In my case, I always believed in the power of positive thinking, but never practiced it when in difficult situations. Like me, there are several people who learn the important lessons of life the hard way.

Few years ago, when I was diagnosed with a rare skin disorder, which had no cure, I went into a self-imposed exile. As the disorder was progressing with each day, I shunned the world out of the fear of isolation and antagonism from the society. Although, I knew stress and negative thinking was weighing down the treatment results, I couldn’t stop myself from imagining me in a rotten state. This mental breakdown perhaps made my family introduce me to this life changing book named, As a Man Thinketh.

Mind is the Master power that moulds and makes,
And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes
The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills,
Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills: —
He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass:
Environment is but his looking-glass.

For me, these inspiring first lines by James Allen set the tone of a book that could literally change my destiny. The book tells us that our thoughts control our actions and make us what we are. If our thoughts are pure and generous, our actions would be so and if our thoughts are loaded with greed, we would come across as a selfish and paranoid person.

“As a man thinketh in his heart so is he,” not only embraces the whole of a man’s being, but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every condition and circumstance of his life. A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.”

Consider the case of a plant. Without a seed, a plant would not come into life. Similarly, the seeds of your thoughts are responsible for any act you do. Even the unplanned or spontaneous acts are a mirror to your thoughts.

“As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, so every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought, and could not have appeared without them. This applies equally to those acts called “spontaneous” and “unpremeditated” as to those, which are deliberately executed.”

James Allen’s practical way towards life has inspired several millions of people to attain success in their endeavors. As a Man Thinketh is a book that stresses the power that each individual has towards shaping his/her own character and living with peace and happiness.

“As a being of Power, Intelligence, and Love, and the lord of his own thoughts, man holds the key to every situation, and contains within himself that transforming and regenerative agency by which he may make himself what he wills.”

In short, all of us possess the power and wisdom within us to transform ourselves to what we aim to. Luck or destiny is not what determines your life, it your thoughts that has brought you to this state and in future also it will guide you to what you visualize.

“Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles. Men understand this law in the natural world, and work with it; but few understand it in the mental and moral world (though its operation there is just as simple and undeviating), and they, therefore, do not co-operate with it.”

As you sow, so shall you reap… if you can understand this, your life would change overnight. It has certainly for me. Whenever you feel like you are stuck, re-visit the book and learn your lesson. After all, you are what you think of yourself…winners swear by this phrase As a Man Thinketh…

Now… how do you keep yourself from slacking off and erasing everything you’ve achieved so far? Here are three ways to maintain your success:

1. Work hard even when no one is watching.

Commit yourself to excellence without the need for someone else’s approval. Yes, it is wonderful to receive a “pat on the back” from friends, family, or coworkers. But it’s much better to develop your own personal sense of pride and accomplishment.

2. Never arrive.

This may sound counter-intuitive. But one of the best ways to sustain success is to think of your goal as a construction project that’s always in progress and yet to be completed.

Never see yourself as having finished your goal journey. Condition yourself to actively keep learning. Learn more about your field when your goal is to advance in your profession… learn more about technique when your goal is to advance in a physical skill… and learn more about what everyone else in your industry is doing when your goal is to advance your business.

3. Be persistent.

If you keep going the extra mile – or even taking one more step after everyone else has given up – you will keep getting results. Over time, this will become a way of life… and you will be unstoppable.

[Ed. Note: If you have dreams you want to achieve and goals you want to accomplish, you CAN do it on your own. But you could reach success so much faster with step-by-step guidance from success mentor Bob Cox. Bob - who has worked one-on-one with four billionaires and monitored the techniques they used to succeed - can help you determine exactly what you want out of life and the exact steps you need to take to get there. ]

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to creating wealth and success through inspiration and practical, proven advice. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.By Bob Cox.

It seems that most people let thoughts connected with worries, fears, anger or unhappiness occupy their mind most of the time. They keep engaging their mind with inner conversation about negative situations and actions. This inner conversation eventually affects the subconscious mind, making it accept and take seriously the thoughts and ideas expressed in those inner conversations.

It is of vital importance to be careful of what goes into the subconscious mind. Words and thoughts that are repeated often get stronger by the repetitions, sink into the subconscious mind and affect the behavior, actions and reactions of the person involved.

The subconscious mind regards the words and thoughts that get lodged inside it as expressing and describing a real situation, and therefore endeavors to align the words and thoughts with reality. It works diligently to make these words and thoughts a reality in the life of the person saying or thinking them.

This means that if you often tell yourself that it is difficult or impossible to acquire money, the subconscious mind will accept your words and put obstacles in your way. If you keep telling yourself that you are rich, it will find ways to bring you opportunities to get rich, and push you towards taking advantage of these opportunities.

The thoughts that you express through your words shape your life. This is often done unconsciously, as few pay attention to their thoughts and the words they use while thinking, and let outside circumstances and situations determine what they think about. In this case there is no freedom. Here, the outside world affects the inner world.

If you consciously choose the thoughts, phrases and words that you repeat in your mind, your life will start to change. You will begin creating new situations and circumstances. You will be using the power of affirmations.

Affirmations are sentences that are repeated often during the day, and which sink into the subconscious mind, thereby releasing its enormous power to materialize the intention of the words and phrases in the outside world. This does not mean that every word you utter will bring results. In order to trigger the subconscious mind into action, the words have to be said with attention, intention and with feeling.

In order to obtain positive results, affirmations have to be phrased in positive words. Look at the following two sentences:

1. I am not weak anymore.

2. I am strong and powerful.

Though both sentences seem to express the same idea, but in different words, the first one is a negative sentence. It creates in the mind a mental image of weakness. This is wrong wording. The second sentence awakens in the mind a mental image of strength.

It is not enough to say an affirmation a few times, and then expect your life to change. More than this is necessary. It is important to affirm with attention, as well as with strong desire, faith and persistence. It is also important to choose the right affirmation for any specific situation. You need to feel comfortable with it; otherwise the affirmation may not work or may bring you something that you do not really want.

Affirmations can be used together with creative visualization, to strengthen it, and they can be used separately, on their own. They are of special importance for people who find it difficult to visualize. In this case they serve as a substitution to creative visualization.

Instead of repeating negative and useless words and phrases in the mind, you can choose positive words and phrases to help you build the life you want. By choosing your thoughts and words you exercise control over your life.

Here are a few affirmations:

- Day by day I am becoming happier and more satisfied.

- With every inhalation I am filling myself with happiness.

- Love is filling my life now.

- The power of the Cosmos is filling my life with love.

- A lot of money is flowing now into my life.

- The power of the Universal Mind is now filling my life with wealth.

- The powerful and vital energy of the Cosmos is flowing and filling my body and mind.

- Healing energy is constantly filling every cell of my body.

- I always stay calm and in control of myself, in every situation and in http://www.success-mantras.com/wp-admin/post-new.php#edit_timestampall circumstances.

- I am having a wonderful, happy and fascinating day.

© Copyright Remez Sasson
Remez Sasson teaches and writes on positive thinking, creative visualization, motivation, self-improvement, peace of mind, spiritual growth and meditation. He is the author of several books, among which are “Peace of mind in Daily Life”, “Will Power and Self Discipline”, “Visualize and Achieve” and “Affirmations – Words of Power”.
Website: http://www.SuccessConsciousness.com
Books: http://www.successconsciousness.com/ebooks_and_books.htm

Jim shared with me the idea of first framing the problem and then suggested five important methods which people employ in their decision making process:

1. Experience, also referred to as shortcut thinking is where one only uses their personal experiences to decide—relying on the idea that based on one’s experience; situation “A” requires solution “B” rather than considering other possibilities.
2. Best practices of other businesses, very hot today in management circles. In this situation, frequently the decision is made to adopt what others have successfully done, perhaps rather than to adapt the idea to their particular situation.
3. Reasoning generally alludes to approaching things through a more logical thought process—this is very good. However it is not necessarily strategically aligned to the organization’s goals.
4. Collaboration among all involved. Jim made it a point to distinguish between cooperation, where people have agreement, and not necessarily emotional ownership, verses collaboration where people will generally bond—big difference in my book.
5. Strategy based decision making. This is where the overall strategy of an organization is in the forefront of everyone’s mind and the challenge is framed in a way that is understood by all. Strategic thinking should be embraced throughout every organization.

I so much appreciated the student becoming the teacher that I’ve added some of Jim’s ideas into my seminar titled, Let’s Get Along & Be More Productive; Purposeful Interdepartmental Collaboration.

I challenge you to consider the above methods of decision making when you are attempting to resolve your challenges at work, and at home.

Copyright © 2010 Ed Rigsbee http://www.rigsbee.com. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to Ed Rigsbee for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of Ed Rigsbee

Will power is your inner strength to make decisions and act on them regardless of internal resistances. The Power of Will exists to help you cope with life’s challenges. It drives you to attain goals or apply your talents irrespective of your emotional state. It gives you the strength to overcome inertia and build momentum, and empowers you to achieve what you want by sticking to the job till it is done. Your Power of Will is strengthened whenever you reject instant gratification and instead choose to concentrate on something worthwhile.

The Power of Will helps you to gather your energies and focus them in a positive direction. Let’s say laziness prevents you from going on a planned morning walk. This is where you need to apply your Power of Will. This power can help you to overcome bad habits such as overeating, laziness,
procrastination and indiscipline.

The Power of Will prospers when you develop the ability to control unnecessary and harmful impulses. It improves the ability to arrive at a decision and follow it through with perseverance until its successful completion. When you decide upon a list of things and behaviour that you will no longer accept from yourself, your decision-making ability grows and so does your will power.

The three important factors that affect the development of your Power of Will are:
1) Self-discipline
2) Self-control
3) Self-determination

1) Self-discipline helps you do the right things in the right way at the right time, whether you like doing them or not. It involves setting standards that you always adhere to.

You are blessed with a free will; it is through self-discipline that you can train your will to overcome obstacles. Self-discipline may be used to lose weight, take up exercise or form a daily routine. It helps you persevere and rise above procrastination, laziness and indecisiveness. Self-discipline helps you respond to all tasks with the appropriate behaviour.

2) Self-control keeps a check over your internal universe—your thoughts and emotions—to gain control over your will and actions, which create the universe outside you.

According to an ancient Indian proverb, ‘Before conquering the world, the king has to first conquer himself.’ This holds true even today. To become successful, you must increase your Power of Will and exercise control over your thoughts, emotions, will and reactions. The more you can do this, the more successful you will become.

Self-control helps you to focus on your job. You are a treasure trove of energy and power. These can be best utilized when you stop succumbing to your cravings and whims. Once you start controlling unprofitable thoughts and become aware of the choices you make every day—even every hour—you start becoming more powerful from within.

3) Self-determination is your decision-making ability. Self-determination helps you to stick to your resolutions. Maybe you have tried to change your eating habits but failed to do so because of a lack of inner strength and persistence. Most people have had such an experience. Once you have determined to shun laziness and take control over your emotions, you will develop the ability to stick to your resolutions. You are born to be rich, famous, successful, happy and healthy. If you have fallen short on any of these counts, it only means that you need to examine the state of your spiritual orientation. Your inner voice will guide you towards the right path. You must listen to your feelings, notice what is working and what is not. Resolve to change your life. Self-determination is the vital first step.

Two Action Steps:

Step 1: Keep a check over your negative emotions: Negative energies will try to pull you down like gravity. They may draw your attention to minor things and distract you from your real goals. So, beware of them and remain focused on your larger goals.

Step 2: Reject instant gratification: If you see an ice-cream parlour while walking down a street and are tempted to have your favourite flavour, do not give in to temptation. This way you will learn how to postpone gratification.

Success Mantra: Develop your willpower by using self-determination and self-discipline to keep a check over your negative emotions, and do what is necessary.

©Shishir Srivsatava, Motivational Speaker and Author ‘The Eight Powers within You’
www.shishirsrivastava.org and www.eightpowers.com

There is a story about three boys who were climbing a tree. The one reaching the top first was to be the winner. From down below, their peers and families kept shouting, ‘Don’t go up. It’s too high. You may fall.’ Soon, two boys gave up as they were listening to these negative suggestions. But one boy kept climbing and reached the top. Can you guess why this boy won? Because he had put cotton in his ears and listened only to his inner voice that constantly told him, ‘You can reach the top.’ Had he listened to the negative words of the people standing around the tree, he too might have given up. But he kept moving up and reached the top. The moral of the story: you must turn a deaf ear to all the words that arouse fear, insecurity or doubt in your mind.

People who say you can’t do something are usually those who have either never tried or given up quickly and accepted defeat as a reality.

Your words can shape your destiny and create the kind of life you wish to live. The words that you think, say, write or act upon have a direct role in moulding your road to success. Each word that surrounds your soul, mind and body comes with a spirit that has a powerful influence. Every word that you think, read or act upon has the seed of creation and the potential to grow into the tree of success.

Words are the powerful means through which you express your thoughts. Each word has a spirit. Once spoken or written, it sets a spiritual phenomenon in motion that materializes into a physical shape: either in a creative or a destructive way, corresponding to the intention with which the word is expressed. Words generate a great power when they are mixed with emotions and repeated over time.

Most people develop a pessimistic attitude towards life because they probably did not get enough words of appreciation, support or encouragement when they were young. Therefore, you must make a conscious effort not to be influenced by negative words even if you hear or read them.

The Power of Words has a tremendous influence on our behaviour and actions in daily life. Your belief system is made up of and kept alive through your internal dialogue: the communication that you have with yourself. This self-talk has a great impact on your mind. Internal communication is at work all day, even while you are sleeping. Your intentions spur the selection of the words you say to yourself. Positive words are chosen in case of a positive intention and destructive words are picked in case of a destructive intention.

While a genuine word of appreciation can inspire you to improve your performance, a word of criticism may discourage you. For example, when a child receives constant assurance from his parents that he has the capability to do whatever he wants to, the child keeps on going. If the same child is repeatedly told that he is miserable and cannot improve, he feels dejected and may become a pessimist.

Two Action Steps:

Step 1: Guard your self-talk. Your internal dialogue is the single most important factor that helps you achieve success. Words can instil enthusiasm, create positive energy and bring out the best in us.

Step 2: Make a notebook of positive words and inspirational quotes. Words, when used effectively, have the potential to inspire positive action. You should write down positive words and quotes in a notebook and dip into it a couple of times each day.

Success Mantra
Think, speak, read, write and listen to only positive, beautiful and affirmative words (as far as possible). The words that touch you in any form affect you strongly and shape your thoughts, attitudes and character—the three foundations of success.

©Shishir Srivastava, Motivational Speaker and Author ‘The Eight Powers within You’ .

Here I have sorted a few ways to be happy at work.

1. SMILE!
Smile to everyone around you. Even if you hate the people around you, all you got to do is smile and be happy for yourself. Don’t mind who thinks what about you. The more you smile, the less complex everything else will seem to you.

2. Develop
This is a fast paced selfish world. The sooner you realize the better. So, don’t wait for someone to come, hold your hand and help you develop personally and professionally. You’re in charge of your own self and it is your responsibility to look out for all possible opportunities to develop in every possible way.

3. Always ask for feedback
For anyone to prosper it is always important to gain feedback from the experienced and the less experienced. One can never achieve growth if they are just doing something aimlessly, as one just ends up making innumerable mistakes.

4. Meet deadlines
It is important to meet deadlines at work as that creates a good impression about you. However, make sure that you never over-promise and under-deliver.

5. Stay positive
Avoid as much negativity possible. Think about it, when you speak negative about anyone, do you feel any better? It’s just spoils your mood even more. So try and avoid such negative interactions. Let people be the way they are. You have the power to change, but only yourself. So just be indifferent to negativity and be happy.

May be a new job could be the answer to your problems, but the right attitude, a positive mindset, a desire and commitment to continuously develop, improve and accomplish are pre-requisites for a permanent ticket to happiness and fulfillment at work.

Imagination is the creative ability of your mind that helps you form an image of an object or an experience before you bring it to physical reality. The Power of imagination helps you visualize things that cannot be seen. Simply put, imagination is seeing through mental images. This power is inherent in all of us and can be developed to a very high level.

If you study the lives of great entrepreneurs, scientists and inventors, you will find that by using creative visualization they developed a strong mental picture of what they wanted to achieve. They used the Power of Imagination to give a tangible shape to their ‘inside picture’.

You too have the Power of Imagination. It is a myth that only a few people possess the Power of Imagination. Every human has it; you too have this power within you. It is just that you might not have developed it as much as an Einstein or an Edison. But with perseverance and practice, you can enlarge your Power of Imagination to achieve amazing things.

Think for a moment: you are what you are today because somewhere in the cycle of time in the past you imagined yourself to be what you should be.

And here you are. By the same logic, if today you imagine yourself to be somewhere in the future, that is where you will reach. Isn’t it amazing?

You have the Power of Imagination to change your existing reality. All you need to do is imagine a new set of exceptional images about yourself and keep reminding yourself that you have to achieve your goals.

By reorienting your mental images, you change your belief system. By reorienting your beliefs, you change your expectations about yourself. By reorienting your expectations, you change your attitude. By reorienting your attitude, you change your behavioural patterns. By reorienting your behavioural patterns, you change your performance level. And by reorienting your performance level, you change your life.

Two Action Steps:

Step 1: Create a mental screen. Find a quiet place and sit in a relaxed manner. Look at your surroundings and then close your eyes. Think of your mind as a film screen that helps you recreate the things you saw just moments earlier. To begin with, repeat this process four or five times a day.

Step 2: Prepare the mental screen to visualize thoughts as pictures. As your mental screen becomes strong, you can visualize things with ease. You can prepare it to play films of past and future events. As you train your mind, you will gradually develop the ability to visualize things even while your eyes are open.

Success Mantra: Visualize what you want to achieve and create a strong mental image of your goals. Hold these images till you make them come true.

©Shishir Srivastava, Motivational Speaker and Author ‘The Eight Powers within You’
www.shishirsrivastava.org and www.eightpowers.com

Becoming a Master of the Pause
All excellent listeners are masters of the pause. They are comfortable with silences. When the other person finishes speaking, they take a breath, relax and smile before saying anything. They know that the pause is a key part of good communications.

Three Benefits of Pausing
Pausing before you speak has three specific benefits. The first is that you avoid the risk of interrupting the prospect if he or she has just stopped to gather his or her thoughts. Remember, your primary job in the sales conversation is to build and maintain a high level of trust, and listening builds trust. When you pause for a few seconds, you often find the prospect will continue speaking. He will give you more information and further opportunity to listen, enabling you to gather more of the information you need to make the sale.

Carefully Consider What You Just Heard
The second benefit of pausing is that your silence tells the prospect that you are giving careful consideration to what he or she has just said. By carefully considering the other person’s words, you are paying him or her a compliment. You are implicitly saying that you consider what he or she has said to be important and worthy of quiet reflection. You make the prospect feel more valuable with your silence. You raise his self-esteem and make him feel better about himself.

Understanding With Greater Efficiency
The third benefit of pausing before replying is that you will actually hear and understand the prospect better if you give his or her words a few seconds to soak into your mind. The more time you take to reflect upon what has just been said, the more conscious you will be of the their real meaning. You will be more alert to how his words can connect with other things you know about the prospect in relation to your product or service.

The Message You Send
When you pause, not only do you become a more thoughtful person, but you convey this to the customer. By extension, you become a more valuable person to do business with. And you achieve this by simply pausing for a few seconds before you reply after your prospect or customer has spoken.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, take time to carefully consider what the customer just said and what he might mean by it. Pausing allows you to read between the lines.

Second, show the customer that you really value what he has said by reflecting for a few moments before you reply.

Article by Brian Tracy. Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, a company specializing in the training and development of individuals and organizations.