Author, Entrepreneur, Speaker
Without a picture of an ideal future life, you can’t even head in the right direction.
A true visionary has no fear and hasn’t erected any barriers to his own success.
Need to visualize?
Write a story, draw a picture, cut out photos. Seriously. If you’re skeptical, or think it sounds ridiculous, do it where no one can see you. Once you determine your destination, the path to success practically creates itself.
Meditation is a way to get in touch with your soul, your inner voice, the part of you that is most closely connected to GOD. Being still and listening to your inner voice is how you stay connected to the spiritual and ensure that you’re on the right path.
To begin, find a quiet and comfortable place where you can sit and relax; one free from distractions. Turn off the phone, TV, radio. Close your eyes and breathe deeply, but naturally. Imagine yourself in the most peaceful and soothing place you’ve ever been. If you can’t think of a real location, make one up.
It may be the top of a mountain at sunrise or your garden in the springtime. As you form this picture of the perfect place, use all five senses to experience it. What does it look, smell and feel like? What can you hear and taste?
Here’s an example using my favorite place: a beach on Maui at sunset.
I’m sitting on the beach looking out over the ocean. The sky is light blue with white clouds that look like cotton batting. The setting sun is a bright orange ball sitting on the top of the ocean. It looks as if it’s sinking. I hear the waves crashing against the sand, the distant voices of the surfers making one more run before it’s too dark. As I inhale, deeply, I smell the salt of the waves and the sweetness of the tropical flowers that flourish throughout the island. The air tastes hot & moist. I dig my feet into the gritty sand, tunneling through the warmth of the surface to the cooler layers beneath.
Once you’ve created your private place, it’s time to think about the question. Ask yourself, aloud or silently, What is my purpose? What are my talents? How may I be of service?
After each question, pause and listen. Whatever comes back to you, just take it in. Feel it, hear it, but don’t judge it.
Be silent and listen to what your inner voice is telling you.
It’s okay if you don’t understand the answers.
When you have finished your meditation, write down or use a tape recorder to note what you’ve learned. Write or say exactly what you heard during your meditation. It’s okay if it doesn’t make sense.
Try to do this every day for 3 days, going through the process, writing down your thoughts and feelings. You may find that during this time, you’re also remembering dreams. If you are, write those down too. It also helps to write down a little bit of background on what’s happening in your real life right now.
After 3 days, go back and read through your writings. You’ll start to make connections among your notes, the dreams, and things happening in your life. You’ll be amazed at how quickly your true passion will be revealed. Once you know the truth, it’s up to you to take action.
Who are you?
What’s your purpose in life?
People spend thousands of dollars for self-help seminars, therapy, and books to help them answer those questions. They join religious groups, social groups, and professional organizations, searching for the answers.
Finding your purpose is the first step to living a successful, satisfied, spiritual life. If you believe in a higher power, it stands to reason that you’d believe your life has a higher purpose.
Ask yourself: “In what capacity can I contribute?”
Every one of us is unique and precious. What is your gift? And are you using your talent to improve your life and the lives of others?
The Gospel according to Matthew (25:14-30) recounts the following parable:
Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability.
Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. “Master,” he said, “you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.” His master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”The man with the two talents also came. “Master,” he said, “you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more”. His master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”
Then the man who had received the one talent came. “Master,” he said, “I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.” His master replied, “You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.”
“Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
This is a story about our ability to make a difference, using our GOD-given talent and facing fear. All of that in one powerful parable.
The story begins with the employer calling the three men to action. He asks them to serve him, and gives them “talents.” (Note: The modern meaning of the word “talent” stems from its original meaning, a unit of currency. It’s not a coincidence that people equated money with aptitude and ability.) Their talents differ, just like in real life. Each of us is as unique as our individual set of talents.The employer gives no direction on what to do with the talents. Each man is free to choose how to best use them.
Two of the men thought carefully, and decided to use their gift to create abundance. The third gives in to fear. He’s afraid of misusing his talent.
When the employer returns and demands an accounting of the priceless gifts he gave each man, the message is clear: abundance breeds abundance. Treasure your gifts and you’ll get more. Hide your talent and you’ll lose it.
GOD has given each of us a special, unique talent, along with the free will to invest it as we see fit. He expects us to use our talent to our full ability.
What is your gift?
For some, it’s obvious. If you’re drawn to medicine, law, etc., you’re often where you’re meant to be. That’s why a noteworthy occupation is often referred to as a “calling”. If you’re unsure of your gift or if want to verify that you’re on the right track, here’s an exercise to help you find your gift and determine your purpose:
Think about what makes you happy.
We spend a lot of time doing what we should do; working at the job we should have, marrying the appropriate person, living in the right neighborhood. Are you letting other people live your life? Do you let society, your family, or your peers determine your choices? If the answer is “yes”, now is the time to stop and find out what’s right for you. No one else can give you this answer. It lies within you. You just have to listen.
Life is not supposed to be hard. We make it hard. GOD wants you to be happy, healthy, & successful. If you believe this – and why wouldn’t you? – you have to examine your life and ask: Are you living the life GOD created just for you?
What is your destiny? If that sounds like a big question, it is. It’s your only life. Don’t you want the best one possible?
4 easy steps to success
Think
Who do you want to be?
What does your future look, feel & sound like?
Create a picture of what you want through stories, drawings or photographs.
The future is yours. All you have to do is create it.
Plan
How do you get there from here?
Find out where you are now then plot a route to where you want to be.
Once you’re on the path, every action moves you closer to your outcome.
Act
To achieve your goal, you have to act. Implement your plan today. Be accountable for your behavior. Stay on the path, don’t make excuses and don’t get distracted.
Achieve
If you have a compelling vision, create a plan and take action on that plan every day; you will succeed.
What are you waiting for?
Have you ever looked at someone and thought: “I’m smarter than that guy; why is he more successful than me?”
Being smart is not the only factor for success, nor is it the primary one.
Desire is the path to success.
If that sentence has you stumped, it’s time to read (or re-read) Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.
Hill’s basic premise (passed on to him by Andrew Carnegie) is this: Focus on your outcome to the exclusion of everything else. Be willing to do anything to achieve your goal. Your craving for the result drives everything you do everyday.
A great example of this is demonstrated by the character of Susan Walker in Miracle on 34th Street*. The 1947 movie featured single career woman Doris Walker and her daughter Susan. Despite Mom’s insistence on indoctrinating Susan into a life of working for the man and accepting her lot, Susan believes things can change-if she wants them to badly enough. Susan prevails, with the help of Kris Kringle, when she draws a picture of herself, her mom and her future stepdad in their dream home a drawing that comes to life.
If your goal doesn’t make you yearn for it-you have the wrong goal.
Take a look at your overall success goal. What is the object of your desire?
Write it down-say it out loud and write down your reaction.
Did you get excited or scared?
Did you smile when you said it or frown?
Did you say it out loud but heard a voice in your heard scoff at ever attaining it?
Did you hear someone else’s voice?
Each successful person has the following 3 characteristics (in descending order of importance):
*a crystal clear goal
* An overwhelming desire matched with a willingness to do anything to achieve that goal
* The talent/knowledge/skills to achieve the goal
Look for coincidence & inspiration. Your subconscious creates these events to keep you moving in the right direction. When you’re on the right path, working with your talents instead of against them, you know what to do. Obstacles appear but you find solutions.
One way to speed up the process is to meditate. Spending quiet, purposeful, contemplative time will let you hear all that you need to know.
Don’t wait any longer. Start creating your perfect life today.
*I bet you thought I was going to use Ralphie and his quest for a Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle from A Christmas Story or maybe Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything.
Movies make great examples because they’re written to follow a straight line from want to attain with some obstacles thrown in between for dramatic tension. It’s called escapism because the story rarely reflects reality.Forget the movies; make your own happy ending.
“When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.”
John M. Richardson, Jr.
Don’t miss this opportunity to find out what the largest real estate companies know about the future of real estate and learn what you need to compete and thrive in 2010.
The New Face of Real Estate: Today and Beyond
Panelists:
Sherry Chris
President & CEO
Better Homes & Gardens
Bryon Ellington
Chief Products Officer
Keller Williams Realty
Margaret Kelly
CEO
RE/MAX International
Fear Of Transformation
(excerpted from the The Essene Book of Days)
Sometimes I feel that my life is a series of trapeze swings.
I’m either hanging onto a trapeze bar swinging along or, for a few moments in my life, I’m hurtling across space in between trapeze bars.
Most of the time, I spend my life hanging on for dear life to my trapeze-bar-of-the-moment. It carries me along a certain steady rate of swing and I have the feeling that I am in control of my life. I know most of the right questions.
As I swing along I look ahead of me into the distance and what do I see?
I see another trapeze bar swinging toward me.
It is empty, and I know, in that place in me that knows, that this new trapeze bar has my name on it. It is my next step, my growth, my aliveness coming to get me. In my heart-of-hearts I know that for me to grow, I must release my grip on the present, well-known bar and move to the new one.
Each time it happens to me, I hope (no, I pray) that I won’t have to grab the new one. But in my knowing place, I know that I must totally release my grasp on my old bar, and, for some moment in time, I must hurtle across space before I can grab onto the new bar.
Each time I am filled with terror.
But I do it anyway. Perhaps this is the essence of what the mystics call the faith experience.
No guarantees, no net, no insurance policy, but you do it anyway because, somehow, to keep hanging onto that bar is no longer on the list of alternatives. And so, for an eternity that can last a microsecond or a thousand lifetimes, I soar across the dark void. In that space the past is gone and the future is not yet here.
It is called transition.
I have come to believe that it is the only place that real change occurs. I mean, real change, not the pseudo-change that only lasts until the next time my old buttons get punched. I have noticed that in our culture, this transition zone is looked upon as a nothing, a no-place between places.
Sure the old trapeze bar was real, and that new one coming towards me, I hope that’s real too. But the void in between? That’s just a scary, confusing, disorienting nowhere that must be gotten through as fast and as unconsciously as possible. What a waste!
I have a sneaking suspicion that the transition zone is the only real thing and the bars are illusion we dream up to avoid the void, where the real change, the real growth occurs for us.
Whether or not my hunch is true, it remains that the transition zones in our lives are incredibly rich places. They should be honored, even savored. Yes, with all the pain and fear and feelings of being out of control that can (but not necessarily) accompany transitions, they are still the most alive, most growth-filled, passionate, expansive moments in our lives.
And so, transformation of fear may have nothing to do with making fear go away, but rather with giving ourselves permission to hang out in the transition between the trapeze bars.
Transforming our need to grab that new bar-any bar-is allowing ourselves to dwell in the only place where change really happens.
It can be terrifying. It can also be enlightening in the true sense of the word.
Hurtling through the void, we may just learn to fly.
h/t Joanne Fossland
“We plan our lives according to a dream that came to us in our childhood, and we find that life alters our plans. And yet, at the end, from a rare height, we also see that our dream was our fate. It’s just that providence had other ideas as to how we would get there. Destiny plans a different route, or turns the dream around, as if it were a riddle, and fulfills the dream in ways we couldn’t have expected.”
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=a5c16bb5-e79b-42dc-8163-7d7e7bce3806)
The passengers on United Flight 93 took a stand.
Some people trapped atop the World Trade Center on 9/11 flung themselves to the ground rather than wait to be incinerated.
“… maybe he didn’t jump from the window as a betrayal of love or because he lost hope. Maybe he jumped to fulfill the terms of a miracle. Maybe he jumped to come home to his family. Maybe he didn’t jump at all, because no one can jump into the arms of God.
Oh, no. You have to fall.”
Tom Junod, The Falling Man – 9/03 issue of Esquire Magazine
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=aa122fcc-0601-4e1f-aeb2-7bd7701938ca)
When your turn comes what will you choose?
In 1988 Ronald Reagan spoke to students via C-Span. His words of wisdom are worth repeating:
“By renewing our commitment to the original values of the American Revolution and to the principles of “We the People,” we can best preserve our liberty and expand the progress of freedom in the world, which is the purpose for which America was founded. Here, on a continent nestled between two oceans, our country is unique in the world. We have drawn our people from virtually every other nation on Earth, and what we’ve created here as Americans has touched every corner of the globe.
Here in the White House there’s a famous painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. And it shows many of the great men of that time assembled in Independence Hall in Philadelphia. But when you look closely at the painting, you see that some of the figures in the hall are just outlines, waiting to be filled in, the faces have not yet been drawn. You see, this great painting isn’t finished. But what the people who gathered in Philadelphia two centuries ago set out to do is not yet finished, either. And that, I suppose, is why the painting is the way it is. America is not yet complete, and it’s up to each one of us to help complete it. And each one of you can place yourself in that painting. You can become one of the those immortal figures by helping to build and renew America.
And we’re entering one of the most exciting times in history, a time of unlimited possibilities, bounded only by the size of your imagination, the depth of your heart, and the character of your courage. More than two centuries of American history — the contributions of the millions of people who have come before us have been given to us as our birthright. All we can do to earn what we’ve received is to dream large dreams, to live lives of kindness, and to keep faith with the unfinished vision of the greatness and wonder of America.
Now it’s time for me to ask you for your questions, but first I’d like to ask you one: What are some of the things that you’re proudest of and some of the things that are best about America?”
Barack Obama’s speech on Tuesday also touched on a similar theme:
“No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.
The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.
It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country? “
America. The land of opportunity.
How will you take advantage of all that she offers?
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=6765e7f9-da75-46a1-9766-3533859bb480)
By Dean Alfange
I do not choose to be a common man.
It is my right to be uncommon.
I seek to develop whatever talents God gave me — not security.
I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me.
I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed.
I refuse to barter incentive for a dole.
I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia.
I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout.
I will never cower before any earthly master nor bend to any threat.
It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations and to face the world boldly and say — ‘This, with God’s help, I have done.
All this is what it means to be an American.”
Originally published in This Week Magazine. Later reprinted in The Reader’s Digest, October 1952, p. 10, and January 1954, p. 122, lacking these words: “I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat” and “to stand erect, proud and unafraid.”
The Honorable Dean Alfange was an American statesman born December 2, 1899, in Constantinople (now Istanbul). He was raised in upstate New York. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I and attended Hamilton College, graduating in the class of 1922. He attended Colombia University where he received his law degree and opened a practice in Manhattan. In 1942 Alfange was the American Labor Party candidate for governor of New York and a founder of the Liberal Party of New York. Dean Alfange was also Professor Emeritus at UMass Amherst and a leading figure in various pro-Zionist organizations (between other actions, in November 1943, he appeared before the House of Representatives and addressed them on the rescue of the Jewish people of Europe). He died in Manhattan at the age of 91 on October 27, 1989.
