Reflections In a Mop Bucket -May 2007
Talk Yourself into Success
by Shannon Emmanuel
You've tried and failed. You've watched others fall. You're wiped out, burned out, and beaten. Is there any way to turn it all around?
If you're reading this, than likely you have been working very hard at realizing a goal that now seems out of reach. It does not matter whether that goal is related to diet, creating a home business, getting a promotion, finishing a difficult course, or mastering a talent. The one common factor is that our past can, and will, affect our future success.
So, if nothing has worked, shouldn't you throw in the towel? Learn from your mistakes and quit while you're ahead?
Think of this: "What's Possible?" Why say Possible?
Motivational speaker, Les Brown, shares an interesting lesson with us when he points out that past perceptions influence our projected images of success or failure. Consider what changes can be made when you see that others before you have conquered the same battles, and same fears, and created a successful outcome. And consider that if it was possible for them, then it IS possible. Period.
Before Roger Bannister, NO one believed the 4 minute mile barrier could be broken. Since his record was set, 20,000 individuals, including high school students, have broken the 4 minute mile. Why? Now, it was possible.
Do all the so called `success' stories ensure that you too will follow the same path to fame, fortune or health? Well, reason will tell us that no two individuals will have identical results in life. But recognizing the importance of accepting possibility can mean the difference between success and failure.
So look around you. Read the stories of those you admire. Emulate their qualities, strategies or attitudes. And remember everyday that it was possible. That it IS POSSIBLE.
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The Five C’s To Building A Career You Will Love
Author: Dave Lindbeck
If you have clarity about what you want and need in your life, you are more likely to get it. This is as true for your career as it is for other things in your life. However, most people spend more time researching and evaluating a car purchase, than they do on that very important thing in life - a career.
When it comes to your "life's work," you can significantly increase the odds of building a career you will love by taking a few simple factors into account. These include being clear about what you want to do, where and with whom you want to do it, and what you want to get out of it as well as what you are willing to give up in return. However, this is not the way most people approach their career.
Unfortunately, many of us don't plan our careers, we just take jobs. And even when we do some planning, we base our decision on only one or two factors, when there are other equally
important things to consider.
When asked about your particular job and career choice, it's likely that you respond with one or two of these statements:
- "It's a great place to work" (culture)
- "The guy I'll be working for seems really nice" (command)
- "The people are fun" (comrades)
- "The pay is really good" (compensation)
- "I'll get to do what I want" (contribution)
The problem is, just one or two of these criteria are typically not enough to keep us excited about our choice, and soon we find ourselves not enjoying our work. This is because, although we love the pay, either our boss is a jerk, or we’re not getting to do the tasks we enjoy, or something else we’ve overlooked is now an issue.
You can avoid this problem by getting clear about the 5 C's of your career from the beginning. It's important to know what matters to you. Here are some questions to consider:
1. Culture - In what kind of company do I want to work? – Large or small? Public or privately owned? Nurturing environment or "sweat shop? Fun or serious?
2. Command - For what type of boss/supervisor would I like to work? - Warm and friendly or distant? Micro-manager or hands off? Dictator or leader?
3. Comrades - With whom do I want to work? - Team players or mavericks? Highly social or indifferent? Helpful and supportive? Shared work ethic?
4. Compensation - What would I like my financial package and other "benefits" to be? - How much money do I want to make? Do I want professional growth and development? Would I like to work on a commission basis? How important is recognition to me?
5. Contribution - What would I like to give in my work? - Do I need to make a difference in the world? Do I need to express myself creatively? Do I need to take on a lot of responsibility? Do I want to lead or manage people?
The 5 C's raise your awareness and ultimately improve your job satisfaction, because you're more likely to be doing and experiencing what you love, than taking what you can get.
Although you can't control all these aspects of your career nor the people in it, being clear will help you ask better questions and do better research as you evaluate your career. The key is
in getting the most you can, and also agreeing with yourself that what you are able to get is what you truly want.
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How to Step Into the Flow of Abundance
by: Saleem Rana
All of us have needs and wants. The funny thing is that they arise no matter how hard you try to be self-sufficient. Life has a way of throwing you a curve ball when you least expect it.
While you may ask, you may not always receive—even if you really need it and the other person has the power to give it to you without much personal loss.
However, there are two simple ways to receive what you want in life when you need it.
One way is to ask within, “ask and ye shall receive.” What you want will simply show up in your life.
The other way is to give freely and generously when you can.
Once you become a giver than your receiving is on autopilot. When you need something, it will show up in your life.
Here is an amusing anecdote. A friend of mine once gave shelter to a stray cat. Years later, he had room-mate problems and needed to find a place to stay. A friend gave him shelter in her home until he could sort out his affairs.
When you give, you set in motion the process of receiving. And when you give with love, simply because your heart is open, the receiving comes back multiplied, pressed over, and overflowing.
As another friend once said to me, “You can’t out-give the universe.”
Sometimes, it may seem that neither of these ways of receiving work.
When this happens, the solution is to go within and remove the resistance. Simply sit down and ask, “Wherein am I resisting abundance?”
Hold the question in consciousness and an answer will appear. At some point, you chose the belief that you are not open to receiving. Once the thought emerges, make a new decision. “I now choose to receive. I am open to receiving.”
Once you have cleared the subconscious block, you have also cleared the way for your abundance to come to you.
The universe is always giving. It is, in fact, an abundant universe.
If you are not receiving, it is either because you are not aware of the two cosmic laws I have outlined or because you have a subconscious error that needs to be corrected.
In summary, then: Ask within and be open to receiving. Give generously and be open to receiving. And, if you’re not receiving, go within and remove those limiting thoughts that cause you to be living in lack.
The flow of life is based on giving and receiving, step into the flow by keeping your consciousness open to both ends.
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Citizens of the Land Of Opportunity (For July 4!)
By: Rebecca Fine
"We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
--The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
In a crowded, airless room in the city of Philadelphia 227 years ago this week, a group of men solemnly stepped forward, one by one, and affixed their names to a single sheet of paper -- each man knowing that if they faltered in their collective vision, purpose, commitment, or action, he had just signed his own death warrant. Yet before they were done, a total of 56 men had signed.
They knew what they wanted…they had a dream, a vision, and a goal.
They knew why they wanted it…they had a purpose.
They knew the price and were willing to pay it…they were committed.
They had a plan…they took action.
And they set in motion a never before imagined and still imperfect and incomplete chain of events that continues to this day toward the ever-expanding vision of freedom and justice for all.
They triumphed, and yet their ultimate success remains to be realized. Its completion is a legacy handed down through the generations, to us and through us, and on to those who follow.
This week as we celebrate their vision, purpose, commitment, and action (and as we also honor the succeeding generations who have kept the faith and improved on the dream), consider that it is largely because of their vision, purpose, commitment, and action that you are today a citizen of the Land of Opportunity.
You and I are the recipients of many precious gifts bought by others. Whatever our situations and backgrounds, we enjoy a freedom still only dreamed of in many parts of the world.
But in the midst of the familiar words of the Declaration of Independence, there's another phrase that goes mostly unnoticed. Thomas Jefferson wrote:
"[A]ll experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."
It's another way of saying that, sadly, most people simply aren't motivated enough to do anything to change the status quo -- even if it's awful, even if they despise it, even if it's slowly killing them. It's another way of saying the "comfort zone" rules.
Because freedom and opportunity are our day-to-day reality, we often take them for granted in a way that people in many parts of the world find astounding, even unthinkable. We keep ourselves ignorant of the true value and meaning of these gifts. And we too often waste them by not clearly seeing how precious they are and ACTING upon that -- by not reaching out and taking hold of the opportunity that surrounds us and is part of the very air we breathe. The opportunity for life itself -- more life, better life, life under no one's thumb.
As citizens of the Land of Opportunity, though, we have a sacred responsibility NOT to waste what's been given to us, bought with the blood and sweat of those who went before and longed for by millions around the world. We have a responsibility to lay hold of that limitless opportunity, burst out of our stifling "comfort zones," and make the most of our freedom -- to be, do, and have all we need for all the life we are capable of living.
We have an obligation to create our own success and the opportunity to help others do the same and to weave ALL our individual successes into the glorious, unfinished tapestry of this country's past, present, and future.
As with the signers of the Declaration and all the heroic men and women who have carried the torch, it all begins with a dream. A vision. A goal.
Just yesterday a very wise person told me, "If you don't have a dream and a goal that you're actively working toward, you are trading your life for nothing."
Think of the signers or of any great achiever in any field of endeavor in any country -- anyone you admire, anyone who is successful. What do they all have in common besides dreams, vision, goals, purpose? They all have something called discipline, a word that immediately frightens or repels many (perhaps most) people because when they see or hear it, they think "punishment," "deprivation."
They resist the notion of self-discipline because they think it constricts them; they prefer no rules, no plans -- just "freedom." Ironically, though, that kind of "freedom" is simply the right to remain in the "comfort zone" where mediocrity is king. And discipline is the key that unlocks those chains.
What discipline really means is simply this: The ability to give yourself a command and then do it -- "to see the job through."
First you need a plan (command), then action (follow-through). To do that, you need something that's bigger than yourself to motivate you -- your dream, vision, goal, and your purpose. True COMMITMENT to those things, then, means taking ACTION consistently, daily: Giving yourself a command and following through. And to “follow through” is one definition of the word, "succeed."
Without this commitment born of your own innermost desires, dreams and goals remain empty wishes. Vision becomes a pathetic pipe-dream. And purpose? There is none.
You already have within you everything you need to achieve everything you truly want. You are more powerful than you can imagine. But only you can take the action to set that power -- and yourself -- free.
What do YOU want for your life -- for yourself, your loved ones, your community, country, world? What's your DREAM, VISION, GOAL?
Why do you want those things? What's your PURPOSE?
What price are you willing to pay? Are you COMMITTED?
Do you have a plan? Are you taking ACTION -- DAILY action in following through on your commitment to your own vision and purpose?
We're at the halfway point of the year. We're at the time when we celebrate and commemorate one of the world's great acts of vision, purpose and commitment.
We are at the moment of decision, and you are next in line, facing YOUR choice: Submit to the chains of mediocrity and a lifetime of settling for less than you are capable of being, doing, and having -- or claim your power, break free of the insidious oppression of the "comfort zone," and declare your own independence and right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as YOU define it.
The paper is before you. The pen is in your hand.
Will you sign?
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