Treasure Your Dreams

I’m currently reading “Think and Grow Rich”, by Napoleon Hill. Usually, I finish books really quickly — but this one, for some reason, is taking me a really long time. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it, I REALLY enjoy it — but I’ve been struggling with finding the time to actually sit down and read.

Yesterday, while spending some time going over Michael Clouse’s recommended “Daily 1/2 Dozen Things” with my team, I realized how much slacking I had been doing with my reading lately. So, I read my 10 pages today — and I have to say that when I am done here I will probably go read at least 10 more.

The chapter I read today was about ideas — how a simple idea, a single thought, is the trigger for everything we have today. Every single thing began as an idea that was had by someone, somewhere.

Wow — that one really got my wheel spinning. It truly put into perspective the importance of giving yourself time each day to do nothing but think — and when I say “think” I don’t mean about what you are going to be doing after your done with your thinking time. It is SO important to spend time every day allowing yourself to think with your subconscious mind which, on a conscious level, is really quite the opposite of thinking.

Great ideas, innovative, life altering ideas, are had when your body is in a state of total relaxation. Some refer to it as being in the “zone”, others refer to it as self-hypnosis, or meditation.

I prefer to call it my “non-thinking time”.

I don’t know about you, but for me, it is REALLY hard to put the thoughts in my head on mute. Even when I am completely still, or “relaxing” my mind and the thoughts inside it are running a million miles an hour — taking time every day to purposefully put yourself into a state of relaxation, or “non-thinking time” can truly do wonders in your life.

This is something that has been a struggle for me — something that I found unnecessary and saw, rather than as a benefit, as a waste of perfectly good time I could be using to do something else.

The chapter I read today from Napoleon Hill’s book, and a conversation I had the other day with our company owner put this into perspective for me.

This time you give yourself is invaluable — so much so that you are literally cheating yourself every day you do not engage in this activity of non-thinking. It is rejuvenating mentally, physically and spiritually — it renews your body AND your mind.

You will find that, after doing this, you will face the remainder of your day with more focus, energy and enthusiasm. You will feel more motivated to get done the things you need to accomplish, and you will feel more positive about your goals and your direction in life.

I can say this positively because today, in the middle of my afternoon, I spent about half an hour laying face-down on my bed, eyes closed, lights off and simply allowed myself to relax. It took some time — I began by reading a few pages in a book, to calm my mind down. I then spent a few minutes laying there, reflecting on the things I had read, allowing my mind to wander until finally I became unaware that I was thinking at all.

I would have thought that I was asleep, but after being jolted ”awake” by the alarm I set for myself I realized I hadn’t been sleeping at all — just experiencing a complete and total state of relaxation.

My challenge for you is to spend some time over the next few days where you allow yourself to escape the endless chatter of your thoughts — allow yourself to relax, completely, both physically and mentally. I believe that, when putting this exersise into practice on a consistent basis, you will find a remarkable difference in your daily activities and your state of mind.

Everythings starts with an idea — and you never know what YOUR next idea will be!

 The quote I leave you with is this, by James Allen:

“The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart—this you will build your life by, this you will become.”

What it is about some people that makes them successful, while others are not?

This thought is one that has plagued my mind many many times… and through my endless thoughts, and insights from great books by Brian Tracy, Michael Clouse, Napoleon Hill, etc, I have come to two conclusions:

1) Mindset and
2) Action

Let’s start with the first: They say that a successful lifestyle starts with a successful mindset. Believing that you are successful, and believing that you hold (within yourself) the power to achieve your dreams. For a while, this was my MAIN focus when it came to building my business. I let the thoughts of success consume me… and I figured that, hey — if you truly can become successful by thinking like a successful person, then I had it in the bag.

But this brings me to my second point — which is action. Now, this one has taken me longer to “get” — and I think many people have the same problem as me. There is a BIG difference in knowing what it takes to become a successful person (no matter what your ambition), an actually DOING what it takes to become a successful person.

That difference, (action), is what makes up the difference between successful and unsuccessful people.

You can read all the books, set all the goals and make all the plans — but if you never get down to DOING the actions, you will never succeed in life.

This new insight has had a powerful impact on my daily routine — I have my day fully mapped out on paper… in my day planner — that way, I know exactly what I should be doing at any given hour. I have time set aside for checking emails, cleaning the house, running errands, attending meetings, working out, calling prospects, training team members, etc. And I try (or should I say I am striving daily) to stick to that schedule until it becomes a habit.

I say this because I know that when I can habitually follow the schedule I have set for myself, I will have all the ingredients, perfectly combined, for success. Success will have become inevitable.

As always, I’ll leave you with a quote — this is on the desktop background of my computer, and it by Epictetus:

“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”

What a wonderful weekend! Quality time spent with family and friends with still enough time left over to get a jump-start on the work week!

Today I made two Scrolls with upcoming goals on them. Wondering what in the world a scroll is? Check out “The Oracle’s Secret” written by Anthony Fernando. I received the book as a Christmas gift from my mom, and I have to say it represents goal setting in the simplest form I’ve seen. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve read several books on the subject, and all have been great — but if you are looking for a straight-forward step-by-step book, this is it! One of the most unique aspects of the book is that it is written like a fictional novel, which makes the read much more interesting!

The boy in the book is told by the Oracle to write his goal out on a scroll (which is fitting for the time period of the story), and to review that scroll each morning and night. On the scroll is a statement of the goal, a picture of it, a description, action steps to reach it and a target date. Then, at the bottom, is a space to write the result of the goal and the lesson you learned along the way!

While I have many, many goals for myself, I chose to follow the advice of Michael Clouse in his CD series “Building a Better Life” and select one or two of the goals that would create the greatest effect in my life and focus my attention on them. For example, oftentimes with the achievement of a financial goal, you also reach a career goal (perhaps a promotion) and vice versa.

I also drew from a lesson found in Napoleon Hill’s classic, “The Law of Success”, which states that you must have one “chief aim” in life — or in other words, one goal that surpasses all the others in importance. Your main goal in life.

So seeing as how my chief aim is to attain financial freedom, which will then allow all of my other goals to be reached as well, I chose the following goals for my two scrolls:

#1: To reach the rank of Double Diamond by March 25, 2009. This date is not insignificant, as it is the day before our regional convention in Las Vegas. How rewarding to reach the goal before the event and be able to receive the recognition there rather than having to wait for the convention at the begininng of August!

#2: To own a Lexus RX350, Pebble Beach Edition by August of 2009. While this may seem like “just a car”, and not a financial or career goal, it really is all three. In order to afford the new car I would need to qualify for the monthly car bonus given by the company to anyone ranked as a director or above — so in essence my goal is to reach the rank of Director by the end of July 09 in order to qualify for the car bonus in the month of August! Reaching the rank of Director would also have an effect on my financial goals, as your income increases as your rank increases.

Do YOU have a goal? I took my two scrolls and hung them on a nail beside my bed. They are low enough to be inconspicuous from anywhere else in the room, but in just the right place for me to notice them each night as I go to sleep and each morning when I wake up — this is to remind me to read over my scrolls twice a day.

If you have a goal, but have always wondered about how to SET and ACHIEVE what you want in life, I encourage you to visit www.theoraclessecret.com and order the book for yourself — it truly is an EXCELLENT book and is short enough to be read in one sitting!

Quote of the Day — by Norman Vincent Peale

“Know what you want and believe that you can have it.”