Confidence

How confident are you?  Say, on a scale of 1 to 10?

It is important to maintain confidence for a couple of very good reasons.

Firstly, if you lack self confidence this will be very noticeable to those around you.  Perhaps not consciously, but unconsciously they will quickly recognize this state in you.  Some will then use this knowledge to take advantage of you, and that is not a situation you want to be in!  Others will not exploit your weakness, but they may still not wish to be associated with you or with any ideas you are trying to introduce.  Sales people know both of this results all too well.  If they go into a sales situation lacking confidence the other party will either reject them completely or will be able to negotiate a far better deal for themselves than they are really entitled to.  But it is not just in sales situations that you will have these problems.  It will be just as problematic in, for example, personal relationships.

When people around you react in this way it will easily turn into a vicious circle.  You will know you are being rejected.  You will know people are taking advantage of you.  And this will cause you to lose even more self confidence.

Secondly, a lack of confidence will send the wrong message to the universe.  You will find you are using the Law of Attraction not to attract to you what you want and need but instead to take things away from you.  The Law of Attraction is a double edged sword.  It is a very powerful universal force and it can just as easily lead you into misery as it can into joy and fulfilment.

Imagine, for example, that you would like to date a prospective romantic partner.  Now imagine that before you approach this person you start to worry.  You worry that you are not good enough for them, that there are lots of far better people around they would find more suitable than you.  You approach this person with all those worries and concerns in your mind and then you pop the question.  What do you think is most likely to happen?  Almost certainly they will reject you.  They may not even know why they are rejecting you, but they do so anyway simply because they have picked up those negative vibes from you.  When you get that rejection it will confirm your worst feelings.  It will "prove" that you are not good enough, that you don't deserve to be with someone as good as this.  All this means that the next time you try to approach someone you will have even less confidence, and it is even more likely they will reject you.  At the same time you will be sending out a message to the universe that you should not be given the joy of forming a relationship with a lovely person.  Guess what?  The universe will act on this message.

Think of self confidence as a kind of muscle.  In many people it is a vastly under-used muscle.  This means it is very weak.

The answer, of course, is to begin exercising this muscle.  And just as with exercising your body you shouldn't wait until you really need it before you start exercising it.  If you wait until you really need it you are leaving it far too late.  Just as you wouldn't think of entering a marathon and doing no exercise to prepare for it, on the basis that the marathon itself will be enough exercise!

How should you exercise your self confidence?

Set aside some time each day to practice.  Just as many people do with physical exercise.  Use affirmations telling yourself how confident you are, how great you are etc.  Combine this with an exercise I have referred to in a number of other blogs - move your mind up into the Light you feel is above you, the Light of the Universe.  Merge with it, then slowly come back down into your body bringing that Light with you.  Feel the power of the Universe inside you, expanding way beyond your body.  Experience how good that feels!  Then use your affirmations.

Don't worry if the first time you do this it feels a bit strange, and maybe even you feel a bit silly.  That is quite normal.  Don't expect to obtain great results immediately either.  It may take several sessions before you feel it is really having any effect.  Again that is quite normal.  Just as you should not be surprised if you don't feel your muscles are stronger immediately after your first work out for many years.

Keep practising like this every day and you will start to notice the difference.  So will the people around you.  As your self confidence grows you will find people are no longer taking advantage of you.  They are not rejecting you.  You are starting to get good results.  Don't assume that you will always get what you are going after, as it might not be right for you (or for others).  But you will certainly find you are gaining a lot more than you did before.  And the successes you have will make you feel even more confident the next time, making it even more likely you will achieve what you hope for.

Mental Fields

If you are like most people you probably believe your mind is in your brain.  But is that really the case?  Many people (myself NOT included) believe the mind is simply a result of electrical activity in the brain.  If this is the case, then it is logical to assume it is centred in and around the brain.  Notice, though, my inclusion of the word "around".  Think of it more like a magnetic field, which expands beyond the physical magnet itself - sometimes well beyond.  My own belief is that as the mind is not a physical state at all there is no reason why it should be limited to a particular physical location at all, although I accept that much of the time we will tend to focus our "mental field" around our brain, if only because this is what we are conditioned to do.

Once you accept even the limited expansion of "around the brain" rather than "in the brain" this opens up many interesting possibilities.

Consider telepathy.

This is an ability which is often scorned by those who have not studied it deeply.  They believe it is completely unscientific to propose an ability to read someone else's mind.  I agree we do not yet have scientific proof that this ability exists, and perhaps we never will.  But that is very different from suggesting it is not possible for it to exist.  If the mind is like a magnetic field, extending beyond the brain, then it is not at all illogical to imagine the intersection of two such mental fields allowing an exchange of information between the two minds.

Have you ever felt your skin crawl and then turned to see someone staring at you?  Or stared at a sleeping pet that immediately opens its eyes and stares back at you?  Could these incidents perhaps be explained by the intersection of the two mental fields?

Or how about telekinesis?

Again, if the mind is like a magnetic field and extends beyond your body, why should it not be possible for it to have the power to move objects just as a magnet can do.  And as we are talking here of a "mental field" rather than a "magnetic field" there is no reason why this ability should be limited to magnetisable objects.

Telekinesis is, of course, rather a trivial power.  The mind has much more relevant powers than a party trick like this.

The power to connect with Universal power for example.  Check out my earlier article on healing for one way in which this can be used.  But the power is not, of course, limited to healing.  The idea of linking with Universal power and using it to achieve goals you have set yourself or simply to become a better person is, in my view, perfectly sound, and the method (moving your mind out of your body to merge with the Light of the Universe) quite naturally falls in line with this "mental field" concept.

Astral travelling is another concept that makes a lot of sense once you can accept that your mental field is not limited to one narrow physical space.

Acknowledging your mind is not limited physically can be a real paradigm shift.  Open up your mind today and see where this takes you!

Jihad

What is Jihad?

Bear with me for this.  Soon you will see why I am writing about Jihad in a personal development blog.  And you will also see this is very relevant whether or not you are a Muslim.  But first I need to clear up some gross misconceptions about the meaning of Jihad.

If you are a true Muslim you should know the answer.  I say "should", as there are many Muslims who have completely the wrong idea about what Jihad is, just as the vast majority of non-Muslims do.

Here are some of the things Jihad is NOT:

• It is NOT a holy war.  There is nothing in Islamic doctrine about holy war, which is a concept created not by Islam but by Christian Crusaders nearly 1,000 years ago.  War is vile and can never be holy, even if it is believed to be necessary.
• It is not about blowing yourself up.  That is a sin in Islam just as it is in most religions.  According to the Hadith, the Prophet, peace be upon him, said "A man was inflicted with wounds and he committed suicide, and so Allah said: My slave has caused death on himself hurriedly, so I forbid Paradise for him."  Certainly no suggestion here of many virgins waiting in paradise for a suicide bomber!
• It is not about killing innocent people.  That is a sin in Islam just as it is for people of other beliefs.
• It is certainly not about killing people simply because their faith is different from yours.  Christians and Muslims may have done this throughout history, but there is nothing in either religion that condones, let alone commands, it.

The greater Jihad (Jihad al-Akbar) is all about inner struggle.  Not fighting others, but fighting the demons within.  The inner fight of good against evil.

This struggle is almost certainly the greatest and most important struggle you will ever have.  It is a struggle that is ordained for all Muslims (Quran 2:216).  But it is also a struggle we all need to undertake, whether or not we believe in the teachings of Islam.

As Gandhi said, "You must be the change you want to see in the world."  Change yourself and you will change the world.  Make yourself a better person and you will make this world a better world.  Do not believe that you are too small or insignificant to make a real change in the world - you are not!  Work on improving yourself not just because you want things to be better for you, but because you want things to be better for others.  The Christian mystic John Donne knew this when he penned "No Man is an Island".

Change does not come easily.  There is a good reason Jihad is called "struggle".  It is a constant struggle.  There will always be voices inside telling you that it is too difficult, that there is no reason to do it, that it would be much better to sit and watch the latest soap on TV.  You must struggle against those voices and work your Jihad within.

I cannot tell you here what you must do for your own personal development.  How to work the greater Jihad will be different for each of us.  But don't give up at the first hurdle using the excuse that you do not know what to do.  Doing ANYTHING to improve yourself is far better than doing nothing.  So resolve now to begin that struggle by doing something, anything!

If you are stuck and simply cannot think of how to start your own personal Jihad, then go to http://www.beallican.com/, where you will be able to download 4 free e-books and to sign up to a regular newsletter which will help you develop yourself.  If you are seeking Muslim teachings you will be disappointed, as I am not a Muslim myself.  But whether or not you are a Muslim, this path will be the first step in your personal Jihad and give you many ways to improve yourself and thereby improve the world around you.

Serendipity or Synchronicity

Do you believe in serendipity?

My Oxford dictionary defines serendipity as "the occurence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way".  Clearly, just by the laws of chance, such events will occur, and they will occur quite frequently.

Carl Jung referred in his research to "synchronicity", which is very similar.  The definition of synchronicity is "the simultaneous occurence of events which appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection".  In Jung's research the linked events were generally not serendipitous.  They were not specifically "happy or beneficial".

Taking a leaf from Shakespeare's book, I am going to invent a new word by combining the two.  I believe in "synchrondipity".  My definition of synchrondipity is "the simultaneous occurence and development of significantly related events, with no discernable causal connection, in a happy or beneficial way".  I believe synchrondipity can occur other than by chance.  I believe this is one of the ways things are purposely arranged by "the Universe", or "God", "Allah" or whatever/whoever else you believe is in control.  I will refer to "the Universe" in the rest of this article, as I don't want to keep repeating "or God, or Allah", but if you are more comfortable using a different word, simply replace "Universe" with that word in your own mind.

This links closely to the Law of Attraction and is one of the main ways in which this Law works.  Many people think that the Law of Attraction is simply that you must project a belief that something will happen and then it magically will.  For example, you want to become very wealthy, so you visualize a million dollars in your bank account, and then just sit back and wait for the million dollars to appear.  If this is how you apply the Law of Attraction you will probably be waiting a very long time!  Not because a million dollars is too much for the Universe to provide.  Far from it!  Such a task is well within the capability of the infinite Universe.  The problem is that you are not ready to receive that million dollars.  The Universe will attempt to deliver it, probably in many small deliveries, but when it knocks on your door to deliver the package you don't answer the door!  It will attempt the deliveries through synchrondipity.

Events will arise which are intended to lead you to your desired outcome.  But you have to be open to the leading of the Universe and see those events for what they are - steps towards your goal.  Take advantage of those events by taking action.  It is the action you take that will lead you closer to your goal.  When you eventually receive your reward it will seem to all around you that there was nothing magical about it at all - it was the inevitable result of the actions you took.  They will admire you for having the courage to take some of those actions, and they will also probably feel you were particularly lucky to be in the right place at the right time.  But what they will not realize is that you were simply taking delivery of the packages the Universe sent you in response to your invocation of the Law of Attraction.

Think back through some of the things that have happened in your life and I am sure you will see many examples of synchrondipity.  At the time you probably did not recognize them for what they were, but you did take advantage and you did gain useful results.

Recognize that synchrondipity is a real and powerful force, and train yourself to recognize it so you can take full advantage.  Listen to that small, still voice inside you, which some people call intuition, and you will see and be able to take more advantage of more and more synchrondipitous events.  Do this and you will be well placed to realize your dreams and achieve your goals.

Goals and Dreams

Do you have any goals?  Not just dreams, but real goals?

You should actually have both.  As Napoleon Hill said, a goal is a dream with a deadline.  The starting point is therefore a dream.  You must always dream, or eventually you will run out of goals.

Some people feel that dreaming is a waste of time and energy.  The term "daydream" is used more often than not as a criticism.  But dreaming is most definitely NOT a waste of time and energy, it is something you must keep doing.  Not all the time, of course!  You don't want to spend all your time just dreaming, or you will never achieve anything.  But make sure you spend enough time dreaming to have a good supply of goals to achieve, or you will again never achieve anything.  You need to have the right balance between the two.

In my experience far too many people leave out this first step.  As a result they find they have no real goals, and wonder why life seems to have become more of a "grind" than a joyful experience.

Having dreams is a creative activity.  Turning those dreams into goals is a practical activity.  To use "Right Brain - Left Brain" terminology, the start of the process, having dreams, is a "Right Brain" activity and turning dreams into goals is a "Left Brain" activity.  You should be aware, though, that the concept of your right and left hemispheres of your brain having radically different functions is regarded by psychologists as a myth.  Psychologists say that both hemispheres work together to achieve most tasks. But perhaps another way of looking at that is the same as I am saying here - you NEED both hemispheres to be working together; you NEED both the creativity and practicality.

If you sometimes find life a bit boring I suggest you start by checking to see if you have forgotten to keep dreaming.  If you have, that is your problem.  Start creating those dreams again.  Don't worry about the fact that you cannot yet see how some of those dreams will be achieved.  Give the Universe more credit than that.  It has enormous power and that power can be harnessed to turn your dreams into reality - but only if you have those dreams in the first place!

Getting in touch with your inner child that wants to keep dreaming is therefore an extremely important step.  Don't allow the adult in your to squash that inner child!

Once you have made sure the flow of dreams is there you can move on to the next step - turning some of them into goals.  Notice I have said "some of them".  Do not try to turn them all into goals!  That is actually one way of eventually turning off the flow of dreams.  You will find many dreams cannot yet be turned into goals, and unless you watch what is happening carefully the "adult" in you will react by telling the "child" in you to stop producing dreams it cannot turn into reality.  The "child" will then follow those instructions, and the wonderful flow of dreams will diminish and eventually stop altogether.  But some of them MUST be turned into goals if you are ever going to achieve anything.  Turn them into goals by selecting the ones that most resonate with you and try to create some deadlines.  Those deadlines may be far in the future.  If they are, break down the dreams into smaller tasks which lead to achieving the ultimate dream, and apply deadlines for the first steps.

There is plenty of help online which you can tap into in order to follow both of these principles - dream more, and create more goals.  Make sure you DO tap into it, and your life will be far more exciting and far more productive.

Healing Yourself

Is it possible to heal yourself by using your mind?

The answer to this is a definite yes.  But at the same time I should qualify the answer.

Firstly, healing with your mind should be an integral part of a holistic approach.  The approach should include an appropriate lifestyle, including eating healthily and exercising appropriately.  It should also include your medical team, assuming we are talking about a medical issue (you will see later that “healing” can be a much wider concept than simply dealing with medical problems).  “Medical team” may mean just your doctor, but for more complex situations it may also include a number of specialists.  Never assume that because you are taking a natural approach and also using the healing power of your mind you can afford to ignore proper medical advice.  You should also make sure your medical team are aware of the other strands within your holistic approach.

Secondly, not everyone will be able to heal every condition.  If you have, for example, been diagnosed with terminal cancer do not assume you will be able to confound your doctors by completely healing that cancer and going on to live to a ripe old age.  You may be able to do just that.  But do not be disappointed if you find you do not have the ability to do it.  Somewhere deep inside each of us is such an ability, but we can each only access it to a certain degree.

This seems like a very negative start, but it is important to clarify these two points before doing anything else.

Having dealt with the negatives, do not now let them cloud your thinking.  If you start with the assumption that you will not be able to heal yourself one thing is certain – you will be right!  Having made sure you are taking all the other appropriate steps, and having accepted that nothing in this universe is certain, take a very positive view.  Recognize that it is only when you have a positive view that you can work the miracles that the universe wants you to work.

Healing is not about “fighting illness”.  It is about recognizing the perfect being the Universe wants you to be and allowing that “real you” to shine through.  In some cases that will mean you are negating illnesses so that they disappear, but in other cases it may mean allowing negative attitudes and emotions to disappear, accepting improvements to your mental, emotional, spiritual and physical state etc.

There are many different ways of approaching the healing process.  The method I prefer is to focus on the Light that represents the Universe made manifest within you.  I begin by imagining my mind moving upwards, right up to the stars, and finding the true source of everything – which appears to me as a kind of ball of light.  I merge my mind with that ball of light and then bring it right back down so it is now centred in my body.  Now I sit quietly for a while, basking in the Light within me, the Light that is the power of the Universe.

When I am ready to move on I focus on the particular healing task I have chosen.  This must always be framed in a positive way, not a negative one.  Here, the approach used by Émile Coué is helpful.  For example, using the very generic “Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.”

While you are doing this, feel the Light within you expanding.  First filling your whole body with light.  This alone will transform you and allow the Light to begin working its miracles.  Feel it flowing through all your blood vessels, penetrating every space in your body.  Feel a deep sense of gratitude to the Universe for the way this makes you feel and for the healing you are receiving.

Finish the exercise by feeling the Light expanding out beyond you.  Let it grow and grow until eventually it fills the whole Universe – which is the reality anyway, as that Light and the Universe are one.  Now you and the Universe are one.  Which means you have all the power of the Universe.  All that power to achieve just a very small healing.

Subliminal Messaging

A subliminal message is a message that passes under the radar.  It is not intercepted en route by your conscious mind.  To use Freudian terminology, it avoids the super-ego, which might otherwise criticise or reject it.  Think of that super-ego as the little voice that keeps telling you things like "it won't work!", "you shouldn't do it!", "there are too many problems!", "yes, but ..." etc.  If you can get the message in without allowing that voice to intercept it you have a much greater chance of succeeding.

Many people get quite nervous about the idea of subliminal messaging.  They imagine all kinds of instructions going into their unconscious mind and then making them do things they have not chosen to do.  They see it as something that could counter their free will.

The reality, however, is quite different.  Research at the University of Warwick over 10 years ago showed that although subliminal messaging can influence your decisions and actions, it cannot do so in a way which is counter to your original intention.

This not only means you may need to re-evaluate your view on the "dangers" of subliminal messaging, but also need to think very carefully about how you are using it.  If you are using subliminal messaging as a part of your personal development programme you cannot simply set up your subliminal software or listen to some music with underlying subliminal messages and expect this to work immediate powerful changes.  Before you start trying to work subliminally you must first work on a conscious level.

For example, if you listen to a subliminal mp3 designed to make you give up smoking but have not made a conscious decision that you want to give up smoking, that mp3 is not going to be much help.  Make the conscious decision first, though, and if it is well produced it can be very powerful indeed.

Many people leave out this important step, and then wonder why the change is not happening.  Do not fall into this trap.  Decide first on what changes you wish to make.  Don't worry about how you are going to make them or even whether or not you believe they are possible, as if you start doing that you will be inviting your super-ego to sabotage your efforts.  Just decide exactly what it is you want to happen.  Once you have done this, use subliminal techniques to start the inner change process.

You can use subliminal messaging to achieve a very wide range of goals.  These include improving your ability to study, improving your memory, quitting bad habits such as smoking, etc.  It is by no means the "be all and end all" of personal development, but if you include it in an overall programme for change you should find it a great deal of help.

I would like to thank James Stapley (http://www.jamesstapley.com) for supplying the radar image used at the top of this article.

Dealing with Worry

Do you ever worry about anything?  If so, why?

Worry can be a killer.  Literally.  It can, for example, bring on a heart attack.  It can trigger depression.  It can result in painful ulcers.  It can make you feel suicidal.  So why would you inflict all this on yourself?

Worry does, of course, have an underlying reason.  It is intended to alert you to a problem that needs fixing.  A future event that may have undesirable consequences unless you do something about it.  Just as the reason for pain is to alert you to a physical problem that needs fixing.

Once the worry has done its job of alerting you, then as long as you do something about the potential problem there is no longer any need for the worry.  Unfortunately, just as is the case with pain, it usually continues well after its purpose has vanished.  Wouldn’t it be good if we could make the worry vanish just as easily?

Well actually we can!

Park the worry on the side for a minute.  You should do this by thanking your subconscious for giving you this warning, telling it you are now taking action, and therefore the worry has done its job.  You may feel a little silly at first, talking to yourself like this, but it is important to do this if you want to deal with the worry properly.  If you thank your subconscious in this way it knows it can relax.  Otherwise it will keep the worry there, turning up the volume more and more to attract your attention, until that worry reaches a disabling pitch.

Once you have parked the worry you must then sit down, or even lie down, and start to think through what this worrying situation is and what, if anything, you can do about it.

Now take the action or actions you have decided upon.  This is a vital step.  Ignoring it is just as bad as ignoring whatever a pain is trying to tell us.  Also, if you try to park your worries and then do nothing about them your subconscious will soon get the message that your “thank you” speech is meaningless and it will not allow you to park future worries.  If it is not possible to take action now, work out when you can do so, and then make sure you do.  In this latter case, again thank your subconscious for the worry and tell it when you will be addressing it.

Sometimes this is all that is necessary.  Recognize the issue, address it, and stop worrying.  Wouldn’t it be nice if that was always the case?  Alas, that is NOT always the case.  In fact in most cases you will find that either there is nothing you can do about it, or if there is something you can do there is no certainty it will change things for the better.  In all these cases there is another essential step you must take.

Imagine whatever it is that has worried you has now happened.  Accept that this is not an ideal situation, that you would rather have avoided it, but now it has happened and you must move on.  Dig a bit deeper – just how bad is this situation?  Is it the worst thing that could possibly happen to you?  Is it worse than any of the nasty situations you have read about or watched in the news?  Somehow I don’t think it is!  Recognise that is the case.  Accept that life goes on.

Accepting the problem in this way is really important.  There is always a bright side to everything in this life, even though it may be difficult to see it at the time.  We all have our problems, but we can draw a line under them and move on.  So imagine drawing that line and moving on.

Once you have done this, once you have done everything possible to avoid the problem and have also accepted the consequences if it occurs no matter what you do, it is time to use the Law of Attraction properly.  You must now feel inwardly and deeply all the positive, good sensations of this issue NOT arising.  Place yourself in the future at a time after whatever it is you were worrying about could have happened, and know that everything is ok and it didn’t happen after all.  If you don’t do this, the work you have just undertaken will actually cause the Law of Attraction to start trying to bring you the problem, and you certainly don’t want that.  It was necessary for you to do it so you could really put that problem in perspective, but now you must neutralize the effect.

For example, if you were worrying about failing an exam, know that you have now passed it, and start to feel the emotions you will feel when that actually happens.  If you were worrying about your partner being hurt in an accident on the way home, know that he or she is now safe and sound with you at home.  Notice the positive way I have phrased this.  I haven’t said “you haven’t failed the exam”, but rather “you have passed the exam”.  I haven’t said “your partner hasn’t been hurt in an accident”, but rather “your partner is at home with you, safe and sound”.

Those of you who regularly practice the Law of Attraction will recognise the technique I am proposing here and will have other “tweaks” they normally use.  If you are such a person, use the Law of Attraction here in the way you normally do.  But even if you have never used the Law of Attraction before, do what I have said and you will find it starts working for you.

Be assured this technique really does work.  I have used it myself for many years and can confirm my own worries only last long enough to alert me to the potential problems, which I then address and my worries disappear.  Try it – you will be amazed at just how effective this is!

Using the Pareto Principle

What is the Pareto Principle, and how can you use it in your own life?

The Pareto Principle is an almost universal principle.  It tells us that 80% is produced by 20%.  Percent of what?  Well, of almost anything.  For example, 80% of the results you get come from only 20% of what you do.  If, therefore, you can find out which 20% is giving you those results you should be able to stop doing the other 80% and only suffer a 20% loss in results.  At this point you may be saying “I don’t want a 20% drop in my results!”  True, but as you have stopped doing the 80%, that means you can devote more resources to something else, which will hopefully bring in more than the 20% you have lost.

You can apply this principle in so many ways.  Once you have grasped the concept it is easy to find many ways you can use it to improve your life.  Achieve far more with far less effort!

For example, you will probably find around 80% of the time and effort you put into something is more or less wasted.  Examine more carefully what it is you are doing and start cutting out what seems to be irrelevant.  It seems obvious, doesn’t it?  But very few people actually do it.  Work on this and you will be amazed at the difference it can make in your life.  It will free up an enormous amount of time, some of which you can re-direct to the more effective activities and some of which can become your “quality time”.  Apply this process properly and you will find you are achieving far more in a lot less time.

If you run a business you can find many more ways to use Pareto.  For example, around 80% of your turnover probably comes from only 20% of your clients.  Focus your efforts far more on those clients and you should find a large increase in turnover.  You can do this without having to spend any more time working – simply take the time from the other 80% of clients who are far less profitable.

Take a look, too, at some of the personal development techniques you use.  What results are you getting from them?  Some will be giving you a great deal of benefit, and some very little at all.  Given the large time lag that is often involved this is probably going to be a more difficult exercise, but it is certainly not an impossible one.  Also, you must be “fair” to each of the techniques – check very carefully that you are applying them properly.  You may be surprised to find that a large number of people do not do this – they study the technique, adapt it so it is “more suitable” for them, and then find it doesn’t work properly.  Make sure you don’t fall into that trap!  The ultimate benefits you will gain from doing this properly will make the effort required very well worthwhile.

Now that you are aware of the 80-20 rule take a good look at your life and try to find all the diverse ways in which you can apply it.  I have given you some examples above, but they are just a few I have thought about which are likely to apply to many of my readers.  There are far more, and every time you find a new way you can apply it you should find it gives you more of what you want out of life.  More time, more money, more improvement – the sky is the limit!

Success Is Almost within Reach

A few months ago I reproduced an extract from Napoleon Hill's classic, "Think and Grow Rich".  If you are really serious about achieving your goals (whether or not they are financial goals), you simply have to get a copy of this book and start putting into practise what Napoleon Hill preaches.

In the meantime, here is another valuable and informative extract, this time showing just how easy it is to give up when you are on the brink of success!

"Now, let us ... study a man who had plenty of tangible evidence of riches, but lost it, because he stopped three feet short of the goal he was seeking. 

THREE FEET FROM GOLD 

One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another. An uncle of R. U. Darby was caught by the "gold fever" in the goldrush days, and went west to DIG AND GROW RICH. He had never heard that more gold has been mined from the brains of men than has ever been taken from the earth. He staked a claim and went to work with pick and shovel. The going was hard, but his lust for gold was definite. 

After weeks of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore. He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. Quietly, he covered up the mine, retraced his footsteps to his home in Williamsburg, Maryland, told his relatives and a few neighbors of the "strike." They got together money for the needed machinery, had it shipped. The uncle and Darby went back to work the mine. 

The first car of ore was mined, and shipped to a smelter. The returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! A few more cars of that ore would clear the debts. Then would come the big killing in profits. 

Down went the drills! Up went the hopes of Darby and Uncle! Then something happened! The vein of gold ore disappeared! They had come to the end of the rainbow, and the pot of gold was no longer there! They drilled on, desperately trying to pick up the vein again-all to no avail. 

Finally, they decided to QUIT. They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. Some "junk" men are dumb, but not this one! He called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer advised that the project had failed, because the owners were not familiar with "fault lines." His calculations showed that the vein would be found JUST THREE FEET FROM WHERE THE DARBYS HAD STOPPED DRILLING! That is exactly where it was found! 

The "Junk" man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine, because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up. Most of the money which went into the machinery was procured through the efforts of R. U. Darby, who was then a very young man. The money came from his relatives and neighbors, because of their faith in him. He paid back every dollar of it, although he was years in doing so. 

Long afterward, Mr. Darby recouped his loss many times over, when he made the discovery that DESIRE can be transmuted into gold. The discovery came after he went into the business of selling life insurance. 

Remembering that he lost a huge fortune, because he STOPPED three feet from gold, Darby profited by the experience in his chosen work, by the simple method of saying to himself, "I stopped three feet from gold, but I will never stop because men say 'no' when I ask them to buy insurance." 

Darby is one of a small group of fewer than fifty men who sell more than a million dollars in life insurance annually. He owes his "stickability" to the lesson he learned from his "quitability" in the gold mining business. 

Before success comes in any man's life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and, perhaps, some failure. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to QUIT. That is exactly what the majority of men do. 

More than five hundred of the most successful men this country has ever known, told the author their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them. Failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony and cunning. 

It takes great delight in tripping one when success is almost within reach."

I can almost guarantee that this has happened to you too.  Not once.  Not twice.  But many times!  You will probably never know, of course, unless like Darby you learn the truth from someone who picked up the baton when you dropped it.  What is more, I can pretty much guarantee that it will happen to you again.  And again.  And again.  Unless you do something about it and learn to keep going so you can reach your goal.

Hopefully this little extract from "Think and Grow Rich" has reminded you of the need to get your own copy if you don't already have one.  Here is the link for you:

Or if you are in the UK:

Thought Forms

Have you ever sensed a "presence"?  Perhaps a strong feeling that you should do something, or avoid doing something, yet a feeling that doesn't seem to have originated within you?  Or maybe a feeling that someone or something is there, perhaps watching you, and yet you can see, hear and feel nothing?  These are examples of what I would call a "presence".

Have you ever seen a ghost, or something that seemed to you to be a ghost?  The difference from the above definition of a "presence" is that this time you can see or hear it, or both.

Such feelings are commoner than you may believe.  If you have not had any such feelings yourself, then ask around and see how many of your friends have.  The results may surprise you.

What causes them?  Personally I do not believe such presences or sightings have anything to do with a real person who has died but not yet "passed on".  I believe they are "thought forms".

When you focus strongly on an idea you concentrate mental energy.  That energy cannot simply disappear.  It remains.

This has profound implications.

Firstly, think about "affirmations".  When you repeat affirmations they actually create a real energy that is distinct from its creator (you).  Think of it like a genie.  You have rubbed your lamp by concentrating on the affirmation and now the genie is there to grant your wish.  The power of this genie will depend on the skill you have used to create and use your affirmation.  If you have done so with total belief, your genie, or thought form, will be very powerful.  While you carry on with your normal life it will move around you, bringing into your life circumstances and contacts that could lead to manifesting your desire if you respond correctly to them.

If, though, you start to have doubts, you will be creating other thought forms that will conflict with the original affirmation thought form.  Depending on their strength and the strength of the original thought form they may not make it impossible for you to achieve your wishes, but they will certainly make it more difficult.  And the more of them you create, the more difficult it will be.

All your thoughts produce thought forms, although in most cases they are so weak that they can have very little effect.  But they do have some effect, even if it is only slight.

This means you can truly make the world a better place simply through your thought processes.  Think good thoughts, thoughts based on love, peace and harmony, and the thought forms from these thoughts will impact on the world around you.  They will induce similar feelings in both yourself and others, which in turn may result in both you and them performing good deeds.

The opposite is also true, of course.  If you are filled with evil thoughts, this will spread evil through the universe.

Don't become too fixated on this though.  If you have had bad thoughts, accept that this is the human condition and it is virtually impossible to avoid.  Hopefully the thought forms you have created will not be very powerful; this will be the case if you did not focus all your energy and power to turn those evil thoughts into independent evil thought forms.  When you realize your thinking has not been good and positive, simply counter the weak thought forms you have created by focusing on and creating good ones.

The concept of thought forms is well known in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism.  Here, a thought form is known as a "nirmita" or "tulpa".  In both the Indian and Tibetan tradition, a thought form is illusory.  But don't let that term deceive you - according to this philosophy everything we sense around us is "maya", or illusion.  A tulpa can therefore be regarded as just as real as the chair you are sitting on or the computer or i-phone you are using to read this article.

If you are interested in pursuing the theory of thought forms further, try studying the book by Annie Besant and C W Leadbeater, simply called "Thought Forms".  This book was first produced in 1901.  As it is now out of copyright you can download a free copy from Project Gutenberg here:

"Thought Forms"

Or if you would like a step by step system to create and use thought forms properly, try "Magical Use of Thought Forms", by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki:

"Magical Use of Thought Forms"

If you prefer to receive this publication from the UK, use this link:

"Magical Use of Thought Forms" (UK Source)

More Things in Heaven and Earth

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."  So said Hamlet to Horatio in Shakespeare's play.  This is so true, even today!

Many people I meet refuse to believe in anything they cannot see, hear, taste, smell or touch.  They trust their five senses but nothing else.  And they believe this is the true scientific approach.  They are completely wrong!

Maybe a century ago a scientist would have refused to believe in something he or she could not test with one of the five senses, but that is certainly not true today.

For example, I am currently studying cosmology.  I am doing this study for no other reason than I am constantly looking to improve myself, and that includes continuing education in many different fields.  Something I encourage you to do too.  When I began my study I had no idea it would impact at all on my thinking about personal development or the articles I write in this blog - but it has just done so now.

I have just learned about "Dark Matter" and "Dark Energy".  Did you know that Dark Matter and Dark Energy cannot be seen, heard, tasted, smelled, or touched?  And did you know that between them they constitute 96% of the universe?  Things that we can detect in one way or another with our senses only constitute 4% of the universe.  This is the mainstream scientific view, not a half-baked idea of a few radical dreamers.  There are some scientists who dispute the existence of Dark Matter or Dark Energy, but they are very much in the minority - and the only way they can dispute this is by arguing that the laws of physics, including particularly the law of gravity, do not apply throughout the universe.  Most scientists prefer to accept the idea of matter and energy we cannot detect with any of our "normal" senses.

For more information on Dark Matter and Dark Energy, check out this web page, which is not some "New Age" site, but a website of a highly respected international astronomy project, endorsed by scientists in the University of British Columbia, Edinburgh University, Leiden University and Oxford University:

"Dark Matter"

If you can accept that there are things out there which cannot be detected, this opens up wonderful possibilities.  Possibilities Shakespeare suggested in 1599.

Reflect on this for a moment.

Take the Law of Attraction for example.  Is there something out there ready and willing to give us what we desire?  I believe there is, and have always believed so before I heard that it is only possible to detect 4% of what is actually out there.

Take Extra Sensory Perception as another example.  If 96% of the universe is made of stuff we cannot detect with any of our five senses, then if we can detect it at all it must be with a sixth sense, or a perception that goes beyond the five senses - Extra Sensory Perception (ESP).

Take ghosts, elementals, spirits - call them what you will.  Or Astral bodies.  4% of the world we live in is composed of what we call "matter".  Although this matter is comprised mainly of nothing (the gaps between the particles in our atoms are relatively enormous), we can see, hear, smell, taste and touch this matter.  We cannot walk through walls, even though both they and we are mainly comprised of nothing but space, as the small particles that make up "matter" strongly repel each other and give us the illusion of solidity.  But that is not true of the dark side, the other 96%.  It is here, all around us, but it is invisible and flows through us as though we were a liquid or gas rather than a "solid" object.  Who is to say there are not life forms composed of Dark Matter and Dark Energy?  Who is to say we do not have a Dark Matter / Dark Energy "body" ourselves which passes through walls and doors and travels through an Astral Plane at the speed of light as we sleep?

The next time you are tempted to scorn the idea of the existence of anything incorporeal, anything mystical, anything beyond our current understanding, think again.  Remember what Shakespeare had Hamlet say and realize there is more truth in this than most of us probably ever believed.

Setting Yourself Up for Success

If you are anything like the majority of people you either didn't set yourself any New Year's Resolutions, knowing you wouldn't keep them if you did, or you have already broken most or all the ones you did set.

It doesn't have to be this way!  It is perfectly possible to create Resolutions that you DO keep.  And you don't have to restrict yourself to doing so just on New Year's Day.

The first thing you must do when setting goals (for that is really what Resolutions are) is to prepare yourself for success in advance.  By following this advice you will actually enjoy the process of setting goals and achieving them.

One of the first things you should do when setting a new goal is to not make it an "all or nothing" goal.  Instead of having only the options of "success" or "failure" create your goal so that it is setting you up to succeed.  One way to do this is by creating smaller goals along the way.  As you reach each one you will feel good about it and be motivated to continue. And having reached that "mini goal" you can congratulate yourself that you HAVE kept a resolution!

Track your progress towards your goals. By tracking your progress you can celebrate your successes. You can also identify your weak areas and spend more time working on them.  To track your goals you can use something as simple as a basic spreadsheet and then record your progress. Some people prefer to track weekly while other prefer to use a daily tracking system. 

Set yourself a monthly, weekly or daily target that you can achieve. This could be something such as reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke or not having that beer after work each night.  As you meet each small goal you are again setting yourself up for continued success, rather than simply having a goal of "I will stop smoking" or "I will stop drinking". 

For goals that have numbers (often business related goals) set minimum numbers as targets as opposed to maximum numbers.  By all means have those higher targets as an aspiration, but be ready to congratulate yourself just for achieving the minimum.  Congratulate yourself and feel good about yourself - that will lead to even greater success.

Setting appropriate goals will help you set up for success. Don't set a goal for something that you already do on a regular basis. A new goal should be based around something that you are not good at (or at least haven't tried yet), or one that could be classified as a bad habit.

Always be ready to ask for help in achieving your goals. At work if you are not good at something see if there is help available. Or is it possible to get this task delegated to someone else? Look for options when it comes to setting goals, especially for those tasks that you really don't like doing. 

Plan out a method for reaching your goal before you even start working on it. The majority of people who just decide on a goal will fail without having a good plan of action in place first.  

Even if you are not sure of all the steps just start outlining your first one or two steps. As you begin your journey you may identify other steps that are required for you to be successful. Simply add these into your plan of action. 

One good way to create a plan of action is to look at your goal in reverse. Think about how you might have arrived there and write down the steps. It is often easier to think in reverse when it comes to goal planning! 

A great example of this is having a goal of owning your first home. The last thing you do is sign the deal and pay for the house. So consider how you raise the money for your home, how you choose your location and so on. As you create your list backwards you have just completed a plan of actionable steps. 

If you plan on creating new goals then recording your goals will help you with your next goal. You will have a plan in place that you can follow to a certain extent. More importantly though, your recording of your first plan will highlight any problem areas you had. You will be more aware of them this time around and will know how to deal with them.

Follow these steps and there is no reason at all why you should not be very successful this year!

If you would like even more help in setting and reaching your goals, try my program "Resolution Revolution", which you can access here:

"Resolution Revolution"

Using a Vision Board to Keep Your New Year's Resolutions

Have you considered creating a vision board to help you with your New Year's resolutions this year? This can be a fantastic way to stay on track and actually make your resolution achievable. Plus you can use a vision board for any type of goal or dream that you want to achieve.

Not sure what a vision board is? It’s a collection of pictures and words pasted onto a board, either a physical board or a virtual one.  In my youth I thought of a vision board as a treasure map - with my goals being the treasure depicted on the map.

The images and pictures you use can be your own or can be ones that mean something to you in some way or other. For a modern day vision board you can use a site like Pinterest.

Pinterest allows you to set up boards on which you Pin images. For example if your resolution is to lose weight you can create a Weight Loss Board. Then Pin an image of how you look at the start of your weight loss journey along with pictures of things that hold meaning to you. This could be pictures of a smaller pair of jeans, or a super black dress or a bathing suit that you want to fit into.

If you prefer to do this at home then you can use a cork board set up in your home. Or you could just attach images to your fridge or bathroom mirror.

By far the best way though, in my opinion, is to combine images, words and sounds - especially music which reflects in some way the goals you want to reach.  Don't be put off by the apparent complexity of doing this, as it is a lot simpler than it sounds if you have the right tools.  There is a digital product which makes it as easy as falling off a log!  This is the "Digital Vision Board Creation Kit" by Mind Movies, the brainchild of my friend Natalie Ledwell.  You can get 6 completely free pre-made digital vision boards on attracting wealth, finding inner peace, having a great social life, becoming healthier, becoming more confident, and learning to love yourself.  Click on the image below to pick up your 6 free digital vision boards and to find out more about the Digital Vision Board Creation Kit you can use to create your own personalized digital vision boards.  When you get your 6 free pre-made Mind Movies, you'll also get instant access to this cool video series that tells you why and how Mind Movies work. The first video is with the legendary Law of Attraction Expert Bob Proctor and it's super interesting!

The problem with New Year's resolutions is that they can be difficult to keep. The sad fact that is by the end of January almost 90% of resolution have been forgotten about or broken. Don't let this happen to you this year.

When it comes to keeping your resolution you will be more successful if you set up a plan of action. As well as writing down what your goal or resolution is try using pictures so that you can visualize your goal.

To be truly successful with your resolution your best bet is to only select one resolution to work on at a time. Write your resolution out as a statement and attach a date to end.

For example "I lost 50 pounds by December 31."

As you can see we wrote this goal out as though you have completed it. This helps to reinforce your commitment to reaching your goal. It doesn't hurt to repeat this to yourself every morning or whenever you feel your motivation lacking.   That verbalization gives your subconscious cues about what you want to happen.

If your resolution is one that you have used before it is important to forgive yourself for not reaching it before. Don't think about what you did to fail last year. Instead focus on how you will succeed, and using a vision board is a great way to do this.

You want to fill your vision board with all your hopes and dreams for things that you desire once your resolution is completed. This could be a picture of a new car, a new home, or a new wardrobe of clothes for your skinny body.

On your vision board you can create milestone sections. These could be 2 or 3 month markers. With a digital vision board you could create one for, say, the next couple of months, then update it, archiving the old board so you can look back at earlier targets.  Evaluate your progress when these dates arrive and make any changes if necessary. If you aren't on track then look back on your vision board to see where you were 3 months ago. You will be reminded that you have made progress and this can help re-motivate you.

Concentrate on what you have achieved so far and celebrate your success. No matter how small a step you have taken it is important that you acknowledge it.

A reminder again about the free Digital Vision Boards you can get from my friend Natalie Ledwell.  Here is the link:

http://www.mindmovies.com/mm4/bobproctor.php?25923

You Are a Star!

You are a Star, a child of the Universe!

In 1969 Joni Mitchell wrote the song "Woodstock" which contains the following lines:

"We are stardust

Billion year old carbon

We are golden"

This is literally true.  You ARE made from star dust, as is everything else in this universe.  As a star cools and dies it throws off elements such as carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, and some of these eventually find their way into the material making up the atmosphere of a planet.  And so into all forms of life.  So you ARE literally made from star dust!  You ARE a child of the universe.

The image above is a photo of the Orion Nebula - a nursery where new stars are born.  Look on in wonder at the beauty of this Universe!

That is the end of my astrophysics lesson!

But now think about this more metaphysically.

Stars have a special psychological meaning for us.  They represent the ultimate goals for which we are aiming.  And we make wishes upon stars, and especially upon comets that are carrying star dust to its next destination.  So realize that you ARE a Star.  And if you are a Star, that means of course your goal is achievable, no matter what it may be.

You are a child of the Universe.  Whether you believe the ultimate creator is God, Allah, Yahweh, Brahma, or simply the Universe, you are its creation, its child.  I will continue to refer to the Universe here, but simply replace that word with whatever fits into your own belief system.  Just as you want the best for your children, so the Universe wants what is best for you.  It will do whatever is necessary to bring you what is best for you, provided this is not contrary to your free will.

There does seem to be a universal principle that nothing should interfere with free will.  And this is both a bane and a blessing.  The bane is that if you focus on the negatives, then that is what you will attract to you.  The Universe wants to bring you everything that is positive, but it will not contradict you, so if you are focused on the opposite, then the opposite is what you will get.  The blessing is that once you recognize you truly are a child of the Universe, and focus on the positives, the things you really want, then that is what the Universe will deliver to you.  Or rather, the Universe will so order things that as you work on achieving those goals the right people and the right resources will appear.

From now on, keep these two principles in mind.  You are a Star, and you will reach all your goals.  You are a child of the Universe, and as you work on reaching your goals the Universe will steer towards you whatever you need to reach them.