Inspiration

Here's a story from one of the newest Simple Truths books, One Choice. Often, a change in your life can be traced back to a single event. At that time, you made a choice that changed your life.

That's what One Choice is all about...those watershed moments that make all the difference. Enjoy this excerpt:

Whether you're born rich or not, the power to be rich is within your control. You have to make the choice… and then follow through. That's the advice of financial counselor David Bach. In his book, Start Late, Finish Rich: A no-fail plan for achieving financial freedom at any age, he relates the story of one of his clients who appeared on the Oprah show, sharing how she made the choice and successfully accumulated $1.6 million in a brokerage account...starting in her early fifties. Her name is Lynn Haley, and Oprah explained that she came to my first "Smart Women Finish Rich" seminar when she was in her early fifties, put a plan in place, and took action. Now here she is a decade or so later, having retired a multi-millionaire. Lynn is beaming with pride—as well she should. Although she got a late start, she didn't let that stop her from taking action to catch up. She wasn't poor when I met her, but she didn't have a plan in place to really finish rich. I told her as much during our first appointment. "Lynn," I said, "with what you have now, you won't starve during your retirement. You'll be able to enjoy the 'early bird special.' But you won't be traveling to Europe or taking any cruises. If you want to finish rich, you are going to need a new plan of action." I made it clear to her that this new plan wouldn't involve anything particularly fancy or complicated. It would all be based on common sense. The thing was, she would have to apply what I taught her. Not just pay it lip service, but actually do it. "The choice is ultimately yours," I told her. "If you want to retire rich, we can work together to make it happen. I'll guide you, but you'll need to follow through. Otherwise, it won't work." Lynn was up to the challenge. "Tell me what I need to do, David, and I'll do it," she said. Fewer than 10 years later, Lynn took early retirement—rich enough to do what she wanted to do when she wanted to do it. And getting there wasn't all that difficult. In fact, the hardest thing Lynn had to do was what she did that first day we met: deciding—and then really believing—that it wasn't too late for her to be able to change her destiny. Which life will you choose? When you contrast the bad news (the paycheck-to-paycheck struggle that kills freedom) with the good news (the phenomenal wealth and opportunity that is all around us), you begin to realize that life is not fair. The fact is, you don't get in life what you wish for. You get in life what you go for.

What have been your watershed moments? How can you make those hard choices? What advice do you have for others?

Today, I'm happy to share a guest post from a friend, Martyn Green. Martyn is a Master Mind Mentor, and has devoted his life to inspiring others. To learn more about his efforts to motivate others, check out the Master Mind website. Please enjoy a special article from Martyn!

To begin with I would like to ask you a question and to think carefully about your answer. "Have you ever been faced with an opportunity but declined to take it because of a lack of courage"?

Before answering that we need to know exactly what is courage? The Merrian-Webster online dictionary defines it as: Mental or moral strength to venture, persevere and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.

I like to think of it as choosing the right thoughts to give me the mental strength to persevere in the direction of my goals without allowing fear or difficulty to stop me from reaching them.

15 years ago I was struck down with chronic back pain which totally turned my and my families life upside down! The pain was so bad at times that I could only relieve it by lying down and on some occasions this involved bed rest for up to 6 months! Not good when you have a young daughter aged 3!

Even sitting and driving was so painful that it made day to day life impossible at times. The Doctors could only give me pain killers and the prognosis wasn't very good!

But with courage in my heart I never once entertained the thought that this was how my life was going to be and that I just had to accept it! I knew with certainty even through my darkest hours that one day I would be pain free and lead a normal life again! Thankfully I can say that with courage and belief in myself and my abilities this is now a reality!

This now asks me to pose another question "why is courage such a vital ingredient to want success"?

A friend of mine answers it this way:

"Courage is essential to achieving success because without it you go nowhere. It is the opposite of fear, it is preceded by the essential ingredient of faith that belief in certainty and it is at the heart of action and the muscle needed for us to persevere."

"Courage is the element that causes us to press on in spite of the naysayers and all kinds of adversity. It is one of the major defining points between success and failure.

So how do we supplement courage?

First of all we need to sit down in a quiet place and ask our self what is important to me in life, what values do I have, what interests and resonates with me and how do I want to express this?

This leads us to realise what our definite chief aim and purpose in life is and to turn this in to our major goal.

For me it was the realization that from early childhood, I had always enjoyed helping people and that this has now developed into helping people achieve their goals by becoming my definite chief aim and purpose in life.

Once you realise exactly what your own definite aim and chief purpose is it starts to become a part of you and is constantly in your thoughts. It becomes a white hot desire that spurs you on into action.

It is this action that then leads to positive results which in turn gives you the courage to press forward into unknown territory to make the changes that our goal will make.

As we start to make these changes in our life we will all get moments of fear. Fear is in essence just a flashing red light or a warning signal. Fear is not a cause to quit. Ironically, we should be grateful for a good dose of fear, as this is what heightens our awareness, intensifies our thoughts and gives us a bit of an edge.

We should also be grateful when we experience fear, because it's a strong indicator of change and that we are getting nearer to our goal!

To quote Napoleon Hill from his all time classic book "Think & Grow Rich" - "Nature has endowed human beings with absolute control over only one thing - and that is thought. This fact coupled with the additional fact that everything that human beings create begins in the form of a thought; an idea leads one very near to the principle by which fear may be mastered".

In other words by knowing our chief aim and definite purpose, by making this our major goal and by choosing the right thoughts we can endow ourselves with the courage to master all our fears and succeed in our goals no matter how big they may seem to be!

Now that we know how to supplement courage, how do we start to implement it in the development of our chief aim and goal?

A good way to start is to form a mastermind alliance with like minded people and this is where Mastermind to Personal Power can help.

MasterMind to Personal Power's work is based on Napoleon Hill's Law Of Success. We teach people who join a MasterMind group the principles behind "The Science of Consciousness". The group learns to "harmonically cooperate" in manifesting each other's goals. Everyone grows in the self confidence derived from participating and experiencing the unconditional love and support their MasterMind group affords them.

Each member of the MasterMind group continues to meet for an hour weekly. The training lessons are short but complete and prepare each of the members to become the facilitator of their own group if they wish. New MasterMind groups form and begin the process all over again. In this way members of our company learn about the most important information in the history of mankind and pass it on and on.

To summarise:

Courage is having faith, that certainty and belief that you will succeed in reaching your goals even in the face of adversity.

To quote Winston Churchill "Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm."

Courage is essential to achieving success because without it you go nowhere. We supplement courage by choosing goals that resonate and are in harmony with us.

At the beginning of my article I asked you the question "have you ever been faced with an opportunity but declined to take it through having a lack of courage"? Now in closing I have two other questions that I would like to ask. First "how are you going to apply what you've learned today"? And secondly "if you knew you could only succeed and that failure wasn't an option, what is the one thing that you would truly want to do with your life"?

Think about that right now and make a decision to act positively and make a leap of faith to do it right here and now!

Today is International Women's Day, and I would like to share a special blog post from BJ Gallagher. BJ specializes in encouraging for women, and if you've read Oil For Your Lamp; Oh Thank Goodness, It's Not Just Me! or The Best Way Out is Always Through, then you seen BJ's passion for inspiration.

Here's an interview that BJ wrote for the Huffington Post. If you'd like to see the original, check it out here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bj-gallagher/interna...

March 8 is the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, which seems like the perfect occasion to get the scoop on the "State of America's Working Women." So I contacted Dr. Ken Nowack, who knows a thing or two about women. As an organizational and health psychologist, he has been studying the emotional and physical well-being of working women for over two decades.

BJG: Tell me about your research on working women. Do you study a wide variety of women's issues or mostly health issues?

Nowack: As a researcher, I have been asking one basic question for over 20 years: "Who are the most hardy and resilient in the face of work and life stress?" My colleagues and I have explored the answer to this question for working women and men in many different industries. We use a validated set of scales measuring stress, hardiness, coping, lifestyle practices, Type A behavior, social support and happiness.

BJG: Some people may not know what Type A means. How do you define it in your research?

Nowack: The concept of "Type A behavior" has been around since the 1950s when two cardiologists, Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman, first noticed that patients who were wearing out their waiting room furniture seemed to express a behavioral pattern of being impatient, hard driving, competitive and quick to anger.

Type A behavior is measured using a standardized 10-item scale derived from research on the classic Framingham Heart disease studies. In my own research, higher scores on our measure indicate both a need to achieve as much as possible (hard driving) and irritability when things move too slowly, or if they work with incompetents or jerks (impatience).

Our current research suggests that these two different Type A concepts of hard driving and impatience predict different outcomes -- but only those who are prone to be hostile, quick to anger and frustrated when things don't go their way are at risk for cardiovascular problems. So, some aspects of personality such as hostility, impatience, high neuroticism and high social anxiety (Type D personality) are still risk factors for cardiovascular illness -- even after controlling for smoking, diabetes, cholesterol and high blood pressure. This is particularly important for women because heart disease is their number one killer.

BJG: I've heard you talk about "Hardy Type A" women. Are these women who actually thrive on stress?

Nowack: Let me share with you some current findings that we haven't yet published about Type A women (as well as men). We did an analysis of 345 working men and 510 women in diverse industries and job levels exploring the relationship between work-life stress, Type A behavior (driven, impatient and achievement oriented style) and cognitive hardiness (optimistic disposition; viewing change as a challenge; having an internal locus of control; high self-efficacy and self-esteem; committed to work and life activities) from our data base. We found three interesting outcomes:

1. Women reported significantly higher levels of overall work and life stress compared to their male counterparts.

2. Type A women (and men) who were also high on hardiness reported significantly less work and life stress overall. Hardiness seems to be an important buffer of experiencing stress and coping with it (mobilizing your social resources; employing more healthy lifestyle and coping skills). I wouldn't say that Hardy Type A women thrive on stress, but they let more things roll off their backs and react in more positive ways to life's challenges.

3. The highest level of stress was reported by Type A women who also reported low hardiness. Women who are highly competitive, driven and impatient are most likely to experience a high level of stress when they are more pessimistic, and view change as a threat rather than a challenge. These findings suggest that hardy Type A women can, indeed, "have it all" and remain healthy -- both physically and psychologically.

BJG: Okay, I like the sound of that! So now tell me, based on your research on working women, what advice would you give us?

Nowack: Women are naturally primed to be more emotionally expressive and nurturing under stress due to the release of the pro-social hormone oxytocin, so reaching out to network and avoid isolation comes pretty naturally to most working women. While men experience a "fight or flight" response to stress, women go into "tend and befriend" mode. Women should definitely keep doing that.

And if I had to pick three top resilient factors, they would be increasing physical activity; improving sleep quantity and quality; and feeling and expressing emotions with closure (e.g. through giving forgiveness, keeping a journal, gratitude giving). Our profile of a Hardy Woman:

• Possesses and cultivates a strong social support network
• Gets adequate sleep (increasing research is showing a link between stress, sleep and health)
• Exercises at least three to five times a week for 60 minutes or more
• Eats heart-healthy foods
• Feels her emotions and puts closure to them
• Minimizes any self-critical or self-blaming internal dialogue
  

The trick, of course, is to put these into practice on a daily basis!

BJG: Isn't that the truth? We know what's good for us, but we often don't do it. But that's another blog for another day. For today, let me ask you one final question: Do you have any sense of how the recession has affected women? Are men and woman both affected similarly, or are there significant differences?

Nowack: The recession has been an equal opportunity stressor for both men and women, although financial strains for women seem to have increased relative to their male counterparts. The American Psychological Association's "Stress in America" survey last year revealed that women reported less work stress but more financial stress than their male counterparts -- 73 percent of men reported money as a significant stressor, compared with 79 percent of women. Women also reported an increase in overall stress compared to men over the last five years (49 percent of women versus 39 percent of men).

Data produced by the Gallup and others have consistently shown strong parallels between psychological well-being and the ups and downs of the economy. These studies show that the lowest "happiness" ratings for both men and women occurred in 1973, 1982, 1992 and 2001 -- each year at the center of a major recession. Not surprising.

On the plus side, women seem to have more experience handling and balancing different social roles (partner, parent, bread winner), so they tend to have more flexibility about their work identities compared to men -- particularly those who are in the Baby Boomer or older generation.

BJG: Thank you for your time and all this great information, Dr. Nowack. I'm sure that working women everywhere -- and the men who care about them -- will benefit from your insights.

For more information, check out Dr. Ken Nowack's blog and follow him on Twitter: www.twitter.com/envisia for regular research updates.

Today, we're happy to share a special article from Eric Eccles, founder of GenerationAwareness.org. Please enjoy!

The word 'purpose' in the dictionary is described as: something that one intends to get or do; or the object for which something exists or is done with intention and planning. Here's my interpretation of this word. I believe that purpose is an idea of completeness, a goal, mission, or dream that is intrinsically desired to the point of true ambition and intention. Whether we keep a purpose in view with conscious persistence is the question to our happiness in life. In all, a purpose is a dream or passion that has carefully been thought through and studied until it has become a master plan that is put into action.

How we develop our purpose is one of the keys to our happiness and fulfillment in life. So finding your life purpose may start with questions like: Why do you feel you are here? There are so many answers to this question, but what is it that really sticks out in your mind, what answer, when carefully thought out, gives you a powerful sense of good for everyone around you and in your world at this moment in time?

What do you love?

What are the most valuable feelings and accomplishments in your life?

What motivates me with what I truly desire out of life?

Now that you've answered these questions, I'm sure that you are well on your way to understanding your true purpose in life. I know from experience the more you think about this, the more defining your purpose of life will become. As each one of us grows through this life journey we become what we consistently contemplate and think about.

If we live in fear (negative thoughts) of something long enough, then eventually we will draw this to us, and it will be manifested in our lives.

If we believe and have never ending faith in something and stay persistent with and mold our thoughts to a specific purpose in this life experience, then the rewards manifested will be limitless. The next few questions below are going to take you a little bit of time to complete. If you don't feel that you can answer these questions completely at this time then relax. Take a day or two to think this through. Remember, as you evolve your purpose may shift or mold and take different avenues. This may be a better position in your career or a completely different career. In many people that begin to experience this greater awareness of life's purpose there is suddenly change that comes in many forms. Maybe they pick up their roots and travel to other lands or begin a new business adventure that allows them to wake up each morning and live their life purpose. In any direction that you decide to venture and accept as your life purpose, be prepared to experience more enjoyment and enthusiasm than ever before. You can trust yourself that by doing this you will grow in more ways then you could ever imagine.

Are you putting off living the life you've always longed for?

In her book, Life Begins When You Do, Mary Anne Radmacher, provides you with an inspiring invitation to begin the true work of your life RIGHT NOW!

A contributor to the publishing and gift industry for almost thirty years, Mary Anne's unique prose offers up a nurturing bowl of inspiring, thoughtful soup for the spirit.

Life Begins When You Do is based upon on Mary Anne's famous poem - her statement of purpose - Live with Intention:

Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Laugh. Play with abandon. Practice wellness. Continue to learn. Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Lead or follow a leader. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is. Today, we'd like to share the first chapter of Life Begins When You Do, "Live with Intention."

Nearly everyone postpones one grand thing or a collection of mighty hopes and dreams.

Between the quote marks of our lives are phrases like these: "When things slow down...when I finish my degree...when I get certified...as I acquire a deeper knowledge base...when I have kids...when the kids are grown...when I get well...when I marry...when I divorce...when I retire...when I get that promotion, that raise, that job, that house, that whatever the fill-in-the blank is for your specific postponing of life..."

Your Life Begins When You Do.

You may think you are postponing the longing of your soul until life aligns itself with your vision, until elements conspire to be more favorable...but as it happens, life just lolls along at the same remarkable consistent and disinterested cadence. Life is impartial. YOUR personal, subjective life (dreams, satisfactions, contentment, achievements, vision, fullness, passion, aspirations) begins when you begin.

From my teens into adulthood, I said, "I want to be an artist." One day I changed the sentence to, "I am an artist." My view changed. Life began. I looked behind me and saw that I had been accidentally living as an artist. I had been laying down a path that was only now visible to eyes that had begun to see. Beginning my life as an artist made my heart's longing and the small, tentative labors of my hands - visible and tangible. I began by opening the door and simply believing that I could live my dream. I began living that dream by seeing that I could.

Your purpose, that thing that among the many to-dos of your days, is what you must do. Embrace the truth of your purpose each minute of your precious life...for how very true it is that life begins when you do.

If you would dream it
BEGIN it.

If you have an idea
OPEN it.

If there is longing
ACKNOWLEDGE it.

If there is mission
COMMIT it.

If there is daring
DO it.

If there is love
SPEAK it.

If there is resource
USE it.

If there is abundance
SHARE it.

So, why wait another minute? The life you're waiting for...begins when you do!