I'M BACK

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around” - Leo Buscaglia

Last year I made a mistake and deleted my blog but through the magic of backing my articles up on Zimbo.com I can re-publish my old articles and start writting new ones. I wont publish all my old articles, just the "Best Of.." so hope you enjoy and keep reading.

Best Of Articles ( articles that have been re-published and been viewed the most )

Just click on the headings below to read the full article.

DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE GOING TO?

THE ANSWERS ARE EASY.....

A TALE OF TWO PEOPLE

THE TOUGH TIMES ARE WHAT MAKES YOU

10 STEPS THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE

IF YOU DON'T CHANGE WHAT'S INSIDE YOUR HEAD

FROM DAWN TILL DUSK

THE POWER OF THE PEN

A WORLD IN CRISIS

HAPPINESS MANIFESTO

DON'T CHANGE, JUST GET BETTER

SUCCESS OR HAPPINESS?

YOUR HAPPINESS COULD BE CONTAGIOUS

THE GAME OF LIFE AND HOW TO PLAY IT

THE OPTIMISTS CREED

IS THIS THE SECRET TO SUCCESS??


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Is This The Secret To Success?

Ask any successful person what was it that enabled them to reach goals that to the ordinary person appeared beyond comprehension, they will tell you they took action. If you do not take action on a goal or a dream it will eventually die.

Being decisive and taking action fortunately is a skill that can be learned. Successful people do the opposite to unsuccessful people in as much as they make decisions quickly and change them slowly, if at all, unsuccessful people make decisions slowly and change them quickly.

Unsuccessful people want everything in place BEFORE embarking on a goal achieving journey; they continually ask 'What If Something Happens?' Successful people ask 'What if it doesn't happen?'

Top achievers do not wait until every 'I' is dotted and every 't' is crossed before they decide to take a course of action. Once they feel they have enough information to make a decision that is just what they do, they then use the time on their journey to modify plans, take different directions, even stop and re-consider. But they took the initial action to get going, un-achievers procrastinate and are subject to inertia.

It was Dr Martin Luther King who said, 'Take the first step; You do not need to see the whole staircase before you, just take the first step in faith.'

You see there is no shame in failure. To successful people failure is only finding out that what they were doing needed modifying, they learn from the experience.

I have experienced both situations, although I have always been known as a person who makes decisions quickly, embarking on some activities that were doomed to a lack of success. But each time I did not succeed another lesson was learned what I was doing was not the correct way to reach the goal I wanted. Time for analysis and modification - so what at least I was going toward my goal not sitting hoping something would happen.

There were times in the past however when I used to blame anything around me, people, events situations for my lack of success, I always had an excuse. You know what is the wonderful thing about our minds? We cannot tell ourselves lies. Think about it, when you are looking to blame someone else for you lack of success isn't that an outside thing, don't you just know deep inside yourself that the responsibility really lies at you own door.

Remember when you point a finger there are always three fingers pointing back.
There are three types of people in the world as far as I am concerned.

Those that make things happen; Those that sit back and watch what is happening and finally those that say 'Uh! What happened?'
To which group do you belong?

Fortunately for me I learned to take responsibility for my own actions, and everything that is in my life NOW is a direct result of ME bringing it into my life, no one else - ME!

There again it is amazing how little effort you need to exert to start off making things happen in your life. As you start toward your goal you attract more and more energy that drives you toward success. Getting into action helps you maintain action; it's the simple law of physics, once a body is moving it is easier and easier to keep it moving.

I can only use the analogy of driving a car, at first as you press the accelerator you move slowly but the law of physics takes over and the car moves easier and easier with less pressure on the accelerator (Gas pedal for our American colleagues).

Look at your goals you have written down. Just take one of them and decide to take action on it NOW! Ignore the fact that you haven't planned out the finest detail, ignore the number of times your negative self tells you it cannot happen Just DO IT! Choose a reward you will give yourself when the goal is achieved; no matter if it is just a goal to clear the garden of weeds, take action and you will quickly learn that the only way to achieve a goal is to take action in the first place.

As Martin Luther King jnr said "Take the First Step In Faith" This is where your journey begins but only if you take that fist step with ACTION!

Article Source: http://www.ArticleStreet.com/

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The Optimist Creed by Christian D. Larson, 1912

PROMISE YOURSELF
To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of
mind.
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person
you meet.
To make all your friends feel that there is something in
them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your
optimism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best,
and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others
as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the
greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give
every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself
that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too
strong for fear; and too happy to permit the presence
of trouble.
To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to
the world, not in loud words but in great deeds.
To live in the faith that the whole world is on your side
so long as you are true to the best that is in you.

Taken from Your Forces and How To Use Them by Christian D. Larson. Published 1912
read it online in GoogleBooks HERE

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THE GAME OF LIFE AND HOW TO PLAY IT

"You can do as much as you think you can,
But you'll never accomplish more;
If you're afraid of yourself, young man,
There's little for you in store.
For failure comes from the inside first,
It's there if we only knew it,
And you can win, though you face the worst,
If you feel that you're going to do it."
—EDGAR A. GUEST.




I do a lot of research in the field of positive thinking and positive living and I have found so many great books on the subject. Most modern books are great but it's the older books that really open your eyes. At the turn of the century there was a new movement called The New Thought Movement.
You will all have read about the author Wallace Delois Wattles who wrote The Science of Geting Rich. This was the foundation to the book and movie called The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.

Wallace D. Wattles was not the first or only writter and teacher of the new thought movement. There were many others, books you should read are What All the World's A-Seeking
by Ralph Waldo Trine [1896], Your Forces and How to Use Them by Christian D. Larson [1912], Creative Mind and Success by Ernest Holmes [1919], The Master Key System by Charles F. Haanel [1919] and Works of Florence Scovel Shinn who wrote three books The Game of Life and How to Play It [1925], Your Word Is Your Wand [1928] and The Secret Door To Success [1941]

One of the best books I read was The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn.
Although she does use religion a lot in her writtings she is a very good teacher in the practice of positive thought and how it can change your life. Here is an excerpt from the book:

Many people have brought disaster into their lives through idle words.

For example: A woman once asked me why her life was now one of poverty of limitation. Formerly she had a home, was surrounded by beautiful things and had plenty of money. We found she had often tired of the management of her home, and had said repeatedly, "I'm sick and tired of things—I wish I lived in a trunk," and she added: "Today I am living in that trunk." She had spoken herself into a trunk. The subconscious mind has no sense of humor and people often joke themselves into unhappy experiences.

For example: A woman who had a great deal of money, joked continually about "getting ready for the poorhouse."

In a few years she was almost destitute, having impressed the subconscious mind with a picture of lack and limitation.

Fortunately the law works both ways, and a situation of lack may be changed to one of plenty.

For example: A woman came to me one hot summer's day for a "treatment" for prosperity. She was worn out, dejected and discouraged. She said she possessed just eight dollars in the world. I said, "Good, we'll bless the eight dollars and multiply them as Jesus Christ multiplied the loaves and the fishes," for He taught that every man had the power to bless and to multiply, to heal and to prosper.

She said, "What shall I do next?"

I replied, "Follow intuition. Have you a 'hunch' to do anything, or to go anywhere?" Intuition means, intuition, or to be taught from within. It is man's unerring guide, and I will deal more fully with its laws in a following chapter.

The woman replied: "I don't know—I seem to have a 'hunch' to go home; I've just enough money for carfare." Her home was in a distant city and was one of lack and limitation, and the reasoning mind (or intellect) would have said: "Stay in New York and get work and make some money." I replied, "Then go home—never violate a hunch." I spoke the following words for her: "Infinite Spirit open the way for great abundance for — —. She is an irresistible magnet for all that belongs to her by divine right." I told her to repeat it continually also. She left for home immediately. In calling on a woman one day, she linked up with an old friend of her family.

Through this friend, she received thousands of dollars in a most miraculous way. She has said to me often, "Tell people about the woman who came to you with eight dollars and a hunch."

There is always plenty on man's pathway; but it can only be brought into manifestation through desire, faith or the spoken word. Jesus Christ brought out clearly that man must make the first move.

"Ask, and it shall be given you, seek, and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you. (Mat. 7:7.)

In the Scriptures we read:

"Concerning the works of my hands, command ye me.

Infinite Intelligence, God, is ever ready to carry out man's smallest or greatest demands.

Every desire, uttered or unexpressed, is a demand. We are often startled by having a wish suddenly fulfilled.

For example: One Easter, having seen many beautiful rose-trees in the florists’ windows, I wished I would receive one, and for an instant saw it mentally being carried in the door.

Easter came, and with it a beautiful rose-tree. I thanked my friend the following day, and told her it was just what I had wanted.

She replied, "I didn't send you a rose-tree, I sent you lilies!"

The man had mixed the order, and sent me a rose-tree simply because I had started the law in action, and I had to have a rose-tree.

Nothing stands between man and his highest ideals and every desire of his heart, but doubt and fear. When man can "wish without worrying," every desire will be instantly fulfilled.

( source: www.sacred-texts.com)

All these books are free to read online as the copyright has expired. go to www.sacred-texts.com and www.forgottenbooks.org to read more.




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Your Happiness Could Be Contagious

Study shows friends and even strangers benefit from your cheery mood

Feeling inexplicably cheery today? Thank your friends. And your friends’ friends. And your friends’ friends’ friends.

New research shows that happiness isn’t just an individual phenomenon; we can catch happiness from friends and family members like an emotional virus. When just one person in a group becomes happy, researchers were able to measure a three-degree spread of that person’s cheer. In other words, our moods can brighten thanks to someone we haven’t even met.

Professors James H Fowler,and Nicholas A Christakis have just published the results of their study in the British Medical Journal. Their objective was to evaluate whether happiness can spread from person to person and whether niches of happiness form within social networks. The results were that happiness spreads by up to three degrees of separation, i.e. to the friends of one’s friends’ friends!
They found that when someone gets happy, that person’s friend experiences a 25 percent increased chance of becoming happy. A friend of that friend experiences a nearly 10 percent chance of increased happiness, and a friend of that friend has a 5.6 percent increased chance of happiness.

That means a stranger’s good mood can do more to lift your spirits than a $5,000 raise, which only increased happiness 2 percent! What’s more, all these happy people could be helping to keep each other healthy . Several recent medical studies have linked happiness and health, including a 2006 Carnegie Mellon University study that found buoyant personality types catch fewer colds than downers.

“It does appear possibly to be a causal affect — that being happier actually makes you healthier,”Fowler says.
On the flip side, if you’re feeling blue, you’ve only yourself to blame. Sadness doesn’t infect a social group as reliably happiness does, researchers found. Within some friendship networks, sadness had a significant effect on the members of the group, but on others, the effect was very small.

Once Fowler realized how far-reaching his own good cheer actually is, he has begun to make some changes to ensure he’s in a chipper mood more often. Lately, in the evenings on the drive home from work, just before pulling up to his house, he turns on a tune that’s almost too happy: Hoku’s “Perfect Day.” By the time he gets home, he has a giddy, goofy mood to match the pop song, and he hopes that his happiness will rub off on his two boys, 8-year-old Lucas and 6-year-old Jay.

“I’m not just going to make my sons happy — I could potentially make my sons’ friends happy,” Fowler says. “These little things I thought I was doing for myself turn out to be for hundreds of people.”

So there you have it, it is a scientific fact, just by being happy you can spread happiness and good health! So, go on, be happy!

Study results published on British Medical Journal website here

Do You Want Success or Happiness?

Do You Want Success or Happiness? There is a big difference between the two although so many people get the two mixed up. They aim for success thinking this will bring them happiness but it doesn't. The definition of happiness is pleasure; contentment; joy. The definition of success is
the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors or the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like. Although you can achieve both do not get the two confused.

Ask yourself what will make you happy and what will make you feel successful. I bet once you find the answers the two will be quite different. Far too many people aim for success in their career or business and think that wealth will bring them happiness but this is not the case for so many people who achieve the success they aimed for. They become successful only to discover that they are not as happy as they thought they would be! so make sure your goals are aimed at happiness as well as success.

Do you really need to be at the top of your career or have a thriving business to be happy? I used to think this was the case but once I discovered that there is a difference it was so much easier to achieve the happiness I wanted. You may have noticed that I have not posted on this blog for a few weeks, this is because we were moving to a new house.

The new house is not a huge house but it is a house in the area we wanted to live in, it is close to my partner Laura's family, in the area that she herself grew up in and in the catchment area of a great school for our daughter when she starts school in a few years time. This makes us happy. We bought a new car earlier this year, it's not a top of the range BMW that I would love! It is a brand new Renault Megan Scenic, a lovely car that suits our family needs and has one of the best safety ratings, this makes me happy. I do not have a high flying career or my own business, I work as a nurse in an addictions unit but I enjoy what I do. We are not wealthy but we do make enough money that we do not have to worry about it.

A good few years ago I would not have defined my happiness on the life I have now. I was chasing success with the misconception that that this would make me happy but it was when I met my partner Laura I changed the way I looked at life and I realised that happiness was not based on how much money I earned or how far up the career ladder I was but my happiness was brought by being with someone I loved and building a life and family together that made me happy.

So what would make you happy? have you ever thought about it or are you too busy chasing money and success? If you really want success then I suggest you find your happiness first then all the success you are looking for will follow easily and your definition of success might be a lot different from what you think it is now!

DON'T CHANGE, JUST GET BETTER! AND SMILE

Did you set a new years resolution? if the answer is no then why not? if the answer is yes how far have you come with the goals you set or have you given up already?
The beginning of a year is a great time to assess your life and evaluate what needs to change but so many people start and fail in their attempts to change because they start on the outside first instead of changing the inside.
To change your life successfully you have to change yourself first. You have to feel confident, happy, determined and content with the person you are. Then, and only then can you change the world around you.
I would like you to take 15 minutes of your time to view a short movie by a guy called Kurt Kuenne

After watching this movie think about what qualities you have that are great. What is fantastic about you? build on this instead of trying to change the person you are why not just improve yourself? While you are at it why not tell the people in your life what is great about them too? How good will they feel and you will be amazed how great this makes you feel!

An improved you will just get better and better and so will the life you have, just try it.