The Psychology of Poverty

The Psychology of Poverty
“The poor man is not he who is without a cent, but he who is without a dream.”
– Harry Kemp

Imagine two boxes sitting in front of you.
One contains the riches you could enjoy in your life.
The other contains a terrible price you could pay in your life.

The first box is a treasure chest.
It contains peace of mind, sound health, labors of love of your own choice, freedom from fear and worry, a positive mental attitude, material riches of your own choice and quantity, and love.

The second chest is a cursed Pandora’s box.
It contains hatred, envy, jealousy, greed, fear, worry, indecision, doubt, ill health, frustration, discouragement, poverty and want.  Once opened, it will infect others, spreading a wave of misery throughout the world.

Every person has a free choice of which box they will open.
It would seem that no one would ever want to open the second chest, but most people invariably do so.  It is a rare thing, truly, for a person to choose the treasure chest.

These two boxes represent the powers of your own mind.
Learning to control your mind – which guides your thoughts, actions, words, deeds and inevitably, your destiny – or not doing so, is the choice represented by these two boxes.  When you choose to control your mind, you are choosing the treasure chest.  When you fail to control your mind, you are choosing the cursed Pandora’s box of misery and suffering.

Everyone comes to the earth with the ability to control their own mind at birth.
The vast majority of humanity fails to learn how to control their minds, and they end up living lives of misery, poverty, hatred, envy and great suffering.  To escape this fate, you must learn to control your mind.  When you do this, you will be one of the tiny minority in the world that will find themselves opening the treasure chest.

The Psychology of Poverty
The reason most people make the wrong choice in which box to open is because they suffer from the psychology of poverty.  There are two ways of thinking:  The way of the rich man and the way of the poor man.  Successful, wealthy, happy people all think the same way.  Miserable, poor, unhappy people also think the same way.  Everyone in prison thinks the same.  Everyone that lives a life of luxury and happiness also think in the same way.

It’s not my fault! – Lies and Excuses
You may be thinking, “It’s not my fault!  Others have taken advantage of me.  They have hurt me, they have held me back, my parents were cruel to me, I was born in poverty and cannot get out of it, I am too sick, I am too old, I am too young, I do not have the education, I do not have the ability, people do not like me, people hate my skin color, my divorce has ruined my life, etc.”

These are lies that weak, hateful, envious, poor people tell themselves.
Your life is the direct result of how you use your mind.  If you think like a poor person, you will forever remain a poor person.

Avoid Bad Company
“Do not be deceived.  Bad company corrupts good morals.”
– 1 Corinthians 15:33

People tend to think like those around them.  Guard yourself so that you are not affected by the poverty mindsets of others.  Those you choose to associate with will determine your fate.  You are what is around you.

It is no accident that the first instructions contained in the book of proverbs tell about the enticements of sinners.  Do you have friends or do you have fiends?  Who do you choose to associate with?  Where do you shop?  The places you spend time in, the people you call friends, and the kind of life you surround yourself with will reinforce the attitude you will have in your life.  Be careful not to feed the psychology of poverty.

Hate & Envy
The poor are so caught up in their present problems that they do not plan ahead or think ahead.  The poor have great hostility and envy towards people that prosper and succeed.  The poor are suspicious and resentful towards people that succeed in life.  This attitude, which is shared by the majority of people on the earth, will poison your destiny.

Are you so wrapped up in the problems of the present day that you don’t take time to plan ahead?  Do you have great hostility and envy towards those that prosper and succeed?  Do you criticize them?  How do you react towards successful people?

There is mass hostility and mass envy towards wealth.
When you begin to prosper and succeed in life, you will be surprised by the hostility you will encounter, especially from the people that you thought would have cheered you on.

If you are not careful, they will destroy you.  They will drag you down back to their level.  Beware of your friends.  Beware of your family.  Beware of the public.  Those that seem to love you may harbor secret hatreds towards you and your success.  Do not let them poison your mind with their miseries and hatreds.  Do not return hate with more hate.

How do you react?
It is not what happens to you in life, but it is how you react to what happens to you that will determine your fate.  Everyone has bad things that happen to them.  If you want to overcome these things, you need to change the way you react to them.

One aspect of love is that you must endure the hate and envy of others, without returning their poison in kind.  If others harm you, you must resist the urge to harm them back.  This is the mark of a leader.  This is the mark of a successful person.  This is the mark of those that open the treasure chest, which will sustain their happiness.  If you give in to the temptation to return hatred, you will shut the lid of the treasure chest, and you may never be able to open it again.

Were you put on this earth to spread misery and suffering?
Do not add to the evil you encounter in life.  Instead, spread goodness through patience, forgiveness, kindness and gratitude.  Resistance is created by fighting.  If you harm others after they harm you, you will feed the fires of conflict.  If you react with patience and forgiveness, you will put out the fires that spread misery.  Whatever you project will come back to you, multiplied.

Do not succumb to envy.
Sometimes we are tested.  Sometimes the good that we desire will come to others around us first.  Do not make negative comments against them.  If you do so, your good will not come to you.

You must guard your thoughts, words and deeds.
Are you envious of successful people?
Do you speak nasty comments about others?
How do you treat others?
If you hate wealthy people you will never become one.

Remember, those that succumb to the temptations of hatred and envy are creating their own doom.  They suffer from the psychology of poverty.

The Law of Increasing Returns
Your attitude towards everything and everyone will affect what happens to you.  This is because your mind will produce what you put into it.  If you deposit negative thoughts of decrease, you will suffer the same fate.  If you deposit riches into your mind, your mind will produce riches.  Maintain an attitude of increase towards others, always seeing them prosperous, healthy, and happy.

Avoid “Hard times” Talk
Those that dwell on negative things will find themselves experiencing more of the same.  Truly, we live in a vast world where there are endless possibilities for each of us.  During the Great Depression, there were many successful people.

Success is not dependant on what is going around you.  The majority is often wrong.  When you talk about how bad things seem to be, it will come true.  If you avoid doing this, and change your attitude towards thoughts of increase, you will experience success.

Gossiping about negative things will bring these things into your life too.

Never Hurry, Never Worry
Have you ever experienced the strange thing when you “have too much to do” you never get anything done?  This is because hurry comes from worry, which comes from fear.  Fear invokes the law of decrease, and your mind will produce whatever you put into it.  If you find yourself rushing to get things done, or if you find yourself trying to force a result, you are only creating more fear and negativity.  This will sabotage your good.

Train your mind to never be disappointed.  Instead of dwelling on the illusion of failure, you should increase your expectations.  Often, failure is nothing but success trying to be born in a bigger way.

Avoid Petty Thinking
Do not waste time holding grudges.  Is it really that important?  Getting involved in hostilities, resentments and grudges will only sabotage your good.  Instead, project forgiveness, kindness and love towards your enemies.

The Golden Rule of Prosperity
You should not think or speak anything about the affairs of others that you do not want to experience yourself.  Give yourself and others thoughts of increase always.

Open Your Mind to Prosperity
Most people close their minds to prosperity through negative thinking, which is caused by the psychology of poverty.  Many people feel guilty about wanting to become prosperous.  Truly, you need to change your attitudes about prosperity and success.  It is not impossible.  It is available to everyone.  Many people think it is sinful to prosper, feeling that poverty is a virtue.  This is nonsense.  Many of the most famous people in the bible were millionaires.  It has been estimated that poverty causes most of the problems in the world.  War, crime, disease, violence and suffering are caused by poverty.

You have no right to be poor.
To live and not be prosperous is a misfortune.  Anyone can become rich if they change the way they think.  Your mind will manufacture whatever you place inside it, multiplying it in your world.  Do not feel guilty about wanting to be prosperous.  Thoughts of success and prosperity were given to you by God, who wants everyone to be successful and happy.  Do not deny the good that the universe is trying to create for you.

The Soul of a Free Man vs. The Soul of a Slave
Just as water will always seek its level, the soul of a free man will always rise above others.  The soul of a slave will always remain in the dirt.
Do you have the soul of a free man or the soul of a slave?

The choice is yours.
These two boxes stand before you.
Will you choose a treasure chest of success or the Pandora’s box of failure?

The First Law of Success: Love

The First Law of Success:  Love
“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”
– Galatians 6:7

Every person on Earth has the power of success hidden deep down inside of them.  People often imagine that their pains of poverty and failure are caused by their circumstances or are the result of others.  This is not true.  You are responsible for both your successes and your failures.

Locked away inside the mind of every man and woman are secrets that can be used to attain success, happiness and a better life.  But what are these laws?

Love is the First Secret of Success
The most powerful law of success is that of love and good will towards others.  How does this translate into success?  The ability to get along with others is one of the most desired traits in business.  Disharmony in the work place leads to all sorts of problems that can quickly magnify into trouble.  What is the cause of these “personality” problems?

Everyone in life is burdened with a number of sins – greed, selfishness, jealousy, resentment, judgment, cruelty, etc.  People love to gossip, and spread negative rumors.  It seems that there is always a person that doesn’t get along with someone else in the work place.  These negative traits are a great source of trouble and they will destroy your ability to succeed in life.

To fix all of these problems, you need to deliberately turn love on, and direct good feelings towards others – especially to those you don’t even like.  When you do this, you will unearth practical results.  Scientists have discovered that you can bombard people, situations and circumstances with love in order to dissolve unpleasant circumstances.

Begin to render love through everything that you do.  This will bring about a powerful reaction in others.

The Law of Compensation
You’ve probably heard the phrase, “You can’t get something for nothing.”
This simple law can be better explained by the idea that you reap what you have sown.  Scientists describe this law as that of action and reaction.  This applies to everything that you do in life.  Watch your thoughts, attitudes, desires and your actions.

You Must Radiate Success in Order to Attract Success
Another way to think of how this law works is that you must radiate in order to attract.  You will always attract the types of things that you radiate.
So if you radiate, fear, anxiety, depression, thoughts of lack and poverty, or if you radiate anger, resentment and hatred, you will attract the same kinds of things into your life.  On the other hand, if you radiate love, kindness, forgiveness, and positive attitudes, you will attract these same things into your life.  Everyone uses the power of radiation and attraction without knowing it.  What are you radiating?
Are you a complainer?  Do you have a bad attitude?  Do you constantly think about how you can’t succeed, about how someone has harmed you, or about how the world is against you?  Or do you spend your time thinking about better things?

Carefully guard your thoughts, feelings, desires and actions.
You will always attract what you radiate.

Giving & Receiving
Keep in mind that if you give in order to get, or give with an expectation of receiving, then it may not work at all. You must give freely of yourself to others without expectation of anything in return. This will open the doors of abundance from the universe.

Sowing & Reaping
Imagine planting seeds, and then taking care of them, watering and weeding the garden of success every day. One day you will see a rich harvest of the results of your labor.

Every time you talk to someone, every time you deal with people, keep in mind what kinds of thoughts, feelings and actions you are putting out.  Do you spend your time talking about how bad things are?  If you don’t have something good to say about a situation, event or another person, do not say anything at all.  On the other hand, how helpful are you towards others?  Are you a kind person?

Remember that values such as forgiveness, kindness, friendliness, and love are always planting seeds that will one day grow into success.

Doing More Than Paid For
This first law of success translates into the concept of doing more than you are paid for.  When you render more service or better service than what you are being paid for, you will stand out from those around you.  Most people do just what is required of them and no more.  When you do more than what you are paid for, you will gain a good reputation and people will begin to seek you out.  In addition to a favorable reputation, you will also gain strength in what you do through the improvement of the skills that you are using.  When you do more than you are paid for, there will be little competition for your services.

Love of Work
Work is really an expression of love.  Your attitude towards your work will deeply affect how successful you will be in life.  When one loves his work, he will work longer and harder without thinking about it, and he won’t tire easily.  When one hates his work, everything will be difficult and fatigue will come quickly.

Above all, you should seek out the type of work that you love to do.  Also, if you are involved in work that you love, or if you are doing work for someone that you love, it will always be easier.  If you are involved in work that you despise, consciously direct good feelings towards it and it will be less difficult.  If you serve an ungrateful boss, do more and more.  This will put the universe in your debt. Energy will always find a way to manifest itself.

Be Deliberate About Success
Deliberately radiate good through all of your thoughts actions and deeds and it will attract good to you.  Those who don’t do this will tend to fall into the trap of limited thoughts and this will produce limited results in life.  But if you make the choice about deliberately producing successful results by policing your mind, thoughts and actions, you will see definite results that will lead you to the success you have always wanted.

You Are Magnetic
The first law of success will turn you into a magnet that will attract success into your life.  The thoughts, feelings and attitudes that you project will come back to you, whether they are negative or positive.  Everything begins with your mind, emotions and attitudes.  You will still need to take action to succeed, but everything will work better once you clear your mind of all negativity and begin to fill it with positive goals.

Put yourself ahead in the world by first helping others to get ahead.  Take the initiative, follow it with aggressive actions, always do more than you are paid to do and you will soon find that your life is filled with prosperity and success.

Leadership

Leadership

In your search for success, you will need to fight many battles. You will be assailed by misfortunes, problems, obstacles and one of the greatest opponents of all: Fear.

In order to overcome these difficulties and rise to the heights of success, you will need to develop the qualities of leadership. Leaders not only are masters of themselves, but they are masters of others – or more accurately, they serve as beacons of light to those struggling in the darkness. A leader always seems to know what to do and where to go. A true leader is a hero.

Heroes

In stories, a hero is a person, encumbered with weaknesses and character flaws who, is compelled to take action because of something terrible that happens to him. Stories are about how a character overcomes his weaknesses in order to accomplish his goals. They are about how regular people develop into heroes. This is why stories are so fascinating. People love to see someone succeed. People love heroes.

So what is leadership? Where does it come from and how can you develop it?

Leadership comes primarily from four things:

1. Having a definite purpose in mind.

2. Self confidence.

3. Imagination.

4. Initiative.

A Definite Chief Aim

Spurred on by a burning desire, leaders will set specific goals and will then develop these goals into a plan of action. What’s interesting is that many people may not show any signs of becoming a leader at all, until they encounter certain situations. For instance, a soldier may see a friend pinned down by enemy fire, and then will decide to go rescue him. In this case the situation created circumstances that allowed a leader to appear.  Goals are created by desires – the stronger the desire, the stronger the goal.

Self Confidence

The three factors of desire, belief and expectancy combine to form the trait of self confidence – or faith. These three traits can be increased by simply thinking about them as often as possible. When you think about something, you will put energy into it and it will increase in power. Once these three factors have been developed, a person will have the self confidence needed to pursue his goals. Also, one of the best ways to create self confidence is to acquire knowledge and then teach it to others.

Imagination

While imagination is mostly regarded as unimportant, those understanding the principles of success know that imagination is one of the greatest keys to accomplishing goals. Imagination is used to turn one’s dreams, goals and desires into reality. Once developed through practice, it will allow you to overcome the most formidable problems. Imagination is also one of the greatest keys to leadership. The only real limitations you will face on your road to success are created by your own mind. By conditioning your mind through constructive use of imagination, you will be able to overcome these self imposed obstacles.

Initiative – Taking Action

Above all, leaders have mastered the power of initiative. What is initiative?

Initiative is a rare quality that impels a person to do the right thing without being told to do so.

Most people will not want to exert the extra effort to do the right thing and will only make a move when they are compelled to do so. These are the people just getting by with the minimum amount of effort.

There are other people that won’t do the right thing even when shown what it is and how to do it. These people tend to become failures in everything they do.

But true leaders are those that will go out of their way to do the right thing without prompting from others. They are the ones doing the little extra things that are helpful. These people always have an easier time succeeding in what they do, because their efforts win the hearts of everyone they come in contact with. Initiative is the key that opens the door to opportunity.

How to Develop Initiative

First of all, you will need to eliminate procrastination.

The best way to eliminate procrastination is to spend time every day thinking about your desires, and imagining yourself already having arrived at your goal. This will generate the energy to overcome fear. Procrastination is also destroyed by doing something constructive towards your goals every day. If you do just a little bit every day, you will have found that you have climbed up the slopes of the mountain of success in no time at all.

Secondly, you develop initiative by encouraging others to do so.

If you want to be happy, then give happiness away. If you want to become a person of initiative, teach others the advantages of developing initiative. Initiative is also based on the first law of success: the habit of doing more than you are paid for. When you go out of your way to assist others, they will remember you.

Third, you need to develop the mindset of a person of initiative.

This is done by simply imagining yourself as a person that gets things done. Spend your time thinking, eating, breathing and sleeping with initiative. Always be on the lookout for ways to help others – for ways to improve things. This will help you develop the mindset of a leader. Develop the habit of taking actions to reach your goals.

How to Command Respect

One of the best ways to succeed in life is to become a leader. How do you get others to follow you? If you want people to follow you into hell – because the road to success is like fighting a battle – you will need to instill in them a sense of devotion. If you do not have the qualities that command their respect, loyalty and obedience, then you will fail as a leader. Aside from the traits already mentioned, the most important traits of a leader are self sacrifice, decisiveness, dignity and courage.

Self Sacrifice

As a leader, you will find yourself having to give of yourself more than anyone else. Leaders are always the first to arrive and the last to leave. Leaders are always more giving than anyone else. The man who always takes and never gives is not a leader. He is a parasite. Helping others is one of qualities of a leader. Give 100 times what you expect to receive. Giving is the first law of success, and you will discover that when you give, you will end up with more success than those that do not give. Those giving the most will become the most successful.

Decisiveness

The way to become decisive is to study and learn all you can about a situation. The more informed you are, the better able you will be to take advantage of things or to make needed adjustments. When committed to a course of action, make sure you master it before moving on to another one. Do not scatter your efforts by constantly making new decisions and trying new things. This is not only a sign of weakness, it reeks of desperation. If you have spent time learning about your situation, then when something unexpected happens, you will be better able to make a quick decision.

Dignity

Leaders can be a force for good or evil. You will find that people will imitate what you do and your team will be a reflection of yourself. Do not preach to others, but instead live by setting an example of the right way to live and act. Don’t drink too much, get angry or treat others with disrespect. Treat everyone fairly. Do not be guilty of doing anything that you would ever have to apologize for. Develop physical health and vitality, which will give you the energy to work. Maintain a good appearance to demonstrate self respect. Never hurry. Never worry. Never talk about your problems. Do not gossip. Do not court the favor of others. Never say anything negative about anyone else. If you have nothing good to say, keep silent. Be positive – a person that knows how to get things done. Instead of whining about how impossible things are, find a way to make things happen. Above all, avoid bad company. Your success will be a reflection of the kinds of people you surround yourself with.

Courage

The difference between courage and bravery is that bravery is physical, while courage is mental and moral. Blind bravery won’t help you reach your goals or develop you as a leader, but courage, fueled by an understanding of the situation and backed up by a fierce desire to succeed will lead you to reach your goals. Do not ask anyone to go where you will not go yourself. Do not ask anyone to do what you are not willing to do yourself.

So leaders are made by setting a specific goal and laying out plans to reach that goal through the use of one’s imagination. Then using burning desire and self confidence, a leader will use initiative to take action to reach those goals. Leaders command respect through self sacrifice, decisiveness and dignity. And finally, a leader will develop the courage to take daring actions to succeed.

Hopefully, this article was useful to you in learning how to become a leader. Remember: Leaders always work harder and give more than anyone else.

Why Duplication Fails

Many have said that one of the secrets to success is to duplicate yourself.

Unfortunately, many people seem to have difficulty doing this.  No matter how simple you can design the process, there will always be people that just can’t seem to reproduce what you do.

Why does this happen?

The reason duplication fails so often is because 90% of success depends upon how you use your mind.

Not everyone has a “success” mentality.  Everyone has varying degrees of desire, belief and expectancy about their ability to succeed.

No matter how many times people hear that “Think and Grow Rich” is the secret to success (ie, you must condition your mind to succeed), they still spend all their time on the HOW instead of spending time developing their mind, their thoughts, and their beliefs.

If you want to have better success at duplicating yourself, you need to teach your team to VISUALIZE THEMSELVES AT HAVING ARRIVED AT THEIR GOAL.

Duplication will work better when everyone in the team:

1. Has a set of written goals.

2. Spends time every day visualizing their goals, as if they already have it.

3. Take action.

Remember:  Success depends upon how you use your mind.

The Silva Method

This is a personal endorsement of one of the best personal development courses available anywhere.

The Silva Method is the best class anyone can take. You will learn exactly how to translate the ideas expressed in Napoleon Hill’s classic book, “Think and Grow Rich” into real results.

Anyone serious about creating a successful future needs to take this course.

Here is their website:  http://www.silvamethod.com/

How to Keep Your Computer Happy

Computer problems can be one of the most frustrating things to deal with today.

When I worked as a computer tech, I learned how to eliminate 90% of computer problems (unless it is hardware related – if smoke is coming out of your computer, this won’t help).  It is sad that the companies that sell computers don’t tell people about these simple things to do…

Here is how to keep your computer happy:

· Download these free programs:

Every week, run a scan with each of these programs (or do it every day).

Do not run these programs at the same time.

• Spybot Search & Destroy
• Ad Aware by Lavasoft
• AVG (get the free version)

· Turn off all the programs that try to load when you boot:

Go to: Start –> Run –> msconfig (type in)

With most of these items turned off, your computer will boot faster, and it will run better. When the computer has too many programs to run at once, they can fight with each other, or cause other problems.

System Configuration Utility (Do this after Windows Updates)

• General (tab)

Change to: Selective Startup

• Startup (tab)

Uncheck most of the listed items.

This will not harm your computer.

If you need something, you can always come back here and turn it back on.

· Keep (do not uncheck):

Scan Registry

System Restore

Printers

Wireless (HP wireless assistant, etc)

Antivirus (avgtray, etc)

Important driver files (DriverUpdaterPro, etc)

Anything that you obviously use (mouse, etc)

· Turn off (uncheck):

Messenger programs (MSN, Yahoo Messenger, etc)

Microsoft Office (you can still open it manually)

Adobe Acrobat (you can still open it manually)

· Disk Cleanup (1x/week)

Go to: Start –> All Programs –> Accessories –> System Tools

–> Disk Cleanup

Put a check in all the boxes and click YES.

· Delete Temporary Internet Files (1x/day)

· Internet Explorer

Tools –> Internet Options

–> Delete Cookies, Delete Files (Delete all offline content), Clear History.

· Mozilla Firefox

Tools –> Options –> Privacy (tab)

–> Always clear private data when you close Firefox (select) –>

Clear Now –>OK

Disclaimer:  Althought all attempts are made to provide accurate, current and reliable information, you should recognize the possibility that errors may occur.  You are strongly encouraged to do a full backup of your data and system before doing anything.  The author of this paper shall under no circumstances be responsible for data loss or system failure.

Karma x2

So a year ago, I was sitting on a beautiful beach in Thailand, drinking coconut milk out of a coconut.  My pretty Thai girlfriend was feeding me fresh mango and pineapple and looking out at the sun shining down on the water.

I was sitting there, enjoying the relaxed drum beat of the turquoise ocean, and then suddenly – VRRRROOOOOOOOOOM!!!! – a jet ski swept by!

My girlfriend said, “Ba!” (this mean’s “Let’s go!” in Thai).

Since it was only $25 to rent a jet ski, I agreed!

So we’re whishing around the ocean, splashing water behind us and really enjoying ourselves, and then we pass this empty jetski which was bobbing up and down on the waves….

We looked around, and lo!  We saw a man in the water waving at us.  We sped over to him, thinking warm thoughts of rescue….

The man (who happened to be from England, and owned a gym), was having an ashma attack and had fallen off into the ocean…

We offered to give him a lift, but when he tried to climb on our jet ski, he flipped us over!  (My girlfriend only weights 40kg and I’m not too big either).

Now… I’m not as good a swimmer as I used to be -  thanks to EVOLUTION – so even though we managed to climb back onto the jet ski after righting it, we looked down at the poor man having the ashma attack in the ocean and we offered to try again.  Now, as I had mentioned, he owned a gym in England, and he weighed more than both Lek and I (Lek is the name of my girlfriend).  So we flipped over again!

This time, sadly, I managed to twist my knee badly.  So we got back onto the jet ski again and waved a boat over to help the man out of the water.  Back on shore, I discovered that I had a bad sprain…

A few hours and $300 later (did I mention how inexpensive Thai hospitals are?) I found myself being treated very well by everyone, as I had a fine set of cruches to go with the bandage around my knee.

So although we did save a man’s life, I managed to get double karma points when I injured myself in the process.

Moral of the story?

Be careful who you try to help.

In terms of running a business, you have to be very careful who you decide to work with.  If you choose the wrong people, you may find yourself wasting valuable time.  More importantly, your optimistic emotions could be drained away, along with your enthusiasm.

Will I go back to Thailand and rent another jet ski?

You bet.

Three Steps To Success

Three Steps to Success

“Oh, Ney, Ney, Ney, the throne? Do you know what the throne is, Ney? The throne. . . , is an over-decorated piece of furniture. It’s what’s behind the throne that counts: My brains, my ambitions, my desires, my hope. . . , my imagination, and above all. . . , my will.”

– Napoleon, in the movie, “Waterloo.” (1971).

The paper that you are about to read may be the most important words of your life.

There are three simple steps to success, but before going into them, a few things need to be understood about how success works.

What is success?

Isn’t it interesting that people define success differently, but everyone defines failure the same way? Everyone has their own set of desires, and it could be said that success is achieving what you desire most in life. But how is it done?

How do people really succeed?

Many people go through life thinking that it is impossible to succeed. When they see a successful person, they make excuses for their own failures. These “reasons” are nothing more than a set of myths. Let’s take a look at a few of them. What does it really take to succeed?

Is it a good education?

There are many brilliant people that are failures. How many poor professors do you know?

Is it hard work?

Think about all those people working in the fields picking food. They work very hard, but few of them are very successful.

Is it connections – the people you know?

Many successful people seem to come out of nowhere, don’t they? Most develop connections along the way, or after they become successful. Developing connections is often part of the process of success, but it is rarely the reason why people succeed.

Is it being born into the right family?

Many people that are born into wealthy families are abject failures. And many more successful people were poor at some point in their life.

Is it natural talent?

While it is true that some people are born with natural talent in things, it is even more true that those with talent in something rarely – if ever, develop it. Many of the world’s most successful people lack natural talent.

Is it destiny, fate, astrology, karma?

Some successful people seem to have a sense of destiny or fate, but many successful people do not. What successful people do share, however, is an unshakeable belief in their ability to succeed.

As a child, you wanted to walk and you succeeded, didn’t you? Everyone learns to walk. But why doesn’t everyone learn to succeed? It isn’t the same thing, you say? But it really is.

The Success Model

As a child, you wanted something very badly: To walk.

You then tried to do it, and failed. Everyone fails.

But you tried it again.

And failed again.

And tried it again, and failed again and again and again and again.

But one day, you succeeded.

This is how we learn everything:

• We want something.
• We try to get it.
• We fail.
• We try again.
• We fail again.
• We try and fail again and again…
• Until we finally get what we want.

This strategy is lost as one gets older. In school, we study a subject, get tested, and are given a grade – pass or fail. Everyone exits school with a set of faulty beliefs based on how successful or unsuccessful they were.

Have you ever thought things like this?

• “I’m not any good at math.”
• “I’m not an athlete.”
• “I have no natural talent in this.”
• “I have no coordination.”
• “I’m not a good public speaker.”
• “Computers are too complicated for me.”
• “I have dyslexia and can’t learn.”

You should know that these ideas and attitudes and thoughts are all wrong! They come from the pain of the failures we have had, but if we had continued on, we would have succeeded. In fact, the system we live in (school, life, etc.) teaches us to fail.

Pain & Pleasure

An understanding of the success model is important. Why do people quit?

When you fail, you experience pain. When this happens, your fight or flight mechanism kicks in, and your mind will search for a reason to quit. If there is no logical reason, the mind will invent one. These excuses will all sound very reasonable, but they are simply the mind lying to you so that you will stop trying to achieve your goals.

It is impossible to fail.

There are no failures – there are only quitters. If one looks at the model of success

[goal – attempt – failure – repeat attempts until successful], it is really impossible to fail at anything! So here is a question that you have probably never asked yourself:

What would you do if it were impossible to fail?

As you will soon discover, success depends upon how you use your mind.

Don’t believe me?

Creative Visualization

In 1980, there was a study conducted by Russian scientists with some of their Olympic athletes. They took these athletes and divided them into four groups:

• Group 1 = 100% physical training;
• Group 2 – 75% physical training with 25% mental training;
• Group 3 – 50% physical training with 50% mental training;
• Group 4 – 25% physical training with 75% mental training.

Guess who performed the best? Group 4! The ones that practiced the most mental training! The poorest performers were in group 1 – those with no mental training.

Keep in mind that the athletes did not simply think vaguely about being the best.

They concentrated on specific movements over and over again. They developed their capacity to imagine themselves doing what they needed to do in order to succeed. They used all of their senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, etc.). When possible, they watched videos of successful performers and imagined themselves in their place, doing the same thing. This type of mental training is well known among athletes today.

How to Use Negative Thoughts

Positive thinking alone, however, is not enough to succeed. Negative thinking is, in fact, essential to success. Think about it this way: You are going somewhere and you take out a map. You need to know two things: Your destination; and where you are now. Negative thoughts tell you where you are now. Use them to determine what you need to do in order to improve your results. Imagine hitting that golf ball and then not looking where it went. You would be lost without taking a measure of where you are. So use your negative thoughts to see where you are on the road to success.

Self Judgment Leads to Failure

Just remember: Withhold judgment. Do not judge yourself when you try something. Many that shoot pool or play chess will immediately make excuses: “I never play this game. I’m not very good at it.” But the successful players always refuse to judge themselves. Instead, they spend all of their time practicing and developing their skills.

When they do this, they disconnect the fight or flight mechanism that causes them to quit.

Persistence & Resolve

So positive thinking needs to be combined with negative thinking, an understanding of the success model, and the persistence that comes from the willpower or resolve to achieve your goals. But where does persistence come from? How do you create willpower?

Understanding how success works is the first step towards building your resolve. After all, everyone will fail again and again and again and again until they finally succeed. But if you knew that failure was impossible, you’d continue to try, wouldn’t you? Willpower is also connected to your ego – your sense of pride. But more importantly, your resolve is directly connected to faith. So where does faith come from and how do you create it?

Building Your Resolve

Faith is composed of three things:

1. Desire.
2. Belief.
3. Expectancy.

When these three things are combined, they create the energy of faith which feeds one’s willpower to succeed.

Desire

As a writer, I was fortunate enough to meet one of my idols, Ray Bradbury. He told me an astonishing thing: He said that he was not born with a talent in writing. Instead, he was born with a desire to write. Ray Bradbury says that successful writers do not write – they burn. Successful people all have a burning desire to do what they do. I am a juggler (hey, everyone needs a hobby, right?). But I was not born with the talent and coordination needed to juggle. So why can I juggle while most people cannot? Because I found a burning desire to learn how to juggle. I remember thinking, “I’m going to learn to juggle or I’ll die trying!” Think of it like a rocket: To shoot for the stars, you need to burn! Many people like to think about why they want something. These reasons can be helpful, but the best way to increase one’s desire is simply to think about it as often as possible. When you think about it frequently, desire will increase.

Belief

One thing stopping most people is that they simply don’t believe that they can achieve their desires. They’ll often quote a list of their failures. What’s interesting is that most people will go out and ask unsuccessful people if something is possible. These failures will of course say that success is not possible, and will often have a list of excuses why (it’s a scam, you need money to make money, etc.). More people will go out and find an expert, who they will use to back up their excuses for not trying. But even the experts are wrong.

Consider this:

· Beethoven’s music teacher said that as a composer he was hopeless.

· Einstein was four years old before he could speak.

· Henry Ford went bankrupt before he began to make cars.

· Isaac Newton did poorly in grade school.

· Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.

· Steven Spielberg dropped out of high school.

· Thomas Edison had a teacher that said he was too stupid to learn anything.

· Winston Churchill failed the 6^th grade.

· Walt Disney was fired from an advertising agency because he couldn’t draw.

· The chairman of IBM said, “I think there is a world market for about 5 computers.”

While one group is doing it, the other group will be talking about why it can’t be done.

To increase your belief, think about it frequently.

Expectancy

Expectancy is the hope that you will achieve your desire. It comes from a strong desire, backed up by a strong belief, and from imagining yourself at having arrived at your goal. This is one of the most important steps. You must visualize yourself achieving your desires. Do this frequently – at least once a day.

Success depends on how you use your mind.

When you spend time concentrating on your desires, beliefs and expectations, you will create the energy to acquire what you want. So think about your goals frequently. Spend time every day imagining yourself as having arrived at your goals, as if you already have them.

A Simple Exercise

Here is a simple technique that you can use to achieve your desires:

• Take all of your negative thoughts and emotions and feelings and judgments and let them live and breathe and thrive for a moment.
• Then imagine a giant eraser wiping them out.
• Then imagine your goal, as if you have already achieved it. Feel what it is like. See it, imagine it, and visualize it.
• Repeat this last step every day until you achieve your goals.

Every day, take time to sit down and visualize your goals as if you already have them.

The Three Steps to Success

Now that you understand how the process works, here are the three steps to success, which are based on the ideas previously discussed. In a sense, these three steps are connected to the three factors of desire, belief and expectancy:

1. A Definite Chief Aim

The comment at the beginning of this article was made by Napoleon when he was confronted by his marshals (including Marshal Ney). They were trying to talk him into abdicating the throne of France (quitting). As you can imagine, it took quite a bit to get one of the world’s most successful people to abandon his goals. Always remember that goals have great power in them. No one has ever achieved anything of value without a goal. You cannot build a bridge, you cannot build a house, you cannot paint a painting, without an idea of what you want.

A friend of mine served in the Vietnam war. He related a fascinating story to me. He said that while other people were worrying about dying, he was spending his time drawing. During the war he finished a very detailed portrait of a woman out of his imagination. He said to himself, “This is the woman I’m going to marry.” A year later, he was sitting in a restaurant in Japan and the exact person in the portrait walked it! (I still get chills thinking about this).

People think that the more detailed their goals are, the less likely they are to occur. This is nonsense. The more detailed your goals, the more likely they are to happen. Your goals must be specific and definite.

A definite chief aim, backed up by burning desire, is the first step to success at anything. If you do not have a written list of your goals, you will fail.

2. Daily Visualization

The second step to getting what you want is to use the three components of desire, belief and expectancy to condition your mind for success.

Every day you need to spend some time visualizing your goals, as if you have already achieved them.

When you do this, an astounding thing will begin to happen: People will come out of nowhere, offering to help you. You may find that you will “just happen” to be in the right place at the right time. Situations and circumstances completely beyond your control will begin to help you. This happens because the universe is an abundant place, and it is set up to benefit those striving for a goal.

You will find that there really is no such thing as luck. What we call luck is simply the universe moving in the direction of those who know where they are going. Opportunities will appear to those ready to take advantage of them.

Remember that this is not a form of “positive thinking,” since you must also use your negative thoughts to determine where you are on your road to success. When these negative thoughts, emotions and events occur, simply take a moment to see them in your mind for a moment, and then mentally erase them. Then replace these negative things with an image of your desires. What you are doing is programming your subconscious mind to do what it takes to acquire your goals.

3. Take Action

The third step is often neglected, but you cannot succeed unless you take action. Imagine what would happen if you wrote down a grocery list, thought about what you wanted to get, and then didn’t actually go anywhere. Remember to take some kind of action towards reaching your goals.

Many people fail when they get to this step. This is because they still have fears, which are caused by the pains of their previous failures. Although the second step (imagining having arriving at your goals) will help, you have to realize that the fear is really just an illusion.

Imagine that you are making free throws in basketball. Let’s say that your goal is to make 10 baskets. What no one tells you, however, is that you can take as many shots as you want. After all, who cares if it takes you 10 shots, 20 shots, or even a hundred shots to make those 10 baskets? The only way you will fail is if you quit taking shots. Failure is impossible!

Your desires, beliefs and expectations will help to create the energy you will use to take action, but remember to get in the car and drive when you have somewhere to go. Get out your map (desire), pack your bags (belief, expectation) and then get in the car. If you get lost along the way, don’t worry. That’s what your map is for.

Scientists tell us that that energy and matter are interchangeable. Here is how the process works: First, you set a goal, based on your desires. Then you think about it, constantly visualizing it in your mind. Then you go out and make it happen by taking action.

The researcher Jose Silva (author of The Silva Method) has this to say about imagination:

“Visualization is the beginning of creation. Everything has to be done first in the world of the mind before it can be materialized. The past is composed of materialized thoughts. The present is a process of materializing thoughts. The future is composed of conceived thoughts not yet materialized. The physical world is a duplicate – a shadow of what takes place in the world of the mind. You must strengthen your faculty of visualization.”

Hopefully, this article will have helped you on your road to success.

Feel free to contact me anytime if you have questions.

Enjoy!

Mark O’Bannon

Business: http://www.MappingSuccess.com
Blog: http://MappingSuccess.wordpress.com
Email: Mark.MappingSuccess@gmail.com
Phone: (619) 272-4950

Teaching Others To Do The Impossible

Hello,

This is what this blog is all about:  Teaching others to do the impossible.

Namely: Success!

I’ve always had three main goals all of my life:  Health, wealth, & love.

Like most people, I’ve had varying degrees of success in each of these areas, but along the way, I’ve learned the secrets of life.

Here are the two most important things to know about life:

1. Do not resent anyone for anything.  Abandon all hate.  Forgive everyone for what they have done.

2. Have moderation in all things.  Do not enjoy things too much.

Aside from these two secrets, I’ve discovered how to condition your mind for success.  In order to succeed at anything, you need to develop a “prosperity” mindset.

I truly hope that you learn something that will help you with your life by reading this blog.

Enjoy it!

Mark O’Bannon