SUCCESS BREATH

Think On A Higher Plane

Henry Ford (1863-1947) once said, "thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few people engage in it." Today I would like to share some thoughts with you on the important subject of "thinking" and I've titled this column "Thinking On A Higher Plane." In the Bible you will find these words recorded in Proverbs 23:7a, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." The Roman Emperor Marcus Arelius once said, "A man becomes what he thinks about all day long." Back in 1957, the late Earl Nightingale wrote and recorded a motivational message titled "The Strangest Secret", which became the only one of its kind to ever sell a million copies. The Strangest Secret is that "We Become What We Think About."
Yes, from King Solomon on down through the ages, the most successful writers, teachers and philosophers have all come to the same conclusion: It is the quality of our thinking that will ultimately determine the quality of our life. At this point, it might be in order to ask you some very pertinent questions. What do you think about most of the time? Is most of your thinking done on a higher plane? That is, do you reach for the stars in your thinking or is most of your thinking done in the gutter? The truth is, we have only to look about us to see where we are and to see what we have to see the fruits of our thinking.

For fear that I may be misunderstood, I want to make it very clear that we don't have to be a religious person to desire a good, decent, honest and moral life. Sometimes we forget that the greatest have as citizens of this free country is the power to choose. Regardless of who we are or what we have done in the past, we can choose the quality or level of our own thinking. Isn't it great to be able to say, "the past is gone" and I can't do anything about it but from this point forward I'm going to improve my life by improving the quality of my thinking? As I said a moment ago, the choice is yours. What is so tragic for me to realize is that millions of people could have more and be much happier if they only knew it.

While its an individual thing, you may ask, "how do I go about it?" While it's not easy, it's very simple. Station a guard at the entrance of your mind. You must be very careful when you select the television programs you watch, the books and magazines you read and the people with whom you associate. In short, if we are to improve the quality of our thinking, we must be very selective as to where we get our information.

It took several years for me to come to the realization that if I'm going to improve my life, when a filthy program comes on T.V., or even the radio, I just turn it off. Its a choice I make because I now realize what it will do to my thinking. How about you? Have you ever given any serious thought to this before? Remember please that "birds of a feather flock together" and you may have people tell you that it does not make any difference what you watch or read or who you spend your time with. But it does. We can trust the words of King Solomon here: "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he."
Jim Davidson is very instrumental " I don't believe in predestined fate. The future is what we chose to create.

5 Simple Steps to Plan Your Dream Life

Once you’ve mastered the art of planning your day, you’re ready for the next level. Don’t begin the activities of your week until you know exactly what you plan to accomplish. Don’t start your week until you have it planned.

Just imagine what life would be like if you took time out every Sunday to plan your week. Come Friday, you wouldn’t be saying, “Boy, did this week fly by. Where did it go? What did I do?” No, if you plan your week before you start it, you’ll know exactly what you want to do, what you want to accomplish and what you need to work on. If you learn to plan your days as part of your overall game plan for the week, the parts will fit much better. Your days will be better. You will be more effective. You’ll be working smarter, not harder.

And when you’ve learned to plan your week, guess what? You’ve got to plan your month! Don’t start your month until you’ve mapped out your game plan.

By developing and following your game plan, your days, weeks and months all become part of a larger plan, a bigger design you develop, a long-term view of your life, a visual chain. You’ll start gaining a greater perspective of it all… because you are planning.

If visually seeing your future is new to you, if you’ve never developed a game plan before, let me offer a few tips. There are two things you need to understand before you create a game plan.

A game plan, a visual chain of your future, is like a spreadsheet. Instead of listing numbers, list activities. It’s like a to-do list.
The technique of developing a game plan can be used for a single day, a single project or a variety of projects that are happening simultaneously.

Here’s how you do it. Game plans work best on graph paper. Take a sheet of graph paper and make vertical columns corresponding to the number of days this plan is to cover. Then on the left-hand side of the paper, write the heading “Activities.” Under this heading, list all the activities to be accomplished within your time frame.

For example, you’ve got one week to finalize a marketing plan. It’s an overwhelming amount of work to complete, but it’s got to be done. So break it down piece by piece. The best way to start is by listing all of the individual components on the left-hand side of the page. Some of these things will need to be completed before others can be started. You need to obtain your market research results before you can determine your target market. You need to know your target market before you can develop your marketing strategy. You need to have your marketing strategy before you can create a budget for collateral materials, and so on.

When you break down the project piece by piece and deadline by deadline, you can be more effective in putting together the appropriate parts of the puzzle—and in doing your own work while delegating the rest.

The final result of developing your game plan is a clear visual presentation of the tasks before you. This method is used quite often in business to coordinate and develop projects of any length. It’s the only way to see the entire project on paper and manage its progress.

Admittedly, game plans are frustrating to create. They’re frustrating because it’s difficult to completely prioritize your life and all your projects. You might go through several sheets of graph paper before you produce the perfect format. But as soon as you develop your first one, you’ll see the value in this discipline.

Keep your game plan in plain sight. Put it up in your office where you can easily look at it. Have a copy of it at home and tape it to the bathroom mirror. Keep a copy in your journal for quick reference. Your game plan will serve as a constant reminder of all you need to do to get where you want to go.

If you’re doing all you’re scheduled to do, game plans are very rewarding. Day by day, week by week, month by month, you’ll see the magic of your dreams and plans turning into reality. You will have an incredible feeling of being in charge of your life, your surroundings and your future. It’s like creating a work of art on the biggest canvas imaginable. It’s creative. It’s beautiful.

This is powerful stuff. To dream a dream, plan for the dream, and then watch your dream turn into reality. Here’s what’s really powerful about creating game plans: You can see your future right before your eyes. So on those days when your energy isn’t up to par, your enthusiasm is a little low, your ambition isn’t pushing you forward and your attitude isn’t on the positive side, use your game plan to see how far you’ve come. Take the time to visualize exactly where you’re headed. On those days, it’s your discipline and visual chain of the future that will push you ahead. People and circumstances might try to set you back, but your visual chain will propel you toward your goals.

Thank You Mr Jim Rohn.

7 Ways to Persist When Everything in You Wants to Give Up

COURAGE: THE CATALIST THAT SPEED UP THE MOVE FOR SUCCESS.

Courage is defined as "a quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty without fear" and "acting according to your beliefs despite criticism". The word comes from the Latin root "cor" and later the French root "cour" meaning "heart".

So courage is a quality that comes from your heart. Remember this point – it means it’s always with you and no one can ever take it away.

Susan Jeffers wrote a very popular book called Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. In the book she says “it takes courage to mold your life the way you want it to be. There are all sorts of real and imagined obstacles that get in the way. They need not deter you.”

But that’s exactly what we do – we let the obstacles deter us and we don’t go after our dreams. Some obstacles will be real (how will I pay the bills?) and some will be imagined (I’m afraid I’ll become a bag lady if I quit my job).

So if there are obstacles, how do we get past them?

Here are 4 things you can do to help move past the fear and succeed anyway:

1. Be yourself. Call it authenticity, finding your life purpose, or doing what you love to do. We spend most of our lives being what other people want us to be and doing what they want us to do. Dare to be yourself.

"It takes courage to do what you want. Other people have a lot of plans for you. Nobody wants you to do what you want to do." -Joseph Campbell

Being authentic or doing what you love to do stimulates excitement and gives you the courage to move forward. If you’ve lost touch with your dreams and you need some time to explore what you love to do, click here for help.

2. Have a clear vision of what you want. If you are transitioning from employee to entrepreneur, you need to have a clear vision of why you want to do this and the results you want to achieve. You need to imagine what your life will look like when you have achieved your dreams. You don’t need to save the world – you only need a clear vision that is meaningful for you. Meaningful enough to feel excitement and have the courage to move forward.

For example, a sister wanted to reclaim her life from a 2 hr/day commute and long work hours. She knew she could accomplish her work without going to the office every day so she submitted a proposal to work from home 1 or 2 days a week. Her boss refused so after careful consideration she decided to become a freelancer and work from home full-time with multiple clients, not just one employer. She envisioned a better work environment where she had enough time to take care of herself and her business.

“Courage is the power to let go of the familiar” – Raymond Lindquist

Ask yourself “why do I want to do this?” until you have a clear answer that feels exciting to you. Maybe you want to have enough time to watch your kids grow up. Or maybe you’re looking for work that is creative and fulfilling. Maybe you want a portable business so you can live in the mountains during the winter and ski every day.

It’s your life. How do you want to live it?

For tools to help you create a clear vision, click here.

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” – Ambrose Redmoon

3. Have a plan and take baby steps. This means take some small action every day toward your dreams. Action is powerful. It helps you build momentum. Even small actions add up over time. Every action adds self-confidence and courage. It won’t seem like much at the time, but over time you will get closer to making your dream a reality.

Often we become paralyzed because there is so much to do and we don't know where to start, or we don’t know how to do something, and then we don’t do anything. So you need a plan. You can make a formal business plan or just a long list of all the things that need to be done. There are tools to help you, one is a Mind Map.

Each day choose one item from your plan (or list) and take one action toward accomplishing that item. If it’s a big item break it into smaller pieces until you find at least 1 thing you can accomplish. You can do more than one thing, of course.

“Courage can’t see around corners, but goes around them anyway.” – Mignon McLaughlin

4. Find support. This means finding a small group of people who can help you succeed. Barbara Sher calls them Success Teams. Napoleon Hill calls them Masterminds, some people call them Dream Teams. Susan Jeffers calls it a Cheering Squad.

Whatever you want to call them, we all need a small group of people who will give us encouragement (courage), inspiration, motivation and accountability throughout the career change process. It could be your spouse, your friends, your sister, or strangers who have been down this path before.

Sometimes the people closest to you don’t want you to change and can’t offer support. Or they can’t offer support because they don’t understand the direction you’re going. But there are millions of people who have done this before – find a mentor, a coach or a mastermind team to help you.

“Courage is being scared to death . . . and saddling up anyway.” – John Wayne

In addition to the tips above, there are many books and CD’s available to give you inspiration and information when you’re making a major life change. Use as many resources as you need, follow the tips above, and keep taking action every day. You’ll get there.

The Story Of A Woodcutter

Once upon a time, a very strong woodcutter asked for a job in a timber merchant and he got it. The pay was really good and so was the work condition. For those reasons, the woodcutter was determined to do his best.
His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he supposed to work.
The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees.

“Congratulations,” the boss said. “Go on that way!”

Very motivated by the boss words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he could only bring 15 trees. The third day he tried even harder, but he could only bring 10 trees. Day after day he was bringing less and less trees.
“I must be losing my strength”, the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on.
“When was the last time you sharpened your axe?” the boss asked.
“Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees…”
Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don’t take time to sharpen the “axe”.
This story first appeared on http://academictips.org/blogs/

And beyond that, in today’s world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever, but less happy that ever.
Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten how to stay “sharp”? There’s nothing wrong with activity and hard work. But we should not get so busy that we neglect the truly important things in life, like our personal life, taking time to get close to our Creator, giving more time for our family, taking time to read etc.
We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn and grow. If we don’t take the time to sharpen the “axe”, we will become dull and lose our effectiveness.

Ecclesiastes 10:10 "If the iron be blunt, and he do not sharpened the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom (skill) will bring success".

Motivation is to life what fuel is to a car. If it run dry top it here!

Assassinate The Assassin!

Here I would be ditching you some practical proven Best Ways to Beat Procrastination. "Procrastination is opportunity's assassin." Therefore, you must read this to know how to stop this secret assassin that has assassinated many economic, political and spiritual giants! These powerful principles foster productivity and perseverance instead of passivity and procrastination.

1. Plan and Priorities Your Daily Schedules. Draw a practical timetable to guide you through your daily activities. Write CLEARLY what you intend to do at a particular time. Clarity is the most important element of productivity. You should arrange your schedule in orders of their important so that if eventually you are not able to accomplish all, the less important we be postpone.

2. Concentrate. Focus on one thing at a time. Deal with distractions by letting telephone calls go into voicemail, hanging a "Do Not Disturb" sign outside your door etc.

3. Avoid Things That Make You Tired. The predominant reason why people put off tasks is that they are too tired. So get sufficient sleep and exercise and eat right. Most of all, pursue important task when energy levels are high; you'll accomplish them easily and quickly. That lead us to point

4. Break Important Task Into Segments: Break It Down. No matter what you're trying to accomplish, whether it's writing a book, climbing a mountain or painting a house, the key to achievement is your ability to break down the task into manageable pieces and knock them off one at one time. Focus on accomplishing what's right in front of you at this moment. Ignore what's off in the distance someplace. Substitute real-time positive thinking for negative future visualization.

5. Procrastinate By Working. When you find yourself procrastinating, allow yourself to procrastinate by engaging in another segment of work that you had earlier postponed.

6. You Got To Separate Work From Play. Woking makes you work more; playing makes you play more. As a person I like play. Oh! Yes I play a lot, in fact I also play on words. But when is time to work God has given me wisdom to strike a balance. I can boostfully say Benson Adima is a big time 'Hard-Worker', probably that was why I was able to won the 'Best Teacher Of The Year' in about three schools I had taught so far. When it comes to beat deadline you could count on me. There is something that pushes me to work, you may call it 'Motivation'.

7. Think You Can. The more doubtful you are, the lesser your motivation. As a general rule, it's best to be your own number one fan.

8. Keep A Diary Of Your Daily Activities. And you're going to be amazed by the distractions, detours and downright wastes of time you engage in during the course of a day. All of these get in the way of achieving your goals. For many people, it's almost like they planned it that way, and maybe at some unconscious level they did. The great thing about keeping a time diary is that it brings all this out in the open. It forces you to see what you're actually doing—and what you're not doing.

Benson Adima remains your in-house Motivational Speaker with Skyhigh Motivational. Farewell For Now.

Your Desire And God

Your Desire For Success...Moves God Into Action..!

My Dear.

I Got Up Early Thinking About This...

    I felt so stirred to share it with you.
The Lord was wanting me to confirm to you that He has placed within you the desire to achieve and the ability to succeed...with His help. What you consider to be your limitations or weaknesses God considers to be His open door into your life...His magnificent hand reaching down to you...to lift you up into the realm of Success.

I love to see people succeed with their lives. And so does God, the Creator. As the artist treasures his painting, and the master craftsman the quality of the violin he created; so our Maker cherishes the dreams, the goals, the excellence of life and the happiness you and I are to enjoy.
I often ask myself, "Why do some accomplish so much while others seem to fail?" We often make the mistake of trivializing small things. We use the word little and the word small to denote things of unimportance. Things that are not valuable. God views it differently. God uses little things to accomplish great things (Micah 5:2).
There Are Some Important Facts You Should Remember About Small Things.
► Excellence In Small Things Births Great Promotion.
► Little Hinges Swing Big Doors.
► Tiny Changes Birth Remarkable Rewards.
I have seen continuous failure in the lives of many people in my life simply because they would not prioritize their day. Benson, Your Goals are the only exit you have from your Past. Yesterday Is In The Tomb, Tomorrow Is In The Womb—The Only Place You Will Ever Be Is Today.

God will never ask you to do something you cannot do. He will always ask you to do something you can do. Stop trying to do impossible things. When you do the possible, God does the impossible. Every Instruction from God is very achievable. An instruction may appear insignificant, but your obedience will produce incredible rewards. Revisit the small things. Is there a little Instruction you did not follow? Benson, What small things has God whispered for you to do? It is the key to life.

Little responsibilities are how God qualifies you for territorial ownership and position. To create a successful life it is essential that you discover the small things that birth great promotion. It is time for you to enjoy a successful life...God intended it for you. Declare that the happiest and most productive days of your life are beginning today!

Dr Mike Murdoch is instrumental.