Learning Archives - Page 25 of 29 - Rex Sikes' Daily Inspiration and Gratitude

Ask Yourself Whose Life Can You Touch And Bless Today? Happy Thanksgiving!

“It is Thanksgiving celebrate! There is so much to be thankful for. All one has to do is look around, and notice, as it has been said, ‘any day you are above ground is a good day’.

Spend the day with the people who are important to you if you are able too. Share time and make memorable moments. Spend some time truly giving thanks for everything you can. Look for the little things we take for granted and appreciate them.

So many, have so little, we are lucky with whatever we have in terms of our home, health, wealth, our well-being. Remember family, friends, your support network, your work, passions, and play. Celebrate and delight in everything. Give thanks!

Our world becomes richer when we recognize what we have created, made happen and lucked into!

Every moment of the day you are either creating positive energy or negative energy. The more you focus on creating positive thoughts, appreciation, loving kind thoughts, feelings, words and actions the more you get back. The longer you spend time savoring these the more enjoyable every moment becomes.

Today, reach out and make someone else feel special, feel loved and appreciated. Say a kind word, smile, lend them a hand. Give someone a call, extend an invitation, give someone a hug. Find someone lonely or alone and give of your time.

Holidays are difficult for many people and if you can help another person feel better, feel welcome, feel valued and important not only do you do something wonderful for that person but you do something wonderful for yourself.

Let your heart be soft, open and receptive. Send out your loving energy for no reason at all other than to touch someone gently and positively. Lift someone up and you lift yourself up higher too!

As you feel more grateful, loving and positive all of your world changes for the better. Enjoy this day and let’s make thanksgiving a daily celebration instead of a yearly one.” Rex Sikes

PS – Thank YOU for following, subscribing and sharing this blog! Thanks for spreading positive energy. I appreciate you and cannot get the word out without you. THANKS! Have a marvelous holiday! Blessings and Peace!!!

Fill your moments with passion and delight!

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Don’t Miss Out! Accelerate Your Career Success

“You decide your fate in life because it is totally in your hands. How far you go is completely up to you and within your power. If you are incredible to be around and you genuinely put others first, and you seek to help solve problems, find solutions, and celebrate everything YOU can ultimately write your own ticket.

Continued From How To Accelerate Your Career Success.

It is true you have to pursue you dreams, remain dedicated and consistently keep moving forward to accomplish your goals. How you do that and who you get to surround you is important. People either want to see you go far and help you or they will be happy to see you fail. Some might even take pleasure in helping to make that happen.

Even though it is your personal path to get ahead it is always about the other people you come into contact with. You attract others most like you. Birds of a feather flock together. SO celebrate people, be supportive, encouraging, and an inspiration. Always talk nicely about everyone. Don’t whine complain, blame, badmouth or gossip.

Go out of your way to inspire, motivate, and help others. When you give freely to others, without conditions, you’ll be recognized as a genuine, kind and caring person. You will move forward faster.

People like people who actually like people! People tend to say yes to the people they like. It is easy to say no to someone you do not care about. Perhaps, it’s even satisfying to say no to someone you don’t like. When you are nice to people first they feel more inclined to be nice towards you. When you help others, others tend to want to help you. It just works that way. People will respond to help you move ahead!

It is called the Law Of Reciprocity and it works like this. You go out for the evening and someone buys your dinner. What do you say and do? You say, ‘next time I buy’. Why? Because you feel like you ought to. Someone did you a kindness and you want to do one back. You feel obligated. You feel you owe them in return. You want to ‘do the right thing’ and be nice. You don’t want to leave it uneven.You want to even up the score.

It works the other way too. Someone calls you a nasty name or gives you the finger. What do you feel like doing? Probably the same, or even worse. We feel compelled to even the score.

Since these laws are always working anyway make the Golden Rule and the Law Of Reciprocity work for you. They never cease to be in operation! So whether you are at home, at play or on the job learn how to utilize them so you and everyone else benefits.

Be grateful. Be thankful for everything big and small. People can tell when a person lives with gratitude and appreciation. Express your gratitude, send a note, say thanks often. Breaks come much quicker when we are optimistic, positive, and appreciative because we are more desirable to be around.

Consider these next examples: Movie Stars are movie stars because people want to know them. They are sought after and people want to be around them. People even want to be them! They have ‘something’ that makes them different from everyone else. People are excited when a celebrity is gracious, down to earth, and a real genuine person! They are ecstatic if the celebrity takes an interest in them asks them questions and really listens. They feel touched by greatness. It is a moment they may always remember. You have the opportunity to make yourself memorable!

You have an important fun trip planned. You are going to be camping in the wilderness. (Even if you hate camping imagine this). WHO do you invite along? What kind of people would you take with you if you wanted a wonderful time? What qualities in the are important? What kind person would you not want to be there.

I’m not asking you which friends can pitch a tent or drink the most around a campfire while telling great stories. I am asking you to consider whether you’d want a cooperative, good natured, giving person to accompany you, the kind of person I’ve been describing in these posts, or someone in it just for themselves?

When people hire this is the kind of consideration they have? Who do they want around for a long time? If it is between you and someone else why should they pick you?

Accept 100% responsibility for your thoughts, feelings, words and actions and you can make great things happen. You will never be able to move ahead easily if you put the responsibility on or blame others for your success or failures. Whatever is going to happen will be up to you. It will be due to the kind of person you are or are not!

If you want to be successful faster and move forward more easily then transform yourself into the kind of person other people want to be around and see succeed. It is all up to you!” Rex Sikes

Enjoy today! Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

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How To Accelerate Your Career Success!

“YOU succeed much faster when people like who you are and what you are. Everything I have shared, in my recent posts, about the Golden Rule, the Platinum Rule and acting in loving ways towards a partner, your family, associates and even strangers is applicable to your career and your job success. Behave in loving ways and you can ignite your career track beyond belief!

When you fist behave lovingly toward others AND yourself, when you hold others and yourself in the highest esteem, you are transforming yourself and your relationships in positive ways. Others will notice and you will stand out in the crowd. Your energy will be uplifting, dynamic, confident and kind. You will set your self apart from all the rest who just go about life and their career with only themselves in mind.

People will be attracted to you because you are operating from higher positive intentions. You are filling your mind and your heart, your feelings, your words and your actions with positivity. When you wish the very best for others, and do the best to help them feel loved, accepted, valued, and supported, without seeking to get anything back, you ultimately gain more in return than you can ever imagine!

In your career, and in all business, when you go the extra mile, when you help your boss or others get ahead without being asked to and without expecting payment you demonstrate that you are a person of integrity and high-value. You display initiative when you help others meet their needs. If you can save them time, money or energy you will be sought after. If you will do what most others refuse to do you can most likely write your own ticket.

When you are so filled with the joy of living and loving, when your thoughts and feelings and actions are congruent and aligned with these high positive intentions you are a joy to be around. You are someone people want to associate with and you become indispensable to others. When you put others first you make yourself a genuine team player. You make yourself invaluable.

The issue with so many pursuing careers is that they only see others as stepping stones for getting where they want to get. These types tend to be aggressive and use people. They complain and whine about the circumstances or actions of others. They are envious when other people get the job or move forward advancing their careers. This type of person is more than competitive, they think and speak and act only with regard to themselves. They are easily identifiable and if not easily avoidable many will do their best not to have to interact, be around, or work with them.

You have to know that no one ever, EVER, makes it on one’s own. It is a network of co-operating resources that enable people to do well in the world. Would you believe someone who claimed, ‘Hey I go out and get the raw materials, I mine them. I transport them in my own vehicle to bring them back. I manufacture them all alone and I promote and market them without any assistance from anyone. Then I sell them all by myself off my own website. NO one has ever helped me.’ Perhaps, that is true, but the people who purchased your product are the ones who help make you successful!

Without these people you wouldn’t have any money. So even in the rarest of all circumstances, as in this example, there are others involved who are responsible for this person’s success. There are other ways people contributed to the process indirectly. Someone made the vehicle and made gasoline available. Someone manufactured the tools the computers and the marketing means. Others are involved whether they are given recognition or not.

Alright, so that was an extreme example of someone determined to claim no one ever helped them. For most of us many people help us all along the way. Some do it freely and others charge for their services. The point is we are interconnected. We don’t actually live in complete isolation. We depend on others and others depend on us. This is why networking is so important. Ultimately, we all help each other.

If you really want to get ahead apply the Golden Rule. Add value to others first. Hold everyone in the highest possible regard. Go out of your way to be positive and nice and behave in loving and kind (appropriate) ways and you will endear others to you. Birds of a feather flock together so you will discover other incredible people who will support and encourage you too.

Give first without asking in return and you will get back because people want to return kindnesses. Be helpful and respectful, don’t be a pest. Be positive, don’t complain or blame others. Don’t gossip.

Celebrate joyously when others succeed and you will do much to increase the likelihood of your own success. There are people watching you on your career path and they can tell when you are genuinely interested in others. People can tell when someone is only in it for themselves.

Consider yourself as a beacon, a walking billboard. You advertise exactly who you are and what your values are the moment you enter a room or open your mouth. People can see you coming a mile away and they are either deliriously happy when you arrive or they want to flee.

Be the kind of person other people really want to be around and you will go far. Smile, be happy and enthusiastic.

When you go for an interview or an audition remember your energy either fills the room with powerful friendly presence or it sucks the energy from the room. Those you are meeting can immediately tell whether you are a life giver or a vampire. If you want a chance at a call back or to book the job or get the position people must feel that you are someone they want to be around and spend time with.

Yes, it is important to be talented. You should be qualified and right for the part, or the position. Still, who you are matters so much more than what you can do. If you want the chance, if you want the opportunity for yourself to get ahead and skyrocket your career be the best person you can be AND be the best in your work. You will get noticed, you’ll be remembered, and get called. More in the next post.” Rex Sikes

Have fun today! Enjoy yourself!

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Loving Means Recognizing What You Are Doing When You Are Doing It

In my recent post I mentioned that ‘loving’ behaviors are quantifiable while the generalization ‘love’ is not. You can tell when someone is behaving in a loving way towards you or towards someone else. It is readily apparent. You can encourage the loving behaviors by telling the other person what you enjoy and by responding back in loving ways. You can discourage or extinguish less than loving behaviors by word and deed as well. You can begin to get more of what you want and enjoy how you like to be treated when you communicate in loving ways.

You can be more loving across the board. Certainly, you can be so in a romantic way with your partner but you can also treat family members in more loving ways. You can act more loving towards friends and co-workers. Caregivers can provide loving care to the recipients, all of is can be more loving towards people who are hungry, homeless and have special needs. It is not only in the context of intimate relationships. We are not discussing ‘LOVE’ but describing loving behaviors.

It is very important to recognize when you are and aren’t behaving in loving ways toward others. You can tell immediately whether what you are thinking, saying and doing is having a positive affect and getting a positive response or not. You have a metaphorical yardstick to determine whether your behaviors are moving you closer or further away from helping the other person feel more loved and accepted. At any moment you are either moving toward being loving or away from being loving. It is simple to notice.

Once you notice whether or not you are doing what you intend to you can adjust accordingly. IF you are open to feedback and your intention is to be more loving you can easily change what you are thinking, saying and doing to love, nurture, accept and support the other person.

Instead of attempting to justify any behavior by saying or thinking ‘its because I love you’ you can question yourself and decide if you words and actions are actual displays of loving, accepting, nurturing and supportive behavior. You have a real means of deciding. You can tell if what you are doing is ACTUALLY loving or not. This is practical. Then there is no deceiving oneself.

Either you are or you aren’t. If you are honest with yourself you know when you are being loving or if what you are doing is agitating or hurting the other person? You can look, see, hear and even feel whether the other person is receptive or not. There is evidence.

Pay attention and you will discover when you are off base and when you are genuinely behaving kindly and in loving ways. Since you have a way to notice, (its in the other person’s response to you) you have a way to change when you need to or continue to do more of the same.

You can ask the other person what loving behaviors they enjoy and how they prefer to be treated. You can share your preferences with them as well. It is desirable to communicate your wants and needs in relationships with others. Parent to child, lover to lover, friend to friend etc. Loving is something one does and they way one does it. ‘LOVE’ is a philosophical construct.

For example, ‘I want more love’ tells us precisely what? On the other hand, ‘I want to be treated in loving ways more often. Here is how and when’, communicates what one can do to help this person feel more ‘love’. If you are willing you can respond to this person by treating them as they ask to be treated. It is a two way street, of course.

I return to the Golden Rule. If you enjoy being treated nicely you can use that to assume the other person does too. Then treat them nicely. The Golden Rules states ‘treat others as you prefer to be treated’. This sets a guideline for us. It makes us aware of treating others as well or better than you yourself want to be treated. If we don’t like something we can assume others may not either so don’t treat them that way.

HERE is where the Platinum Rule comes into play. The Platinum Rules states, ‘treat people as they prefer to be treated’. This means some of the specifics may differ. They may not enjoy the same things you do.

For example, if one of the ways your partner could demonstrate being more loving towards you means ‘taking you out to a movie of your choice’ your partner’s way of feeling being loved might be ‘to have you spend time sharing hopes and dreams, to sit and talk more often’. Not everyone likes the same things. You both can provide each other with what is wanted to feel more loved. You can give the other person what the person wants if you are willing.

To adhere to the Platinum Rule you find out what is important to the other person. You discover what the other person likes, what the other prefers and hopes and wants to include. Then you deliver that as best you are able. You can and should do this unselfishly with no expectation of return. That is the Golden Rule in operation.

If they feel ‘more loved spending a quiet evening at home with you’ and ‘you feel more loved going out together and having wild experiences’ then you negotiate times when you can each do for the other what the other enjoys doing. This is ideal. To have great communication and mutually desire to meet each others needs.

You will be behaving in more loving ways when you make a ‘special quiet at home evening for your partner’ and your partner will be nurturing you and more loving towards you in scheduling a ‘wild time of going out together’. You both help each other feel more important and validate the ways in which you both feel loved when you take into account how the other person feels loved by you. You increase your ‘love’ when you act in loving ways towards and with each other.

When you do for another, help another, give to another, make another feel special you are helping yourself too. When you make others feel loved, accepted, important and supported without expecting any return you are loving unconditionally. When you simple add more loving into your life you are benefiting yourself while you benefit others.

Consider all the people in your life, surrounding you, whom you can behave more lovingly towards. Your parents, children, partner, boss, employees, co-workers, associates, friends, strangers you meet day to day in a variety of places, people with needs, and all others. How can you add to their enjoyment of each day? When you become more loving toward yourself and extend it toward others all of your life becomes much more remarkable and positive.

When you uplift others you uplift yourself. You can more intimately connect with those near and dear to you AND you can also find ways nurture and support friends, associates and strangers.

When your goal is to UPLIFT everyone and think the highest of all people, everyone benefits. You will benefit in countless untold ways and the others will too. You help make your living circumstances and those of the people around you so much nicer. Be the catalyst for positive change!

I really don’t want to point this out because the focus is not in what is returned but in what is given freely, but Giver’s get. They really do! So give and give freely and enjoy the blessings you receive while making others feel better and more loved. Enjoy” Rex Sikes

Today, find many reasons to enjoy yourself and others! Be thankful!

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People Have Real Needs! How To Love!

“What do you suppose everyone on the planet wants? I am not sure but if I had to guess here are a few things they might wish they had; love; acceptance; happiness; power; health; wealth; well-being; family; home; productive work; free time; enjoyment… I’m sure the list of wants is endless.

What do you suppose the highest want might be? I would suspect love; happiness; acceptance. Perhaps, I am not correct, or perhaps there are others but it seems to me most people want to have some purpose in life. They want to feel connected and valuable. They want to relate and enjoy life to the fullest. They want to share it with people who are important to them. They want to give and receive.

Some people are happy with or without a house, a car, a TV, or many of our basic ‘necessities’. Many can get along without things. Some may get by without a job or work, but fewer get by without other people to live life with. We all find at least one other to share with. Homeless people congregate because we are social creatures. Even in the fiercest competition we find acts of generosity and kindness, of love and acceptance.

Frankly, I think everything anyone does is a request for love. It may not be voiced or even consciously recognized by each of us but I do think that everyone wants it and no one wants to live life without it.

It seems to me, if this is the case, that we might seek to be more loving as well as loved. Love is a nebulous concept. It is a generalization of thought and our language. So is the notion ‘everyone wants love’. This may be true, but I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what love means?

People love their family, friends, their job, their car, their pets, their homes, hamburgers, jewelry; people love many things. We still aren’t sure what they mean by love because it means many things to many people. So, I say seek not love. Don’t ask for love or have a goal to love or be loved.

Instead, seek to be loving. Seek to have people treat you in loving ways.

Love is not quantifiable or definable in a working definition way, but loving can be. You can ACTUALLY tell when someone is acting towards you in a loving way, or towards another AND when they are not. You can say, ‘yes, that is it! That’s what I mean.’ ‘By their fruits, ye shall know them’, is a phrase we ought to remember and live by. Loving acts are recognizable!

When someone truly loves another, their thoughts and their feelings and their behaviors are loving. You can tell when they perform loving behaviors and when the behaviors they perform are not loving.

People can mistreat another and say, ‘but I love you! I did it because I love you’ but that’ not acting in loving ways. ‘Love’ can be used to justify a host of un-loving behaviors.

So, don’t strive to love. Strive to be more loving. Strive to be more kind, nicer and to act in ways that benefit the person whom you ‘love’. When you think and behave as I’m describing, it allows you and the other to teach one another how to be more loving. A person can say, ‘when you do that I feel loved’, ‘or ‘I really enjoy it when you do this’. ‘I feel appreciated, special, loved, accepted when…’ It can open up the lines of reciprocal communication to help people draw closer.

There’s another aspect to this I want to mention before I close. Since most people seek ‘love’, ‘acceptance’ and ‘happiness,’ perhaps we can be more loving, accepting and joyful. Perhaps, we can become more cheerful givers and help others in times of need.

If you want to feel better, and feel better about yourself, help another person when they have needs. Some people need loving treatment. Some need career assistance. Some need help picking up socks around the house. Some need food, water and shelter. Some need to feel valued when they have no work and are down on their luck.

You can do any little thing in loving ways and be of great benefit to another person, family member, friend or stranger.

Hate and intolerance seems to have risen in the US. A vocal group blames and wants to cut people off from assistance because they feel some people are freeloaders. While there may be some freeloaders, that may just be a fact of life, I doubt there are very many people who want something for nothing. Most people want love and acceptance and happiness than the haters imply. Most people want to feel and be productive. They want to provide. This vocal group screams that there’s a culture of freeloader ‘entitlement’ that needs to be stopped.

If you want to stop this you don’t do it with whips and chains and taking food from their babies. You do it through loving. You do it from understanding and accepting. You help others with helpful behaviors. If you want someone to be more productive lift the person up. Don’t insult them and push them further down.

The Golden Rule, which the more I come to understand it, IS the most incredible Rule we could ever hope to have. It is a rule of GO FIRST. Go first in thought and in deed. Hold the other person in the highest esteem and the highest regard. When you expect the best of people they tend to rise to the level of what’s expected of them. Give first of your thoughts, your feelings, your energy, your time, your resources AND while helping others you actually help yourself.

It’s more than the simple notion of karma and what goes around comes around. Or, you better watch out because YOU will get back what you put out.

While this might be the case, it’r really more a question of ‘what do you want to create?’

What kind of world do you want to have? Do your want it filled with more hating or more loving? If you want the latter then you and I need to begin right there by being more loving in all we do with everyone we are around.

It begins with you and me. It doesn’t begin with the other person. Being loving doesn’t include keeping score, having a one up or one down power mentality. Loving means doing things that are loving and accepting of others; family, friends and strangers. It also includes being more loving and accepting of ourselves.

If each of us did nothing more than actually practiced the Golden Rule wholeheartedly, not only would our own lives transform in absolutely positive and incredible ways but then so would our world.

Some will say, ‘well that’s all fine and well but not everyone will do it’ and I say. ‘SO WHAT?’ Transformation doesn’t begin over there. It begins right here. In our own hearts and minds and being. Be less concerned with what others do and absolutely concerned with what you do! Take responsibility for yourself and your actions. Don’t evangelically try to make others conform.

Live lovingly. Treat others in loving ways and watch your world positively evolve! Treat yourself in loving ways and everything will transform. Don’t try to change others or require them to be anything other than completely who they are, good or bad. Instead go first! Be loving and accepting. Lift them up and they will get up.

If you can help someone in their time of need, if you can support someone in their pursuits, their goals and passions, if you can be there in loving ways with a kind word or deed, you are helping to make the world a better place. So pay it forward and enjoy how beautiful your life and all of life becomes!” Rex Sikes

Today, live, love, laugh and celebrate! Celebrate everything!

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Why You Are Stuck and How To Get Free!

“Time to reflect on some common sense knowledge. This is something we all already know BUT we need to understand it and how to apply it.

IF you water plants they grow. IF you cut off their supply to water they wither and die. IFyou give them sunshine they can grow and thrive. IF you cut off their supply they wither and die.

Whatever you nurture grows. If you plant flowers or weeds, food or poison whatever you plant as long as it has food and sunlight it will grow. If you remove the food and sunlight whatever you planted will wither and die. It does not matter what it is. It will die.

When you fight the negative, when you resist it, worry about it, are depressed about it, whenever you think about it you are giving it your attention and energy. You are watering it and feeding it. You are helping it to grow. That is precisely why you keep getting what you don’t want. When you cut of its supply it will wither and die.

You need to withdraw the attention from the less than glorious circumstances. You need to cut off the life giving force from the negative, remove the food, water and sunshine and place your focus on what you do want.

Ignore the bad and focus on the good. Concentrate on the positive. Water, feed it and nurture the positive. You get whatever you focus on. Energy flows where attention goes.

Whenever you notice you attention on the less than glorious, whenever you notice yourself thinking or feeling less than glorious thoughts and feelings, gently remove your attention. Withdraw it.

Don’t get upset, angry or sad about it, don’t criticize or chastise yourself, just notice it and shift your thoughts and feelings toward something more positive. Move from the negative into neutral, a place where it doesn’t matter, and from there into more positive thoughts and feelings. You can learn to do this deliberately.

Take the energy away from the less than glorious and put it toward the positive. When you do this repeatedly you build the habit of moving from the negative to the positive easily and effortlessly. You begin to spend time more naturally in the positive and when you do this you become what you focus on most of the time.

THEN, since most of the time you are positive, and the negative doesn’t bother you, you are free and open to create, make happen and attract what you do want. Your energy is devoted to creating the wonderful life you want to have.

Think about it. If your creative energy, thoughts, feelings and actions are devoted to getting what you want 60, 70, 80, 90 percent of the time what you would be capable of! Imagine that! Your focus, your energy, your being is devoted to all the good things you can make happen. WOW, wouldn’t that be wonderful and different?

WHEN you water and feed BOTH the positive and negative you get both as a result. If you predominantly water the negative and cut off the supply from the positive, you will get mostly negative. SO what are you getting mostly in your life?

If you want everything you can imagine and dream of then you need to change some things. Withdraw the energy from the ‘can’t do’, ‘can’t and won’t happen’ defeatist negative thinking. Withdraw the energy from the negative, worried, fearful, depressed, angry, hostile, bored thinking and put your energy in to the ‘can do’, ‘can have’ positive thoughts of love, joy, peace, happiness, health, wealth and well-being.

It is completely up to which you favor! You determine the results and the life you get! Only you can make it otherwise. The question is will you AND then WHEN will you? You can begin today, this very instant. It all begins the moment you truly decide!” Rex Sikes

How many wonderful thoughts and ideas can you discover today?

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Create – Don’t Wait! How To Make Your Dreams Come True

“Time for a thought experiment. Try this on in your imagination. What is something you really want? It could be anything. For example, if you got a brand new car right now as a gift how would you feel? If that makes you feel a certain wonderful way to get your dream car then use that. If it is oodles of cash or a new home, use that. Whatever works easily and best for you that is what you use. It doesn’t matter what you choose as long as it is very significant and would make you feel really, REALLY good.

So take a moment. Sit back somewhere comfortably. Relax… Take a moment and really do this slowly, take your time, no need to rush:

Now imagine you just got it. You were gifted. It is yours. What would you be thinking and feeling? What are you seeing, hearing or saying to yourself? What are you feeling and where in your body does it feel the most wonderful?

Imagine this scenario fully and feel all the feelings you would be feeling. Notice these. Take your time. Savor the feelings, enjoy these. How do you feel? Are you feeling incredible?

I hope so. Because this is a key here to making your dreams come true. There is a principle operating here. I am going to point something out you may or may not already be aware of.

This is already ongoing with us. It occurs all the time in our daily lives. Good things happen and then we feel good and think about them and enjoy them. Then bad things happen we feel bad, and we think about them, worry about them and fear the future. Right? Good or bad, usually something comes along, an event, circumstance, some news, a person does or doesn’t do something and we end up feeling a certain way. Things happen and then we react. We feel and think about these.

When we let the outer world dictate how we think and feel, whether good or bad, we are ‘at effect’ or we are a victim of our circumstances. We are not the master of our fate or the captain of our soul as long as events, circumstances and others determine how we think, feel and act. Do you understand this. We do not act as if we are in charge. We are not ‘at cause’ BUT at the effect of others or outside influences. The goal is to be ‘at cause’ because the results we get ARE the effects of what WE cause.

There is good news. We can learn to use, what we already do, to get better results. We can learn to use this deliberately to make what we want in life to come true. This is great news. We only have to tweak what we are doing we don’t have to overhaul everything. We use the same process but we aim it differently. It is so much easier than having to learn everything over.

How much we enjoy our life is determined how much time we spend either feeling good or bad. It is what we think and feel most of the time that determines what we get. If you feel marvelous 90 percent of the time things are going pretty well. If you are feeling poorly 90 percept of the time I bet it sucks and you want to change it. 50/50 seems tolerable but not desirable and certainly it does not reflect what we are capable of. We can enjoy so much more!

So IF in real life something happens to make you feel a certain way YOU can use these very same feeling to make what YOU want happen. Think about this! Consider this! Instead of feeling things AFTER we get them, we feel the way we would feel IF we already had them IN ADVANCE of having them. We get the feelings first and these open the doorway.

Like attracts like. When we feel bad usually we think bad thoughts and more bad things seem to happen. It is a vicious cycle. We live as a victim of that cycle hoping something comes along to break it and make things better. That is not living as someone in charge and in control. That is not being ‘at cause’.

When we feel good easily we feel marvelous and more good things happen. It too is a cycle. Yes, something less than glorious can come along, and if we let it, it can upset the apple cart for awhile. If we choose to think otherwise about it and not let it affect us we can do that. We can also right the apple cart as soon as we are ready and then get back on track. Either way we then move back into feeling good.

Like thoughts attracts Like thoughts. Like feelings attract like feelings. Like actions attract like actions. It doesn’t matter whether the thoughts or feelings or actions are positive or negative we get back more of whatever we do the most of. If you are getting negative results in your life that is a signal that you need to shift your focus, you need to change the energy. This is great news you can look at your life and determine what kind of thoughts you need to be thinking more of.

So I will repeat because this is important to understand. The key is this. If a very specific event can make you think and feel a certain way, then thinking and feeling that same way, in advance, will open the door to make that specific event happen in your life. You put your thoughts and feelings and creative energy into bringing it about. You attract the thoughts, and feelings and actions to make it happen. You inspire yourself by feeling it fully FIRST! No waiting,

The problem is most people wait to feel good. They wait for the outer circumstances to change before they feel better. The key is feel better FIRST and then the outer circumstances will change.

YES it is true MOST of ALL of US were NEVER EVER raised thinking this way. BUT just because we didn’t grow up doing it doesn’t mean we can’t start doing it right away. Now, this very moment, IS THE MOMENT of new opportunity!

Feel good right now and the doors open up. Thought precedes action. Everything begins with the thoughts you think. What you think and what you feel determines the actions you take. The quality of your overall life experience is determined by the preponderance of your thoughts and feelings.

Do you spend most of your time thinking and feeling good strong positive wonderful thoughts or not. YOU determine your experience. If you want a wonderful life you have to spend the bulk of your time thinking wonderful thoughts. THIS is just the way it works.

When you take 100% responsibility for everything good and bad in your life the moment you do, THE MOMENT YOU ACCEPT COMPLETE AND UTTER RESPONSIBILITY FOR EVERYTHING IN YOUR LIFE – YOUR LIFE WILL CHANGE!

You become ‘at cause’, you take the driver’s seat, you take control and you create the effects and make happen whatever want to happen. You want to get better effects, better results you have to start with better causes.

There is good news again! The fact of the matter is YOU ALREADY are doing this. You just aren’t getting the results you want because you think SOMEONE ELSE or SOMETHING ELSE is responsible. NO ONE ELSE IS RESPONSIBLE BUT YOU!!!

When you get this, really get this, your life will improve. It doesn’t matter whatever you have good or bad, up until now, it truly doesn’t matter! It doesn’t matter what your life has been like.

If you decide NOW to live in charge, to be responsible then you will begin to shape your life the way you want it to be regardless of what may come your way or what has been. You will go after what you want and navigate the waters smooth or tough. You will make it happen because it relies on no one and nothing else but you.

When you take ALL responsibility for everything that happens or that you have or don’t it gives you the starting place to make things different. It allows you to claim power and act with authority. Instead of blaming others or making excuses for why things are the way they are you make things the way you want them to be. DO you get this? When everything answers to you (whether this is actually the case of not) you become the difference that makes the difference.

Consider a judge in a courtroom. The judge (empowered by law) determines and declares how things will be and how they will go because the judge is the ultimate authority in the courtroom. Everyone in the courtroom answers to the judge. No one else can do what the judge is able to do. When you become the empowered authority for your own life you can determine the course your life will take. You can stop drifting and living haphazardly. You can get better results.

Realize that this thought experiment becomes so much more significant for you to understand and embrace.

Think of what it is you desire. How you want your self to be, what you want to be able to do or what you wish to have. It could be health, wealth, possessions, it could be greater confidence, better relationships anything. Clearly define what you want. Imagine it, picture it vividly in your mind’s eye.

IF you had that RIGHT now, in this instant, if you already had your desire, it is completely yours, how do you feel?

What would you be feeling? Imagine this and then FEEL these feelings right now, fully, while thinking of your desire. Hold the images and feelings for a couple minutes. Really enjoy this! Imagine you have what you want in this present moment! Savor it.

I repeat!!! The key is this. If a very specific event can make you think and feel a certain way, then thinking and feeling that same way in advance will open the door to make that specific event happen in your life. You attract more of the feeling, the wonderful feelings, you feel how good it is, you open your own neural pathways, your neurology, your being up to including all of this in your life. You aren’t waiting you are CREATING!!!

This is the secret to manifesting your desires. Before going to sleep is a great time to do this. You can drift off to sleep FEELING the WONDERFUL FEELINGS you WOULD have IF you HAD your desire RIGHT NOW. Morning is a great time, when you get up. Repeat it throughout the day. Make it a habit it. DO it often. Feel wonderful FIRST!!! The more you do it the more your life will transform and quickly!

It will seem like magic when you GO FIRST, but it isn’t magical at all. You will be making what you want happen. You will be organizing and orchestrating your thoughts, feelings and actions for the positive. You will be stronger, happier, and enjoy more. You are better equipped to handle challenges and better able to recognize opportunities. Instead of chasing after dreams you are inviting them to come to you. You open the door to making things happen by feeling good first.

Just as when you plant a seed it takes time to grow in the darkness underground. You let it grow. You don’t dig it up to check on it. You leave it alone and in time it appears. This is the very same process you use to create, manifest, make happen, attract what you want. You feel it first and open the door. You keep enjoying and allowing the wonderful feelings, you stay focus on these great feelings, no matter what else is going on or not going on in your life circumstances.

You keep your attention and energy on the good feelings. You have planted a seed it is growing. In time you will have organized your being in such a way as to bring it about. You will have it in reality as long as you stay the course and do not quit. The key is good thoughts and feelings FIRST. ENJOY them. Enjoy everything! Be responsible for everything you create and you will start creating wonderful things for yourself.” Rex Sikes

Take time today to celebrate each moment. Discover and delight!

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How can I start believing in myself? It seems virtually impossible.

“I was asked a great question, ‘How can I start believing in myself? It seems virtually impossible.’ I answered it and felt I would publish it as well. Here is my reply:

That is a great question and part of what this blog site is about. You start small, like eating a meal, take it bite by bite or bit by bit. You fill your mind with positive and inspirational material daily through reading, through listening to audios. You do it just as you would an exercise program, a little exercise everyday builds endurance and stamina and strength. You stick with it.

You focus on what you can are are already grateful for and celebrate these. Look into what things you can do, you have done that bring you feelings of well being, confidence or joy and remember these often too. You get together with positive people and focus together on what you can accomplish that makes you feel better and you work on it and make things happen. You find affirmations and repeat them a lot through out the day with energy and enthusiasm.

You direct your mind using questions to pay attention to those things that help you think and feel better about yourself. You decide to believe in yourself no matter what. You begin with any of these methods and you add to them. You stick with it and you never give up and you never ever quit. The more we do the more we are able to do.

When you decide you will take charge of your mind, your thoughts, your feelings and your actions then be in charge, take control and stay with it until you get where you want to go. If you stumble and fall get up and keep going. We all stumble. The only person to fail is the one who does not get back up.

Mistakes are part of learning. Falling is part of moving. Getting tackled is part of football game but players don’t quit they keep on moving the ball forward. Do things that are easy enough but challenging enough. Little by little your thoughts take hold, your feeling change your new attitude can take hold.

Fill yourself up with the inspiring material, go to events that are designed to help you feel good and more motivated. If you feel less than glorious, and we all do, once you become aware of it, don’t wallow, but take small steps to alter it toward feeling better. Keep on keeping on.

There is no substitute for action and effort. You will get far more from the effort than you put into it and you have to keep going for the pay off. Results won’t necessarily happen when you think they should but they will happen as you keep with making yourself feel better. Whenever you feel wonderful, enjoy it and be grateful. Whenever you accomplish something that makes you feel proud acknowledge it and pat yourself on the back.

Whenever you do something less than glorious or you feel bad, when you notice it, don’t criticize yourself, instead, pat yourself for noticing what you did and nudge yourself forward. Praise yourself for recognizing what wasn’t working and encourage yourself to move in the direction you want to. Treat yourself as a toddle, encourage yourself in doing the things you want to think, feel and do.

Relax, give yourself time, encouragement and have fun. Play with feeling good and thinking good. Kids learn more in play frankly, than they do forced to sit in their desks. Move, exercise, walk, enjoy! You do any number of these routinely you will notice changes eventually along the way. As you do keep it up. Enjoy it, celebrate and nurture.

Accept that you are human and have all sorts of facets. Remember there are cycles, contrasts, night and day, hot and cold, long and short and as humans we have moments of wonder, enjoyment and delight and moments when we feel less than wonderful. That is part of life. Become fascinated and curious about you might want to do and enjoy and learn. Children chase butterflies and giggle and are thrilled to discover new things.

Train your mind to find the good in any situation by continually asking ‘what is good and new?’ Repetition builds habit so keep do and doing often. You don’t build a muscle do a bicep curl every now and then. You do sets and reps daily. You repeat and repeat and repeat. Through repetition and over time you will get what you set out to get. Whatever you decided to do, to accomplish you will accomplish so be sure to celebrate your accomplishments.

Let go, have fun and enjoy the process. Begin today doing things that help you think and feel better and repeat these. Add to them as you go along. So pick a great book like, ‘The Magic Of Believing’, ‘Think and Grow Rich’, ‘The Magic Of Thinking Big’, ‘Man’s Search For Meaning’, ‘Ask and It Shall Be Given’. Any one of these books, all of them is worth reading and then reading again and again. Re-read this blog over and over again.

Go back through it numerous times because you discover things you miss each time you re-visit the materiaL. Start small, add to what you are able to do and don’t rush or push it. Inch by inch, step by step you get closer and closer to what it is you want. As long as you are inching forward you are making progress toward your goal. Even if you get off track you can adjust back on course and keep moving along. If you stop, you’ve stopped.’

I add here – DO THESE THINGS – Remember you become what you think about. Energy flows where attention goes. Attention goes where energy flow because it is a two way street. What you focus on expands. You are today where your thoughts brought you. You will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you. Skill comes of doing. If you really want to do something you will find a way; if you don’t you will find an excuse.” Rex Sikes

Days are made up of moments. Focus on the moments you can find to delight in!

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Convince Yourself – The Power Of Faith

“It is ALL about faith. Either you believe or you don’t. Believe in yourself.With faith you may move mountains. So let’s start moving some.

Whatever you believe you end up repeating and re-living in your mind again and again. You either are thinking predominantly thoughts of success and well-being or thoughts of defeat. Whichever you do most of the time determines the results you end up getting in life.

‘If you think you are beaten, you are. If you think you dare not, you don’t. If you like to win, but you think you can’t, it is almost certain you won’t. If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost. For out of the world we find, success begins with a fellow’s will-it’s all in the state of mind. If you think you are outclassed, you are. You’ve got to think high to rise, you’ve got to be sure of yourself before you can ever win a prize. Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man, but soon or late the man who wins Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN!” Walter B Wintle

Your thoughts and attitude do.

‘I bargained with Life for a penny, and Life would pay no more, however I begged at evening when I counted my scanty store. For Life is a just employer, he gives you what you ask, but once you have set the wages, why, you must bear the task. I worked for a menial’s hire, only to learn, dismayed, that any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have willingly paid.” Jessie B Rittenhouse

The Bible and many religious texts say, in one form or another, ‘Ask and you shall receive.’ I think we make the mistake when we think that means we should ask others or ask outside of ourself. I feel it is best when we ask great things of ourselves and expect to have them then we can accomplish great things.

“The greatest danger for us is not that our aim is too high and we will miss it, but that it is too low and we will reach it.” Michelangelo

Perhaps, you will take these thoughts to heart. Believe in yourself, expect great things, fill your mind with ‘can do’ thoughts and wonderful feelings. Then your outer life will be the reflection of your inner one. Only you can make it happen! You will when you decide you will.” Rex Sikes

Enjoy this day whatever it brings.

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You Can Torture Me… But You Will Never Imprison My Mind!

The other day I quoted Victor Frankl.

Today, I share some quotes of Mahatma Gandhi, perhaps one of the most influential individuals of the 20th century. Gandhi and Frankl seemed to know, understand, and really ‘get it’ when it came to our human capacity for self-determination and fulfillment.

Gandhi said, ‘You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.’

He, like Frankl, understood that it’s not circumstances, or what’s outside us that matters, it is not what happens to us, but what’s inside that makes all the difference.

He stated, ‘Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.’ Commitment, consistency and persistence is our strength. We can be successful, we can make anything we want to happen when we keep going if we never give up.

It is not prowess of the body but prowess of then mind. It is our ability to stand fast and not quit. We may adjust our plans, but we don’t stop pursuing our dream. Winning, or attaining is based on will power and back bone not hoping and wishbone.

‘Indomitable will’ is not a phrase we hear much in our ultra processed, instant on, have to have it fast, cheap and easy world today.

Yet, individuals like Frankl and Gandhi, who withstood tremendous pressures from the outside, stated that it was the inner characteristics that give us the edge and make the difference. Gandhi added, ‘Nobody can hurt me without my permission.’

Think about that statement for a while. NOBODY can hurt me without MY permission. Frankl, essentially stated the very same thing. ‘Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.’

When our thoughts, words and deeds are all aligned, targeted and congruent is when we are happy. It is up to us, not the circumstances or the people around us, that determines our happiness. We do! No one else. We must think, speak and act in harmony.

He adds that, ‘A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.’ What he thinks he becomes. The greatest influence in our lives is our own thoughts! We become what we think about! What are you thinking about?

Napoleon Hill stated, “what the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.’ A definite purpose accompanied with a burning desire, active faith and persistence to see it through is what is needed to accomplish anything one sets one’s heart and mind on.

Gandhi agrees. He further points out that, ‘Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into’. Hill and others have pointed out, that even a lie repeated enough can become substituted for the truth.

If you don’t believe yet, that you have the ability to learn how to achieve your goals and dreams, if you don’t believe you have a right to be happy and deserve everything you want in life and that you can actually have it then you need to take charge of how you think.

Hill and the others have revealed that any thought implanted in the subconscious mind by correct repetition will eventually take hold and be acted on. This very same process is how we have developed our limiting beliefs already, anyway.

We can become aware of, and take control of the process deliberately to utilize it for correcting our limiting beliefs and to get great results. We can think, plan, speak, act and create the future we want instead of ending up with something haphazardly or not at all.

Faith in yourself is developed by repeated exposure to the idea that you can do anything you set your mind to do. We develop and grow in faith by repeated application. We accept ourselves as a ‘can do’ person when we continuously think ‘can do’ thoughts.

Hold these ideas of Gandhi and Frankl in your heart and mind. When you think about them and say them with enthusiasm and energy over and over again, day and night, these thoughts can take hold and become accepted by your unconscious mind as true.

These thoughts can stimulate you on to achieve great things . You will act from them with faith. Right repetition builds positive habit.

Live with purpose, passion and power! Take charge of your life and believe that you can learn to do whatever is necessary to make your dreams come true. Believe that you can and you can! Think about it often. Henry Ford stated, ‘whether you think you can or you think you can’t you are right’.

Align your thoughts with your words and your actions and you will make your life more wonderful than you can presently even imagine.” Rex Sikes

Look for the little miracles that make today marvelous! Celebrate this day!

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