What Is Your Challenge?

Welcome another year!

Why do most New Year's Resolutions fail? By now, many New Years resolutions would be thrown out, forgotten, shrugged off. There is always next year.

Why do they fail? Perhaps, because theseBy now, many New Years resolutions would be thrown out, forgotten, shrugged off. There is always next year.

Diet? Lose weight? Cut down on the use of credit cards? Be more prompt with bill payments? Cut down on shopping. Read more, pursue that elusive dream, whatever that is. Be a better partner, parent, friend and employer or employee. This is a common one: Exercise!. Meditate.

Time is passing by, welcome to 365 days of procrastination. Time to change your strategy. Yes, life entails strategies, planning,action and implementation.

But, build it one step at a time.

Think of the company you work for. They have a business plan, a budget; they make sure they have the resources needed, financial, time and human . They assess their position on schedule. They implement, they act decisively when it matters.

This is their challenge in order to succeed.

So, what is your challenge?

Replace the worn out resolutions that you make year year.The words lost their essence, their meaning long ago. Re-think, plan a strategy to meet your challenge. Make it worth your while.

In a nutshell, are these pursuits challenging ?

Healthy lifestyle:

1. good , healthy nutritious food

2. healthy portions of food

3. balance work, family and recreation, each area gets a time of their own

4. exercise choose what is best for you, a lot to choose from

5. time for yourself- discover, nurture and listen to your inner self
Financial Health

1. budget- a well planned budget

2. outline major expenses for the year- car, house repairs, travel

3. analysis of spending habits- what you need and what you want

4. pay down debt- mortgage, credit cards

5. no matter what age group- a nest egg /retirement/emergency funds

Try a 21-day challenge.

This is not an original idea. But studies show that if you try your best for 21 days, it eventually results in developing a healthy habit. A forum I'm on has this 21-day challenge. It turns participants into doers. That's what you need to become- a doer.

Take it one challenge at a time. What is important to you? Diet, weight loss?

Challenge yourself to adopt a healthier eating habit. If fast food and take-out food is your style, there are healthy choices in this area. BUT-is cooking such an aversion and bother that the convenience of take-out or frozen meals are so tempting. There are benefits to cooking. You can choose, experiment and be creative. It's actually a rewarding endeavour. Surprise yourself.

You love food, eat very healthy portions, you never feel full. More food is good for you. OK- think aboout this seriously.

Vegetables. Yuk. What wants them? Think again. You do!!! Get the idea?

Try this for 21 days. Focus on this challenge,with dedication and enthusiasm.Do it! If you succeed, your 21 days would act as your spring board to the next challenge .

One challenge at a time, you can build it up to eventually meeting all those New Years Resolution you've dropped by the wayside.

The Gratitude Attitude

Gratitude is one of the most powerful forces in the Universe. It may not look as good as money, a big car, a palatial house, or the latest makeover – in fact, you can't see it at all – but, as I'm going to show you, gratitude has more power to change your life than all these material things put together.

The dictionary tells us that gratitude is "the expression of gratefulness and thanks" but this doesn't begin to convey its real effect. Here are an alternative set of definitions.

Gratitude stops you taking your life for granted and helps you realize how many good things you have in your life.
Gratitude makes others feel better.
Gratitude makes you feel better. In the words of an Arabian proverb, "The hand that gives the roses always keeps some of the scent."
Gratitude raises your awareness of things around you.
Gratitude is easy, quick, and simple.
Gratitude is an instant blues-breaker and stress-reliever.
Gratitude changes your view of so-called "bad" things.
Gratitude frees you from petty annoyances.
Gratitude inspires you.
Gratitude puts your thoughts and feelings on a high vibration level that in turn attracts back to you more things to be grateful for.
Gratitude nourishes the soul.
Gratitude is like compound interest on money in the bank: the more you put in, the more you get out.
Gratitude is a spiritual act because it acknowledges that the origin of all good things is a source outside ourselves.
Gratitude puts you on a direct line to God.

That's the "what" of gratitude. To show you the "how", here are three things you can do to make the Gratitude Attitude a firm fixture in your life.

1. Create a Thank Bank. A Thank Bank is simply a place where you can jot down all the things that you are grateful for in your life. You can split the bank into different accounts such as Family, Surroundings and Work, and then simply start writing out your thanks until you stop. Put your list somewhere safe and pull it out when you're feeling down and you'll instantly change your mood.
2. Show Gratitude Quietly. Don't turn gratitude into a promotional or motivational tool. Too much thanks is as ineffective as too little. Instead, express your thanks in quiet ways: a thought, a prayer, a one-on-one word, a note of appreciation. Give people gifts of thanks that aren't bought at shops: a bit of your time, a sacrifice, something valuable to you. Remember the story in the Bible of the widow, who gave a small money gift in thanks even though it was worth everything to her.

3. Always Replace the 3 C's With the 3 A's. If you work or manage others, and sometimes feel the need to use one of the 3 C's – complaining, condemning, and criticizing – replace them with the 3 A's of Accepting, Acknowledging, and Appreciating. Accept people for who they are; acknowledge them for what they do; and appreciate them for just being around. Remember that when you appreciate others, your reputation and respect appreciates too.

There's nothing complicated about gratitude. It's something we can all do. We so often don't do it because we forget, because we focus on the few so-called bad things in our lives, and because we take the wonderful things for granted. So change your life. Put gratitude just below your level of consciousness, and every day will become one of joy and delight.

Law of Attraction Classics: Suggestion is Power - Vision and Manifesting - Charles Bristol

I recall a thrifty neighbor of mine who, although a man of intelligence and mature years, had his hair cut at only certain times of the moon. I don't remember whether it was when the moon was waxing or waning, but he maintained that whatever phase he selected caused his hair to grow less abundantly than if he had visited the barber at other times.

I asked him once where he got such an idea. He glared at me as though I were belittling his intelligence, and I never did get an answer to my question.

What I have said about plant and animal life may cause a lot of materialistic people to take violent issue, but it must be remembered that at work in the world are many forces of which we know little or nothing. Consider how many new principles were developed in World War II.

Without question, human imagination, visualization, and concentration are the chief factors in developing the subconscious mind's magnetic forces. You have often heard the statement, "Hold that pose!" That, of course, means holding the mental picture or vision. Here again, suggestion---repeated suggestion---plays its part.

For example, you would like a new home. Your imagination goes to work. At first, you have only a hazy idea of the kind of house you would like. Then, as you discuss it with other members of your family---or ask questions of builders or look at illustrations of new houses---the mental picture becomes clearer and clearer, until you can visualize your ideal house in all its particulars

After that, the subconscious goes to work to provide you with that house. It may come into manifestation in any number of ways. But do you really care whether you build it with your own hands, or whether it comes to you through purchase, or from the actions of outsiders? How it comes to you is of no great consequence!

When you are after a better job or planning a vacation trip, the process is the same. You've got to see it in your mind's eye, see yourself as holding that job or actually taking the trip. Some of our fears become realities through our imaginations, just as Job's did. Fortunately, many of them do not---as long as we hold the mental picture only temporarily, or at least not long enough to focus it fully upon the screen of our subconscious.

The Biblical warning, "Where there is no vision, the people perish," is a fundamental truth, whether considered individually or collectively. For without the mental picture of accomplishment, little is done. You want a better job? You'll get it when you give your subconscious mind a mental picture of yourself holding that jo.

As I write this, I think of the many experiences confided to me by those who have used this science during the years. I want to give you some of their stories, for in them you may perhaps find clues to an even more effective use of the principles and the mechanics which I am setting forth.

Law of Attraction Classics: Suggestion Is Power - Sports

This subtle force of the repeated suggestion overcomes our reason, acting directly on our emotions and our feelings, finally penetrating to the very depths of our subconscious minds. This is the basic principle of all successful advertising---the continued and repeated suggestion that first makes you believe, after which you are eager to buy. In recent years we have enjoyed a vitamin spree.

For centuries tomatoes were looked upon as poisonous. People dared not eat them until some fearless person tried them and lived. Today millions of people eat tomatoes, not knowing that they were considered unfit for human consumption. Conversely, the lowly spinach nearly went into the garbage pail after the United States Government declared that it did not contain the food values attributed to it for decades. Millions believed this and refused to honor Popeye's favorite dish any longer.

Clearly, the founders of all great religious movements knew much about the power of the repeated suggestion and gained far-reaching results with it. Religious teachings have been hammered into us from birth, into our mothers and fathers before us and into their parents and their parents before them.

There's certainly white magic in that kind of believing.

Such statements as "What we don't know won't hurt us" and 'Ignorance is bliss" take on greater significance when you realize that only the things you become conscious of can harm or bother you. We have all heard the story of the man who didn't know it couldn't be done and went ahead and did it.

Psychologists tell us that as babies we have only two fears: the fear of loud noises and the fear of falling. All of our other fears are passed on to us or develop as a result of our experiences; they come from what we are taught or what we hear and see.

I like to think of men and women as staunch oak trees that can stand firm amid the many crosscurrents of thought that whirl around them. But far too many people are like saplings that, swayed by every little breeze, ultimately grow in the direction of some strong wind of thought that blows against them.

The Bible is filled with examples of the power of thought and suggestion. Read Genesis, Chapter 30, verses 36 to 43, and you'll learn that even Jacob knew their power. The Bible tells how he developed spotted and speckled cattle, sheep, and goats by placing rods from trees, partially stripping them of their bark so they would appear spotted and marked, in the watering troughs where the animals came to drink. As you may have guessed, the flocks conceived before the spotted rods and brought forth cattle, "ring-straked, speckled, and spotted." (And incidentally, Jacob waxed exceedingly rich.)

Moses, too, was a master at suggestion. For forty years he used it on the Israelites, and it took them to the promised land of milk and honey. David, following the suggestive forces operating on him, slew the mighty, heavily armed Goliath with a pebble from a slingshot.

Joan of Arc, the frail little Maid of OrlÚans, heard voices and under their suggestive influences became imbued with the idea that she had a mission to save France. She was able to transmit her indomitable spirit to the hearts of her soldiers and she defeated the superior forces of the English at OrlÚans.

William James, father of modern psychology in America, declared that often our faith in advance of a doubtful undertaking is the only thing that can assure its successful conclusion. Man's faith, according to James, acts on the powers above him as a claim and creates its own verification. In other words, the thought becomes literally father to the fact.

For further illumination of faith and its power, I suggest that you read the General Epistle of James in the New Testament.

Actually everyone who has ever witnessed a football or baseball game has seen this power of suggestion at work. Knute Rockne, the famous coach at Notre Dame, knew the value of suggestion and used it repeatedly, but always suited his method of applying it to the temperament of the individual team
On one Saturday afternoon, Notre Dame was playing in a particularly grueling game, and at the end of the first half was trailing badly. The players were in their dressing room nervously awaiting Rockne's arrival. Finally the door opened, and Rockne came in slowly. His eyes swept inquiringly over the squad---"Oh, excuse me, I made a mistake. I thought these were the quarters of the Notre Dame team." The door closed, and Rockne was gone.

Puzzled and then stung with fury, the team went out for the second half---and won the game.

Other writers, too, have explained the psychological methods Rockne used and have told how Fielding Yost of Michigan, Dan McGuin of Vanderbilt, Herbert Crisler of Princeton, and dozens of others used the "magic" of suggestion to arouse their teams to great emotional heights.

Before the Rose Bowl game of 1934, the "wise" tipsters rated the Columbia team as underdogs. They hadn't counted on Coach Lou Little and his stirring talks to his players day after day. When the whistle blew for the end of the game, the Columbia men were the top dogs over the "superior" Stanford team.

In 1935, Gonzaga University beat powerful Washington State 13 to 6 in one of the biggest upset games ever seen in the West. Gonzaga was a non-conference team, while the Washington State team, because of its great record, was thought to be unbeatable. Newspapers at the time reported assistant coach Sam Dagley as having declared that Gonzaga played inspired football.

He revealed that for half an hour before the game, Coach Mike Pecarovich played "over and over" a phonograph record of one of Rockne's most rousing pep talks.

Years ago, Mickey Cochrane of the Detroit Tigers literally drove a second-division-minded group of baseball players to the top of the American League by using the power of the repeated suggestion. I quote from a newspaper dispatch: "Day after day, through the hot, hard grind, [Cochrane] preached the gospel of victory, impressing on the Tigers the 'continued thought' that the team which wins must go forward."

You see the same force actively at work in the fluctuations of the stock market. Unfavorable news immediately depresses prices, while favorable news raises them. The intrinsic values of stocks are not changed, but there is an immediate change in the thinking of the market operators, which is reflected at once in the minds of the holders. Not what will actually happen, but what security holders believe will happen causes them to buy or sell.

In the Depression years---and there may be years like them in the future---we saw this same suggestive force working overtime. Day after day we heard expressions such as, "Times are hard," "Business is poor," "The banks are failing," "Prosperity hasn't a chance," and wild stories about business failures on every hand, until they became the national chant.

Millions believed that prosperous days would never return. Hundreds, yes thousands, of strong-willed men go down under the constant hammering, the continuous tap-tapping of the same fearful thoughts. Money, always sensitive, runs to cover when fear suggestions begin to circulate, and business failures and unemployment quickly follow.

We hear thousands of stories of bank failures, huge concerns going to the wall, etc., and people readily believe them and act accordingly.

There will never be another business depression if people generally realize that their own fearful thoughts literally create hard times. They think hard times, and hard times follow. So it is with wars. When peoples of the world stop thinking of depressions and wars, they will become non- existent, for nothing comes into our economic sphere unless we first create it with our emotional thinking.

Improve Performance through Positive Thinking and Behavior

Positive thinking is making a conscious effort to think with an optimistic attitude and anticipate positive outcomes. Positive behavior means purposely acting with energy and enthusiasm. When you think and behave positively, you guide your mind toward your goals and generate matching mental and physical energy.

Rediscovering Chapbooks

In the 1600's most cultured socialites considered chapbooks vulgar. These 'flimsy' booklets were often sold in less than reputable establishments and contained a variety of less than quality poetry, stories, ballads and political dissent. Often filled with spelling mistakes, factual blunders and little in the way of quality assurance these chapbooks often connected with the uncultured alone.

The Secret To Business Success: Act On Your Ideas

The real secret of a success is simple: Do something about your ideas. Each of us has seen a new idea and said, "Why, I thought of that a year ago." We say it with scorn, but we should direct the scorn at ourselves, not at the person who had the drive to do something about it.