The Prosperous People | Self Improvement Blog

If you are about the way you are living, the following article can help you.

Is Your Life Working?

By Jack Canfield

Success depends on facing facts.

It depends on realizing what’s making you achieve success, and then realizing what is stifling your success. Sometimes recognizing the things that aren’t working in your life can be painful. You might try to rationalize them, make excuses for them, or hide them. But truly, these things will keep you from the life you want to be living.

Do you want to be active and strong? … Then you have to stop making excuses about your weight and lack of exercise.

Do you want to be in a loving relationship based on friendship and respect? … Then you have to stop rationalizing why your mate is so unsupportive.

These things can be painful to look at because the truth is that you have to do something about them in order to make it work in your life.

You’ll have to say no to the second helping of dinner and the dessert to follow and go through the awkward stage of getting into shape. You’ll have to confront your mate about the areas that need work.

Plain and simple, you will have to do something uncomfortable.

Successful people do not waste time in denial. They face situations head on. They look for the warning signs, they find out why things aren’t working, and they go about fixing them.

You, too, must be willing to recognize bad situations and decide what the appropriate action will be to remedy it. You will have to deal with circumstances that are uncomfortable and challenging in order to achieve your goals.

To make it easier, learn to seek these situations out.

Keep your awareness on the feedback you are getting from life and decide to address the situations immediately.

Commit to finding out why things aren’t working and learn what will fix them. Once you start the process it will be much easier to continue. Once you tackle one thing in your life that isn’t working, you will gain confidence to tackle some of the harder situations. But you must decide to take action.

Trust that making changes to the situation will ultimately bring about the best results.

Sure you might go through a bit of discomfort during the change, but in the end you will triumph! Trust that you won’t make matters worse by owning up to what is not working in your life, and going about fixing them.

If you confront a partner about what you want, you will either get what you want or you will know that you need to leave to get what you want. But you will not get what you want if you do not change your situation!

So are you ready to admit the things that just are not working out?

Relationships, a job you thought would be wonderful, your finances, your diet? Make a list of the things in your life that are working against your success and ask how the situation can be improved. Commit to tackling just one of those issues and be brave.

By facing what is not working, you can only improve your life!

I’ll be back in two weeks with another edition of Success Strategies. Until then, see if you can discover ways to immediately implement what you discovered from today’s message into your life.

© 2008 Jack Canfield

Jack Canfield, America’s Success Coach, is the founder and co-creator of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul and a leading authority on Peak Performance. 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 Canfield now at: http://www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com

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Tags: Wisdom by Ricardo Rojas
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If you are continuously living in the future, the following article can help you.

Finding Paradise in the Now
By Suzanne Bandick

Are you thinking or hoping you will find paradise in your future? Have you ever caught yourself saying any of the following? Life will be better when I am finished school… I find a new job… I find a good relationship… I win the lottery… I have a bigger or better house or car… I have more money… I can move?

Those are all great dreams or goals, but do you ever notice that often our focus on what we want for our future can make us unhappy in the now? This is often caused because now we have inadvertently placed a focus on what we do not have in our life or the perceived lack in it. It can make our current life seem less perfect when we desire more for ourselves. According to the Law of Attraction, this creates the opposite effect of what we really want.

What if I told you there are ways around this? That there are ways to have and enjoy all that life has to offer now, while we also plan for and anticipate a great future? What if we did not have to wait for our paradise to come to us only sometime in the future? What if life could feel more like paradise now as well?

One good way to enjoy our life in the now is by focusing on what we are currently grateful for in our lives. What is happening in your life right now that is creating or could be part of a current paradise? When we appreciate all there is in our now - we get a much better now and a dazzling future.

It does not matter what we currently have that is perceived as a negative in our lives; it is all a question of our focus. When we try to focus on all that we can love in the now, we start to enjoy our life more now as we attract more good things for our future. Moving from one paradise to another is a very good way to live all our dreams. It is all about our focus. What is your focus?

Suzanne Marie Bandick lives in Playa del Carmen, Mexico and is a Life Coach and Author of several books. Visit http://www.SuzanneMarieBandick.com or http://www.LiveYourDreamsCoaching.com for more information. You can also join the new e-coaching club.

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I found the following interesting article. It has been written by the author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series.

The Formula That Changes Everything
By Jack Canfield

It seems that everywhere you turn these days, you hear people talking about the economy.

What’s interesting is that some people are scared to death about it, while others couldn’t be happier. While I don’t claim to be an economist, I do know one important fact. The economy is the same for everyone, it’s how you respond to it that determines how you feel about it.

It’s yet another example of what I’ve been teaching for years. . .

E + R = O

(Events + Responses = Outcome)

The basic idea is that every outcome you experience in life (whether it’s success or failure, wealth or poverty, wellness or illness, intimacy or estrangement, joy or frustration) is the result of how you have responded to an earlier event (or events) in your life.

If you don’t like the outcomes you are currently experiencing, there are two basic choices you can make:

1.) You can blame the event (E) for your lack of results (O).

In other words, you can blame the economy, the weather, the lack of money, lack of education, racism, gender bias, the current administration in Washington, your wife or husband, your boss’s attitude, the lack of support, and so on.

If you’re a golfer, you’ve probably even blamed your clubs!

No doubt all these factors exist, but if they were the deciding factor, nobody would ever succeed. For every reason it’s not possible, there are hundreds of people who have faced the same circumstances and succeeded.

It’s not the external conditions and circumstances that stop you — it’s you!

We think limiting thoughts and engage in self-defeating behaviors. We defend our self-destructive habits (such as drinking and smoking) with indefensible logic.

We ignore useful feedback, fail to continuously educate ourselves and learn new skills, waste time on the trivial aspects of our lives, engage in idle gossip, eat unhealthy food, fail to exercise, spend more than we make, fail to tell the truth, don’t ask for what we want, and then wonder why our lives aren’t working.

2.) You can instead simply change your responses (R) to the events (E) until you get the outcomes (O) you want.

You can change your thinking, change your communication, change the pictures and you hold in your head (your images of the world) and you can change your behavior (the things you do.) That’s all you really have any control over anyway.

Unfortunately, most of us are so run by our habits that we never change our behavior. We get stick in out conditioned responses-to our spouses and children, to our colleagues at work, to our customers and our clients, to our students, and to the world at large.

You have to gain control of your thoughts, your images, your dreams and daydreams, and your behavior.

Everything you think, say, and do needs to become intentional and aligned with your purpose, your values, and your goals.

If you don’t like your outcomes, change your responses.

Here’s an example of how this works:

Do you remember the Northridge earthquake in 1994? I do! I lived through it in Los Angeles. Two days later I watched as CNN interviewed people commuting to work, The earthquake had damaged one of the main freeways leading into the city. Traffic was at a standstill, and what was normally a 1-hour drive had become a 2-3 hour drive.

The CNN reporter knocked on the window of one of the cars stuck in traffic and asked the driver how he was doing.

He responded, angrily, “I hate California. First there were fires, then floods, and now an earthquake! No matter what time I leave in the morning, I’m late for work. I can’t believe it!”

Then the Reporter knocked on the window of the car behind him and asked the driver the same question. This driver was all smiles.

He replied “It’s no problem. I left my house at five am. I don’t think under the circumstances my boss can ask for more than that. I have lots of music and Spanish-language tapes with me. I’ve got my cell phone. Coffee in a thermos, my lunch-I even have a book to read. I’m fine.”

Now, if the earthquake or the traffic were really the deciding variables, then everyone should have been angry. But everyone wasn’t.

It was their individual response to the traffic that gave them their particular outcome. It was thinking negative thoughts or positive thoughts, leaving the house prepared or leaving the house unprepared that made the difference. It was all a matter of attitude and behavior that created their completely different experiences.

If we all experience the same EVENT, the OUTCOME you get will be totally dependent upon your RESPONSE to the situation.

If you want to take control of how you respond to life, you’ll start noticing that your outcomes will be more along the lines of what you have always hoped. Remember, you control your destiny so make it a fantastic one!

© 2008 Jack Canfield

Jack Canfield, America’s Success Coach, is the founder and co-creator of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul and a leading authority on Peak Performance. 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 Canfield now at: http://www.freesuccessstrategies.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jack_Canfield

I am sure this article will be useful to you.

Tags: Wisdom by Ricardo Rojas
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 We all have problems; even the person in front of us. When we are having a hard day, we often forget that the other people also have worries and their problems could be even more and bigger than ours.

Other times, other people having difficult times forget that we have concerns and our mood is not the optimal one.

In any case, these situations complicate human relations. A small difference of opinion, a misunderstanding or a simple business transaction can grow into a great conflict.

When that occurs, you can silently say one of the following love quotes. Repeat it continuously as you interact with the other person. Surprisingly you will get calmed. And the other people too!

By repeating the quote you increase your vibration and make that the vibration of the other person also increases. Remember that when you are in love your vibrations are at the maximum. Give you the opportunity of trying it. It is worthwhile.

Of course you can use other quotes.

     “Love is a fire that reigns in the heart”

     “Love is a journey not a destination”

     “Where life exists, love exists”

     “Anything is possible, when it comes to love”

     “Where there is love, there is no fear”

     “All you need is love” (Lennon/McCartney)

     “In dreams and in love there are no impossibilities” (Janos Arnay)

     “Paradise is always where love dwells” (Jean Paul F. Richter)

     ”The greatest healing therapy is friendship and love” (Hubert H. Humphrey)

     “Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness” (Oliver Wendell Holmes)

Tags: Love, Wisdom by Ricardo Rojas
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Forever Always

“Fine-tune your senses. It may not be as it seems. Change of the form… Metamorphosis. Do not believe the first thing you see. Observe and understand the meaning of Metamorphic Art.” You can read this in Octavio Ocampo’s Web Page (http://www.octavioocampo.com.mx/).

Ocampo is a Mexican Painter that plays with the illusion. Do not trust in what you see. Look carefully, look at the details.

Trompe l’oeil, deception of the eye, is the foundation of Ocampo’s work. It has not been considered as a genre by itself in the history of painting. But Ocampo has made an incredible work.

You have to spend some time visiting Octavio Ocampo’s Web Page (http://www.octavioocampo.com.mx/). When you are in there, look for the “Downloads” in “More” and open the “Download Presentation.ppt”. It is amazing!

Tags: Wisdom by Ricardo Rojas
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By Lori Chance 

As a writer, the creative process is always on my mind. There are more than a few different models that provide a basis of understanding of the creative process, but I have gotten the most out of the one based on the Erickson College model, the life-coaching training program I attended a few years ago. Not only did it give me a way to look at my own creativity, but it has allowed me to identify what might be stopping me from moving forward and how to get around it.

To outline it simply, there are three stages a person must go through in order to realize something new in their lives. That something new could be as small as reading a book, as deliberate as setting and achieving a goal, or as big and challenging as starting their own business. What ever it is, the individual goes through the same stages:

Stage One: Dreaming. This is where we allow ourselves to come up with ideas and get excited about them.

Stage Two: Implementation. This is where we begin to act on the inspiration we’ve had. This is also the phase in which we most often begin to experience the challenges of trying something new and wonder if we really want to finish what we started.

Stage Three: Completion. Just like it’s named, this is the phase where we finish and feel the satisfaction of what we’ve done.

Although each of us moves through these phases whether we’re writing a book, starting a business or learning basket weaving, we do not move through them equally. For some, Dreaming is easy but Completion is a challenge. For others, just trying to think of one or two ideas for small things to do in their lives is the challenge, but once they get started there’s no stopping them.

In fact, each phase of the process has questions to answer and road bumps to overcome before we can move forward. The more we know about each of these things, the easier it becomes to manage the areas in which we get stuck and enjoy the areas in which we thrive.

Think of a project or goal you’ve started recently. Where are you in the creative process, and what might be one thing that could help you move past a challenge you’re experiencing, or make it just a little more satisfying for you? Write down whatever comes to mind.

Tags: Wisdom by Ricardo Rojas
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There is a Hawaiian therapy that enables you to change your world by changing yourself. It is called Ho’oponopono.

Modern Ho’oponopono was developed by Morrnah Simeona from the original one, which requires participation of several people.

Simeona died in 1992, but Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len is now teaching it worldwide. According to Dr. Len, Ho’oponopono is a healing process based on the principles of total responsibility, taking responsibility for everyone’s actions. If one would take complete responsibility for one’s life, then everything one would see, hear, taste, touch or, in any way experience, is one’s responsibility because it is in one’s life.

Taking responsibility is quite easy. All you have to do is to release the memories inside you that show up as problems in our everyday lives.

The purpose of Ho’oponopono is to connect with the Divinity within on a moment-to-moment basis and to ask Him that that moment and all it contains, be cleansed. Only the Divinity can do that. Only the Divinity can erase or correct memories and thought forms. Only the Divinity knows what is going on with you.

There is no need to analyze, solve, manage or cope with problems. Since the Divinity created everything, you can just go directly to Him and ask that it be corrected and cleansed.

You can do this by repeating the following sentences with a sincere heart and with feelings and emotions:

I’m sorry

Forgive me

Thank you

I love you

You can use Ho’oponopono to heal yourself or others physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

If you want to know more about this technique you can go to: The Foundation of I, founded by Morrnah Simeona, or you can read the book Zero Limits: The Secret Hawaiian System for Wealth, Health, Peace, and More by Joe Vitale.

Tags: Faith, Health, Love, Wealth, Wisdom by Ricardo Rojas
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If you are worried by occasional failures while acting as a leader, please read the following article written by Bryant Nielson. Being an expert in leadership skills and leadership training, he knows the potential effects of inevitable failures.

Failure Is a Part of Leadership

By Bryant Nielson

Failure as a leader is inevitable. But there are four ways that failure can enhance your skills as a leader.

Thomas Watson, the founder of IBM, once said, “That’s where success lies - on the far side of failure.” Leaders must anticipate and tolerate failure - it’s a subject no one wants to talk about. Certainly most leaders try their best to avoid it, but the best leaders are formed and tempered by failure along the way. There are several ways that failure enhances leadership.

One of the most obvious ways failure enhances leadership is that you learn from it - if you allow yourself. There are corporate and political leaders who absolutely will not admit when an idea or process has failed. But the ones who do admit it tend to take the lessons learned, apply them, and make a success the next time. Think about learning - as a leader, your learning process should last a lifetime. This doesn’t necessarily restrict itself to learning from mentors, peers, or classrooms. John F. Kennedy said that “leadership and learning are indispensable to each other”. So what happens when you make a mistake that leads to failure? First, you learn from the experience. You can look at the entire process, procedure, or idea to find the nuts and bolts that went wrong. Second, you learn from others - the ones who were involved to begin with. Listen to the people who watched the idea fail - they’ll respect you more and you’ll have great ideas about what not to do the next time. Third, you’ll have a learning experience that will help you with your long-term view.

Failure as a leader allows you to measure your own strength and your own limitations. One of the biggest questions a leader asks him or herself is, “when do I draw the line and admit that I’m wrong, that this idea has failed?” Obviously, the answer to this question depends on each individual and situation, but each failure allows you to “fine tune” your point of admission. Consider the fact that failure may be in degrees - the first failure could be of the greatest degree, but if you’ve learned, the next failure may be of a more minor degree. When it comes to measuring strength, Jack Welch is a proponent of the stretch: “Boundaryless people…have an absolute infinite capacity to improve everything.” As a leader, your failure could mean that you give a team another chance to meet the goal - everyone involved knows the risks, the limits, and the lessons learned. In this way, failure creates a greater framework to accomplish fantastic goals.

Leaders must persist in generating ideas, change, and motivation. Failure at any time teaches persistence. Silent movie star Mary Pickford once said, “What we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down”. Leaders can live by this quotation. It’s easy to lose your confidence and doubt your leadership ability after failure but again, you must anticipate failure. It’s not a matter of “if” you’ll fail, but actually “when” you’ll fail. So if you fall, you simply cannot stay down - it’s time to admit a mistake, pick yourself up, and keep moving. One of your biggest duties as a leader is to advocate and create change. A failure can only become a change if you’re persistent about it, if you consistently try to make the change happen in the face of failure. Turn persistence to the people you lead - by staying with an issue, you’ll probably be able to empower your teams a little more each time. You learn from mistakes, you measure your “stretch” for the next attempt, and you set a larger framework for the team. In this sense, failure creates persistence, which, in turn creates empowerment. For the leader, this is a win-win situation.

Failure as a leader should keep you humble. Humility has often been seen as a weakness in a leader. But think about how humility can be used as a valuable tool: leaders who are not humble may end up letting the grandeur of their own position block their view of what’s actually going on. A big head can lead to further bad decisions, so if you’ve already learned when to say you’ve failed, step back and be humble about it. On the other hand, humility will help you downplay your own role in success and allow the team to take credit for a job well done. Another benefit of humility is that you learn to listen. Part of Welch’s strategy at General Electric was the “Work Out” concept, in which business units were able to go through a problem solving session without their managers and supervisors. The “Work Out” concept arose from the fact that Welch insisted that leaders listen to the folks who were doing the job. If you’ve learned humility as a leader, you know that you don’t have all the answers. You don’t react badly when someone tells you things you didn’t know - you thank them for providing new knowledge and assure them that their input will be used. Being humble also means that you can insert your knowledge and wisdom into your conversations without letting your team feel stupid or undervalued. When you fail, remember humility and keep it with you as you move forward - your humble attitude will boost your presence as a leader.

There is no need to fear failure as a leader. Your fear will only make you risk-averse and afraid to speak up. If you fear failure, you won’t learn from it. Remember that failure is a learning experience, it helps you measure your strengths, it teaches persistence, and it keeps you humble. Anticipate your own failure and tolerate the failure of others. If you keep these things in mind, failure will be, in the words of John Keats, your “highway to success.”

Copyright 2008 Bryant Nielson. All Rights Reserved.

Bryant Nielson - Managing Director and National Sales Trainer - assists executives, business owners, and top performing sales executives in taking the leap from the ordinary to extraordinary. Bryant is a trainer, business & leadership coach, and strategic planner for sales organizations. Bryant’s 27 year business career has been based on his results-oriented style of empowering.

Subscribe to his blog - and learn the legendary secrets of top business training programs at: http://www.breathtakingleadership.com/ & http://www.bryantnielson.com/

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When talking about classical music it appears an obvious question: How to listen to classical music? Listening to classical music is the same than listening to popular music. You do it because you enjoy it. It is not a task to accomplish. It is a pleasure.

So, don’t worry, there is no unique way of listening to classical music. However, I suggest you to consider some issues.

It has been shown that music has therapeutic effects. Perhaps you have heard about Music Therapy. Well, according to the American Music Therapy Association, “Music Therapy is an established healthcare profession that uses music to address physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs of individuals of all ages”.

I am not suggesting that you go to a music therapist or to listen to classical music for healing purposes. I just want to stress the potential of music and note that you can select the music to be heard depending on both, the pleasure of listening to it and the effects it will cause on you.

I strongly recommend to listening to classical music when it is important to receive relaxing or concentrating stimulus.

For instance, while driving to work, I prefer to listen to classical music. In such case I want to receive a relaxing stimulus so I can reduce my stress and my aggressive attitudes. Sometimes I like so much the piece being played so I want to reduce the speed to delay my arrival and have enough time to listen to the whole piece. Tune to your local classical music station.

If I want to read or to concentrate in the search of a solution to any problem, I like to listen to quiet classical pieces. Some of them may be even a little boring, but they help me to get concentrated.

I like to have music as a background while working or during formal meetings. In this way I cannot listen to many soft noises that will otherwise distract me. You can find over a hundred online classical music radio stations with live streaming music in Classical Live Online Radio.

When I am tired, I enjoy sitting in a rocking chair and just listen. If I am not so tired, I love to close my eyes and play with images as listening to the music. The images may be abstract or have sense. Try this for five or ten minutes and you can get a wonderful experience. It is as if you were viewing your own version of Walt Disney’s Fantasy movie.

So, don’t worry about how to listen to classical music. There is no correct way. You can listen to it in many ways. Choose the one that you like the most. Take also into account the kind of stimulus it offers you.

Tags: Health, Wisdom by Ricardo Rojas
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Meditation is a state that is experienced when the mind is free of all thoughts. It consists on lucidly climbing the consciousness ladder.

There are several meditation techniques: Buddhist, Christian, Gnostic, Hindu, Jewish, Moslem, Taoist, Transcendental, Zen, etc.

Meditation takes you to a quiet serenity. It gives you mental balance, interior calm, quietness of soul, wisdom and intense interior joy.

The objective of meditation is to harmonically join the superior and inferior levels. Meditation leads you to develop the superior capacities of your spirit.

The last goal is to join the different vehicles of conscience in a unique flow of spiritual forces. You become master in the art (or science) of living.

It gives you a profound relaxation and, at the same time, a state of psychic awakening.

Cardiac rhythm and respiration slow down. Changes in your body are so positive.

The meditation practitioner usually has feelings of calm and peace. At the same time he can experiment moments of great joy. The calm, peace and joy reached during meditation gradually extend to other moments and finally can be present during the whole day.

Meditating is an easy exercise. With a few simple steps you can get this wonderful experience. There are even guided meditations. My advice is to start now.

The best posture to meditate is sitting comfortable, either on a chair or on the floor. Head and back are kept straight and in alignment. Hands can comfortably rest on the knees.

It is important to get a posture than allows you to be quiet during long periods of time. Otherwise you can get anxious and put your attention in the discomfort.

At the beginning mind will wander uncontrolled, but with some practice you will get more and more control on your thoughts and focus on what you want to focus. A relaxing music can help.

Dawn, noon and dusk are the best time to practice meditation. But if you can not meditate at this time, it is preferable to meditate in other moment than forget about meditation.

Some practitioners groups arrange to meditate at the same time in order to enrich the experience. In some way they get connected with each other during the meditation and benefits for themselves and for the community are greater.

Constancy is essential to maximize the benefits of meditation. Five minutes daily is better than twenty minutes every three days.

When you are in meditation your whole being is participating in an inward journey.

Even though meditation con seem new for Occident, meditating has been a regular Christian practice. The psalms have been an excellent vehicle for a good meditation; because meditation is a way to meet God.

Tags: Wisdom by Ricardo Rojas
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