- Robert Schuller, American televangelist, pastor, speaker, motivator and author.

“The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible.”

-Anonymous

These two quotes when read in succession gives an idea that impossible is nothing. By reconditioning your mind to think in a positive manner, you can see impossible in the light of I M Possible.

Let us illustrate this with the help of an example, a real story that happened between the customer of General Motors and its Customer-Care Executive.

General Motors’ Pontiac Division received a customer complaint as follows:

This is the second time I am writing to you, and I don’t blame you for not answering me, because I sounded crazy, but it is a fact that we have a tradition in our family of Ice- Cream for dessert after dinner each night.

But the kind of ice cream varies every night. So, after we are done with our dinner, the family votes on which kind of ice cream to have. I drive down to the store to buy it.

It’s also a fact that I have recently purchased a new Pontiac and since then my trips to the store have created a problem. You see, every time I buy a vanilla ice-cream, when I start back from the store, my car won’t start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts just fine. I want you to know and I’m serious about this!

My question may sound silly but “What is there about a Pontiac that makes it not start when I get a vanilla ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?”

After reading the letter, the president at The Pontiac division was understandably skeptical about the complaint. Despite his disbelief, he still sent an engineer to look into the matter.

“In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd.” - Miguel de Cervantes

When the engineer met the customer, he was surprised to see a well-educated man at the outset. He met him after the dinnertime so that he could accompany the customer to the ice cream store. That night was the vanilla ice cream night and as said in the letter, the car wouldn’t start after they bought it.

The engineer came back again for three subsequent nights to understand the issue. The first time they got chocolate ice cream and the car started. The second night it was strawberry and the car started again. The third night was vanilla and the car failed to start.

Being an engineer, the man believed in logic and couldn’t bring himself to believe that the car was allergic to vanilla ice cream. Therefore, he continued his visits with the man to the ice cream parlor as he was determined to solve the problem no matter how long it would take.

“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” - Walt Disney

He started to make notes, of all sorts, the time of day, and type of gas used, time to drive back and forth etc. Very shortly, he got his clue. The engineer analyzed that the man took considerably less time to get the vanilla flavor as it was stored in the front of the store, being a popular pick. All other flavors were stored at the back of the store at a different counter and hence it took a relatively longer time to get those flavors.

Now, the engineer was surfaced with the question, why the car wouldn’t start when it took less time. Here it was, now time became the problem and not the vanilla ice cream. Soon enough, the engineer realized that the issue pertains to “vapor lock”.

The problem was happening each night however the extra time to get other flavors let the engine the needed space to cool down sufficiently to start. Since the vanilla ice cream was bought fast, the engine did not get the time to cool and the vapor lock did not dissipate.

See, how crazy looking problems are sometimes real and how all problems seem simple only when we find the solution with a cool thinking.

“To achieve the impossible; it is precisely the unthinkable that must be thought.”
– Tom Robbins, an American author

It is easy to say impossible but hard to put sincere efforts and make the task possible. It is your attitude and your perception that really matters.

“It is impossible to win the race unless you venture to run, impossible to win the victory unless you dare to battle.” Richard M. DeVos, co-author of the book Believe!

Wallace Wattles wrote that failure is caused by doing too many things in an inefficient manner and not doing enough things in an efficient manner.

Doing anything important or significant in an inefficient manner is not fully occupying the space you are here to fill . . . your most fulfilling life and life moments. It can be uncomfortable to realize a day has passed and you feel you did not accomplish what you wanted or needed to, or at least feel some level of success about your day. This does not mean you have to work your backside off to be efficient. In fact, overworking is a sure path to inefficiency.

Inefficiency can include
-Not having your mind fully on what you are doing
-Multi-tasking
-Allowing interruptions from the phone, email, and others
-Hurrying or rushing
-Trying or planning to do more than you can do realistically in a specific time period (overworking)
-Inadequate rest and recharge time
-Non-supportive self-talk

It is worth giving consideration to each of these as you think about how they are included in and affect the various areas of your life, both professional and personal.

Efficient action and the Law of Attraction
If you at all believe in Law of Attraction, as someone once pointed out, notice that the last part of the word “attraction” is action. If you desire a specific outcome, you are going to have to take specific action. Action is a clear sign to Source (God, the Universe, etc.) that you are ready to receive what you have asked for. Efficient action is a Very Clear Signal about this. Efficient action means your vision, goal, or ideal outcome is on your radar screen; and that is what you want the quantum field to help you fulfill.

Not having your mind fully on what you are doing
Well now, this one can certainly cause real problems from one end of the chaos spectrum to the other. What do you think the quality of your experiences and outcomes might be if you were 100 percent focused on anything you do?

Multi-tasking and allowing interruptions from the phone, email, and others
Multitasking was a buzzword for quite a while; and job descriptions sometimes listed it as though it was a skill (some still do, despite the evidence of its negative impact on productivity). There are times when you can, say, start something baking in the oven and then do something else while you wait, but that is not actually multi-tasking in the way usually meant by it. What really affects your productivity is when you attempt to do something that requires a steady line of thought, and you allow interruptions from others or engage in your own. You have to know how you work best and at your most productive if you intend to do anything efficiently. You are likely able to know if a significant number of experiences and results you have now demonstrate efficient action or inefficient.

Hurrying or rushing
When you hurry or rush, you are attempting to force something. Hurrying can mean either the time needed was not given sincere consideration and planned for, or that you may have an agenda attached to the action. Some people feel they validate their significance if they appear terribly busy, when the truth is there is no need to rush. Only on occasion is fast action required, but certainly not for everything. Of course, it should be obvious that dawdling is inefficient as well. Everyone has their most productive pace. Just note if you’re speeding ahead or dragging behind yours. Also important to know is whether or not staying busy is your natural state or if it isn’t. Neither is right or wrong; people have their own energy levels and needs to express them in ways appropriate for them.

Trying or planning to do more than you can do realistically in a specific time period
If you attempt to do in an hour or two what would take a day, or in a day or two what would take a week, unless you are Mr. Data from Star Trek, you are going to start to perform inefficiently at some point. If you do this for an extended time, you can experience burnout. Wattles pointed out that success happens more easily when we do what is needed efficiently each day; that it is not about how many things we get done, but about how efficiently we do what we do. You might say that some jobs demand speed, and you’d be right. But I also think you get the point he wanted to make: There is no satisfaction or success if you do a lot of things poorly, but there is satisfaction and success if you give your best (your best at the time) to whatever you do.

Inadequate rest and recharge time
Some people have massive amounts of energy, some have less; but everyone needs real time for their body, mind, and spirit to replenish. A body and mind in need of rest cannot work as efficiently as hoped or needed. If you need to rest or allow time to heal, and do, that is efficient as far as that specific action is concerned.

Non-supportive self-talk
This one can lead you to feel immobilized. Talk to yourself as you would a cherished friend you believe in.

Why is any of this important, beyond the obvious? Wattles said successful actions are cumulative in their results (I add, so are unsuccessful actions). Successful actions create successful outcomes. Efficient actions are successful actions. If your days end with you feeling unsatisfied, feeling you did not have even one thing to feel successful about, see if you are doing one or more of the inefficiency items. None of them should be impossible to adjust. Adjust as needed so you can support your successes. It is important to remember that your best will be different every day.

If any area of your life feels unfulfilling, consider any ways you may be managing or acting on them inefficiently.

You are what you practice.
© Joyce Shafer

Joyce Shafer (jls1422@yahoo.com) is the You Are More! Empowerment Coach and author of I Don’t Want to be Your Guru, but I Have Something to Say, as well as more life and small business empowerment books/ebooks. Check out the terrific articles and Empowerment Extras in her free weekly online newsletter, and get a FREE PDF of How to Have What You REALLY Want when you subscribe at http://stateofappreciation.webs.com

As an adult, you may have been punished for communicating. For example, if you admit you committed a crime and are sorry about it, no one cares. You still go to jail. If you honestly tell your spouse you are thinking about an affair, your marriage suffers if your spouse is not very understanding. If you tell someone you feel a little crazy, who knows what might happen. So you learn to keep your mouth shut.

However, businesses fail when managers do not talk to employees or employees do not talk to customers. Everyone mistakenly believes telepathy is working. “I thought you knew I was unhappy with your performance.” “You should have known I was overworked.”

Marriages are ruined by poor communication. Rather than openly discuss sex, money, body problems or whatever, couples hint about their concerns or simply say nothing. But without support and understanding from your primary teammate, you do not go as far. In fact, a bad marriage can ruin everything in your life. Both parties in a successful marriage are able to give and receive communication from their spouse on any subject.

Life is miserable if you have no one to openly communicate with. Friendships are based on communication. The lack of friends or a spouse to communicate with often leads to mental problems.

So the first communication skill you need is to get out there and talk.

Unfortunately, on some topics, you’ve learned to watch what you say, to keep it under your hat, to zip it up.

“So that is the basic lesson that anybody learns in this universe. They learn to keep their mouth shut, and it’s the wrong lesson. When in doubt, talk. When in doubt, communicate.” — L. Ron Hubbard

Whenever you have doubts about something, COMMUNICATE! Talk, talk, talk until the problem resolves. When you feel stress, disagreement or resistance between you and someone near you, the wrong thing to do is ignore the problem. Instead, start communicating.

When you know you should say something, say it! For example, an employee knows another employee is embezzling money and so says something to the employee and/or boss. A doctor knows he must talk to a patient about the patient’s rude behavior to the office staff. An employer knows she must discuss poor performance issues with some employees.

Take the bull by the horns. Move ahead in life. Spit it out.

If you’re worried about the consequences of saying something, you can ask first. Examples:

“Lisa, I want to say something about your driving to help keep you out of accidents, but I don’t want to upset you. Can I tell you what I think or should I keep my mouth shut?”

“Boss, should I tell you if I think you are giving me bad advice?”

“John, our marriage means so much to me I don’t want to say anything that would jeopardize it. But I have done something wrong and I’m sorry I did it. I think it would be good for our relationship if I told you. Don’t you think it’s best if we are 100% honest with each other?”

“Can you listen to something unfortunate I have to say and remain calm? Are you ready?”

In the long run, you are always better off by communicating. Take responsibility and talk. Staying silent solves nothing.

Copyright © 2009 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard

Mindset means your thinking mind is set in a certain way. I like the word “set” because it means you place something in a particular spot or way, like when you set a vase on a table. If you can set it, you can set it differently or in another place or direction.

Here’s how I’d re-word the definition of mind-set: a mental attitude inclined in a direction based on what you tell yourself that anything means, which means you can tell yourself anything, depending on how you decide to or prefer to set your mind about anything and everything.

You may believe events and others cause you to feel or think a certain way, but no one but you can set your mind about anything.

But . . . “some things are real,” you may say.

Many things are what they are—usually because of what leads up to them, but we often tell ourselves way more than what’s actually going on. And then we believe what we tell ourselves . . . and then, because misery loves company, we set out to convince others as well.

Here’s an example. A workshop presenter shared that she had to learn to “fix” her face. When she wore no expression, her mouth’s natural shape was turned down, which made her look as though she was frowning, when she wasn’t. You can imagine the chatter about her that likely included, “She’s always in a bad mood,” when she wasn’t. Once she realized this, she began to practice deliberately shifting the corners of her mouth up just a bit so people wouldn’t judge her as angry or unfriendly. You could say the corners of her mouth are fixed in a downward direction, but she chose to fix this—in order to have different experiences and results. And others had fixed in their minds an opinion of her that was inaccurate.

One of the daily emailed quotes I receive came from The Talmud: “If you add to the truth, you subtract from it.”

Looking at choices and actions

If you have a result or experience you don’t like or want, look at the choices or actions that led to it so you know what to shift, and don’t add to it with comments like, “I’m such a (whatever negative you might say about yourself)” or any other version of that about life or others. When you add such criticisms about yourself (or life or others) rather than look at what is and what can be done differently, you diminish the truth of yourself in your mind. You set your mind against your Self. What experiences and results might you expect if you do this?

You can choose to keep an attitude fixed, but that is a choice (remember that clever phrase “hardening of the attitudes”?). I’ve heard people say things like, “I’m too old to change” or “It’s too late to change it now,” and even “That’s how God made me.” What’s between the lines is, “This behavior (or mindset) meets an immediate need for me. It creates problems for me, but it’s a lot easier for me to repeatedly butt my head against this familiar wall than to risk facing what scares me or admit that my behaviors create some of my problems.”

How is your mind set about these?
● I have to be perfect, OR My significance is inherent and not dependent on being “perfect”.
● Who I am is not enough, OR I’m the only me there is so I enjoy and make the most of it, and expand who I am in the ongoing process of my life.
● Every day is difficult, OR Some things challenge me, but I’ve been meeting and going beyond challenges since God made dirt. If I allowed this to be easier, what would I do differently?
● Money worries are like a shadow I can’t shake, OR Every day I find a way to increase my contribution to others and feel great about the compensation that’s exchanged.
● People with money are to be belittled (and simultaneously envied), Or Having all the money (and even wealth) that supports my life feels right.
● I HAVE to be stressed, OR Sometimes I feel stressed about certain events, but I can decide if they are events I need to take action on, and take it, or whether it’s my thinking about events causing the stress, and shift this.
● I don’t have what it takes to be successful (work, relationships), OR I choose success and nothing less, and allow myself to have it.

When you get into bed to sleep, how is your mind set?
When you wake, how is your mind set?
When you do anything at all, how is your mind set?

You can meditate, affirm, and use all the techniques you know, but if your mind-set is not aligned with what you truly desire, and desire to be and experience, you’re butting your head (and life experience) against a too-familiar wall.

Specific mindsets create matching experiences and results. How is your mind set?

You are what you practice.

© Joyce Shafer
Joyce Shafer (jls1422@yahoo.com) is the You Are More! Empowerment Coach who helps women rediscover their authentic selves, and author of “I Don’t Want to be Your Guru, but I Have Something to Say”, as well as more life and small business empowerment books/ebooks, most easily found online at Lulu.com. Check out the terrific articles and Empowerment Extras, and learn about private coaching sessions, in her free weekly online newsletter at http://stateofappreciation.webs.com.

Jim Kukral is an author and Internet marketing expert.

- Hugh Prather
Notes to Myself, My Struggle to become a person

“THE RAPIDITY OF PARTICLE FLOW ALONE DETERMINES POWER.” — L. Ron Hubbard

The power and progress of our society is based on speed. When your particle flow (information, services, goods and so on) is slow, the rest of the world speeds on by.

For example, can you imagine working without a computer, telephone, fax machine or the Internet?

Can you imagine traveling without a car or an airplane?

Imagine being in a world where the telegraph and railroad were major improvements.

Business Speed

Speed of particle flow determines the power of a business. The faster the business’ particles (service, sales, payment, delivery and so on) the more prosperous it becomes.

For example, you want to buy carpet for your home. Two companies sell the exact carpet you want.

One says, “We can install it in six weeks” and the other says, “We can install it tomorrow.” Who do you pick?

If the price and quality are comparable, the company that can deliver the goods the fastest always wins in the end. In many cases, speed is more important than quality or price.

For example, fresh ripe tomatoes from Mexico in February may cost more, but they sell out quickly. Without fast delivery, they are inedible.

Imagine fast service in all areas.

You call and say, “Hello, I was calling to see if you could send someone to fix my furnace.”

The furnace company says, “Is ten minutes okay?”

You call your dentist and ask, “How soon can I see the doctor?”

The receptionist says, “How about 1:00 today?”

You call an auto dealer and say, “I’d like a fully-loaded 2003 Midnight Blue Mercedes 450SL with white leather seats.”

The dealer says, “It’s right here. You can pick it up or we can deliver it to you in an hour.”

Business owners who take forever to make decisions soon lose money. Managers who can spot problems and correct them within minutes are valuable and hard to find. Workers who move like lightening are soon promoted.

Companies that can quickly change their direction are the most successful. For example, chain bookstores did not start selling books over the Internet until Amazon.com was in business long enough to work out their systems and take over the market. Chain bookstores lost millions because they took too long to act.

Personal Success

How quickly can you move the particles (communications, projects, services and so on) in your life or work? How fast are you?

When you wait, avoid and make excuses, you kill your speed. You delay your success.

When you respond quickly, act without delay and complete tasks faster than anyone else, you have power.

For example, high-school graduates Lynn and Chris both want to become school teachers.

Lynn says, “I’ve got all those years of school in front of me. I’m taking a year off to ride my bike around Europe before I start.”

Chris says, “I can’t wait to teach. I’m taking classes this summer and will get my degree in three years.”

Who do you think becomes the other’s principal?

The only road to significant success is in the fast lane.

Ten tips for speeding up your success

1. Jump into projects as soon as possible.

2. Act quickly on opportunities. If you see what you want, jump on it before you lose the chance.

3. Push yourself to walk faster, talk faster, read faster and move faster.

4. Keep up your speed with good habits: sufficient sleep, good food, regular exercise and so on.

5. Reduce or eliminate people or things that delay or stop you from moving quickly.

6. Whenever you think something can’t be done quickly, ask “Why not?”

7. Constantly look for faster methods to get the same result.

8. Send and return communications with as little delay as possible.

9. Set tough deadlines for completing tasks and make them.

10. Challenge yourself by taking on more work than ever and getting it done in less time than ever.

Copyright © 2009 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard.