in certain areas of their life is a result.

So, if you see something as a “problem” then you immediately put yourself into the frame of mind of needing to solve that problem.

And what is the nature of a problem? Something that needs a solution, and then is taken from your focus once the solution has been found.

Does that sound like the kind of attitude that you should take towards your LIFE? Are you just looking to solve one problem after another, just to find another problem waiting around the next corner?

Compare that to the concept of a “challenge”. Whenever you are challenged to accomplish something, the immediate mental process that goes into place is that you are going to have to make a consistent effort to win the challenge.

Please note the key phrase ‘consistent effort‘.

You will not need to go very far through the archives of this blog or the archives of articles that I have written in order to find many references to the fact that consistency is one of the primary keys to success.

A challenge is not something that you accept, find a solution for, and then push away because you are done with it. No, a challenge is something that you have to continually apply focus to in order to succeed.

Whether you have challenged yourself to the attainment of a goal, or if you are competing with other people in the challenge, you will still have to make a continual effort in order to win the challenge.

Consider the following list of problems and challenges and note the obvious difference between how resolving problems is a one-time affair, while winning challenges is an on-going effort.

Problems

Problem: You have a flat tire. Solution: Install the spare tire and get the flat tire fixed.

Problem: You just cut your finger slicing carrots. Solution: Wash it out and put on a band-aid.

Problem: Your workload is getting out of control at work. Solution: Apply time and material management practices and put in some extra time until your workload is caught up.

Challenges

You challenge yourself to lose 20 pounds in 3 months. Instant Solution: Start and continue on a diet and exercise plan that will allow you to lose the weight. Long-term Benefit: You will have innumerable health and personal benefits as a result of your weight loss efforts, and you will have learned to live a lifestyle that will benefit you for the rest of your life.

You challenge yourself to get out of debt within 12 months. Instant Solution: You come up with a savings plan and/or a way to bring in more income in order to eliminate your debt. Long-term Benefit: You will have the opportunity to potentially live debt-free from now on, and you will have developed the habit of long-term financial awareness that will ensure financial freedom for the rest of your life.

You challenge yourself to stop smoking. Instant Solution: You apply a consistent regimen of both physical and psychological practices that eventually allow you to kick the habit completely. Long-term Benefit: You will probably live a lot longer, but just as importantly, you will have developed a level of confidence that will allow you to more fully enjoy the rest of your life.

In the case of solving the problems that were listed, yes, you got some immediate satisfaction. Take a closer look at the challenges, though.

What are the 3 things that you can see about every single instance of accepting and overcoming each of the challenges that were listed?

…

…

…

Give up? Here they are:

1) The so-called “instant solution” was actually a HUGE benefit, and not something so inconsequential as fixing a flat tire, getting caught up at work, or slapping a band-aid on a minor cut.

2) Every challenge also had a long-term benefit associated with it. Not only was there the instant benefit, but there was a long-term on-going benefit as well.

3) And finally, every challenge ended with you having skills, habits, beliefs, or confidence levels that would last you for the rest of your life.

So, from now on whenever you are faced with something that you perceive to be a problem, do not go into problem solving mode. Go into CHALLENGE solving mode and turn that situation into an opportunity to not only resolve the issue, but to create a better life for yourself in the process!

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?