Category Archives: Attitude

Act As If, Attitude, Beliefs, Confidence, Creating The Future, Emotions, Energy, Expectations, Faith, Focus, Intentional Thinking, Mindset, Persistence, Positive Thinking, Responsibility, Self Talk, Visualization

How To You Motivate Yourself To Succeed

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“In order to succeed or reach a big dream or goal you have to be filled with passion. Napoleon Hill called it ‘white hot burning desire’. If you want to succeed in your career or life it must drive you.

It’s not a wish or want because that has no force to drive you. It must be something you cannot imagine living without. You must have it! You do every legitimate thing you can until you do. It compels you!

Once you have a burning desire to fulfill your purpose you move forward with great intensity. Every successful person shares this in common. They know precisely what they want! They go after it!

Motivation Comes From Doing Not From Waiting To Do

They know they will make it happen! The don’t let anything stop them from achieving their desire. No matter what the odds. They do what it takes! They keep the faith and are positive they will succeed.

They are committed. They have chosen a purpose or a goal they intend to fulfill. The have written it down and committed it to memory. They dwell on it day and night. They imagine life and what it is like to live with their accomplishment. It consumes them!

They visualize it and affirm it often through out each day. They direct all their energies to making it come true. True Motivation comes from doing! Motivations doesn’t come before you do it.

Once You Start You Motivation Will Follow

They learn from set backs and plan changes. Most all of them have faced criticism and even ridicule from well intending family and friends. The Wright Brothers own father thought they were damned in hell for attempting to fly. They didn’t let that stop them.

Most people though Ford’s idea of a horseless carriage totally inane, after all, they already had a good horse. The more you do the more you can do! Prove it to yourself! Start and motivation will follow!

Ford’s own engineers thought what he wanted was impossible. They said it couldn’t be done. He told them to keep trying until they could do it. After a time, they came back and said it was still impossible. He told them to not return until they did it. He knew it was possible!

Most People Make This Mistake – They Wait To Be Motivated

They came back after a year with news that they had created what he imagined. A good thing Ford wasn’t hampered by the same thinking his engineers were. Ford pushed them to persevere!

Ford changed the world. Roadways led to highways and interstates. Towns, service stations, fast food restaurants, motels and more sprang up. An entire infrastructure was financed  and constructed creating new industry. All because Ford envisioned a new way.

The Wright Brothers changed land and sea transportation to air. They reduced the amount of time travel took and made the world smaller. We travel outer space as a result! They imagined flight first!

The More You Do The More You Can Do

People have changed the world with a single idea that they were convinced they would accomplish. They persisted and they did. Jim Carey stood high in the hills of Hollywood at night. Alone with a vision.

He imagined the moguls of Hollywood hiring him and paying him millions. He made it happen. Oprah Winfrey went from rags to riches with a media empire. The stories are countless. Winners win! Be a winner too! You can do it. Take action! Don’t wait.

If you believe it you can achieve it. Pour your energy into making it happen, and you devote yourself to its accomplishment no matter how long it may take. Make it happen! You must believe and expect to do it. No one will do it for you. They will do it for themselves.

You Are Where Your Thoughts Brought You

You must live your dream day and night and let nothing distract you. Do not succumb to temporary defeat or quit. If you quit it is over. Keep going, never give up! Persist, persist, persist, again and again.

You will succeed faster if you are nice to others. Go the extra mile all along the way. Provide great value to them first. Be friendly, optimistic and fun to be around. You will get further faster if you enlist the friendly and harmonious co-operation of others.

You do that by being friendly and supportive first. What goes around comes around. No one makes it on their own. You make it with others! Celebrate others success and they will celebrate yours.

You Will Be Where Your Thoughts Take You

Begin where you are! Begin right now. Conceive it, and believe it. Be passionate about it and ideas for plans will come. The how never comes first it comes through action. You see as you travel.

Edison didn’t know how to light the world until he made a working light bulb. He tried 10,000 times. He didn’t know how to make a light bulb work until AFTER he succeeded. You get more excited moving forward! Go as far as you can go.  From there you will see farther.

Don’t wait until you know how. Begin today and the how will become evident along the way. That is how it works. Once you direct your energies powerfully toward your purpose your mind opens up.

You Cannot Escape Your Thoughts

It helps you discover ideas and opportunities previously closed off to you. Energy begets energy. When you direct it positively good things are possible. Enjoy! Celebration makes everything easier. Gratitude greases the wheel. Think and feel positive! Celebrate, be grateful, and make your dreams come true!” Rex Sikes

Enjoy the day!

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Act As If, Affirmations, Attitude, Beliefs, Creating The Future, Expectations, Faith, Habit Formation, Intentional Thinking, Mental Movie Theater, Mindset, Persistence, Positive Thinking, Rehearsal And Practice, Responsibility, Self Talk, Success, Visualization

Why You Must Write Down You Goals And Dreams!

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“Do you know the really big reason it is critical to write down your goals on paper? It is highly recommended you do. Research has been conducted suggesting those who do reach their goals significantly more and quicker than those who don’t.

Do you know why? Do you understand what writing them down actually does. Writing it down makes the implicit explicit. It fleshes out your idea. It is the first step in making your idea a concrete reality. It takes it from within and puts it without. It is a necessary and critical step to getting your goals and making dreams come true.

Napoleon Hill, and others, asserted it is important to write down your Definite Chief Purpose, your goals and dreams? They don’t mix words. Hill said you must. You must write it down and commit what you write down to memory. Repeat it numerous times during the day with great positive emotion. Continue until you have it.

What You See Is What You Get

Here is why. Your  major purpose in life, or your goals, begin on the inside of you. Within you. They begin in your imagination. In your mind you see a glimmer of what is possible and what you want. You birth an idea. It is alive in your mind. It may be vague or it could be pretty specific but It exists, there, in the reality between your ears.

When you put it down on paper it is the FIRST time it exists outside of you. It the first time it exists in the outer world reality. You have moved it from within to without. You have created it in the real world. When you write it down you make it concrete. What you write down is the first result of your idea.

It is no  longer abstract. It is right there on the paper. You gave it form and substance. It is not just an idea any longer. This is an important part of the creation process.  It is the beginning of making the idea real in the outer world of results. From idea to paper. From paper to plan. From plan to action. From action to completion.

What You Say Is What You Get

Write it out! Specify further, get really detailed. Form a stronger, deliberate visualization. Add all the detail you can. Make it more and more vivid. Writing helps you do this! The more real it becomes the more you increase your relationship to it. Your feelings become active. You feel a strong connection to your goal.

For example. Imagine getting your new dream home. Write down the kind of house it is. The size. It’s location. How many floors, rooms? How many windows? Notice the exterior. How is it landscaped? What kind of front door is there? What is the walk up like?

Notice everything outside and around the house. Explore outside and inside. Notice the color schemes, the decorations and the furniture. Walk through the home. Sit in each room. Feel what it is like to live there. Flesh it out. Experience the house. Really feel. Feel it as if you actually already had this home.

Keep Your Mind On What You Want

Create the thoughts and the feelings of having what you want. The more real it is to you the more intense your feelings become. Combine your visualization with strong, intensely, passionate feelings. Images and strong feelings send the message to your subconscious mind to get to work on creating this for you.

Your subconscious begins to connect up the resources within you. Inner abilities align in order to help you make what you want a reality. You become alert to real world opportunities. Continue to write, and make it more vivid. Continue to accentuate these processes.

The hotter and more passionate you become about making it happen the sooner you can end up getting it. Keep a journal and write about it. Spend a couple minutes each day making a journal entry. What it is like to live in the home? Create future memories.5

Write Down Your Goals And Imagine Achieving Every One

‘Today we bar-b-qued out back by the pool. Everyone had a marvelous times. Timmy and Ashley played on the swings. The food so tasty! Delicious. I am so happy and grateful we have this incredible backyard to entertain friends and family…’.

Create scenarios you want to have. Live your dreams in your journal. Write and visualize everyday. Keep in mind what you say is important too. If you always say what you have you will always have what you say.

If you say you are broke you will never have money. If you say you are well off you will be. Everything begins inside your mind.Keep your mind on what you want and off of what you do not want. That is how you direct yourself for success. Keep your eye on what you want.

It’s A Dream Until You Write It Down The  It Becomes A Goal

Conceive it and believe you can make it happen. When you want it intensely enough you will begin to get ideas, and insights from within you. You’ll get  hunches, intuitions, and plans for what you can do. Follow these as they arrive.

Put your subconscious to work for you instead of you working for it. You don’t have to know how to begin. How will come along in time. Your mind will begin to connect the dots, alert you to possibilities and opportunities and reveal tips, plans and suggestions to you.

That is HOW it works. It has been proven time and time again. THIS is WHY you write it down. You initiate and maintain a process that sees you through from conception to completion. You create, elaborate, accentuate, and eventually you make it happen.

Conceive It, Believe It And Achieve It

It is intentional. It is deliberate and focused. Do your part and you will realize the accuracy of these statements. It seems like magic but it isn’t. It works like magic but it is proven. You follow the formula and you get the outcome.

Follow a recipe to get what you intend to. If you change the recipe and leave out ingredients or alter the order you put them in you may not get what you want. If you want a chocolate cake and you put in milk and eggs but no chocolate, guess what? No chocolate cake!

If you cook the eggs first, then add them to the milk, chocolate and flower you won’t get a cake either. They have to be the correct ingredients, in the right amounts, mixed in and baked in the right order to get the cake you desire.

Follow the recipe explicitly and the cake will be yours. Follow this formula explicitly and  you will make your dreams come true.” Rex Sikes

Delight in the day!

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Horizons photo used with permission of Phil Koch.

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Act As If, Affirmations, Attitude, Beliefs, Decision, Emotions, Energy, Expectations, Faith, Focus, Habit Formation, Intentional Thinking, Law Of Attraction, Mental Movie Theater, Mindset, Persistence, Positive Thinking, Responsibility, Self Talk, Visualization

You Are Already Deluded! The Least You Could Do Is Have Good Taste About It.

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Remember, Henry Ford. He said, ‘If you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.’ What people forget is how powerful a statement this is. First, he puts it squarely on you.

Everything rides on your shoulders and most people definitely don’t want to be responsible for that much of anything. He says, if YOU. It is up to what YOU think.

Next he says, it doesn’t matter what you think. If YOU think you can do something or if YOU think you can’t do something YOU are right. Whether you are positive or negative the result is the same.

It doesn’t matter. Either way, YOU are right. It is up to YOU which results you get. It is not up to anyone else, nor circumstances, or events it is up to what YOU think. YOU!

The Law Of Attraction states, we are attracting always, or creating always, whether it is positive or negative. We can’t avoid or escape it, that is the law. Just as gravity never ceases, the Law Of Attraction never stops. All that can be done is to direct it. You choose. Do you think positive most of the time or negative most of the time?

If You Think You Can Or You Think You Can’t You Are Right

The answer to that determines the kind of results YOU get. YOU are either a CAN DO person or an CAN’T Do person. Whichever you are YOU are right! Your beliefs make it so. If you believe change is difficult and hard and only a few can be successful, well YOU are right.

If you believe without pain, there is no gain, well again, YOU would be right. If you believe there is a lot holding you back then YOU would be right. Whatever you believe you are right! Remember that, repeat that. Whatever you believe, you are right. That is what is so.

Whatever you believe, YOU are right. Your Reticular Activating System (RAS) I keep writing about will look for the match, examples in your experience, of what you believe and find the proof for you.

So you will condemn yourself to failing again and again because, darn it, YOU (and I, people in general) just hate to be proven wrong. So YOU will prove yourself a CAN’T Do person! That is a real delusion. Don’t you find that truly sad? I certainly do.

YOU have a choice and YOU choose to feel less than glorious. WOW. You could choose to feel glorious. Here, is where good taste comes in. If YOU believe you can do it, then you are right. If YOU believe, if anyone can do it you can, then you would be correct.

If YOU believe you have everything within you necessary to change or do what you want, right again. If YOU believe change can be easy, swift and enjoyable then it will be.

If You Dream It You Can Do It

Whatever you believe YOU will be right. Again, your RAS will look for examples in your experience to prove you correct. It will prove you a positive CAN DO person. The result is the same.

Whether you think YOU can or YOU think you can’t YOU are right! The difference is one feels better than the other! Again, good taste should prevail. Chose to be a CAN DO person. I would.

A CAN DO, powerful, positive, confident, happy person gets more done and gets better results just by attitude alone. If there is a problem the CAN DO person handles it well. While being positive doesn’t guarantee success alone, it feels better and IS more effective.

A negative attitude most certainly guarantees it will be tougher, rougher and success far less likely, if at all. Good taste, should prevail. Good taste should win here. SO what do YOU choose?

How do you get to the point that you believe what you want? How do you become a positive CAN DO person? Is it hard? Yes, if you believe it will be. No, if you don’t believe it will be hard. IT will be whatever it is.

You chose how you want to respond to it. It may seem difficult at first because you have never really chosen this way before. If that is the case, don’t you think it is about time you have actual choice?

Belief Creates The Actual Fact

Whatever you want to do with ease you must first do with diligence. In time, everything you repetitively do becomes easier. That is why in weightlifting people add weight or repetitions or both to keep challenging the muscles so they grow.

You will practice thinking new thoughts. You will make them your mantras, your affirmations. Affirmations work, if you didn’t know that. People affirm all the time. I CAN or I CAN’T are affirmations. Whatever you affirm YOU ARE RIGHT.

NOW, you CHOOSE you affirmations deliberately! Use good taste! Pick powerful, meaningful, easy to remember and speak, ones. Pick ones that when you think about what it means you feel good, EVEN, if you don’t feel you can be that way, yet. Pick inspiring ones. Make them count.

I will provide a few short, easy example but you really want to create your own, or make them your own. Write them out. Put them up on the mirror. Say them, shout them, frequently through the day. Think them, soon you will be them. You’ll condition your mind!

‘I am a good person! I am great. I can learn to do anything I set my mind to. I am talented. I am loving. I am confident. I am powerful. I am good with money. I am great at meeting new people. I am magnificent. I have everything I need and more keeps coming to me.

I am grateful for all I have. I have a loving partner.’ These are a whole lot better than, ‘I suck at things. I can’t remember names. I am fat. What a loser I am. I have poor judgement. I am broke’. Remember, good taste should prevail. Get your RAS on YOUR side for goodness sake.

Perfect Practice Makes Perfect

How do you come to believe the glorious, positive affirmations? Through dedicated, constant repetition and exposure. It’s the same way you developed the beliefs you don’t want. The difference is when you began believing what you now don’t wish to any longer, the limiting beliefs, you were unaware of the process.

You co-opted them from others at mostly a very young age. In growing up, you adopted the beliefs of parents and others through exposure and experience. Most, if not all of them you did not choose. Some conclusions you came to, mostly confirming what you already adopted. As you grew reinforced them by thinking them over and over.

After all beliefs are really only thoughts you habitually think. Your RAS demonstrated to you how they were true by finding the matches in experience for you to prove you right. It was a process. We all grow up this way, for the most part, and are unaware of the conditioning while it happens.

NOW, years later, YOU have a choice! That is excellent news! YOU can determine what you want to think, instead of thinking repeatedly the thoughts you got from others. YOU can be the master of your own brain instead of other people.

You CAN take control. You don’t have to live as a victim with other’s people’s limitations limiting you. You can be free. NOW you can decide what to think! You have an incredible opportunity to make the changes you want.

Those Who Don’t Believe In Magic Never Find It

Declare it! Assert it! Command it! Affirm it! Over and over again the new thought you want to think. Shout it, sing it, dance it with enthusiasm. This is how the military conditions minds within 6 short weeks.

Emotional repetition of thoughts and values and practices and procedures conditions the troops mind and body. Condition your mind to think what you want to think! Take control back from those other people.

Determine to be a more positive CAN DO person. Maintain a positive mental attitude. See yourself, imagine yourself, visualize yourself, already as the person you want to be. See yourself doing what you already want to be doing and already having what you want to have. Hey, it is YOUR gray matter make it work for you.

It should be your servant, you should not be its servant. You can eliminate worry, anxiety, fear, depression, anger and live with love, peace, passion and purpose. You can begin to be more confident and learn to do the things you want.

If you want it enough you will work to get it. The work you do is not to work harder on the outside but to work on yourself within. Learn to have and maintain a positive mental attitude. Learn that if you think you can, YOU ARE RIGHT!” Rex Sikes

Make your day the way you want it to be!

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Horizons photo used with permission of Phil Koch.

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Attitude, Autosuggestion, Beliefs, Creator, Decision, Expectations, Faith, Focus, Get Rich, Habit Formation, Intentional Thinking, Mindset, Positive Thinking, Responsibility, Trust

To Tithe Or Not? Does It Work?

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“Is there are secret to giving? What about the practice of tithing, does it work? How does this relate to your career, your life? You may begin to have many important insights into how your mind works as you read this. Reflect on these. You could learn about yourself and your beliefs and practices.

I am going to share with you a small portion of a consulting session with a client who asked me a question on the practice of tithing. I was not coaching on tithing it was simply a question that came up during conversation. I am sharing some of our conversation around the topic.

A Conversation On Tithing

Client: ‘The only thing that is a little unsettling is the whole tithing thing. I’ve heard before when you put it out that it comes back to you, but I can’t help but be a bit nervous about it.

Rex: That is the point of doing it. It can unsettle anyone.

Client: A little easier if you’re making a little more money.

Rex: That is a belief many people probably have. Think about what you manifested in the past. Remember, my example of ‘goldfish’. Do you remember, what you accomplished?

Rex: Another belief, maybe. So? So, it has been awhile? So what? What does that mean? Does it mean you can or can’t now because it has been awhile?  Look, I can not tell you what to do.

I can only say you will encounter yourself through this notion of tithing. You will encounter your beliefs about limitations and your possibilities.

It is a potent opportunity to examine your beliefs. We all have them around things. So? What you decide, whether to tithe or not, is what you decide.

Client: Well, one does have to pay the bills.

Rex: Another belief… or excuse … or a reason you could examine.

Client: Who do we give the money to?

Rex: I imagine the church you chose to practice tithing with.

Client: Now this is not an excuse, but I’m not quite sure how I would do this as when money comes in, I put it in an account and pay my employee and other business expenses out of that account (taxes, etc) so I’m not quite sure how I would tithe for myself.

Rex: You write a check out of your business or your business writes you a check and you write one from that. I don’t know, How do you pay yourself?

I am not an account nor financial advisor so I can’t really tell you what or how, because I don’t know. It is all up to you and your decision anyway

Client: I don’t write a check to myself, I simply transfer money from business into personal checking when personal checking gets low.

Rex: Look, you will do what you will do. If you don’t do it, don’t do it and let t go. Don’t worry about it.  If you do, do it.  Let it go and don’t worry about it. You can tell the church you aren’t prepared to do this yet. What can they do?  Kick you out? I doubt it.

It has to be your congruent decision. Which way you decide and whatever you decide is okay. Just make the decision and be done with it. Don’t second guess it. Accept you made it. Relax. You can change it if you don’t like the decision you made.

If you learn something about how you think and what you believe and what you are open to and what you aren’t by this challenge then excellent. That is the challenge of tithing. The opportunity to explore Learn all you can. Forget the worry.

Client: Do you tithe weekly, or? I forget. I guess I’ll figure out a way to know how much to tithe.

Rex: Well, you can’t base your decision on my decision. Tithing is a belief and practice from the some religions. Some people feel very strongly that it works.  I know some who say it doesn’t matter. I know some who say it doesn’t work.

What the ‘truth’ is, I haven’t a clue. I suspect if you tithe and believe it works it does. If you tithe and believe it won’t then it wont. I think it is all about uncovering the beliefs we have about money, giving and receiving.

It is beliefs about the nature of the universe and our abilities. That, for me, is what I think the practice is mostly about. It is a practice in which you have to exercising your faith one way or the other.

Do you give and believe 110% you will get back or do you give but then doubt? I think it makes quite a difference. That is why I say it is about being congruent.

Client: Oh. I’m just wondering how you figure out 10% of what comes in, especially when you have an employee to pay. I’m not trying to make this difficult, I’m just trying to figure it out.

Rex: Well, you either go with the gross or the net. if you want to tithe 10% on what you make then it is on the net. The bottom line is if you want to tithe you can always tithe what you feel you can and increase it as you are able.

Rex: Or you step out on faith and tithe the specific 10 and expect the return as promised without wavering. It is really an exercise in developing strong faith. What if you sacrificed and gave 10% and didn’t see any return at all for a long time for a year? Maybe never.

How would you talk and think about it?  Then after a year, wow, you got it all back times 10 or 100. How would you think and feel and believe then? Or you step out on faith and give money and spend a year worrying about it and fretting about it and never get anything back?<

It is about faith and expectations and about being in charge of yourself and your beliefs and your thought process. If you did it and got nothing back monetarily but were happier and healthier over all would that be sufficient? See, we all make our own bargains about these things.

Thoughts About Tithing

We talked a bit further. I point out the conversation because it is similar to many we have with ourself or others. We want to do the right thing when we don’t know what the right thing is. We want to be assured in advance that we aren’t doing the wrong thing. We can’t actually know either.

If you do something and it turns out terrible that is what it is. If you do something and it turns out fantastic that is what it is. You have to be willing to take responsibility for either and know that no matter what, no matter how wonderful or how devastating, that you always will land on your feet and that you can begin again if necessary.

No one else can tell you what you need to do. Most of us try to avoid pain and loss and maximize gain and pleasure. When it is in question we vacillate, sit on the fence, fret, worry, hope and doubt. We don’t know what to do or how to do it. THAT is exactly why FAITH is involved.

It Is All About Faith And What We Believe

If you don’t like that answer there isn’t much I can do to convince you to. You will either embrace it now or at sometime in the future or you will never. That is your journey. FAITH IS IN THE INVISIBLE. We can’t see it. We don’t know the outcome. We don’t know how. If we did it wouldn’t be faith that was necessary.

To step out in faith means to believe when there may be no logical reason to. The Bible is ripe with stories of faith, whether true tales or myths they are potent examples for our benefit. Noah built an ark, Job trusted the lord, Daniel entered the lion’s den, David rushed Goliath, Jesus went to the cross, Peter denied his lord.

You might wish to grow your faith with lesser challenges. If you can’t believe in something put you faith into something that is a stretch but plausible. Practice using your faith to manifest opportunity, money, good things and build it up from experience. The point of manifesting and attracting is that is requires faith.

Examine Your Beliefs And How They Do Or Don’t Serve You<

If you don’t have faith IT would be silly to engage. You might believe you can win the lottery and spend all your money on tickets and still lose. Perhaps, you had doubts. Perhaps, you just didn’t win and yet you did believe 110%. You have to accept the outcome and if you aren’t prepared to do that then take smaller leaps of faith.

First Disclaimer: I never suggest gambling or playing the lottery. I never give financial, legal, medical or psychiatric advice. I am not qualified professionally.

Second  Disclaimer: Faith as used here is not the faith of the some Christian or religious thought. I use biblical examples. The faith here does not require someone to believe in any spiritual deity. Faith, as used here, and by me, means the full and compete belief  in oneself and the ability to accomplish ones purpose.

Faith can be built up. It can be tested. The Bible says we are already given faith so it is a matter of exercising it. Whether or not you believe the Bible isn’t my point. You don’t have to in order to learn about faith. You exercise your faith as you do any muscle.

You believe many things about yourself. You believe you can and can’t do things. You believe some positive things about yourself and unfortunately, you probably have some limiting ones you entertain too.

You put your faith in many things. You trust, believe and have faith that the chair you are sitting in will hold you up. You believe the house around you will continue to stand. You believe summer will give way to winter and then summer again. You believe these things.

You Already Believe So Many Things

You believe your TV remote will work, given there are batteries in it. You believe the sun will rise tomorrow. You believe your car will start. You believe electricity lights you lights and heats or cools your house. These are examples of the faith you use every single day.

I’m want to share a tiny bit of what Napoleon Hill said in ‘Think And Grow Rich’.

‘FAITH IS the head chemist of the mind. When FAITH is blended with the “vibration of thought,” the subconscious mind instantly picks up the vibration, translates it into its spiritual equivalent, and transmits it to Infinite Intelligence…

‘FAITH is a state of mind which may be induced, or created, by affirmations or repeated instructions to the subconscious mind, through the principle of autosuggestion. As an illustration, consider one main purpose for which, presumably, you are reading this book.

The object is, naturally, to acquire the ability to transmute the intangible thought impulse of DESIRE into its physical counterpart— money. By following the instructions laid down in the chapters…  if you can CONVINCE your subconscious mind that you believe you will receive that for which you ask.

What The Mind Can Conceive And Believe It Can Achieve

Your subconscious mind will act upon that belief, then pass it back to you in the form of FAITH, followed by definite plans for procuring that which you desire.

…THOUGHTS WHICH ARE MIXED WITH ANY OF THE FEELINGS OF EMOTIONS CONSTITUTE A “MAGNETIC” FORCE WHICH ATTRACTS OTHER SIMILAR, OR RELATED THOUGHTS.

A thought thus “magnetized” with emotion may be compared to a seed which, when planted in fertile soil, germinates, grows, and multiplies itself over and over again until that which was originally one small seed becomes countless millions of seeds of the SAME KIND!

…read ALOUD twice daily the WRITTEN statement of your DESIRE FOR MONEY, and to SEE AND FEEL yourself ALREADY in possession of the money! By following these instructions, you communicate the object of your DESIRE directly to your SUBCONSCIOUS mind in a spirit of absolute FAITH.

Through repetition of this procedure, you voluntarily create thought habits which are favorable to your efforts to transmute desire into its monetary equivalent. (This procedure is NOT restricted to monetary gain alone.

The Results You Get Are The Product Of Your Thinking

It can be used to help you achieve WHATEVER IT IS that you DESIRE STRONGLY, so long as it does not violate the laws of God or the rights of others.)’ SO said Napoleon.

I think this is pretty clear. Use repetition to develop strong positive thinking, feeling and believing habits. You must be totally aligned and congruent inside about your passion. You have a strong burning desire, for what it is you want. You believe, without doubting; you absolutely know you will make it happen. THEN you will get it!

I think tithing is a way of confronting your beliefs about it. I don’t think you have to tithe. I do think going through the process of honestly considering it is a great exercise in uncovering what you think and believe. You will encounter yourself and your reasons pro and con. After that, it is your decision to make, if you chose to.

This isn’t really about tithing it is about your beliefs about anything. Can you make it in your career? Will you have the life you want? The conversation is included because we have lots of beliefs about money. Be glad when we have an opportunity to examine what we believe about anything.

Our beliefs govern what we think is possible or not. What we believe is possible determines what we will and won’t do. This is why Henry Ford said, ‘If you think you can or you think  you can’t, you’re right.’ Money issues drive most of us. What do we believe about money, ourselves, our abilities, the future? The larger issue is: Are we willing to examine our beliefs to take better charge of ourselves.

The purpose of taking control of your thoughts is to live the life you deserve to live. Maximize your abilities to make your dreams come true. Then you have the health, wealth, love, success, free time, and more that you have been seeking. Put your brain to work for you to get what you want. You are always getting results one way or the other. Are you getting the kind you want?” Rex Sikes

Another great day to have some more fun!

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Is A Wonderful Manifestation Miracle In Store For You?

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horizons moments-of-discovery-phil-koch

“Is something good going to happen for you? Do you feel it? Do you feel lucky? What is around the corner for you that you can’t see yet? Will it be fame or fortune? Will it be large or small? Will you be pleased or not so pleased? What do you expect to happen soon?

Well, what do you expect? Think on that a moment. What do you expect? What do you expect? It is known our expectations shape what we find. They literally put a frame around it. For example, if you expect to find smiles you are more apt to during the day.

If you expect to find frowns you are more apt to as well. If you expect to find money or be lucky you are more likely to than if you decide you won’t. What you think,see and say to yourself is what you get. Your declarations, your expectations matter.

What You See Is What You Get

What you believe will happen is more likely to happen. That is the job of the Reticular Activating System (RAS) to find the match in the outer world with what you believe and expect within. Your thoughts really do determine much of reality. Maybe all of it. Yes, all of it!

How many times have you had your worst fears confirmed? Sometimes, it wasn’t as bad as you expected but it still came about. Sometimes, what you hoped for wasn’t as good as you hoped but it still came about. Our thoughts shape our reality. They really do.

Set your mindset for the best. Develop an unshakeable positive mental attitude. Keep your mind on what you want and the good you want to have most of the time each day. Keep your mind off what you don’t want, off bad news and distractions. Limit negativity.

What You Say Is What You Get

Too often we think we are positive thinkers because we spend a couple minutes each day affirming some things. Most of the day is distracted, filled with petty annoyances, bad news from FB, TV, or media of some form. We listen to gossip or complain.

We aren’t nearly as positive as we think we are. When you are predominantly positive, when you think the finest thoughts and feel your best, when you are optimistic and enthused, you literally do radiate or vibrate at a higher frequency. People can tell. It’s true!

When you are delighted from within you are more apt to create, attract and manifest wonderful, delightful, serendipitous moments more often. You are attuned for it! It can be.  You make it happen. You shine bright, vibrate at high frequency and resonate with good!

Affirm It And Confirm It

It doesn’t matter whether you believe it comes from within you or the universe responds to your requests. You just need to be feeling wonderful and open to the possibility that you will get what you want. Open up to the possibility that magic is in store for you.

It most likely won’t happen unless you take action and begin the creative process. You initiate with your thinking and the rest reacts to you. You put it out and it comes back. Expect a miracle and you are more likely to find one. Live in enjoyment and delight all your days. Plant the seed reap the harvest. It works this way!

Celebrate and appreciate what you already have and you are bound to get more and get better. Celebrate the love and friendship in your life. Celebrate your health and vitality. Celebrate your career success. Celebrate your wealthy finances and abundance in all areas. Live like happy royalty within! Imagine It! Declare it! Affirm it!

See it, say it! Assert and affirm it. Then confirm it! Focus on it. Attend to it. Energy flows where your attention goes. Become it! You don’t get what you want you get what you are! If you are happy you get more in return! If you are rich you get more back! Live with gusto! Live, love, laugh, learn, prosper and celebrate. Enjoy all good things!” Rex Sikes

Plan your day the way you want it to be!

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Acceptance, Attitude, Beliefs, Celebration, Creating The Future, Decision, Focus, Positive Thinking, Responsibility

Why The Heck Are You Here? Have You A Clue What To Do?

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horizons all-that-still-matters-phil-koch

“Why do you think you are here? What is your purpose? Do you think you are here to succeed in a career? Are you here to find your soul mate? What is life all about? Why you and why are you here?

Some may say they are here to do great things. Some may say they are here to solve world problems. Some may say they are here to be famous. Some may say they are here to pass genes along.

Some claim we are here because we are part of a creation. Some will state we are part of the creator. Some say we are here by random happenstance. Some may argue there is no reason why we are here.

I don’t honestly know why we are here. Do you? Honestly? I know what I believe or think about it. I hear what others think about it who claim to ‘know’. I imagine there are many answers and reasons.

I’d say you are here because you are. Whatever else may be the case, you are here. NOW what are you going to do about it? How are you going to spend your days? What are you going to do?

It seems, for whatever reason, you and I have an opportunity. An incredible opportunity. On the face of it, we are here for a short period of time. We never seem to know how long we actually have.

How we spend the time we have seems to be then most critical. We can consider it a gift or a sentence. We can say ‘WOW’ or ‘I didn’t ask to be born’. What we think about it is really up to each of us.

So what will you do? Will you spend it struggling and hating and resenting it? Will you oppose others who are here to because they differ from you? Will you make it seem longer because it is painful?

Will you celebrate the opportunity to party? Will you enjoy it and delight in it no matter what? Will you celebrate with others the moments left? Will you live fully for as long as you have?

It seems most will have good times and bad. They will struggle and vacation when able. They will live ho-hum lives waiting for exhilarating moments. They will hope nothing terrible happens.

They will strive to get ahead. Collect things.They will hope these things make them happy. They’ll leave the things as they pass on. They will hope they make a mark. They will have kids. They’ll go.

Point: you are here. Now what? What is it going to be? How will you spend your remaining time? How would you like to spend it? You have some options? Make a choice.

You can spend it as a victim of circumstance. You didn’t want to be here. You aren’t sure what or how to do it. OR you can live it as a champion and call the shots. You can live like a victor or a emperor.

You can live it as a party goer. You have been invited. What do you bring to the party for all to enjoy? OR you can live it as the party host. You set the atmosphere, decide the banquet, invite the guests.

Choose to live deliberately or live haphazardly. That is what you can do. How do you want to spend your time? Decide.  Then make that happen. Determine your purpose and the effect you will have.

I don’t know why we are here. I have said that already. So it seems you can assign a reason or live without one. If you don’t have one you can still live to the utmost or to the ‘utleast’. It’s up to you.

As for me. I will celebrate. I will enjoy each moment as best I can. I will fill it with love, joy, peace, and happiness. I will attempt to be the best me I can be. I will help others the best I can.

After all this is my place. I own it with many other co-owners. I will care for myself, them and this place. When I go I will go having enjoyed it all. Hopefully, I leave behind a better place for everyone.

I don’t do this because I have to. I do this because I want to. The people around us are all we have. They are friends and friends we haven’t got to know yet. They are made from the same stardust.

I’ve decided it is my party and I am both host and guest. I will live deliberately and with intention to have the most wonderful time and share it with others, for no reason other than that is what I choose.

Then my career, my relationships, my life have meaning I assign AND I get to discover. I realize the people around me, the events and circumstances are a reflection of my thoughts and decisions.

I become more aware that I am creating my reality and the life I live. I am responsible for it all. When I take that responsibility fully then I have more power than I can ever imagine. I have ability to create.

So I want to create something more wonderful. I want to leave it and others better off than I found it. I want to create a marvelous life! I choose to live it fully, learn and grow and be the best me I can be. I have decided to design me and my life as I want it to be. And so it is!

You and I are already choosing. We are already doing. Is it what you want? If not change it. Choose again. Decide how you want to live your life. Capisci? Live, love and laugh. I’ll live in gratitude and celebrate everything! How about you?” Rex Sikes

Make today the day you want it to be!

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Attitude, Beliefs, Celebration, Creating The Future, Expectations, Focus, Getting Over The Past, Intentional Thinking, Overcoming Difficulty, Paradigms, Positive Thinking, Responsibility

Stop Deceiving Yourself And Make Better Choices!

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horizons fifty-shades-of-sunrise-phil-koch

“Are you having problems and difficulties? Perhaps, you are struggling with career, family, relationships or finances. How are you challenged? Do you know why you are having troubles? According to science we don’t actually see what is. We see through neurological filters. Our perceptions are constrained.

In fact, our conclusions that we draw about ourselves and the world are largely inaccurate. Some would say, completely wrong. Those conclusions and reasons why we have troubles are subjected to the same filtered neurological processes hence they MUST be wrong. We make conclusions based on limited information.

We never see the whole picture.  We only get fragments and tiny parts bit by bit; never everything all at once or over time. Our conclusions are drawn from our limitations of filtered processing and from our co-opted conditioned thinking as we grew up. We adopted the beliefs and conclusions of others from birth on.

We are wrong about most things because we can’t actually see who we are or what we are capable of. We may glimpse it from time to time, but mostly we react to the world from chronic, worn out, conditioning. We use the past as the basis for approaching the future and that contaminates the present and future.

Everything Can Be Otherwise If We Open Up To The Possibility

According to physicists everything is energy vibrating at different rates. Matter is energy appearing hard to our senses. This tells us our senses are easily tricked. There are upper and lower limits of what can be consciously perceived. We miss far more of what there is than we can ever know.

We are conditioned from birth to rely on our senses. We are taught that there is a separate outer world made up of solid things. Our senses wouldn’t lie, even though, quite frankly, they do. Everything is illusion, only we do think so. We believe it to be the truth about how things are. We are very wrong.

We believe there is an independent, objective reality. We believe the circumstances around us IS what is going on. We believe that it is true. For example, if we get enough reports that the economy sucks we accept it. If certain people are considered bad, we believe it. We believe so many inaccurate things!

We don’t actually know what is out there. Science reports to us, that we are mostly, if not completely, deceived. None of it has any independent outside truth, other than it is all energy appearing solid, but rather, it IS what we BELIEVE it to be. We believe our subjective appraisal. We determine whether things are ‘good’ or ‘bad’.

Believing Is Seeing

Since our subjective appraisal is deceptive things are not as they appear. They are only as we believe them to be. Our consciousness creates what is.  AND so it is, whatever we say it is, by our own declaration. We conclude it is a particular way even when multiple other possibilities exist.

We simply lock into one way of thinking about it and accept it as that. Silly human. There are infinite possibilities and we choose one. The one we choose is based on our prior conditioning from our interactions and experiences with others and the world. We create a version of reality and then tend to stick with it.

We draw conclusions and then eliminate other possible conclusions so we don’t have to think about it much. Our brains streamline the information for us. We make generalizations about ourselves and the world, which may or MAY NOT be accurate. We delete things so you can bet it is mostly inaccurate.

We leave things out when we generalize. Science says we can only consciously entertain and recall so much data in a given moment. Our brains process trillions of bits of date each second that we can’t possible  be aware of or think consciously about. Still, all of it is there.

We Delete, Distort And Generalize

We distort. If we generalize our experience and leave things out, then by that very process we necessarily distort reality or what it is. It can also work the other ways around. We distort, thus we delete, or, we even add in things that aren’t there and make generalizations based on that.

Or it could be because we delete, and distort we then make generalizations. Generalizations are the rules and reasons we adhere to through all time and space across the board, to navigate the world we create. We accept these as what is, or as independent, objective truth, when actually it is all subjective.

We see through our minds and beliefs. We are a bag of skin and bones and processes. Ongoing continuous processes attempt to decipher the nature of the universe through a limited human apparatus. We draw limited inaccurate conclusions about ourselves, the universe and ‘reality’.

We accept these conclusions as accurate; a reflection of what is. We call it reality. Our reality is comprised of outer circumstances and our inner reactions. We draw conclusions. We decide whether or not we are worthy of certain outcomes and or capable of certain actions. We believe our own BS. AND IT IS ALL BS!

We See Through A Glass Dimly

We believe our delusions. We have made our conclusions. And so it is. Science, still informs us, that everything is actually just energy appearing solid. It isn’t as we conclude it to be. The trick is to wake up to what else there is.

We have the opportunity to  shed our chronic, habitual conditioning, and drop the beliefs, the conclusions and thoughts that limit us. We can become more aware and discover new ways to think and be. Even through the very processes that trap us, we can awaken. If only we will.

It can be said, if you are seeking more, and entertaining notions such as these, that you are at least on the outer edge of beginning the process of awakening. Whether you do or not, who can say, but your very interest or desire may be an indication of something better and  important going on. We can awaken and we must want to awaken.

If that IS the case, then what can you do to enjoy it and assist the process? What can you do to accept it and go with the flow? How can you most naturally awaken, easily? How can you become more consciously aware and appreciative of the process? What can you do to celebrate and get through the limitations?

What You Say Is What You Get

Don’t fight it, but relax into it. Go with it. What is IS. Enjoy everything! Why not? If the universe is of our making then why not make it the most incredible, wonderful, experience of universe possible? No matter what goes on, why get caught up in anything less than glorious. Why not celebrate and enjoy it all?

Do you realize you are here? You have consciousness. You are alive. You have this go around why not be totally thrilled with this opportunity. In all, the trillions of stars, and immensity of the universe through billions of years YOU are here to enjoy it. If that doesn’t make you stop and go WOW what ever would?

YOU are here to live and enjoy and delight. I mean why not? What other purpose for you being here could there be? If you think there is no purpose then you are a complete idiot if you don’t assign your own. MAKE it whatever you want it to be. You have THIS opportunity. Make it great, for goodness sake. WHY NOT?

If you don’t thrill and celebrate every second you are wasting every second you don’t. What does anything matter but the love, and life and goodness you can help create? YOU exist so make it count for something marvelous! Celebrate everything! After all it is your choice. You can choose to make it whatever you want it to be.

It Is Whatever You Declare It Is

You can limit your problems, and stop it from being any difficulty. In all that there is why focus on what might be wrong, EVER, when you can make things right. Why waste time caught up in less than glorious issues?  You can decide to enjoy the ride for all it is!

Think about that. Really, think about it. It is you choice. Everything is an illusion. If we make generalizations, why not make better ones? Make ones that serve you. Instead of living out a crappy existence based on conditioning, with problems, lack and discord make it a life that includes everything you want.

Dictate what circumstances will be. If you are going to be deluded, be deluded in ways that feel good. Make it glorious. Exercise good taste and judgement. It is your choice. Decide now to enjoy it!” Rex Sikes

Have a delightful day!

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Attitude, Beliefs, Celebration, Creating The Future, Energy, Expectations, Focus, Gratitude, Intentional Thinking, Law Of Attraction, Mindset, Positive Thinking, Responsibility, Self Talk

Are You Finding Opportunity Where You Look?

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horizons the-first-gift-phil-koch

“There is so much around us that we miss because we do not see. We look but not well. It is no different than when you put your keys down and then can’t find them, even when you are looking straight at them. We miss so much.

Would you like to notice more of the good there is? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to take advantage of this? Why keep missing out if you could change it all for the better? Don’t you think the time is now to wake up to the opportunity that abounds.

I think it is all about opportunity. It is our opportunity to learn, to evolve, to do well and succeed. It’s about opportunity to be happy. It is about our potential to be, do and have anything we want in life and to live wonderfully. It is about maximizing each moment.

It is about the opportunity we find inside every challenge or obstacle we face and what we do with it. Within every bad day is so much good. If we only focused on the good instead of the difficulty we’d find it. We miss it because our focus is occupied with problems.

Attitude Is That Little Thing That Makes A Big Difference

It is about looking around and recognizing what is good and new to us that constitutes an opportunity for discovery and celebration. When we celebrate anything and everything more becomes available to delight in. Whole new worlds open up for us.

Consider this: we have the ability to be happy regardless of what is going on and regardless of whether we believe that or not. We have the ability to celebrate everything whether we ever do or not. Some of us will, sadly, many of us won’t. Because we just don’t choose to.

We have so much more going for us than we could ever, even begin to realize, appreciate or utilize. It is about the opportunity we have to explore this and realize a little be more, appreciate a little bit more and utilize a little bit more. It is always right there.

Our attitude determines how much or how little opportunity we find in the world. During bad economic times millionaires are made. During good times millionaires are made. It is not the times that matter but that those people find opportunity in both bad and good.

Your Attitude Determines Your Altitude

Regardless of what is going on there is opportunity all around each of us. Whether or not we recognize the opportunities is the issue. You can’t, literally can not.  Nor will you, you won’t, if you are negative and your view is limited. Negativity closes you down!

You need to be positive, open and expansive. Your neurology has to be primed to find opportunity and it will. When you expect the best you are better equipped to find the best. Positivity opens you up!

If you always say what you have you will always have what you say. It is important then you only speak to bless, heal and prosper. You create whatever you declare whether or not you understand this. It is an ongoing, never ending process. You can’t use it intentionally, if you aren’t aware of it. Awareness opens us up to more opportunity.

I finished writing this, took a break, picked up a book and began reading. Within the first 4 paragraphs, author, Joseph Murphy stated, ‘If you fail to recognize and utilize the wisdom and power within in you, it is just the same as if it were not there.’ Could the message be made much clearer?

If You Think You Can Or You Think You Can’t You Are Right

Look within. Discover what is inside you. Accept it. Enjoy it and celebrate it. After all it is you, so it is divine. Release it. Use it. Get the good you desire. Bless, heal and prosper yourself and others. Live fully and happily with those around you.

Make your life what you want it to be. As above so below. From within to without. The time is now. Seize it. This could be your opportunity to make some wonderful changes. Will you take it? The choice is yours. What will you do with it? ” Rex Sikes

Have a blessed day!

If you like these posts please subscribe. If you think these posts would help others please share. Help Spread the word. 

Horizons photo used with permission of Phil Koch.

NEW BLOG SITE LAUNCHES SOON – Do you get this blog emailed to you? You will have  to again subscribe to this blog, newsletter. I’d hate for you to miss anything when it switches. Subscribe and Follow Daily Inspiration and Gratitude!

Acceptance, Attitude, Beliefs, Celebration, Creating The Future, Decision, Emotions, Expectations, Focus, Forgiveness, Getting Over The Past, Gratitude, Habit Formation, Intentional Thinking, Mindset, Overcoming Difficulty, Patience, Persistence, Positive Thinking, Responsibility, Self Improvement

When S#%T Hits The Fan! How To Handle Crisis And Difficulties

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horizons beyond-the-hporizon-phil-koch

“Some times the excrement hits the fan. You hope it doesn’t but it does. From there it only seems to get worse. What do you do about it? Can you change things? What is the ‘enlightened’ approach. Some people think ‘this should not happen if I am a positive person!’ Well, should it?

I don’t know if it should or not. I only realize that it does. I say this from experience. Being a positive thinker makes everything better! It does! It truly does! There seem to be far fewer upheavals than otherwise, still things rock the boat from time to time. Perhaps, all the time, but most of them just don’t get to you.

I don’t think anyone should make a hard rule about it. Flexibility of mind and behavior is the key. Learning to control ones thoughts and feelings brings immense power and positive transformation in so many wonderful ways. It doesn’t matter if things get messed up once in a while. You learn and evolve through everything if open to it!

Stuff Happens Get Over It

I believe everything is an opportunity to learn, to grow, to shed old ways if we are alert to this and aware as it happens. We can learn from trials and difficulties and can even be grateful they push or prompt us to be different. Is it planned, predestined, calculated, or random happenstance? That’s  up to each of us to decide for ourselves.

Some get great comfort in assuming there is a divine plan  for their life. And it may be OR it may not. I think everything is perfect whether or not anyone or anything pulls the strings. It is what it is. Accept it, get over your complaints about it, suck it up if you have to. Learn from it. Learning from it IS what we can do that is useful!

It is what it is! It was what it was! Evolve and move forward. This blog is always my opinion since it is my blog. I may share my perception of other’s opinions but I am sharing my thoughts and learning and understanding from my perspective, whether or not I ever say I think or believe. You understand that, alright?

I don’t claim to have final ways for how you or anyone should act. It is always up to us to make our own decisions for ourselves. What I hope to do with this blog is share approaches I know work from decades of using them on myself, with others and from studying what has worked for people throughout the centuries.

Learn To Go With The Flow

Without going into immense detail, the past few days have been immensely blessed. There have been what some might call high highs, great accomplishments and forward movement. There have been multiple difficulties during the same time. Sometimes, that is how life seems to go. Again, maybe that is how it always is.

I don’t try to find assigned reasons for things but extract my own reasons for what I can do. I’ll explain more as we go along. I am discussing Friday. I write the blog during the early am hours Saturday so you get an idea of how this operates. The day began with an argument with a loved one. I didn’t want to have but did.

I reacted to some things.  A response would have been more appropriate. I could say I was tired, things had gone on in a particular way and I wanted to be done with it. I can point at numerous ways to interpret my behavior or the other person’s or the circumstance but the bottom line is my reaction made me party to an ensuing argument. The argument was significant.

Had I been more aware and responded differently, it may not have been the issue it was. Looking at it afterwards I examined it and realized I could make some other choices. I have vowed this won’t happen again. I looked at how else I might handle the situation more productively.

What You Resist Persists

What is it that I can change in me, and my thinking and doing, that would preempt it, stop it, from getting out of hand? I don’t want to blame the other party. I could. I could make it about them changing or the circumstances changing , or what we could do together differently, but at this moment, I only have my actions to examine.

I take responsibility because it does take two to have an argument. So how, and what, can I do differently to help make situations like that better? What do I, can I, and have I learned from this argument that can be of benefit for the future? If I expect the other party to change that will only ensure nothing changes.

Not because the other party doesn’t have responsibility but by putting conditions on anyone other than myself, and expecting another person to do something different would be setting myself up for disappointment. This seems to be what we do much of the time. We want others to be different, the world to be different.

When they aren’t, and it isn’t, we get bent out of shape. At least, I have. People who try to control the world and others usually end up miserably frustrated. It isn’t worth it. It is better for me to change what I can about me, than to attempt to change others. That should make sense. Hopefully, you have discovered the folly of this for yourself too.

The Only Person You Can Absolutely Control Is You

It is more important to me to become more flexible. I want to learn to be more resilient, and more resourceful to be able to handle situations that arise. It is more productive to change myself for the better than to hope or expect others to do it my way. I can hope and wish for things to turn out differently or I can make some positive changes for myself.

Work with what YOU CAN work with to make the adjustment. You CAN work on your self. You CAN’T work on others. Self is the starting place. Yes, you can negotiate with the other person and work things out. That is important too. Do what you can to get along, to have a win/win and settle things in positive ways. By all means, of course!

But when all is said and done, IF after that negotiations they don’t change, then YOU had better change, if you don’t want a repeat of that situation. If you get this point you get a lot? Change what you can about yourself. DO NOT expect the other person to change for you. If they do great. If they don’t great! That is what is. You change!

The buck stops here! The responsibility is mine. I don’t beat myself up or wallow about what happened even when sorry for what happens. I look at it and seek to discover what I can do differently to make it work out better for both of us. I hope I discover a win/win. If it is to be it is up to me and no one but me. SO I look to learn.

As Within So Without

Yes, I have repeated the same mistakes even after this examination. Remember, old habits can die hard. I seek to make new habits but in the mean time old challenging neural pathway routes, that are well entrenched, are firing while I endeavor to take a different path. Understanding this can bring great freedom.

It can also speed up the time in which you make changes and develop new habits. New insights and awareness leads to new changes in behavior AND yet you still have to repeat successfully the new behaviors often enough for them to become habit. Think of it this way. Driving a car becomes habit, right? You know this already.

You could learn to drive on a smooth, empty road and develop the habits for driving as you do. This is a given. Practice correctly long enough and habits take hold. You could also learn to drive on a horribly bumpy challenging road with tons or traffic comprised of horrible drivers. Either way you learn and make habit.

Conditions and circumstances will be whatever they are while you are learning new things. To expect the world to stop being the world and conform for you may be silly or it may be a great belief to have. OR it may be silly. You have to decide that. I find it useful to focus on what I can change and let the world be whatever it is.

As Above So Below

Sometimes I bristle at what is offered. Most of my life pain has come from resisting what the world offered. Once, I began to learn that it was up to me and my response to what was offered AND NOT WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS, life became far more incredible and enjoyable. Then I stopped trying to change the world and changed myself instead. This gives me so much more opportunity.

After the argument, other events unfolded.  I got injured. There were some big issues and problems but I won’t go into details as they don’t matter. It was frustrating, to say the least. I shouted out one major expletive, at one point, when I realized my entire day plans shifted.  My phone broke earlier, I had issues with my car, and I had an appointment that now began to appear unlikely.

I had a ADR session at Cinespace Studios in Chicago. For those who don’t know what this is, it means, I had to record some dialog to replace some lines in a feature film I acted in. I couldn’t reach the director and staff to let them know what went on or when I could now arrive. Eventually, I solved this and got an email through.

My morning appointment changed to mid afternoon, possibly, depending, on traffic. I had to leave. I bought a new phone prior to leaving but service never kicked in. I had no way to call the studio and let them know of delays, I couldn’t communicate with family, I had no GPS and now faced returning late in the evening instead of by mid afternoon.

We All Have An Incredible Opportunity To Learn To Be Better

There was a lot more going on that I am not reporting. I don’t mention any of this other than to point our, as we all already know, shit can hit the fan. It does.  Then I caught hold of myself. I took a deep breath! I didn’t like this at first, but had I survived the 80’s. Travel would be just fine.  In fact, everything would be fine.

I had let it spiral out of control for a little while. If truth be told, given the circumstances, I handled it far better than I would have years ago. My actions I was least please with involved the argument, so I sought to repair that prior to leaving. We worked it out which made us both feel better.  Still, I had been injured, and car problems.

I woke up! I woke up to the fact that all this was going on. Why? I don’t know? I don’t ask why. I am trying to point that out. Why doesn’t help me. What helps me is this: ‘Okay, this is as it is. What opportunity exists for me in the situation as it is? It is what it is. What can I learn? What do I need to learn?  How can I accept what is going on? What do I need to let go of? What is important and what is not?’

IN THAT MOMENT, as I ask myself questions and realize ALL is perfect, even when tumultuous, everything settles! I understand. IT does not matter what is going on ON the outside. It matters what is going on ON the inside! What matters is what I am thinking and feeling and whether I am responding or reacting. From within to without!

Transformation Occurs In An Instant

If I catch myself reacting I have an opportunity to respond. I CAN respond as I had reacted or I CAN respond differently. A choice point opens up because of awareness. It allows for a new and different decision to made. The opportunity arises to decide now, in this moment, to do things differently. Change! I CAN change!

Instead of being a victim to circumstances I take control of me. I accept what IS and I know that I can handle any circumstances life throws at me. There is the saying; ‘God won’t test you more than you are capable. Why does god think I am so strong?’ I don’t know or care if anyone is testing me. I know that when ‘tested’ I can make the difference when I take responsibility.

As I write this, I hope you realize this is not really about me. I am using my experiences as an example, that’s true. BUT I am attempting to focus on the process I have learned and not me the person. Any of us can do use this process. My main point is you can transform anything in a moment when you transform from within.

The world around may be tumultuous but you find calm and peace within. You may find confidence and strength, you may find a smile and delight. You might even think: ‘Okay bring it I can handle anything you bring’. When you think that way, YOU CAN handle anything. Your thoughts create your reality. If life hands you lemons you make lemonade by changing you attitude.

Power Comes From Making A Decision

Most of us try to change the circumstances. The circumstances are what they are. Change your thoughts first. Then whether or not circumstances change you will have. I can promise you this. First, change yourself so that you are in a more positive, confident, productive place and you have a better chance of helping the circumstances to improve. Otherwise, don’t count on it.

If circumstances don’t change you are still positive, confident and productive! Attitude determines your altitude. The drive to the studio was quite easy. It was relaxing and enjoyable. The parking guard and I chatted for awhile. I enjoyed him. The director, technicians and session, all good. I’m glad I got there to do it!

I left, chatted some more with guard. He noticed my new phone, still not working and recommend I get a case for it. We parted. I drove back. I got back late but not TOO late. The day went great. The drive was fine. It took longer than expected but I used the time to think and listen to inspiring audio. I learned a lot from all that happened. I also learned how to improve my relationship with a loved one.

I returned home and to my argument partner who surprised me by brining home a fabulous dinner from a classy restaurant! We hugged and enjoyed each other. All is good. It is what it is! Everything is and was perfect. You could assume it was all predestined or all haphazard. What matters most is what we take from it. Learn from it.

The Quality Of Your Decisions Determine The Quality Of Your Life

We can’t ever replace learning to improve. What we resist persists. The more flexible we are the more choices we have. The more choices the greater range of opportunity and to discover what works. If we only have one way of perceiving or one way of doing we will obviously be limited in what we can accomplish. Seek to be more aware.

Turns out my day was fabulous, I declare it. I learned an immense amount. I was challenged on numerous fronts. So what. I found my center and operated from it. Circumstances stayed what they were. I changed. It was what it was and it is what it is. I like days like this. Bring it! Bring more of them! I want to improve my relationships and live a marvelous life. Whatever helps me do more of that BRING IT!

Seek to be accepting, allowing, because it is when we allow, when we relax, when we let go, we can see more clearly what hampers us. As we learn better, how we can be different, we do need to implement what we learn and repeat it again and again to condition our minds, our feelings and our behaviors. We become aware, and then use it over an over to make the new learning habitual. Habits matter!

We evolve. We become more positive and as a result more capable. The more we do the MORE we are ABLE to do. I love this process of discovery and implementation. I love this life. I do! Even when it is rough at times. I think, if Job could endure I can. Bring it!

I will learn from it (eventually) and I will rise to meet any challenge. Ultimately I love and enjoy and celebrate my life. So bring it because I will transform!” Rex Sikes

Today is what you make of it!

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Horizons photo used with permission of Phil Koch.

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Acceptance, Affirmations, Attitude, Celebration, Decision, Focus, Gratitude, Intentional Thinking, Positive Thinking, Responsibility, Self Improvement

Things Are Rotten But A Better Day Is Coming: Do This!

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horizons frozen-moments-in-time-phil-koch

“I write for actors and artists, filmmakers and fans, people from all walks of life. This blog reveals how you maximize your potential to live the life you deserve and get what you want. So homemaker or business person, living in urban area or the sticks, these words, this message, is for you.

Some people spend more time worried and fearful. They hope against hope that things will change or be different. Yet, each day they repeat the same behaviors. They focus on what is wrong with the world, events or themselves. They focus on bills and problems.

How do you expect anything to be different if day in and day out you do the same things continuously. In order for your life to change you have to change some things in your life. If you always do what you always did YOU will ALWAYS get what YOU always got.

If You Do What You Always Did You Get What You Always Got

In order to be new you need to start new. Your past has nothing to do with your future. Change occurs the instant you decide to be different and then follow through and act on that decision. Change begins that very instant!

If you want things to be new you have to think new. If you spend more time worried about your circumstances than anything else you need to stop it and do something different. If your career, relationships, finances, or life is in the gutter it is time to take charge.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be really bad to want to change. You can change any time. It is simple. It is easy, but not always easy. If you stick with it though you can transform everything in great, new, positive ways.

Your Past Has Nothing To Do With Your Future

Here is how you start. Stop thinking about what is wrong and START thinking about what is right! Begin thinking about all the things YOU HAVE got going for you. If you have’t done this in a while perhaps you will only find or remember a few. The more you seek the more you will find.

Reflect on all your talents and abilities no matter how tiny or seemingly insignificant. Perhaps, you know how to fold a dinner napkin. Great count that! Celebrate that! I don’t know how to do it but you do! Count, list and celebrate your resources.

Take an inventory about all the cool, good, groovy, hip, sick, bad, rockin, things about yourself. Count them and add to them each day. Start recognizing your own worth a value bit by bit. Then add to it. Add to it by also counting the blessings in your life.

The Present And Future Are Yours To Create

Look at the friends or loved ones, past and present. Look at the good times back then and now. Dig out positive memories and examples all through your life to enjoy. Look at all the present things that are good in your life. Look for great things in your community and the world.

The process of searching for good may not be familiar to you. Not all that many people know to do it. If you begin and do it daily you will discover you find more and more examples and you start thinking and feeling better.

As you continue you will condition yourself and build positive habits. Takes at least 21 days so people say 3 months or routine, regular, spaced, repetition. So do it and keep doing it. You will surprise yourself with how powerful this exercise can be in helping you make changes, feel better and get on track.

To Be New Think And Do New Things

If you want you life to change you have to change things in your life. The one thing you have absolute control over is you. Not many people exercise that control but it is true. You have the ability to control your thoughts, feelings and actions.

You CAN make your life anything you want it to be. Start now by looking for all the good in you and around you. Stay focused on it. If you find your mind straying bring it back to that which is good. You can do this! Do it today.” Rex Sikes

Have a great day!

If you like these posts please subscribe. If you think these posts would help others please share them. Help Spread the word. 

Horizons photo used with permission of Phil Koch.

NEW BLOG SITE LAUNCHES SOON – Do you get this blog emailed to you? You will have  to again subscribe to this blog, newsletter. I’d hate for you to miss anything when it switches. Subscribe and Follow Daily Inspiration and Gratitude!