Archive for the ‘Success & Contribution’ Category

[From SUCCESS magazine, January 2010 Publisher's Letter]

Ah, 2010, what a poetic-sounding number. We just finished the first decade of the new millennium—time to take an accounting.

Over the last 10 years, how’d you do? Are you living the life you envisioned for yourself? In 1999, when you were watching the ball drop for the new millennium, is this the life you pictured

for yourself back then? Ten years ago did you think you would be richer and healthier, have a better marriage and more friends, experience more joy and have more peace of mind than you do now?

If so, it’s time for a turning point.

You’ve probably heard the definition of insanity—doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.

If you don’t want the next 10 years to be like the last, then now is the time to do something different.

Humans are unique. We are the only species who can completely change the course of our lives. Ants can’t do it, alligators can’t and lions can’t. If a goose wanted to fly west instead of south for the winter, it couldn’t. All other animals besides humans are directed entirely by impulse written into their genetic code. As a human, if you don’t like the story of your life thus far, you can rip up the script and write a completely new one.

Ask anyone who has achieved great success in life—there was a turning point, a time when they made a clear and resolute decision that from that moment forward, their life would never be the same. They drew a figurative line in the sand and separated the patterns of their past from their new vision of themselves and the life they were committed to leading. Some make that turning point at age 15, some not until they’re 50; some do it several times throughout their lives and some never at all.

My challenge to you is this—now is your turning point.

This year, this month, this day, this moment. What you have accomplished so far is only a fraction of what’s truly possible for you. You are far more powerful, capable and gifted than you allow yourself to be. The only thing separating you from your grandest vision of your life is courage. Muster the courage to declare that right now, this year is your turning point.

Make a decision.

When the clock strikes midnight 10 years from now, you’ll be able to look back with 2020 hindsight at this moment and this year as your pivotal turning point for the dream life you will be enjoying. Kick-start your 2010 and let the grand adventure begin!

You can change your life with a single thought.

This one thought can:
• Create great wealth
• Restore health and even cure disease
• Unlock your greatest potential
• Forge and fortify deep abiding love
• Inspire great joy to the point of bliss

You’ve heard me explain before how the creation process produces every outcome in our lives:

We get out of LIFE what we CREATE. Simple enough, right? We are all creative beings. We all arrive the same – naked, scared and ignorant. What becomes of our lives from that point forward is what we create (or don’t create).

So what drives and determines our creation process?

EXPECTATION. You’ve heard the saying, “Expectation manifests into creation.” Thus, expectation determines what we create in our lives.

So what are we expecting? Why does one person have a different expectation than another? Our THOUGHTS drive our expectation. Whatever we’re thinking about becomes what we expect to happen. This is why the great self-improvement books have focused on the power of thoughts: THINK and Grow Rich, The Power of Positive THINKING, As a Man THINKeth, The Magic of THINKING Big, etc.

Of all the thoughts you experience and control, there is one that can profoundly transform your life on a daily basis. What is it? Gratitude.

How does gratitude transform our lives?

Our mind is an auditing device that seeks to find what is wrong, lacking or missing in our environment. Its job is to avoid danger and ensure our survival with threat-assessment emotions like fear, hesitation and suspicion. If we allow these negative thoughts to dominate our mind and become our expectations they will determine the direction of our creation process. The ultimate result: a lifetime of disappointing and unfulfilling experiences and outcomes.

However, we CAN stop the natural negative tendency of our mind by redirecting it towards abundance and what’s positively possible by focusing it on what we’re grateful for. Almost instantly your life can change its trajectory.

This simple shift can change your world and all that you can create in it.

There are many “woo woo” theories about this phenomenon from “magnetic vibrations,” to the “Law of Attraction” (click here for the real explanation of this law), to a “Universal Consciousness.” But the explanation is far simpler:

You see and experience what you look for. That’s it.

Take this simple test: In the room where you’re sitting now, count the number of red items you see. Note as many as you can. How many items did you count? Now without looking again–eyes closed– how many items in the room do you remember were blue? You probably can’t recall many at all. When you open your eyes and focus on the blue items, you’ll probably see many more than you remembered. Why? Because the first time you weren’t looking for them, thus you didn’t see them. In your first reality they did really exist at all.

An attitude of gratitude adjusts the aperture of your mind to focus on the positive. Thus, you’ll see, discover and create more of the same, experiencing more abundance, prosperity, well-being, love, joy and happiness.

The Tangible Benefits of Gratitude

Health – Research has proven that practicing gratitude improves our emotional and physical well-being, reduces stress, worry, fear, anxiety and the conditions closely associated with these emotions such as high blood pressure, depression, heart disease, and immune system deficiencies.

Relationships – I loved what Joel Osteen said in my interview with him. Our partners usually fulfill only about 80% of our needs. Most people, however, focus on the 20% that’s missing. Thus, they ultimately become unhappy and unfulfilled. Sadly, many people will leave the relationship to find that 20% in someone else. What they find is that “new” person will also fulfill only about 80% of their needs as well—their just different needs and expectations from their last partner.

The key is to focus on the 80% of what is right, wonderful and beautiful about your partner and your relationship. Your positive perspective will change how you appreciate, interact and support your partner, thus garnering a much different response and engagement from them.

Wealth – When you see the glass half-full versus half-empty, you will start to see the abundance of water all around you. When you attune your mind to abundance you will start to develop new ideas, and see the opportunity and potential all around you. Your positive outlook will change how you walk, talk and interact in the world. Other influential and resourceful “birds of a feather” will also see the commonality and want to connect with you.

Put on your rose colored glasses.

Gratitude is a choice. It can become a positive habit—but only with discipline. With continued exercise and practice, it will create more abundance, prosperity, well-being, joy and happiness than you ever thought possible.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving—my favorite holiday and expression of my favorite success principle—I want to thank YOU – all of you who have read and followed me through this blog, on Twitter, Facebook and through everything we do at SUCCESS magazine and SUCCESS Media.

My mentor, Jim Rohn, taught me the greatest gift of all is the gift of personal development—so that is what I want to give you. The program that had the most impact on my development and good fortune has been Jim’s Challenge to Succeed program. I’ve listened to it over 60+ times and have given away many dozens of copies to people I care about.

As a further expression of my gratitude, I asked my SUCCESS Store staff to make the program available at the lowest price ever offered so anyone could afford to buy it—and buy several copies to give as gifts to others you might want to thank as well.

In addition, I asked if they could throw in a premium bonus on top. They did!
Go here to receive.

In what ways will you express your gratitude over the next week?
What is your favorite gratitude practice?
Please share your comments below and I hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful holiday!

Say YES to Yourself with a Personal “Don’t-Do” Policy
—by Jack Canfield

Our world is a highly competitive and over stimulating place, and more and more concentration is needed every day just to stay focused on completing your daily tasks and pursuing your long-term goals.

With the explosion of communications technology we are more accessible to more people than ever before. Complete strangers can reach you by telephone, cell phone, pager, fax, regular mail, express mail and e-mail.

They can e-mail and instant message you at home, at work and on your hand held smart-phone. And with the explosion of social media, requests now find their way to us on our Facebook and Linked-In accounts.

It seems everyone wants a piece of you!

Your kids want rides or to borrow the car, your co-workers want your input on projects that are not your responsibility, your boss wants you to work overtime, your sister wants you to take her kids for the weekend, your child’s school wants you to bake four dozen cookies for teacher appreciation day, your mother wants you to come over and fix her screen door, your best friend wants to talk about his impending divorce, a local charity wants you to head up a committee, and your neighbor wants to borrow your van.

Not to mention the endless slews of telemarketers who want you to subscribe to the local newspaper, contribute to the nearby wildlife sanctuary or transfer all of your credit card debt over to their new card. Even your pets are clamoring for more attention!

We suffer from overload at work—taking on more than we can comfortably deliver in an unconscious desire to impress others, get ahead, and keep up with others’ expectations. Meanwhile our top priorities go unaddressed.

How much time do you waste with projects and activities that you really don’t want to do simply because you are uncomfortable saying no?

Success depends on getting good at saying no without feeling guilty. You cannot get ahead with your own goals if you are always saying yes to someone else’s projects. You can only get ahead with your desired lifestyle if you are focused on the things that will produce that lifestyle.

You will have to structure your work and life so that you are focusing your time, effort, energies, and resources only on projects, opportunities, and people that give you a huge return on your efforts. You are going to have to create stronger boundaries about what you will and won’t do.

Most of us are busy, but undisciplined. We are active, but not focused. We are moving, but not always in the right direction. By creating a stop-doing list as well as a to-do list, you will bring more discipline and focus into your life

Start by creating a stop-doing list as soon as possible! Then make the things on your list “policies.” People respond to policies. They understand a policy as a boundary. They will respect you more for being clear about what you won’t do.

For example, some of my “don’t do” policies on a personal level are:

I never lend my car to anyone for any reason.

I don’t lend money. I am not a bank.

We don’t schedule outside social events on Friday night. That is our family night.

I don’t discuss contributions over the phone. Send me something in writing.

On a business level some of my “don’t do” policies are:

I don’t give endorsements for books of fiction.

I have a policy of not lending my books to other people. They rarely come back, and they are the source of my livelihood, so I don’t lend them out.)

I don’t schedule more than five talks in one month.

I no longer co-author books with first-time authors. Their learning curve is too expensive.

I don’t do individual counseling or coaching. There is greater leverage in working with a group.

Except for when I am doing a new book tour, I don’t schedule more than two radio interviews in a day.

It is very easy to say what your policies are, and you don’t even have to use the word no!

People respect policies. And it’s likely that no one will take your policy personally, they’ll realize it’s a boundary you have set for all occasions.

Be brave in saying no, stay focused on your higher goals and let people know that you are committed to those goals. People will respect your clarity and drive.

Remember, just as you are in control of your feelings and attitudes, other people are in control of theirs, so if they do get upset with you for saying no…well that is a choice they make for themselves.

For more tips on Just Saying NO!, read Principle 42 in The Success Principles.

I’ll be back in two weeks with another edition of Success Strategies. Until then, see how you can discover ways to immediately implement what you learned from today’s message!

© 2009 Jack Canfield

Jack Canfield, America’s #1 Success Coach, is founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul© and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you’re ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Can field now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com

“In writing this book, my aim has been to give a true picture in outline of the Slave-Trade as it exists at the present time on the east coast of Africa. In order to do this, I have selected from the most trust-worthy sources what I believe to be the most

telling points of ‘the trade,’ and have woven these together into a tale, the warp of which is composed of thick cords of fact; the woof of slight lines of fiction, just sufficient to hold the fabric together. Exaggeration has been easily avoided, because—as Dr. Livingstone says in regard to the slave-trade — ‘exaggeration is impossible.’ I began my tale in the hope that I might produce something to interest the young (perchance, also, the old) in a most momentous case—the total abolition of the African slave-trade. I close it with the prayer that God may make it a tooth in the file which shall eventually cut the chain of slavery, and set the black man free.” —R. M. Ballantyne(April 24, 1825 – February 8, 1894)

I got a call recently from a former employee. “I need to apologize to you,” he said. I hadn’t heard from this guy in more than five years. I had no idea why he would be calling me, let alone to apologize. He went on to say, “I hated you.”

Turns out, he resented me greatly calling him out when he was late, sending back his work frequently for improvement and even pushing him in his personal life. He went on to explain, “You were holding me to a standard I didn’t want and I hated you for it. But now, I finally get it.”

See, it wasn’t until he got fired from his last job that he truly began to understand what I was trying to do for him. He quit working for me, got another job and quit that one after only a year. Got another job, quit. Got another, quit. Finally, he just got fired.

“It took getting fired for me to realize you had been trying to do me a favor. You were the only one who saw I could be better than I was and tried to help me. At the time I resented it, but now I am very grateful. Thank you.”

Isn’t it unfortunate how many times we must fall before we can begin to understand why? Why must we go down the road ourselves before we learn?

You can tell your child to not touch the hot burner… but reality is, the only way they are going to learn is to touch it and burn their hand!

This is true all the way through life. No matter what examples or warnings people are given, most people don’t learn the lesson until they are knocked flat on their back by it.

* A woman gets diagnosed with bronchial cancer before she stop smoking
* A man has a heart attack before he stops eating donuts for breakfast every day
* A woman goes bankrupt and moves back in with mom and dad before cutting up her credit cards
* A man gets a divorce before he realizes he’s been an inconsiderate jerk for the past decade

Sometimes the smack of hitting bottom is what it takes to actually ‘get’ life’s lessons. I don’t think this is the smartest approach to life, but sometimes people are supposed to fall—it’s the only way they will learn.

Imagine this… what if you could get an entire lifetime of wisdom, absolutely everything you needed to know to live a glamorous, wealthy, happy, healthy and joyful life from someone who proved every theory and lived to more than a hundred years old. What if they wrote every piece of wisdom necessary to live to that same level of success? Would you want to get a hold of that document? Would it change your life?

Probably not.

Wanna know why? Because, like most all wisdom which is almost insipidly simple and embarrassingly obvious, you won’t actually know the poignancy of each statement until you have actually experienced the pain or joy associated with the printed words. In other words, in order for the wisdom to have meaning for you, you have to have lived the words, not just read them.

Hence, sometimes we are just supposed to fall in order to acquire the value of the wisdom earned.
Centenarian Advice—Wisdom from 100 Years of Life

This past weekend I spent time with a friend in Newport Beach, Calif., whose grandfather was the centenarian I mentioned above. His granddad lived to be 102 years old. He was a very wealthy and respected man whose life exemplifies all the qualities above. He was everything most everyone would aspire to be.

When this man was born, life expectancy was 47 years, the American flag had only 45 stars, only 14 percent of homes in the United States had a bathtub, 8 percent had a phone, the average wage was 22 cents an hour and sugar cost 14 cents a pound. He experienced and lived through WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the Great Depression, the Industrial Revolution, the first man on the moon, the Berlin Wall going up and coming down, several stock market crashes, the technology boom, etc.

He did write down the wisdom he acquired and proved during his more than 100-year life. He son put them into a document called 100 Years of Wisdom. The document is only three and a half pages, but contains some of the most profound wisdom you will ever read—if you have the life experience and perspective to appreciate them. Just one of these lessons could radically alter the course of your life. This document has only been shared amongst their family, but he has given me the honor of sharing it with all of you.