Developing the Success Mindset

Developing the Success Mindset

We can only create success, from the inside out. And the only way to create it is by changing our thoughts and habits. What do thoughts have to do with anything? Everything! What we expect to see, we see. What we expect to have in our lives, we have. What we focus on the most, expands. If your life isn’t what you want it to be, your thoughts have not been in alignment with it. This can be a tricky concept to understand, but the most important point to get is that it’s a cumulative process.

Happiness: Cause or Effect?

When we think of being successful, we imagine that happiness is an inevitable side effect. We may envision ourselves with the perfect job, the perfect mate, the perfect children, the perfect level of income, the perfect home, the perfect car, etc. And we believe that all of that stuff will make us happy. However, that view is skewed. Material objects and other people cannot make us happy – only we can make ourselves happy. And it all begins with a choice to be happy. You probably don’t believe that, especially if you are experiencing challenges or lack in your life right now. But think about this: why do rich people still experience unhappiness? Why do successful people still experience unhappiness? Because money and success do not automatically create happiness!

Negative thought habits can fill us with feelings of frustration and powerlessness. Negative self-talk can cause us to sabotage any goals we set. If we THINK negatively about ourselves, we will FEEL badly about ourselves. If we focus on the negative in our lives, our lives will seem to have a negative theme. It’s all about what we focus on the most that determines how we feel.

  Replace negative thoughts with positive ones.  Visualize yourself with the determination, courage, and optimism you’ll need to succeed. And the next time negative thoughts arise in your mind, go through the same process again. Remember that it is a process and it will take time to get into the habit of thinking positively, but it does begin to have an effect on how you feel on a regular basis. And the better you feel, the more positively you’ll think. You end up creating a continuous cycle of positive thoughts, positive feelings, positive beliefs, and positive actions!

  Develop a stronger belief in yourself.  A good way to start is by making a list of your positive character traits, qualities, skills, and talents. Write down every positive thing you can come up with about yourself, even if you don’t think it’s that amazing. Then simply spend some time every day reading this list and affirming your ability to accomplish whatever you set your mind to. Over time, you’ll begin to feel more positive about yourself and more confident about your abilities, just because you’ve developed the habit to do so.

  Empower and motivate yourself. Another wonderful tool for forming new beliefs is

using your imagination to change your self-image. Visualization is an easy yet effective

tool to replace your old, limiting self-image with an empowering new one. You simply

close your eyes and conjure a mental image of yourself as you want to be. See yourself feeling confident, inspired, courageous, and successful. Before long, you’ll find

that you won’t have to manufacture these feelings; you will feel this way nearly all the time – naturally! Again, this exercise is most effective if you do it every day, even for just a few minutes.

Learning How to Love Yourself

You may wonder what self-love has to do with success. The answer is: more than you can imagine! Self-love and self-worth go hand in hand. If we don’t believe we’re worthy of success, we’ll keep pushing it away or find ways to sabotage ourselves from achieving it. Our self-image is formed from a set of inner beliefs about ourselves. These beliefs are based upon past experiences and what we determined they meant at the time. Exploring the beliefs that form your self-image is important because they will determine your

thoughts, feelings, behaviors – and ultimately your level of success in ALL things.

Convincing ourselves that we’re just “not good” at something means we no longer have to try hard or take risks. It’s out of our hands. Consequently, we end up holding ourselves back from the lives we really wish we were living. We end up feeling stuck in a cycle of frustration, wanting something better but not believing we have the ability to

create it. In order to break free from limiting beliefs, we need to change

our preconceptions.

Man is still responsible

... His success lies not

with the stars, but with

himself. He must carry

on the fight of self correction

and

discipline.

- Frank Curtis Williams

Preconceptions are previously formed opinions or ideas we hold

about ourselves. These beliefs have the power to influence how

we feel about ourselves, what we believe we are capable of, and

the actions we take (or don’t take) to create the life we want.

So how do we overcome these negative preconceptions? Just like

changing our negative thinking to positive, it takes consistent

effort and focus.

Changing our negative self-talk into positive self-talk on a consistent basis is key.

Rather than tearing ourselves down, we can choose to fill our inner dialogue with empowering

affirmations and build ourselves up.

Think about this: how would you speak to someone you loved and respected?

Would you be cruel and unforgiving? Or would you be kind, encouraging and supportive? It doesn’t matter what others say to you, or how others treat you. What matters is how you treat yourself! (Ironically, the better you treat yourself, others pick up on that and begin to see you differently – and ultimately treat you better. It’s all about what you believe you deserve.) At the same time, you can also shift your focus from what you don’t want, to what you DO want. For example, if you fear failure you are motivated to avoid failure at all costs (which usually means procrastinating on your goals and avoiding risk-taking). If you instead focus most of your attention on being successful at whatever you do, you’ll find that the fear of failure diminishes. The more you focus on what you WANT, the less you will attract what you DON’T WANT.

It's so ironic that we usually avoid the very thing that would help us build a strong foundation of confidence and self-esteem: spending time with ourselves.

Remember, your self-image is usually based on the conclusions you formed from your past experiences. You may hold a belief that you are not a good writer, or you’re not a “people person”, or that you don’t have any special skills, but is that really true? How do you know for sure? Please don’t say, “Because I tried it once and I sucked at it.” Trying something once (or only a few times) doesn’t count. The truth is, you can become good (or even great) at anything if you want it badly enough and you’re willing to put in the time and effort to get there.

Here is the best and quickest way to get to know yourself: spend time alone as often as possible. As soon as possible, begin a new habit that can change your life in dramatic ways: begin spending some quiet, quality time with yourself each day. If you feel intimidated, start small with increments of just ten minutes or so. Sit quietly in a private place and let your thoughts flow naturally. Think about yourself, who you are, what you feel passionate about, what you want out of life, the things you’ve accomplished, the things you want to accomplish, your relationships – whatever comes to mind. The more you do this, the more connected you become to your inner self. You begin to tap into

your inner dialogue, and a deeper understanding of yourself will surface. The changes you experience from this process might seem small at first, but they quickly gain momentum. Another good exercise to get to know yourself is journaling. Get a lined, spiral bound notebook and start recording your thoughts during your quiet time alone. Write down your thoughts, feelings, struggles, fears and dreams. Draw pictures. Ask yourself questions, and answer them. WHAT you write really, just that you connect with yourself genuinely and frequently.

Falling in Love with Your Uniqueness

Getting to know yourself if one important part of the growth process, but equally important is loving and appreciating yourself. Self-deprecation is a habit, just like all types of negative thinking. Unless you begin to appreciate your strengths, believe in yourself and reinforce your true capabilities, you will not move forward in life! Sure, you might stumble across the random opportunity and make some progress occasionally, but you won’t accidentally achieve the level of success you desire. First and foremost, choose to forgive yourself NOW. Forgive yourself for anything you may feel guilty about, for allowing fear to hold you back from what you really want to do, for not believing in yourself, for allowing other people to define you. Affirm that you did the best you

knew how to do, but now you know better – and will do better. Stop the cycle of self-abuse and begin honoring yourself for the beautiful and brilliant person you were meant to be. Begin a habit of encouraging yourself. Speak kindly to yourself and affirm your ability to accomplish anything you want. Eventually, you will begin to believe it.

At the same time, work on forgiving anyone who has harmed you, belittled you or held you back. Even though these experiences may have affected you in profound ways, they do not have the ability to affect you now – unless you choose to let them. Let go of your anger, hurt, disappointment and bitterness. They do not serve you, and they do not punish the guilty. They only punish you by acting as a heavy weight bearing down upon

your shoulders. If you release them, you free yourself to create the joy and success you truly deserve. Starting now, choose to believe in yourself and your abilities. Believe that you can form your life into anything you want it to be. Believe that you can overcome any obstacle, strengthen any skill, tackle any challenge and conquer any fear you may have. The more strongly believe you can do it, the more likely it is that you WILL.

It really is a CHOICE! We are each special and unique, and we each have something to offer this world that no one else does. By denying our own talents, we deny others the gift of what we have to share.

DEVELOPING A BELIEF IN YOURSELF

That is the root from which all of the above qualities stem, and it is the same root from which success grows. If you don’t believe in yourself, if you don’t believe you deserve

to be successful, if you don’t believe that you have what it takes to create the successful life you crave – you will remain exactly where you are right now. It seems like an impossible challenge, but once you begin making small changes in your mental and physical environments, you will be surprised how quickly your circumstances begin to shift.

You absolutely can – if you stop using your challenges as an excuse not to try.

The whole point of taking responsibility for where you are now is to stop believing that you would have been more successful if you hadn’t faced challenges in life, and acknowledge that you could have excelled IN SPITE of your challenges (and you still can!).

Make a promise to yourself right now that you will begin listening to your intuition about which choices are right for you. Reinforce your awareness about how your actions determine your results, and vow to consistently make better and better choices until the process becomes more natural. Question every move you are about to make. Ask yourself, “Will this help or hinder my ultimate objective?” Do this not only with every ACTION you contemplate taking, but also every INACTION you feel drawn to.

Keep in mind also that there are no right or wrong answers here, only what works best for you. For example, you may feel a desire to sit on the sofa and watch television for several hours in theevening. This can be both a positive and negative choice.

If you feel burned out from working too hard and need some downtime, taking a break is a positive choice. If you are procrastinating on taking action and using the television as a distraction, it’s a destructive choice. Again, use your intuition (listen to your gut feelings) to determine whether you are making choices that will make you successful. Brutal honesty with yourself will be required, I won’t kid you. It is astounding how easily we can fool ourselves and justify destructive behavior.The only person we hurt when we do this is ourselves. There are no “success police” that will force us to make better decisions. We will receive no citations for laziness and procrastination. (Actually, the results we experience are worse than any citation we could receive.) It is up to us what we do with our time and talents. It is up to YOU what YOU will do with YOUR time and

talents!

Allowing Yourself to Be Successful

Even without your conscious awareness, your current beliefs may be holding you back. Whether

you struggle to believe in yourself, your capabilities, or the vast array of limitless possibilities for

your life, you may be shutting out the very thoughts that can propel you to the success you

desire.

Pause for a moment and answer this question: Can you really “see” yourself as a confident,

successful person? If you close your eyes and call up an image of yourself, what does that self

look like? Is he or she enthusiastic about life, willing to take risks, eager to grasp the joy and

abundance he/she deserves? Can you imagine this person with endless opportunities for growth

and advancement in life?

If you can’t quite “see” yourself as being successful (or at least having the potential to be

successful), it is likely that your own beliefs are creating an inner blockage.

Unless you turn this around and open your mind to what is possible, you will continue to

sabotage your own efforts.

Dissolving inner blockages is not as difficult as it may seem. The two main things you need to

have are: 1) the willingness to believe something different, and 2) the courage to take action on

your new beliefs.

The first step requires a large dose of faith when you first begin to shift your beliefs. All of the

“evidence” in your life seems to reinforce your current beliefs, right?

You believe you are not successful, not confident, not courageous enough to take risks, and

perhaps not the “lucky” type of person that finds great opportunities to move forward.

If these are your beliefs, your outer life probably “proves” them to be accurate. You may

struggle with lack, fear, procrastination, confusion and frustration on a daily basis. Therefore

you know your beliefs are “true”.

What many people fail to understand is that their beliefs are what create the “evidence” in their

lives.

Here is how it usually happens:

As a child, you are naturally confident, optimistic, open-minded

and ready to tackle challenges. You’ve got all the potential in the

world at this point, and your life is a blank slate, waiting for you

to turn it into a masterpiece. Then the negative conditioning

begins. You are given conditions and limitations by the adults in

your life (whether your parents, teachers, pastor, or other

authority figures).

My mother said to me,

“ If you become a

soldier, you’ll be a

general, if you become

a monk you’ll end up as

the pope.” Instead, I

became a painter and

wound up as Picasso.

- Pablo Picasso

These conditions and limitations begin to alter your belief in what

is possible for your life. Rather than encouraging your dream of

becoming an astronaut (or whatever your personal dream is), you

are scolded into being more “practical”.

You start to believe that your dream is foolish, and you are foolish for believing in useless fantasies.

Even worse, the adults in your life start attaching limiting labels to you: learning disabled, dumb, unlucky, accident prone, head in the clouds, challenged, sensitive, weak-willed, irresponsible (and sometimes much more damaging ones).

Eventually, after you begin to believe these things, your actions are affected by them. Instead of

choosing Path A, you move toward Path B because you just don’t have what it takes to be one of

the “elite” in life.

Throughout your lifetime, every decision you make is based on the beliefs you formed as a child

and young adult.

Beliefs prompt specific actions

which create specific results

which reinforce the beliefs.

Changing your limiting beliefs requires a willingness to have faith that you are NOT dumb,

challenged, irresponsible, weak-willed, or unlucky – even though your experiences thus far seem

to have “proven” those things as being true.

But here’s the good news: if you suspend your beliefs and dare to hope that maybe your

impressions are false, and once you start taking actions that correspond with more positive

beliefs, your results will change!

What Does Attitude Have to Do With Success?

One of my favorite old rhymes perfectly demonstrates the power of perception:

Two men peering through prison bars,

One sees mud and the other sees stars.

One of these men is looking at the negative side of his situation. He looks out of his prison cell

and, rather than seeing the beauty of the night sky he sees only the mud on the ground.

The other man ignores the mud and looks to the heavens, letting himself be inspired and dazzled

by the display of light in the sky.

In other circumstances, which of these two men would you expect to become successful?

If you think of success as a recipe with carefully measured portions of specific ingredients,

attitude is one of those vital ingredients that give life to your concoction.

Likewise, a negative attitude will deflate your efforts to be successful.

Why?

A positive attitude gives you the ability to overlook setbacks and continue toward your goals. It

gives you the courage to tackle challenges and believe in yourself. It helps you keep obstacles in

perspective, rather than feeling intimidated and giving up.

I’m sure you’ve heard the famous quote by Henry Ford, “Whether you think you can or think

you can’t, you’re right.”

It’s all about perception!

If, on the other hand, you believed in your heart that you could achieve something, you’d be

chomping at the bit to get started, and nothing would deter you!

Your attitude is what makes the difference in these two scenarios.

Developing a positive attitude is a simple matter of consistently training your brain to see the

positive side of every situation.

Rather than peering at the mud, look to the stars. Rather than feeling powerless against

challenges, affirm that you can get through them. Rather than letting other people determine

what you are capable of – determine it yourself!

Not having a plan, not working a plan, and giving up too soon.

Think of any great achievement in history, and you can be certain that the achiever had to

attempt it more than once – sometimes hundreds of times!

If you’ve “failed” at anything in the past, be honest with yourself: how many times did you try?

Did you give it a halfhearted effort and then give up when it seemed too hard? Did you let

yourself become intimidated by challenges, or disempowered by negative comments from

friends and colleagues?

Though you may believe that it was out of your hands, it’s important to understand something:

You made a choice to fail.

You gave up. You stopped trying. It doesn’t matter what the reasons were, even though they

may have seemed perfectly logical at the time. The fact is, you allowed external conditions to

erode your motivation and determination, and you threw in the towel.

You may resist this idea because let’s face it; it’s not a comfortable thing to hear. But this

painful little insight comes with some good news!

If you made the choice to fail, you can also make the choice to succeed.

Whether you decide to pick up an old dream and dust it off or choose an exciting new path to

travel, the outcome is within your control!

With the right attitude, focused action steps and a solemn vow to never give up, success will be

yours.

Let me tell you the

secret that has led me

to my goal. My

strength lies solely in

my tenacity.

- Louis Pasteur

This is your life and you must decide that there is no going back, no giving up, no giving in – NO MATTER WHAT!

The ONLY thing that determines your success in a scenario like this is your level of discipline.

Will you keep doing what you know you need to do to lose weight? Will you push yourself to

exercise? Will you continue to eat a balanced diet, or give in to your cravings for junk food?

This all sounds so unappealing, doesn’t it? Being disciplined is hard work.

Ah, but then something miraculous happens! If you keep at it for long enough, you begin to feel

an inner shift. Suddenly you begin to realize that you are enjoying your workouts. You are

beginning to look forward to your fruit smoothie each morning. Your clothes are getting baggy

and your energy level is rising more each day. You are sleeping soundly at night and feeling

better when you wake in the morning.

Amazingly, you don’t need such a large amount of discipline to keep up with your health plan

because it doesn’t seem so difficult anymore. Your muscles are developing, your fat is melting

away, and you are feeding your body a better quality of fuel, all of which make you feel so good

that you want more. Cookies don’t seem so powerful anymore. Even more importantly, you

have become accustomed to your new habits! As long as you don’t start backsliding, the rest of

the journey to health and fitness is a rewarding joy ride.

This process is NO DIFFERENT for your goals, whatever they may be. It takes tremendous

discipline at the beginning of the journey because you are not used to taking action on your

goals. You will need to push yourself to do the things that need to be done.

Many of us give up at this stage because it seems too hard, and we believe it will ALWAYS be

this hard. We forget that we humans are incredibly adaptive creatures. We can get used to

almost anything. Remember, we simply GOT USED to not trying. We settled into a state of

acceptance about living a mediocre life, about abandoning our dreams, about believing the

people who told us we’d never be successful.

If we can get used to THAT, we can get used to challenging ourselves, stretching our comfort

zones, and believing in our own capabilities. It’s just a matter of having the discipline and

patience to see it through.

Make a solemn vow to yourself right now. Promise that you will keep taking action, keep

working on improving yourself as a person, and keep striving for more happiness and success in

whatever you do. Promise yourself that you will do what needs to be done on a daily basis –

even if you don’t feel like it.

If you can keep those promises, you will be astounded by the changes that take place in your life.

(Remember, it’s not an instant shift, so keep reminding yourself that it won’t always be so

difficult!)

See success as something you need to incorporate into your life. If your life is already crammed

full of unproductive activities and unsuccessful outcomes, you need to do a little housecleaning

before success can effectively squeeze through your door.

(Note: cleaning up your physical surroundings can also be effective in helping you let go of

unproductive activities! Clutter (mental or physical) is a horrible drain on your energy. Get rid

of what no longer serves you and you’ll be amazed at how much lighter and motivated you feel.)

 

Here is a simple exercise to help you know for sure if you might be afraid of success:

Give some thought to what success means to you. What vision do you have for your life? What

can you see yourself doing, how much money can you see yourself earning, where can you see

yourself living, etc.? Write this information down.

Now read it again.

The most effective way to deal with a fear of taking action is to simply disregard it and take

action anyway!

That sounds like an impossible challenge if you are feeling paralyzed by fear, but I do have a bit

of advice that should make you feel better. The fear of taking action almost ALWAYS vanishes

shortly after you begin moving forward. You suddenly realize that you were worrying over

nothing, and you actually begin to enjoy making progress. If you keep with it long enough and

frequently enough, exhilaration takes over and you find you can’t hold yourself back any longer.

What a wonderful feeling that is!

If you absolutely feel terrified about taking action, take some time to look over your plans and

come up with one SMALL action step that you can take immediately. Just one! Then take it.

Then pick another small action step, and take that one too.

KEEP yourself feeling motivated? Yes!

Remember that motivation is a state of mind, just like discouragement. And like all mind-sets,

you can choose which one you want to focus on.

Here are some great tips for staying motivated, even if you’re not yet seeing the results you want:

Remember Your Dream

If you haven’t already, write a detailed description of your ultimate dream. Take your time with

this and avoid editing yourself! Just call up a mental vision of your dream and consider how it

will change your life for the better. Write down as many details as you can. What type of person

will you be? How much money will you have? What will your home look like? What will your

relationships be like? How will you FEEL on a daily basis?

Write it all down in present tense (as if it were your reality today) – and read it to yourself

every single day.

When we are confronted by fear and frustration, it’s easy to forget what we’re fighting for. It’s

easy to let the importance of our dream dwindle away, and hope that maybe “someday” we’ll

have the determination to make it happen.

Don’t let your dream die! Keep it sharp and clear in your own mind. Honor it and vow to keep

moving toward it, no matter what it takes.

Reinforce the Benefits

If you find yourself losing steam and feeling overwhelmed by obstacles, take a sheet of paper

and write down the benefits of your dream using the detailed description referenced above.

On this new sheet of paper, make a list of the BENEFITS of your dream. A “benefit” is

something you stand to GAIN.

So, for example, if part of your dream description goes something like this, “I am happily

working for myself, doing work I love, and earning $100,000 per year” – then add these words to

your list of benefits:

  Happiness

  Freedom

  Abundance

  Passion

  Fulfillment

Keep going until you have a long list of everything you stand to GAIN by continuing to work

toward your goals.

After reading through this list and comparing it to how you feel right now, you should be more

determined than ever to keep working toward your goals because acceptance of anything less is

unthinkable.

See Obstacles as Mere Detours

One of the most common reasons we lose our motivation is

because we feel overwhelmed or intimidated by unexpected

obstacles. We can have the strongest motivation in the world,

and suddenly one little thing will throw our plans off-course, and

we freeze. Or worse, we view obstacles as “signs” from the

universe that we’re not “meant to succeed.”

Rather than allowing this to happen to you, simply CHOOSE not

to let it bother you. Say to yourself, “An obstacle is nothing more than a detour on my path. I’ll

find a way around it because I’m NOT giving up!” Just thinking a thought like that can

empower you to begin moving forward again, even if you were initially intimidated.

Affirm the Possibilities

Another way we might lose our motivation is by beginning to doubt that our dreams are possible.

When we first set our goals, we are convinced we can do it. But if results don’t show up right

away, we might start to doubt ourselves, or doubt that our dreams are “realistic” enough. After

all, if it was meant to be, if we were meant to be successful, it would happen quickly and easily,

right? Logically we might know that’s pure hogwash, but emotionally we might feel like the

universe is picking on us.

If you feel your conviction begin to dwindle, blast the doubt right out of your head by reading

success stories of others who have accomplished the impossible. Seek out written stories or

television programs about people who have overcome immense personal challenges to achieve

success, and affirm that if they did it, you can too.

Better yet, WRITE YOUR OWN SUCCESS STORY! It might start out as fiction but you have

the power to make it a true account. Here’s a good opener for your story:

“___________ (your name) never believed he (or she) had what it took to be successful, but that

all changed when he decided to begin believing in himself. He decided to stop listening to the

limiting beliefs that others tried to instill in him, and he made it his mission to rise above doubt

and fear. With an iron determination, he went on to accomplish what others believed was

impossible.”

Make your success story as long as you like, and customize it to your unique situation. Read it

whenever you need an emotional boost.

Avoid Burnout

Sometimes we get SO motivated that we might take on too much, too fast and end up feeling

burned out. You’ll know when this happens to you, because you start feeling stressed and

overwhelmed, and irritated by even the littlest kinks in your plans.

You start feeling annoyed about having to work on your goals, and decide you’d rather take a

nap. HONOR that feeling. Go with it. Climb into bed and have a good rest. Go see a funny

movie with a friend, or curl up with a good book by yourself. Go dancing, or sign up for some

pottery classes or painting classes.

Do something completely unrelated to your goals, and feel good about it. We all need rest,

recreation, and a reminder that there is more to life than pursuing our goals.

Enjoying the Journey

If there is one thing I want you to take away from this book, it is the understanding that success

is a journey, not a destination. It’s about what you do, but WHO you become through the

achievement of your dreams.

Success is a process of letting go of perceived limitations, growing and developing as unique

individuals, believing in our true potential, honoring the best parts of ourselves and sharing them

with the world.

As we’ve learned throughout this book, most of this process takes place in our very own minds.

We’ve always had the potential to be successful, we just needed to believe it and embrace it.

How freeing it is to realize that!

There are just a couple more points I want to expand upon, because I think they’re very

important.

Develop a True Attitude of Gratitude

I can’t stress enough how crucial it is to have an attitude of gratitude. And not just in relation to

your goals, either!

Gratitude can transform any aspect of your life, and most especially your thoughts. When you

feel grateful for the good things in your life, you are obviously focusing more on them. This not

only helps you to feel more positive on a regular basis, it also helps you to worry less about the

negative stuff, lack, and struggle.

You feel happier overall, and everything in your life tends to run more smoothly. You feel

optimistic, blessed, and grateful for the opportunity to mold your life into a work of art.

Consequently, it becomes one!

Beginning today, make it a habit to express a feeling of gratitude for all the wonderful aspects of

your life. At first you may struggle to find things to be grateful for. You may be so used to

looking at the negatives that you truly can’t see the positives! If you have to, start with the most

obvious:

“I’m grateful for my healthy body, my ability to see and hear, the love of my family and

friends.”

With a little practice, you’ll begin noticing more and more things to feel grateful for.

Express Appreciation for Everything

______________________________________________________________________________

Developing the Success Mindset White Dove Books

Appreciation seems similar to gratitude, but there are notable differences. Gratitude is usually a

feeling of thankfulness for something you have, while appreciation is the practice of affirming or

admiring the positive features of something.

For example: you can be thankful for the presence of someone you love in your life, and you can

also appreciate the ways this person supports and encourages you.

Another example: you can appreciate the beauty of a morning sunrise, and you can also be

thankful that it lifted your spirits and filled you with feelings of hope and inspiration.

Getting into the habit of expressing appreciation for everything in your life can keep you focused

on the positive, just like an attitude of gratitude does. But it also makes the journey to success

seem meaningful and worthwhile.

Take time to appreciate:

  Everything you have, for the joy they bring to your life.

  Everything you see or hear, for the ways they keep you focused in the present moment.

  The challenges you face, for the richness and strength they add to your character.

  Your journey itself, for the amazing experiences and growth it provides.

  Yourself, for your unique gifts, your indomitable spirit, your willingness to go the extra

mile.

It’s All Up To You

Your journey to success can be as simple and easy - or as difficult and painful - as you make it.

Why not have fun with it?

Just as you convinced yourself that you were unlucky,

unsuccessful and destined for failure, you can convince yourself

that all of your dreams are right at your fingertips. By improving

the quality of your thoughts, questioning your beliefs and daring

to be bolder in your actions, you can achieve anything you desire.

Simply open your mind to the possibilities, and be willing to give

yourself a chance.

Learn how to relax and enjoy yourself. Don’t worry so much. Be

willing to make mistakes, or take a scenic detour from the path before you.

Trust yourself, and trust the universe. Open your arms and welcome in the abundance and joy

waiting for you.

Don’t grasp at it in fear, but instead let it flow gently and naturally. And it will.