Planning for Success

Are Your Goals Failing You?

2011-02-25T05:45:00.000-08:00

For the past 5 years, one of my grandiose new years' resolutions is to run a 5k in less than 30 minutes. I have walked/run three 5k's in my life, and my time is nowhere near 30 minutes. So it seemed like a great goal to really push myself. But the reality is that in 5 years I have made zero progress on this goal! ZERO!!!

So in November of this past year I decided it was time to get serious about this goal. I challenged myself to do a really tough (non-cardio) workout for 10 days in a row. I completed that challenge and was feeling strong and confident. So with all this momentum behind me, I decided it was time to re-introduce the treadmill. I set a new 10-day challenge to do a 10-minute (yes - you read that right -- only 10 minutes) workout on the treadmill! By the third morning, I couldn't even talk myself into doing 5 minutes on the treadmill. The first challenge was a harder challenge to complete, but I had no trouble motivating myself to do it! That's when I realized that I wasn't failing my goal, my goal was failing me!!! I just needed to set a completely different goal!

About that time a friend invited me to go to a Jazzercise class with her. I had never been to a Jazzercise class before, and I was pretty much hooked from the first session! So what was my 1 new years' resolution this year? To do Jazzercise at least 3 times/week. Do I have any trouble motivating myself to go to Jazzercise? No! I am having a great time; I love how I feel all day after doing the workout (one week I even did a few extra workouts!). My favorite part of doing Jazzercise is walking past the treadmill in my Family Room with ZERO guilt!

Two months into the new year, I am still going strong on my new years' resolution!!!

Is there a new years' resolution (or any other type of goal) that has been failing you all these years? Maybe it's time to set a better goal for you!

Your Next Step is... Take Action!!!

2011-02-02T02:00:00.000-08:00

"The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today.
The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer." ~Nolan Bushnell, Founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese's

Right after my mother's death I was having a hard time being motivated. So I started asking God in my prayers to "Show me the next step and help me have the courage to take it." Most of us know what that next step is, but for whatever reason we don't have the courage to take the step. I asked for them to be baby steps that I could easily manage. Guess what? If you take enough baby steps, then you still make progress! In fact you make more progress taking baby steps in the right direction, then you do going full speed in the wrong direction! You don't have to take massive action, just take that small action you feel inspired to take.

It may seem random and unrelated like cleaning out a certain closet. But while cleaning out that closet you may find something that helps you figure out the next step, or a thought may come to you while you clean out the closet, or having the closet cleaned out may take something off your mind and open up space for something else.

Don't waste your time and energy questioning the action step -- just do it! And then ask what the next step is! One of my husband's favorite sayings is: "God can't steer a parked car." So get moving and then let God guide you where you can be the most effective.

So ask yourself: "What is one thing I can do in the next 2-5 days that will bring me a step closer to my dream/goal?" Then go and DO IT!!!

The Best Expert on You is... YOU!!!

2011-01-31T02:00:00.000-08:00

This week we are going to be focusing on how you are your own best expert!

Nobody knows your goals and dreams like you do. Nobody knows what motivates you like you do! No one else even knows what it's like to be you! No one knows you like you know yourself.

You may not feel comfortable hearing that. You may be thinking right now that if you really are your own best expert, then you are in big trouble! Because you may be feeling a lot of confusion about who you are and what your dreams, goals, and aspirations really are!

Our mind plays tricks on us. Its job is to make sure we stay safe, and the way that it keeps us "safe" is to keep us from changing. So it works really hard to convince us that everything should stay exactly how it is!

So if you want to find out who you really are, don't try to process it through your mind. Instead take out a pen and piece of paper and ask yourself questions such as: What do I really want in life? If I could do anything I wanted for a whole day, what would it be? What are my three greatest dreams? Would I rather: 1) learn and teach knowledge; 2) live and promote a peaceful life; 3) fill the world with as much love as possible? (Or in other words, which motivates me more: knowledge, peace, or love?) If I were to live my dream life, what would my next step be? What could I accomplish in the next 3-5 days that would take me a step closer to discovering who I really am?

Write the answers to these questions - or any other questions you think of. Keep writing until you have nothing else left to write. If you are having a hard time coming up with something to write, then ask yourself the question "If I did know the answer to this question, what might it be?" If you still can't think of anything, then go on to a different question. You may be surprised at some of the answers you write!

Come back here and share your experience with this exercise!

Simplify, Simplify, Simplify!!!

2011-01-25T04:38:00.000-08:00

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. ~Leonardo da Vinci

"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated." ~Confucius

Simplicity is my theme for 2011! There are so many areas of my life that have become cumbersome and weighed down. I have repeatedly taken 5-year plans in various areas of my life and attempted to achieve them in 6 months or less! Besides feeling like a complete failure, it is very tiring to live your life like this! So this year I am simplifying and congratulating myself and celebrating every achievement -- no matter how small it may seem!

Sometimes the very act of simplifying can seem overwhelming. So I have been doing it in bite-sized chunks -- very small bite-sized chunks! I found this great 21-day challenge through a friend, and it really helped me tackle a little at a time. I'm not through the 21-day challenge yet, but I am making progress! Every time I purge a closet, I can feel myself breathing more freely. Go here for the 21-day challenge

Another obvious place where I have simplified is with my new years' resolutions. Usually I make grand resolutions -- extremely impressive! I'm pretty sure that if I ever were able to accomplish all my new years' resolutions in any given year, I would unanimously be crowned Queen of the World. In other words, it is not even humanly possible to achieve some of my grandiose goals in a single year! Now I follow the motto: Better to succeed incrementally than to fail impressively!

I chose one new years' resolution this year. Today is January 25 and do you think I have abandoned my resolution? Oh, no! I am jamming on it! I feel like a rock star!!! Now that this new years' resolution has become a habit, I am ready to add in another resolution.

Actions and Reactions

2010-10-26T02:34:00.000-07:00

To every action there is an EQUAL and OPPOSITE reaction!!! Even though I know this, I have often forgotten it! So when I have taken an action -- and the equal and opposite reaction pops up -- I end up putting my energy into trying to stop the reaction, and I lose all progress in my action. It's really important that we keep our energy and focus on the ACTION (what we're trying to create) instead of in the opposition that pops up.

I am reminded of Nehemiah in the Old Testament. Nehemiah was an Israelite who lived in exile in Babylon and served as cupbearer to the king. At Nehemiah's request, the King gave Nehemiah the authority to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city. However, not everyone was happy with this plan.

Fearless, Nehemiah did not allow the opposition to distract him. Instead, he organized his resources and manpower and moved forward rebuilding the city. But as the walls of the city began to rise, opposition intensified. Nehemiah’s enemies threatened, conspired, and ridiculed. Their threats were very real, and they grew so intimidating that Nehemiah confessed, “They all made us afraid.” (Nehemiah 6:9) In spite of the danger and the ever-present threat of invasion, the work progressed.

As the work continued, Nehemiah’s enemies became more desperate. Four times they entreated him to leave the safety of the city and meet with them under the pretense of resolving the conflict, but Nehemiah knew that their intent was to do him harm. Each time they approached him, he responded with the same answer: “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down.” (Nehemiah 6:3)

What an amazing response! With that clear and unchanging purpose of heart and mind, with that great resolve, the walls of Jerusalem rose until they were rebuilt in an astonishing 52 days.

If we are not facing any opposition, then it means we need to start taking action! As we face opposition we need to do as Nehemiah and "do our great work, and not come down" to engage the opposition. It's important that we keep our energy moving forward in our ACTION so that we can keep progressing and so we can do our part to create miracles in our lives!

Excitement Trumps Fear -- Every Time!!!

2010-10-19T04:41:00.000-07:00

This summer I had an amazing opportunity open up for me. I had put a major goal in my Life Vision statement, and I knew that the right teacher would show up at the right time to help me with this goal. The right teacher showed up at the right time, but when it came time to make the decision to work with her, I was scared!!! My fears were blocking me big time! I wasn't afraid of the monetary investment or the time I would need to put into this goal... I was afraid of the inevitable success that will follow! This new teacher told me my life would be completely different 12 months from now, and I knew she was absolutely correct!

But part of me was very excited about this opportunity. After all, I had set the goal and expected this very thing to happen. It will take me so much closer to living my life 100% on purpose -- in short, it's everything I want!

So why the fear? Because our minds like to play tricks on us! Our minds like to keep us away from change and to keep us "safe."

So I immediately went to work clearing out the fear and really, really building up the excitement in my mind! The more excited I got, the less fearful I became. Every time I felt the fears creeping back in, I would focus on all the great things that would come out of this opportunity, and I got really excited again! And the fears disappeared again!

Is there a fear keeping you back from something you know will be really, really good for you? As you get closer to the goal, do you feel the fear become almost paralyzing? Then get really clear about your motive -- why did you want this goal in the first place? Get excited about your goal and watch the fears disappear!

Power of Intention

2010-07-22T08:09:00.000-07:00

I set a goal for myself this summer. I was really excited about it, and I spent a lot of time mentally preparing for it. But now that it's time to do the work that will lead me to my goal I find myself waffling and wondering how committed I actually am to the goal. I should probably mention that this is the third or fourth time this year I have set the same goal, and each time I have abandoned the goal because of my lack of commitment.

So I found myself a bit frustrated that I was running into the same wall I've been running into all year. I was on the verge of abandoning my goal when I said to myself, "If I were my own client, what would I tell myself?" That's when I realized that my first question as a coach would be, "What exactly is your goal? What are you really trying to accomplish?"

I had been changing my goal depending on my mood and how much effort I wanted to expend towards achieving the goal. I had broken the very first rule of goal-setting: Write it down!!! This is not a new concept to me, and it probably isn't a new concept to you either. But I still try to cut corners sometimes...

So I took a bright yellow piece of paper (so I couldn't possible miss it) and I wrote: "My intention is: to _________ by August 2, 2010" and I promptly taped it to my bathroom mirror. I now have a very clearly defined goal that I can't just change because I don't feel like sticking to my plan for the day.

Intention is defined as an anticipated outcome that is intended or that guides your planned actions; an aim that guides action; a course of action one intends to follow. It's the seed you plant so you can water it, nourish it, and harvest it. Without a clear intention to guide your actions, there really isn't anything to act on, or nourish, or eventually to manifest.

I am happy to say that instead of abandoning my goal once again, I am now on track to reach my goal on or before August 2, 2010.

What goals are you currently working on? Have you defined your intention and written it down and posted it where you can easily see it?

30 Days in a Row?!?!?

2010-03-05T00:00:00.000-08:00

When I learned the "30 days in a row -- without missing a day" secret, I had been trying to lose weight for over 10 years. I had listened to affirmations, I had written affirmations, I bought several self-development courses -- without any success! I noticed that a lot of people who had success would say they read their Vision Statement or watched their goal movie -- or whatever they did -- for 30 days in a row -- without missing a day!

Then I heard Jack Canfield tell a story about a test NASA did several years ago. They were testing the physiological and psychological impact of spatial disorientation on potential astronauts. So they put convex goggles on these astronaut candidates that made everything appear upside down. They had to wear these glasses 24/7 -- without ever taking them off. So everything appeared upside down all the time. At first, the astronauts were under a lot of stress and anxiety, but eventually they started adjusting. About 30 days into the experiment, something amazing happened! The men's brains had created new neural pathways so they started to see everything normal -- even though they were still wearing the glasses that made everything appear upside down! They did the experiment again, this time taking the goggles off partway into the experiment, but the new neural pathways did not form. The brain needed about 30 uninterrupted days for the new neural connections to form within the brain.

When I heard about this experiment, I decided to try my own experiment. I took a 15-minute self-hypnosis session on weight loss from a highly respected weight loss hypnotist and listened to it EVERY night for 30 nights in a row! I didn't feel different in any way; in fact, at times I wondered if it was even working! But I was determined to see the experiment through to the end.

After the 30 nights, I stopped listening to it to see if I really attracted anything different into my life. Within a few weeks, one of my sisters called and told me about a new weight loss program that many of her friends had lost weight with. Intuitively, I knew this was what I had been looking for. To make a long story short, I lost 30 lb in the next 2 months -- after going for 10+ years with zero success!

Try your own experiment -- just be sure that you do it for 30 consecutive nights! I find it most effective to listen to the recording as you are waking up or going to sleep because that's when your subconscious is the most receptive to new ideas -- as it is coming out of and going into theta brain frequency! I would love to hear how your own experiment goes!

Reaching Our Goal

2010-03-03T00:00:00.000-08:00

On Monday we talked about how willpower doesn't help us achieve our goals. Most of us have been asking ourselves how to develop more willpower; now I want you to start asking how you can accomplish your goal without willpower!

Like I mentioned earlier, the subconscious mind is responsible for 96-98% of our results. The subconscious mind is where all our habits, beliefs and programming are stored. In order to achieve our goals, we need to change the habits, beliefs and programming that are in our subconscious mind. To give this subject justice, I would have to teach an entire course on it -- and maybe I will one day (keep checking my website for more information on that). Here are a couple of ideas to get you started:

1. Be very, very clear on what you want. Write out a vision statement that gets you very excited!!! It should feel like a "10" to you on a scale from 1-10.

2. Make a recording of you reading this Vision Statement (be sure to read it with enthusiasm and excitement).

3. Listen to this recording as you go to sleep at night and as you wake up in the morning (I bought a CD alarm clock to make this easy). Do this for at least 30 days in a row -- without missing a day!!! I will talk about the importance of that in my next post!

4. Collect (or create) a picture which represents you reaching this goal. Across the bottom of the picture write "I am so happy and grateful now that ______." (Fill in the blank with your goal statement). Keep this picture somewhere you will see it often to remind you of this goal.

Feel free to try this for yourself and record your experience in the comments section!

Willpower...

2010-03-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

Most of us wish we had more willpower so we could reach our goal. I will show you how totally ineffective willpower is when trying to achieve a goal.

The conscious mind is responsible for 2-4% of our results
The subconscious mind is responsible for 96-98% of our results

Willpower is a function of the conscious mind, so...

This line is 100 spaces long; the * shows the 4% mark. If we want to use willpower to reach our goal, this is how much progress we can expect to make towards our goal. Frustrating, huh?

___*________________________________________________________________________________________________
4%
You probably have great willpower, especially since so many of us spend so much time and effort to improve our willpower! You just need to find better ways to reach your goal...

Later this week we will talk about what some of those better ways are to reach your goals!

True Wealth

2010-02-26T00:20:00.000-08:00

Earlier this Spring I went to a very inspiring program that the elementary school did for their janitor. Mr. Harvey had been at the elementary school since 1997. At 76 years old, he retired earlier this year. The kids (and staff and parents) miss him terribly.

I can't imagine that an elementary school janitor makes very much money. I don't know if Mr. Harvey had a different career, and then became a school janitor to supplement his retirement money, but here is what I know about Mr. Harvey:

Every day I saw him at the school he really seemed to want to be there. He was always happy and definitely loved his job.

The kids loved him! They were all so sad that he retired. They all wrote him notes and delivered them to him. In addition to those notes, my Kindergarten daughter informed me that during "free choice," everyone in her Kindergarten class made things for Mr. Harvey.

He loves the children. There isn't a child in that elementary school who didn't know Mr. Harvey.

He had an amazing singing voice. You could often hear him in the morning singing as he set up the tables in the cafeteria. He would also sing at school functions.

He worked hard. More than once I had to track him down and ask him to help me with something at the last minute. He never complained. He was always happy to help out!

When Mr. Harvey entered the cafeteria for his special retirement program, everyone spontaneously gave him a standing ovation. He was a great man who worked hard and loved what he did. And he was happy.

I came home that day and found some wealth tips in my inbox. As I listened to them I couldn't help but think that Mr. Harvey gave me my best wealth tip of the day. Do what you love and love what you do. Spend every day being as happy and helpful as you can. Brighten up another's day. Treat everyone with respect. Work hard. Never hesitate to help another human being - don't complain about it either because one of our greatest privileges in life is being able to serve others.

I feel wealthier already! Do you know someone like Mr. Harvey -- someone who may not make a whole lot of money, but really seems to prove that you don't have to have money to be wealthy? Please comment below and share the story of the "wealthy" person you know!

The End From the Beginning...

2010-02-24T00:16:00.000-08:00

Here is another story told by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, an LDS church leader (from April 2006 conference). The talk is called "See the End from the Beginning," and I have been thinking about this story a lot lately. Some of our goals may be taking a bit longer than we would like, but we don't know what unknown "dis-eases" are being healed as we work toward our goal. This story inspired me to be grateful for the challenges that come with my goals because they are making me stronger!

"Allow me to share with you an experience from my own boyhood. When I was 11 years old, my family had to leave East Germany and begin a new life in West Germany overnight. Until my father could get back into his original profession as a government employee, my parents operated a small laundry business in our little town. I became the laundry delivery boy. To be able to do that effectively, I needed a bicycle to pull the heavy laundry cart. I had always dreamed of owning a nice, sleek, shiny, sporty red bicycle. But there had never been enough money to fulfill this dream. What I got instead was a heavy, ugly, black, sturdy workhorse of a bicycle. I delivered laundry on that bike before and after school for quite a few years. Most of the time, I was not overly excited about the bike, the cart, or my job. Sometimes the cart seemed so heavy and the work so tiring that I thought my lungs would burst, and I often had to stop to catch my breath. Nevertheless, I did my part because I knew we desperately needed the income as a family, and it was my way to contribute.

"If I had only known back then what I learned many years later—if I had only been able to see the end from the beginning—I would have had a better appreciation of these experiences, and it would have made my job so much easier.

"Many years later, when I was about to be drafted into the military, I decided to volunteer instead and join the Air Force to become a pilot. I loved flying and thought being a pilot would be my thing.

"To be accepted for the program I had to pass a number of tests, including a strict physical exam. The doctors were slightly concerned by the results and did some additional medical tests. Then they announced, “You have scars on your lung which are an indication of a lung disease in your early teenage years, but obviously you are fine now.” The doctors wondered what kind of treatment I had gone through to heal the disease. Until the day of that examination I had never known that I had any kind of lung disease. Then it became clear to me that my regular exercise in fresh air as a laundry boy had been a key factor in my healing from this illness. Without the extra effort of pedaling that heavy bicycle day in and day out, pulling the laundry cart up and down the streets of our town, I might never have become a jet fighter pilot and later a 747 airline captain.

"We don’t always know the details of our future. We do not know what lies ahead. We live in a time of uncertainty. We are surrounded by challenges on all sides. Occasionally discouragement may sneak into our day; frustration may invite itself into our thinking; doubt might enter about the value of our work. In these dark moments Satan whispers in our ears that we will never be able to succeed, that the price isn’t worth the effort, and that our small part will never make a difference. He, the father of all lies, will try to prevent us from seeing the end from the beginning."

Do You Want to Be Right... or Happy?

2010-02-21T00:07:00.000-08:00

I believe this is one of those verses that is passed by word of mouth and doesn't have a credited author:

Here lies the body of William Jay -
He died defending his right of way.
He was right, dead right, as he sped along,
But he is just as dead as if he'd been wrong.

This reminded me of the saying, "Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?" So many times we waste time and energy defending a belief or a position that isn't even serving our highest good.

Truth and belief are not the same things. Truth stands on it's own and doesn't need defending. If billions of people in the world believe a lie, it doesn't change the reality of the truth. For example, for hundreds of years people believed the world was flat -- but that never changed the reality that the world was round.

Beliefs, on the other hand, are the sum total of the thoughts we choose to think. We function in accordance with our beliefs, but our beliefs do not define us. Because our thoughts are not always accurate, then it is reasonable to believe that our beliefs will not always be accurate.

I thought this verse put it into perspective in a great way, and I wanted to share it with you!

From Overwhelmed to Overflowing...

2010-02-19T02:05:00.000-08:00

When I coach with clients and talk with other women, I find a lot of people who genuinely want to serve and help other people, but feel too overwhelmed to do it! We live in a culture where we are way too busy!

One truth that has been playing over and over in my head this past week is that you can't give from an empty cup! There is a reason why the airlines instruct you to put on your own oxygen mask before assisting a child to put theirs on.

About 6 months ago, I finally put into action something that I have thought was a good idea for several years -- a Power Hour! The first hour of my day I spend feeding myself spiritually, mentally, emotionally & physically. That not only fills my cup, but it fills it to overflowing! From on overflowing cup, it is easy to serve others because you have so much more to give!

Picture you have a cup with a few drops of water in it. Somebody asks for a drink from your cup. How do you feel? Resentful? Worried? Fearful? What if they drink all my water, how will I ever get more water?

Now picture a glass overflowing with water, and the same person asks you for a drink from your cup. You are more than willing to share!!! You have so much to give that you know your supply will never run out! It's a completely different feeling.

I am always amazed at how simple real solutions are! Fill yourself to overflowing -- then go serve others!

The Pursuit of Happiness

2010-02-03T02:31:00.000-08:00

The Declaration of Independence states: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

We often think of happiness as something we are chasing, and never able to catch up with. "Once we can afford a bigger house, then we'll be happy." "Once I find my soulmate, then I'll be happy." "When I finally lose all this weight, then I'll be happy."

What did the pursuit of Happiness mean to the founding fathers? Jefferson said happiness meant tranquility and occupation. For Jefferson, occupation meant mainly his intellectual pursuits. What if we started defining the pursuit of happiness as the love of learning; the freedom to think for yourself? Or as the ability and privilege of loving another human being? (For more information on this, go to http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/mccullough/lecture.html)

Here is a parable that illustrates this idea:

Parable of the King's Emerald

Young Rupert stood by the side of the road watching an unusal number of people hurry past. At length he recognized a friend. "Where are all of you going in such a hurry?" he asked.

The friend paused. ... "The King has lost his royal emerald! ... Everyone is searching, for the King has offered a reward ... to the one who finds it. Come, we must hurry."

"But I cannot go without asking Grandmother," faltered Rupert.

"Then I cannot wait. I want to find the emerald," replied his friend.

Rupert hurried back to the cabin at the edge of the woods to seek his grandmother's permission. ...

But his grandmother shook her head. "What would the sheep do?" she asked. "Already they are restless in the pen, waiting to be taken to the pasture, and please do not forget to take them to water when the sun shines high in the heavens."

Sorrowfully, Rupert took the sheep to the pasture, and at noon he led them to the brook in the woods. There he sat on a large stone by the stresam. "If I could only have had a chance to look for the King's emerald!" he thought. Turning his head to gaze down at the sandy bottom of the brook, suddenly he stared into the water. What was it? It could not be! He leaped into the water. ... "The King's emerald!" he shouted.

With shining eyes Rupert ran to his grandmother's hut to tell her of his great find. "Bless you, my boy," she said, "but you never would have found it if you had not been doing your duty, herding the sheep." And Rupert knew that this was the truth.

---------------

I love this parable! Too often we look for happiness and everything that will make us happy outside of ourselves. We truly find happiness when we put first things first and when we "tend the sheep." Rupert didn't find the King's emerald by running around looking for it like all the others were doing. He found the emerald by taking care of the sheep and being where he was supposed to be. As we focus our time and attention on loving those around us (whether or not they deserve it;) and learning and growing, we will discover that happiness has been inside us the whole time!

Please leave me a comment below and tell me some of the things that make you happy right now!!!

Happy New Year

2010-01-12T10:37:00.000-08:00

When I think of all the learning and growing I did last year, there is no way I could have known last January what was possible for me for the entire year!!! I basically see two big problems with new year resolutions:

1. They say it takes about 30 days to start a new habit. I know that I'm a procrastinator so if I give myself 365 days to accomplish what it takes 30 days to do, then it is likely that I am never going to get around to it.

2. I usually set so many goals at one time and try to accomplish them all at once -- which is a sure formula for failure!

So my new year resolution this year is to stop doing new year resolutions. Instead I am going to do new month resolutions. It takes about 30 days to form a new habit and so I'm picking a new habit every month that I want to create.

My January resolution is weight loss!!! (I'm sure I'm not alone in this!) I lost 30 lb last year, and this year I have lost 6 lb so far; 14 more to go! As I focus on losing weight and feeling better about myself, I will have a better idea of what to focus on in February.

Every month I will be focusing on a new resolution!!! I can't wait to create the best year of my life!!!

Magic Question - Part 3 of 3

2009-10-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year I was on a marketing call that was so much more than a marketing call! It was more about getting rid of clutter and getting to the bottom of who we really are.

The speaker introduced me to this powerful 4-word question: "So I can what?" Use it over and over again until you find out what is really important to you. For example, if you say that money is important to you, you would follow it up with "So I can what?" If you say spend more time with your family, then again you would follow it up with "So I can what?" You keep asking this over and over until you get to the very bottom of what you want.

In my case, I got to "connecting with people," and couldn't think of an answer to the question, even though I was pretty sure I could go deeper. He advised me to just stay with that answer for a while and keep asking myself the magic question until I got an aha! After the call, I got the aha! and was able to go down even deeper! I love connecting with people so I can share knowledge! I love to teach and to learn, and that is what gets me really, really excited! Now I will stay with "teach and learn," and perhaps one day I will have another aha! and go even deeper!

The cool thing is that when you get that deep inside you, you realize that what you really, really want, you already have! And it will be something that will always be with you -- and cannot be bought or sold with money. It will not depend on popularity or on others agreeing with you. It is who you are at the very core!

The closer you get to who you really are, the less fear you will have in your life! How cool is that?

Magic Question - Part 2 of 3

2009-10-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Many of us spend a lot of our lives in resistance. We are pushing so hard against what we don't want that we are actually creating it! You may even know that you are in resistance, but you don't know how to get out of it!

Resistance often leads to self-judgment or judging others. I had an experience where I was really feeling bad about a particular relationship in my life; in fact, I was beating myself up because of these bad feelings I have been carrying these past years. Finally I backed up and said, "Isn't it interesting that I feel this way about this person?" Immediately, all resistance, stress, judgment, and negative emotion left me. We know that "that which we resist, persists," but that concept had never been so clear to me as it was on that day.

And the magic question that dispelled the resistance was "Isn't it interesting that...?" It totally allowed me to look at the situation in a different light. And then I followed it up with the first magic question: "How can I...?" "What can I do differently...?"

For example: "Isn't it interesting that my son always pushes my buttons?" "Isn't it interesting that I have 6 hours' worth of work, and only 3 hours to accomplish it?" "Isn't it interesting that I got upset when that driver cut me off?" "Isn't it interesting that I need $1,000 for an unexpected bill, and I don't have any extra money in my account?"

And then when you've removed the resistance and judgment, it's easier to follow those questions up with "How can I have a peaceful and fulfilling relationship with my son?" [spend time with him doing things he enjoys] "How can I accomplish 6 hours' worth of work in the next 3 hours?" [Maybe some of it can be done another day; maybe some of it can be delegated; maybe a simpler process will come to you] "How can I be at peace while I drive?" "How can I attract an extra $1,000 in the next couple of months?" [Maybe I can do a week-long summer camp for Preschoolers or elementary school students - or drama - or dance - or piano]

It's been fun to see how "interesting" my problems really are!

I'm curious to see how it works for you, too! Won't it be "interesting" to see if it works for you, too?

Magic Question - Part 1 of 3

2009-10-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

I have learned that when I ask better questions, I get better answers! There are open-ended questions (an infinite possibility of answers) and there are closed-ended questions (yes or no). Using a closed-ended question (one that has a very specific answer) is like searching the hard drive of your computer. You are very limited in the number of answers that are available. Using an open-ended question is like searching the internet – the number of answers available are infinite, and it’s possible that you will find an answer you never would have thought on your own.

This week we are going to explore the power of using open-minded questions in our self-talk, and in our talk with other people. I call these magic questions.

The first magic question is using words like “How…” or “What if…” instead of “Why…” or “Am I…”.

So instead of asking “Why am I always broke?” or “Am I ever going to lose weight?”, try asking questions like: “How can I double my income this next year?” or “What is one thing I can do differently that will greatly increase my financial outlook?” or “How can I change the way I view my body/weight loss?” or “What is something I can do differently to achieve a healthier body?”

Try it out! I would love to hear the experiences you have with this!

Weight Loss Fears

2009-10-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

I can definitely relate to the fears that so many people feel about weight. I recently lost 30 pounds (I still have 30 more to go...,) and I can't believe what a difference it makes in my confidence. I keep telling my husband that it shouldn't matter, but then feeling like it shouldn't matter just adds more shame and guilt to what I was already feeling (I'll be blogging more about that next week...). As if I didn't have enough negative emotion already tied into it.

I have learned the importance of being in harmony spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically. Each of those areas is like a lock on a gate, and when all 4 locks are unlocked, the gate opens up and literally invites you to walk through. Not scary at all!!!

I was aligned spiritually and emotionally so I couldn't figure out why the weight wasn't coming off. I listened to a self-hypnosis CD by a respected person in that field EVERY night for 30 nights (to get myself mentally aligned). Within 2 weeks, a weight loss method I had never heard of FOUND ME!!! After more than 10 years of "failing," it was great to be completely aligned for success!

I know that fear keeps a lot of people from losing weight (or from any other success in their life), but once I was aligned spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically, all the fear melted away!

(If you want to know more about how I lost weight, feel free to check out my website at www.coachalisa.com. I will be adding more information in the next couple of months, too!)

What makes you real?

2009-10-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite all-time quotes from a lady who I really look up to and admire, Marjorie Hinckley:

“I don’t want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk’s lawn. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor’s children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone’s garden. I want to be there with children’s sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.”

Take some time today and think about -- and WRITE DOWN -- some of the great things you do all the time that make you a real person! Focus on all the great things you do, and you will start to see what an amazing person you really are!!!

We are Real!

2009-10-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

I love it when certain themes keep coming up for me over and over! Then I know I really need to pay attention and learn from them! One theme that has been coming up for me a lot lately is how we see ourselves. So that's what I'm going to blog about this week.

Most of you know that I recently lost 30 pounds. I hate that when I look in the mirror instead of celebrating the 30 pounds I have lost, I often feel myself getting discouraged over the 30 pounds I still need to lose. How many times do we look in the mirror and see the one or two less-than-perfect features on our bodies, while we totally overlook our beauty?

The media is lying to us when they tell us what the perfect woman is supposed to look like. They use tricks like lighting, angles, photo-shopping, etc to enhance the looks of the models. We were never meant to look like that -- we were meant to look like what we see when we look in the mirror!

A picture is worth a thousand words so I'm going to stop talking now and let you watch this instead:

Struggle vs. Joy

2009-10-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

I've always believed you can learn and grow through struggle, or you can learn and grow through joy.

When we don't understand these success principles, we usually wait until we hit "our" rock bottom, and then struggle our way through it. We still learn and grow, but sometimes it is a long drawn-out process.

When we understand these success principles, and we are present and choosing to learn and grow, we experience the joy of our experiences. It is easier to do it this way - and a lot more fun! Bad things still happen, but we know the Law of Rhythm so we know the bad times won't last, and that better times are around the corner. Instead of getting weaker, our faith actually increases because we know these great times are coming and we prepare for them!

Personally, I feel like I've learned these success principles more thoroughly when I was coming from a place of joy, faith & gratitude than I ever did when I was in a place of fear, struggle and desperation.

Ego vs. Love

2009-10-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

If you are like me, you have probably noticed that sometimes these principles work really well, and sometimes they don't seem to work as well! When I first started learning these principles, this really frustrated me because I know these principles work!

Then I realized that it makes a huge difference if my motive is based in ego (impressing others, proving to myself I can do it, worrying about what others think of me, doubting that I can really do it, etc) or in love (wanting to help others, being connected to God, knowing that with God all things are possible, being grateful for all I have).

It's basically another way of looking at competitive vs. creative. Sometimes the ego is pretty subtle. I have thought some of my motives were noble, but when I really stopped and evaluated I realized I was too concerned about what others thought or I was too worried to truly be coming from a place of love...

Becoming

2009-10-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

Several months ago I heard someone talking on the Oprah show. She was talking about making a list of all the qualities you want in a future companion, and how helpful it could be. (Even if you are married, you could take these same principles and apply them in other areas of your life.)

I always smile when people talk about these lists, because I made a list like that several years ago. I listed 67 qualities I wanted in my future husband. I marked the qualities that were essential with an "E" and I marked the ones that would be nice with a "W" (for wants).

But, this is the important thing I did that no one mentions, and I believe this is the reason it works for some people and not others! It makes me crazy that the "experts" leave out this all-important step: When I finished writing the list, I looked at it and said, "Now I need to become this person." And I went to work becoming the very person I described in my list!

When I met my husband, I knew on my first date that I could marry him. I was 26 years old, and had never felt that before - I was a skeptic, and definitely not a believer in "love at first sight". So I was really surprised when I came home from that first date and knew with a certainty that I could marry him. Now I realize that I was in vibration with the person I had described and immediately recognized it (for those of you who are religious, I recognize that the Spirit bore witness to me that night, but I also believe that it did because I had prepared myself to receive the answer). I lost the list long before I met my husband, but my husband definitely has all the qualities I remember being on the list (the wants as well as the essentials).

In "As a Man Thinketh" James Allen said: "Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are."

There is a big difference between wanting a million dollars and becoming a millionaire. The wanting is just idle dreaming; the becoming requires inspired, consistent action towards a goal/vision (which, of course, requires the goal/vision to begin with). Applying it to my personal example above, there is a big difference between wanting a great partner, and defining what a great partner is and working to become a great partner yourself!

The Vacuum Law

2009-02-28T06:43:00.001-08:00

The Vacuum Law of Prosperity states: "Nature Abhors a Vacuum." If you create a vacuum, then nature will fill it.

I have always wanted a grand piano. When we were moving from Arizona back to Texas, I realized that as long as I kept moving that piano around, I would never get my grand piano. I decided it was time to create a vacuum. So we gave away our piano and returned to Texas piano-less.

I had the perfect spot picked out in my living room for my grand piano. I made the mistake of "filling the space" with two chairs because I didn't like having an empty space there. At Christmastime we moved those chairs to put the Christmas tree in that spot. When we took the tree down, I started putting the chairs back in that spot and then it occurred to me that I was filling the vacuum with those chairs instead of a grand piano.

Meanwhile, I picked out the exact grand piano I wanted and put a picture of it on my vision board. So I had a great picture in my head of what my grand piano would look like. Every time I would pass that empty spot in my living room I would pause and picture my grand piano there - I would feel the gratitude for the grand piano swelling inside me. I would feel the gratitude as if the piano had already been delivered!

We received some unexpected income that covered the cost of the grand piano. The day before Easter my grand piano was delivered, and it looked exactly the way I had pictured it in my mind!

I had to create the vacuum, and I had to be sure that nothing else filled that vacuum so I could consciously create what I wanted to fill that vacuum. If you don’t consciously create something to fill the vacuum, and if you don’t put a lot of belief behind it, then nature will fill the vacuum with something else.

We can also create vacuums with our emotions. We can choose to no longer experience a negative emotion. But if we don’t replace it with its positive counterpart, then the negative emotion will quickly return. Try replacing anger with love, forgiveness, peace, calm and mercy. Try replacing fear with trust, reassurance, confidence, and courage. Try replacing doubt with belief and reassurance. Try filling up with lots of gratitude so there isn’t any room left for negative emotions.

Law of Gender and Gestation

2009-02-26T08:00:00.000-08:00

The law of gender states that in all of creation there is male and female in every kind (for life to perpetuate there must be one to plant the seed, and one to grow and nourish the seed).

The law of gestation states that every seed has a gestation or incubation period. Ideas are spiritual seeds and will move into physical form.

When we want to create a dream, we need the male (to plant the seed) and the female (to nourish the seed), and we need to allow our dream to mature and gestate. A seed that is not planted cannot grow, and a seed that is not nourished will wither and die. A seed needs to stay in the ground for a period of time while it gathers all the nutrients it needs to become a healthy, fruit-bearing plant.

A seed planted in good ground will grow faster and stronger than a seed planted in bad ground. There are two things in our control that determine if the ground we plant our seed in is good or not: the greatness of our intensity (how badly do we really want this) and the degree of faith we have (how great is our belief level).

Once the seed is planted in good ground, we need to make sure it is nourished properly so it can grow and become what it was meant to be. To keep nourishing our seed (our dream), we need sunlight and water.

The sunlight is our passion and enthusiasm. Remember, the greater our intensity and enthusiasm, the faster our idea seed will grow and bear fruit. Passion and enthusiasm give light to our dream and keep it growing in a healthy, positive way. We need to beware of clouds that eclipse the sunshine. These clouds are most often recognized as doubt, fear, worry, frustration, stress and anxiety. If our seeds are unable to get sunshine, they will wither and die.

We also need to water our seed daily so it will keep growing. The water is the consistent, daily, empowering actions we take that will keep our dreams growing. There is a Chinese Proverb that says, “The person who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” The best way to water a plant is consistent watering. It takes faith to keep taking consistent action, even when the plant cannot be seen yet.

If we were leaving to go on a vacation, we wouldn’t feed our plant extra water and then expect it to survive for a few weeks without water. Just like a plant needs to be consistently fed water or it will die, we need to be constantly taking consistent action towards our dream, or our dream will die. Massive actions followed by periods of inactivity will not sustain any worthy dream.

When we combine a worthy dream (a seed planted in premium soil) with passion and enthusiasm (sunlight) and consistent, daily, empowering, faith-sustaining actions (water), we will find a dream that grows and increases and becomes bigger and stronger than we ever imagined!

When our oldest son, Zack, was 4-1/2 years old we had been trying for several years to have another child, with no success. We had several foster children, but for various reasons none of them stayed in our home very long. It seemed like we were asking and asking (by this time not really believing we would receive -- all the evidence was definitely against us) and still there was no baby.

Zack kept asking us when we were going to have another baby. We finally told him he would have to ask God; we had done all we knew to do. Zack began asking God with an intensity that we had been lacking. He absolutely believed that God would give him a baby brother. We couldn't say a blessing on the food without asking God for our baby; Zack would make us say the prayer over if we forgot to mention his baby brother.

Within two months, we were contacted by a birth mother who had chosen us to raise her baby; the next month we held our sweet baby boy in our arms. We learned from our young son what it really meant to ask in faith, believing we would receive.

Law of Cause and Effect

2009-02-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

The law of cause and effect states that every cause has an effect, and every effect has a cause. Nothing happens by chance. Whatever you send into the Universe comes back to you.

Treat others with kindness and respect, and others will treat you with more kindness and respect. Never worry about what you are going to get, just concentrate on what you can give. When you plant the cause (in this case, treating others with kindness and respect), the effect will naturally follow (others treating you with kindness and respect).

Do you need more kindness in your life? Then plant seeds of kindness everywhere you go, and kindness will flow back to you.

Do you need more time in your life? Then give freely of your time through serving and volunteering, and more time will flow back to you.

Do you need more money? Then tithe your current money and give money to those who are less fortunate than you, and money will flow back to you!

Do you need better relationships? Then become a better friend and a better partner!

Several years ago I made a list of all the qualities I wanted in my future husband. I listed everything I could think of, and I ended up with sixty-seven qualities I wanted in my future husband. I marked the qualities that were essential with an "E" and I marked the ones that were non-essential with a "W" (for wants).

But then I did something really important that I have never heard any of the “experts” mention when they talk about making these lists. I believe this is the reason it works for some people and not others. When I finished writing the list, I looked at it and said, "Now I need to become this person." And I went to work becoming the very person I described in my list!

When I met my husband, I knew on my first date that I could marry him. I was 26 years old, and had never felt that before - I was a skeptic, and definitely not a believer in "love at first sight." So I was really surprised when I came home from that first date and knew with a certainty that I could marry him. Now I realize that I was in vibration with the person I had described and immediately recognized it. I lost my list long before I met my husband, but my husband definitely has all the qualities I remember being on the list (the wants as well as the essentials).

In "As a Man Thinketh" James Allen said: "Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are."

There is a big difference between wanting a million dollars and becoming a millionaire. The wanting is just idle dreaming; the becoming requires inspired, consistent action towards a goal/vision (which, of course, requires the goal/vision to begin with). Applying it to my personal example above, there is a big difference between wanting a great partner, and defining what a great partner is and working to become a great partner yourself!

Because you reap what you sow, be sure you are planting good seeds. Make sure that what you are seeking isn’t anchored in ego (wanting more than another person, wanting someone to do something for you, wanting something in return… wanting, wanting, wanting). Be sure that the seeds you plant are worthy of you. If you plant seeds of wanting, you will find yourself in a constant state of lack. If you plant seeds of value and service to others, you will always find value flowing back to you!

Law of Rhythm

2009-02-24T08:00:00.000-08:00

The Law of Rhythm states that nature’s movements are cyclical. There is repetition in everything.

When things are not going well for you and you are on a down swing, do not feel bad. Know the swing will change and things will get better. There are good times coming. As we think of the good times that are coming, our faith increases as we prepare for the good times ahead!

On October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed and the United States entered into The Great Depression. Times were worse than most Americans would have ever imagined. And now, many years later the descendants of those very people who struggled so much financially during the depression enjoy more wealth and prosperity than anyone in 1929 could have ever imagined. The United States is now in a recession. What a great opportunity to exercise and increase our faith as we prepare for the great times ahead!

A couple of years ago my husband and I really wanted to attend a seminar on the Science of Getting Rich, taught by Leslie Householder, that we knew would be life-changing for us. We had recently spent a lot of money getting both cars fixed, as well as a few other unexpected expenses which left our savings account fairly depleted. Financially, we were lower than we had been in a long time.

Knowing this seminar would be life-changing for us, we went forward in faith believing the money would come for us to attend the seminar. We signed up and payed for the seminar, fully expecting the payment to come from somewhere. When my husband did our tax return, there was a transaction missing from his earlier estimates which resulted in us getting a tax refund for the amount of the seminar cost!

As a direct result of attending the seminar, we decided to move back to Texas. Within two months my husband had two job offers for 20% more than he was currently making.

If I knew then what I know now, I never would have hesitated to pay that seminar fee! Now when we are at a financial low, we expect more money to come. The best part is that what used to be our financial highs are now our financial lows!

We want to be sure we don’t use the Law of Rhythm against us. When we are experiencing financial success, we definitely should not be expecting the lows to come. Instead, we should progress forward so that our current financial highs will become our future financial lows.

Right after we had our first baby, I quit my job to stay home. We were living as frugally as possible, and we were still spending more than my husband’s income. We were at our all-time financial low, and we just wanted to break even (that would be our new high). As we progressed, we started breaking even (our old high, but our new low), and now we wanted a little extra money (our new high). Once we had some extra money (our new low), we wanted to make enough money to cover some of our wants as well as our needs (our new high). And so the process continues to evolve; we set a goal for a new high and when we reach it, the high becomes our new low and we look forward to a new high. We should always be grateful for what we have, but at the same time we should always be progressing forward, setting and reaching new and higher goals.

We can learn and grow through struggle, or we can learn and grow through joy. When we don’t understand the universal laws, we usually wait until we hit our rock bottom and then we struggle our way through it. We still learn and grow, but it can be a painful and long, drawn-out process full of fear, struggle and desperation.

When we are conscious of the laws and living them, bad things still happen. Cars still break down, and there are still unexpected medical expenses. But when we know and understand the Law of Rhythm, we know the bad times won’t last and that better times are around the corner! That very expectation fills us with joy, faith, and gratitude and actually helps to speed up the process and help the better times come faster!

Law of Polarity

2009-02-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

The law of polarity states that everything of consequence has an opposite.

Life is just as good and joyful as it is bad and bitter. If something is bad, it is also good. If something is really, really bad, then it is also really, really good. This law is one of my favorites because it gives us hope when life seems to be really, really, really bad.

In March 2007 we learned that my mother had Stage 4 terminal breast cancer. She had aged 30 years in about 3 months’ time. All my grandparents lived to be at least 80 years old, and my grandfather is still alive at age 96. So it was a complete shock for my entire family to watch helplessly as my mother’s health quickly deteriorated from the cancer.

This was the first time I consciously put the Law of Polarity to the test. I felt like my mother’s death was something that was really, really, really, really bad and so I wanted to experience all the really, really, really, really good things that could come out of it. Her death was an amazing experience for me. Even though I cried more tears than I would have thought humanly possible, I was surrounded by a peaceful assurance that “All is well!” I received so many tender mercies that I started keeping a journal so I could keep track of them all.

We had three weeks from the time we knew my mother was dying until she was physically gone. As I recorded my thoughts and feelings the last few weeks of my mother’s life, I focused on the tender mercies I received from God.

A tender mercy is a personal and timely message of comfort and reassurance accompanied by God’s love. It is not a random occurrence, but a loving reminder from a loving God that all is well and happening for a higher purpose. Tender mercies are simple, sweet and constant in our lives if we are looking for them.

As I focused on the tender mercies of the Lord, they came more frequently and in greater ways than I could have imagined. Experiencing the sadness of my mother’s death was inevitable; experiencing the greatness of her death was a conscious choice I made.

Some of the tender mercies were too personal to share. I have recorded them and I treasure those constant assurances that “All is well!” I live 1300 miles away from my mother, so those final three weeks were a huge tender mercy for me. I had time to arrange my affairs with my family and get on a plane and visit my mother. After I arrived home, I was able to drive back with my entire family so that my husband and my children could say goodbye to her, also.

My mother loved music; she was an incredible pianist and organist, and her entire life revolved around music. Two weeks before her death, we put her in the wheelchair and brought her into the dining room/recreation room of the rest home. We played the piano and sang for her (and for anyone who stayed after dinner to hear the singing). It was definitely like being in heaven. She had blessed our lives with music for so many years, and now we were able to return that blessing to her.

My mother was able to return to her home for the final two weeks of her life. We set up a hospital bed in her living room where she had a beautiful view of the mountains, and where she could be next to her grand piano. Many former piano students came and played the piano for my mother. I personally played the piano for my mother as much as possible because she enjoyed it and seemed to be more relaxed when she heard her piano being played. One of the last gifts my mother left me was helping me rediscover my love for music.

The Sunday after her death we attended the congregation where my mother had attended the last 17 years of her life. It was a blessing to be surrounded by so many people who loved my mother and my family and had offered us so much love and support in the preceding weeks. The closing hymn was about pressing on and having courage, and I could feel my mother reminding me that in the end we will all be victorious.

A week after I returned home from my mother’s funeral I found a letter she had written to me in 1991. It was written in her own hand, and it was filled with so many kind things she wrote about me. It was like having her next to me saying the very things I wanted to hear her say. Another tender mercy.

I would love to have my mother back again, but I am so grateful for all the things I learned from her death. I am grateful that out of something so difficult and sad, I was able to discover so much love and joy.

Law of Vibration

2009-02-22T08:00:00.000-08:00

The law of vibration states that not only is everything in a state of vibration, but that vibration is a medium for transferring signals. Everything vibrates, nothing rests.

Physics teaches us that everything is made up of molecules that are in a continual state of motion, or vibration. The faster the vibration, the more fluid a substance is. Because our thoughts are made of matter, they are also constantly in a state of vibration.

Conscious awareness of vibration is called feeling. Choosing good thoughts and feelings raises your vibration and helps you attract the things you want into your life.

Shame, guilt, blame, anger, and hate are examples of low vibrations. You can recognize when you are in a low vibration because you feel bad. Joy, love, peace and gratitude are examples of high vibrations. You can recognize when you are in a high vibration because you feel great!

One of the most sure ways to change from a low vibration to a high vibration is through deep and profound gratitude.

I have a friend who has been a mentor to me for years. She is someone who has succeeded in every area of her life. I have watched her go through difficult circumstances and come out on top every time. I wanted to learn her secret so I visited her and asked her a lot of questions. She kept answering, “It’s all about gratitude. It’s all about gratitude.” That seemed to be her answer for everything. I kept thinking about that one phrase “It’s all about gratitude” after I left her house and for several weeks after. I knew that if that really was the answer, and I wasn’t experiencing all the things I wanted to experience, then I was lacking in my understanding and application of gratitude.

Shortly after meeting with my friend, I was able to test my new understanding of gratitude. Right as we put our Arizona home on the market, the real estate bubble started bursting. Homes were still being built at an incredible pace, and there were a lot more homes on the market than there were buyers. I tried visualizing the right buyer for our home, I wrote vision statements, I hung pictures of the house with a sold sign – anything I could think of to activate the law of attraction and bring the buyer quickly. No buyer was coming.

I was trying to be grateful, but in truth I was stressed out and frustrated. I kept seeing how many homes were on the market, and how home prices seemed to be falling weekly, and it was stressing me out (stress and frustration are low vibrations). Meanwhile we had moved back to Dallas, Texas. We were in our new home and I knew my husband’s company would pay our Arizona mortgage for six months. As the six month period was coming to a close I tried as hard as I could to feel as much gratitude as possible.

At the end of the six months our prayers were answered and his company extended the benefit so we had a little more time for the house to sell before we would have to make double house payments. I was so incredibly grateful that for a solid week I did everything with complete gratitude. I did not experience any stress or frustration -- just complete gratitude. At the end of that week, our realtor called and told us we had an offer on our house. We closed less than a month later.

From that experience I learned the difference between being grateful and living my life in complete gratitude. While I thought I was being grateful in the past, in truth I was dissatisfied and inclined to complain when I wasn’t getting the results I wanted. Once I experienced that “gratitude zone” I knew that was how I always wanted to live my life.

Without finding a place of complete gratitude, would our Arizona house have sold? Of course… eventually and with a lot of stress.

Do I still get stressed, frustrated, critical, or dissatisfied? Of course! I’m still learning. But now when I find myself out of the “gratitude zone,” I start journaling gratitude right away. It really helps me to write the things I am profoundly grateful for. I keep writing until I can feel myself back in the peaceful “gratitude zone.” You can also use meditation or relaxation to get back to the gratitude zone -- find what works for you and do it as often as you need to. When you get accustomed to the “gratitude zone,” you won’t ever want to leave it.

Law of Relativity

2009-02-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

The law of relativity states that nothing we experience is fundamentally good or bad. Nothing is good or bad until you compare it to something else.

When we compare what we have to someone else who has more, then we will always fall short. However, when we compare what we have to someone who has less, we will recognize how blessed we are.

Did you know that half the people in the world -- nearly 3 billion people -- live on less than $2/day? Did you know that if you make $20,000 per year in the United States, you are in the top 12% of the world’s wealthy? If you make $50,000 or more per year, you are in the top 1%!

I grew up the 4th of 9 children. We lived in a 2800 square foot house. I always had food to eat and clothes to wear, but I wasn’t wearing designer clothes. I always shared a bedroom with two or three sisters. It was a big bedroom and all of us had comfortable beds to sleep in, but all my school friends had their own bedroom. Compared to my friends at school, it seemed we were poor.

When I was 21 years old, I served as a missionary for my church in Ecuador (in South America) for 18 months. I had no idea how rich we were until I saw how people lived in other countries. I remember visiting a family that had 6 children, and they lived in a two-room shack. They cooked in the living room over a fire pit, and they had two beds (that looked very uncomfortable) in the other room where all 8 of them slept. Most families didn’t even dream of owning a car, much less a nice one that was big enough to transport the whole family.

I returned from my mission amazed at how rich we were! We had a family vehicle big enough to transport our entire family, we had comfortable beds to sleep in, we had carpet throughout our house, we had a bathroom with indoor plumbing and hot water. I could take a hot bath in the privacy of my own home! In fact, we had more than one bathtub in the house!

We had electricity! Did you know that there are 1.6 billion people in the world who live without electricity?

You don’t need to get a huge promotion at work or bring home a bigger paycheck to feel rich! You are already rich! Stop comparing yourself to the 1% who are wealthier than you and feeling sorry for yourself, and be grateful that you are one of the wealthy!

You can always find someone who is more clever, more talented, prettier, richer, or smarter than you are. But you can also always find people who are in need of your talents, your knowledge, your compassion, and your unique abilities. Never hold back your unique talents and abilities because you know someone who has more than of it than you do. Instead be grateful that you have the perfect amount of cleverness, talent, beauty, wealth, and knowledge to fulfill your life’s purpose. Look at those who could benefit from your unique talents and abilities and help them out! Start living a life of wealth today!

Belief and Gratitude

2009-02-20T08:00:00.000-08:00

Before we go on to the next law of success, I want to spend a little more time on belief and gratitude -- these two things can make all the difference in your success! Belief and gratitude speed up the creation process; doubt and fear reverse the creation process.

Belief.
To speed up the creation process, we need to increase the level of belief in our dream, getting rid of all doubt and fear. It helps to have a huge goal that drives and excites us (we will talk about how important that excitement is in a later post)! But when it comes to taking inspired action steps towards accomplishing that goal, it works better to break it up into small, believable steps.

Stephen R. Covey put it this way: "...there is no shortcut. If I am at day two (to use the analogy of the six days of creation) and desire to move to day six, I must go through days three, four, and five. If I pretend to be at day six in order to impress others, eventually I will be found out... I must move through each of the intervening steps. If I try to push too hard or to go too fast in order to shortcut the process, I may... drop back to day one." (The Spiritual Roots of Human Relations, p.14-15)

Your dream should be so big that you have no idea how you will ever accomplish it! Your goals, on the other hand, should be broken down into believable steps, each step building on the previous step.

For example, your dream may be to be a millionaire. Maybe you've never made more than $40,000 per year in your life. The thought of $1,000,000 totally excites you, but you have no idea how to get $1,000,000 (or you would already have it). If your goal is to make $1,000,000 it will be totally frustrating because you don't know how to do it. But you could probably think of ways to increase your income from $40,000 per year to $50,000 per year. Once you are on track to do that, then you can probably find ways to increase to $75,000 per year. Then $100,00 per year. Then once you have seen success in making these leaps, you can start taking bigger leaps! These leaps don't have to take a year -- for some people each of these steps may take a couple of weeks, and for others they may take at least a year.

Always ask open-ended questions while you are going through this process. Using the example above, let's suppose you have never made more than $40,000 per year, and you would like to increase that to $50,000 per year. If you ask a yes/no question like: "Is it possible for me to make $50,000 per year?" then you will go into an analytical mode and you will calculate that you have never made more than $40,000 per year. Your conclusion will be that "No," you can't make $50,000 per year.

Try asking a question like this instead: "How can I make $50,000 per year?" or "What can I do do increase my income by $10,000 per year?" Instead of going into analytical mode, this type of question will take you into creation mode where you start creating solutions and ways to accomplish your goal!

Gratitude.
Gratitude works with belief to speed up the creation process. I have unsuccessfully tried keeping gratitude journals in the past. Then I heard someone speak about a journal they kept where every day they recorded how God's hand had blessed them that day. I started doing this, and it completely transformed my life! I found that acknowledging God's hand in my life every day increased my awareness of how rich and blessed my life already was. This new awareness and knowledge automatically increased the amount of gratitude I was feeling!

Gratitude is a very high vibration (we will talk about the Law of Vibration in a later post), and when we are in a state of gratitude we automatically attract great things to us! When the right teachers and situations are finding us, we are able to more quickly and easily accomplish our dreams!

Law of Perpetual Transmutation

2009-02-20T06:17:00.000-08:00

The law of perpetual transmutation states that everything is either coming into physical form or going out of it. Everything is created spiritually before being manifested in the physical realm. We create spiritually when we exercise our faith and can effectively visualize our ideas, thoughts, and dreams.

Many of us have intense fears of lack of money, lack of health, and/or lack of healthy relationships. By focusing on our fear of lack, we are unconsciously creating the very thing we fear. We need to make a choice to believe in our dreams, and we need to remove all fear of lack.

Matthew 21:22 says, “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” We start the creation process when we ask God for something, believing we will receive it. At the very moment that we doubt or fear, we literally reverse the creation process.

Many people say, “But I’ve asked and asked, and I would like to receive, but what I’m asking for just isn’t coming.” I compare this to being hungry and ordering a pizza -- then being afraid the pizza may not come in time, or you may not have the money for it, or you may not like it after all, and so you call and cancel the order. But then you decide you’re so hungry you don’t care when it comes, how much it costs, or whether or not you like it -- you are hungry and you really want pizza. So you call and order the pizza again. And then the same fears set in -- what if it doesn’t come in time, what if you can’t pay for it, what if you won’t like it after waiting so long for it -- and you cancel the order again. You repeat this cycle 50 times.

Later that night you’re hungry and frustrated and you say to yourself, “I am so hungry! I ordered 50 pizzas and not one of them was delivered! Why not?”

We do the same thing in our lives. We ask God for something, but then with our doubts and fears we cancel the order. And then we wonder why God didn’t give us what we asked for.

Remember... Through our belief and gratitude we start bringing our dreams into the physical realm; through our doubts and fears we cancel the order and bring our dream back out of the physical realm.

Laws of Success

2009-02-09T06:49:00.000-08:00

There is a lot of talk right now about "the state of the economy." Peace of mind is eluding a lot of people, stress rates are climbing, and there is a lot of fear and anxiety about the future. It feels like everything is out of our control, and many people are feeling helpless right now.

Viktor Frankl said: "Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

As we become more aware of universal laws and principles, we will become more aware of the choices that are still ours. For example, we can choose to feel fear or we can choose to feel gratitude and trust that God is a perfect and generous supplier. I fully believe that no matter how high any prices skyrocket, God will always provide me with more than enough money to meet the rising costs. In fact, God's rate of increase is way higher than the rate of inflation.

I will talk more about these laws in greater detail in later posts. This first post is just an overview so you can see how all these laws and principles work together.

Law of Perpetual Transmutation - Think thoughts of gratitude and prosperity, and great things will come to you.

Law of Relativity - There are people in other countries who can't even afford shelter or food; they don't even dream about owning a house or a car -- they are just hoping for enough food to stay alive.

Law of Vibration - If you are in a state of gratitude, joy, love, and peace (no fear, doubt or worry), then you will attract more prosperity than you will ever need! (Conversely, doubt, fear & worry will attract more lack and scarcity.)

Law of Polarity - As bad as the economy is right now, you will probably learn your greatest lessons and receive your greatest motivation to prosper. (There were more millionaires created during the Depression than at any other time).

Law of Rhythm - Things may be in a down swing now, but there is always an up swing. The sooner you experience this, and the higher the up swing will actually be, depends on how much gratitude you feel (and how completely you can obliterate fear, doubt, worry, anger, anxiety, etc).

Law of Cause and Effect - Focus on what you can give, not what you will get - plant the seeds of prosperity and nourish them, and you can only reap prosperity - give what you can to charity and create a flow of prosperity that will come back to you tenfold (or hundredfold or thousandfold...).

Law of Gender - You are a co-creator; choose to create more prosperity than you will ever need; don't let your seed be strangled by doubt, fear and worry.

Vacuum Law of Prosperity - Nature abhors a vacuum. Is the economy turning your wallet into a vacuum? Be of good cheer! Nature abhors a vacuum, and must find a way to fill your wallet back to overflowing!

There is a huge collective fear right now about the economy. A simple, but very powerful and effective, antidote for the fear is to feel gratitude to God for all his goodness and for being such a great provider, and to stop nurturing doubt, fear, and worry.

Live Your Life on Purpose

2008-08-14T06:54:00.000-07:00

I have always known I had a specific life purpose, and yet for years I lived with doubt, fear, and worry. Part of me had goals, dreams, and ambitions and part of me was self-sabotaging all my efforts to live that great life.

Several years ago, I started a journey to discover how I could live the great life that I knew I was capable of. My journey to re-discover my dreams has been one of re-discovering passion and joy! It has taken me on many twists and turns that I never could have possibly anticipated. My journey has introduced me to so many great coaches, mentors, teachers, and friends!

It is now my passion and joy to share these life-changing, joy-creating principles with as many people as possible!

Join me in my blog journey as I share so many of the things I have learned these past couple of years!

2008-01-10T06:09:00.000-08:00

January 10, 2008 - a monumental day for me. This is my first ever blog. Everyone I know blogs. I write all the time - in a journal. I share my ideas all the time - with my friends on the phone. So, really, blogging makes sense for someone like me. I write it one time, and I can share it with thousands of people.

2008 is already my best year ever. Every year by now I have completely ditched my New Year's resolutions - sound familiar? But, this year (drum roll, please)... I have already had some pretty significant successes with my resolutions!

The great news is... Anyone can do what I did differently. It was actually small things I did that really added up to some huge successes. I love the Chinese Proverb: "The person who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones."

Stick with my blog as I guide you through what I did differently this year that was so simple anyone can do it!!!