Category Archives: Learning

Intentional Thinking, Learning, Mentor, Responsibility

One Big Reason Why People Keep Failing

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“Some things are tried and true. Sometimes, when you bake a cake you should just follow the recipe. Pioneers have blazed the trails for you to follow in their footsteps you don’t need to blaze another one.

Welcome to Part 6 of The Secret To Success And Happiness Few Know And Won’t Tell You. We continue on today. I hope you found the first 5 parts valuable. Ready, let’s go. Part 7 tomorrow.

Sometimes, it is easiest to take the path of least resistance. Learn from the models who began where you are and have attained what you want because they know the pathway to that success. Listen.

Stop trying to reinvent the wheel. Follow in the successful footsteps of others. Actually do what they tell you and take their advice. Listen and learn. Do and learn. Be glad if you have a successful mentor.

Learn To Listen Then Listen To Learn

It never fails to amaze me, especially in Hollywood. Someone will ask a famous writer or director to give them feedback on their script. ‘Please help me, tell me what I should do. What do you think?’

Instead of taking it, implementing it, and then coming back, thereby showing the mentor they could take advice, and that they are people of action and value the mentor’s input and time.

They say thanks and do nothing. They join the ranks of all those who ask and do nothing. Is it any wonder why ‘the big wigs’ get wary of helping others at times. They know few will do what they say.

Listen – Learn – Grow

The reason so many people fail is they don’t implement what already is proven to work. They try to do it their way. They want the faster route. They think they will find a short cut. They want it easier.

They will attempt to do it their way. I can’t tell you how many times I have been with someone who was asked ‘what should I do’ and when told, they respond with, ‘yeah, I think I’ll do it my way’.

Yup, they try to do it their way. They don’t listen or follow advice. They don’t listen or read instructions. They get some new fangled thingamajig and don’t look at the manuel to put it together.

Mentors Are Here To Guide Us To Their Best Knowledge

Are you one of these? Listen, Napoleon Hill modeled 520 of the most successful people on the planet in his day. Countless thousands have gone on to success following his discovered formula ever since.

It is as applicable today as it was then. However, some people who have never yet succeeded think THEY know what to do. They don’t and haven’t succeed. Thousands of others, read the book, and have.

However, most people never will. They just won’t do it. They will try it their way and give up. That is another part of why people don’t succeed, is they don’t follow through to completion. They quit.

Improve Your Life One Lesson At A Time

They do a little bit. If it gets tough or confusing they abandon it. They dabble they don’t actually do. They flit from one thing to another trying many things. They don’t commit to a plan of action that works.

To succeed you must be clear about what you specifically want to accomplish. You must feel passionate enough about it to keep going and not let anything stop you. You have to cross the finish line.

Of all the people who begin the race not everyone crosses that finish line. More than that won’t even enter the race. You have to start, you have to work smart, you have to follow through and complete it.

Winners Never Quit – Quitters Never Win

When it comes to success you must be headstrong in the right way. Being obstinate about doing what is tried and true, just because you feel like you want to, isn’t very wise. BUT go ahead if you must.

To succeed remain steadfast. See it through to the end. Be willing to listen to those who got there before you. If they started out as you have. If you have nothing, nor did they when they began, listen!

Chances are they know something you can benefit from. They blazed the trail. You know how you tell the pioneers from those who come later? The pioneers are face down with arrows in their backs.

You May See Me Struggle But You Will Never See Me Quit

They led the way through most of the hardship and they know the pitfalls. They know what might and might not work. Pay attention and learn. Don’t be gullible or stupid about it but listen up!

Remember, success leaves clues. Sometimes, just sometimes, the advice being given is worth more than its weight in gold. One idea at the right time can transform your entire life. Be open minded.

Study, learn and grow. To know and not to do is not to know. Information or knowledge is only power when it is correctly applied. Otherwise, it is interesting but not transformative.

To See Further – Stand On The Shoulders Of Giants

So stop spinning your wheels. Do what works. Apply it and keep applying it until you succeed. You will if you stick with it. It may or may not come easy but you must keep at it if you want to win.

Learn from mistakes. Celebrate and embrace all opportunity to grow and develop. Challenges make us stronger and wiser if we examine and learn from them. If you don’t, they just suck.

Inside ever challenge is the seed of opportunity but you must find it. Learn to learn. Learn to control your thoughts and feelings. Learn to take right action and get the results you intend to get. Act with intention.

Cultivate The Habit Of Being Grateful

Be grateful for the opportunities presented to you and that you can pursue your dreams. Many others can’t or don’t realize they can simply based on where they live in the world. If you can, then stop whining and start celebrating everything!” Rex Sikes

I wonder how many different ways you can feel delighted today?

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Horizons photo used with permission of Phil Koch.

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Attitude, Intentional Thinking, Learning, Responsibility

You Will Never Be Happy Or Succeed Without Self Control

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“We can exercise deliberate, intentional control of our thoughts, attitudes and feelings. This is wonderful news. Do you believe it? Hill’s philosophy of achievement is contingent on learning conscious control.

They same can be said of others thought leaders and ancient texts. If you don’t believe it is possible you will never come to know the power you could have because your thoughts prevent you. Get it?

Is that how you want to live? Prevented by a mental packet of energy? Thoughts are things. Whether true or not we take them seriously. We have feelings about them. We are stopped by them.

Either You Do Or You Don’t – There Is No In Between

They either inspire us and move us forward or we feel not so good, not so motivated or unable to do what we would like to. If we don’t believe it is possible or worth it we don’t do it. We stop ourselves.

Why on earth would we ever allow this to happen? Why don’t we choose better than we do?  Habit. Our habitual, chronic negative thinking keeps us stuck for as long as we don’t change it.

Our subconscious mind learns all sorts of things growing up. It neurologically wires in all of our behaviors, our beliefs and our attitudes. There is virtually nothing we didn’t learn from repetition.

Repetition Is The Mother Of Skill

We learned to roll over, sit, up, balance, crawl, walk, feed and dress ourselves through repeated trial and error. We weeded out extraneous movements that didn’t serve us and repeated those that did. We developed neural pathways. We wired the learning in!

We learned to speak listening to sounds over and over again. Then we babbled, repeatedly making attempts to talk until we did.  We learned our native language. We could have learned any language.

We learned our ABC’s by repetition. We learned printing and then cursive and then how to type on a computer through repetition. We learned to read by doing it over and over. Repetition builds skill.

Motivation Gets Us Started Commitment Keeps Us Going

We learned everything! We laid down pathways to become automatic so that today we walk and talk, dress ourselves, drive to work, write emails, checks, without having to even think about it.

We learned to think and act. We learned positive beliefs and attitudes. We learned negative beliefs and attitudes. Whether either are true or not we learned to have them. We believe many lies.

These were formed through input not whether or not they were right or wrong, true, false, correct or valid. It didn’t matter whether they were destructive or constructive. We learned them anyway.

It Is Not About Perfect It Is About Effort

We act from and live from old ways of thinking and behaving which may or may not be true at all. We adopted what we think we can do and what we think we can’t do from those around us while young.

We adopted the limitations from others. We learned a lot of negative, limited  thinking. We learned to habitually, chronically, automatically, in a friendly way, to carry those out. We live by them.

These are our thinking and feeling patterns, our beliefs, attitudes, actions, inaction, good and not so good habits. Our brain learned to do these things. It does them to help us run efficiently, automatically and to stay alive. It works for us on our behalf. It is awesome!

These things are the only things it knows to do.

It does not care whether the patterns or habits it learns are positive or negative, good or bad, healthy or unhealthy, rich or poor. It doesn’t judge anything. It doesn’t have that critical faculty.

When You Apply The Effort Every Day – Transformation Happens

Our conscious mind is the seat of judgement. When we say the subconscious is sabotaging us it really isn’t. It is being most helpful. It is doing what it learned to do. It is serving us. It is our friend.

Because we can assess and judge, and decide we want something else, we declare it is doing opposite.  So we label it as resistance or sabotaging. We criticize ourselves for what we learned.

In reality it is truly our friend. We just don’t like what it learned to do. If we re-train it, re-condition it, it will serve us positively in the same friendly, reliable, automatic, habitual way. AND we’ll enjoy it.

Your Past Does Not Have To Equal Your Future

Consider a wild stallion. It runs free in the wild. Grew up free and does its own thing. The horse person now wants to ‘break’ the stallion so it can be ridden and be a productive domesticated animal.

The horse doesn’t ever try to sabotage the rider. The horse only does what it learned to do. Once ‘broken’ means it learns to do other things and the rider then controls the horse and utilizes its power.

The conscious mind must control and direct the subconscious mind in order to get it to work as the conscious mind desires. This is why it is important to follow Hill’s philosophy. Follow the ancient’s wisdom.

Commitment Transforms A Promise Into Reality

You must know what you want and it must be absolutely worth it to you to get it. You must desire it because if it isn’t worth it to you neither will be your effort. You won’t persist when it gets tough.

You must believe you will ultimately get it. You must learn how to control your emotions, focus your thoughts and feelings, maintain a positive attitude because in all these you are learning control.

When you have control you can make your dreams come true.

You are teaching the horse how to behave. It will eventually co-operate if you are a good instructor, and never give up along the way. It will buck and kick, because that is what it learned to do.

In Order To Become Good You Must Practice And Repeat

If you are persistent and continually, repeatedly, communicate to it the way it understands, so that it gets your intentions and your messages, it will learn the new behaviors. Absolutely it will!

Once learned and conditioned it will serve you well. There is a cost. Nothing is free. It takes time, energy and dedication to help it learn these new things. It doesn’t happen over night but it will happen.

The reason you learn to condition your mind and maintain a positive attitude, is because it is more likely you will be successful by staying positive and moving forward than by being negative and staying stuck. To maintain, means to persist when the going gets tough.

Practice And Repeat Practice And Repeat Practice And Repeat

If you think defeatist thoughts and let them override your positivity and you feel bad as a result, you might not keep going. Heck, of course you won’t keep going. That is a given. You will quit.

If you are optimistic, feel like you are making progress, and enjoy the effort, you are more apt to see it through. THIS is why so much emphasis is placed on learning to control your thoughts and feelings.

Without that control the horse does what it wants. You must become the rider in charge. Then you can ride the horse wherever you want and it will continue to be faithful and serve you.

Secret To A Great Life: Think Positive – Feel Positive – Talk Positive

We all have negative thoughts. We were brought up in a culture where negativity is common. Messages we hear from media, parents, educators, peers are frequently very negative.

Bad news and gossip rule our day. Just because we have negative thoughts doesn’t mean we have to accept or entertain them. We can refuse to think them. Once aware we can let them go. We can!

You may not be able to change everything about your life. You might not be able to alter all of your circumstances but you can take charge of yourself. In fact, that is all you can really take charge of.

What Consumes Your Mind Controls Your Life

You can absolutely gain control over your thoughts, feelings, actions and behaviors and design for yourself the kind of person you want to be. You have choice. Choose to think positive. Be productive.

When you become aware of negative thinking.  Stop it. Interrupt it. Take a deep breath or do something to switch gears.  Say cancel or go away, or no thanks. Anything to break the thought pattern.

Then deliberately choose to focus on something positive. When you think about what you don’t want. Stop and switch your thinking to what you do want. Yes, it takes effort to train the horse/brain.

Success Is A State of Mind Start Thinking Of Yourself As A Success

The effort is worth it. You will discover if the rewards outweigh the price you pay to become a positive thinker by doing it. To not attempt do it, because it isn’t worth it, is another negative thought.

There is no middle ground. Either you think positive or negative. Either you are predominantly a positive thinker of a negative thinker. What other choices are there? There aren’t any.

It all boils down to choice. You either chose to think positive or you choose to think negative. You either choose to be the one in charge or you choose to be the one controlled. You decide! It is up to you!

You Are What You Decide

You either ride the horse or the horse takes you for a ride. Which is it? You either act or you don’t. You are either proactive or passive. You either make things happen or things happen to you.

If you aren’t the one in charge then you are the one at effect. So which will you be? Decide. Will you be at cause or at effect? If you do nothing you you will be and remain at effect.

You drift with however things go. Good or bad, up or down.

You can call the shots as you learn how. You can make things happen, as you take control. Life can be better than you ever imagined when you put yourself in charge. It will be!

The Power To Change Your Life Is In Your Decisions

Condition your subconscious mind, train it to do your bidding. It already knows how to do things, you just need to make it do what you want instead of what you don’t want.

You do that by concentrating and putting all your energy, you attention and focus on what you do want in a POSITIVE way. Keep doing it until it gets the message. Send it a crystal clear message!

The more enthused you are, the better you feel, the stronger your signal.  This is why you imagine what you want as if you already have it. This is why it is important to feel marvelous feelings strongly.

I’m Not A Product Of Circumstance I’m A Product Of My Decisions

The more clearly you tell your subconscious what you want in positive ways, vivid pictures, positive self-talk (and outer discussion) and strong positive feelings the quicker it gets the message.

Then it will it do what you trained, conditioned and programmed it to do. Hooray! No one can do this for you, but you. If you don’t, you won’t. Get up on the horse, if you fall off, get back on it.

Teach your brain, your subconscious mind, to do your bidding.

This is absolutely the one most powerful thing you can do for yourself. Learn how to control your thinking process instead of being a victim of it. Little by little you will gain immense control.

Life Isn’t What Happens To Me – Life Is What I Make Happen

Be patient, be tolerant. If you fall, don’t add to negative thinking by criticizing, instead re-aim your thoughts. Pat yourself on the back for recognizing and becoming aware of, and for changing your thoughts.

You don’t punish the toddler when the child falls while learning to walk. Don’t punish yourself either when learning new things. Be gentle, loving and accepting of yourself. Be patient and enjoy it all.

When you learn to take charge of your own mind and run it, instead of being run by it, then you have more power over events and circumstances. You understand more how to navigate them.

Either You Run The Day Or The Day Runs You

You no longer attempt to control others because you don’t need to. When you learn how to positively condition your mind for success and happiness you transform yourself for the better.

You can see more opportunities you would otherwise miss. You are more resourceful during difficulties. You resolve to make things happen and you get what you want. You understand commitment.

You can do more good, be helpful to others, and have more fun. You become more of the kind of person other people want to be around because you radiate good feelings and vibes.

I Am The Master Of My Fate –  I Am The Captain Of My Soul

You live in a new positive way, freed from much of you previous past negative conditioning. You unburden yourself so you can move forward. Now, you can continue to take positive steps toward making your goals and dreams reality. BECAUSE You know how.

You go beyond many of your previous limitations. By learning to do this you deliberately evolve yourself. Life becomes much more delightful. So take stock, keep track of your successes and that which you appreciate. Be grateful. Life is grand. Delight in it and celebrate everything!” Rex Sikes

Live well today and encourage others!

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!

Affirmations, Celebration, Choice, Conditioning, Decision, Emotions, Focus, Gratitude, Habit Formation, Intentional Thinking, Learning, Mindset, Persistence, Positive Thinking, Rehearsal And Practice, Responsibility

If You Don’t Start Moving You Will Always Be Right There Where You Are!

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“Some people never begin. The wish and want and hope for change but they do nothing at all to bring it about. Is this you? You can make positive changes easily. Would you like to learn how? If you do these simple things you can get a tremendous amount of transformation.

Obviously, in order to begin you must choose to begin. it Starts with your decision, your commitment to make your life more wonderful and grand. If you truly want this then beginning is easier. You just start doing some things you haven’t been doing.

If you want your life to change you must change things in your life. You can’t continue along the same old pathway expecting to get somewhere new. You have to start the new path. So you begin right from where you are. Right now, right here, is where it starts.

Want Your Life To Change? Change Things In Your Life

‘As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.’ Henry David Thoreau

The reason we want to gain control of our thinking is so those negative thoughts that prevent us no longer take hold. Begin small, find a positive thought, one you agree with and want more of, and make it a mantra. Someone posted, they use, ‘this is easy’.

I like, ‘I can learn to do anything’. or ‘I am far more powerful than I presently realize’. And repeat those day and night whenever you can. Repetition is how the brain learns. Repetition with powerful emotions. So enjoy chanting this out loud.

Drop By Drop The Tub Fills

Shout them, feel great when you say them. DO one every morning and night and inbetween for at least thirty day. Find some supportive inspiring reading material or listening material and partake daily. Drop by drop the tub gets filled.

You can be surprised but how incredible a difference even a little bit of positive control makes. It is all about learning to create new positive habits to replace the old ones we no longer want. Does it take some effort.

Yup, and it is worth it. Affirm, declare, chant your mantra with wild enthusiasm. Make yourself feel good. Jump up and down, skip, sing, yell out loud. Learn that you control how you feel too. Relax, repeat them first thing in morning and last thing at night.

Nothing Great Was Ever Achieved Without Enthusiasm

Create a gratitude journal and list between 10 and 25 things you are grateful for right now, each day. Add a success journal and list those things you do each day that you consider a success. Those things you accomplish that move you forward and make you feel good.

If you do these things and do them regularly, in time the new pathway will become a well worn reliable path. You will have automatic positive new habits that serve you. You will find more delight and enjoyment in you and your life. So begin today!

Appreciate that you are deciding in your favor. That is a reason to celebrate, feel grateful and count as a success. Chose to be a winner and a victor. Chose to be a ‘CAN Do’ person, commit to it and persist in doing your daily diligence. Above all Celebrate everything! Rex Sikes

This day was made just for you!

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!

Attitude, Choice, Conditioning, Decision, Emotions, Habit Formation, Habits, Intentional Thinking, Learning, Mindset, Overcoming Difficulty, Persistence, Positive Thinking, Responsibility, Self Improvement

The Secret: You Must Push Through Limitations To Success

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“There are many things that separate those who are successful from those who are not. That separate those who can do from those who can’t. AND those who do from those who don’t. There is something you can learn to do that will give you the edge and help bring you the successes you want. It isn’t easy at first but it is worth doing!

Today, do something you have been putting off. Do something you don’t want to do that would be good for you. Perhaps, it means cleaning your office or your home. Writing a paper of report that you have been dreading. Going to the gym. Eating right. Whatever it might be make it a point of not putting it off any longer.

It never helps to procrastinate. Typically, it just only adds pressure until we no longer feel we can go without getting it done, so we  give in and do it. If, instead, you take care of it, in  addition to decreasing stress, you do something valuable. You took charge. You dictated the circumstances instead of letting circumstances dictate you.

What We Want To Do With Ease We Must First Do With Diligence

This point should not be lost on you! When you dictate the circumstances you come from a place of your own power and authority. You put yourself in the driver’s seat. This is what successful entrepreneurs do. They are in charge and they make things happen. Isn’t that preferable to things controlling you?

When you do something you don’t want to do, when you push past your own limits and excuses and reasons for not getting it done you become a leader of yourself. You do it anyway. You are larger than the task. When you behave this way routinely, with this mindset you develop habits that help make you unstoppable and successful.

It means you make a commitment to yourself and follow through. It is important to keep your word to others and yourself. You learn to push through resistance and you learn to persist. Olympic  athletes train when they don’t feel like.  Can you imagine wanting to get up and train really hard, really early, day in and day out?

The More We Do The More We Can Do

Go beyond what stops you. Troops in basic training may not feel like getting up for roll call but they have external pressures to insure they do. Athletes going for the gold need to rely on their own internal means for training when they don’t feel like it. Motivation comes from action not by waiting for it.

Those who are successful do things those who aren’t will never do. They don’t fear work. The go the extra mile when others quit. They don’t let their emotions stop them from getting closer to their goals. They are driven. You can learn how to push through your limitations only by pushing through your limitations.

The more you do the more you can do. It gets easier once you start. Perhaps, you are one of those people who have to learn that starting is 80% of getting it completed. In the past, you looked at that task and talked or felt your way out of not doing it. Learn how to talk and feel your way into doing it. That would be immensely beneficial!

Develop Habits That Breed Success

You and I need to use our our own internal motivation and rewards to act. We need to learn to do it in spite of our best reasons for not. We need to learn to not listen to our excuses and start listening to all the reasons we should complete our tasks. Then we will have learned to keep going in spite of the odds and challenges.

We will keep going when we otherwise might have felt like throwing in the towel. We will have learned how to dedicate ourselves, commit to our goals and tasks and persist, until we achieve what we want to achieve. When you complete the task notice how you feel. I bet you feel pretty good and maybe even proud of yourself.

That makes it worth it too. You want to spend more time feeling good. When it comes to positive thinking there may be times you don’t feel like it but you persist anyway because you know it is best for you. As you develop the habits to take care of things ‘anyway’, in spite of inner resistance you are truly becoming a victor.

When you complete the task notice what you feel. Notice how you feel. If you feel good about it that is part of the reward you get for acting in your own behalf. Savor the feeling and appreciate yourself. Notice what you learned about accomplishing your task. You did it. Acknowledge and validate! Then take time to feel glad and celebrate everything.” Rex Sikes

Celebrate the day and that you are in it!

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!

Attitude, Beliefs, Celebration, Creating The Future, Deliberate Creators, Focus, Habit Formation, Intentional Thinking, Learning, Overcoming Difficulty, Positive Thinking, Responsibility

What You Don’t Rule, Rules You!

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“Why is it important to take control of your thoughts and feelings? Why do you need to control your brain? Why should you take charge of your life? Your brain is an organ just like any other in your body. It has a function to perform and operates by rules.

Neuroscientists, medical researchers and others know that thoughts are things.They are electrical impulses that trigger electrical and chemical switches in the brain. Our body responds to the thoughts we think. Our thoughts affect us!

Our beliefs, attitudes, opinions, and behaviors are made up of previously laid down neural pathways that function as patterns of behavior or habit. They are reliable and automatic. Many more are negative than are positive. There are thousands and thousands.

We adopted them growing up, from birth on. Our lives and present circumstances are the result of this neural conditioning. The brain does whatever it learned to do. It doesn’t care if the programs are right or wrong, true or false, beneficial or not. It does what it learned to do and it will keep doing these reliable until changed.

If you don’t take care to manage and control your thoughts and feelings your thoughts and feelings will manage you. You will continue on in the same fashion as you always have being controlled, your life dictated, by programs you adopted at an earlier age.

Some serve you well, many run counter to what you want. If you don’t learn to control your thinking and lay down new neural pathways and habits your old pathways and habits dictate the results you get. Change won’t happen unless you change it!

If you don’t like your results you must change the early conditioning. You must update and upgrade and develop positive new programs, and automated habits that get you the results you want. Whatever you don’t control controls you. Whatever you don’t rule, rules you.

The good news is your brain continues to learn and can serve you better when you take charge and direct it. Using the same method to learn previous programming you can learn new, more beneficial programming and begin to get the results you want. Take charge!

You work with the brain and condition it according to its rules. Then it is easy. If you don’t do it the way the brain most easily learns you will have a much more difficult time. If you want to get new, better results, and make your life grand keep reading this blog.

In it I share how the brain works, how you can condition your mind for happiness and success and much more. Don’t just read once, read and re-read. Go back through these pages and study. BUT reading alone won’t make the difference. You must apply what you read.

You must use what you learn. Do the exercises. Practice the procedures. Apply the principles. Read to inspire and motivate and learn how. Then do. The proper fruit of knowledge is action. To know and not to do is to not know. If you want to your life to change you must change things in your life.

You must put these methods to work. So keep reading, keep doing. Have fun, enjoy the process. Be patient and keep the faith. Great things are ahead. Claim your life back. Rule your brain and your life. Dictate the results you get. Become the author of your life and write happy chapters! Celebrate everything!” Rex Sikes

Greet each day with a smile!

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!

Affirmations, Attitude, Autosuggestion, Awareness, Celebration, Creating The Future, Directed Questions™, Expectations, Gratitude, Habit Formation, Intentional Thinking, Learning, Mindset, Persistence, Positive Thinking, Responsibility, Self Talk, Smiling, Visualization

What To Do When You Just Don’t Feel Like It…

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“Do you get inspired only to lose it? Do you you feel positive and then not? Does it sometimes seem like a struggle to keep centered or on the right track? If yes, first know this is completely normal. Everyone goes through it. After all, we are human.

We have ups and downs in our journey. We may not want them but maybe we ought to. When we open up, accept, make the way for, invite and receive we move ahead faster than by resisting. Struggles help us grow. Down times do as well. Contrast is good.

If it weren’t for discontent we might never change. We don’t want to be complacent and comfortable and miss out. At the same time we don’t want to strive and miss what we can appreciate. Balance is the answer. Celebrate struggles, be grateful for all. Then life IS grand.

You Are The Key To Change

I wanted to share a comment from a reader. I answered in the comment at the blog post and I answer this blog for today. I felt it may apply to others so I wanted to address it to as many as possible, not only to those who see the particular blog comment.

The author wrote: ‘As long as I read your post I feel positive and confidant . But after that I go back to the same mental frame . Even that little time frame will expand someday and I look forward to it happening . I thank you .’

Thanks for sharing. You have the correct attitude. That is wonderful. Even though you may not feel positive and confident all the time you look forward to that day when you will enjoy it more so because you know what you are doing now will expand. AND IT WILL!

Take Action Now

That puts you ahead of the game. Expecting to win IS playing the game well.  That IS a positive and confident mind set. You ARE looking forward to that day become more of a regular occurrence. Congratulate and validate yourself and your awareness! Wonderful!

I add the rest only as a reminder to all of us. Reading is only the beginning. You want to DO that which helps change your thinking. The easiest way to accomplish this and enjoy lasting success is to fill your mind with positive reading material daily. Put on a smile!

Read the blog, re-read the blogs. Make it a study not light reading or entertainment.  Read positive and inspiring books, listen to positive and inspiring audios, watch uplifting DVD’s. Listen and watch again and again. Repeated exposure to the same material is amazing!

The Secret To Change – Not Fighting The Old But Building The New

There are 24 hours in a day and most people don’t direct their mind for much of any of it. Researchers say 95-99% of what we do daily is habitual, routine, chronic, thinking, feeling and behaving. It is previous past programming much of which is less than glorious.

In order to begin to change it we need to tip the scale in favor of the positive. We do this through daily dedication and practice. Each positive step we take in the direction of what we want gets us closer to our destination. The journey, how we get there is important.

Have fun. Delight. Enjoy the journey. Find positive infographics, posters, mottos, sayings, affirmations that you can begin to repeat sincerely over and over again. This is very powerful. Look at my blogs on Directed Questions and apply that information.

What You Resist Persists

Set aside time for a gratitude and success journal. List what you are grateful for and you daily successes. Validate what you appreciate about yourself and other. Acknowledge your wins. Visualize yourself, feeling positive, loving, confident, happy, strong.

Whatever you would like more of acknowledge and emphasize. Concentrate on it. What you focus on expands. Accentuate the positive! You bring about what you think about! Energy flows where your attention goes. Maintain your mindset bit by bit. Smile more!

Help others in positive ways. Give to others without expecting anything in return. Appreciate yourself, circumstances and others. Celebrate everything! Persist and soon a new day will dawn. Old habits seem tough to break but you can learn new ones. Smile!

There Is No Better Time Than Now

Smile more, laugh more, Celebrate everything! Move, walk, notice nature and the beauty that surrounds you. Look at how and where the world is good and plentiful. We live in an abundant universe. Notice that. Be gentle, kind and encouraging to self and others.

The way you form new habits  is the same way you learned the old ones. Correct spaced repetition. You perform the same drills again and again in sports to become a better athlete. The same is true about become a positive thinking champion. Keep doing it!

Drop by drop fills the tub. Step by step the journey is made. The more you do the more you can do. Anything worthwhile is worth having difficulty with at first. Whatever we want to do with ease we must first do with diligence. We become what we think about all day.

You Can’t Make A Positive Change With A Negative Attitude

Do daily practice. Read some as much as you can each day. If nothing else read at least a page, a paragraph but DO something. Listen when able. Keep the journals. Repeat the affirmations out loud enthusiastically and silently day in and day out. Smile more! 🙂

Have fun, have faith and you will soon see change. It takes a bare minimum of 21 days to make or break a habit. It can take longer. Make this a daily practice. Commit and keep going don’t quit. Persist. Stay in touch! Oh, did I mention, Smile more?  AND celebrate everything!” Rex Sikes

What about today thrills you?

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To Have Anything You Want In Life You Must Do This!

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horizons snow-angel-phil-koch

“Einstein purportedly said, ‘The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.’

However, it appears the quote actually belongs to Bob Samples, reflecting on ideas expressed by Einstein. We know Albert highly regarded the intuitive mind. He valued imagination over logic in many, many ways.

It may be that Samples was paraphrasing János Plesch who said, “When I examine myself and my methods of thought I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.’

If You Can Dream It You Can Be It

Einstein, did apparently say, at another time, ‘And certainly we should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality. It cannot lead, it can only serve; and it is not fastidious in its choice of a leader.’

Okay, I have tried to provide some historical background for the sake of accuracy. Just a smidgen. I like the first quote whether brilliant Albert said it or not. I think there is much value in it. It may have been Bob Proctor who stated, ‘We look at the report card and let it control what we are like.’ I agree with this assessment too.

While we are all somewhat different on the outside, and from varied backgrounds, and individual programming and conditioning through environmental factors people are very much the same inside. Our conscious minds differ but our subconscious minds work the same.

What You See (Inside) Is What You Get

We have been conditioned or trained to use our senses to approach the world and believe that our senses don’t lie. In fact they do. Not just a little bit but a lot. Still, we believe them. We look at the world and think the world is what we see. We look at the report card and declare it so.

The fact is, everything originates within us. It is from within that we look out at the world. We have been trained to do it backwards and that is why we encounter so much difficulty being and doing and having what we want. It is from within that we make things happen.

This is why attitude and mindset determine how far one gets in life. This is why what we think is what we get. Because if we can’t think it, if we don’t conceive of it, we won’t ever know or imagine it is possible. It will be outside the range of our choices. It starts inside!

What You Say (To Yourself) Is What You Get

This is why if you focus on poverty it is unlikely you get rich. If you focus on disease it is unlikely you get well. If you focus on hate and violence it is unlikely you will have harmony and peace. What you focus on determines what you get. It begins on the inside of us.

Instead,  people look at their bank accounts and fear they won’t be able to make ends meet. That then becomes their destiny. They have decided they are stuck there and they can’t see a way out. AND THEY ARE CORRECT in that assessment. They will remain stuck.

BECAUSE that is what they are focused on. In order to get out of it you have to envision the way out of it. You need to imagine first the better life and focus on the better life. You have to imagine what you want day in and day out not what you do not want.

Declare It! Command It! Be In Charge! And So It Is

When you imagine clearly what you want you tell your subconscious mind what you want it to work on. You tell it to problem solve for you. You tell it to get to work creating the means by which you can have what you desire. When combined with strong positive emotion it will do as you tell it to.

OTHERWISE it will continue to create the means to keep you poor. BECAUSE that is what you tell it to do when you focus on being and by feeling poor. When you feel really badly about something you are telling your subconscious to give you more of that. This IS HOW it works. Your feelings and thoughts run the show.

The outer circumstances don’t dictate to us what the world is like we create our outer circumstances. What we think and how emotionally charged we are thinking about it determines what we get back. We determine our circumstances. I’m not suggesting that people born to poverty or in the ghetto. There are.

If It Is To Be It Is Up To Me

But there are those who don’t let their birth conditions rule their life, and there are those who do let it rule them. The difference is not in the birth conditions but in how one thinks about them. Some see them as the end point. ‘I was born poor I will always be poor.’ Yes, then they will always be that way.

Another uses the very same conditions as a launching pad to leave the conditions of birth behind. It is our thoughts that make the difference not what is going on around us. Millionaires and billionaires are made when the economy is good or when it is bad.

There are people born well who blow it. They become alcoholics, disturbed, or worse. They’re bred into the finest conditions but it is what they do within that determines what they make of it. It is NOT the outer world that makes us who we are. It’s OUR inner world. We become who we decide to become! It is always our choice!

Attitude Determines What You Do Or Don’t Do

Attitude determines whether you will or you won’t. ‘Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right’, said Henry Ford. ‘Imagination IS more important than knowledge,’ said Albert Einstein. We should honor the gift more than the servant. Use the inner to create the outer how you want it to be.

Within these blog pages, I have shared with you, in various ways, repeatedly, what you can do to live the good life IF you want that. Everything you need to live it is already within you. You simply have to tap into it! You only have to access you inner resources. You don’t have to be a victim of circumstances you can live as a victor, a winner and a champion.

You can be, do and have anything you think yourself into. Whatever the predominant thoughts are in your mind day and night is the world you create around yourself and for you. Circumstances are a reflection of what is going on inside you. From within to without.

If you don’t like your circumstances change your thinking about them. Dictate what the circumstances will be and YES your life will change. YOU be in charge. TAKE CONTROL! Become the captain of your soul and the master of your fate. Learn how to control your thinking and you will learn how to have anything you want in life!” Rex Sikes

Discover what is good and new today!

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Successful People Know Why You Need To Read And Write. Do You?

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horizons on-their-way-phil-koch

“What is one of the best practices you can engage in? Reading. You would think everyone does it but the numbers of people who actually read to improve themselves is unbelievably low by comparison. The estimate is fewer than 10% read past the first chapter of a book. Some never even pick one up.

Would it be better to read a short 300 word paragraph than nothing at all? It might be. To read anything positive and motivational even if it is only a sentence a day is better than nothing. If you can do more than that it is better. Time spent in reading positive material is important. Time spent. Not just the reading.

Just as writing by hand is far superior to typing on a keyboard. When you write you make numerous neural connections, thousands. When you type you make 8 repetitive movements. Handwriting is called brain writing for a reason. It makes you smarter and helps you retain more when you write.

So read and take notes on what you read. Then re-read what you read. Re-read what you wrote. Re-write what you wrote and re-read. Study makes a difference. Repeated reading and study is of great value. When you read and then go back later you will notice things you hadn’t previously.

You may make new connections with the material for years by re-reading. Learning each time something new. When you re-visit your notes and re-write or re-word them later on you learn so much more. These are good, worthwhile, health practices to help you develop, grow and evolve.

I write long posts instead of 300 words because if you can’t take 5 minutes to sit and read and get your best mind on in the morning you are already screwed. I do it to detain you and get you to think. I do it for you to start your day with some inspirational material.

I write so you can take some time to think about things that are important and can make a difference in your life. I write so you can sit and reflect, perhaps reflect on it all through the day. I write to give you something to eat, food for thought, and to digest.

If you need and get all your inspiration in an infographic or a sound byte you may be beyond hope. Not really, but heck, slow down. Stop perusing FB for bad news and disturbing pictures. Instead read my blog or something else that inspires you and points you in a positive and useful direction.

Fill your mind with good ideas, good news, to begin your day right. That is why my posts are longer. To hold you for a bit. To keep your attention on one topic for a few minutes. To end the fast edits, and quick bits that hammer us on TV, radio and the internet. To give you a pause and a rest from pop ups and flashing ads.

This is why I make them longer. SO you have to rest a moment before moving on. If you can’t read at least a page of positive material in the morning, wow, you need to re-evaluate your life. You should read for a few pages, five or more minutes. Heck choose positive material to read with your coffee instead of newspaper.

The more time you read positive material for yourself the better. Some people make a practice of reading the same chapter of Napoleon Hill everyday for a month, whether they feel like it or not. That is an excellent practice.

Repetition is the mother of skill. Repeat reading, in that fashion, is bound to help you to discover things and make deeper connections than reading only once or twice. It will also become much more memorable and immediate. The understanding you gain from such practice is valuable, perhaps priceless.

Read, fill your mind with positive, inspiring thoughts when you wake up. Start and end your day right. Celebrate what you are grateful for at the very same time. Let your first and last daily thoughts be glad ones. Your life will become so much more magical and delightful as you do. Read and enjoy! Celebrate everything!” Rex Sikes

Make marvelous the day!

*If you like this blog please share it with others who can use some inspiration too!

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Horizons photo used with permission of Phil Koch.

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The Difference Between Success And Failure Is You!

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horizons pink sky

“I’m just saying…

that some people claim…

we have beliefs that keep us stuck and these are hard to change.

You do know this

do you not?

People claim that our paradigms and our beliefs

conscious or unconscious beliefs

limit us and keep us stuck

or prevent us from being who we truly are.

Do you believe this?

Because

That…

is another belief.

Do you realize this?

Keep in mind

WHATEVER you think

you make it so!

If you can or can’t

If it is easy or not

If there is abundance or lack

is all up to what you think.

You

ONLY you

create your reality.

The world is cruel or friendly

that is up to you.

Whatever excuse you have

whomever or whatever you blame

whether you find pleasure of pain

ease or difficulty

think it is possible or impossible

limited by your paradigms or free

all are just more thoughts or beliefs.

Your beliefs

either allow or prevent you.

Bad habits are difficult to break

it is too tough to change

it takes lots of work to transform

others can succeed but I can’t

are all just beliefs.

You do realize this, don’t you?

Do they have power?

Perhaps.

Perhaps the only power they have

is the power you give them.

If they remain in the dark

from there yes perhaps they control you.

But can you change them?

Is it difficult to change them or easy?

Will it take a long time or a short time?

The answers to these questions are found

in your beliefs.

Do you realize this?

Whatever your answer

you answer

from your belief set.

It will be as easy and quick and pleasant

as you decide it will be.

Whatever it will be – you create it.

So create it to be how you want it

and allow yourself to be pleasantly surprised.

Become the master of your beliefs

do not let them be your master.

You decide how you will be

decide what you will do

you decide what you will have.

Determine what your life will be

and live it!

Make

believe

it is simple

easy fun delightful enjoyable.

Believe what you want

and what serves you to

live how you want.

Is it easy to do?

You decide that.

You do realize this – do you not?

You might be surprised at how

simple and quick transformation can be.

Celebrate and delight!” Rex Sikes

Make this day incredible!

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Horizons photo used with permission of Phil Koch.

GETTING CLOSER TO THE NEW SITE LAUNCH  – Inching our way up on getting it up and running. The site will have a new look and feel. If you get this blog emailed to you,  You will be able to subscribe to the blog and my new newsletter.

Stick with me. I’d hate for you to miss anything when it switches. Subscribe and Follow Daily Inspiration and Gratitude! Leave comments. I love your comments and feedback. Thanks so much!

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A Lie Repeated Often Enough Get’s Substituted As The Truth

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horizons green cloud burst

We all have beliefs as you already know. Some of them are useful beliefs that support us and help us do things important to us. Other beliefs we have do just the opposite. They limit us. The interesting thing is that a belief is just a thought. A mental packet of energy.

It literally is just energy. In the body it may be chemicals and electrical impulses. Why do we have such a difficult time with some of our beliefs and behaviors if it is just electrical, chemical, energy? It would seem the answer is in the fact that these mental packs of energy are tied to our feelings.

Your Brain Is As Strong As Its Weakest Think

AND for some silly reason we think (mental energy again) if we feel a certain way, well that is it, it is written in stone. If we don’t feel like it then we just shouldn’t do it. Worse yet, if we don’t feel like it we can’t do it. Have you ever thought about this? We think some 60,000 thoughts a day most of which we thought yesterday.

We are creatures of habit. The same neural firings and pathways get activated. We routinely think and feel pretty much the same, day to day, with some obvious variations. Some things upset the apple cart pleasantly and some not so pleasantly. Something happens and we react.

Even then it is, most assuredly, the same way we usually react. After all we pretty much get mad the same way and usually about the same things. We get excited the same way and about the same things. You name it most of what we do is the same and automatic and it is all due to our electrical chemical squirts and pathways.

If You Really Want To  Do Something You’ll Find A Way

So are we doomed to live this way just because we have? For some the answer may be yes. Sadly, for some they will never opt for anything different. God love them anyways. ‘They know not what they do’. They just never wake up to the possibility that it COULD be otherwise. For them change may not even be a dream.

For others the answer is no, not at all. They can change and become whomever they want to be in life. They can do and have whatever it is they want. They can make profound positive, personal, lasting change that they enjoy now and into the future. For them change is real.

Then there are those who wish. They hope to have a better life but they do not do anything about it. The watch others succeed, have fulfilling relationship and enjoy happiness but they don’t think they can. The hope, they whine, they wish but for them it is only a dream.

If You Don’t Want To Do Something You’ll Find An Excuse

The bottom line is some will and some won’t. That is just the way it is. In the same way we have beliefs that limit us and support us. That is just the way it is. None of our beliefs are necessarily true. We think they are but the reality is they are things we believe.

Have you ever been wrong about anything, ever at all? If you are honest, then of course you have. Have your senses ever deceived you? You mistook someone for a friend? You sure thought it was her but it wasn’t. I bet you can come up with numerous examples.

The point is beliefs really are statements or assertions or declarations about ourself which don’t have to have anything with the truth. We just believe them, we believe that they do. Yes, they could have but they don’t have to have any resemblance to truth for us to have adopted and lived from them.

We Are Creatures Of Habit

That is why we believe things about ourselves that are negative, bad, harmful or limiting. We believe we are screw ups, worthless, unable to do things, bad, wrong and stupid. Why on earth would we EVER chose to believe those things about us. Guess what when we do we feel bad too. Heck, do you want to think and feel bad? I bet you don’t.

Without getting into long explanations as to why we have beliefs in the first place, or how we came to adopt beliefs through circumstances, peers and authority figures, or how they may help ensure survival etc. let us just admit we have them. Let’s also realize all of them are lies.

Lies repeated often enough may get substituted for the truth. If you adopted some of these at an early age and have been repeating them over and over to yourself, in one way or another, you have come to believe statements that can have absolutely nothing to do with the truth of who you are!

Thoughts Are Things

Except for the fact that you have embraced them, believed them and made them your own. You live from them, repeating them now because they are habit. Not that they are true they are just habit. They are reliable and automatic and they serve to keep you the same.

Your RAS looks for confirmation in the outer world thereby continuing the cycle of self deceit. If you believe things that aren’t true about you you are lying to yourself and accepting it as true. If that is the case CHOOSE better lies to believe. Choose lies that serve you to have everything you want in life!

SO while we are at it let’s admit we believe things about ourselves we may be better off not believing. We believe some pretty stupid and useless things sometimes. Henry Ford put it well when he said, ‘If you think you can or you think you can’t; you are right.’ Pretty much sums it up doesn’t it?

Birds Of A Feather Flock Together

There are beliefs we think that begin with ‘I can’ or ‘I am able’ then there are those that begin with ‘I can’t’ or ‘I am unable’. Both result in feelings, different feelings, and both determine how we act and behave and what and whether or not we accomplish anything much. Our mindset determines where we go in life.

You can absolutely change what and how you believe. You can develop new habits. I won’t lie to you and say it is easy it takes some effort. NOT very much but it takes some. Most of the effort is in overcoming the inertia of living a particular way so well you are comfortable with it even if it is painful.

People often times won’t do anything because it is uncomfortable. Change is uncomfortable it shakes things up. It is uncertain. People ‘don’t feel like it’. Yes, part of the brain’s job IS maintaining homeostasis. It keeps everything the same because it has made all those habitual neural pathways to run.

Our Brains Crave Novelty

It loves and craves novelty at the very same time. It is a learning junky. The human isn’t. We don’t like it all very much. We want it easy and ‘hey, don’t rock the boat!’ So many people won’t change because they believe it will be or is ‘too hard’. They believe ‘it will take too much work’ or that ‘I can’t’ or ‘I don’t know how’ or ‘all of this is BS’.

When confronted with the opportunity to change often times resistance comes up. Those are all the beliefs trying to keep you the same. All the reasons why something is wrong, won’t work, why you can’t, why it isn’t worth it, why why why… excuses…excuses…excuses…

Habits, habits, habits. Habitual thoughts you have been thinking forever keep you from living your goals and dreams and having the life you want. If you want to change examine these limiting statements  You can change you beliefs and you belief habits, by developing new habits.

Habits Are Reliable And Automatic

Would you like to learn more about how to do this? More next time. BUT keep in mind ‘ a lie repeated often enough gets substituted for the truth’. What we think about we become. You can create new positive, powerful beliefs that serve you better and help take you where you want to go. AND THAT IS GREAT NEWS!” Rex Sikes

Celebrate today!

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Horizon photo used with permission of Phil Koch.

GETTING CLOSER TO THE NEW SITE LAUNCH  – Inching our way up on getting it up and running. The site will have a new look and feel. If you get this blog emailed to you,  You will be able to subscribe to the blog and my new newsletter. Stick with me. I’d hate for you to miss anything when it switches.

Subscribe and Follow Daily Inspiration and Gratitude! Leave comments. I love your comments and feedback. Thanks so much!