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Archives For October 2014

More keys to success

Brad Stanton —  October 25, 2014 — 2 Comments

morningLearning success

All my life I have enjoyed reading books about people that accomplished great things in life. When I was young, it was Davy Crockett, the great hunter and frontiersman of US history. I enjoyed reading about John Paul Jones, the navy captain that helped us get freedom from England. Then I went on to many dozens of books by people who had built large charities, businesses and ministries. I was always excited to learn how they did it.

Success in relationships is one area that almost everyone has interest in, because we all have relationships. Dr. Hew Lin, a psychiatrist who healed a ward of mentally ill criminals is one of my favorites because he explains how certain keys to success are good for relationships and everything else in life.

Love is a key to success

Dr. Lin summed up most of the advice I had read from many different authors in just a few sentences.

He said the most important thing is to restore ourselves back to love. I liked that because I know that love is the most powerful force in the universe and it does amazing things. He said one way to do it is to forgive all who have wronged us. He has a system of four short sentences that help us achieve this. Say four things:
I love you
I’m sorry
Please forgive me
Thank you

You don’t even have to say these sentences to the people you are thinking about. Just think them or say them out loud when no one is around. He says he healed many people this way as a psychiatrist. If your husband is mean and unfair, just repeat these four sentences over and over again for a couple of weeks and you will see a big difference.

How does it work?

I know it seems a little hard to believe that saying the four sentences will help. But if you have read many of my other posts, it explains why this works. Psychologists tell us that 80% of communication is nonverbal. That means that tone of voice, expressions and other things convey how we feel toward other people. They pick up on these cues in their subconscious mind.

It is more than just this, though. Jesus said love flows out of us if we believe in him. If we could open our spiritual eyes and see what is happening in the real world, we would see how powerful love is. When you send love to other people, it has a healing effect.

We are responsible for our lives

Dr. Lin also said we must acknowledge 100% responsibility for our lives. We can’t blame anything on anyone else. If our parents were brutal and psycho and it left us scared emotionally, we can’t blame them for our problems today. Every person in the world has experienced unfair situations. Some come out of it stronger, some allow it to destroy their happiness.

I have heard many successful people say that it is critically important to acknowledge 100% responsibility for everything in life. Most people don’t believe that is true and that is why they can’t build the life they want. This post is not for the unbelievers, only for those who believe they can have a better life. If you don’t believe it, you are right, it won’t help. Henry Ford said “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, either way you are right.” He means if we believe we can do something, we can. If we believe we can’t do something, we are right, because the lack of faith will cause failure. Who tries to do something they don’t believe they can do?

Our thoughts are key

Dr. Lin said that we must see our own thoughts create our life, not the people, places and circumstances but how we react to them that control our lives. This idea is very common among people who have overcome incredible difficulties to achieve success.

Dr. Lin holds workshops to teach people ideas for success. It is amazing to hear the testimonies of people who attended and found ways to restore relationships, solve problems and achieve success in any area of life.

To be successful, study successful people

I read books by Brian Tracy. He flunked out of school and took low paying laboring jobs for years until he found a sales job. He didn’t sell very well until he decided to ask the top salesman how he achieved success. Once he learned the keys to success he became incredibly successful in selling and went on to write many books that sell well. He starts businesses and is a multi-millionaire. The key was that he went to the successful people to learn how to do it. So many people listen to failures and end up with negative attitudes in life. They learn from failures and become failures.

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Get answers to prayer

Brad Stanton —  October 13, 2014 — 2 Comments

000000000000000need godOk, so we all know that the most important reason to pray is to draw close to God and honor him. That fills us with joy and peace (usually). But there are times when you want to ask God for things, whether for yourself (that is not wrong) or for others. Many times we pray and don’t get answers to our prayers. Jesus said over a dozen times that if we have faith our prayer will be answered, so why is it so many prayers don’t get answered? John 15:7 “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be given to you.” Other verses.

So is that verse even true?

Yes! I know that many people have given up on prayer, including me many years ago. But if you really have faith, your prayers will be answered. True faith involves love for God, and if we love God, we obey him. (1 John 2:3-6)

James 4:3 says if we pray with wrong motives our prayer won’t be answered, and 1 Peter 3:7 says that if we are not getting along with people in our family, it will hinder our prayers.

There are many ways to strengthen faith.

F    Faith and Find a Bible verse to stand on.
A    Ask
I      Imagine the answer
T     Thank God for it
H     Hold on to your faith and be Happy while you wait

1. Faith.

Have faith when you pray and Find a Bible verse to stand on.
Matthew 9:29 “According to your faith will it be done to you
Matthew 21:22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
Mark 11:23, 24 “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

Find a verse in the Bible that applies to your prayer request. At first, that seems restrictive and difficult, but there are so many promises in the Bible, you will surely find one if your desire aligns with God’s will. For example, if you are praying for money, get a concordance and look up verses that speak of wealth or prosperity. Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1 and Psalm 112 are a few of many good verses about wealth. If you are praying for a relationship, look up verses on love. If you are lacking something, think of Psalm 23:1 “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing.”

Find scriptures that promise you an answer to your prayer. It is a good idea to memorize a verse or two of those promises. Many times you will not find a specific verse that promises you what you are asking. That is okay. Just have faith and pray for it.

2. Ask God for it

Matthew 7:8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Simply put, ask God for what you need. Another “A” in our FAITH acronym might be “Agree.” It is good to find other people to agree with you in prayer. Matthew 18:19 tells us, “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”

3. Imagine the answer to prayer in your mind.

Imagine that you already have it. If you are praying for a relationship to get better, imagine that it is. Your optimistic attitude will help change the relationship. That is the way God created faith. On the other hand, being pessimistic, lacking faith, and thinking about negative things, will cause problems in the relationship. When a person thinks about the negatives of the relationship, he will be more likely to get angry or do other things that are not good for the relationship. I have seen this happen many times in my own life and in the lives of others.

Olympic coaches find that faith is important. Athletes who really believe they can win the gold medal work harder than those who don’t. The athletes are trained to imagine themselves going through a perfect routine and standing on the gold medal platform. They say if you go there in the mind, you will go there in the body.

It is important to imagine you have already been given the answer to your prayer, because if you have faith and you pray in God’s will, you really do already have the answer, even before you see it.

4. Thank God for it.

Philippians 4;6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Every time you thank God for your answer to prayer, even before you get it, it strengthens your faith.

Mark 11:24 “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Notice it says “…believe that you have received it…”. This means that at the moment you ask God for it, you receive it. However, it may take some time for it to materialize or to become substance Some translations of Hebrews 11:1 read, “Faith is the substance (my emphasis) of things hoped for…” Daniel prayed in Daniel 10, but the powerful angel that came to give him the answer to his prayer was detained by Satan or a demon. There was apparently a wrestling match in the unseen world. Paul said we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against the powers in the heavenly realms. These powers will do everything possible to damage our faith and prevent us from getting an immediate answer to our prayer. From the book The Amazing Power of Prayer

5. Hold on happily

If you are not happy before you receive your answer, you might not be afterwards either. When you thank God and are happy, it strengthens your faith. If someone told you that in one year you would receive a million dollars, you would be happy. If you really believe that God will answer your prayer, you will be happy about it.

You can say “I am so happy and grateful that God has given me ______________” Insert whatever your request is.

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Self esteem-a key to success

Brad Stanton —  October 9, 2014 — 3 Comments

A man who has done marriage counseling for 30 years said that he believed the number one cause of divorce is bad self image.

Self image is important to success in almost every endeavor. Most people underestimate its importance.

Brian Tracy has sold millions of books about success. He said:

The Reactor Core of Your Personality

Your self-esteem is the most important part of your character. This is the emotional part of your self-concept. It is the “reactor core” of your inner power. It is the emotional component of your life. It is the most important single element determining your attitude and your personality. It is the key to your success in life.

The Definition of Self-Esteem

Your self-esteem is best defined as how much you like yourself. The more you like yourself, accept yourself and respect yourself as a valuable and worthwhile person, the higher your self-esteem is. The more that you feel that you are an excellent human being, the more positive and happy you are.

The Source of Self-Motivation

Your self-esteem determines your level of energy, enthusiasm and self-motivation. Your level of self-esteem is the control valve on your performance and effectiveness. Your self-esteem is like the fuel in the first and second stages of a rocket blasting off from Cape Canaveral. People with high self-esteem do well at everything they attempt.

Who Do You Want to Be?

Your self-ideal can be defined as the person you want most to be, sometime in the future. Your self-ideal determines the direction of your life, of your growth and evolution as a person. Your self-image, on the other hand, determines the way you perform in the present. You self-image is the way you are now, today, this moment. Your self-esteem is largely determined by the relationship between your self-image, how you are performing in your day-to-day activities, and your self-ideal, the way you would perform if you were the very best person you could be.

Strive For Congruency And Alignment

The more that your day-to-day activities are consistent with the person you want to become, the higher is your self-esteem. If your ideal is to be well-organized, calm, positive and working progressively toward the achievement of your goals, and in reality, you are behaving in a well-organized, calm, positive manner, working step-by-step toward your objectives, you will have a high, healthy level of self-esteem. You will like and respect yourself. You will feel calm and confident. You will feel happy, healthy and optimistic. You will be a high-performance personality.

Develop the Keys to Success

Self-esteem is the foundation of a positive self-concept. High self-esteem and self-acceptance are the critical elements in  success. The more you like and respect yourself, the better you perform at everything you do. Developing and maintaining high levels of self-esteem is the most important thing you can do, every day, in building yourself to the point where you are capable of achieving all your goals.

Action Exercises

Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, repeat to yourself the words, “I like myself! I like myself!” again and again throughout the day. These powerful words make you feel happier and perform better.

Second, think continually about your successes, your high points and your “wins.” The more you think about your best moments and experiences, the more you like and respect yourself and the better you do.

You can go to BrianTracy.com to get more information and a free ebook from him.

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Don’t stop believing in your dreams

Brad Stanton —  October 6, 2014 — Leave a comment

inspirational-quote-michelangelo-sunriseBill Gates started Microsoft in his dorm room, working late into the night for months, then years. He teamed up with other people who shared his dream of building a company from scratch.

Elizabeth Holmes is a brand new billionaire, worth 4.5 billion. She worked for ten years to accomplish her dream. As I read about her work, I wondered how many times she thought about quitting, maybe regretting dropping out of Stanford University in her sophomore year. She probably made very little money as she labored week after week, year after year. Not many people would have the patience to keep working for so many years, sometimes doubting that they could accomplish the dream.

Here is what Yahoo news says about her:

A standout member among the new-editions to this very elite club is 30-year old college dropout Elizabeth Holmes. Holmes reportedly “labored in secret” for almost a decade while developing a revolutionary new blood-testing technology. In 2003 she took her findings to the public and founded Theranos– the company announced partnerships with Walgreens and other major drugstores to bring a new type of blood testing to consumers. Holmes’ technology calls only for a single finger-prick and a very small amount of blood for medical testing—as opposed to the full vial (or vials) of blood typically drawn for testing in most labs and medical offices. The prick is said to be painless and Theranos’ testing-methods only a fraction of the cost of commercial labs.

The biotech founder is the youngest self-made woman on the Forbes 400 list with a net worth of $4.5 billion. Holmes dropped out of Stanford University her sophomore year as a chemical engineering major and used her tuition money to found her company. Holmes’ tests do not have to be performed in a doctor’s office, and by skipping the big labs most results can be ready in a few hours. “She could totally overturn an entire industry if Theranos is as successful as it seems to be,” says Brown.

If you have a dream, don’t give up. Keep the faith. Jesus said that nothing is impossible for one who believes.(Matthew 9:29; 17:20) Some of the billionaires are doing great things for the world by giving away large portions of their money to help people.

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Self-discipline will get you anything you want

Brad Stanton —  October 3, 2014 — 3 Comments

0000000000000000000049484Most people want to lose some weight, have happy relationships, achieve financial independence or get a 20% raise and be very good at their job. Some people even want to win an Olympic gold medal.

Most people who have accomplished great things in life such as becoming an outstanding athlete, musician, teacher, businessman or leader, started from the bottom without a lot of help. Many who became millionaires started out poor. Many sports stars started out awkward and slow. Many musicians started out without any apparent talent.

Kop Kopmeyer wrote four bestselling books which each contained 250 principles for success, for a total of 1000 success principles. When asked which was the most important he replied, “Self-discipline.”

Longfellow aparently felt the same way:

“Those heights by great men, won and kept,
Were not achieved by sudden flight.
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.”

A person who is willing to do what he needs to do, when he needs to do it whether he feels like it or not is going to do great things in life. Usually the only way to achieve this is to learn to enjoy your work.

Brian Tracy said:

The payoff for developing high levels of self-discipline is extraordinary! There is a direct relationship between self-discipline and self-esteem:

• The more you practice self-mastery and self-control, the more you like and value yourself;

• The more you discipline yourself, the greater is your sense of self-respect and personal pride;

• The more you practice self-discipline, the better is your self-image. You see yourself and think about yourself in a more positive way. You feel happier and more powerful as a person.

Kopmeyer said the second most important principle is “to learn from the experts.” None of us lives long enough to learn everything on our own. Reading a book about how to do whatever you want to accomplish will propel you much farther ahead than you can do on your own.

6 Steps to Success (one of my most liked posts) here.

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