You’ve already proven your intelligence, talent, and tenacity.  You work hard, and you have so much to offer, so why isn’t your value reflected in your pocketbook? 

You could be repelling money with unconscious beliefs and behaviors.  

Here are five quick tips to attract more money into your life:                                                                                  

1. Appreciate money! If even a penny shows up on the sidewalk, thank Money for the gift. Don’t worry about denomination; appreciate everything. Think of how good you feel when you are valued for even a small gesture. It’s the same for Money. Every time you practice receiving and appreciating, you train the universe to send you more.

2. Strengthen your Boundaries.  I define boundaries as the courage to say “yes” to what you want and “no” to what you don’t want.  You teach the universe how you want to be treated with every choice you make.  Let go of what others think about you, and be true to yourself.  Clear the clutter and energy drains in your life. Weak boundaries attract exploitation, resentment, and a sense of powerlessness. Strong boundaries build your self esteem, and they free you to focus on what is important to you.  This is very attractive. 

3. Make a Wish List.  Make a list of 100 things you would be, do or have if money were no object.  The length of the list stretches you out of scarcity thinking.  The items on the list put what you want on your radar. Wish lists are magical.  Through a mental process called Reticular Activation, your mind will start to discover opportunities to manifest the items on your list that may have been invisible to you before. Notice how things on your list will “show up” with the means to pay for them!

4. Become an excellent money manager.  Automatically divert a percentage of your income into a wealth building/financial freedom account.  Get in the habit of building wealth, even if you are paying down debt.  And set aside something to give to the charities and causes you care about.  Nothing builds a sense of abundance and prosperity like the ability to give to others! 

5. Surround yourself with the people who have mastered what you want to learn, and you will evolve yourself that much faster. I call this Success by Association. We naturally take on characteristics of the people we are around the most.  If you want to be financially free, spend your time with financially successful people who share your values.  Pick up their mindset and practices for wealth building.  Your worldview and your behavior will naturally shift to support more abundance and prosperity.

Have you attained success in your profession or business with intelligence, hard work, and/or with skills? Want to seriously transform other parts of your life - Free of cost in a group initiative ?

Briefly write to me in the comment box about your successes along with your top three reasons to transform your life.

You may be selected to be part of a small group of people who can benefit from playing itransformgame's customized version to help you transform your life as part of this group initiative. This group will receive step by step free instructions and assistance. This can be a win-win, you get free assistance and I will receive information that can help me understand groups of people better in this context.

Simple but powerful steps of itransformgame have been highly effective for one-on-one coaching and facilitating in helping professionals, businesspeople, and others transform their lives. Now you can be part of the first group initiative for personal transformation.

My comment,

Seems self evident to me. In a society which is built on certain fundamental untruths, deep in its fabric of meaning, people who lie well will always succeed. It is interesting that the most famous and best paid artists in todays culture are the ones who are most overtly lying. Actors, who don’t even speak their own words, whose entire art and craft is lying are the most idolised artists.

"People are often defeated just as they are on the verge of success. If you are as careful at the end of an endeavor as you are at the beginning, you cannot fail." Lao Tzu

"By simplifying one's activities, one's emotions, one's mind, and one's spirit, one becomes united with the very essence of the universe. One conducts oneself exactly as a natural being. Then the universe responds not to man's manipulative mind, but to his pure spirit." Hua Ching Ni

"When we are not operating from a sense of fear or negativity, we can feel safe in our own natural being."

"Through compassion we can learn to be soft. When we are soft, we can overcome the hardest thing in the world. Thus we can be valorous." Wang An Shih

"Because it is empty, the sage's mind can receive. Because it is still, it can respond."

"If we content ourselves with the trimming of the branches and don't see to the roots, we may look fine on the outside, but will be rotten on the inside."

From: Tao paths - Good Fortune by Solala Towler

            Edwin C. Barnes discovered how true it is that men really do “THINK AND GROW RICH”…  It started with his burning desire to become a business associate of the great Thomas Edison.  No lack of clarity in this desire.  Barnes believed he would work WITH Edison, not FOR Edison.  He would not settle for anything less.  The desire, thought and impulse he held with unbending belief.  Funny thing, his reality was: he did not know Edison personally and he had no money for a rail ticket to New Jersey.  Yet, he found a way to be there, looking like a tramp, he showed up at the Edison laboratory to meet Edison.

            Edison later would recall that although Mr. Barnes looked like a tramp with no redeeming educational value to offer, he could see in their very first meeting that Barnes displayed a burning desire to work with Edison.  Starting as an employee for very little money, Barnes was not disappointed, he was relentless in enhancing his desire and in relentless pursuit of that desire, he eventually found the opportunity and acted on it, obtaining a contract with Mr. Edison to sell the first Edison Dictating Machine, Nationwide.

            “Barnes literally thought himself into a partnership with Edison”‘, states Hill.  This is a truly amazing story that Hill uses as he begins to unfold the concepts in “Think and Grow Rich”.

            As I read this story for probably the 10^th time, (I have read the book several times in the last 20years), I began to think: Do I have that strong a desire for my business to succeed? 

Could you say that you have that strong a desire for your business, your career, your relationships, yourself to succeed?

OR

Are you looking at all the reasons why you can’t do better today?

·        Recession

·        Gas Prices

·        Too many competitors

·        Banks won’t lend money

·        Can’t find good employees

·        ________________________________(fill in your favorite excuse).

When we study the most knowledgeable, most truly successful individuals and companies we find several traits and we have spoken about them at length: focus, courage, integrity and so many more.  What we see that we find so elusive is something we cannot teach, study or cookie-cutter to all business ventures and all individuals. That is where Napoleon Hill begins his journey in THINK AND GROW RICH. 

 That is Desire. 

That burning passion for the achievement of a clearly defined desire joined with an unbending belief in its reality.  This is something that comes from within.

So today, I ask you to reflect on who you are, what you are doing and ask your “Do I have a burning desire to achieve my vision with unbending belief that it is a reality?”  If the answer is yes, you have half the battle.

When I put that YES with daily action items in alignment with that desire, I see incredible results for me and for my clients.  I see clients obtain better jobs; double the results of the previous year’s income, happier relationships, healthier lifestyles, completion of their latest book and so much more.  All I do is ask them to follow the path in The Step Up to Success System using me as their guide.  You can gain so much from the Step Up to Success System, even if I am not at your side to move you along.

Take a chance that NOW is a great time to give up excuses and achieve that burning desire for a better tomorrow.

       Britney Spears continues to receive visitation; which at this point, according to media reports, includes one, over-night visitation and a couple of visits per week.  Britney has had a rough time physically and emotionally over the last year or two; since her divorce. 

         Britney had very public outbursts and was hospitalized twice, involuntarily.  She has been doing remarkably well since her father Jaime took over a conservatorship many months ago.  He was successful in removing some negative influences by having the court's approval in deciding who could be physically present around Britney.  She has had more stabilized public appearances and has even been productive professionally.  She has appeared on television in a couple of acting roles and she has been getting back to her music.  This, after a much publicized effort to get back into shape physically by working out. 

      All of those accomplishments have allowed the courts to reward her efforts, to get her life back on track, by increasing her time with her boys; after having stopped visitations previously.  It is crucial for Kevin Federline and those in the court system to continue to see Britney Spears'  improvements in areas of concern that affect her children and herself.  Working on the relationships in their family is wise and will be to the benefit of the children as well as the adults involved.

       If things continue to stablize in her life; the court could always increase her visitation time with her children.  This agreement by the parents shows their ability to put their children's needs ahead of their own desire for control.  Well done!      

That's right, I said it.  There is nothing in time or space, nothing in this world or any other that is more important than that I (and you) feel good.  Come hell or high water, what matters most to having a successful life experience is that I remain ever vigilant about keeping my eye open for all that pleases me.

Science doesn't have it all figured out.  Prevailing religions don't have it all figured out.  There is far more in this Universe that we (people in general) don't know than there is that we do know.  Scientists still disagree on what electricity is, and science has yet to put forth a basic explanation of what gravity is.  And yet most people on the planet utilize electricity on a daily basis, and not a single person alive is excluded from the effects of gravity.  An understanding of why gravity does what gravity does has no bearing on the influence that gravity plays in my life.  Is it so far fetched that the Law of Attraction is real and powerful and playing a role in the lives of every living human?

Gratitude.  Appreciation.  Love.  Joy.  The upward emotions are the source of light that exists inside every human heart.  Experience of (feeling) the downward, painful emotions is little more than an indication that I've turned off the light within.  If I'm experiencing darkness within (i.e. fear, hate, anger, jealousy), all I need to do to turn those feelings around is to flip on the light.  When I walk into a dark room and turn on the light switch, where does the darkness go?  Well, there is no force of darkness; either the light is on or the light is off.  The same is true of the dark emotions that I sometimes experience in my mind and heart.  Either I have the light within turn on, or I have it turned off.  And If I want the dark, painful emotions to go away, all I need to do is to turn on the light within. 

What does that mean in practical terms?  It's so simple that it almost sounds ridiculous.  To turn the light on inside my heart, all I need to do is to look around and actively notice things that I'm grateful for, things that I love and appreciate.  All I need to do is to decide that I'm going to feel better, and then think a thought that does feel better.  Seriously, it's that simple.

So, what does the Law of Attraction have to do with all this?  As I understand it (and my experience has convinced me that it's truth), what I focus on will grow in my life.  In other words, if I choose to look at what makes me unhappy, if I focus my awareness on injustice and war and suffering, if I pay attention to who's judging me for loving a woman or for the color of my skin, then by the Law of Attraction, I will attract more and more experiences just like those that I'm focused on.  (What I resist and push against in my life I must focus on.  What I focus on will grow in my life experience.)  As sure as gravity will do what gravity does if I jump out of the window, the Law of Attraction responds to my focus, that's just how it works.  How is that possible?  How could it possibly be that unseen forces respond to my private thoughts?  Heavens!  Is there anything in Heaven and Earth more powerful than consciousness, awareness, life?  (Add life and consciousness to the list of things that science and religion can't explain.)  Every physicist knows that the results of any quantum experiment are affected simply because someone was watching.  True story.

I repeat, nothing is more important than that I feel good.  Whether I have a life experience filled with happiness and joy and love and gratitude is entirely dependent on what thoughts I choose to think.  I get to choose the nature of my life experience!  How cool is that?  And really, if I'm wrong, what do I have to lose by constantly looking around for things to love, appreciate and feel grateful for? 

XO,

K

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="455" caption="Photos by Me!"][/caption]

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/07/18/mccain-we-have-succeeded-in-iraq/

Let's go home.

-Frances B

Sometimes our fears can prevent us from taking that first step.  "What if I fail?" we quietly ask ourselves.  And so we can procrastinate our way from ever taking a chance.

Dreaming is Not Enough

As PersistentIllusion grows in its success, I have been eyeing the blogging 'marketplace of ideas' Alltop. 

From Adoption to Yoga, they have just about everything that could possibly stoke one's passion. 

I also really like that you can completely immerse yourself in an unfamiliar topic, allowing you to really absorb it.  (I could easily spend a day exploring the outer reaches of Homeschooling!)

Of course the topic I prefer - no surprise here - is LifeHacks.  It contains some of the most inspirational bloggers in the field - Steve Pavlina, ZenHabits, The Discomfort Zone, and Alex Shalman.  Everytime I went through the LifeHacks articles, I would think to myself "I want to be on Alltop someday."

Make 'Someday' Today

For some reason, 'someday' was never that  day.  I didn't feel I was 'enough'...until last night.  Everything simply clicked.  What was I waiting for?  What would be different a month or a year from now?  What's the worst that could happen?

Imagine the Worst-Case Scenario

The absolute worst that could happen is that I receive the response that says:

Dear Hayden,

We received your application and are at a loss as to why you even applied.  We're clearly out of your league.  Go back to your blog-hole and cry yourself to sleep.  We are going to post a message on our homepage about how awful you are.

Please don't reapply.

Sincerely,  Alltop

Well that would just be absurd, and anything else is manageable!  Armed with my ability to face the worst I sent Alltop an email.  And then waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.

If You Never Try, It'll Never Happen

At 1:22 a.m. they finally put me out of my misery at ease.  "Thank you for getting in touch with us. We agree!"  No kidding.  They actually said that. 

If I never tried, never asked, there would be no opportunity.  How many times do we do this in our lives?  On what are you procrastinating, while indulging your 'daydream'?  What can you do today, right now,  to take one action - one chance - towards your dream?

As for me, you know I posted the "Alltop" badge on PersistentIllusion with a quickness.  

If you have a moment, check out LifeHacks.  You'll see me...on the bottom of the page in the middle of the page...with the biggest smile in the world.

Be Grateful

So thank you  Alltop.  And thank you  to those of you who donated. 

I was paid $23 (!) for doing something I love - writing this blog.  ($21 of those love dollars came in after I had already met my goal.)  The sheer knowledge that I had made over $1 doing something I loved, that I had incredible support from you  - my love muffins! - gave me the courage to take that chance.  To send the email.

So I urge you.  Take action.  Take one step, even a small one.  One step matters.  

Just ask Neil Armstrong.

Risin' up, back on the street
Did my time, took my chances
Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet
Just a man and his will to survive

Risin' up, straight to the top
Have the guts, got the glory
Went the distance, now I'm not gonna stop
Just a man and his will to survive

I had the opportunity to help plan a dinner to celebrate cancer survivors last evening and I am truly humbled today. Survivors range from small children to people in their golden years however the strength and courage is universal and knows no age. If you have someone close to you who is a survivor from cancer you understand what I am talking about. My wonderful friend was the speaker, talked of how grateful she is to be alive. We laugh then we cry and that is normal. She has had a multitude of difficulties and hardship revolving around breast cancer, lung cancer and heart problems however she is one of the most positive and amazing people I know.

If you feel you have a difficult life try hanging out at the children’s wing at the hospital. When my niece had cancer as a child I spend a significant amount of time at University Hospital in Madison WI. It was life changing to say the least. Courage, strength, determination and love are a few of the overwhelming feelings you will find there as well as friendship and a special bond family’s share.

Take some time today and think about friends and loved ones who have fought or are fighting this battle and be grateful they are a part of your life. Look to the undeniable courage they possess and use them for your heroes and role models.  Finally say a prayer for all the people who suffer with hopes a cure may someday be found.

Susie Austin

Check out the link for the Relay For Life Waukesha

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RelayForLifeMidwestDivision?pg=entry&fr_id=7966

If you would like to make a donation, here is the link to my page. The event is August 1, 2008 J

Here are pictures from his camp:

Learn from your failures. Let them be your motivation. As for victory, do not fool around when you have success. Keep up the success.

In this post I hope to show that it is possible but it may require a new way of thinking.

What is a work/life balance anyway?

It seems that when we talk about balance we are aiming to treat both things equally. But is this really what we want?

When I speak to most people they see work as a necessary evil and life as something they aspire to. People will talk about having a life when they retire, or perhaps they live at the weekends and then trudge through the working week.

Just occasionally I encounter the reverse where someone enjoys work so much that time they have to spend on other things is just a bit of a nuisance.

Are there other things to balance?

Then if we talk about life - what is life anyway? Do we mean fun? Do we mean things like: family, hobbies, relaxation etc. And then we can do the same with work. Does work mean things like: effort, struggle, productivity?

We could keep splitting things up for ever!

Is your work and your life actually part of the same thing?

Perhaps we have to think in a different way and see work as part of life.

If we think this way then we have to find ways of integrating work into life. If we think this way then work stops being the bit that gets in the way of living but is actually just another part of it.

What do you want out of life?

It seems to me that what we want out of life is the most important question we need to answer.

Who are we and what are we trying to achieve? would be another way of saying the same thing.

We get harmony in life (I prefer the word harmony to balance myself) when we understand what we want and then we build our life around the answer.

I hope in future posts to tackle some of these big questions.

What are your aims in life?

Why not post a comment to this blog telling us about what you want out of life. Often when we share something it can help us get it.

He ordered his servants to bring in a faggot of sticks, and said to his eldest son: "Break
it."

The son strained and strained, but with all his efforts was unable to break the Bundle. The other sons also tried, but none of them was successful.

"Untie the faggots," said the father, "and each of you take a stick.

" When they had done so, he called out to them: "Now, break," and each stick was easily broken.

"You see my meaning," said their father.

Moral:
Union gives strength.

Hahahaha..!! How cool are those words, huh?

Abraham Lincoln said those words about 150 years ago. And they capture the essence of what it takes to be the best.

I think that that is the state of mind I need to be in right now and the mindset I need to have if I want to presevere and succeed in life.

I blocked out the "you've never done sales before, it's strange, you're just going to be nervous" thoughts and feelings from my body and mind, and replaced them with "meh, just do it! You gotta at least find out what the job entails. You don't even know what you would have to do! Besides, it doesn't look hard" thoughts. The mantra I was telling myself over and over again while I was working out probably helped too- "I am so grateful and excited that I have a job by the end of this month!"

So what has happened? Yes that's right! I have scheduled a job interview for a sales position at LA Fitness, the gym here in town I go to regularly! My goal is to get a job by the end of this month. UNIVERSE, DO YOUR STUFF!

I'm taking a slightly new approach to many things in my life lately. One of them is applying for a sales position at the gym. Before, I saw sales as something that made me nervous, something that would require mad skills I don't have. The truth is I have what it takes! How do I know this? Well besides having a greater belief in myself and self esteem, and a more recently aquired 'meh, just do it' attitude, I was watching the sales people work. It didn't look so hard to me- the one guy was sitting there playing with a rubber band in his mouth. I can do that!!!

Whether or not this job is the one I'll have by the end of the month remains to be seen with my eyes, but I'm already seeing myself as a new member of the LA Fitness team in my mind!

Above is the hopeful mindthoughts of Christopher Marriott.

Your dreams are your visions of where you'll be after the battle,
your prize at the end of your journey to success.
Your goals are the steps you take to finally attain your prize.

Unless you're willing to work hard and establish some discipline in your life,
all of your dreams will be pipe dreams,
little mental fantasy trips that will never materialize.

Make concrete steps toward fulfilling your ultimate dream,
and start with solid objectives called goals,
Your dreams are where you want to go,
your goals are how you get there.

The first indispensable step
to getting the things you want out of life is this:
decide what you want.

Don't be afraid to think big and dare to be great.
Dreamers are not content with mediocrity.
They never dream of going half way.

People with goals succeed because they know where they're goin.

Copyright 2008 www.yourdailymotivation.com

We hear a lot about diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, and even hypothetical epidemics like bird flu. Because of their impact and ubiquity, these conditions deserve the attention they receive.

However, there is a condition that afflicts more people than all of these diseases combined.  In fact, it's very likely you will be impacted by this condition, or its side effects, several times today. It can stop your life cold.

Symptoms include sweaty palms, a racing heart, self-consciousness, stress, headaches, and life paralysis. This condition affects poor and rich, famous and obscure, young and old. No one is immune.

It has prevented more great thoughts, limited more potential, destroyed more possibilities than anything on the planet. The condition is "What Will Other People Think (WWOPT)?"

Perhaps because our society is so enamored with popularity and status, many of us are deathly afraid to do anything that might be seen as being "out there". We prefer to stay safely in the herd. Thinking the herd's thoughts. Following the herd's lead. Parroting the herd's conventional (and usually disempowering) wisdom.

This is one of those instances of a positive attribute being turned against you. Humans are social creatures. Most of us have a strong need to be part of a group. These instincts help us cooperate and collaborate to get things done.

That attribute must be balanced, though, by empowered selfhood that can break from the group and create something unique and special - something all your own. That's one of the main reasons you are here - to contribute your uniqueness to the universe.

When that process is short-circuited by WWOPT we become paralyzed in our lives.

• "That dress is a little crazy and I like it, but WWOPT?"
• "I don't agree with the politcal mainstream, but I can't express it because WWOPT?"
• "I want to wear a bathing suit at the beach, but my body's not perfect and WWOPT?"
• "I want to be a romance author, but WWOPT?"
• "I'm not happy in my spiritual life, but I can't change because WWOPT?"
• "My wife and I want to sell our possessions, buy a mobile home, and travel America, but WWOPT?"

The mass media uses this instinct against you to create a kind of subconscious servitude to what's trendy, acceptable, and popular. It really is a form of not-so-subtle mind control. It establishes boudaries of what is acceptable and what is not (at least in your mind). It's very powerful and gets more so every time you fail to establish a powerful selfhood as a counterbalance.

It seems OK because almost everyone you know is also stuck in WWOPT. We often provide negative encouragement by using WWOPT to convince our friends to stay where they are (where we are) - comfortable and uninspired.

Here's what you can do to treat WWOPT. Sometime today - I can almost guarantee it - you're going to have a thought or an idea that brings you momentary satisfaction at the thought of pursuing it.

If you're afflicted with WWOPT, your self-talk is going to shoot down your idea. It's going to tell you all the reasons that would never work and it's going to employ WWOPT as its closing argument in squashing your dream. Or, maybe the idea survives your self-talk long enough to be shared with a friend who dismisses it as "crazy talk".

You could feel stupid for even thinking such a thing. You know the drill because you've done it a hundred, a thousand times before. You chastise yourself. You feel your happiness drain away as your dream dies...the victim of WWOPT.

Or instead, as soon as this happens, and every time it does from now on, you can choose a different path. You can shout (not literally unless you want to because you're no longer worried by WWOPT), "I have a right to be me and to think for myself! I am choosing to pursue my dreams!" Say it to yourself two or three times, if that's what it takes.

Put your internal and external naysayers on notice that you are not going to be stopped by WWOPT anymore. Once you break through that fearful barrier, you will see it was nothing but smoke and mirrors.

You're going to explore what it means to be you, to think like you, and to act like you. That's what you're here to do, my friend. Success comes not to those who wait with the herd, but to those who step out on their own and create something different.

Oddly enough, the herd really loves to follow someone like that. :o)

Stay inspired!

Ray

______________________________________________________________________

Adam Goodman is the President of The Victory Group, the company I completed my internship with. He is the creative mastermind who has stretched my mind to new levels of thinking and imagining. For my last day of my internship-for-credit, I decided an interview with Adam would balance well with my thoughts of this internship.

After making the final disclaimer changes to a 30-second commercial, Adam and I sat down to discuss the value of internships and what it really takes to survive in this field.

I am going to put this one out in straight Q & A style because his words are so powerful by themselves.

Ashley: Have you ever completed an internship?

Adam: Yes. I worked for a summer with a D.C.-based film crew traveling the nation. I did everything from getting lunch to equipment to planning for the next shoot. It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.

Ashley: Would you recommend an internship to someone? Why?

Adam: Yes. One of the best teachers is hands-on experience to learn what you can do, what you like to do and to learn about yourself. It allows you to test your limits, overcome obstacles, feel success and failure and have to deal with it all. You will use those lessons down the road and they will count for more.

Ashley: How closely do education and personality correlate with success? Does one prove superior to the other?

Adam: That is the big question of life. You need elements of both to succeed. You can be learned but not wise. You can be capable but not able to communicate it. If you have a terrific personality but can’t follow through, you can’t make it. There is some convergence between education and personality that leads to success.

Ashley: What qualities do you look for when bringing someone into your company?

Adam: Interest because without interest it just becomes work. Determination because without determination you won’t get 100 percent. Discipline in terms of measuring up to responsibilities and expectations.

Ashley: What lesson or trait have you found most valuable in your career?

Adam: Patience and perspective. Patience to wait and allow opportunities to come to you. Perseverance to make sure you don’t quit before that pot of gold. Too often people quit, maybe it’s because they’re comfortable. Especially when you’re young, it’s hard to understand just how high the sky really is. You just have to reach for it.