Jack sent me this and reprinted it with his permission because it was such a good read for staying on coarse and personal growth...enjoy! I got to meet Jack a couple years ago, what a powerful speaker and kind man one on one.
Where are Your Habits Leading You? by Jack Canfield
You are an accumulation of your habits. From how you get out of bed, how you shower, how you dress, how you walk, sit, and talk, how you respond to the world, how you act in front of others, and how you think; you're living out your habits.
Habits are necessary. They free up your mind so you can concentrate on how to survive day to day. You don't have to think about how to drive your car so you can be on the lookout for danger while you are driving. You don't have to think about how to walk so you can concentrate on where you're going.
Unfortunately, habits can also keep you locked in self-destructive patterns, which will limit your success. To become successful, you will need to drop bad habits and develop new ones that are in line with the life you want to live.
People don't suddenly appear in the life they want to live... their habits determine their outcome!
What are the habits you have that are keeping you from achieving your goals?
Really be honest with yourself here... Are you always running late? Do you return phone calls within 24 hours? Do you get enough sleep? Do you follow through on your promises? Do you plan out your day?
Imagine what your life would be like if all your habits were their productive counterparts!
What would your life be like if you ate healthy meals, exercised and got enough sleep?
What if you saved your money, stopped using credit cards and paid cash for everything?
What if you stopped procrastinating, overcame your fears, and began networking with people in your field?
Would your life be different? I bet it would!
So, my suggested action step for you is to write down some productive habits you could adopt and visualize in your life, step two is to 'act as if' you were living these new habits right now!
I'd like to help you get moving toward creating more successful habits, so I'd recommend you develop four of your new success habits each year, one for each quarter.
Once you pick the new habit you're ready to adopt, next you'll want to create a method that will support your new habit.
Here are some ideas... You could write it down on a card that you keep with you and read several times a day. You could make it a part of your daily visualization. You could also enlist the help of an accountability partner who has habits to change, or work with a personal coach who can keep you on track.
It's important to make a 100% commitment to your new habit, so be specific about the steps that you're willing to take in order to drop an old habit and adopt a new one. Don't be vague about how you will change your habits. Spell it out for yourself so you can recognize situations that motivate you to act out your new habit.
Just developing four new habits a year will dramatically shift your life to be more in line with your vision. And the more in line it becomes, the easier the other habits are to replace because your perspective is shifting and you can see more clearly how your old habits aren't serving you anymore.
Make the decision. Make the commitment. Then watch your new, positive life unfold!
I'll see you in another two weeks in the next edition of Success Strategies. In the meantime, take the time to implement just one of the strategies discussed in today's issue.
Are you "stuck" in this area? Send me your most pressing question about this topic, then join me for our monthly "Ask Jack Canfield" Tele-Clinic on August 5th! www.AskJackCanfield.com
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If you missed previous issues of Success Strategies, I keep an archive of past issues you can always refer to.
I recently declined a listing. The seller stressed that she NEEDED to net "X" and the market she was in said otherwise, based on current Pendings and recent Solds. As I looked around her dated and cluttered home and reflected on her asking price, I realized this property was not going to excite the buyer pool. When I offered suggestions and questions to guide her "towards the light", they were countered with excuses immediately, so I told her to keep me as "Plan B" and to go ahead with the other agent I was competing with ...(she can face the headache first). The seller was in shock that I didn't fight for the listing beyond my "guiding" questions.
I learned a long time ago; the market (any market) doesn't respond to need, only to seed. I learned that from one of my favorite modern prophets, Jim Rohn. He tells the story of the farmer who neglects his field; never plowing, never watering never planting his seed. One day the farmer returns to the abandoned field, covered in weeds, hardened soil and says "Field, where is my crop, my family is hungry and we're nearly broke...I NEED a crop!"
The field responds to the farmer, "Who is this fool that brings me his need, but brings me no seed?"
The lesson is two-fold: We can't neglect our "fields" and then expect miracles when the need arises. And, the market never responds to need, because you can only reap what you sow. But here's the fun part, you always reap more than you sow. The tiny seeds you plant, when cared for, grow into a crop that yields much more than the original planting.
It may seem like mundane work (follow the metaphor) prepping the field, plowing, planting, weeding and nurturing. But the thankless, glamor-less work we do today is what allows us to harvest later. The principles never change: only when you sow you'll reap. But it's not enough to simply sow, you must tend your garden. Constantly feeding it, watering it, weeding it, protecting it from infestation and harvest when it's time. Too soon, the crop is not "ripe", too late, it's rotten on the vine. So education and skill plays a role in this process.
I love metaphors (can you tell?) and gardening is a great one for sales. Jim Rohn is one of my favorite professional speakers and educators, I credit this entry to his teachings.
The successful person learns how to transmute stumbling blocks into stepping stones. He begins with the greatest hurdle, the basic fears.
These fears are the major causes of failures, physical and mental ailments, divorces, and lack of achievement. However, if recognized and properly evaluated, these fears may serve beneficial purposes for the person who has them under control.
Measure yourself courageously against them. You may make discoveries that will give you a new way of life and success such as you may never have dreamed of attaining.
THE FEAR OF POVERTY. The mind attracts that which it dwells upon. The persons who condition their minds for the acceptance of poverty by fearing it and expecting it to be with them always will never be its master. The successful person conditions his mind for financial success by deciding how much money he desires and keeping his mind fixed on this sum until he creates ways and means of getting it. You can't think in terms of poverty and hope to become financially independent.
THE FEAR OF CRITICISM: The major reason why so few people become top-ranking successes is their fear of what "they" will say if new and advanced ideas are adopted. Criticism can be of great benefit to the person who will use it to carefully analyze himself to determine how much of the criticism is accurate. Resentment of criticism is a sure way to tie one to a low station in life. The person who is headed toward success in the upper brackets of achievement welcomes honest criticism. He often pays high salaries to professionals who do just this. Honest criticism always is beneficial to the person who accepts it as an inspiration for self-improvement.
THE FEAR OF THE LOSS OF LOVE. This basic fear is at the bottom of most cases of jealousy. More often than not it has no real justification. But, justified or not, it is a sure killer of success opportunities.
THE FEAR OF ILL HEALTH. The doctors have a sixty-four-dollar word for this fear which is responsible for a large portion of their work. It is "hypochondria"--imaginary illness. Sound physical or mental health cannot exist with the individual who lives, talks and think in terms of ailments.
THE FEAR OF OLD AGE. The successful person transmutes this fear into a priceless benefit by recognizing that the Creator has wisely arranged for all individuals to trade their youth for priceless experience. The fact that a large majority of the greater successes of the world were attained by men and women who had passed the age of fifty should help anyone to master this fear and divert it to beneficial ends.
THE FEAR OF DEATH. This is the "grandfather" of all fears. The successful person properly relates himself to this fear by accepting it as inevitable. He keeps himself so busy in his chosen calling that he has no time to devote to trying to solve the riddle of the hereafter. He leaves this to those who make it a profession.
All of the basic fears can be mastered and directed to useful ends by the person who conditions his mind to draw upon and use the powers of Infinite Intelligence through applied faith. He will recognize that there is a need for fear or else it could not exist. He will also recognize that every experience, good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, can be made beneficial by the person who relates himself to it in a spirit of understand and reliance upon applied faith through the power of prayer.
Go back into your own past experiences of adversity and you may observe that the passing of time has proved that some of your failures and defeats where only blessings in disguise. It is often difficult to find the seed of an equivalent benefit when you are too close to the wound of an unpleasant circumstance, but TIME, the great universal healer, often reveals this seed and converts it into a priceless asset.
Lloyd Collier of Whiteville, North Carolina could not have considered himself unfortunate when he was stricken with total paralysis from the waist downward. Instead, he looked for the seed of an equivalent benefit and found it. He became a watchmaker.
Today he owns one of the finest jewelry stores in the South. He married one of the most attractive young women of his town and has two charming children. His home is one of the loveliest in the area. Not once has Lloyd complained that life has been unkind to him. And most important of all, he has a positive mental attitude toward all the circumstances which touch or influence his life. He accepts his affliction only as a testing device of his faith and belief that he can do whatever he desires to do.
When the great Chicago fire destroyed Marshall Field's store he said, "On this very spot I will build the world's greatest retail store." And he lived to see his affirmation become a reality. The spirit of courage and faith which built the store still prevails, to this day, in the great Marshall Field store in Chicago.
Your greatest riches often do not reveal themselves except in the hour of adversity.
The person who is in complete harmony with the Infinite cannot be handicapped by any sort of fear. He has access to a power that is greater and he knows how to draw upon it for all of his needs.
Analysis of men and women in the upper brackets of success, in a variety of callings, reveals the astounding fact that each individual attained success in almost exact proportion to the adversities and defeats which had been met with and overcome.
George Carlin's Views on Aging--Plus His Advice on Life Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions. "How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key. You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead. "How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life . . you become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony. YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!! But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed? You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone. But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60.! You didn't think you would! So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60. You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday! You get into your 80s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; "I Was JUST 92." Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!" May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!! HOW TO STAY YOUNG 1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay "them " 2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down. 3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's. 4. Enjoy the simple things. 5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath. 6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive. 7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge. 8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help. 9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is. 10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.
The law of attraction states that you will attract into your life-whether wanted or unwanted-whatever you give your energy, focus, and attention to.
You are constantly giving off vibrations of energy when you think and feel. These vibrations can be picked up and received by other people. That's why people say, "he has good vibes," or "he gives off bad vibes." You are constantly giving off vibrations.
If you're feeling excited, enthusiastic, passionate, happy, joyful, loving, appreciative, abundant, prosperous, relaxed and peaceful, you are giving off positive vibrations.
On the other hand, if you are feeling bored, anxious, worried, confused, sad, lonely, hurt, angry, resentful, guilty, disappointed, frustrated, overwhelmed, stressed out, or depressed, then you are giving off negative vibrations.
The law of attraction states that the universe responds to whatever you are offering -- by giving you more of whatever you are vibrating. It doesn't care whether it is good for you or not; it simply responds to your vibration.
If you saw the film The Secret, you saw this explained in great detail.
The problem is that most of the time, you are not aware of what vibration you are offering. You are simply responding to things outside of you-current events, the news, how people treat you, the stock market, how much money you are making, how your children are doing in school, whether or not your favorite sports team wins-and then having a feeling that is either positive or negative.
When you are simply responding unconsciously to what happens around you, you tend to stay "stuck" in your current condition. This is why most people's lives never seem to change very much. They get stuck in a repeating cycle of recreating the same reality over and over by the vibration they are sending out.
It works like this... First you observe what you currently have and are currently receiving in your life. You call this your "reality." You respond to what you observe with a feeling, positive or negative, which then gives off that vibration to the universe. The law of attraction then responds to this vibration and brings you more of what you were vibrating. This keeps the cycle going over and over, until you choose to change it through the exertion of your will. You are a victim of your lack of awareness of the law of attraction.
The Process of Intentional Creation It is possible to get out of this vicious cycle and create what you want instead of continually recreating what you already have. It is a simple three step process that you can begin immediately.
Step 1: Identify what you truly desire & eliminate the negative
It is important to focus on what you want rather than what you don't want. You must state it in the positive and filter out the words don't, not and no. Remember, your mind works in pictures and if you say I don't want to be mad, you are creating the picture and thus the vibration of being mad. You must create the opposite of what you don't want.
Step 2: Raise your vibration level
Your job in stage two is to create a vibrational match for that which you say you want to have. How would you be feeling if you already had those things-the perfect job, the perfect relationship, the mount of money that you want to have?
Your job is to identify what makes you feel good and do more of it, then learn not to tolerate your negative feelings.
Affirmations are an important component in raising your vibrational level to what it is you want. Remember, the law of attraction does not respond to the words you use or the thoughts you think. It simply responds to how you feel about what you say and how you feel about what you think.
For information on how to create even more effective affirmations, review pages 75-80 in The Success Principles, where you'll find my "Nine Guidelines for Creating Effective Visualizations."
Step 3. Release it and allow it.
In this third step you simply release your affirmation, your vibration, and your feelings to the universe to take care of your "request" or "order" as I call it. But you have to abstain from any doubts. If you doubt you can have it in any way, then you are not allowing it. You are pushing it away and you end up with contradictory messages to the universe
It is only when the contradictory thoughts, talk, and images are removed that your desired results will manifest. The faster you remove your resistance, the faster your dreams can be realized.
You are an accumulation of your habits. From how you get out of bed, how you shower, how you dress, how you walk, sit, and talk, how you respond to the world, how you act in front of others, and how you think; you're living out your habits.
