Posted 11/28/2005 by Josh Hinds

A Motivational Podcast / Audio Message ...

I wanted to take a moment to let you know that I've added a new section on the site where you can listen to some motivational audio messages that I've done. I hope you enjoy them.

-- Here's to your success, Josh Hinds :-)

Posted 11/25/2005 by Josh Hinds

We've added the following articles to our Motivation and Success Articles Library:

Love What You Have by James Allan
The Top Six Ways to Stay Motivated by Chris Widener
Why Get Rich When You Can Be Wealthy? by Chris Widener
The Seven Deadly Roadblocks to Success by Chris Widener
Life Rewards Action by Chris Widener
Winning: Defining It, Achieving It by Chris Widener

-- Here's to your success, Josh Hinds :-)

Posted 11/21/2005 by Josh Hinds

“Setting for Twelve.”
by Julie Clark Robinson

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.” - Meister Eckhart

Choosing a china pattern with my fiancé all those years ago wasn’t quite the love fest a young girl dreams about all her life, but it has lead to something quite lovely.

There were a few things I became quickly aware of that summer evening in Marshall Fields. One was that the rolling of my betrothed’s eyes (when he thought I wasn’t looking) meant that such decisions were to be mine from that point forward. The second thing I realized was that this particular decision was far more than just one of color or brand or pattern. It was the beginning of a tradition.

Once I fell in love with the simplicity of my German “Baroness White” service for twelve, I knew I had to do more than just serve Thanksgiving meals on it. I felt an overwhelming desire to let these delicate serving pieces tell the tale of our new family to the next generation.

Just four weeks after our wedding, Thanksgiving was in the air. I was so excited to be having my mother and stepfather visiting from Toledo to share the meal with us. I shopped and chopped, cooked and baked and finally it was time to work on my favorite thing, Part I -- setting the dining room table. But thanks to my beautiful china, I now have a favorite thing, Part II. After the belts have been loosened and the kitchen cleaned up, and usually long after everyone has scattered off in their own direction (in other words, football…), I sit in that empty dining room and record the day in my China Journal.

It’s not the last chore of the day, far from it. I look at it as if it’s a legacy of sorts. I imagine my daughter one day (and her children, after her), leafing through the pages and feeling connected to her past...dare I hope…to me. I imagine her laughing with joy as she reads my menu and discovers that we both make deviled eggs for most holidays. She’ll probably chaff when she reads that for the first few years I didn’t grace her or her brother’s place at the table with the Baroness White, but with Barney Purple instead.

If she looks closely at the pictures that I tuck in with each entry, she might see how tired I look or how I didn’t take the time to put on lipstick or comb my hair before posing with the spread of food. But in time she’ll learn that when preparing a holiday meal there just isn’t time for such things. Then maybe she’ll look a bit closer and see the joy in my eyes nonetheless.

I hope that both my kids, as adults, read through the pages and see how many people we were blessed with throughout the years. Maybe they’ll even be so busy counting names that they’ll skim over the quantities of wine that were consumed around that table. A mom can dream, can’t she?

I realize that I’m putting a big burden on something as frail as porcelain. I’m asking it to reflect love, tradition and a genuine appreciation for all of our blessings for years to come, long after I’m no longer here to represent it myself.

My first entry from all those years ago says it best.

“I know they’re just porcelain pieces to eat from, but to me, they’re the beginning of a family. I can almost picture all of the gatherings through the years. Some good, some not so good, as life will have it. But each gathering will have one thing in common – whether David and I are a part of the meal or not. The commitment to love, family, good food and a great life together.”

Action Exercise:

Before you dig into menu planning and silver polishing, give some serious thought to your Thanksgiving traditions. Ask yourself, “Is there anything different I can do to add true meaning for myself as well as my family?”

Things like less time at the stove; more time watching a parade with children, having a leftover turkey recipe contest or just carving out a few moments to appreciate what’s right under your nose – today -- might take what’s a usually a pretty great day and make it something to build on for years to come.
_____________
Julie Clark Robinson is the author of Live in the Moment a fresh, funny and blatantly honest book about creating one's own daily joy. Visit her site at www.JulieClarkRobinson.com.

Posted 11/15/2005 by Josh Hinds

You Have All The Tools You Need To Succeed
By David Breslow

There is certainly no shortage of information out there in the form of articles, books, tapes and classes designed to help you succeed.

Over 20 years working with professionals in sports/business and the private sector I’ve learned that all performance can be broken down into 3 distinct and simple components. I call this the “A.S.K.” model and it consists of:

1. A-ttitude
2. S-kill
3. K-nowledge

Knowledge can easily be increased if this is what you need. Skill can be developed if this is an area that needs attention.

Attitude however, covers a deeper internal aspect of you and I’m not just talking about having a “positive” attitude. I’m talking about your “inner game” and how it is the most important tool you have and the one most often underdeveloped.

It has more direct influence on your actions and outcomes than anything else and is the power behind success or mediocrity. The truth is; you already have the tools you need to excel and they go far beyond skill or knowledge.

Believe it or not, no matter what your skill or knowledge level the achievement of your dreams will result from how you use these inner tools you already possess because they function via a set of very precise and predictable laws and principles that are already influencing you! Your success begins within!

Performance Key #1 It All Begins From Within

Even with the tremendous amount of information available on success many clients I work with feel they need something “more” to get to the next level.

Some feel they need more information, more techniques or more new tips and strategies before they can attain the success they dream of.

I’ve discovered that the way to reach your potential more quickly begins with a shift in perspective. This takes place by acknowledging two significant things:

1. Turn your attention back toward yourself first as the resource for change

2. Acknowledge that what you’re currently doing might not be getting you what you want

It begins from within. Let me state this once again: It begins from within. Why do I say this? Because success or achievement in any field occurs when people shift what they think, feel and do.

Improving skills and gaining knowledge are certainly important but they alone do not trigger success. If they did, more people would get what they say they want.

The achievement of your dreams comes from understanding there are precise and predictable “inner laws” of success and using them to get what you want instead of what you don’t want.

How many people do you know who have great talent and plenty of knowledge and still under perform? It all begins from within. Here is one of the performance laws:

Performance Law # 1 Clarity Creates Consistency

Think about it. When you are very clear what happens? Usually your mind, body and emotions operate at a very high level and you perform your best.

Most people don’t think of it this way but clarity causes this connection to make you a high performer and the mind/body/emotion link thrives on clarity.

The clearer you are the faster and more effective the mind, body and emotions operate together which can produce the “zone” state.

Reflect on the following:

Do you have a crystal clear vision for yourself?

Are you clear on why you are doing what you’re doing?

Do you have clear daily rituals and routines that create alignment of mind, body and emotion?

Performance Key #2 Be Honest With Yourself

Identify whether what you’re currently doing is getting you what you want

This may seem simple but people get caught up doing variations of things that aren’t getting them what they want. Einstein said, “You can’t solve a problem using the same mind that created the problem in the first place.” Yet, this is what so many of us try to do. We use old mental hard drives (our old habits, beliefs, perceptions, etc.) and wonder why we experience the same results.

One of the questions I ask on my performance assessment is, “does your performance match the time, effort or money you put into it?” The answer most commonly given is a resounding “NO”.

Many people work hard and don’t feel their results match their efforts. Be truthful with yourself. Many people have plenty of knowledge and skill yet they believe they can “do better”. It begins within and “doing better” means developing your inner game because it affects everything else you do.

Performance Law # 2 “The more honest you are; the quicker you get what you want”. This is a powerful truth because whatever you are willing to acknowledge can be improved; if not there is little chance of change. It’s just that simple.

Reflect on the following:

How would your performance be affected if you developed your “inner game”?

What are the reasons you tell yourself for not achieving your dreams?

Do the actions you take each day support your vision/dream?

Are you aware there are actual laws and principles that influence your success both positively and negatively…and they influence everyone at all times?

Performance Key #3 You Have The Same Mind As Anyone Else!

What’s the real difference between you and the “top” people in your profession? I often hear things like, “I’d like to know what he or she did to get where they are!” as if there is some real secret to their success.

When you talk to the top people they are the first to say “It’s no secret. I had a vision and I followed it!” They see themselves at the top of their game and believe they belong there.

Everything they do is in line with that. I don’t believe their success is a result of any magical way of doing things. Their success is driven from the inside because everyone has the same ability to use their minds to attract success or mediocrity.

Your mind has all the power that anyone else’s mind does. The mind is a “neutral tool” and is ready to be used any way you decide. It all begins within. Reflect honestly on the following:

Do you truly envision yourself being totally successful? (as you define “success”)
Do you delay your success because you think you need more “information”?

When you think of a great vision, do you notice any resistance? (thought or feeling)?
Are you using your inner tools (your mind, emotions, body and spirit) to get what you want?

(c) Copyright 2005
______________________________
The “Wired To Win” program is a powerful approach that helps you increase energy, focus and reduce stress. This unique program teaches you the precise and predictable laws and principles that trigger success. This is NOT “business as usual” because you create real shifts for real results in your life on and off the job. David is the author of “Wired To Win” and offers the highly acclaimed “Wired To Win” program for sales, corporate, entrepreneurs and athletes. For more info: contact David at 847.681.1698 or email: david@theflowzone.net and or visit www.theflowzone.net. David is available for your group meetings, conventions or 1 on 1 and group coaching. He also works with the PGA, LPGA, and has appeared on The Golf Channel and ESPN Radio. For book orders call toll free: 1.888.280.7715

Posted 11/12/2005 by Josh Hinds

Why “Flailing” Isn't Failing
By Julie Jordan Scott

I learned something in the last thirty seconds.

I learned that the word “flailing” actually comes from a whip-like tool that threshes, which in Merriam Webster words means “separates seeds from harvested crop.”

Two days ago I wrote this:

“I have felt myself flailing around for the past couple weeks – not feeling very grounded yet continuing to move, continuing to try to find my way.”

Now that I have 48 more hours worth of wisdom within me, I realize on an even deeper level the profound nature of “flailing”, something I had thought before wasn’t a good thing at all.

The movement of my flailing allows me to separate the positive seeds from the stuff which just needs to dry on the stem and return to dust and serve a different purpose. Flailing – without judging myself, brings good seeds out into the open, popping with life and breath and hope.

Here is the rest of what I wrote two days ago:

“I haven’t found my way… not 100% AND I have been able to stay more focused than if I froze and became motionless. If I froze and became motionless, I would quickly sink and drown. It is through flailing that I make discoveries and eventually make it to shore.

I might be winded, I might be hungry and I might need a lot of TLC, but at least I have landed on the other side. Later I might even laugh at what took place… and at least I made it.

Yes.

I made it.”

Let’s celebrate flailing. Let’s stop hurting ourselves by thinking ourselves wrong and instead allow the good seeds to fly into the open. Don’t let them be sacrificed with the stuff that doesn’t serve. Liberate them to continue to add to the increase.

Activate Your Passion.

© 2005
__________
Julie Jordan Scott is a Writer, Speaker, Success Coach, Actor, Workshop Facilitator and Mother Extraordinaire who works with creative, active oriented people to lead remarkable lives through coaching, teleclasses and ecourses. Visit her website to find out more and subscribe to her award winning ezines now. www.5passions.com - Dare to Discover Your Passion

P.S. Julie Jordan Scott is one of the success experts you can learn from at my membership site, AudioMotivation.com -- if you're not yet a member take a moment to learn more -- there's an abundance of personal development knowledge waiting for you there.

Posted 11/09/2005 by Josh Hinds

It’s called Focus
By Vic Johnson

“Having conceived of his purpose, a person should mentally mark out a straight pathway to its achievement, looking neither to the right nor left.” - As A Man Thinketh

It’s called FOCUS, and it’s probably the one single reason that most of us don’t accomplish more. We lay out some great goals, maybe even writing them down like the experts encourage. We enthusiastically start taking action. We can feel the power and the energy. We know that this time we’re on the right track, this time is going to be different than all those other times.

Then it happens…

Life gets in the way!

Maybe it’s a personal or family illness; or things get turned upside down at work. Maybe an unexpected financial crisis occurs. Whatever the interruption, it consumes us and before we know it, our once bright and shining goal that was out there in front of us is now just a tarnished and painful memory of what we could do if such and such hadn’t happened.

Life gets in the way of everybody, but the more successful have a way of keeping their focus in spite of life. One of my all-time favorite quotes on the power of focus is from James Allen’s The Mastery of Destiny.

“All successful people are people of purpose. They hold fast to an idea, a project, a plan, and will not let it go; they cherish it, brood upon it, tend and develop it; and when assailed by difficulties, they refuse to be beguiled into surrender; indeed, the intensity of the purpose increases with the growing magnitude of the obstacles encountered.”

And that last sentence is the true secret:

“indeed, the intensity of the purpose increases with the growing magnitude of the obstacles encountered.”

And that’s worth thinking about.
___________
Vic Johnson speaker and founder of a host of personal development websites. Download your free copy of "As A Man Thinketh" by James Allen, a timeless success classic.

Posted 11/04/2005 by Josh Hinds

"Sharpen Your Pencil."
by Julie Clark Robinson

"Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's when you had everything to do, and you've done it." -- Margaret Thatcher

I realize that I'm in my 40's and that I haven't really gone back to school - truly I do. I mean, I don't have a shiny new David Cassidy lunchbox or anything.

But, come autumn, the feeling in the pit of my stomach is the same as it was when I was a school girl choosing a new outfit, notebook, folders and pencil pouch -- and it's one that I've not only come to depend on after a summer of chasing sunsets, I thrive on it as well. A new beginning. A deeply ingrained feeling of motivation.

Most people see New Year's Eve as the time to resolve to do more... do better... do something that will move them closer to where they want to be in life. Not me. When school buses fire up their engines and start to rumble down the street, I sharpen my proverbial pencil and prepare to dig into whatever lies ahead.

After summer has slipped away, I find that it's easier to go to bed on time and get up on time. Suddenly, I noticed that I'm eating a real breakfast that will last me until lunch and even my wardrobe somehow takes on a more serious attitude.

When I'm dressed and ready to take on my day, I look at my schedule and marvel at how much I hope to achieve by the time the sun goes down. And, all the while, I love the newness of it all - no matter how many "first days" of fall I've had the pleasure of living through.

Maybe it's easier for me to dig in and get busy this time of year because no matter how old I get, symbols of fall transport me back to my days of homework and lockers.

Football is in the air and even though I can't remember the last time I actually watched an entire game, I still get excited at the very sound of a whistle on a faraway field. And don't even get me started on Halloween.

I've finally put my finger on why this season brings such a feeling of getting busy again. What lies between the first kickoff and pumpkin carving? Nothing. No distractions, no three-day weekends, nothing to make you want to "blow off" the task at hand.

Instead, we can inhale the cooler air and focus for a while. If that sounds like a long haul and nothing to get excited over, try changing your perspective. Consider how great Thanksgiving will feel if you're able to look back to Labor Day and realize how much you've accomplished.

Fall Journal Exercise:

Go ahead, make a list and keep it in a place where you can look at it often to check your progress. Put everything on it that you'd love to finish by the time turkeys get nervous.
___________
Julie Clark Robinson is the author of Live in the Moment a fresh, funny and blatantly honest book about creating one's own daily joy. Visit her site at www.JulieClarkRobinson.com.

Posted 11/01/2005 by Josh Hinds

How to Turn Nothing Into Something
by Jim Rohn

Have you ever wondered how to turn nothing into something?

First, in order to turn nothing into something, you've got to start with some ideas and imagination. Now, it might be hard to call ideas and imagination nothing; but how tangible are those ideas? That is a bit of a mystery.

I don't believe that ideas that can be turned into a hotel, ideas that can be turned into an enterprise, ideas that can be turned into a new vaccine or ideas that can be turned into some miracle product, should be called nothing. But tangibly, you have nothing. Interesting!

Think of it, ideas that become so powerful in your mind and in your consciousness that they seem real to you even before they become tangible. Imagination that is so strong, you can actually see it.

When I built my first home for my family in Idaho all those years ago, before I started construction, I would take my friends and associates out to the vacant property and give them a tour of the house. Is that possible? Is it possible to take someone on a tour through an imaginary house? And the answer is, "Yes, of course." "Here is the 3 car garage," I used to say, and my friends would look and say, "Yes, this garage will hold 3 cars." I could really make it "live".

I would take them on a tour throughout the house… "Here is the fireplace, and look, this side is brick and the other side is stone." I could make it so real… "Follow me through the rest of the house. Take a look through the picture window here in the kitchen, isn't the view great?" One day, I made the house so real that one of my friends bumped his elbow on the fireplace. I mean, it was that real.

So, the first step of turning nothing into something is to imagine the possibilities. Imagine ALL of the possibilities. One of the reasons for seminars, sermons, lyrics from songs and testimonials of others is to give us an idea of the possibilities; to help us imagine and to see the potential.

Now here is the second step for turning nothing into something, you must BELIEVE that what you imagine IS possible for you. Testimonials like, "If I can do it, you can do it" often become a support to our belief. And we start believing. First we imagine it's possible. Second, we start to believe that what's possible is possible for us.

We might also believe because of our own testimonial. Here is what your testimonial might say, "If I did it once, I can do it again. If it happened for me before, it could very well happen again." So we believe not only the testimonials of others who say, "If I can do it, you can do it. If I can change, you can change. If I can start with nothing, you can start with nothing.

If I can turn it all around, you can turn it all around." Then we also have the support of our own testimonial, if we've accomplished something before. "If we did it once, we can do it again. If we did it last year, we can do it this year." So those two things together are very powerful. Now, we do not have actual substance yet, although it is very close.

Again, step one is to imagine the possibilities. Step two is to imagine that what is possible is possible for you. Here is what we call step two - faith to believe. In fact, one writer said this, "Faith is substance." An interesting word: "substance", the powerful ability to believe in the possibilities that are possible for you. If you have faith to believe… that faith is substance, substance meaning "a piece of the real."

Now it's not "the real", it's not this podium, but it is so powerful that it is very close to being real and so the writer said, "The faith is a piece of, the substance of". He then goes on to call it evidence, substance and evidence. It is difficult to call substance and evidence "nothing". It is nothing in the sense that it cannot be seen except with the inner eye.

You can't get a hold of it because it isn't YET tangible. But it is possible to turn nothing, especially ideas and imaginations, into something if you believe that it is now possible for you. That substance and evidence becomes so powerful that it can now be turned into reality.

So the first step is to imagine what is possible, the second is to have the faith to believe that what is possible is possible for you. And now the third step is to that you go to work to make it real. You go to work to make it a hotel. You go to work to make it an enterprise. You go to work and make it good health. You go to work and make it an association. You go to work and make it a good marriage. You go to work and make it a movement; you make it tangible. You make it viable. You breathe life into it and then you construct it. That is such a unique and powerful ability for all of us human beings. Put this to work and start the miracle process today!

To Your Success,
Jim Rohn
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