Act to Create It
by Jack Canfield, America's Success Coach

The thing that most separates winners from losers in life, is that winners take action. If you want to live your dreams, not only must you decide what you want, turn your dream into measurable goals, break those goals down into specific action steps, and visualize and affirm your desired outcomes — you must start taking action.

I recommend making the commitment to do something every day in at least three different areas of your life that moves you in the direction of your dreams. If one of your goals is physical fitness, make a commitment to do some sort of exercise — aerobics, weight training, stretching — four to five times a week for a minimum of twenty minutes. I read recently that if you simply go for a 30 minute walk four times a week, that would put you in the top 1% of those people getting physical exercise! If your goal is financial independence, start saving and investing a portion of your income every month with no exceptions. If your goal is to write a book, write for a minimum of one hour every day.

Don’t Let FEAR Stop You
Most people never get what they want because they let their fears stop them. They are afraid of making a mistake, looking foolish, getting ripped off, being rejected, being hurt, wasting their time, and feeling uncomfortable.

Fear is self-created by imagining catastrophic consequences that have yet to happen. It is all in your mind. In fact, you can actually scare yourself by imagining negative and harmful images. But simply stop the catastrophic thoughts and images, and the fear goes away.

Rejection Is a Myth
One of the biggest fears that stops people from asking for support, guidance, advice, money, a date, a job, the sale, or anything else is the fear of rejection. In fact, it’s been known to literally paralyze people. They become tongue-tied and refuse to reach for the phone or get up and walk across the room. They break out in a sweat at the mere thought of asking for what they want.

I have come to realize that the whole concept of rejection is false — that rejection doesn’t really exist. Think about it for a moment. If you asked someone to join you for dinner, and they said no, you could tell yourself that you had been rejected. But think about it. Did you have anyone to eat dinner with before you asked them? No! Did you have anyone to eat dinner with after you asked them? No! Did your life really get worse? No. It stayed the same!

Act As If
One of the secrets of success is to start acting like a success before you are one. Act as if. If you had already achieved your dream, what kinds of clothes would you be wearing? How would you act? How would you treat others? Would you tithe a portion of your income to your church or favorite charities? Would you have more self-confidence? Would you take more time to spend with your loved ones?

I suggest that you begin to do those things now. When I decided that I wanted to be an “international” consultant, I immediately went and applied for a passport, bought an international clock that told me what time it was anywhere in the world, printed business cards with the words “International Self-Esteem and Peak Performance Consultant,” and decided I would like to first go to Australia. I bought a poster of the Sidney Opera House and placed it on my refrigerator. Within one month, I received an invitation to speak in Sidney and Brisbane. Since then, I have spoken and conducted trainings in over 20 countries and continue to expand my business around the globe.

Start acting as if you already have everything you want. Most people think that if they have a lot of money, they could do the things they want to do, and they would be much happier. In fact, the reverse is true. If you start by creating a state of happiness and abundance, then do the things you are inspired to do from that state of being, you will end up having all the things you ultimately desire.

You may not be able to fill your closets with expensive Italian suits and designer clothing, but why not invest in one or two really great outfits, so that when you do need them, they are there. When you dress like you have already made it, you will look the part, and successful people will naturally be attracted to you and invite you to participate with them.

The Law of Attraction states that you will attract to you those things that match your state of being. If you focus on having gratitude for what you do have, you will feel rich, and you will attract more abundance into your life. If you focus on what youdon’t have, you will send out a message of lack and you will attract more lack into your life.

For more on The Law of Attraction, I highly recommend watching The Secret, a ground-breaking, feature-length movie presentation. The Secret reveals how to apply this powerful knowledge to your life in every area from health to wealth, to success and relationships.

© 2006 Jack Canfield

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Jack Canfield, America’s Success Coach, is the founder and co-creator of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul and a leading authority on Peak Performance. If you're ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at www.JackCanfield.com

What You SAY is What You Get
How to Speak Your Way to Success
by Jack Canfield, America's Success Coach

If you are going to be successful in creating the life of your dreams, you have to believe that you are capable of making it happen. You have to believe you have the right stuff, that you are able to pull it off. You have to believe in yourself. Whether you call it self-esteem, self-confidence, or self-assurance, it is a deep-seated belief that you have what it takes – the abilities, inner resources, talents, and skills to create your desired results.
Ultimately, you must learn to control your self-talk, eliminate any negative and limiting beliefs, and maintain a constant state of positive expectations.
Control Your Self-Talk
Researchers have found that the average person thinks as many as 50,000 thoughts a day. Sadly, many of those thoughts are negative — I’m not management material... I’ll never lose weight... It doesn’t matter what I do, nothing ever works out for me. This is what psychologists call victim language. Victim language actually keeps you in a victim state of mind. It is a form of self-hypnosis that lulls you into a belief that you are unlovable and incompetent.
In order to get what you want from life, you need to give up this victim language and start talking to yourself like a winner — I can do it... I know there is a solution... I am smart enough and strong enough to figure this out... Everything I eat helps me maintain my perfect body weight.
You Are Always Programming Your Subconscious Mind
Your subconscious mind is like the crew of a ship. You are its captain. It is your job to give the crew orders. And when you do this, the crew takes everything you say literally. The crew (your subconscious) has no sense of humor. It just blindly follows orders. When you say, “Everything I eat goes straight to my hips,” the crew hears that as an order: Take everything she eats, turn it into fat and put it on her hips. On the other hand, if you say, “Everything I eat helps me maintain my perfect body weight,” the crew will begin to make that into reality by helping you make better food choices, exercise and maintain the right metabolism rate for you body.
This power of your subconscious mind is the reason you must become very vigilant and pay careful attention to your spoken and internal statements. Unfortunately, most people don’t realize they are committing negative self-talk, which is why it is best to enlist another person — your success partner — in monitoring each other’s speaking. You can have a signal for interrupting each other when you use victim language.
Use Affirmations to Build Self-Confidence
One of the most powerful tools for building worthiness and self-confidence is the repetition of positive statements until they become a natural part of the way you think. These “affirmations” act to crowd out and replace the negative orders you have been sending your crew (your subconscious mind) all these years. I suggest that you create a list of 10 to 20 statements that affirm your belief in your worthiness and your ability to create the life of your dreams.
Of course, what to believe is up to you, but here are some examples of affirmations that have worked for others in the past:
I am worthy of love, joy and success.
I am smart and make wise choices
I am loveable and capable.
I can create anything I want.
I am able to solve any problem that comes my way.
I can handle anything that life hands me.
I have all the energy I need to do everything I want to do.
I am attracting all the right people into my life
Believing in Yourself is an Attitude
Believing in yourself is a choice. It’s an attitude you develop over time. It’s now your responsibility to take charge of your own self-concept and your beliefs. It might help to know that the latest brain research now indicates that with enough positive self-talk and positive visualization combined with the proper training, coaching, and practice, anyone can learn to do almost anything.
You must choose to believe that you can do anything you set your mind to – anything at all – because, in fact, you can!
© 2006 Jack Canfield
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Jack Canfield, America’s Success Coach, is the founder and co-creator of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul and the nation's leading authority on Peak Performance. If you're ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at www.JackCanfield.com

The Success Principles

One of the best books I recommend is The Success Principles, How To Get From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be by Jack Canfield with Janet Switzer. It is practical, down-to-earth, motivating, inspiring, filled with memorable stories of success and just enough oomph that will make you re-think your life and make the changes necessary for success.

As proof that I liked it so much, I bought both the ebook and the paperback version (and won/took the hardbound version from Jack’s hands.. Read on to find out how this happened.)

Today, 2 October 2006, I met, shook hands, got photographed and asked for Jack Canfields signature twice. But these were all just icing on the cake.

The seminar, with the same title as the book brought me to a higher level of awareness and possibility. You see, I’ve already read his book and am doing my best to live the principles he gave. There is something about hearing it with vibrancy and spirit from the mouth of a master teacher. It is alive and the words sink deeper, growing roots in your heart and leaving you with a different perspective.

The first principle he covered was “Taking 100% Responsibility for Your Life and Your Results.” He illustrates this with the equation E + R = O or Events + Response = Outcome. To hold yourself accountable and stop blaming others. To give up complaining, justifying and making excuses.

He also talks about Goal-Setting or Clarifying Your Purpose, your life plan. To think positive thoughts and using the power of visualization.

He demonstrated the power of thought with the attendees participating. Being a firm believer in the scientific method, I do not easily believe until I see proof. One thing he made us do was to compare the length of our hand. He made use touch the thickest line on both wrists and note which hand was shorter. My right hand was about a clear 3 or 4 millimeters shorter.

Then he made us do what seemed bizarre. He made us tell our shorter hand—my right hand-to “grow longer.” Then he made us compare again. My right hand was longer! Amazing. I was trying to rationalize and look around if somebody can prove that it was a hoax or hallucination of some kind. I re-compared and my right hand was still longer. Then he made us say “return to normal” to the same hand. True enough, measuring them again resulted in my left hand being longer. The Power of Thought in action!

There were a lot of other principles he discussed but what lingered in my mind were the principles about asking, taking action and the mastermind group.

In simple terms, if you do not ask, do not make an offer or make a request, nothing happens. If you ask and get rejected, you will not be worse off than what you were before.

In one instance, he held out a signed, hard-bound book of The Success Principles, and asked: “Who wants to take this book?”

Having read about a similar situation before, I walked toward him with purpose, seeing no one was standing up. Thoughts were racing in my mind: surely these people, many of them conducting seminars and courses on motivation and leadership and personal growth are familiar with this bait and am I blushing or making a fool of myself. And then I was about 5 paces from him. Suddenly, a woman darted running towards Jack. Having the advantage of moving first, faster legs and higher reach (he was standing from a raised platform and was holding the book high up), I grabbed the book without fanfare. The lady was a few seconds and maybe a few centimeters too late, grasped nothing but air and landed on me. That’s how I ended up with the hard-bound copy of The Success Principles.

For me, the last point and maybe the highlight of the event was of the principle the mastermind group. In it, you get accountability to keep you focused on what’s important. He stressed the importance of having other minds helping each other out. For it to work, truth, confidentiality and trust should be the guide of each member. If you can’t find a group, the alternative is to get an accountability partner. I wonder if this will work online.

Mental note and hint to you: Would you like to make a mastermind group with me?

Carrying a new-found flame of the success principles, the seminar ended successfully, with Jack Canfield promising to come back next year.

Now, the real test begins.

Also:

Jack Canfield, world-renowned author, speaker, motivational speaker and mega-guru is going to Malacanang on 3 October to meet with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and will get to talk to the Cabinet. This should make the headlines on 4 October. If the seminar he gave at the Crowne Plaza Galleria today (October 2) is an indication, people in government could benefit from the 64 principles he lists down in his book. Even if they just adopt a few of the principles, that is always a step forward to good governance.