There were times in my life when I had precious little left but my integrity. Ive walked out of an impending business deal I desperately needed to make ends meet because I was told I had to pay a bribe for the deal to go through. I had a major contract sputter and die when I refused to remove all spiritual reference from my motivational material. It was not easy to walk away at those deals not knowing where I was going to get the money to keep going. But for the sake of my character and my future, it was the right thing to do!

Over the years Ive found that God has honored every decision I made that was based on integrity. It didnt always happen right away, but I can trace His faithfulness over and over again in the results of my life. If I lost a sale because I was honest, I got a bigger sale later. If I lost money by keeping my word to my employees, I gained employees that remained loyal for decades. If I lost a friend by refusing to budge on my integrity, they werent really a friend after all.

Setting goals tends to be effective only when done from the centered position within oneself. The centered position is where one hold all parts of themselves present, considering them nonjudgmentally. When, as so often happens a few weeks into the new year, one is about to give up the goals and new year’s resolutions that he has made, he needs to replace those goals with others made from that centered position.

Copyright (c) 2009 Dave Smart

February is for many the month of disappointment. The days are beginning to get longer, but winter is still far from over. The enthusiasm with which many entered into plans, goals, hopes and resolutions for the new year is for many wearing thin. Surveys have shown that by mid-February the majority of people who set new goals at the new year have abandoned them. The holidays of the month: Valentine’s Day, Mardi Gras, Chinese New Year; are largely meant to cheer up the disillusioned and disappointed. All too often, February is the month for giving up the new year’s goals.

The truth is that success is not difficult to achieve. Well, here are the 3 simple keys to success:

1. Set achievable and specific goals

How do we know if the goals we set are achievable? Well, here’s my definition of ‘achievable goals’. I personally believe that a goal is not achievable unless you believe that you have the resources to achieve outcome that you desire.

Also, The goal should be as specific as possible so that you can formulate precise ways on how to reach it. Unless you are specific in what you want, it’s very unlikely that you’ll achieve your goals. Think about it. Your mind will not know what to focus on until you direct it to move in a certain direction. By having a specific goal, you’ll not only direct your mind to what you want, you’ll also find yourself attracting the resources you need into your life. Remember the law of attraction?

The Day I Found the Lump
By Alex Blackwell

Part Three in the “Coming Into Your Own” Series

Sometimes in life we are given circumstances and conditions that are unwelcome and unfair. Going through particularly hard times can make us bitter and can cause us to feel victimized. However, there are no accidents without value. What this means is no matter what happens to us, we can find value in the event.

There’s no question it is difficult to find the meaning or value in an uncomfortable situation as you are encountering it, but when you step back and look at the outcome it produces, you can almost always find some measure of value.

Anne Maybus shares her story that perfectly illustrates the point to always look for the value and the opportunity for personal growth and the chance to come into your own even when you are facing difficult times.

The enemy waits and listens for your desperation. When you are at the end of your rope and can no longer see or feel what hope looks like, the enemy of your soul pounces on your confidence, shreds your dreams, and will cast a very dark shadow of doubt over what you want to be or do in your life.

The enemy does not want you to be successful. It delights in breaking you down to the point you surrender and exclaim things like, “What was I thinking, I can’t do something like that,” or “There is no way I will ever be able to [fill in the blank].”

When you give up, you give in to the temptation to quit, to surrender, to just stop trying. There are many reasons why many of us choose to give up. We either run out of time, money or energy. We just can’t quite see the results of our efforts.

A 7th century Arabian genius once said, “Success is the result of foresight and resolution, foresight depends upon deep thinking and planning, and the most important factor of planning is to keep your secrets to yourself”. The name of this genius was Ali Ibn Abi Thalib, one of the most illustrious, noblest and brilliant leaders of the continent-sweeping Islamic civilisation that was left behind by the Prophet Muhammad.

However, it is not the object of this article to discuss a religious figure or the history of a civilisation. The quote provided above is to set the impetus for the rest of this article.

“Success is the result of foresight and resolution, foresight depends upon deep thinking and planning, and the most important factor of planning is to keep your secrets to yourself”.

You’re reading this for a purpose. You want something. You need something. You want to become something. You want to have something. You want to do something.

Two words only – You Want.

Human beings; You and I, are goal-seeking machines. Well, maybe ‘machines’ is too crude a word to use. Our brains are goal-seeking mechanisms.

Now let’s think about this thing called “You Want”-ism. Let’s say you want to be a more confident speaker.

What (effective) questions can you ask yourself that will lead you to the right thinking that in turn will lead you to the right decisions and the right actions, and lastly to your desired goal (becoming a more confident speaker)?

3 questions, actually.

“3 Questions To Rule Them All,” I’d say.

These 3 questions are the most important, and they are like templates for ANY goal or outcome you want to achieve.

Just as setting small and attainable goals are the building blocks for achieving success; living a lifestyle of making good health choices leads to greater and more sustainable happiness.

The cliché “You are what you eat” does resonate with pieces of truth and common sense. There have been several health and fitness studies over the years that suggest people who are overweight, smoke and drink excessively have a predisposition to experience more bouts of depression than people who live a more moderate lifestyle in these areas.

So, you have heard all of this before, right? The last thing you need right now is someone else lecturing you about what you are doing wrong and calling attention to the fact you may need to loose a few pounds.

Here’s the thing though, beginning right now, today, you can ignore the lectures and the comments you hear others mutter and whisper. Because today you are in control of your health, and your happiness, by empowering yourself with knowing, and believing, in the following statement:

Perhaps “goal setting for a kid” hits you with the bizarre picture in your mind’s eye of a first grader drawing up “smart” goals in a day planner or on their PlayStation PDA?

Relax! Put your grownup concepts of goal setting on the back burner and start to see possibilities in the world with childlike eyes. This article looks at how goal setting for a kid of junior school age can be woven into the natural fabric of their daily living — and be fun too!

Start off by resolving to make goal setting fun for your kid. There will come a time when more serious planned activities will appear in his or her life — but for now I suggest you focus purely on a fun event about a month in the future.

You can identify a successful person by the company they keep, they mix with others who can give rather than take from their lives, unsuccessful people allow their social circle to keep them at the level of the group. All successful people have a vision of how they want their world; this is the common thread that has been spun down through the ages. Through persistence and perseverance, you can emulate them by developing a vision of your future. Today you are what you are because of all the decisions and actions you have taken in the past, you are the sum result of all of your thoughts to date, you have attracted to your life everything you are so you can apply the same law of attraction in the future by controlling your thoughts, decisions and actions positively.