Grains of Sand

How does an oyster create a pearl? A tiny grain of sand works its way in to the oyster shell and irritates the poor innocent oyster. Over time, the grain of sand transforms into a precious gem; pearls are created from friction and irritation.

Every life encounters irritation. The only way to avoid any friction in life involves hiding in a cave, avoiding people and avoiding any contact with life outside yourself. Even that existence could and probably does encounter loneliness, poverty, and the elements (life in a cave does not convey luxury and warmth to my imagination.) Bottom line - life has irritations and inconveniences.

Everyone, including yourself, chooses to have a better future than their present circumstances. You still have dreams and goals. If you have given up on all dreams and goals, we need to have a different conversation. You deserve a life you design for yourself. If you do not design your own present and future, by default, it will be designed for you. Who do you believe will do a better job of designing your ideal future - you or someone else? You were given a brain and expected to use it. I promise you that you were not given goals and dreams of a better life without a way to make them come true. It all depends on how badly you want that better life. What are you willing to do to achieve it?

Irritation happens in life; irritation is reality. The question which makes all the difference between the successful and the failures directly relates to how you handle that irritation. You can choose the curl up in a corner and cry "poor me" or stand up, dust yourself off and say, "Watch me." The pearl, the successful business person, persisted until victory finally waved "hello" from the top of the financial mountain.

Andy Andrews, author of the "Travelers Gift," found himself living under a pier in California at one point in life. He chose to visit the library every day, read everything he desired to improve his mind, make a decision to start improving his life, and take action on that decision. He chose to find a way to improve and actually do the work required to bring that improvement into reality. Was it easy? Absolutely not. Was it worth the struggle? Absolutely yes.

Every life encounters various size rocks. Rocks of Life spoke about the big rock in the field of our life. Attitude Rocks illustrated the importance of your attitude in every situation. Attitude plays such an important role with every size rock. Mindset determines how we handle these incidents in life. Frequently these rocks are gift wrapped and tied with a ribbon of guilt.

Sometimes others sent me on guilt trips.

Other times I was invited to go along with someone else on a guilt trip.

The worst guilt trip was when I purchased my own ticket.

Developing an attitude of, "What good can come from this situation" smoothes the path and eases the mental anguish. Seeking the positive in every incident in life relaxes the tension and allows a constructive outcome. Expecting a negative result predetermines the likelihood of undesirable consequences. More frequently than not, we experience what we expect rather than what we desire. Concentrating on prosperity and abundance rather than lack tends to produce more prosperity.

Your subconscious mind does not know how to distinguish good from bad or desired rather than expected. Program your subconscious mind to expect only the highest and best results for yourself. Developing a positive attitude and a positive expectation encourages life to provide desirable results. At the very least, it eases your mind and relaxes your creative abilities so that they can function at their highest level.

It is not what happens to us and outside of us which truly creates the difference; the significant difference is always created inside ourselves. Break up the big rocks and haul them away. Gather the medium sized rocks, the pebbles and the grains of sand into a bucket; seal the bucket and destroy it. No need keeping any rocks around to stub your toe of life. Deal with them once and for all and get rid of them forever.

"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change, stated Dr. Wayne Dyer.

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Power of Decision

A committed decision initiates forward progress. Positive progress occurs only after a firm decision. “I’ll try” provides a ready made excuse for failure. As long as you give yourself the option of quitting at the first little bump in the road, you have guaranteed the arrival of that bump. Any time I hear “maybe” or “try” I know the odds of success are severely handicapped. “I’ll throw up a marketing campaign and see what sticks” means that decisions are wishy washy. Proceeding with the campaign as a split test implies the expectation of good results with one segment of the campaign and better results with the other segment – a choice of two positives.

Not every decision will be an overwhelming success, just as not every marketing campaign will produce an avalanche of high quality leads. Some decisions will be better than others and some campaigns will be better than others. The key difference rests in the expectation of positive results. A choice between better and best feels far more constructive than “we’ll see what happens.”

Andy Andrews wrote about the 7 Decisions for Success in his book “The Travelers Gift.”

1. The buck stops here. I am responsible for my past and my future.
2. I will seek wisdom. I will be a servant to others.
3. I am a person of action. I seize the moment. I choose now.
4. I have a decided heart. My destiny is assured.
5. Today I will choose to be happy. I am the possessor of a grateful spirit.
6. I will greet this day with a forgiving spirit. I will forgive myself.
7. I will persist without exception. I am a person of great faith.

Notice the absolute commitment in each and every decision. He takes responsibility. He takes action and he follows through with a decided heart. Neither indecision nor hesitation exists. Only with absolute commitment will positive results occur. The subconscious mind can not begin to create the desired result until you absolutely decide on that specific objective.
Consider going in to a restaurant and ordering tomato soup, but before the waiter can bring the order you have changed your mind and ordered cream of mushroom soup. Change your mind a third time and ask for tomato soup with mushrooms and chicken. The poor waiter has no idea what to bring you because you have no clear idea of what you want.

Your subconscious mind fills the role of the waiter. You subconscious mind desires to please you and fulfill your chosen selection; however, the task becomes impossible until you clearly make a specific decision. Until an absolute specific detailed decision is made, you are aiming at a target in the dark with a scatter gun. Perhaps one pellet will strike the target by accident. Why not be clear, absolute and specific; center all of the shots in the center of the target.

Any time I have missed my goals in life, I can trace the cause to a non-specific goal or even worse too many goals headed in different directions. In every case, the center of the issue rested squarely on my shoulders.

Every time I set an absolutely specific goal with detailed criteria, I achieved it. The power always centers with a laser focus on the specific decision. A committed decision implies a persistence until the goal is achieved. Saying that you will work the business for a month or even six months provides the option for quitting. A powerful decision means persisting through whatever for as long as necessary to arrive at the objective.

Committed decisions provide power. In fact, power is only possible with a committed decision.

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Power of 5

The first time I learned about the power of 5 was the five things every successful person does every day in their daily method of operation. I am certain you are familiar with these five action items

1. Daily visualization and meditation on your goals. See each of your goals in living color with all 5 of your senses.
2. Income producing activity – lead generation, conversations with leads and follow up after they have reviewed the information
3. Masterminding with other leaders through live phone calls, recorded calls or the very best is live events. Meet and interact with other leaders face to face.
4. Personal development remains one of the most critical elements. Personal growth almost always precedes financial development. You can not grow within and stand still outside yourself.
5. Cultivate the expectation of leadership and success. BE the leader in self talk, feelings, words and actions. DO what the leaders do; take the actions they take. You will HAVE what the leaders have.

The five daily methods of operation items are consistent among all leaders throughout all industries. These items are absolutely essential in the home based business industry. Most home based business entrepreneurs are solopreneurs – a one person company. You are the only one responsible for doing every function. You are a solo act. Hence the term solopreneur, solo entrepreneur.

In order for your business to grow and flourish, you must focus on these five items every day. There is also another power of five which I feel is equally impactful toward your business success.

The second power of five is the practice of determining five action items to do every day to move your business forward. I first learned about this second power of five from Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield. When they were first launching “Chicken Soup for the Soul,” they developed this highly productive habit. Obviously it worked because now we have Chicken Soup for the Everything Imaginable books.

My experience with this simple technique has been fantastic. Every evening before I close my eyes and turn out the lights on the day, I write out a very specific list of five action items to be completed the next day. Two or three of them may be the same every day, but I always tap into my creativity for at least two items every day.

Why do I make the list as the last thing before I put a bow on the day and consider it wrapped and completed? The subconscious mind is the most receptive and most easily programmed immediately before slipping into n alpha sleep and the very first thing in the morning as you emerge from the alpha sleep. Your final thoughts before you drift off to slumberland and the first thoughts when your sleepy eyes flutter open in the morning are the most influential. Make those thoughts very positive to set a positive tone for the new day.

Another interesting fact is that the subconscious mind actually works on the situation for you while you sleep. You may be resting; however, your mind still functions. Why not have your uninterrupted subconscious mind activate its creativity for you. Ever wake in the middle of the night with a fantastic idea? Of course, your mind has remained active and creative. For this precise reason I have a notepad and pen on my bedside table to jot those flashes of inspiration. Once I jot them down, I can go back to sleep and not give it a second thought. If you do not record them on a note pad, you will either forget them or stay partially awake for hours for fear that you will forget that flash of genius.

The power of five has success magic. I highly recommend that you utilize both power of 5 practices. Your personal life, your business and your bank account will thank you.

For more tips and techniques for success, visit me at Elaine4Success.com. Give me your contact information and let me stimulate your life.

Play the Match Game

Picture yourself ordering in a restaurant. First you order a chef salad, then you change your order to a pasta salad and then you change your mind again and order a hamburger. What are the odd that you will receive exactly what you want at the moment the food arrives. Slim and none and slim just left town.

This is the way your subconscious mind feels when you keep changing your mind about what you truly desire to receive in life. Your instructions must be crystal clear and very specific. You can not say, “I want to earn a lot of money” and expect your subconscious mind to know exactly how many dollars that represents. The subconscious mind can only match your desire to your results when you are very specific. Set the exact goal you intend to achieve and the exact date by which it will be accomplished. For instance, if your goal is to lose weight, you might say that you will weight 124 pounds by October 1, 2009. That is very specific in goal and time to be accomplished. The subconscious mind and go to work on that goal. The next step is to match your actions to the goal.

Purchasing a chocolate cake and a gallon of ice cream immediately after setting that goal would not match. Even though chocolate cake and ice cream are very tasty foods, eating them right now does not match the intention of losing weight. If you have found a way to pig out on dessert and lose weight at the same time, that is most unusual.

The point is that your goal must be very specific with a very specific completion time. All of your actions must match the desired outcome.

Match your current goals to your behavior. How is that working out for you?

If you have a home based business and you have a strong desire to replace your current income from your job, let’s set the intention. If you are currently earning 48,000 per year, that is 4,000 per month or 1,000 per week (based on a 4 week month to make calculation easier). You can set your goal to be earning 1,000 per week in your home based business within 30 days from today – whatever date that might be.

Set your actions to be consistent with your goal. For instance if you are earning 200 per sale, that means you must generate 5 sales per week. If you close one sale for every 10 people in your leads list, you will need to have 50 leads per week. Match your actions to follow through with your goal. Do whatever actions you need to take to generate 50 leads per week. Break your actions down to daily tasks and follow through.

Every time you think about an activity, ask yourself if it moves you closer to your goal or farther away. If it moves you closer – if it matches the result you are seeking – do it. Remember the ice cream and the goal of 124 pounds? The same principle applies to playing video games on your computer all day instead of generating leads.

Your instructions to your subconscious mind must be specific with a time deadline. Your actions must match your goal or it will not be achieved. Specific, clear, focused goals and absolute specific goal-oriented actions achieve desired results. Goals and actions must match. Play the match game with your goals and actions? Match – great. No match – change the actions. You can start fresh every day. Play the match game.