The Next Step; Vision Boards

Okay, so I think I have given you guys enough time to get your vision statements down on paper. It is probably safe to say that about 3% of you actually did the exercise. Remember the 3% club? Now it is time to move on to the next level.

Topic of Discussion: VISION BOARDS

By now most of you have probably heard the term before. They are also sometimes referred to as a dream boards. I prefer the term vision board because it is a visualization tool used to focus your mental energy to attract people and circumstances into your life to create peace, harmony, and happiness.

The creation of a vision board should be done when you are feeling high spirited, happy, grateful, and joyous. Sit down and create a list of all the things you have already in your life that make you happy. This will put you in the right frame of mind for creating a powerful vision board. Then make a list of all the things you would like to have, do, and feel. It is important for these things to be what you want, not what you think you should want. Be honest with yourself and find the things that will drive your emotions. Remember emotions = motion. I suggest reading over your vision statement a few times to get some ideas.

Next, you'll need to find pictures to represent your wants. You can go through magazines. You can browse the internet. You can take photos with your camera. Or you can draw the pictures yourself. It doesn't matter where you get the pictures from as long as they symbolize to you exactly what you want. I suggest using a few family photos and a few key words that are meaningful. For instance, on our vision board we have the words family, love, teamwork, happy, grateful, healthy, and prosperous in bold colors. We also have a family picture taken recently at my brother's wedding.

Once you have gathered your pictures you will need something to attach them to. You can buy poster board and glue or you can buy a cork board and pushpins or you can even use a piece of cardboard and tape. It doesn't matter so much what you put them on as it does how you feel about them. Again, your feelings are everything.

Arrange your pictures on your board in a way that is inviting to your eyes. Before you start adhering the pics make sure you step back and take a look, you may even want to step away for a few minutes and do something else. When you come back to your board you want it to provoke feelings of happiness and excitement. If you don't get these feels when looking at your creation, I suggest rearranging your pictures in a more inviting way or finding some new pictures that will get your emotions going. Once you have accomplished this, go ahead and adhere them.

Placement of your vision board is key. You want to strategically place it on a wall at eye level, so it's easy to see. You also want it in a place where you will see it numerous times everyday. Perhaps your bedroom, your office, or maybe the family room. We have ours in our bedroom on the wall between the bathroom and our closet. We see it every time we walk into our bedroom and it is actually the first thing we see when we wake up and walk into the bathroom.

Now that you have your vision board created and strategically placed in your home or office you should use it in conjunction with your vision statement. Look at it everyday and imagine living the life you have created. Let it be the first thing you see in the morning and the last thing you look at before going to bed. This along with reading your vision statement is a sure fired way to lead your life in the right direction for health, wealth, and happiness.

~~~EMOTIONS & FEELINGS=MOTIONS & RESULTS=WHAT YOU WANT~~~

Are You A Good Listener?

I came across another interesting point in this book that I'm reading. David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. states that after he performed hundreds of interviews with people at all levels he discovered that "The bigger the person, the more apt he is to encourage you to talk; the smaller the person, the more apt he is to preach to you". He goes on to say "Big people monopolize the listening." and "Small people monopolize the talking."

When I read these words I had another light bulb moment. I have worked in a large family owned optometry office for 12 years. The original owner, whom is now 10 months into his retirement, was always one for asking questions. There have been numerous times when he has asked my opinion on a business decision. He would ask the question, wait for the answer, and then ask "why?" or "what about.....". I always wondered why he was asking me. He has always been known as the "go to" guy when somebody had a business question or if they were looking for guidance when opening a new practice. I know of people calling on him from Lake City, Jacksonville, Ft Lauderdale, and even Tampa. This man is a true master of his craft, running successful optometry practices. It helps that he is a good doctor too, but I think his true passion is business. I bet if I asked him what he thought of Schwartz's theory that "Big people monopolize the listening" without a doubt he would agree fully.

It seems as though the truly successful are more willing to listen to others. They take the ideas generated by other people and cultivate them into their own. Schwartz later says that the "Ideas of others help to spark your own ideas so your mind is more creative".

This proves another point. Successful people are always willing to learn more. While the less successful are the ones who think they already know all there is to know. We've all met someone who seems to know everything about anything. We listen while they talk for a while and soon our brains start humming as we are put into a trance by all their "preaching". Lets all make an effort not to be "that" person. Lets remember to ask questions and actually listen to the answers. We can then take those answers and come up with our own creative ideas. This will turn us in the right direction for happy successful lives.

Jim Rohn

If anyone is interested in Jim Rohn I will provide you with a link to his website. He offers a free E-zine (news letter) that I recommend you sign up for. He also offers many special deals on his books and CD programs. I love this guy, he is a true master. Check him out and at least get the free news letter.

http://www.jimrohn.com?kbid=9487

Why is This Stuff Important?

It is only natural to get opposition from people who don't understand what personal development is. Just the words personal development sound like you are admitting something is "wrong" with yourself. Most people are unwilling to do that. Heck, most people are unwilling to take the blame for leaving the cap off the toothpaste! The mere fact that you are here right now reading this post puts you in the 3% club. The 3% club is actually a very exclusive club, studies show that only 3% of the world's population make a serious study of themselves and success. Sounds crazy doesn't it? That gives us an advantage over 97% of the people on the whole earth.

One of my favorite authors, Jim Rohn, has a quote that I absolutely love. He says you need to learn to "Work harder on yourself than you do on your job." Then he follows it with "If you work hard on your job you'll make a living. If you work hard on yourself you'll make a fortune!" How about that? "If you work hard on yourself you'll make a fortune!" What if it was that easy. Those words alone have been the fuel for my fire. When I get tired I just think back to those words and realize it is all worth it.

Anybody who knows me will tell you I have always been the one with high expectations for myself and everyone around me. For a long time these high expectations were a source of aggravation for me. I had all these big plans and wasn't sure how I was going to get them all done. When the people around me seemed uninspired and happy with their "normal" life, that aggravated me to. I had places to go and things to do and was definitely unhappy sitting on the couch watching tv. Mediocrity is for the lazy and uninspired.

The human mind and body are marvelous things, but they do not come with owner's manuals. You have to reach out into the world and find the bits and pieces of information yourself and put together your own owner's manual. Once I started this quest, I became somewhat addicted. I kept hearing those words; "Work harder on yourself than you do on your job. If you work hard on job you'll make a living, if you work hard on yourself you'll make a fortune". I still take those words to heart. Everyday I am reading more and more. Every time I go on amazon.com I check out with a new pile of reading material. My mp3 player no longer has music on it. When I am at the gym I am listening to an audio that I have downloaded. When I am in the car everyone in the car with me is listening to one of my personal development Cd's. I am sure there will be a day when the kids protest and want to listen to music, but until then they are subconsciously getting this positive stuff ingrained in their minds.

Some may say "How can you spend so much time on yourself? Isn't that a little selfish?" I am hear to tell you "no". What better gift can you give the important people in your life than the gift of a happy, healthy, successful and positive friend and family member. If your not filling yourself with the positive chances are you'll be filling yourself with the negative. So it should be a no brainer. People learn new stuff everyday. So instead of learning the lyrics to the newest song on the radio why don't you take that drive time and learn something positive.

The best part about personal development, the law of attraction, and the art of positive living is there is enough goodness to go around. There is no limit on the supply of goodness available to us. There is no reason to keep this information horded in our own minds. We need to share it with everyone we know. Think about it, the more people that study this stuff the more positive energy there will be flowing around. How could more happiness in the world be bad? I say "the more the merrier", if you know anybody who could benefit from this information go ahead and give them the link. There is no secret handshake for the 3% club, you just need to be willing to put a little effort into grooming yourself into a more positive person.

I will not be happy until this forum serves as a spot for thousands of people to come and share their thoughts everyday. Think about how great it would be if everybody in your family followed this blog. Think of all the new positive conversations you could have. And what if every single one of them wrote their vision statements and read them everyday. You could watch their lives transform as yours does. We can all grow successful and wealthy together. That is my goal. TRUE WEALTH AND HAPPINESS FOR MYSELF, MY FAMILY, MY FRIENDS AND EVERYONE AROUND ME. Make it your goal too and we will work together to steer this ship in the right direction.

When Life Hands You Lemons....

We have all heard the saying; When life hands you lemons make lemonade. Right?

What better way is there to live a happy, healthy, and abundant life than to find the good in every situation? With every failure comes the seeds to success. Everything happens for a reason. It is your job to trust in the good of a higher power and figure out what you can learn from every experience.

Let me tell you a true story that happened to me just about 2 months ago. I had some friends visiting from N.Y. and we had decided to meet for dinner at a restaraunt that was about a 40 minute drive from our home. As we were approximately 10 minutes from the restaraunt or 2 year old son started crying for no apparent reason. The only thing we could think of was maybe he had a dirty diaper. As we pulled up to the restaraunt and parked, I got out of the car and immediately took him out of his carseat to check. I set my diaperbag, purse, and keys on the floorboard. Without thinking I hit the door locks and shut the door. As the door slammed shut I realized I had just locked the keys in the car. My husband had already taken our 4 month old out and his door was shut also.

Instantly we both started saying "Oh great, now how do we get everybody home?" we started tossing ideas around as we walked in to the restaraunt. Our friends were already there. We tell them what happened and they said "No big deal, we have AAA. They will come unlock your car for free." As we were waiting to be seated we put the call in to AAA and they informed us it would be 2 hours before they could get someone out.

As we were seated we told our server about the situation and he kinda laughed and says "It happens". We told him we were going to drag this dinner out as long as we could because it was going to take a while for AAA to get to us. Again, he just snickered and said "No problem".

About 20 minutes after we were seated our youngest started to get fussy. She was hungry and of course her bottle was locked in the car. Next thing we knew, there was a strong odor at the table and our oldest needed a diaper change. We took turns bringing them outside, trying not to disturb the other people in the dining room.

Soon after, we received a call back from AAA to tell us someone was on the way. We were all thankful cause it had not been anywhere near 2 hours yet. It was not long before a guy arrived and popped the locks open. We were able to get the smelly diaper taken care of and the baby fed, just in time for all of us to have desert together and make small talk for a good 20 minutes.

My friends were leaving the next morning and had decided to get a motel room near the airport that night, so we went our separate ways. As my husband and I were getting back on the interstate we noticed traffic was moving very slowly. We instantly thought "Oh, great now a traffic jam!" Traffic was moving about 10 miles per hour. Then we came up to a flashing alert sign that said "All traffic must exit at next exit. Severe accident ahead. All lanes are closed" .

As we got off at the next exit, we had to go into a gas station to get directions in order to get home. My husband went in and got directions and when he came back to the car he said "Thank you for locking the keys in the car". I said "why". He said "If you hadn't locked the keys in the car, we probably would have been in the middle of that accident. It happened about 40 minutes ago, in the East bound lane, and it is so bad that all lanes of traffic heading East and West are closed". I just sat there quietly for a few moments and repeated "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you".

So when life hands you lemons, just trust in a higher power, make the best of it, say "Thank you" and make lemonade.

Exactly What I'm Looking For

This is exactly what I'm looking for!!! Great Job Andrea !!!!

Andrea posted this today under "How to Make Your Vision Statement Work Faster" and it was so good that I had to make sure everyone read it. This is a very powerful vision statement. It is descriptive enough that you can visualize everything she is saying. I love it! This is definitely a step in the right direction! Hopefully this motivates some of you to write and post your own vision statements.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Its 6 a.m. and Bob wakes me gently. We always get up together and talk quietly about the day ahead of us to make sure that we are on the same page as far as activities for the kids and our work plans. While we are discussing the days events we walk downstairs together and he makes us both a steamy latte, he has the white chocolate mocha of course and mine is still sugar with a little bit of espresso and milk. The kids are waking up at this time, now 6:30 a.m. While they dress I am making breakfast as Daddy prepares the lunches, and stuffs their book bags. We all eat breakfast at 7a.m. I am on duty today at the hospital so I drop the kids at school, and Bob heads into town to our family owned coffee/sandwich shop.

After the kids are at school I head to work, I love my job!! Being a medical examiner may not be the most glamorous of jobs but since I was very young, I have been interested in forensics, and it allows me to give a voice to those who no longer have one. As well as answers to grieving families who need closure and in some cases justice for a victim of homicide.

I leave work at 3 p.m. and head to get the kids, Bob is finishing up the lunch rush and will be leaving the cafe in an hour and will meet us at home for the kids riding lessons. When the kids get in our jet black Odyssey they clammer over each other, each one trying to tell me about their day. We have Alyssa's ballet and Shane and Parker's gymnastics until 4:30. I love to see my little ones active, doing all the things that I did as a child. We arrive home at 5 p.m. just as Bob is pulling into the long brick driveway that leads to our beautiful home. Our property is surrounded by three pastures for our horses. The kids all jump out of the car saying a quick hello to Daddy as they race to the stables to see our newborn foal Cinnamon Box, he is named after a pony that belonged to my Grannie Hallie.

I always help the kids saddle their horse and clean out the stalls while we wait for our instructor to get out to the house. The kids love helping pour the feed and spread the hay, I am usually in charge of the not so fun "duty". Bob walks out to our south pasture with our instructor and she takes over with the kids while Bob and I fill the trophs with fresh water. Alyssa is as graceful as a bird on her 3 yr old white Arabian. Alyssa named Missy all by herself. The boys usually get bored with riding and end up playing some catch with Bob or practice hitting a few balls out into the field. At 6:30 the kids and I rally up the horses and give them a quick brush down and let them graze while we head in to dinner that Bob has prepared.

Bob has made us his famous stuffed shells and a fresh ceasar salad. We eat our food and talk about the day, and our plans for tomorrow. When dinner is done the kids do the dishes and Bob and I bring the horses in for the night. Homework starts at 8 p.m. and Bob and I usually take turns moving from room to room helping them so that each child gets some one on one time with each of us. After the kids have had their baths and brushed their teeth we all say goodnight and tell our children how much we love them and how proud we are of them.

Bob and I make our way to our bedroom at 9:30 p.m. We take a hot bath together in our over sized jacuzzi tub, and mull over the day with a glass of red wine. At 10:30 Bob and I slip into bed and off to sleep. Its been a great day!!

This is Priceless

"Capacity is a state of mind. How much we can do depends on how much we think we can do. When you really believe you can do more, your mind thinks creatively and shows you the way."
~ David J. Schwarts Ph.D~

Wow, I thought that was amazing. I read that at the gym on Saturday and folded the page so I would remember to come back to it. I re-read it today while I was waiting for my teleconference to start (I attended a teleconference on my lunch break today while sitting in my car!). Those three sentences are so powerful, I hope you guys read them and re-read them until they are etched in your mind. Powerful stuff....