Your Vision

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours." -Henry David Thoreau

My friend and pastor, Dean Sweetman, was speaking one day on the topic of having vision for your life. I am sorry to say Dean that I can not fully remember most of what was said, but the important part did stick with me. It was that piece of importance which had me thinking about ways of constructing steps to fulfilling one's dream or vision.

Each of us will find a way, useful in guiding us along the path to success. You can look on the shelves of bookstores, thousands of search results on the internet, and people with personal advice to offer you knowledge. Each method has merit in its guidance. All we have to do is go out in search of it and apply it to our lives.

The underlying theme in any of the advice you find is to have a positive attitude. If you are going to attain that which you seek, having a positive attitude is a must. Having a positive attitude enables you to secure step one which is maintaining belief in your vision.

To go forward when others or obstacles are encountered, keep belief near to your heart and it will allow you to continue with the second step, which is to act upon your vision.

We can go through life with a dream so deep in us that we are afraid to release it. This keeps us from ever achieving that dream, because it always remains just that, a dream. To realize the vision, you have to act upon it. Get up and make a move. Write down your dream on a piece of paper, tack it up on the mirror and repeat it saying it out loud to yourself. Action creates movement, which moves you towards your goal.

Continue to keep a positive attitude. Doing so will help you keep the belief in your vision. Doing so will help sustain you as you act upon your vision. Doing so will help you when the third step is achieved...realizing your vision.

Once you have accomplished the attainment of your vision, having a positive attitude will give you strength to hold on to it. It will sustain you for what is to come next, which is of course, another dream, another goal, a continuation of your journey through life.

Believe in your vision
Act upon your vision
Realize your vision

Stay inspired my friends!

Mission Possible

“Decide what you want and write your goals down. Then convert your goals into positive, present tense statements called affirmations. Affirm your goals each day until they become part of your subconscious mechanism.” - Unknown Author

In the coming days, I would like you to think about where you are in life and where you want your life to be. Is there self doubt surrounding those thoughts? Is there only impossibility in those thoughts? Or do you see that everything has possibility?

Life tends to create negative thought patterns at us in many different ways. It comes in the way of people; friends, relatives, co-workers and many other types of people that like to "give advice." Many of your negative thoughts may have come from growing up in a non-supportive family. This creates a mindset within us, living life for so long in a negative way, that it becomes hard to break free of those old habits.

But you must believe in the promise of your visions and dreams. Have faith that leaving behind your old ways will allow you to move in a direction that fulfills your goals. It takes courage to make this move and in seeing what can not be seen. Having the courage to do so will position yourself in order to have the ability to seize opportunity.

When the negative in life occurs, be the one that rises above it. Be bold in what you do because there will be nasayers. There will be those that knowlingly and unknowingly try to keep you down. These type of people do so because they are not bold enough to rise above their condition. The only way they can feel good about themselves is to keep others down with them.

Rise above these people and break loose from their hold. Your self doubt will cause you to struggle to cross the line to a positive attitude. When this happens, you may find yourself back on the down side.

You will struggle to cross back over again. Back and forth until you spiritually or determinedly decide to create a wall behind you once you have crossed to a positive life. Leave the naysayers behind and find new people to surround yourself with. Find a more positive, a more frutiful way of living.

Possibility exists if you allow it to work in your life.

Stay inspired my friends!

You Will

“A grateful perspective brings happiness and abundance into a person’s life.” -Andy Andrews

From the pages of Andy Andrews; Our Very Lives Are Fashioned by Choices.

First we make choices. Then our choices make us.

This particular decision for success has been conditioned out of most people. They're doing the same things every day; just because that's the way they've always done them. Here's an example of this decision in practical everyday business terms. Let's say you're an employer and you have two people standing in front of you with the same educational background. They are the same age and have the same experience. One of them has a complaining look on his face and this other one appears happy. Well . . . who are you going to hire?

The happy one, of course, because that's the person you want to be around!

True happiness comes from deep within, but choosing happiness can be as simple as choosing to be grateful. The seeds of depression, anger, and resentment cannot take root in a grateful heart. A couple of years ago I was taken to Mexico City by World Vision and they walked me around a slum that had a million people in it. I saw my children in the eyes of the children that were playing there in the broken glass. It was a horrible situation to see what they have to do in order to get water and food.

I want to urge you to condition yourself, to find things that you can be grateful for. Become the possessor of a grateful spirit.

From this moment on you will

• ignore the conditioning that has shaped everything in your life.
• ignore the conditioning that says children who laugh in a restaurant get on your nerves.
• ignore the conditioning that says that you must look for everything in the form of its lowest common denominator
• become a possessor of a grateful spirit, a person who is grateful for the laughter of children, and grateful for situations that make you struggle.
• become grateful for situations in which you have to find your way out, because if you can find your way out of situations, then you can lead others to successes of their own.

Stay inspired my friends.

Thousandth Man

One man in a thousand, Solomon says,

Will stick more close than a brother.

And it's worth while seeking him half your days

If you find him before the other.

Nine nundred and ninety-nine depend

On what the world sees in you,

But the Thousandth man will stand your friend

With the whole round world agin you.

'Tis neither promise nor prayer nor show

Will settle the finding for 'ee.

Nine hundred and ninety-nine of 'em go

By your looks, or your acts, or your glory.

But if he finds you and you find him.

The rest of the world don't matter;

For the Thousandth Man will sink or swim

With you in any water.

You can use his purse with no more talk

Than he uses yours for his spendings,

And laugh and meet in your daily walk

As though there had been no lendings.

Nine hundred and ninety-nine of 'em call

For silver and gold in their dealings;

But the Thousandth Man h's worth 'em all,

Because you can show him your feelings.

His wrong's your wrong, and his right's your right,

In season or out of season.

Stand up and back it in all men's sight --

With that for your only reason!

Nine hundred and ninety-nine can't bide

The shame or mocking or laughter,

But the Thousandth Man will stand by your side

To the gallows-foot -- and after!

by Rudyard Kipling

Each of us can be that thousandth man for someone else. Each of us can stand with another in times of need. Each of us can simply "BE" there.

Tomorrow night it all begins, The Thousandth Man Conference. Still time to join us as we learn what it means to be the 1000th man.

Stay inspired my friends!