Give me 5 minutes a day and I'll give you a happier, more successful life

You were born right

I saw a study that said children are born with a good self-image, but due to all the scoldings and criticisms they get throughout life, their self-image becomes poorer as the years go by. School can be very rough on many children’s self-image because it is almost impossible to do any task 100% correctly and get perfect marks on an assignment. It is easy for parents to tell the children what they do wrong without ever telling them what they do right.

Robert Rosenthal was the chairman of the psychology department at Harvard until he retired and began working at a university in California. He did a famous study in which he showed how powerful self-fulfilling prophecy is. This is also called the Pygmalion effect.

Rosenthal chose 3 teachers at random and told them that since they were outstanding teachers they would be given 90 outstanding students to teach and the goal was to improve the students academically. After time it was found that the students did, in fact improve dramatically. But then he told the teachers that the students were not outstanding at all, they had been chosen randomly. Probably the teachers felt proud about that, after all, they had been chosen because they were outstanding. But then Rosenthal went on to tell the teachers that they were not chosen because they were outstanding, they were chosen randomly also.

Believe in yourself and others

The results showed that if you really believe in others, they will perform better. Not only that, if you believe in yourself, you will perform better too.

Tell yourself often that you are outstanding and the prophecy will come true. People often criticize themselves, but this brings about negative results. You wouldn’t say those things to others would you?

Tell your loved ones/subordinates at work they are outstanding and they will become so.

I heard a radio talk show in which the speaker said we should complement our children five times for every time we tell them what they do wrong. Wow, that will keep me busy, but I know it is good advice.

Your words have power, use your words wisely!

Many years ago I took a boat from Macau to Hong Kong in the South China Sea. Due to a typhoon that had passed by not long before that, I delayed the trip for a whole day, hoping that the sea would be smooth by the time I left. It wasn’t. Luckily I was in the middle of the boat, which is much better than being in the front. The sea was so rough that the bow would rise up higher and higher and fall back down. Each time that happened I would begin to wonder how much higher it would go. Then it would drop and people would scream. That made it even scarier.

It was a terrifying trip. Needless to say I did a lot of praying.

One thing I learned from that trip is that no matter how bad the situation is, I didn’t need to be afraid.

Are you in a difficult situation? Maybe you are worried about your job, or maybe you are single and want to be married. Maybe you can’t get pregnant or you are not married and find yourself pregnant. Maybe you have been working for a long time on your goals and dreams and it seems you won’t be able to achieve them.

In Mark 4:40 Jesus said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” The apostles were terrified that they would drown because a storm ravaged the boat they were in. They said “Jesus, don’t you care if we drown?”

Many of us have said that to God. “God, don’t you care about my job, my marriage, my test scores, my sick child? Don’t you care that a person walked out of my life? Don’t you care about my finances” Maybe God would say the same thing to us “Do you still have no faith?”

At first it may seem a little harsh that Jesus told them they lacked faith. But actually it is very comforting. That means that no matter what is bothering you in life, you can be sure it will work out right if you have faith and rely on God.

My books.

Strong faith can change your life.

Links to most commonly visited posts on my blog during the last couple of weeks are below:

Charles Dickens changed the world

A shoe salesman was sent to a country where no one wore shoes. He arrived there, looked around and immediately asked his company to send him back home. “I can’t sell shoes here!” He said. “No one wears them.”

The next shoe salesman the company sent arrived at the same location. He looked around and sent back a message “Send ten times the amount of shoes as usual! This is the best place to sell shoes! No one wears them here so I can sell them to everyone.

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty”

Click to read some ideas for a better life. Many people write books about this, but I found some ideas from Brian Tracy who is one of the top experts on this subject.

click here

A special message for anyone who might be discouraged or know someone who is…

read the post