Habit Formation Archives - Page 30 of 35 - Rex Sikes' Daily Inspiration and Gratitude

Expert Reveals You Can Eliminate Self Sabotage Forever!

“You can learn to eliminate self-sabotage. You can eliminate it forever. You can free yourself up to make permanent, positive changes. The first step is to become aware that you must change. From there nearly anything is possible if you believe it is possible.

Welcome to Part 13 of The Secret To Success And Happiness Few Know And Won’t Tell You. The series continues and this post continues from the previous two. Part 14 tomorrow. Let’s go!

Once you become aware that you need to change then you go through a process. It continues until the new change is reliably in place. This takes as long as it takes. It is as easy or hard as it is, or as you think it is. Your mindset determines much of everything.

When you begin to change you don’t want to set up a contentious, oppositional fight with yourself. You don’t want to create resistance. You want to align you resourcefulness. You want to be of one mind and congruent, not conflicted.

You Can Do Whatever You Believe You Can Do

This is why what you believe is possible is important. You want to establish a respectful relationship between your brain and your new desire. You want to align you conscious and subconscious minds for the changes and have them work together, not oppose each other.

Both are correct. Your subconscious wants to do what it knows to do and run on and on the patterns it has learned so well. It remains faithful and consistent. Your conscious mind wants new change to get better results and to feel better in life. Both are correct.

You consciously want to replace the old ways with something new. The easiest way is to honor the old. Be grateful. Thank yourself for working perfectly. Some people want change so much they resent themselves. They think they sabotage themselves, remember.

It Is All A Mind Game – You Play On The Inside

Insulting yourself adds injury not better co-operation. I am describing this as is your subconscious cares. It doesn’t but consider this. Treat it as if it did. Act as if you are trying to gain the cooperation of a friend, make it an ally and not fight with it.

Get used to respecting all of you instead of thinking about yourself as trying to screw things up. Manage you self-talk and images, keep them positive. Think ‘what you want’ not what you don’t want. Understand? Pretend, it is a person you want to work with you!

It is you! And you have learned many things. Your goal is to line them up, all working together, pursuing the same goals and dreams. Think about people in a boat all sitting and facing in the same direction rowing at the same time to get somewhere.

You Have Learned To Do So Many Marvelous Things

It works better when they work together that way then independently at different times creating opposition. Get it? Your goal is to get yourself, your thoughts, your feelings, your actions together on the same page, congruent, cooperating. Together!

Consider that computer hardware can work perfectly well even if the software has a few bugs. You may not get the results you want due to the software but the hardware works as it is supposed to. Your brain works as it is supposed to. Stop complaining.

Acknowledge it works well. Be grateful. Respect it. Love yourself for it. For goodness sake don’t dis it! Be glad. Enjoy, Celebrate. Be thankful old habits die hard and you live consistently. Be thankful your learning lasts and you carry out what you learned to do.

It Is All About Learning To Learn And To Grow And To Change

Be thankful you can learn anything. You have already. You have learned positive and negative, useful and useless things. YOU can learn ANYTHING! Celebrate this. You can learn the new positive change you want to make and have it reliable too! Be happy.

Acknowledge you are a great learner. Accept it. Enjoy it. You have now decided to change. That is cool. Since you have learned well before you can now too. You are a great learner! Do you get the mindset you are adapting. You are getting rid of the old one.

You are creating a new, positive, confident, new one. You are using your thoughts to change your thoughts by thinking good things about what you want instead of the old, chronic, negative habitual thoughts that kept you conflicted. Do you understand this?

Direct Your Mind And Changes – Celebrate Taking Charge

To make the positive changes you now use AUTOSUGGESTION. What the heck is this? Autosuggestion is or are suggestions you give yourself or self-suggestions. You use your own self-talk. You replace the old suggestions with new ones you want to support you.

They may not seem or be true at first. That is okay. The old ones weren’t necessarily true at all. You accepted them as reality so they shaped your reality and determined what you did or didn’t do, what you tried or wouldn’t try. They limited you in particular fasion.

NOW you change the content and decide WHAT you want to believe that will be useful. You monitor and manage your self-talk suggestions to give yourself only the positive messages you want to replace the old, chronic negative ones you originally learned, with.

Be The Captain Of Your Ship – Pilot It To Where You Want To Go

Why do you use autosuggestion? Remember? It is because you originally learned from what you were told, and heard and saw around you. Much of your learning was second hand, as well as, first hand. You are replacing that old conditioning with the new.

You override the old message with the new. This is why you do it and this is HOW you do it. You do it through repetition because the messages you originally learned you learned that way. You learn using your emotions. Then it was probably haphazard what you felt.

Now you deliberately utilize the best feelings to wire in the change. The subconscious is driven by the strong feelings you feel. Feelings deliver the message and make the difference. Your thoughts govern your emotions which govern your actions and results.

You Grew Up HowYou Grew Up – Now You Grow Deliberately

Anything you do you have learned to do, nearly 100% of the time, by repeating the activity enough. From crawling, walking, feeding oneself, using the toilet, reading, writing, riding a bike, driving a car, dribbling a basketball, knitting a scarf, using the computer or phone.

Whatever it is , most all human activity, writing, speaking, thinking, spelling, math, anything. To get good at it required practice. Think games. The more fun you have, the better you feel the more you want to play. The more you do the better you get.

Mastery comes from continued correct and improved repetition. It occurs over time. I repeat, most anything you learned you learned by repeating it again and again. To stay good, to maintain your edge you continue to practice. Pro athletes stay pros by practicing.

When You Are In Control You Dictate The Circumstances

They don’t become the best and then quit the process. Once they arrive they continue the process IF they want to stay good. That is how they get better. Consistent, dedication even when the best, to remain the best is required.

There are a rare, few things that one might learn almost instantly. You might dislike a food your first try. You could learn to like it by continuing to sample it. A Phobia may and can occur because of one powerful, intense and significant experience.

It is a unique one time learning event. Most people don’t have true phobias. They may have fears but not genuine phobias, although, some will. All things are learned over time by repetition with a couple possible exceptions. That is the process.

Lead Yourself As The Best Leader In The World Would

You learned to be who you are growing up over time. Understand to change habits it may take some time. Don’t bother about how long it takes because you can begin to make progress right from the starting point. That is good news.

Step by step, bit by bit you will get there. Just keep at it. Be persistent and consistent and you will get there. If it gets tough keep going. When it gets easier keep going. Enjoy the process all the way through. From the moment you start if you decide you can have fun.

If you decide you can have fun changing and growing then you will. How it is will be up to you! That is what is great about changing now. You deliberately get to determine how you want to go through it. You run the show. You make the decisions.

Become A Compassionate Benevolent Leader Of Yourself

You may encounter all sorts of other things, snags, and obstacles but you decide how you want to handle them. In doing this you learn control and how to maintain it. If you accept responsibility for all of it you will guide yourself as needed. It is an amazing process.

You repeat to yourself the new positive suggestions over and over again. You fill your mind with CAN DO thinking instead of Can’t Do thinking. You set your mind straight and develop the winner ‘I can do anything’ attitude ‘when I learn how’!

You keep thinking and repeating these positive mantras. These positive self-suggestions. When times get tough you keep repeating. When you don’t feel like it you keep repeating, You feel the best you can during all of this. You keep going no matter what.

Positively Direct The Changes You Want To Make

Encourage strong emotions while you do this. Feel excited, feel eager, feel enthused, feel confident, feel powerful, feel angry, whenever you feel powerfully strong emotions that is what signals the brain that your words are important.

It really isn’t the words it is the feeling that accompanies them. You can repeat words listlessly, or apathetically forever without much change or you can change fairly quickly by chanting them out loud powerfully. Intense, positive strong emotions works great.

Your words and feelings and what you see in your mind, what you visualize work together in powerful combination to bring about the new changes. You remain congruent and aligned as you pursue and manage your new changes.

To Enjoy Enduring Success Travel In Advance Of The World

See yourself as already changed. Feel the wonderful feelings you’d feel when you are like that. Make it right now in the present not someday far off. Feel as though you are it and have it this moment! Notice how great it feels. This is how you change.

Stick with it no matter what. Develop the attitude that you can do this no matter what. Athletes continue to workout even when they may not feel like it. They also know that by working out when they don’t feel like it – they will begin to feel like it as they work out.

People wait to feel motivated, You can’t. Motivation doesn’t come from sitting on your butt waiting. Motivation comes through action. Do it and you will feel motivated. Wait for motivation and you will wait and wait. This is why you begin before you are ready.

Drop By Drop The Tub Gets Filled

You start right now no matter what. Begin now to have a wonderful relationship with yourself. Adore your ability to learn and be consistent. Be grateful you can learn and reproduce the behaviors you learn reliably. Appreciate that your brain.

Appreciate your subconscious does what it does. Your subconscious mind doesn’t have a critical filtering ability. It just doesn’t have it. It will learn whatever you teach it good or bad, right or wrong, negative or positive. That is why one can learn to smoke.

If you learned to engage in destructive habits this is why. Your brain doesn’t judge them as that. This is also why you can put an end to them and develop new positive habits instead. The subconscious mind doesn’t judge.

Now Is The Only Time We Have

It just acquires as its own whatever messages you give it with the highest emotional signal value. It learns from signal strength repeated over and over. SO you use the same process to change now deliberately. You are in charge.

Will it go smoothly. Nope, most likely not. Will you feel frustrated and want to quit. Most probably from time to time. Learning to go through this IS PART OF LEARNING how to manage your change now. It is part of learning control and becoming a champion.

When times are tough the tough get going. Hooray. It will be all things. The more you understand this in advance the more likely you will stick with it. How many times might you try and ‘fail’ as many as you do. Just don’t quit. Keep going even if you don’t feel like it.

If You Fall Seven Times Rise Eight

If you throw in and give up rise again. It doesn’t matter how many times you fall as long as you get back up. Make it fun, enjoy the challenges, feel your best and you will make it through, in time. To gain control and self-mastery isn’t easy but it IS WORTH IT.

Be grateful you can change. Be grateful for your history. Be grateful for the opportunity to create a new one. Be grateful for everything and you will move through faster, easier and more powerfully and enjoyably. Life works best when you celebrate everything!” Rex Sikes

Make each moment delightful!

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“‘Directed Questions’ created by Rex Sikes and the Mind Design course I am doing is very helpful. I change not only my focus but mindset, attitude and results. Helps me turn challenging situations into playful voyages of discovery and delight. Thanks to the Mind Design process, I have discovered that I have more indomitable strength and courage than I gave myself credit for!” Kathy Strong, NLP Trainer and Coach, Bleadon, England

“Mind Design helps me choose amazing thinking instead of habitual thoughts that aren’t useful. I form new habits in thought and feeling that result in actions that get me my goals. The possibilities are endless.” Robert Bogsten, Marketing Copyrighter, Turku, Finland

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Horizons photo used with permission of Phil Koch.

Don't Buy Into The Myth Of Self Sabotage!

“There is no such thing as self sabotage. The brain only does what it learns to do. Some one labeled this activity as sabotage but it truly isn’t. It is a blessing not a curse. It just doesn’t seem like one at times.

Welcome to Part 12 of The Secret To Success And Happiness Few Know And Won’t Tell You. The series continues and this post continues from the previous two. Part 13 tomorrow. Let’s go!

Believe me you want the brain to do what it does the way it does it. It has learned to do all sorts of wonderful things. Positive beneficial things and useless and negative things. The brain learns!

Success Is Not The Key To Happiness …

The brain is a learning machine designed to keep you alive. It takes care of your survival. It creates neural pathways and then runs those neural pathways thus establishing habits so you don’t have to relearn everything again and again.

Those habits are what it learned to do. When you want to change one your brain goes into survival mode. Not full fledged fight or flight necessarily, but for some people the feelings may be intense.

It opposes the change because what it is doing IS what it learned to do. It continues to assert the old habits while you are attempting to add in the new. Because of this conflict you or someone else labels it self-sabotage. Nothing could be further from the truth.

… Happiness Is The Key To Success

It is not trying to sabotage you. It is trying to keep you successfully doing what you have always done. The issue is NOW you have decided what you learned long ago doesn’t serve you and you want to change. YOU are changing the way things worked.

In order to make changes you now want, you need to do the very same things you did when you originally learned the programming you now don’t want. You need to condition your brain in the same fashion as your earlier conditioning but with positive updates.

How? By repetition and powerful emotion. Early on you were influenced by others, and by their emotions as well as your own. They gave you suggestions day in and day out. They didn’t consider them suggestions they just talked to you and in front of you.

The Capacity To Learn Is A Gift

You listened, you heard, you heard them over and over and you adopted them. Sometimes, because you were emotional and sometimes because they were. You took on their ways of viewing and approaching the world. We all did it similarly.

Many messages we got were how tough things are, how hard we must work, that some people are lucky while others aren’t etc. We got a variety of self-limiting messages that resulted in our beliefs and attitudes about ourselves and the world.

Some people believe lies.

If you think, ‘I am stupid’, ‘I am not good enough’, I am too fat’, ‘I am useless’, ‘I can’t do it’, ‘I always screw things up’, ‘I am not worthy’, ‘I have to work harder’, ‘The economy prevents me from getting ahead’, ‘If only my parents had taught me better’, ‘I’m not educated’.

The Ability To Learn Is A Skill

Those sample thoughts are all lies. Yet, many people believe them. Why? because they adopted them while growing up. None of them necessarily are true or accurate but they will limit you if you accept them as true. You don’t have to believe them but you do.

That is the conditioning. It is not the mind trying to sabotage you. You could just as easily with just as much or little effort believe, ‘I can do anything I learn to do’, ‘I am capable’, I am worthy’, I am smart’, ‘Nothing can prevent me from reaching my dreams’.

But most people don’t. Why? Because they weren’t conditioned to believe this way growing up. The brain can learn either belief, it doesn’t care or judge. It just accepts them as is. Most people are stuck, not because they have to be, but because they believe the wrong beliefs.

The Willingness To Learn Is A Choice

They believe lies about themselves. They accepted them as gospel and they do nothing about it. They don’t like it necessarily and it may be uncomfortable but they believe that is who they are. They don’t realize they have a choice, UNTIL they realize they have a choice.

Here is the thing. All beliefs are lies. Positive or negative. The question is which do you choose to believe? They are either supportive or unsupportive. Which do you choose to believe? It is your choice.

This is how we go through life. We are born, get conditioned, accept that conditioning, have some experiences that verify that conditioning and lock it in. The Reticular Activating System (RAS) part of the brain is designed to do that. It finds matches.

Believing In Yourself Is The First Key To Success

Its job, beyond helping us survive, is to find a match. You say, ‘I am stupid’ and your brain goes ‘right you are’! ‘AND HERE IS WHY’ and provides you examples of screw-ups and incidents from your past and present that verify it. It looks for examples to prove you right.

Had you said, ‘I am marvelous’ your brain would look for those matches and find them just as readily. Even now you and I can say either and get matches. Most people get more of one type than they other because that is what they are most used to looking for.

Sad isn’t it. We want to change and it seems our own system prevents us. It doesn’t do it for nefarious reasons it does that for our protection and for keeping us consistent. We know who we are, what we believe and value. We will even argue about it.

It Is What We Think We Know That Keeps Us From Learning

We will fight to prove we are stupid, if we say it, and fight to prove we aren’t if someone else calls us that. Well, usually, sometimes we may agree. The point is we don’t have to believe any of these limiting beliefs we just do out of habit. We can be free of them if we choose.

Here is what it comes down to. After years of living with limitations we decide we want to change these. We know if we don’t change we will always do what we always did and continue to get the same old results we have been getting. Right? Unless we change.

That is what the brain is designed to do. To continue to get you the same results again and again reliably. You want it that way. You don’t want to walk through the door one day and into the wall the next. You want to get the same results day and night.

If You Are Not Willing To Learn No One Can Help You

NOW you want different results. So you make up your conscious mind to change. You want to lose weight or gain weight. Stop eating certain foods or begin trying new ones. You want to change your attitude. You want to feel better. You want more money.

Whatever it is you have decided you will change it. You may or may not think it will be hard to change, but sadly, most people go into it thinking it is going to be tough. It doesn’t have to be, but it is BECAUSE old habits die hard. Precisely, what you want. Remember?

You don’t want them to die off easily or the new ones wouldn’t stick either. You want it to be tough in actuality you just don’t want it to be tough for you. Am I right or am I right? You prefer it easy, yes? I understand. So do I.

If You Are Determined To Learn No One Can Stop You

In order for it to be easier you know it may take some time but you should think, ‘I can do this. It will be easy. Easy or not I will do this’. If you think it will be easy, while it may be difficult, it will be easier than if you think, ‘oh my god this is soooooo hard’. Get it? Read it again.

Your mind set determines how you go through or endure anything. Mindset, your attitude, determines 99.9% of your success and how you feel while attaining it. You want to learn to feel good no matter what. It is easier to change when you are feeling good.

If, when you begin to make the change the old habits rear up and you get upset, screw up, drop off, and decide, ‘It is too hard to change, I will never do it.’ You most probably won’t. That is a defeatist attitude for certain. Can’t throw in the towel and expect success.

Winners Have Simply Formed The Habit Of Doing Things …

If you think, ‘I want to do it but I keep sabotaging myself’ that is as wrong to do as if you punched yourself hard in the face. You are labeling protective, survival processes your brain engages in to insure your success as sabotage. You are insulting your very self.

You are putting up additional opposition to your own ability to learn and grow. Instead of saying,’my brain is wonderful and keeps me alive and consistent’, you are saying ‘my brain is screwing with me. It sabotages me and prevents me’. Your emotions are conflicted.

Your thoughts are negative. You are not helping yourself. You are making excuses for not continuing and blaming yourself at the same time. Some people LOVE LOVE LOVE to blame themselves. They say things like ‘You don’t understand I sabotage myself!’

… Losers Never Do – Be Diligent And Win

‘You don’t understand I am chemically addicted’. ‘You don’t understand…’ as if their problems are the most significant ones in the world. No one has problems they do. They wear these as a badge of honor. They are proud they are unable. They suffer so.

They are good people and guess what? They learned to be that way. They learned to defend their unwillingness to change and blame it on anything and everything. They learned to feel good about feeling bad. It is habit for them. Yes, they can change it. Of course they can.

Tomorrow I’ll share how to change that. I give you some pointers in how you can eliminate self-sabotage for good. So be sure to read the next blog. Share too if you know people who could benefit. In the meantime, learn to be grateful for how you work. You work perfectly even when you don’t like the results you get. Love yourself.

Change Is The Result Of All True Learning

You can learn to change and get different results. So hang in there. But make it easy on yourself by loving yourself and appreciating how you already work. You change easier and more readily through acknowledgement and validation than through negativity and pain. Be grateful and celebrate everything!” Rex Sikes

How will you make each moment marvelous today?

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Horizons photo used with permission of Phil Koch.

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Maybe Therapy Sucks But You Shouldn’t!

“Alright, you may be offended by the previous blog. Some people may be others won’t be. That is ok. Everyone is entitled to respond however they respond. However you respond says more about you and what are your concerns are than is about my blog.

If you have read my blogs or followed my discussions for years you know I make the case that two people can go and watch the same movie side by side. When they exit one loved it the other hated it. Neither opinion has anything to do with the actual movie. This, of course, you already realize.

Who Is In Charge Of Your Brain

Their response to the movie has everything to do with their mindset, their expectations, their values, their experience of and during the movie. It is a comment about what they like or don’t like and has nothing to do with the movie at all.

It only seems to have something to do with the movie. After all is said and done it is their opinions. Professional movie critics simply provide their opinions and nothing else. You may see the movie and agree or wholly disagree with them. The movie is the movie – whether you like it or not IS YOUR REACTION or YOUR RESPONSE to the movie.

This applies to everything else in life. Life happens and we react to it or we respond to it. The key to success IS learning to respond rather than react. Be in charge of your thoughts. Run your brain don’t let it run you!

I have no monopoly on “truth’. I do not profess to. My opinion is not able to encompass every example and counter example in the world so I don’t try to. Still, you have to be above the yard stick in order to see both ends. What does that mean, Rex? It means, you have to have enough distance from the topic to see both ends or all sides.

Remember, every coin has more than one face. A diamond is multi faceted. No article or speech or book can encompass everything about the subject. So while trying to be fair I don’t try to encompass everything. That would be futile. I assume my readers are smart enough to know this. And you are.

Many Roads Lead To Rome Travel Well

Okay, it may have upset some of you (YOU) that I said therapy sucks. My article, the point, the premise, theme, the thesis, remains exactly the same if you remove any and all reference to therapy from it. Forget therapy altogether. Take it completely out and read the article. Same with this article. In case, this fine point has eluded you.

The article is about you! The article is about me! The article is about the locus of control. It had far less to do with therapy than with getting you to think about where you attribute the source of your suffering and the source of your resourcefulness. It is about whether or not you are ‘at cause’ or ‘at effect’.

Frankly, it only had to do with therapy to the extent that some practice that form too. Most people do it already in their everyday lives. Most people haven’t been in therapy. TAKE everything I said about therapy out and the article is the same article.

In my life it is me. It is Rex. ‘I’ am responsible. No one and nothing else in my life but me. I am 100% responsible for my thoughts, my suffering and my bliss. I am the creator in and of my life circumstances. I am responsible for where I lay blame for problems.

You Alone Are 100% Responsible For Enjoying Your Journey

Either I put it on me or I put it onto others or on circumstances. I say the blame, I mean the buck. The buck lands squarely on my shoulders and my shoulders alone. NO ONE and NO THING else! I am 100% the creator of my life and responsible for my thoughts, feelings, behaviors and results. The buck stops with me.

EVEN if this is not completely an accurate representation of reality. Maybe there is an outer world that influences. I am not asserting that I am god if I say I create all of my experience so please don’t go there. I am saying a useful platform to work from is to adopt the notion that everything is up to me EVEN if it actually isn’t.

Consider Victor Frankl. Think about being imprisoned. Someone may take my liberty away. I may not be able to control that BUT I can control my response to a very disagreeable situation.

I can make it the best situation possible given the circumstances. I may be able to celebrate and remain totally free in mind and experience freedom even when incarcerated. This is what control means. This is what focus means. It means make the best of everything because you are in charge. When life gives you lemons…

It can either suck terribly or it can be incredible. YOU, ME our thoughts about it, our response to it, determines how we go through it. NOTHING ELSE DOES! Frankl wrote about this in ‘Man’s Search For Meaning’ if you have not read it you may want to.

Make The Most Of Your Circumstances

So when I say I blame myself I don’t mean I blame. I mean I am willing to take responsibility for my thoughts, feelings, responses, actions and behaviors. I take responsibility for the results I get.

Millionaires are made during bad economies. While some are whining and blaming the banks, their jobs, the government, and others for a tough time some people are happily making money. It isn’t the outer circumstances it is what you think about the outer circumstances that makes the difference! From within so without!

It isn’t about blaming and criticizing oneself rather it is about learning who is in charge and doing whatever it takes to be in charge. Instead of blaming oneself for shortcomings celebrate the awareness! When you notice the heat, the hurt, the suffering, the fear or anger celebrate the awareness.

Then shift your attention so that you productively use your awareness to evolve. For god sakes don’t get mired down in self criticism. That leads no where fast. Celebrate! Give yourself praise and encouragement for noticing what wasn’t working and put your attention on what works. Focus on what you CAN DO instead of whining about what you can’t do.

The bottom line. If you think my post is crap and I am wrong that is absolutely fine with me. IF you prefer to focus on what doesn’t work and where you are weak so be it. You think you should work on your weaknesses and improve on those. Go for it.

Your Attitude Determines Your Altitude – Your Belief Determine What You Do – What You Think And Do Determines Your Results

You think you need to uncover the dirt in order to change. OK I get it. I mean this is in no pejorative way. I totally get it. Do whatever you need to do to maintain your status quo. There is room in the world for a variety of approaches and I have no monopoly on truth.

I wrote my article to bring awareness to the issue. I mean no disrespect. You like doing it your way. You like therapy. It is okay to like therapy. There are many approaches I like as well.

When I say the number 1 reason why therapy sucks I mean that IS the number one reason. I never said all therapy sucks or never go or have therapy. If you read that YOU read that into my post. I didn’t put it there.

I Have Set The Alarm

My words are like an alert signal! I am sounding an alarm. In this day and age I believe rightfully so. There are abuses out there. Just as there are great therapists out there. Consider this; you may argue not all therapy is bad and I should not have said ‘therapy sucks’.

What if we change the premise to ‘all therapy is good’. Is that equally true or are their exceptions, as well? Might you find times and places and practices that are not good? Are there abuses in the field? See nothing is all one way or the other. There is nuance. Am I obliged to find all the ways that therapy wasn’t good then? I think not.

If you want therapy that is fine. Hopefully, having been alerted, you look for a compassionate good therapist instead of accepting any old therapist. You seek the best approach and the most qualified worker.

BUT AGAIN none of this post or the previous post IS actually about therapy at all. It may still be difficult to understand this! I repeat, it is about where you put the responsibility and the practices and habits you have in life. It is about what you do most frequently during your daily life at work, at play, at home.

If you examine and search for reasons you are broken you will find them. If you look for ways to blame your family, friends, co-workers, yourself or the world you will find them. If you search for talents and abilities you excel at you will find those. If you look for ways to uplift and celebrate others and the world you will find them as well.

Whatever you focus on expands. You become what you think about. What you think about you bring about.

Some concepts are hard to give up. Some concepts are difficult to accept. Some things take time too. Its okay! I get it. Take all the time you need. But know this because it is important.

What You Believe Determines Your Reality

Perception is everything and it truly is. If you think you need to sift through all the troubles from the past in order to come out clean, so be it. Then you have to do that in order to fulfill what you believe; you will do whatever you must to remain internally consistent.

Go do it. But use this as a rule. You become what you think about most of the time. So stay focused on the positive, stay focused on what you want, keep focused on your strengths at least 80% of your time. Use 80/20 as a guide. Actually, I’d prefer 99 to 1% but okay 80 to 20. Most of us live this way anyway.

We can’t be 100% positive (unless we actually can be – that may just be a limiting belief) so any percentage points higher after 50/50 positive/negative is a step in the right direction. 51% positive is moving in the right direction. Keep on moving in the right direction!

Because what you focus on expands, because what you think about you become keep your mind on all the most marvelous aspects of you most of the time. Think the best thoughts. Affirm your positivity. Live in gratitude. Maintain a champion mindset. Live, lough, laugh!

The other 20% of the time, if you feel you want to or must, go ahead and develop your weaknesses. Go ahead and sift through the less than glorious stuff. You can have your cake and eat it too in this regard. You can develop weaknesses there is nothing WRONG in doing that.

Spend 80% Of Your Time Thinking And Feeling Good

Whether or not you resolve past issues during the 20% or whether you skyrocket ahead during the 80% time you focus on the glorious doesn’t matter. You will move forward at whatever the rate and for whatever the reasons because you are devoted to improving.

You may not move as quickly the closer you are to 50/50 because that is how you remain stuck in ok. The more you UP the percentage MORE of the time the MORE likely you are to experience positive changes quicker and more easily. This is because what you spend your time doing most determines what you get back.

Don’t be upset if you are a fan of therapy. No reason to bristle because I said focusing on shortcomings and negativity is not the best approach for making positive changes.

There is no reason to feel bad unless you insist on feeling bad. There is NO reason to feel bad because of what I write. It isn’t worth upsetting yourself over. The goal is to discover what you can do to live more successfully. Take your control back don’t give me any.

Your mission, should you accept it, is to be the very best you that you can be. Ultimately, when you are happy as you want to be, it won’t matter how you got there so much. As long as how you got there was wonderful for you and the others in your life. Include others in the fun too! I prefer to enjoy the journey along the way.

Make The Major Part Of Your Life The Good Part

Make the major part of your life the good part, the great part, the fun, loving, kind, enjoyable part and you will be surprised at how quickly you can be, do and have everything you want. When most of your hours are filled with love, joy, fun, and delight YOU are already living life in a more meaningful way.

Spend your time in delight, in gratitude and celebration. Appreciate where you came from, all the experiences and people in your life. Everything from the past has brought you to now. Celebrate this!

Appreciate and validate where you are today. Celebrate all. Know that great things are coming in the future and that you will accomplish wonderful things. Good things are now and on he horizon, even if you can not see them yet, good things are coming your way. Let them in!” Rex Sikes

Make up your mind to make your mind marvelous today!

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Forget Your Weaknesses: Develop Your Strengths!

“If you learned you need to get better at what you are poor at you learned wrong. If your parents or teachers or anyone told you to develop and work on your weaknesses they were incorrect. You could spend a lot of time devoted to what you aren’t good at and be wasting a lot of your time!

Stop! Make a change that will bring you better results and greater satisfaction. Work on and develop your strengths! Take what you are good at and get great at it! This makes the most sense. This will get you the best result for your efforts.

Your Strengths Give You The Edge

Take your talents to the next level and the level after that. Your strengths are what you should be furthering. Who knows how far you could go if you focused on making your best even better?

Developing your weaknesses sounds good but if you suck at something how long will it take until you are mediocre at it? Meanwhile, the best you got is languishing. It is silly to let your best go to waste while you focus on what you are the least good at.

Remember, what you focus on expands. What you think about most you become. What you put out there comes back to you. SO why spend all your time putting energy into what you aren’t very good at?

Put Your Energy Into Where You Are Good And Excel!

Emphasize and spend time with all that is the best of you. Think about what you are good at rather than what you aren’t good at. Focus on your strengths and develop those. Your strong points give you the edge your weaknesses won’t.

If you are bad at something and you keep trying to get better at it its more apt to break your confidence and crush your spirit. Build up your wins, feel the best, and live from where you are strong.

It makes sense if you are socially inept, if you aren’t able to communicate well; if you can not look another person in the eye and talk to them than yes, you should develop your skills to be able to do so. One of the best ways you do that is to develop your confidence.

Focusing On Your Best Develops Your Confidence

How do you develop confidence? You develop your confidence by making your best better. You feel confident when you take stock of and keep in mind what you are good at; you remember your talents and abilities. Confidence comes from winning and excelling.

It is wiser to start at the top and go higher than to begin at the bottom and work your way up to the middle. Skyrocket don’t struggle.

Be confident while staying humble. Bragging isn’t real confidence it is based in fear. When you really are good you know it you don’t have to prove it.

In your career, your occupation, your job, even your school you can bet you will be rewarded with a promotion or a raise or an honorable notice for what you are best at not what you suck at. Put your best foot forward not your worst. Develop your skills and abilities. You will be glad you did!” Rex Sikes

It is your day to make what you will of it!

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Who Is Your Boss? Who Runs The Show?

“Who is your Boss? The Boss runs the show. Are you the Boss of your own life? Many of us like to think we are? But are we? Who is running the show in your life? If you aren’t the Boss you can bet someone or something else is. They could care less about you!

Be The Boss Of Your Own Life

Whatever distracts you from creating your life as you want it; whatever distracts you from maintaining your positive attitude; whatever distracts you from moving towards accomplishing your goals each day IS your Boss.

Whatever the limitation that prevents you from pursuing your dreams and making them happens is the Boss. This Boss controls your time, your output, your results, and your rewards. This Boss controls you.

If your watching TV, going out for cocktails, hanging with the boys or the girls or gaming instead of working towards what you want you then these distractions are your Boss. These distractions are preventing you from the success and happiness you want and deserve.

Your Habits Determine Who The Boss Is

Instead of doing what you can be doing to have a better life you let whims dictate how your life will be. If you aren’t in charge of yourself then your poor habits will be in charge of you. Others run the show. You won’t benefit by their control. You will lose out.

In order to win you have to run the race. You can’t quit or get distracted by something on the sidelines. You must focus on the prize, pace yourself and do your very best. Less than that means it is likely you won’t finish first.

Don’t let comparisons stop you either. Don’t let imitation thinking prevent you from giving it your all. There are always stronger, faster, richer, smarter, better looking competitors who seem to have every advantage but you can’t let that dissuade you. They can lose too.

Slow And Steady Wins The Race

Remember, the fable of the tortoise and the hare. The hare had speed and was confident he would take the prize. So over confident, in fact, he took a nap near the finish line. Hubris did the rabbit in.

The tortoise kept a diligent steady pace, did not stop but kept on going. Slow and steady he won the race. The rabbit awoke to watch the hare cross the finish line. The tortoise was in control.

Be the Boss of your thought and of your own habits. Control your time, energy, and attention. Commit to winning the prize and to nothing else. If you go about it sloppily and half-assed you aren’t going to get there anytime soon.

Do not give away your power to others, to activities, to things or to places that do not benefit you in the long term. Stop wasting time with and limitations distractions. Decide how to best spend your time to live the life you want.

Limit Distractions And Unproductive Behaviors

Avoid negative media messages that bring your down. Avoid people who just aren’t productive for you to be around. Learn to say NO to those elements which don’t lift you up or move you forward. Value yourself, your time and your dreams.

Whining, complaining, making excuses, rationalizing, are all distractions. These do not get you any closer to making your dreams come true. Only think and speak that which blesses, heals and prospers you and others.

Stop! Don’t let your negative thoughts be your Boss. Don’t let limited, ‘I Can’t Do It’ thinking prevent you from trying and making it. BE the Boss of your thoughts and behaviors. BE an ‘I Can Do It’ person.

Keep Your Power Use Your Powers

Set your mindset and attitude to positive. When your thoughts and desires are aligned, and you congruently feel good and optimistic about getting your goals, things go easier.

You work smarter, not necessarily harder. You are more resourceful. Your time is spent on productive activity. You feel wonderful and you see opportunity more readily.

You handle challenges more easily. Everything is better when you are in charge positively! Be your own Boss and make your dreams come true!” Rex Sikes

You have another beautiful day to make the most of!

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You Screwed Up! How To Get Over It!

“You screwed up! Big or small? It doesn’t matter. We all make mistakes. The big question is what to do when you do make a mistake? How do you keep going?

Okay, this won’t be the first time you heard this. You are human. Humans make mistakes. That is what we do. That is how we learn. From our earliest moment we are screwing up and it is informing us and teaching us.

BUT since we went to school we hate messing up. We hated those red marks on our tests. We were told everything we did wrong. SO we developed an aversion to it. We developed a fear for making mistakes.

We responded out of sorts. We don’t like it. We are afraid of it and feel bad when we screw up.

Stop Focusing On Mistakes

If we focus on what we don’t want we get more of what we don’t want. If we spend time worrying about making mistakes it is more likely we will make them.

If we think ‘don’t screw up’ it is not any different than telling a child ‘don’t spill your mill’. You know what happens when we do that.

Focus On What You Do Well

You have to live fearlessly and expect the best. You need to plan for success and not let mistakes bother you so much. You are so much more than your occasional screw up.

You do more things right than you do wrong. Celebrate that! Embrace this! Accept it! You do plenty of things well and quite well.

How We Learn

As a child you learned to roll over, sit up, crawl and eventually walk by making more movements than were necessary. These movements were way off base. They weren’t at all close to what you need to balance or move forward easily.

When you learned to feed yourself you repeatedly missed your mouth with the spoon getting food all over the place and yourself. You made movements way off base.

You never thought to call them mistakes. They were! They were necessary for you to eventually hone your skills and get the food in your mouth. They were necessary for balance, movement, navigation.

These are called Unwanted Parasitic Movements. Name sounds horrible but you needed to learn how to stop doing them in order to get the spoon to your mouth, for you to sit up, crawl and walk.

They were absolutely required. They were larger than necessary, not even closed to the refined movements you learned to make because of them. It is like coloring outside the lines. You went outside the lines while learning to color inside the lines.

You learned to eliminate all that was unnecessary in order to refine and perform these skills. You got rid of these unwanted parasitic movements to smoothly navigate the spoon to your mouth.

It was all done through repetition. It was all learning. It was all ‘not that way but this way’ when it came to aiming your arm and hand to your mouth.

When you watch an infant sit notice how much it moves as it is learning to sit comfortably still. The infant is learning to balance from all these extraneous movements.

Good thing you couldn’t talk or think about it as you do now, you’d have quit after the first or second try, starved to death and would not be reading this blog.

Accept Mistakes As Part Of Being Human

Mistakes are part of evolving, growing, developing. If you deny making them or get caught up in thinking about them, over thinking about them or worrying about them you will only be miserable.

You will stagnate and prevent yourself from learning valuable lessons. You will make it tougher on yourself. Pat yourself on the back when you make a mistake and say to yourself, ‘You did the best you could. Better luck next time’.

Realize we all make them and they are a part of life. Embrace yourself, forgive yourself. Embrace your mistakes, forgive yourself for making them. It is absolutely ok.

Yes, there may be consequences and you may need to make restitution for your mistakes that should be understood. That is part of the process.

Don’t shirk your responsibility when a mistake affects others. Ask forgiveness do what you can to rectify it. Be positive and proactive. Do not let it ruin you. Make good on it and get over it.

Mistakes Make You More Attractive

People like people more who are able to forgive themselves and admit their mistakes. It actually makes them more attractive. There is the story of a popular television entertainer who was supposed to run up a flight of stairs during his TV special.

He stumbled and fell. The producers said, ‘don’t worry we can edit it out’. He said ‘leave it in’. He understood that it would make him more human and that the audience would feel for and pull for him seeing him falter but continue to go on. And he was right!

Happy people know this inside. They know that making a mistake is actually a learning experience and an opportunity. Since we all make them and it is probable we will continue to make them the best approach seems to be relaxed acceptance.

Don’t get bent out of shape. Keep moving forward. The more you can celebrate mistakes the less the sting. When you are able to embrace and accept, acknowledge, learn and move on your life takes on a much more wonderful quality.

When you give yourself permission to screw up or fail it takes the sting out of it. You will find yourself hurting less and feeling better more frequently. Attitude is important. It makes all the difference in the world. Keep on making mistakes and keep on learning and growing!” Rex Sikes

Have a wonderful day!

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Dream Big: Don’t Let The Details Stop You!

“What do successful people have in common? What is their mind set and behaviors? Why do they succeed while others don’t? Is there a difference between them and the other people?

Can you do what they do to get the results they have? Yes absolutely!

It is important to know what you want and to dream big.

Know your definite chief purpose and develop a burning desire or passion for it’s fulfillment.

Dream big and keep the dream before you in your minds’s eye. Think about it day and night. What consumes you controls you.

Don’t fret about the details.

Do not get caught up in the how. Do not let not knowing how you might accomplish it stop you from going after it. Go after it.

Go as far as you can go and when you get there you will see farther. Enjoy your dream. Make it fun and delightful to make it happen.

What you think about you become.

What you focus on you get. What you think about you bring about. So imagine your big dream as already completed.

Imagine what it is like to be there already. How does it feel to have made it happen? Enjoy these feelings! Let these feelings move you forward.

If life were perfect how would it feel?

How would it feel to be, do and have everything you want? Don’t just answer, ‘it’d feel great!’ FEEL IT!

Accentuate and savor the feelings. Live these feelings again and again each day. Let them drive you. This is what you want after all. You want to feel more of this. THIS, these feeling is what it is about.

Never get hung up in the details when you can feel this way.

The details will resolve themselves and you will find a way. You will develop a plan for making your dream come true.

The the more you keep it alive in your mind the more it will become clear to you. Follow your plan as it unfolds. You don’t need plans to be perfect or in their entirety the entire plan prior to beginning because plans change.

All people who succeed big pursue their dreams

People who succeed pursue their dreams and work their plans. The are dedicated and on target but flexible to change their plans along the way. The persist and adapt.

They never give up they just adjust as needed. They never let a detail stop them from getting what they want. It never occurs to them that they won’t succeed.

Read biographies of top achievers

Read the biographies of those who succeed and you will begin to see the elements they share in common. I share these here in these blog pages for you to read and re-read.

Successful people keep the big picture in mind and never let the specifics deter them. The goal is getting to the destination not how they are going to get there. Keep this in mind!

As for the journey delight in it.

Keep this in mind too! Delight in not knowing. It gives you opportunity to trust yourself and know that you are moving forward anyway.

Celebrate that good things are coming and happening to you even if you don’t know when or how. Have fun on the journey and delight in all things. When you get there you will see farther.” Rex Sikes

Have a wonderful day!

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A Simple, Easy Way To Treat Your Loved Ones Right

“With technology comes advances. There is no doubt we are better off the more we have invented. As we advance the same technology can create problems. Nothing is inherently good or evil. A hammer can be used to build or tear down.

Social Media Is Separating Us and Dividing Us

We don’t ‘connect’ as we used to. Instead of calling and speaking we text each other. Often, we group text or we tweet followers and post to friends on social media. It is devoid of human speaking and listening and give and take. Frequently, we are just posting or reading announcements on walls or watching video without any give and take.

Enter a room anywhere today and you will see people staring at their devices instead of talking together. Most all of them gazing at their phone are gaming, or texting or reading or watching some media. Human interaction is limited and if there is any at all in that room it is through electronics with someone somewhere else.

This prevalent form of ‘staying connected’ is not meaningful contact. We are not actually talking and listening to or trying to understand anyone anymore. These are not conversations where meaning and understanding are important.

These are written notes littered with abbreviations and emoticons. We don’t hear their voice and their expression we read texts in our voice with our expression. Because we don’t listen or look we assume and misinterpret. Since we don’t actually talk we don’t actually connect.

We think we are more connected through electronics and social media but we may actually be more isolated and less exposed to diverse thinking, cultures and people. A room full of people all on their devices instead of interacting together is not a coming together.

Living Through Your Phone Or Lens Is Not Living

Watching a documentary on an African town is not the same as visiting the town and getting to know and experience the people. We are missing out on actual experiences. We opt to live vicariously rather than to really live. We have become passive observers, shielded behind our mobil devices, rather than participants in life.

Instead of it making us better it lessens our experiences and feelings. It allows us to escape. It preoccupies us. Instead of meeting the new person sitting next to you you retreat into the reliable escape of entertainment.

You game, watch youtube, text someone, read FB to avoid an actual real life encounter with the people right there with you. You are shut off not involved. You are limited and not expanding.

Give It A Rest And Take A Break

Make time for family and friends. Shut off your phones and put them away. Have some real face time with the people you love and care about. PUT THE MOBIL DEVICE AWAY. Your children OR your parents deserve YOU and your uninterrupted time and attention. Don’t deprive them.

Don’t be tempted to answer the call or the text. The person in front of you is more important, most likely, than the person texting in. Most texts and phone calls can wait. Make time for people in your life. Make time for your loved ones! Respect each other!

Respect the other person by giving your undivided attention. Give your complete attention without checking your FB wall. It is rude to be constantly picking up your phone instead of listening and looking at the human with you. It is annoying to others to be conversing with you only to be interrupted by text tones and phone calls. Stop it!

Learn To Live Without Your Phone

You will survive! Many people, if they forget their phone, panic. STOP IT! It is only a phone. Yes, it is shiny, has bangs and whistles and costs a fortune but it is no where near worth the value of your real friends and family who want to connect with you.

Put it aside. Learn to live without it so you can enjoy it without being addicted to it. If you forget it at home, so what, you will survive. Those feelings of ‘gotta have it’ are the feelings and the stressors you want to eliminate. Relax, it is only a phone. You will survive!

In olden, by gone days, (a few years back) no one had personal devices to stay in touch and for the most part the world went on and on anyway. It is a fallacy to think we need the phone just in case. That is a sense of immediacy and foreboding that is artificial and only causes worry and stress. You don’t need it.

Hug Not Hold

True, once and a while you had to make an important call or you might have missed an important call BUT life went on. There is no reason to be a slave to your electronic device. It is the people that are important not the devices. It is the human you can hug not the gadget you can hold that matters.

Relax. Schedule time to connect. Have a date night with your loved one or friends and turn off your phones. Leave the electronics behind. Make it a point to shut the phone off for half a day or more. You can do it even if it seems as though you can’t.

At the end of your life you won’t say, ‘If I had only spent more time texting and posting to Facebook. If I’d only answered the phone more often.’ I bet you are going to wish for more time with the people you love.

Do not cheat yourself of them of your time and attention. Realize right this instant what is important and who is important in your life right NOW!, Spend the quality time together you and they deserve.” Rex Sikes

Have a wonderful day. Connect with someone in a special way!

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Either You Are OR You Aren’t: Knowing This Is Great Power!

“The concept is quite simple. Frankly, as simple as black and white, hot or cold, up and down. Think of it this way: you are either saving money or spending money. Your money either works for you or you work for it. You either are living fearlessly or you are not. It is simple! What ARE you doing?

Possessions are either a feeder, contributing to your wealth and well being, or an eater, detracting from your wealth and well being. A car either appreciates in value or depreciates.

That is a pretty easy concept isn’t it? Your positive thoughts energy ball is either larger or smaller than your negative thoughts energy ball. You either think positive or not. You either feel good or you don’t. You are either happy or you aren’t.

It Is Either One Way Or The Other Way

You are either nice to people most of the time or you are not. You either give and contribute to others or you don’t. You are either supportive and encouraging or you are not AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT. What are you?

What are you thinking, feeling and doing? What are you thinking, feeling and doing at any given moment? What are you thinking, feeling and doing RIGHT THIS MOMENT?

You need or want to notice which it is and whether that is what you want OR NOT. You are either doing well or you aren’t. You are either getting closer to your target destination or you are not.

All it takes is for you to be aware and notice what it is you are doing or mostly getting. If it is NOT what you want you have to change it for it to be otherwise. It is that cut and dried. It is that simple and straight forward. It is not complicated in the least.

We Become What We Think About

We become what we think about and focus on most of the time each day. Whatever consumes the mind is what we get. Either those are wonderfully powerful joyous thoughts or they aren’t.

If you want to think and feel better you need to make the decision about what you will concentrate on and then do it.

No one can do it for you. No one can think your thoughts or feel your feelings for you. No one can rescue you only you can. If you don’t like the results you are getting you CAN do something to get better results. You can change what you are doing.

If you are spending more than you are saving you can change that.

If you are focused on blame and worry and fear you can change that.

If you are eating the wrong foods for your health you can change that.

It Is Your Responisibility Alone

YOU have to take responsibility and correct the course you are on. It may be true, you have never done it before now, but you can learn to do it and you can be successful at it.

The decision is yours. You either decide to do it or you don’t do it. To not decide is to make a decision against doing anything. It will always be your choice and yours alone. The choice will always stare you in the face until you do something about it. Ignoring it is a choice.

If you want to be happier, healthier, wealthier you must think and do what brings that to you. You don’t move foward looking backward. If you want more happiness and enjoyment in your life you either take big steps or little steps towards it.

No steps won’t bring you what you want. Little steps will! You have to move toward what you want. What are you doing each moment? What are you moving towards this moment? Are you getting closer to what you want OR closer to what you don’t want? Figure it out and do what you need to do in order to get what you want!

You Determine What You Want And What You Will Get

If you want a life filled with gratitude and joy. Count your blessings every day. Look around for things and people to celebrate! Fill your mind and time with all that is good and joyous. Let gratefulness and joy consume you.

THEN you will get back what you put out. THEN you will become what you think about. THEN you will get what you want. If you want it make it happen. Decide Now! The miracle happens in the decision! More coming up on this topic! ” Rex Sikes

Make the most of this marvelous day!

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Success Defined: How To Be A Success

“For some people success seems to come easy, doesn’t it? We think they had it handed to them or were born to it. For others, success seems elusive, a struggle, or if there is success it comes only after much effort.

We are told, in the U.S., work hard and sacrifice and anyone can be a success in time, but only if they really work hard. Sweat, toil, work 3 jobs. That doesn’t seem like the American dream does it? Is success difficult? Does it require hard work? Will you be successful?

Let’s take a look into this notion of success.

Some equate it with career or money. Others include happiness and living well as being successful. Most of us it seems define success as an end point to our efforts. We work hard and then succeed but is that what success is? Is it at the end of the work?

Napoleon Hill stated, ‘Success is the development of the power with which to get whatever one wants in life without interfering with the rights of others.’

The development of the power with which to get whatever one wants IS success to Napoleon, BUT, without interfering with the rights of others. Beautiful! I like this. It is the development of the power to achieve what one wants. Obviously, things develop over time AND while we are developing this power, for ourselves, we are not limiting anyone else.

He further stated, ‘Before success comes in any man’s life, he’s sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That’s exactly what the majority of men do.’

Of course, if we quit we will never know what might have been.

Some don’t let failure deter them. Look at Edison. ‘Edison failed 10,000 times before he made the electric light. Do not be discouraged if you fail a few times,’ said Hill.

Helen Keller is one person who faced incredible odds. Blind and deaf shortly after birth she grew up to become an educated speaker capable of inspiring countless others because of her spirit and attitude. She is only one example of someone who prevailed though facing enormous odds.

Hill stated, ‘Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.’ The seed of an EQUAL or greater benefit! Opportunity and advantage! However, in order to recognize the benefit, the opportunity, we must be aware and attuned with correct mindset.

His own son was born without ears. He didn’t have the external or internal physical auditory equipment to hear. Hill, refusing to believe this would be a limitation for his son, thought it a blessing. It made him special and he passed this attitude onto his boy who did learn to hear and went on to accomplish much.

To some it may seem as though success comes after much effort but Hill said the it was NOT about hard work and that hard work was a myth. That DOESN’T mean no work! Hill meant attitude comes first. Success takes work but it can be enjoyable work with the right attitude. It does not have to be hard work. This is important to note!

Hill emphasized that successful results followed the development of a successful mindset. In order to succeed in the world one had to first learn to control one’s own mind and develop a winning mindset and attitude. Then one was unstoppable and could command great things.

Success first begins within.

He emphasized this often, ‘What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.’ AND ‘Success comes to those who become success conscious.’

He stated that, ‘It is true nothing can bring you success but yourself.’ If one is to be successful it is up to that person to develop their mindset and their powers to accomplish whatever it is they want. I’ve discussed this many times in these pages. It would serve you well to re-visit again and re-read. Also read Hill!

He pointed out regarding wealth accumulation: ‘When Riches begin to come they come so quickly and in such great abundance that one wonders where they have been hiding during all those lean years.’

He points out that our minds ‘become magnetized with the dominating thoughts we hold in our minds.’ AND ‘These magnets attract to us the forces, the people, the circumstances of life which harmonize with the nature of our dominating thoughts’.

‘All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination; Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth.’ AND ‘Any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.’

It is up to us to take control of our minds. To learn to use them in developing our own happiness which in turn leads us to success.

Success need not be difficult.

He made THIS important point many times: ‘It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.’ AND ‘Success in life depends upon happiness, and happiness is found in no other way than through SERVICE that is rendered in a spirit of love.’

Zig Ziglar put it this way, ‘You will get all you want in life when you help enough other people get what they want.’

Help others and you help yourself. Help others and they can help you. The energy grows stronger in helping each other than in struggling alone. We can rise faster together. Every one rowing in the same direction increases the speed at which we are able to move forward.

People who step on others may get tot he top but they frequently fall or do not enjoy the journey nor the destination.

Earl Nightengale defined it this way. ‘Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.’

Success is not an end state, an ultimate goal, we end up at. It is not result of our efforts but a process we live. The progressive realization means it unfolds; it is a journey not a destination. We are successful while pursuing a worthy goal or ideal.

Don’t Wait To Be Successful!

Nightengale also said, ‘Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don’t wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how really precious is the time you have to spend, whether it’s at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savored.’

One of the most brilliant definitions of success I have every heard is this: Define it for yourself. You write the rules. You play the game so play so you can win. Success is whatever you say it is. Don’t chase something elusive be successful now! Make it easy to succeed and you will have more success immediately. It is only far off if you keep it far off.

Some people compare themselves against others. They keep a score that keeps them losing. You need to keep a score that keeps you winning. Stop comparing your results to other’s results. Don’t get distracted by focusing on the wrong things. If you want to compare compare yourself against yourself and commit to being a little better each day.

Decide you are a success and you will begin to succeed. Decide to be happy and you’ll find your happiness! Decide to live to the fullest and life becomes worth living! Everything worthwhile in the world first began as a thought before it became a reality.

Manage your thoughts. Aim them in the right direction and you will travel in the right direction. Make your reality what you want it to be AND begin now! Everything can change inside a single moment when you make a powerful decision.” Rex Sikes

Enjoy your day!

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