Thank You In Advance

It happens all the time. I get everything together for a nice dinner at home. I’m sure I have everything, so I finally sit down, relax, and get ready to eat. It is when I am finally sitting and feeling peaceful that I realize something I forgot.

The above scene played out again today. I finally sat down to enjoy the barbecue meal I cooked, and took the first bite. It was when some mustard squirted on my face that I knew I forgot the napkins. I didn’t want to get up. After all, I was sitting for the first time all day. My daughter was the only one that was near the napkins. I didn’t specifically ask for napkins, but instead said…”thank you so much. I can’t believe you were so thoughtful to do that”. She didn’t say anything either. However, she knows me all too well, and without a word brought napkins not only to me, but to her sisters as well.

Her sisters looked and wondered what had just happened. At first they wondered why I was thankful for nothing that had happened. Then they thought..”how did she know”? What just happened here? My explanation consisted of two things. One was a play on psychology, and the other was what I will explain here.

I have heard of people who are thankful for many things in their life, including things that haven’t even happened yet. They thank God for past victories and future blessings. I was so amazed at the display of faith of advanced thanks that I began to do that on my own. I often thank God for things I prayed for even before they happen. When I do this, several things happen. One is that my faith grows. I have a stronger belief that what I am praying for and seeking to accomplish is more likely to come about. Two, is that I am more focused on God and the goal instead of hurdles that can get in the way. Three is that I feel an accountability. I have already thanked God and my faith is stronger, so the result I am seeking must come about. At least that’s how I feel. As a result, I am more likely to act and do my part to bring the results to pass. The more the mind believes something will happen, the more likely the desired result will come about.

One thing to add, is that I find it very helpful to be thankful for ANY result. We don’t always get what we want, and that’s a good thing. We don’t have all the answers, and an alternate result can be protecting us from something we didn’t forsee or bringing us something better, or both.

I find it very peaceful and beneficial to say thank you in advance. If it’s to a person, I feel like they will go out of their way for my best interests. If it’s to God, He will happily bring blessings my way. All this besides getting delivered a napkin to wipe the mustard off my face : )

Have an excellent day!

Super Size Your Mind Power

I stress on this blog often the need to maintain a powerful mind. The more powerful our mind is, the greater chance for success.

Our brain is like any other muscle in our body in that, if it is to be built up, it needs to be exercised. The more we use it and exercise it in different ways. the more powerful it becomes. I read an excellent article recently about doing just that. The author provides several different ways to exercise the brain and keep it “in shape” Here are some of those suggestions:

1. Puzzles/Trivia – We do these for fun, but they really are valuable in helping to exercise the brain. The author also suggests doing things to use both sides of the brain, such as using your computer mouse with your opposite hand.
2. Prayer/Meditation
3. Good nutrition/Brain Power foods. Examples of those power foods are nuts, deeply colored fruits and vegetables, green tea, and chocolate.
4. Much water! Not only does this help keep the brain fresh, but it helps your entire body flow smoother.
5. Exercise
6. Creative vizualization. When we visualize success, we seem to be pulled in that direction.
7. Learning a new language/instrument, or any new project to get the brain thinking.

These are several ways to increase the power of the brain, keeping your mind sharp. Please feel free to share anything that works for you. In the meantime, keep exercising your brain! Enjoy the blessings!

Here is a link to the entire article. Enjoy!

http://davidsharp-online.com/super-mind-power-an-essential-ingredient-for-success

How To Create Your Own Luck

I am writing this article on St Patricks Day. I have absolutely no Irish in me, but I still like to focus on some of the themes of the day. One of those themes is luck. Are we all a little bit (or a lot) luckier today?

As I reflect on the topic of luck, I ask the question…is it possible we can create our own luck? I certainly believe we have significant control over the amount of “luck” that we encounter in our lives.

Recently, I found an article that discusses the topic of creating luck in our lives, and several things we can do. I now share information with you:

1. Maintain a positive attitude. It is more obvious to me very day that, the more we maintain a positive frame of mind towards life, the more life rewards us with positive circumstances.
2. Listen to yourself. Make sure your language is positive and confident.
3. Picture success. Spend time each day seeing yourself as the positive, confident person you want to be. Also see each area of your life as you would like to be.
4. Speak up. Instead of keeping things hemmed in, don’t be afraid to speak your mind.
5. Link up with positive people. Let their luck rub off on you!
6. Share with others. The more we share the more we seem to get back.
7. Laugh a lot. Luck seems to always find happy people : )
8. Be open to opportunity. You never know which one is “the one”.
9. Take risks. The promised land is outside of your comfort zone, so we have to go outside of that comfort zone to get there.
10. Do a good job. It is when we do our best in everything that “luck” seems to happen.

Here is a link to the article where I received this information….http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/positive-helpful-attitude-leads-to-success-make-your-own-luck-142175653.html

I find this information very helpful. I will let you decide if a result of these actions is luck or something far greater. Regardless, may the luck of St Patricks Day be with you today. Enjoy the blessings : )

4 Steps To Incorporate Positive Thinking

Those that know me well will say that the words “positive thinking” are a regular part of my vocabulary. I do my best to think positively, even in the worst situations. I find that it brings peace, and when we regularly think positive thoughts, life regularly brings positive situations.

One would think that maintaining positive thoughts is easy. It is as long as you make it habit. The problem is that, for many people, maintaining positive thoughts is difficult. This is because for a long time they have allowed negative thoughts to dominate. As they try to think positively, the negative thoughts creep back in and tend to take over. This can sometimes happen with even the best positive thinkers, mainly because it is simply human nature.

So how do we stop these negative thoughts from taking over? I’ve often read that we don’t try to stop them. Instead, it is best to take the negative thoughts and turn them into positive. It’s like when you have a glass full of mud. The best way to get rid of the mud is to let clean water run through the glass until the clean water eventually takes over the muddy, cloudy water. As I was seeking information about this topic online, I came across an excellent article which provides a 4 step formula for incorporating positve thinking in our lives. Here are the 4 steps:

1. Stop! When you realize negative thoughts are entering your mind stop it and don’t let it go any further.
2. Prove it wrong. Think of a situation which shows that the negative thought is not true.
3. Rephrase it. Turn it into a positive. Let the clean water run until the mud is out.
4. Visualize success. The more you visualize positive results, the more your mind believes it. The more your mind believes it, the more it acts accordingly, leading you to greater success.

I find this to be very helpful information. It has helped me, and I share it with you, hoping it will do the same. I have enclosed a link to the entire article. Enjoy the blessings!!

http://www.newschief.com/article/20120311/NEWS/203115032/1009/living?p=1&tc=pg

A Powerful Equation

I will begin with a quote from Napoleon Hill and the classic book, “Think and Grow Rich”…”All thoughts which have been emotionalized and mixed with faith begin immediately to translate into their physical equivelant”.

It’s a very powerful equation. The more I read about it I find that, if you follow that equation each day, it can be a life changer. It’s a fact that life happens according to the way we think. Positive thinkers are generally successful and happy, while negative thinkers never seem to get ahead.

The powerful component in this equation is emotion. When we fill our mind with positive thoughts, and feel the positive emotions around it, it becomes entrenched in our subconscious mind. And when our subconscious mind believes something, we act out accordingly. If our subconscious mind believes we can accomplish something, even if we weren’t able to before, we can do it!

This happens whether we plan it that way or not. I’ve seen this all too often in my own life. I look back at events in my life where I thought of something, felt the emotion of it, and then experienced it. For example, as a teenageer, I loved watching New York Jets games from Shea stadium. I loved how the fans were so loud that the bleachers actually shook during games. It was their last season at Shea and the last game was coming up. Of course it was sold out, but I imagined how cool it would be to be part of the crowd for that last game. Within days, I received a call from my grandfather saying he just “fell into” tickets to that game. Amazing! When going to college in Upstate New York, I became fascinated with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the city of Toronto. I imagined myself being there, with no intention of getting there any time soon. However, a situation arose where some friends and I were able to get transportation, tickets, and not miss any class time to attend a game. This happened within weeks of my thoughts.

There are plenty of other similar situations. In these cases, I did not deliberately try to attract these situations. They just happened. I’ve discovered that, if these situations can happen “by accident” (even though it was no accident), I have the power to create more of these situations by deliberately imagining and “experiencing” these situations and feeling the positive feelings of actually “being there”.

Our mind is a very powerful thing. When we nurture it by maintaining positive thoughts, and feeling the corresponding emotions of the accomplished goal, wonderful things happen.

Another successful key that the book doesn’t mention is prayer. When we keep our mind and corresponding emotions postive, pray, and leave the details to God, He can do abundantly more than we can ever imagine. He will lead us to opportunites for success according to His will, which indeed is better than anything we can imagine.

The key to doing our part in life is in the opening quote. Use your imagination to envision the ideal situations in all areas of your life. Feel the emotions as if you are already succeeding. Believe it can it will happen. Then look for opportunites to act according to the positive beliefs in your mind, knowing success will be yours. It is a very powerful equation…positive thoughts + positive emotion + faith = SUCCESS!!

A Happy Experiment

I read about an interesting little, but powerful experiment recently. I found it necessary to share.

The author (unfortunately I don’t remember where I saw this) discussed the power of a smile. They challenged the reader to smile, then try to think of something negative as you do it. I thought it was interesting, so I tried it. I was amazed how accurate the author’s statement was. As I continued to hold the smile on my face, I found it very difficult to think of anything negative. If a negative thought was able to come to mind, I either dismissed it very quickly or just laughed it off. I’ve had other people try this as well. Some were even skeptical at first, but they soon realized the truth and power of this scenario.

What’s the lesson in this? Simply, the more we smile the more positive our mindset will be. The more positive our mindset, the greater our chances of success. Also, when we demonstrate a positive attitude and a positive mindset, it’s contagious. Other people notice. It rubs off on them.

It is amazing how a simple smile can snowball into major positivity and success in all areas of our life. Is it that difficult to do? I really don’t think so. Yes, sometimes circumstances get in the way and make it difficult. But don’t let them. Even in the worst of times we can find things to smile about. If you do, things can turn positive in a hurry.

I strongly recommend you try this wonderful experiment. Whenever you can, smile. Dare the negative thoughts to enter your mind as you realize more and more they have no power over you. It’s a simple fact..when you smile at life, life smiles at you. Enjoy the blessings : )

Great Steps To Make Your Mind Happy

It is a fact that the more we use the power of our mind, the greater our chances of success. If we want to maximize our mind power, I believe we need to maintain a happy mind. I found a video by Nelson Berry that outlines 4 ways to exercise the power of our mind:

1. Set goals. The most efficient goals are clear, specific, and present tense.
2. Clear the mind of clutter. Just as our homes are more comfortable when they are clear and clutter free, our minds work the same way.
3. Listen to music. Our favorite music has a very positive effect on our mind-set. It helps cultivate the mind, relax, and help us feel good.
4. Repetition/Consistency. The object is to continuously see the the change we want to be in our minds, and repeat positive phrases to ourselves. When we do that, we are guided to act it out and manifest the results we desire.

For more detail on these mind power exercises, check out the full video here…

http://youtu.be/QAGGpTkza3M

 

4 Great Ways To Conquer Procrastination

There are many people, including myself, that struggle to avoid procrastination. Each time we put things off we feel guilty and upset with ourselves for not accomplishing the ambitious goals we’ve set.

I recently watched a video from Nelson Berry with an excellent 4 step formula to help avoid procrastination. The 4 steps are:

1. Determine your best time for getting things done. It’s funny that I’m not a morning person, yet I get most of my best work done early. Find your best time and focus on getting most of your work done at that time.
2. Don’t over estimate yourself or under estimate the task. Sometimes we disillusion ourselves which frustrates us, causing us to put the task off.
3. Avoid multi-tasking. When we put all of our focus on one task at a time, we are more likely to get it done, and get it done well.
4. Get the subconscious to cooperate. When we see success in our minds and repeat positive affirmations to ourselves, our subconscious mind actually guides us to success.

I believe these steps are very helpful in avoiding procrastination and moving closer to acheiving our goals. For more details about these steps, check out the full video here….

http://youtu.be/jHJz-OHqrfU

 

Give Your Brain A Boost

There are countless ways to help increase the power of our brain. Some are simple, like eating well, getting enough sleep, and exercising. However, there are other, not so well known ways to increase brain power.

I recently read a great article called “One Hundred Twenty Ways To Boost Your Brain Power” by Luciano Passuello. The article provides exactly what its title says, with valuable information on how you can boost your brain power. Some of the ideas are simple, while others are quirky and different. Either way, they are all helpful. I strongly recommend you check it out….

http://inteldaily.com/2012/03/one-hundred-twenty-ways-to-boost-your-brain-power/