Insight of The Day

"Select a few people to be particularly kind to today - those you were a little harsh with yesterday."
Norman Vincent Peale
1898-1993, Author and Speaker

Mental Prisons

Some time ago I did a show on Habits. They play an important role in your life. Like many aspects of your life, habits can be considered both a blessing and a curse. Robert Russell in his magnificent little book "You Try It" wrote that habit was God's way of making good automatic in your life.

I had a wonderful friend in Atlanta, the late Dr. Jay Dishman, who wrote an excellent article about habit in his monthly newsletter dated February 1985. I have shared Dr. Dishman's article with thousands of people around the world. Today I want to share it with you. Here goes!

"Recently I visited Alcatraz Prison. Once it housed the most hardened of criminals. Today it is open to tourists under the direction of the United States Parks Department. Many men have tried to escape Alcatraz; no one is known to have succeeded. As I listened to the tour guide explain the impossibility of escape, I thought of other prisons equally confining but where the doors are never locked, no guards walk the halls, and escape is encouraged and possible. That prison is Habit."

Our habit is thinking about ourselves and our environment as a jail or a paradise. We need but to look around us to see people who are rich emotionally and materially because they think and feel rich. We also see people who are laden with emotional and material debt because they think lack. Some are inspired with vision, others are encumbered with doubt. Some are moved by ambition, others feel safer in monotony. Some reach for the mountain tops, others huddle in the pits. Some seek opportunity, others wait for it to knock. The sad fact is that more people are confined by their thoughts than are fed by them.

Negative thinking shuts us in a prison, but there is a way out. The apostle Paul said, "Be transformed by the renewal of your mind." Paul knew a lot about prisons, both physical and mental. You renew your life by renewing your mind. You renew your mind when you change your habit of thinking.

Dr. Jay Dishman helped thousands change their habit of thinking in his lifetime. Now hopefully he has helped you.

Bob Proctor

Will Rogers' Secret

A magic way to win more friendships that no one can resist; even hardened criminals can be won over this way.

"I never met a man I did not like," said Will Rogers. Many people thought this was just another funny Rogers' remark, but one time when I met him with Amon Carter, of Fort Worth, I asked him, "Surely you can't like everybody?"

I knew he must meet bores, cheats, four-flushers just like the rest of us do. How can he possibly like even them?

Will was famous as a funnyman; but he was also a wise philosopher and he could be most serious when he wanted.

"Of course I don't approve of all the things that people do," he said, "but there is some goodness and some cussedness in all of us."

He continued, "If you know a man well enough you can always find something good in him and you can always find something interesting about him. It is just a matter of what you are looking for!"

"But what about the narrow-minded people? What about gossips? The people who do petty, mean little things? Do you like them, too?" I persisted.

"I once read somewhere," he said, "where someone asked Abe Lincoln that same question - why he refused to get mad at the people who abused him, ridiculed him and tried to discredit him."

"Lincoln replied that people's actions spring from their character and that many factors beyond their control went into making up their character - where they were born, the people they had associated with, and a lot of other things."

"Therefore,' said Lincoln, 'you shouldn't become angry with a person who blocks your path any more than you would with a tree which the wind blew across the road.'"

Will Rogers had no more reason for hating a person who happened to have been unfortunate enough to have acquired a habit of gossip than he did for hating a person who was foolish enough to neglect his teeth.

He didn't like gossip. Few people do; and he didn't like pettiness. He looked upon them as foolish behavior rather than evil behavior.

I am convinced that Will Rogers really did like every person he ever met.

There is an interesting thing about liking people, and that is they in turn like you. If you must start a rumor about somebody start it by saying, "I sure like that person."

This gets back to them and they say, "Well, I always liked him, too."

Another funny thing about gossip is that if they tell you things about others, you can just bet they will tell others things about you.

While there is always a temptation to listen to gossip, just remember while you are on the listening end this time with this gossiper, the next time you will be on the receiving end when the gossiper gets elsewhere.

Beware of the Gossip!

Avoid the company of the gossip. Don't give them a chance to be with you, find something out about you, then carry that story into another circle.

I am convinced that this trait of his character was largely responsible for Will Rogers being the most universally liked person I have ever heard about.

Will Rogers liked everybody and everybody liked Will Rogers!

Elmer Wheeler
From How to Sell Yourself to Others

Insight of the Day

"The mind can't take you where your heart longs to go"

By Debbie Ford
Speaker and Author of Why Good People Do Bad Things

Insight of The Day

"People think I'm disciplined. It is not discipline. It is devotion. There is a great difference."

Luciano Pavarotti
1935-2007 Opera Singer

About Dreams

"All our dreams can come true - if we have the courage to pursue them."

Walt Disney
1901-1966, Cartoon Artist and Producer

Life Success

"One of the lessons I've learned is that the quality of the answers that we get in life is truly determined by the quality of the questions we ask."

Paul Martinelli
Speaker and President of LifeSuccess Consulting

Making The Best Of A Bad Situation

As long as I can remember, there have been two things, other than our children, that my husband has had a deep passion for; golf and flying. As a young 18 year old, I can remember our first date-a blind date I might add, in which, Steve was going to college full time, fueling airplanes after classes and working on his flight hours at night-this was his passion, his vision and his future and he had set out on a course to graduate from college, become a major airline pilot, and hopefully someday own his own company as well.

Within a matter of years, Steve became an airline pilot with United Airlines, I graduated with a Masters degree in Communication/Journalism and we lived the "American Dream." Great house, beautiful children, money in the bank and the love and support of wonderful friends and family-until that day.

Arriving home from a three day trip on September 10, 2001, Steve walked into the random chaos of our home. With a two year old and three and a half year old, toys were always scattered everywhere, nothing was ever organized and sleep was a luxury, not a need. However, the sound of little feet running to greet him after each trip and a wife with a big smile on her face because she had a little bit of relief for the next 24 hours was what it was all about during that time. All in all, life was good, dinner was done, kids were bathed and Steve, who had been doing Boston-San Francisco trips all month, was home for 24 hours before flying to Chile for three days and then home for about a week-a week in which would include spending time with the kids and possibly a round of golf. Of course, his time on the course was not the same as it had been prior to kids-it was like sleep, a true luxury.

The next morning, our lives, as those of every American, were forever changed. In route to the store, Steve called, "come home, United has lost a plane in route to San Francisco." The tone in his voice was one in which I will never forget. "This is your route and your airplane," I remember screaming as we watched the horrific news that day. It had been speculated and later confirmed, that the terrorists had been in and out of the Boston airport, possibly on one of Steve's flights the past week as a test run. As the phone rang with people calling to see if Steve was home, we cried and knew the worst was yet to come.

And boy did it come. It was apparent, that Steve could be laid off at anytime. By Christmas time, most of the lay-offs had happened on the pilot end of the company, and Steve was one of the lucky ones-but a 50% pay cut happened right before the holidays. But who were we to complain, Steve was alive and had a job.

We decided that if any opportunities came up for me to go back to work, we should seriously consider it. So in the winter of 2002, I began to contact my previous group of co-workers and business associates and Steve and I decided to join up with some of my fellow co-workers from the "pre-kid" days and start a series of community lifestyle magazines-Lifestyle Publications. The magazines focused on people making a difference in the community. By year 3, we were mailing out over a 100,000 magazines a month and were purchased by a large publishing group, due to an offer we could not refuse. Steve continued to fly and I was happy as a stay at home mom to three wonderful children, active in their school and loving life once again.

About the time when you begin to get really comfortable in your daily routine, inevitably life throws you a curve ball to see how you are going to handle it and once again, we had another one hit us.

18 months ago, Steve came home from an international flight with a stiff back, through some misdiagnosis and mistreatment, he suffered a ruptured disk within days, and within a matter of three months underwent 2 surgeries, 3 epidurals, countless pain pills and was told he could not play golf or fly an airplane for at least a year, possibly two. But then, as it has done throughout our lives, The LAW OF POSITIVE ATTRACTION kicked in again, just like it did after 9/11-Steve took this injury as an opportunity. An opportunity to begin to publish his dream magazine, one in which he had put on paper over 4 years prior-but with flying, the Lifestyle magazines and 3 kids-there was no time-until now.

Along this uncertain road, and at times tragic events that have occurred in our life, the determination to succeed, and the faith in God, our personal strengths, the unbelievable support of family and the positive people that we have met, we have risked it all once again and believe that the Law of Attraction has already delivered to us and will continue to deliver to us because we ask for the success every single day.

So here we are today-a year under our belt with Golf Fitness Magazine, a magazine that teaches you how to play your best golf by improving your body and mind. The magazine continues to grow and grow and grow- The people that we have met and the lessons we continue to learn, once again make this "extreme risk" an experience we would not ever give back.

We now live with the attitude that this will be the biggest and best Golf magazine in the country and that Golf Fitness Magazine can offer something for everyone.

In addition, Steve has been given the green light to go back flying and to play golf, and his vision since age 18, is now forever a reality.

Kristi Gomen

A year ago Kristi and her husband Steve founded Golf Fitness Magazine to fill a void in the market place. They understand the importance of making a positive impact in the lives of others. To send Kristi your thoughts on this story email her at: Kristi@golffitness-magazine.com and to support their great magazine please go to: www.golffitnessmagazine.com/subscribe

Insight of the Day

"I will waste not even a precious second today in anger or hate or jealousy or selfishness. I know that the seeds I sow I will harvest, because every action, good or bad, is always followed by an equal reaction. I will plant only good seeds this day."

Og Mandino
1923-1996, Author and Speaker

Can You Recognize A Hoarder?

­­­­­It is easy to spot businesspeople who follow the Rule of Gold. They are often very good at selling but very weak in customer service. Their products are made as cheaply as they possibly can be. They don't honor their refunds - or they just barely honor them - and they pride themselves on creating profits by cutting costs.

If you could hear these entrepreneurs talking privately about their customers, you would think: "Gee, I'm glad I'm not buying from them. They see customers as either suckers or enemies. When they make speeches - even public speeches - they speak about business as if it were a battlefield."

Business should not be like war. It should be like love, like loving your neighbor.

Remember, most of your profits will come from back-end sales, which means that the easiest way to grow your company is to develop good, long-term relationships with your customers and produce really good products for them.

Michael Masterson
From Ready, Fire, Aim

Attitude

"It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome."

William James
1842-1910, Psychologist, Professor and Author

Insight of the Day

"You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true."

Richard Bach
Writer

Now You Can Enjoy Yourself Every Day

People are often puzzled by the idea of making life more enjoyable by changing their viewpoints. Let's examine it:

Suppose you are not feeling well one day, yet you accompany some friends on a leisurely drive through the beautiful countryside. Someone calls your attention to a lovely lake, but because of your illness, you cannot give it your attention or interest. Someone else remarks about a magnificent mountain in the distance, but you hardly hear him. You pass one lovely scene after another, yet they have no meaning to you. Because your illness has taken all your energy, you have none to spare in enjoying yourself. It is the same to your mind as if these natural beauties didn't exist at all. In your present ill state, they have neither existence nor attraction.

But the next day you recover. You feel fine. There is no inward attention to anything; you are outward bound once more. So again you go on a drive; you visit the very same places. But now, everything is completely different. You enjoy the lovely lake and magnificent mountain. You respond to them. You enjoy yourself.

How come? It was the very same scenery both times. But on the second trip you were different. You saw everything in an entirely new way. You had the inner freedom to see and appreciate your outer world. Like magic, your changed mental viewpoint changed the world for you.

It is difficult for people to grasp that the very same principle holds true elsewhere in life. Yet it is absolutely so. When we are inwardly ill at ease we do not really see things as they are; we see them as we are. And there is a world of difference - an actual world of difference - in the two viewpoints.

As we elevate our mental view points we also elevate our world. How is this accomplished? Enjoyment results from discard, not from acquisition. Discard of what? Of the very things we really want to lose - our acquired negative attitudes.

Enjoyment of life is not the presence of something outside ourselves; it is the absence of something within ourselves. Gloom is a state of inner blockage of your True Self; enjoyment is its release. Just as a balloon rises to greater heights by discarding weights, so do we ascend as we toss out negativities.

Vernon Howard
From Psycho-Pictography

Gary Allen Sledge

"It is difficult to know what counts in the world. Most of us count credits, honor, dollars. But at the bulging center of mid-life, I am beginning to see that the things that really matter take place not in the boardrooms, but in the kitchens of the world."

Gary Allen Sledge
Writer

The Magic of Believing

"It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen."

Claude M. Bristol
1891-1951, Author of The Magic of Believing