Physical Energy

The most basic form of energy, and the one we generally think of when we think of having energy in our lives, is physical energy. This is the energy to get up and get moving and do the things that need to be done on a daily basis. It's related to your muscles and organs, your heart and your chemistry and all that stuff.

Now, I'm not really an expert in any of the things I'm about to say, but fortunately there are a lot of experts out there that can substantiate this information. I think many of us, on a daily or near-daily basis, wish we could have more energy. But are we willing to do what it takes?

This isn't rocket science, and most of this will sound familiar. It really does boil down to the basics of diet and exercise.

"What!? Are you telling me there's no mythical 'mojo' principle to having more physical energy? I can't just think like I have the energy and it will just magically be there?!"

Well, maybe. But the principle behind thoughts becoming manifest is that we then act on the thoughts that we hold predominantly in our minds. So this is the action part.

1) Diet. Just some basics here. Think about this: If you owned a million dollar race horse, what would you feed it? Snickers and coke? Doubtful. Consider what you're putting into your body. I read recently that for optimum health, don't put anything into your body you can't imagine in nature. For example, you can picture a field of wheat being ground to make bread. You can see a steak or chicken as having once been an animal. Vegetables are easy in this respect. But can you picture a fountain of diet coke in the mountains? Or an orchard of twinkie-trees?

Also, eat more smaller meals. And don't skimp on breakfast, but make breakfast healthy. Donuts and coffee aren't it. Try a glass of juice with a whole-grain toast, etc.

One more thing: water. Drink lots and lots of water. Depending on what you read, 70-85% of your body is water. You need water. Drink when you're not thirsty. More than one source recommends drinking an ounce of water per day for each two pounds of body weight (yes, that's about 3 liters for guys like me). Drink drink drink (alcohol doesn't count!)

There is much much more that can be written and discussed on the field of diet, and I encourage you to get out and find what you can and read up on it. Then put it into practice and discover what works for you. Not just in terms of weight loss, but in terms of energy and how you feel throughout the day, based on what you eat.

2) Exercise. Libraries have been written on this subject as well. But again, this isn't brain surgery either. Personally, I like to run. I completed my first marathon last fall (in less than stellar fashion, but that's another post). I'm currently training for my second marathon coming up this May, and I plan on running this October in a re-do of last fall's marathon. Aerobic exercise burns calories, but more importantly than that, it increases your body's ability to get oxygen to your muscles, including your brain.

Strength training can be overlooked for people who are focused on an aerobic sport like running or cycling. But building lean muscle mass will help you have more energy throughout the day as well. Again, find what works for you. Run, walk, ride, but get out and do something!

3) One more thing that shouldn't be overlooked in the realm of physical energy is recovery. Your body needs rest to rebuild from the stresses of exercise. When you lift weights and push your muscle to its current capacity, and in some cases, slightly beyond its current capacity, your muscle fiber is actually being broken down, and will be replaced by a bigger, stronger muscle fiber during the period of rest following your workout. Capacity is actually built from a combination of exertion and recovery. So get the sleep you need (7-8 hours a night... not 10-12!) and be sure to take a rest day every so often from your workouts. I work out (either running, cycling, or strength-training) six days a week. Sunday is the rest day. But I also vary my workouts so the same muscle group (except my legs via running) is never worked twice in a row. But that's just me. Again, experiment and see what works for you.

So, this is just a primer on some basic ways to increase your physical energy. Yes, your thoughts matter. If you don't think about improving your physical self, you'll never do it. Again, I welcome constructive comments and feedback!

PEMS

I've been listening to a book on CD entitled The Power of Full Engagement. It's all about energy and how to be fully engaged in your work, home, and all other aspects of your life. I highly recommend it. In any case, the authors of this book talk about the four areas of your life in which you need to learn to train and grow to get the most energy into your life. (That sounds really bad, but you get the idea!)

1) Physical. Physical energy is pretty basic, and you pretty much know what you need to do here. Eat right, exercise, get enough rest. In order to build muscle and to be healthy, this is what you need to do.

2) Emotional. Emotional energy is what keeps you stress free and able to give love and to care for and about others.

3) Mental. Mental energy is the energy that keeps your brain working, the energy to think and to make clear and rational decisions.

4) Spiritual Energy is the most fundamental energy. It is different from religion, in that it is merely the ability to live by a set of values and deeply held beliefs.

In the coming weeks I will focus more on each of these types of energy, and how to develop and strengthen them to enable you to lead a more balanced and productive life. I'm excited about this! Till then...

11 tips...

Letting go, again

... letting go of your need to read this blog. Only kidding. I mean, I knew it had been a while since I updated, but I didn't realize it had been that long. My apologies!

Today's topic is:

Let go of your need to be superior.

You really don't need to be "the best there is" in any given endeavor. In fact, if you keep at it long enough, you'll find someone who is better at it than you are. And that's okay. Once you let go of your need to be superior, you can accept the fact that there are people who are better at things, and that's okay.

You don't need to be better than anyone else, you only need to be better than you were. The point of this post and this point of view is NOT to tell you to be satisfied with mediocrity - after all, someone's going to be better than you anyway - not at all. The point is to give up the comparisons between you and someone else.

Constant self-improvement is the goal. One of the cool things here is that once you let go of your need to be better than others, and you start focusing on being better than you were yesterday, you'll find you'll be a lot better than a lot of people at a lot of things... but you won't care. :)

Let go, Part Deux

Today's topic:

Let go of your need to be right.

---

"A man who lives right, and is right, has more power in his silence than another has by his words." -- Phillips Brooks

---

How many arguments can cease, fights avoided, relationships healed, minds opened, if we will just abandon our need to be right about everything, all the time?

Chances are you know someone like this. Someone who always needs to be right, and will argue and belabor a subject to death before conceding even the slightest point. Who wants to be around a person like that? Not I.

A powerful phrase to allow into your vocabulary, "You may be right about that," said without sarcasm, can stop arguments faster than any other method I'm aware of. You don't have to believe it. You don't have to accept the point as fact. Just cease needing to be right about everything.

One has to be secure in himself to have the ability to do this. You have to know that being right in your own mind is much more important than showing it to everyone you meet. Simply allow others the opportunity to be right, and you may discover that you were indeed wrong about something or someone, and your perspective has changed and left you a better person for it. You never know.

Let Go, Let God

Okay, for the next several posts I'm going to discuss a couple of things we really need to let go of. There's an axiom in the Christian world, predominantly (I guess it could be just about anywhere, but that's where I've seen it the most) that goes "Let Go, Let God". There is something to this. When we can surrender our need to be in control of everything and just trust in a devine timing and a devine source that is directing our lives to one degree or another, amazing things can happen. So for the few posts, I'm going to talk about ways of letting go in a few specific aspects of life. These have been mentioned by many self-help gurus, but specifically I got a lot of this from Wayne Dyer.

Let go of your need to win.

This is such a prevalent theme in today's culture, especially here in America. Now, I'm a huge sports fan, and I love it when my team wins. Sometimes, however, my team doesn't win... whether that's my child's soccer team or the Utah Jazz. The trick here is not ceasing to strive to win, but letting go of your NEED to win. Decide that you can accept the outcome, especially of sporting events, without letting it affect your mood. Just look at riots that have happened in major cities because of the winning or losing of a specific team. Give me a break, people.

I have struggled with this in the past. There have been days when I'll be watching a game and my team is losing and I'll be in a seriously bad mood. This is what I'm talking about. Just let it go. Realize that in the grand scheme of things, "winning" is not that big of a deal. As you're getting all wrapped up in the event, think of someone you know who may be struggling with some major challenges, like cancer or divorce. Not to get you depressed or anything, but just to get things back in perspective. Remember how the sporting world came to a stop in the days following 9/11?

Just some food for thought. Comments welcome.

So... what are you thinking about today?

Just a friendly neighborhood reminder to remember what you're thinking about this week, especially as Independence Day approaches. On this great holiday, you can dwell on all that is wrong in our country -- the war, the poverty, the crime, the disease, the corruption... whatever. Or, you can dwell on what makes this country great: The liberty, the freedom, the goodness of its citizens, the families.

Watching the news probably isn't going to help on the positive-focusing. But then, it rarely does.

Stay focused!

PS. Sorry for the long delay between posts here. I aim to make this more of a blog than book notes in the near future. Hopefully someone will get something out of it!

On appreciation

When you go to buy a new car, the second you drive it off the lot, it's no longer a "new" car, and it's now a "used" car (some would say "practically new", but that's still not new). And what's happened to its value? It depreciated. By as much as 0% or more. Just by driving it a few feet.

In contrast, let's say you bought stock in a company. Let's say this is a company with solid financials, great management, and a real vision of their future growth. This stock is likely to appreciate, that is, increase in value.

Webster defines appreciate two ways:
1) to grasp the nature, worth, quality, or significance of, and
2) to increase the value of

When you appreciate something, you grasp the nature or quality of it, and at the same time, I believe, you increase its value, at least in your own mind. For example, that new car is probably worth more to you once you've bought it and can more fully grasp its meaning and value in your life.

The same is true with everything around you. Focus on beauty, worth, and significance of everything you see -- make an effort to really appreciate the everyday elements in your life -- and it will increase in value as well. Become an appreciator of all things, and you'll find yourself living a richer, fuller life.

Your comments?

On Promotions

All my life, I've rarely been the one promoted when the position above me came open (this is changing for me now, by the way). I could never figure out why that was, becuase my work was always as good or better than the person that got the job.

Simply put, there are two things that you are measured by at any job. All other metrics can be boiled down to these two things.

1) Your performance
2) Your attitude

Now I said that my performance was always at least satisfactory, and I believe it was. And my attitude was never "bad", per se, but it wasn't always as good as it should be. When I saw things that didn't function according to how I thought they should, I was somewhat vocal about it. My reasoning was that superiors would appreciate knowing what could work better. I rarely, if ever, tried to understand what benefits there may have been with the existing process.

So, if you're consistently getting passed over for promotions or higher paying jobs, take a look at yourself and examine your performance and your attitude. To get promoted, both need to be exceptional. You can't have exceptional work but an average attitude, and rarely will an exceptional attitude make up for sub-par performance. Start today making each better, and soon the opprtunites will be flowing your way!

Comments, as always, are welcome and appreciated!

Don't Worry... Be Happy

Turns out that way back in 1988, Bobby McFerrin was onto something. This great tune really sums it up. It IS up to you. "It will soon pass, whatever it is."

Watch the video here, listen to the words. And take them seriously. He's right, ya know.

The Secret behind "The Secret"

This arrived in my email today, and I liked it so much I wanted to share it. It's from Michael Neill, who owns and operates the website Genius Catalyst. Check it out. He gets it.

"Everything should be made as simple as possible - but no simpler."

-Albert Einstein

With the movie "The Secret" and books like "Cosmic Ordering" all the rage these days, a whole new cross-section of society is getting interested in attracting their perfect job, perfect partner and perfect bank balance. As a few seem to succeed almost instantaneously while the vast majority seem unable to get what they want no matter how hard they try, a question I'm being asked more and more is "what do I need to change in my thinking in order for me to get what I want?"

It sounds like a simple enough question, but having explored metaphysics, NLP, mind dynamics and a host of other disciplines in relation to the art and science of success for the past 16 years or so, I think the answer is worthy of a bit of
complexity.

There are essentially two schools of thought in relation to getting and having what you want - the school of acquisition and the school of attraction.

The school of acquisition has been the dominant one in Western culture for many years, and its teachings can be summed up in the sentence:

*If you want it, go and get it!*

From the ancient Mongol hordes to the modern titans of business and industry, our society tends to reward and hold up as heroes those men and women who have gone after what they want with enthusiasm and passion. (If they happened to trample a few people on the way to the top, well, it's unfortunate of course, but those are just the casualties of war.)

On the plus side, graduates of the school of acquisition have helped create ancient and modern empires and contributed tremendous advances in science, medicine, and business; on the down side, they have contributed to a world culture where the strong tend to look down on the weak and wonder why they don't just get off their lazy behinds, try harder and go and get "it" for themselves.

But while the school of acquisition has been in full session for the past 2500 years or so, the school of attraction has been quietly holding classes in hidden caves and "new thought" churches, its teachings disseminated through secret texts, biblical parables and new age gurus.

The school of attraction teaches:

*Like attracts like*
*Thoughts become things*
and
*You become what you think about*

These "secret" teachings and principles of attraction were often suppressed by the ruling elite, or so the story goes, because they placed the power within each individual, although the true source of that power is often attributed to God or a benevolent, vibratory universe.

Many of the great men and women throughout history, from ancient religious icons to renaissance men like Leonardo DaVinci and Sir Isaac Newton are known to have studied the ancient texts of the school of attraction.

So now that this "secret" teaching is no longer a secret, why isn't everybody living the life of their dreams?

Here's what I believe to be the answer:

*People are attempting to use the principles of attraction as a new set of tools for acquisition.*

Instead of actually shifting the basis of their approach to life to one of planting seeds of kindness, beauty and love and reaping the harvest of a bountiful life, people are attempting to get a better parking space (or indeed a better car, girlfriend or bank balance) by "thinking the right thoughts".

The problem lies in the reason people want the car, girlfriend or bank balance in the first place - because they believe having what they want will "make" them happy. But a closer looking at the teachings behind "The Secret" reveal that it works the other way around. It is the energy of happiness that attracts the good things into our lives.

Do the principles of attraction really work? In my experience, absolutely. But if you use them to try and manipulate the universe into giving you what you think you need to be happy, you are as likely to manifest frustration and self-doubt as that shiny new husband or loving automobile.

With love,
Michael

Courage

"Courage! What makes a king out of a slave? Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage! What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage! What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder? Courage! What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage!"

~ Cowardly Lion, Wizard of Oz, 1939.

It takes courage to improve oneself. The fact that you're reading this blog means that most likely you've recognized that something in your life isn't quite what you want it to be. There exists a certain level of dissatisfaction with the status quo, and you want to improve something. That's a realization many people make, however a very small percentage seems to have the courage to take the next step, whatever it may be.

Socrates has been quoted as saying "The unexamined life is not worth living". By delving into the world of self-improvement, you've decided that your life bears some examination. Good for you! And the fact that you've made it to this blog means you must be searching. That takes courage! Much easier it would be indeed to accept the perceived deficiencies that may exist in certain areas of your life, or worse, to complain and notice them, but do nothing about them. You're doing something.

Don't stop now, you're on a roll!

On Limits

How much would you accomplish if you couldn't see the barriers you now see? Remember, it's what you focus on.

Watch this.

On Fate

There is a school of thought in the self-improvement/self-help world that says that nothing happens by accident, that God or the Source or the Creator or whatever term you apply, is in control of all and that things happen to you exactly when they're supposed to and how they're supposed to. I'm not sure I believe that, however...

I do believe that everything that happens to you can be for your benefit and can lead to great things. It's all in how you use it.

The comment about dissatisfaction mentioned in my last post is something that got me thinking along these lines. Perhaps it is divine destiny that you lost your job, or that your spouse left you, or that you were abused as a child, perhaps it isn't. What I know is that you still have response-ability. You can take ownership of whatever has happened to you in the past and turn it to something positive. Too many people ask "Why has this happened to me? Why do bad things happen to good people?" when they questions they should be asking themselves are more along the lines of "What can I learn from this? Where is the lesson? How can I use this to become a better or happier person?"

You see, your quality of life is directly related to the questions you ask yourself. If you ask yourself "Why does this always happen to me? Why am I so unlucky?" you will certainly get answers to these questions. "Because you're a fool. Because you're so unfortunate. Because people just don't like you." None of these are probalby true, but you'll get the answers you're looking for. Ask yourself a better question, and you'll get better answers.

So take the unfortunate circumstances in your life and your dissatisfaction and everything that "fate" throws at you, whether you believe it's all predetermined or not, and make the best of it. Ask good questions. Get great answers, and live intentionally.

God bless. Comments are welcome and appreciated.

On dissatisfaction

A recent comment on this blog brought up the point that dissatisfaction and unhappiness can be powerful motivators for change. I couldn't agree more.

The problem with many people is, however, that they concentrate then on what they're dissatisfied about. "My house isn't big enough. I don't make enough money. I'm always sick. My husband is lazy. My boss hates me." And so on and on and on.

If this is where your mind is stuck, then you are not being motivated to change anything. If the thoughts occupying your head are thoughts of what's missing or what's wrong in your life, then you will continue to dwell in that state. If, however, you use that dissatisfaction to concentrate your thoughts on what you want or the way you'd rather have things -- such as "I want a bigger house. I can make more money. I exercise and eat right so I can stay healthy" -- then your dissatsifaction is motivating you to make a change. If you dwell on your present state, however, and you don't like your present state, you're not going to do anything to change it. You see, first you have to ask, then you have to seek, and then you have to knock. Not just whine.

Comments are again welcome and appreciated.

I want to feel good

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance..."

Galatians 5:22-23

Recently I got some bad news in the mail. News that could have really upset me and gotten me down. As I considered this, I asked myself "What's the point?" You see, no matter how bad I decided to feel, the news wasn't going to change. I've already written about choosing our response to stimuli, even very bad stimuli, and how our humanity is based on just that: the ability to choose our response. So I decided that I was going to feel good anyway.

The fruit of the Spirit, as Paul wrote to the Galatians, is good feelings, or feeling good. Feeing good is feeling the Spirit. I want to feel the Spirit. I want to dwell in that environment.

Remember the bit about the yellow energy and the blue energy, or the positive and negative energy that surrounds us? By choosing to feel good, or choosing to dwell in the light of the Spirit, I attract more good positive energy into my life. And energy is everything.

You may ask, even if bad news hasn't entered your life recently (and kudos to you if this is the case... you obviously are able to avoid late evening network television - i.e. "the news"), "How can I feel good when there is so much sorrow and evil and badness in the world? And especially since the Democrats have taken control of Congress? (or "How can I feel good as long as George Bush is President?" ... pick your argument.)" My answer is this: Go ahead and feel bad about it. Dwell on it. Stress over it. Be my guest. And after a day or a week or a couple of months of feeling that way, see if anything's changed. If it has, please call me, or email me. Because I believe that you can't feel bad enough to make anyone else feel good. In fact, if you feel good -- if you choose to feel good -- you have a greater chance at making a positive impact on exactly those things that were making you feel bad.

So if a family member has recently died, go ahead and mourn. It's a sad occasion. But don't dwell in that state. Look back with fondness, for no matter how depressed you may get, you're not going to bring that person back. Celebrate the life lived, and the lives that you and others are still living. If you lost your job, concentrate on finding a new one -- or better yet, experiment with other ways of making a living. If your child was recently arrested, feel sad about it if you like, but realize that your feeling bad isn't going to change what happened. Much more effective would be to think positive thoughts about your child, concentrate on what you love about him or her, and move forward.

You can't get sick enough to make another person well. You can't feel bad enough to eradicate any of the suffering in the world. You can't get poor enough to eliminate poverty. So think big. Think positive. Feel good. Feel the Spirit. It's your choice.

On Reality

Come to find out, there is no such thing as reality.

Okay, so maybe that's a bit of a bold statement. Surely some things are objectively fact. The sky is blue (most of the time), the grass is green, the cars travelling down the freeway at 75 miles an hour WILL cause serious damage if they run into anyone or anything.

But your reality may not be the same as someone else's. I heard this example once recently, courtesy of Tony Robbins:

Suppose you're meeting someone special for dinner at 6:30. You arrive at the restaurant at 6:30 and the other person isn't there yet. Fifteen minutes later and you're still alone. That's the objective reality. However, what that means to you is totally up to you. Do they not care? Are you being stood up? Was the other person in a car accident and is lying in a hospital somewhere? Is he or she simply inconsiderate? Maybe these feelings start to intensify as 7:00 and 7:15 rolls around. How are you feeling now? Frustrated? Concerned? Anxious? Worried? Mad? Lonely?

No two people will have the same interpretation of the same events. Some will feel one way, and some will feel another. Remember when I mentioned liking your sister (or not liking your sister)? It's not the situation, but it's your subjective interpretation of the situation that makes YOUR reality.

When I was serving as a missionary in Europe, I'd get frustrated when trying to debate the concept of absolute truth with people. I remember talking to a colleague of mine and he used the example of a box, that either has a ball in it, or it doesn't. Now, regardless of what one believes or doesn't believe, there's either a ball in the box or there isn't. That's just fact. However what that means to a person, and whether or not they even care if there's a ball in the box (or a God, or a Savior, or anything else we were trying to teach people), is completely subjective. I didn't get it then, and I got awfully frustrated with people. I get it now.

Hope this makes sense. Comments welcome.

Ask, Seek, Knock

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

~ Jesus Christ
Matthew 7:7

This passage took on a new meaning to me recently. I came to realize that it's not a triple restatement of the same thought, as we often interpret it to be. It is three distinct steps that can be applied to get what it is we need or desire.

1) Ask

It is essential that we know what we want, and that we ask for it. Put that thought, or energy, out there, and let God -- or the Universe, or the Great Author of the Universe, or whatever you want to call it -- start working on bringing that into your life.

2) Seek

Start looking. Remember my analogy back in one of my first posts about the new car you just bought? When you actively begin to LOOK for things that are happening in your life that are bringing you closer to that which you need or desire, you'll be amazed at how many "coincidences" are happening that are moving you in that direction. I once heard it said that "Miracles are God's way of making his presence known, coincidences are how he remains anonymous." Watch for the coincidences, the serendipity.

3) Knock

Do something. When you ask, and seek, you'll see that there is action required on your part. Not very often will just asking bring you what you want. You can ask for a million dollars, but very rarely will it just land in your lap, courtesy of a long lost uncle that died and left his estate to you... or, more often, the rich anonymous African man that died with no heirs and left a large sum in the bank that someone just needs help to get into this country (ever hear that one before?) Chances are that there will be some work required on your part... some action. Don't let this scare you, though, you're taking action all the time, constantly. But now, after you've asked and have begun to seek, you'll see which action you specifically need to take that will bring you what you're looking for.

I hope this makes sense. Please comment. Thanks!

Climb the Mountain - an allegory

I found this on a motivational forum from a poster named Julie. The orginal post can be found at http://www.motivationtomove.com/forums/viewthread/518/

What I’d like to talk about today are goals and our journeys towards them. Imagine that your goal, whatever it is (weight loss, fitness, or something else entirely), is the peak of a mountain. To reach it, you must climb a path up the side of the mountain. In the same way that no two mountains are the same, nor even two paths up the same mountain, no two goals are the same. You will have different challenges from your friends, different reasons for climbing the mountain. But mountains are similar, and we can all share our knowledge and learn from one another as we climb our paths.

At the outset, the way will probably be broad and easy to follow. Many people have started up the mountain. You’ll have companions and laughter, people to walk with you along the broad, smooth trail. It will be fun.

But, sooner or later, the way will become more difficult. As you climb, maybe the path becomes steeper or rockier. Maybe an obstacle will block your path. Maybe it becomes less travelled. And here, perhaps, your companions will turn back. They were with you while the going was smooth, but now it’s too hard. It’s just easier to shrug and return to base camp, where it’s comfortable. Sure, it’s far away from the peak, but at least it’s got heat and running water.

But you won’t turn back. You’ve planned ahead. You have lifelines prepared and a good map to guide you. Maybe you’ve even managed to convince one of your friends to stay with you on the path, no matter how hard it gets. You know where your goal is, and you’re still going to move towards it. What are these lifelines in terms of weight loss? There are lots of them! People to encourage you and keep you accountable, tracking software, established menus or workout routines, and, most importantly, a plan. You need a plan to get you where you’re going, in the same way your mountain-climbing counterpart needs his map to show him the paths and the obstacles.

And now you, back on the mountain, have made it past some of the obstacles. You’re climbing up the mounting. The obstacles will still be there, true. Sometimes you’ll have to back-track and find ways around them. Sometimes clouds might descend over the peak and hide your goal, so that you can’t even see it. All you see is the mountain, huge and forbidding, on all sides of you. But don’t fear! The peak is still there! And if you keep following your plan, taking one step after the other along the path, you’ll keep getting closer and closer to it. One small step at a time, you’re getting closer.

Maybe you slip, fall, and find yourself further down the mountain. It’s at times like this that we want to join our friends at the base-station chalet, drinking hot chocolate and bemoaning that we’ll never reach the top. But don’t do that! Instead, look down. See how high up you are! Yes, you may be lower down than you were before your slip, but the important thing is you’re still on the mountain! You’re higher than when you started! And even if you’ve managed to fall all the way back down to the bottom of the mountain, at least now you know what to do! You know which paths to avoid and which to follow. You know how to get past those pesky obstacles that blocked you the first time. And that means you’ll travel the path even faster the next time!

Still you climb. Up, up, and up. Sometimes losing the goal, sometimes having it clearly in sight. Sometimes faltering, sometimes charging forward. Up, up, and up. And one day, you realize that the peak is right before you, just there. It’s so close you can touch it. And you do. You’re at the top of your mountain! Shout it to the world! Congratulate yourself, because you’ve done it! Huzzah!

And maybe, just maybe, you’ll realize that the goal, though important, was not the most important part of this whole climb. Even more important than reaching the peak was the knowledge you gathered along the way. You have new skills. You can do things now you’d never dreamed of when you were sitting in base-station. You’ve made new friends along the way, had new experiences. And now, guess what, you know how to climb a mountain!

So… where’s the next peak?

Resistance to Faith

" . . . where doubt and uncertainty are there faith is not, nor can it be. For doubt and faith do not exist in the same person at the same time. . ."

- Joesph Smith
Lectures on Faith 6:12

I love that quote. Combine that quote with what we know about focus, and you get a powerful combination. You see, sometimes we focus on things that create resistance to our faith, and I don't necessarily mean faith in a purely reiligious connotation. Faith, in the context I'm referring to it, is faith in God and faith in yourself, that you, as a child of God, or a creation of God, can draw on the powers of God by faith.

However, there are four ways of talking yourself out of having this necessary faith. I give credit to Wayne Dyer for these:

1. Focusing on what's missing in your life.

Remember the law of focus? What you concentrate on expands in your vision and in your life. If you focus on not having enough money, love, faith, happiness, or whatever else you perceive to be missing in your life, that sense of lack will expand in your vision and your life. "I don't have enough..." means you'll contunue to not have enough of whatever it is you perceive is lacking. That's not faith. That's resistance.

2. Focusing on the negative circumstances in your life.

This is very similar to the above, but it's focusing on what IS, that you don't like. For example, if you're focusing on hating your job, and all you talk about with friends, relatives, and even yourself is "I hate my job. My boss doesn't like me. They pay me crappy wages," etc., etc., then you'll continue to attract into your life a crummy job where you're not appreciated, you're underpaid, etc. Do you see the difference? In no. 1, your focus is on what's missing, and in no. 2, your focus is on what is not missing, but what you don't like about what is. I hope this is making sense.

3. Focusing on the way things always have been.

It's been said that "To get what you've never had, you have to do what you've never done." If you're focusing on the way things always have been -- for example "My spouse has never treated me well," -- then you're attracting more of your spouse not treating you well. What you focus on expands in your vision and in your mind, so focusing on what has always been will continue to attract what you've always had. "I've always rented, I've never owned a home"... you'll continue to always rent and never own, until you can get out of that mindset.

4. Focusing on what others want for you.

Focusing on what others want for you isn't always a bad thing, except for the fact that you're relinquishing control of your life to someone else. According to success guru Brian Tracy, you can only be successful to the extent that you feel you are in control of your life. To the extent that you feel out of control, or under the control of someone else, you cannot feel successful in your own life. When others want for you what you want for you, this can change, and you can satisy others while satisfying yourself.


I hope the above has made sense. Remember, when you focus on the rocks and the trees and the ditch, you'll end up hurt with a broken mountain bike. When you focus on the trail and the exhileration and the fun, you'll end up descending a mountain having the time of your life.

Comments again are welcome and encouraged. Thanks.