Start Living or Start Dying Community

As of today, this blog will no longer be updated. I've started a community bulletin board where I'll be posting there.

You can find it at Start Living or Start Dying Community.

Choose again.

Touching Buddha

Affirmations are an important part of any goal achievement system. One dictionary definition is “something declared to be true; a positive statement or judgment.” As part of a goal achievement system, that definition is inadequate and falls far, far short. That definition is wishful thinking and wishful thinking in goal achievement is detrimental. Remember the saying, what’s going to fill first, a wish in one hand or excrement in the other? :)

A better definition is a positive, present tense statement declared to be true by emotionalized, energized, and visualized belief. OK, great. But what does that mean?

One night recently, before falling asleep, I had a moment of what could be described as satori or an epiphany; a sudden spiritual enlightenment or understanding. I fundamentally understood what an affirmation is in the sense of goal achievement.

I was drifting between that area of sleep and consciousness when one of my affirmations popped into my mind. I was flooded with emotions and energy and belief; a rock-hard belief that what I was affirming existed, it was real and present. It brought such a feeling of joy that I was amazed. Never before had I felt that way or understood the meaning of any of my affirmations.

An affirmation must be said with feeling and intensity visualized with the granite belief that what you’re affirming presently exists, presently is true, and presently evokes a strong emotion within you. All all these qualities, belief, I feel, is the most important. If you don't believe what you're affirming then you're just wishing and you might as well be doing nothing.

Affirmations fuel your desires keeping the fires of achievement stoked. Belief is the vehicle which leads to action, emotion is the fuel which powers the vehicle, visualization is clearly seeing where you’re going, all happening right now and not at some future time.

Choose again.

The Farmer and the Mountain

This is a rather long post so I've moved the contents here.

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I can prove thoughts ARE things

The fundamental concept for all achievement and success is that everything you do starts with a thought and that thought translates into reality. I'm not being metaphorical here. All things you do in the physical world start with a thought and are translated into reality.

Look around you. Every man-made thing you see, you use, you touch would not exist if it hadn't first started as a thought in the mind of someone. That MP3 player you listen to daily didn't magically appear one day. Someone had the thought, the idea of creating a portable device for playing MP3 files. From that single thought, reality was born.

This also applies to the biological level. I can make you produce a thought that will instantly trigger neurotransmitters that have an instant effect at your cellular level. Don't believe me? Think of biting into a big, juicy lemon or think about fingernails slowly running down a chalk board and tell me you didn't have an immediate, physiological response.

That, my friends, is the power of thought.

If you can have that kind of immediate response from such a simple thought, just imagine what you can accomplish with a focused, burning desire backed by faith and persistence!

Choose again.

Getting Started

Getting started, at least for me, is the hardest part. Even harder than following through. Not to say that doing what it takes to accomplish a goal is difficult but sometimes starting, taking that first step, is often the hardest part.

It's like starting a new job. The anticpation and nervousness can sometimes be overpowering but the moment you get there you're too busy to be nervous anymore. The hardest part was showing up that first day.

Choose again.

Panning for Gold

Yesterday at lunch I perused Half Price Books. I tend to get a lot of HP gift certificates during the holidays, which is perfectly fine with me. While I was looking around my eye caught a book by Zig Zigler titled "Top Performance: How to Develop Excellence in Yourself and Others." I read the back cover and thought what the hell.

I've known about Zig for decades as being a motivational speaker who tours the country with many different types of courses, books, and audio CDs. I just never had the opportunity nor inclination to go any further. Now that I have a new direction in life, when I saw this book and read the back I decided to give it a shot.

I got a couple pages in, and after reading the following story, my emphasis on the bold part, I knew I liked the guy!

Never will I forget the night my wife(to whom I affectionately refer as "the Redhead") and I were in our favorite ice cream parlor when a young man and his girlfriend walked in. He appeared to be about 23 or 24. I gently nudged the Redhead and I pointed out the couple and the following dialoge took place.

Zig: "Do you see that couple?"
The Redhead: "Yes, I do."
Zig: "Wonder what happened to him."
The Redhead: "What do you mean?"
Zig: "Well, just look at him! He's been in some kind of accident. He's hurt!"
The Redhead: "Aw, Honey, he's not hurt! He's been to the barbershop."
Zig: "You mean he paid money to look like that?" (In my lifetime, I've never seen a human being that badly mutilated from the ears up. It was awesome!)

I read about a third of it before falling asleep and feel it'll be a nugget to keep.

Choose again.

From here to destiny

I see hope for our future not by looking at what we must do but by looking at all we have done.

A New Dawn

It's been over 5 months since my last post. A lot's happened in that time and my direction's changed. This blog will now become a chronicle of goal attainment in general.

For those who've followed my blog, I'd completely abandoned my weight loss goal from the beginning of the year. Not because I didn't want to lose weight but because my wife had back surgery again. For those who don't know her background, this is the third "set" of surgeries. The last time she needed surgery three times and came as close to dying as she ever has because of a nasty staff infection in the wound. This surgery was more complex than the last so my entire focus was on her, getting her past the healing stage, all while taking care of my almost bed-ridden grandmother. Goal achievement and weight loss was the furthest thing from my mind. I know, not an exuse but the truth.

She’s doing very well finally. In a little less than two weeks she starts physical therapy. Now that I’ve had time to relax and don’t have worry about her health, I started thinking about my goals and ultimately what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Surprisingly, I think I have it figured out for the first time in my life.

I talked with a close and old friend last night about this very thing. It’s not enough for me or him to just do something well to make money. It’s not enough or at least not enough to turn into a burning desire. I realized that I need to do something that both makes me money and helps people. By helping people in some manner, the endeavor then becomes more than just a job or just a way to make money. It becomes a guiding force where what I do is also a journey helping people and, as a byproduct, I make a living.

That should be everyone’s ideal job. Something they’re passionate about, something they look forward to doing every day, and something that they can make a living at.

Because it comes down to a single question that everyone should ask themselves. Are you happy in the career you’re in right now? If the answer is no, you’re in the wrong career. Guess what I discovered over the last couple years? I’m in the wrong career.

Over the next five years I plan to change that. This blog’s going to document that journey along with my discoveries focusing on helping people attain any goal they can think of through practical, time-honored, research-based step-by-step methods.

If I had only known a fraction of what I know now 25 years ago, my life could have been very different…

On this journey a good friend of mine will be joining me. He’ll also be updating this blog with his thoughts and ideas from time to time.

It’s good to be back :)

Choose again.