Is Your Life Working the Way You Want it to Be by Jack Canfield

When things happen in the world that seem so far beyond our
individual control, it can feel unsettling.

But don't give up on your goals and dreams just because "the time
isn't good"... you can still make 2010 the year you uncover a whole
new you for the better!

Even in tough times, you get to decide how to respond to certain
conditions, opportunities, and outcomes--both good and bad.

Life will always be a series of choices and YOU get to decide on
what will move you closer to your goals, or farther away from them.
External forces will always be part of the equation, even during
the good times when the world is thriving.

When people ask me about the single most important ingredient to
success, I always share the same response: realizing what's making
you achieve success, and then realizing what is stifling your
success.

Sometimes recognizing the things that are NOT working in your life
can be painful, yet VERY powerful to shaping the life you want.

Don't try to rationalize them, make excuses for them, or hide them.
This is when it's even more critical to take personal inventory and
evict those excuses, rationalizations, and hidden habits that don't
serve you. These things will keep you from the life you want to be
living. Let me give you some examples. Ask yourself if you relate
to any of these questions:

Do you want to be active, fit, and strong? Then you have

to stop making excuses about your weight, diet choices, and lack

of exercise.

Do you want to be in a loving relationship based on

friendship and respect? Then you have to stop rationalizing why

you and your partner are not communicating well.

Do you want to embrace Monday mornings and feel excited
about going to work every day? Then you have to stop hiding your

true passions and go after whatever it is you really want to be doing
day in and day out.

Do you want to lose the debt forever? Then you have to stop
ignoring your spending habits and get real about a creating budget
that will pull you out of debt and allow you to reach financial
freedom.

Do you want to feel more connected to the people in your

life, such as your children, friends, and colleagues? Then you

have to stop complaining about your poor relationships and figure out

why you don't feel as connected as you'd like to be.

These things can be painful to look at because the truth is that
you have to do something about them in order to make it work in
your life.

You'll have to say no to the second helping of dinner and the
dessert to follow and go through the action steps to get into
shape... You'll have to confront your partner about the areas that
need work... You'll have to get past fears about changing your job
or professional path... You'll have to cut back on your spending
and be a bit more frugal... You'll have to take a good hard look at
your personal relationships and perhaps consider your own
shortfalls and weaknesses in communicating your needs and concerns.

Plain and simple, you will have to do something uncomfortable.

Successful people don't waste time in denial (or complain or make
excuses for that matter). They face situations like a warrior. They
look for the warning signs, they find out why things aren't
working, and they go about fixing them- even when fixing requires
problem solving, hard work, risk, and a level of uncertainty.

It's okay to identify a problem even though you haven't a clue
about how to go about solving it right away.

The first step is just recognizing the issue, and then having faith
that you'll figure it out with careful attention to it. That's how
successful people live--in constant focus on goals, on results, on
problem solving, and on the actions that get them to where they
want to be.

Following are three things to do constantly in pursuit of

your goals and dreams, however big or small:

*Awareness: Keep your awareness on the feedback you are
getting from life and decide to address the situations immediately.
Don't bottle up feedback, cast it aside, and avoid it like you
would a pile of dirty laundry or a stack of unopened bills. Life
tells you things every day. Do this. Don't do that. Think about
this. Try me. Forget that. We live in a world that seemingly
encourages us to live on autopilot. Successful people fly manually
every day and so should you. When those feedback signals come in,
listen to them and use them in planning your next step.

* Commitment: Commit to finding out why things aren't working
and learn what will fix them. Once you start the process it will be
much easier to continue. Nothing fruitful stems from inaction.

* Trust: Trust that making changes to the situation will
ultimately bring about the best results. Sure you might go through
a bit of discomfort during the change, and some unlikely or
unwanted outcomes, but in the end you will triumph!

So are you ready to admit the things that just are not working out?

Make a list of the things in your life that are working against
your success and ask how the situation can be improved. Commit to
tackling just one of those issues and be brave!

If you need help organizing those "things" in your life, try using
the following list of categories. I recommend reflecting on each of
the 7 areas and ask yourself, what's not working here in each one
and then brainstorm 3 potential solutions.

1.) Financial Goals, 2) Career/Business Goals, 3.) Free Time/Family
Time, 4.) Health/Appearance Goals, 5.) Relationship Goals, 6.)
Personal Growth 7.) Making a Difference

Remember, by facing what is not working, you can only improve

your life!

Stay Focused on Your Dreams by Jack Canfield

I just spent a day conducting my Success Principles Workshop for
200 unemployed men and women sponsored by the Workforce

Institute in San Jose, California.

It was a very revealing day.

First, I was struck by the diversity of the people who have lost
their jobs due to the cutbacks caused by the recession--computer
programmers, salespeople, managers, artists, trainers, architects,
landscapers, lawyers, actuaries, truck drivers, painters and
teachers.

Secondly, I was struck by the mood of resignation and depression
that was present in the room when we began in the morning.

The prevailing belief was that there were not any jobs available
and that it wasn't going to get any better anytime soon. People
were preparing their resumes, going to job fairs, going to
interviews, but with little or no results.

I was reminded of Spencer Johnson's book Who Moved My Cheese, in
which he reports how rats in a laboratory maze are trained to press
a certain buzzer with their noses, and once they are reinforced
with a reward of cheese, will keep going back to press the same
buzzer even though they are no longer receiving cheese for pressing
the buzzer. Their noses will become bloody and they will eventually
die rather than press a different buzzer.

Human beings do the same thing. They will repeat a behavior that
used to work over and over and over again, even though it is not
producing the desired result, hoping that someday it will work
again.

There is something to be said for perseverance in the face of

an obstacle, but sometimes you have to come to grips with the

fact that a particular opportunity may never exist again.

In my book 'The Success Principles' I teach a formula called E + R =
O. It stands for Events + Responses = Outcomes.

If a certain response (job search) in the face of a certain event
(the current economic situation in your area) is not creating the
outcome (income) you want, you may have to change your response.

You may have to try something different, which could include
employing a more creative approach to presenting yourself, moving
to a new location where the jobs are, changing fields (which might
require retraining or re-education), becoming an entrepreneur and
starting your own business venture, joining a multi-level marketing
company, partnering up with other people to start a service of some
kind--all of which may require you to step outside of your comfort
zone.

A good example of what I am talking about is a woman I read about
in USA Today. After losing her job she noticed that all the homes
that were being foreclosed in her neighborhood were left in shambles,

just as the angry people who were forced out of them. She called the

local banks and offered to clean them for a fee so that they would be

presentable when the banks tried to rent or sell them. Her little

venture was so successful that she had to hire several other people to

help. She now has a successful house cleaning business.

I saw a story on CNN about another jobless woman who opened a store
to help buy and sell used furniture from the people who were forced to

downsize as they were being foreclosed upon or forced to move to
smaller apartments. She sold some locally and some on the internet.
These are all examples of finding a need and filling it, of getting
creative instead of sitting passively by, doing the same old behaviors

that are not working.

By the end of the day in San Jose there was a different mood in the
air--one of excitement and enthusiasm about pursuing all of the
possibilities that lay before them.

They had come in at the beginning of the day simply hoping to figure

out how to find a job. By the end of the day they were leaving focused

on how to create the life of their dreams.

They had transcended the limited goal of getting back to ground zero

and replaced it with a goal of "thrival" rather than mere survival.

No matter what is going on in the economy...

* hold fast to your dreams,
* visualize them with feeling twice a day,
* keep your self-talk positive,
* surround yourself with positive people,
* read uplifting books,
* trust your intuition,
* take continuous action,
* expect the best,
* respond to feedback by making the necessary corrections,
* and persevere until you get the result you want.

It's a formula that always works.

After the workshop had concluded, one of the participants came up
to me and said...

"You know, I used to set goals and do the things you were teaching
us today when I was younger. I guess I've just stopped doing the
things that work."

Whatever you do, don't stop doing the things that work. I promise
you, if you work the principles, the principles always work.

What Do You Do When You Are Turned Down 134 Times? by Thomas Herold

Mark Victor Hansen and his friend, Jack Canfield, had an idea to write a book of short stories that would touch the souls of many people. After the book was written the title seemed to be not quite right. So he went into meditation and asked for guidance about a title. He wanted the book to be special, to captivate the imagination of the public, so the title was critical. He went to bed each night with the phrase in his mind: “Mega bestseller”.

What Do You Do When You Are Turned Down 134 Times?

After a few days, Hanson woke up with the phrase “Chicken Soup” in his mind. He didn't understand until he remembered that his mom had always made him chicken soup when he was sick. After more contemplation, the final title was born: “Chicken Soup for the Soul”. Everybody he shared this title with got goose bumps almost instantly.

However, even though a major breakthrough had been achieved with the title, bills were piling up, and his spouse got more nervous with each passing day. The title was there but the book was not selling. How could they continue to promote the book to publishers when real life was intruding so heavily?

Hansen received over 33 rejection letters even though he was not an unknown in his field. In the following weeks, he was turned down by 134 more publishers. Finally, a small printing company agreed to take on the project if the authors agreed to buy the first 20,000 copies!

Well, what are you going to do if this is your dream? You just keep the faith and keep on doing it. Hansen and Canfield agreed to buy the first 20,000 copies themselves, and the book hit the market in 1994. It did not make it to the first bestseller list until 14 month later. During all that time, the two men ceaselessly promoted the book by their own efforts.

Guess What Happened Next?

The book became the greatest top-selling success story in the history of nonfiction books with over 100 million books in print and over a billion dollars in combined sales!

Your Dreams - The Source Of Infinite Power

If you love what you do, you can never fail! Why? Because you will never run out of juice. You will always be motivated. During the inevitable times when you are discouraged, you will find a way to simply acknowledge the state you find yourself in, take a break, and the juice will be back in no time. If you live your talents you will be empowered by the universal source—a source that is beyond your wildest imagination, and it is of infinite supply.

No argument can make you stop doing what you love to do. Many people have wonderful reasons for what they do and for what they want to accomplish. These reasons are as varied and personal as anything in the universe. If you take away these reasons and ideas, people fall into a black hole because there is then no longer any substance behind their reality—their dreams have been cut off at the source.

If there is only one important thing in your life, then surely it must be this: to find and live your dreams. Don't waste any more time doing things you don't like. Yes, you are taking a risk, but you will never want to go back once you have make this choice.

How Much Free Will Do You Really Have in Life by Thomas Herold

There is an overwhelming amount of self-help books on the market; hundreds of success seminars exist and still, every year, our society continues to experience more and more problems. This is certainly the case when you look at recent statistics on divorce, health and money related issues, the last one topping the list.

If you have free will, why would you decide to lose your job, undergo a bankruptcy, have an accident or create any other negative circumstances?

There must be something here that is missing . . .

Some people claim that they control everything in their lives by free will. There are others that believe that free will does not exist, as everything is predetermined by God or some form of higher power.

What Do You Believe?

If you observe how people govern — or fail to govern — their lives, it turns out that we all register on various points along the scale, starting with free will and self-determination on one end and ranging to no free will and ruled by God or some other higher power on the other end.

Everybody claims to know his or her own place on the free will continuum. This is really interesting as it demonstrates somehow that either most of us simply don't know how much free will we exercise, or that there is simply no basic rule applicable.

Exercising free will means that your decision is not based on any circumstances or influences from the past or future. Nor is your free will based on moral issues — and absolutely not on personal preferences.

When you closely examine your decisions you will soon see that they are indeed based mostly on existing facts and personal preferences. So how much free will do you really exercise?

What if you follow your intuition or go with your gut feeling? Are these based on free will? Where does intuition come from? Where does your gut feeling come from? You can see that the limits of free blur rather quickly when compared to most non-rational processes.

Your level of free will is determined by the state of your consciousness.

When you base a decision on intuition, you are really exercising free will because you are giving a certain higher level or your consciousness the power to rule. Intuition is free from any indoctrination brought about by pat forms of beliefs and concepts.

That's why success in life has a lot to do with your spiritual path. True success is far beyond what most of society focuses on. Don't let yourself be pushed into a box by shortsighted claims that money and beauty are all there are to success. Success in your life is not dependent on how much money you have, where you live or if you are in a relationship.

Success is not feeling happy; it is feeling happy about who you are.

Creating Goals Beyond Yourself

Most people start out creating their goals on a physical level — that's fine, we all do. However, to get further into the power of manifesting you want to learn what is beyond what you call 'That's Me'.

‘That's Me’ is just an assortment of beliefs and experiences that you have collected over time. Compared to who you truly are, it is merely the tip of the iceberg.

To expand your level of control you need to step aside of your usual cause-and-effect thinking. Pay more attention to coincidences. Allow yourself to make spontaneous decisions. Connect and listen to your heart and follow its guidance when it comes to life decisions. Simplify how you live and reduce stress as much as possible. Stress is the biggest challenge in allowing your being to reach a higher potential of awareness.

Manifesting with Higher Purpose

When setting up your intentions and dreams, try to get to the point of what you really want, and not what you think you need. Think about what would be the highest purpose you could fulfill in your lifetime. Imagine — beyond anything that you may think is possible!

When you start doing this, magic happens in your life!