It was Christmas for me today…and now you.

When I visited my doctor this morning, he told me about the incredible results he is having in his life after reading and following the advice given in a little pocket guide written in 1926. The book is titled It Works. The author would not identify himself because he felt the book was to be a gift to everyone, and he should not receive credit/praise for it.

It is an amazing little book. There was a pocket of strong energy going on back in the 20s and 30s as noted in the works of C. Clements Stone, Norman Vincent Peale, Napoleon Hill, Frances Scovel Shinn, Neville Goddard, and Wallace D. Wattles, Here yet is another of the many of gems produced during that era.

I sat in my doctor’s office after my appointment and read it cover to cover. I took notes so I could share with you:

¨  You must know what you want.

¨  You have within you a mighty power capable of giving you that which you earnestly desire.

¨  The Plan: write down on paper in order of importance the things and conditions you really want.

¨  Three Positive Rules of Accomplishment:

1)      Read the list of what you want three times each day: morning, noon, and night.

2)      Think of what you want as often as possible.

3)      Do not talk to anyone about your plan except the Great Power within you which will unfold your objective mind the method of accomplishment.

¨  No need to analyze how this Power within you is going to accomplish your desires. The method of accomplishment will unfold quite as mysteriously as the ear of corn appears on the stalk, and in most cases much sooner than you expect.

¨  Be definite – if it is a car that you want, decide what kind, style, price, color, and all other details including when you want it. If a home, write the location and cost. If you want money, write the amount. If a sales record, write the total, the date required, the number of items you must sell to make it, list your prospects and put after each name the sum expected.

¨  When discrediting thoughts appear, give thanks and assert credit to your Omnipotent Power. You can’t give thanks without gratitude – and be happy. When giving thanks, let it be reflected on your face.

How to obtain a copy of It Works:

DeVorss Publications

DeVorss & Company

PO Box 1389

Camarillo CA 93011-1389

www.devorss.com

(800) 843-5743

I intend to follow the advice. Want to do it with me and see what happens? Will the tricky part be getting clear on what we definitively want? Just as I had that thought, I remembered two quotes that appeared in my mailbox today:

“You cannot transcend what you do not know. To go beyond yourself, you must know yourself.”
— Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it…”

—  Johann Wolfgang von Goeth

Feeling the need for some inspiration this morning, a Christmas present, Believe: The Words and Inspiration of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, made its way into my hand.

Believe – it all starts with that, doesn’t it? No matter the issue, problem, desire, or cause, your dreams and desires all begin with belief. The problem is, when you are down and out, it is really tough to  believe.

Perhaps the following quotes will inspire and encourage you as much as they did me…

1. The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen. – Frank Lloyd Wright
2. You’ll see it when you believe it. – Wayne Dyer
3. We are what we believe we are. – C. S. Lewis
4. I can’t believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary. – Lou Holtz
5. Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success. – Pablo Picass
6. When you believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable. -Walt Disney
7. Believe you can and you’re halfway there. – Theodore Roosevelt
8. Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours. – Dale Carnegie
9. If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done. – Dale Carnegie
10. Before you can win, you have to believe you are worthy. – Mike Ditka
11. Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right. – Henry Ford
12. Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy. – Norman Vincent Peale
13. Four things for success: work and pray, think and believe. – Norman Vincent Peale
14. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. – Eleanor Roosevelt
15. Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. – W. Clement Stone

Hmmm, there seems to be some magic in believing.

Yaro Starak, www.Entrepreneurs-Journey.com, recently wrote about his personal goals and reflections of the past year. “I knew if I focused the year entirely on business projects, then I’d neglect this other aspect of my life, an equally if not more important part…my new direction focused on relationships, including business relationships, friendships and intimate relationships.”

Perhaps many of us are not unlike Yaro. The tendency is to do what we always do…bury our heads in our work and making money – at the expense of other parts of our life.  Can you relate?

“Sometimes working on balance is more important than working on growth of a specific area, and may well end up resulting in growth in that area anyway, because you’ve made space for it to
happen.”

Can you relate to Yaro’s desires?

• I wanted to meet more like minded people – independent, exciting people.
• I wanted more fun.
• I wanted to realign the balance in my life between work, play, and socializing.

Yaro is clear about his desired end results. What do you desire to achieve by December 31, 2010? What do you want to make space for? How do you make it happen?

From www.tut.com:

“Rosie, the trick is learning to maintain an unwavering focus upon your desired end result, your completed dream, the “finish line,” without insisting upon, or even contemplating, its means of attainment, no matter how logical, obvious, or tempting it may seem.

Tallyho,
The Universe”

Is 2010 the year you will grow your relationships, have more fun, realign the balance between work, play, and socializing?

Stephen C. Paul said, “For all those years you’ve protected the seed. It’s time to become the beautiful flower.”

Perhaps 2010 is the perfect year to become the beautiful flower?

Dr. Gabhart, ND (www.whitneygabhartnd.com) has taught me to put “first things first:”

1. Eat right
2. Sleep right
3. Poop right

 BUT…

If you want a more extensive set of guidance for the New Year, check out this Handbook for 2010:

Scanning through the morning mail and seeing this statement jerked me back into reality:

“I’m very pleased with each advancing year. It stems back to when I was forty. I was a bit upset about reaching that milestone, but an older friend consoled me. ‘Don’t complain about growing old – many, many people do not have that privilege.’”                     ~  Earl Warren, 1891-1974

Right after that splash of cold water in the face, I reviewed an update from a friend concerning her husband who is suffering from a form of cancer. They spent the entire New Year’s Day and evening in the hospital with him receiving his blood transfusions. This week he will have another bone marrow biopsy to see if the leukemia has progressed, and to asses starting another round of chemotherapy.

And what was it again that I was worrying about just prior to reviewing the morning mail? Somehow it doesn’t seem so significant now. No matter the circumstances you find yourself in, there is someone else out there who is struggling even more.

Last night I read an interesting article containing the following comment, “And when faced with light or darkness, we all too often choose our anger, our fears, our failings.”

The message being communicated was that darkness exists so we can choose, so that we can become the creator of our own lives, the conductor of our own symphonies.

What better time to reflect on the creation of your own life, right now, the beginning of a whole new year?

On Monday I was privileged to spend some time with a life coach. She offered some solid advice that may also be of help to you as you dig deep into your own being and reflect upon your dreams and desires for this new year:

• Who are you?
• What do you want? What is important to you?
• What are your needs?
• What are your weaknesses, your strengths?
• Define what you want in a relationship.
• Give yourself some time to reflect over the last years.
• What unresolved issues do you have?
• There are only 2 kinds of feelings: 1) Those that feel good and 2) Those that
  don’t. Honor yourself.
• Walk through the discomfort, the feelings.
• Put it on the table for you. Be true to you.
• This has to do with honesty – be true to the self.
• Open the box and let some light into it.
• Does guilt drive you?
•  Honor the self, not in a selfish way, in a selfless way.
• #1 thing to do: honor the self. If you cannot honor you, pay attention, you
  are not going to be happy.

What an opportunity to lay a strong foundation for the upcoming year – and our life in general. Hmm, I intend to take some time and journal my responses to these questions. I invite you to do the same. Perhaps we can dialogue a bit about what comes up?  In the meantime, have a blessed day.  :  )

Are you sucked up into the wild and crazy days of December, when everything everywhere seems out of control?  

Scanning through the piles of messages in my inbox in the wee hours this morning, I collected a few quotes that might provide some solace during the hustle and bustle of the season:

1) “You never will be the person you can be if pressure, tension and discipline are taken out of your life.” – James G. Bilkey  

6) The average American is now 10 pounds overweight, which translates into $250 billion in added yearly health care costs, not to mention a shorter lifespan.

7) “You can take no credit for beauty at sixteen. But if you are beautiful at sixty, it will be your own soul’s doing.”  — Marie Stopes

“The difference between try and triumph is a little umph.” — Unknown Author

9) “Perhaps the very best question that you can memorize and repeat, over and over, is, ‘what is the most valuable use of my time right now?’” — Brian Tracy

How about we trust the magic and have a terrific Tuesday?  :  )

A couple messages this morning, one from Jack Canfield, the other from Dr. Mercola, communicated a similar message: PLAN.  Interesting that this afternoon I heard still yet a contrasting message: ALLOW. Which is it? Plan or allow?

  “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail” communicates a strong message. If you fail to plan enough time, you may miss the most important meal of the day – breakfast. Dr. Mercola teaches that it is best to exercise in the morning. Again, if you don’t plan to set the alarm and lay out your exercise clothes the night before, you set into motion a plan to miss the exercise that your body needs.

If you fail to get to bed at a reasonable hour, not only do you suffer physically and mentally all day long, you simply do not have the zest to incorporate that needed exercise and breakfast into the hour before you head off to work.

More and more the experts tell us that food is medicine. If you do not plan for a healthy lunch, or if you do not pack one, a greasy burger and fries may sabotage your health and well being when the ravages of hunger strike at noon.

Many experts teach a system of using some sort of day planner. Years ago I learned the “Six Item Priority List” system. Every night before going to bed, make a list of the six most important items you need to do tomorrow. In the morning, review the list. Prioritize the list and tackle the biggest item first. Don’t forget to put you and your family on that priority list. Then in a year, look at all the priority items that you accomplished.

What then do you do when you have your list all prioritized, and nothing goes according to plan? So much for planning. What about allowing?

Abraham’s message this morning said, “In your action, you lose sight of the vision, you lose sight of your trust in the process, and you just bang around in a sense of futility. Hold the vision and trust that the Universe will acclimate to your vision. Hold the vision and trust the process. “

Hold the vision…don’t get buried in the action. Trust the process. Tough to do. How easy is it to slip into despair that your day is not going according to plan, that you haven’t been as productive as you’d planned?

A friend this afternoon shared with me he had no plan when he woke this morning. No alarm and no plan. Yet, by afternoon he recited some incredible feats that he had accomplished.

I, on the other hand, busily lamented that it was now 2:30 pm and I had “nothing to show for it.” He turned to me and said, “You need to learn to allow. Just allow it.”

While on the subject of allowing, it seems that gratitude also needs to be mentioned. Every single thing that happens in your day, the good, the bad, and the ugly, are really all good things. Gratitude for all that is weaves magic in your day and subsequently your life – when you can remember and when you can discipline yourself to be grateful for every single thing.

Plan or allow? Maybe it is some sort of healthy combination…with a sprinkling of gratitude for all that is.

I was just on the phone with my friend, giving her a rundown of my day. At the tail end of the list, I mentioned I had not yet written my blog article for the day, but I am working to stay calm in the midst of chaos. She said, “Well, there it is! That’s your article!”

Sure enough, I guess it is! What a day – what a week! My books are printing on the presses in Utah today. It seems surreal. All the edits were finished as of late last night. 1,000 copies of Stop the Needless Suffering, The Complete Woman’s Guide to Balancing Your Hormones are due to be on my doorstep on Monday, October 12. My first book signing is scheduled for Tuesday, October 13 – before and after a seminar I am giving titled, “Stop the Needless Suffering!” Nevermind that the PowerPoint still has to be created!  :  )

 I told my friend that another friend is in process of arranging a book signing at our local Barnes and Noble. The gentleman asked her if my book was in the “Bookmasters System” (a cataloging system they use). She sent me this message: “And guess what??  It IS!!  He told me the title, print date of Oct, etc.  How ’bout that Rosie!” My friend replied, “Rosie, you are an author!”

 An author? Me? That sounds so very weird! It seems that I have been laboring endlessly with no end in sight for forever. In reality, it was only a year ago that I started on it, but I took writing classes several hours per week for 6 months prior to beginning the project.

 For the past year and a half I have been hearing and commiserating over “foreign” terms like Aweber, autoresponders, clickbank, Paypal, sales pages, news releases, ebooks, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, APS, Sales Sheet, LLC, SEO, web site creation, 800#s, taking credit/debit card sales “at the back of the room” – till I thought I would go mad! And now, guess what? Each one of these entities must be in place by October 13. I feel like I am caught in a spiraling vortex!

 On top of all this, I am OOT and away from computers for 5 of the 12 remaining days till October 13. I don’t want to calculate what percentage that is. Yikes! What do you do when chaos is spiraling all around you? Here are some of the techniques I am employing to help see me through…

1)       I meditate once in the morning and once in the evening, irregardless of how much time I think I don’t have to do it. Miracles happen when one slows the mind and connects with the flow of life.

2)      I work to make myself take a 10 minute break every two hours. To keep pushing ruthlessly is to usurp one’s energy till there is nothing left. I have to force myself to do this. Some people recommend setting a timer.

3)      Exercise must be included. For me, that is setting the alarm for the 5:30 am Jazzercise class – and squeezing in a walk out in nature with my two golden retrievers every few days. The air and blue sky is gorgeous this time of the year. If we don’t pause to notice, the crisp beauty of the fall will pass us by.

4)      Three nutritious meals a day are a requirement. The body can’t keep up its strength and energy without the proper ingredients to provide the fuel. A car won’t run if the gas tank is empty.

5)      Soft, relaxing music playing in the background provides a calming effect and subtly allows us to be more productive. Try it. It is amazing how soothing it can be.

6)      Working from a clear area, one thing at a time, keeps the mind quiet and not overwhelmed with a pile of uncompleted tasks. This is the hardest task for moi to master!

7)      Keeping a prioritized, organized list to work from is a must. There may be 40 things on the list, but each time I can check one off, I get such a sense of accomplishment. Plus, if it’s on the list, I can forget about it and not carry all the items in my head all at once. At the end of the day, it is far more productive to look over the list of checkmarks vs the list of uncompleted items. That’s what tomorrow is for.

8)      I plan a reward every week. For me, that is margarita night on Friday night. That’s my night to ingest toxins, if I need them or not.

9)      Plan something fun. I need help with this one. Last week my friend suggested we take a mental health break tomorrow and go to Nashville. It sounded good at the time. Now that it is tomorrow, and I have this huge list of uncompleted tasks, it sounds like a dumbass attack to me. BUT, I am going, and I am sure I will be better off for it.

10)   Just say “No!” This one is tough – but you simply cannot do everything. Take care of you first, and you and the whole world around you will be better off for it.

 Oh my goodness – I just checked the word count on this article…888 words. Time to stop and move to the next item on the list before my two hours are up!  <grin>

 But before I do, I am curious as to the meaning of “888.” Per Doreen Virtue, “888: This is a very auspicious sign of complete financial support from the Universe. Money is flowing in your direction!”

 Wow! Maybe I better add visualization and affirmations to the list!  :  )

A friend and I have made a long term commitment to eat a healthy diet, monitor our carbs, and slowly “release” the excess weight. We don’t want to “lose” it. Subliminally speaking, when you “lose” something, you are always looking for it, wanting it back. Not so in this case!

 Now that Dr. Gabhart has my hormones in balance, it’s a doable thing. I have found from personal experience if your hormones are out of balance, the pounds won’t come off. It’s s a slow process, but the victory is so sweet. The following Chinese proverb pretty much sums it up:

“Be not afraid of changing slowly; be afraid only of standing still.”

My friend shared this wonderful analogy with me. Maybe it will be helpful to some of you:

 “I am down another 2 pounds . . .and that alone, dear woman, prevents me from a frozen margarita drunken binge!!!” (Can you tell I am always talking about my Friday night margarita? Incidentally, I find I can still indulge in this one weekly toxin adventure, as long as I don’t consume the entire restaurant along with it.)

 She continues: “I am on the path of weight loss. This morning makes 12 pounds . . . my next tiny goal is 5 lbs from where I am. I do the mental thing like this . . . think of it like hiking. It is uphill. It is a trail. I have a backpack. Every so often I sit down for a couple of minutes. Those are my tiny goals. Next I have my larger goals, and that is where I open up my tent and rest overnight. Then I do the small goals again where I just sit a couple of minutes and so on . . .

 It helps me to break it down for the whole goal which is to reach the destination point where I will have a permanent cabin, with resort accommodations. My goal is to live there!!!! At least at my first plateau, I can pitch my tent for a while and rest!!!!”

 One meal at a time, one day at a time, and darn if the scale doesn’t eventually change. It takes courage to step on the scale every morning and write that number on the calendar. BUT, what sweet joy when you get to write down a number that’s a little lower than the day or week before.

It is a S-L-O-W process, but oh, how your body will love you for the extra care and attention you are giving it. . .

 Your heart thanks you…it doesn’t have to pump as hard to get blood circulated to all those extra pounds!

 Your lungs thank you…oh, how much easier it is to breathe!

 Your hormones thank you…oh, to get back in balance again feels so good!

 Your joints, legs, veins, and feet thank you…the load to carry is so much lighter!

 An eye opening experience for me during this ride has been the incredible carb overload facing us each day, no matter where we turn. Stay tuned in tomorrow when I share some of those experiences!  :  )

One of life’s snafus presented itself for me to deal with yesterday.  At snafu times, it is so easy to feel sorry for ourselves. We can consume the whole day in our anguish…or we can make the choice to appreciate the contrast and choose to see the Divine in each person.

 What good is worry?  Worry is a waste of our creative process. By the natural laws of the universe, worry simply attracts more negative into our lives.  Today’s daily message from Abraham-Hicks puts it this way:

“Whatever you’re thinking about is literally like planning a future event. When you’re worrying, you are planning. When you’re appreciating you are planning…What are you planning?

                                                                              — Abraham”

What does adversity do for us? It stimulates us to reach higher, to break out of the chains that confine us.

Just about the time I want to feel sorry for myself, I simply need to remind myself what others have been through. Take Dick and Rick Hoyt for example.

Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete just about continuously in marathon races. And if they’re not in a marathon, they are in a triathlon — that daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America.

It’s a remarkable record of exertion — all the more so when you consider that Rick can’t walk or talk.

For the past twenty five years or more, Dick, who is 65, has pushed and pulled his son across the country and over hundreds of finish lines. When Dick runs, Rick is in a wheelchair that Dick is pushing. When Dick cycles, Rick is in the seat-pod from his wheelchair, attached to the front of the bike. When Dick swims, Rick is in a small but heavy, firmly stabilized boat being pulled by Dick. And yes, Rick lives in his own apartment, miles away from his father.

And then there is Erik Weihenmayer. Erick lost his eyesight and his beloved mother as a young teenager. Erik is also the only blind man in history to reach the tallest peak of every continent, including Mount Everest. The message on the back of Erik’s book, The Adversity Advantage, is poignant:

“Adversity is one of the most potent forces in life. It shapes your character, clarifies your priorities, and defines your path. It can also fuel your greatness. Each of us faces a rich assortment of adversities every day, ranging from minor hassles to major setbacks and challenges, even tragedies. The path to success, both in business and in life, is learning how to convert any adversity, major or minor, into a genuine advantage.”

 Then there is Nick Vujicic, the 23 year old man with no arms or legs who spends his life traveling to audiences everywhere, delivering the message to dream, to have vision, to set goals, to be thankful. As a young boy, he looked in the mirror, deep into his eyes. He told himself, “Look at your eyes. You have beautiful eyes, young man. You are hot!” Google You Tube and listen to his message. He asks us, “Do you get the message? Can you find one positive thing about your life? Then hang onto it!”

 Lastly, here is this morning’s message from tut.com:

 “Look at it like this, Rosie, the more challenging your life story has been so far, the bigger the goose bumps for future generations who retell it to their kids. Who will no doubt add, ‘And if Rosie Brown was able to do all that, so can you!’

We’ve barely just begun -
    The Universe”

Guess my snafu is not so significant after all.