Category Archives: Responsibility

Follow The Recipe For Success!

horizons 2-in-the-beginning-phil-koch

“You know what you want and you really hope you get it. How come you are struggling so much? What isn’t working? What must you do to get ahead? Do you know? If you aren’t sure that is part of why you may be having a rough time. The answer is not working harder.

The answer IS work smarter. Success is a science, a formula, a system. If you follow it, as you do a recipe, you will be successful. Most people don’t do what is required.  They don’t learn the formula.  They try to do it on their own.  In a nutshell:

If you know what you want it must be more than a wish or a hope. It may start that way but it needs to be much more. It needs to become what Hill said, is a ‘white hot burning desire’. It should become your passion, your obsession. From there it becomes applied faith.

If You Really Want To Do Something You Will Find A Way

What is applied faith? It is the certainty that you will accomplish your definite purpose or goal. It is that inner knowing, that feeling that you are on the path and nothing can prevent you. Faith applied means you take action. You take the initiative and do what you must.

You work your plan and because you know one day you will arrive you never give up. Success begins with thought on the inside. It becomes a feeling. You feel successful. You act successful. You take action and you keep at it. Then, you become successful.

Sadly, many people wish, hope, want and desire but they never take the steps that make it happen. For most it is because their attitude is not correct. They don’t have a positive mental attitude to see them through. They believe their negative programming.

They listen to other people discourage them. They look to present conditions and circumstances instead of keeping their eye, their mind, their heart where they are headed to. They get distracted. They are hasty and it doesn’t happen fast enough, so they quit.

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

There are numerous reasons why people don’t make it. There is only one reason why people do succeed. That one reason is: they keep at it until they do succeed. They let nothing prevent them. Why? Because in their mind they are already a success!

I leave you with this poem:

“You can do as much as you think you can, But you’ll never accomplish more; If you’re afraid of yourself, young man, There’s little for you in store. For failure comes from the inside first, It’s there if we only knew it, And you can win, though you face the worst, If you feel that you’re going to do it.”  Edgar A. Guest  From A Heap o’ Livin’. The Reilly & Lee Co.

You Are Where Your Thoughts Take You

You can absolutely DO whatever you put your mind to. That is what Hill proved when he modeled 500 of the most successful people of his time. That is the result for those who have applied his philosophy fully. His works are responsible for millions of people from all walks of life becoming the success they want to be. You can too! Celebrate everything!” Rex Sikes

Be thankful for this day!

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Horizons photo used with permission of Phil Koch.

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Success Is The Sum Of Small Efforts Repeated Daily

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“In my posts I continually attempt to emphasize how simple it is to make positive changes and succeed. Whether you want to accelerate your career, improve your bank account, enjoy a delightful relationship or celebrate more of what life has to offer, it is easy once you know how.

Today, I am going to give you a few quotes from Robert Collier, one of the early New Thought leaders to again drive that point home for you. Collier lived from 1885 to 1950. He wrote, ‘you can do anything you wish to do, have anything you wish to have, be anything you wish to be.’ What follows are a few more of Robert’s words.

‘Visualize this thing you want, see it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blueprint and begin to build.’

‘Any thought that is passed on to the subconscious often enough and convincingly enough is finally accepted.’

‘See things as you would have them be instead of as they are.’

‘Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.’

‘The great successful men of the world have used their imagination; they think ahead and create their mental picture in all its details, filling in here, adding a little there, altering this a bit and that a bit, but steadily building, steadily building.’

‘The first essential, of course, is to know what you want.’

‘All power is from within and is therefore under our own control.’

‘The first principle of success is desire, knowing what you want.’

‘Desire is the planting of your seed. Very few persons, comparatively, know how to Desire with sufficient intensity. They do not know what it is to feel and manifest that intense, eager, longing, craving, insistent, demanding, ravenous Desire which is akin to the persistent, insistent, ardent, overwhelming desire of the drowning man for a breath of air; of the shipwrecked or desert-lost man for a drink of water; of the famished man for bread and meat… ‘

Well, there you have it. I think it is more than sufficiently self-explanatory. I want to only remind you of one quote again in particular, so that it is not overlooked. All are great, of course, but it is this one.

‘Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.’ It is the small things we do on a consistent and persistent basis that make all the difference in the world. Walking the same way though the valley floor creates a pathway. It is the continuous repetition that creates the path.

Recently, I shared on ‘neuroplasticity’ the brains ability to change and grow based on our use of it. As we learn new things and repeat those learnings through practice we build new habits and can replace old ones. We can evolve ourselves as our brains literally evolve. Neurons that fire together DO wire together.

So never give up. Do small things, a little bit each day and you will make progress to your goal. Whatever that is, you can be, do and have anything you want. Anything you want. Napoleon Hill, reminded us, ‘Whatever the mind can conceive, and believe we can achieve’.

Since all power is from within and therefore under your control keep the faith, never give up. Do the little things and you will arrive where you want to. Keep making your dreams a reality. It can be easier than you ever think and it is much simpler!” Rex Sikes

Celebrate and delight!

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Do This And Your World Can Immediately Become Better!

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“It always fascinates me how things work out together. Some call it synchronicity. The topic I chose to write about today came home to me in a delightful way. I had planned to write on kindness and committing those random acts when one happened to me.

Prior to writing this I am at home. I had dozed off. I was awakened gently by my daughter who said, ‘I brought you soup’. Wonderful, I thought. Plus, she brought home something for me to drink. I am delighted. It was welcomed and it was tasty.

I felt well taken care of and loved. As we talked and I ate soup, it comes out that out she has been delivering soup to a friend’s grandmother for a number of weeks. She had visited once and realized the woman’s refrigerator was bare.

If You Want To Lift Yourself Up Lift Up Someone Else

She had a couple eggs, cheese, and nothing in the freezer. My daughter brought some soup over the next evening and the woman enjoyed it. So my daughter made it more of a regular thing. She’d take her a quart or two of soup.

Nightly, after work, she’d tell me she was going to this woman’s house. Even in very bad weather she made the delivery. I had been concerned at times when weather was rough. I wanted her to come home safe,  but she would say she was going to her friend’s grandma’s house first.

I never knew why until tonight.  It simply came up as we chatted and I ate the soup she brought me. After some more conversation she stated she was excited about our plans for the evening tomorrow. Off to her room she went. I am blessed with two wonderful children. I was well taken care of this late night.

You Don’t Need A Reason To Help People

I am very proud. My daughter simply wanted to do something nice for this woman because she cared. She said, though the woman has a job and works hard she has a difficult time making ends meet. She can’t make enough money to buy much food.

My daughter cared! She acted! When people care for other people we lift each other up. We ought to  assist people without criticizing them for their lot in life. We help them because of what is in our heart not because of what they can do in return.

I think this is what life is really all about. Simple kindness. Simple goodness to each other. We are all on this cloud encased globe together. We ought to be able to get along, help and enjoy each other. I will close this out soon, but first a quote I would have used tonight, anyway. Joseph Murphy wrote the following:

My Religion Is Kindness – Dali Lama

‘There is no one to change but yourself. You have to be nice to yourself; the real self of you is God. Exalt, honor, revere and respect this Divine Presence within yourself; then you are loving and honoring your neighbor.Your neighbor is the closest thing to you; God is your neighbor; and if you love God you will have goodwill toward all men.’

Simple acts of kindness can go a long way toward helping us help people feel exalted, honored, revered and respected. We should strive to lift each other up together instead of tearing each other apart or down. More kindness is needed, less greed and intolerance.

Be kind. Do something nice for yourself by doing something nice for someone else. Let your actions be your reward not the praise from others. It feels good to do something nice. It is increase for all! A rising tide floats the boat and everyone in it.

Right Now How You Feel Is Creating The Future

It is good to uplift others. When you put it out there you get it back in countless untold ways. Simply make it a point to be more gentle, accepting, kind, peaceful and loving. The more love and goodness we spread around the more we get back to enjoy and spread again.

Create that ambience around you. And know this: People are mostly good! We hear about the bad ones all the time in media, but mostly, people are wonderful! We all should keep that in mind. What we focus on we get back. Let’s focus on the goodness. Let’s build what we want to have more of. Let’s celebrate everything!” Rex Sikes

Today is another day to be thrilled!

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Horizons photo used with permission of Phil Koch.

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How You Can Help Yourself While Helping Others Through Tough Times

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“We all face tough times, don’t we?  Life throws us curve balls from time to time. That just is the way it is. Times can be hard. The question is do you rise to meet tough times and see them through or do you buckle, cave and let them triumph over you? How do you meet the tough times you go through?

Napoleon Hill maintained that when the going gets tough your sincerity of purpose will sustain you. I love this because so much of what he wrote about was going the extra mile, adding value to others, helping others and applying the Golden Rule. He stated that these practices will help you make your dreams come true.

When others know that their interests are in your heart they can and do go out of their way for you. You could end up with booking more jobs, getting more clients and customers because you become known for delivering quality above and beyond the call of duty. You get known as someone with integrity and who cares.

It is hard to beat that, especially in this day and age when customer service is hard to come by, profits above people rule the purchase. Wages are low, costs are high. People have been demeaned an devalued. Help them, care for them, go that extra mile, deliver on your promises and then some and you will stand out.

I love another story Hill shared about Henry Ford and a woman named Martha Berry, founder of a Northern Georgia school for poor girls and boys. Their parents were not able to pay to send them to school. Times were tough for Ms. Berry and it was difficult to keep the school afloat.

She managed to book a meeting with mogul Henry Ford and requested a small donation to keep the school running. Ford refused. ‘Well then’, she said, ‘would you give us a bushel of peanuts?’ Apparently, this amused Ford so he honored this request. She and the students planted, harvested  and replanted the peanuts.

They made considerable sums of money. She took the money to Ford to show him how she had increased the return on his investment. Because he was so impressed with her and the students efforts he donated farm equipment and tractors.  He gave enough equipment to keep the self-sustaining school in business.

Over the years he contributed more than a million dollars to the school Ms Berry founded. Though skeptical at first, her strong belief in what she was doing convinced Ford to do what he first had refused to do. By her actions and faith she demonstrated that she was fully engaged in an absolutely worthy endeavor.

An endeavor so worthy that she would never let any obstacle or adversity prevent her from prevailing. She would never give in. Ford stated, ‘I couldn’t help but be impressed with her sincerity and the way she applied it on behalf of the needy boys and girls.’ Ms Berry was one who would not let circumstances rule but one who would rule over circumstances.

She demonstrated sincerity, ingenuity, the ability to take action, persistence, and much more, including her dedication and willingness to help others. Hill commented, ‘You can achieve your own goals in life by proving to others you have a sincere desire to help them. If you do,you won’t have to worry about the lean times. You will have more clients or customers than you can handle.’

I think this is a beautiful and excellent reminder to remember we are all in it together. A rising tide floats the entire boat. Together, we can make wonderful things happen. We can and should help others especially the more powerful we become. It reminds us that what we are on the inside will be reflected in what we create on the outside. From within to without. The good we put out there comes back to us!” Rex Sikes

Make it a marvelous day!

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Horizons photo used with permission of Phil Koch.

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Not Able To Get Law Of Attraction To Work? Well, Guess What!

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“Frustrated? Not able to get your career or life goals together? That darn Law of Attraction stuff doesn’t work. Well, does it? Have you been asked this question? Law of attraction not working for you?Perhaps, after giving it a shot, that was your conclusion.

Well, guess what? That premise is all wrong. Let me explain.

The Law Of Attraction is one of many laws. Laws, such as the Law of Gravity or the Law of Lift, always work. They do not work sometimes and then not at other times. They always work! Prior to humankind flying one might have said the law of lift doesn’t work except for birds.

The law of attraction is always working. It never stops working. If you are not getting what you want it is not because the law of attraction doesn’t work. It is because you are attracting the wrong things. The attraction is pulling in what you do not want.

Gravity Is Always Working

Consider the law of attraction as the law of gravity because that is what gravity is. Attraction. Little bodies pulled toward larger bodies. You are simply pulling in the stuff you would prefer you didn’t. Hey, it is not your fault. Like the rest of us, you grew up uninformed.

It isn’t your fault. Do not blame yourself. BUT you are responsible. That sounds like a contradiction but it is not. Don’t blame anyone or anything if you haven’t got it to work in your favor, yet. You can and you will if you start doing the correct things today. It is up to you!

Stop paying attention, concentrating, giving energy to, concerning yourself with anything you don’t want to have more of. Poor health, bills, poverty, distress, bad relationships, awful job, whatever! Stop giving anything you don’t want more back of any thought at all.

You Attract What You Are 

Switch your focus to what you DO want. Concentrate and put your energy on what you do want to attract. Yes, you still have to pay your bills but learn to do so gladly. You will stay pay them when you have all the money so accept that. Pay them gladly, monitor your mind. Attitude is everything. Develop a rich attitude! Mindset rules!

Being upset about you bills, debt, lack of money or poverty won’t help you get out of it. Doing something about it will. What can you do? You first start with your mind and your attitude. You decide that instead of being poor you are rich. That you have plenty. Life is good. There is plenty to go around and you have your share of it.

Focus on this. Imagine yourself already with all the money you need. Living the good life. Bills taken care of. Leisure time and pleasure accounted for. Doing what you want and when. THIS is what you can focus on. Visualize it and affirm it. Live it now in your mind!

Your Thoughts Determine Your Destiny

Why? Because when you do, AND if it makes you feel good to imagine living your dream, then you are sending a clear message to your subconscious mind that THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT MORE OF! Tell your brain what you want NOT what you don’t want.

The law is working you have just been applying it in the wrong way. If you don’t take charge of it you brain runs on default. It gives you whatever it learned to give you while growing up. It mirrors your mindset. It produces more and more of the same.  It gives you the crappy beliefs and programming you adopted and re-produces it.

THAT is WHY the statement – ‘doing the same thing over again but expecting a different result IS the definition of insanity.’ It is why the statement exists, ‘if you always do what you always did you will always get what you always got.’ In order to get something else you must do something else! It is up to you! You ARE responsible.

What You Think You Create

In order to steer the law of attraction, because truthfully that is all you can do, you must take charge. You can’t turn it on or off you can only direct it. In order to direct it to get what you prefer your attention has to be on what you prefer exclusively. You have to let go and ignore the rest. Energy flows where your attention goes.

Many people try it and think positive for a few minutes and then fall back into their old default ways. Either they think negative or neutral which amounts to thinking the same thing. In order to create the life you want you must be mostly positive and focused on what you want, most of your time. Stop defeatist thinking. Think winner!

You must think positive and feel positive most of all your time. So learning to make the law of attraction work for you is learning to be more positive more of your waking hours. Frequently, think positive and focus on what you want during your waking hours. Quality and quantity are the rule.

What You Feel You Attract

Focus on what you don’t yet have, the invisible good in your future, as if you already have it. Ignore the present conditions and circumstances. Why? Because your present circumstances are the results of your former or prior thinking. Literally, from your past.

You have been too focused on what you didn’t want, or you didn’t focus on anything at all. Which is why you got poor results you don’t like. If you don’t run your brain your brain runs you. It learned to do all sorts or crummy, useless things. It does it reliably. Habitually!

Now you have the opportunity to change it. It is very simple but not always easy. Actually, it will be whatever you believe it to be. If you believe it difficult well, then it most likely will be. It is always only up to you. Only you make it work! Your present thinking will become your future reality.

What You Imagine You Become

No one can do it for you. Only you can transform you mindset to develop a winning, champion, creator attitude. If you want the best in life it begins with the best thoughts and feelings inside you. From within to without. Then you create and attract that best of everything.

You brain assists you. You brain evolves by how you think. Think positive and increase and your brain finds ways and examples and opportunities to have more of that. Think negative and decrease and you brain will find all those reasons and examples too.

The bottom line is the law of attraction never stops working. You can only, and only YOU can, steer it in the direction you want to move in. It is up to you what you get back. If you decide to be a positive, ‘I can do anything’ person you will be. Your decision.

The Only Limitations There Are Exist In Your Thinking 

Be patient though, it won’t work overnight. Your brain will change too! It will evolve to be more positive. Your brain changes with you! You are either negative with a negative brain or you become positive and your brain becomes positive too. Then it gets easier to be positive. Whichever you choose, gets easier.

Everything takes some time. Trees grow from seeds. Your results grow from your  thoughts in the same fashion. You condition your mind to be healthy the same way you condition your body to be healthy; over time by repeated exercise. If you exercise your mind right you can have whatever you desire. It works this way!

The law of attraction has its own timeline, not yours. Those of you who tried it for awhile and then threw in the towel; you quit! That is all. You decided you had tried it and now you were finished trying because you didn’t get results as soon as you thought you should. You gave up and blamed the process. Pretty normal.

Anything Can Be Possible

You can’t force the seed to grow faster. You can’t force the cake to bake sooner. It takes whatever time it takes. You can accelerate it some by how much effort you devote to making it work. You can accelerate it some by getting out of your own way and not setting conditions on it. It responds well to the proper nourishment.

You need to do the work and let the outcome go. If you keep at it you will eventually get there, come what may. You just have to keep traveling in the direction of your desired dream, for as long as it takes to get there. IF it is worth it to you, ultimately you will.

If you absolutely have to have it, you will do whatever positive things you can do, that are necessary, to keep you working towards achieving your goal. You won’t quit if you must, absolutely must, have it. Napoleon Hill said, ‘whatever the mind can conceive and believe you can achieve.’

Take Charge Of Your Mind And Your Life

Notice, he didn’t say you will achieve it. He said you CAN because whether or not you will is completely up to YOU. Only you will make it happen. If you marshall your resources and keep going until you do achieve it. That is the reality of it. You can if you will.  Will you?

Learn how to do it. Invest your time, energy and even your money in yourself. Learn to make it work for you because it is already working. Go where you want to go. Be the person in charge of your mind, your feelings and your life. Decide and then follow through!

If you are truly wise and smart you will realize the law of attraction is you. It is your mindset and your will. It is your determination that sees you through to the conclusion. It is not some magical force outside you that changes circumstance.

Take 100% Responsibility For What You Create

YOU are the force. It is all within you. Either YOU make it happen or you do not. You either bring it about or quit and accept whatever is. Either way, you are the law of attraction. Remember always, it is up to you! Only you!” Rex Sikes

Count today as a good one!

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Horizons photo used with permission of Phil Koch.

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What You Need To Know About Negativity And Depression

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“Do you sometimes feel change is hard? Have you felt overwhelmed at times? We all go through it at different points in our life.  Someone who read my blog elsewhere reached out saying ‘great post’ and ‘thanks’. He then described some personal history and how he worked hard to make changes. I thought I’d share my reply.

‘Thanks for speaking out. Yes, I agree there is a way to use doubts fears and negative feelings. The best way is as an alert signal that let’s us know something is amiss with our thinking and that we need to change it.

We need to re-aim it so we think and feel better. So whenever we feel less than glorious that is the body’s way of saying ‘hey change your thinking. stop thinking about what you don’t want and begin to think positive!’

If we were always contented with love and non-critical we would probably never change. Why would we if we are always satisfied. So dissatisfaction has a place too. The trick is learning to be dissatisfied without being cruel to ourselves or others.

To love and nourish, to nurture ourselves when times are good and not so good is important. It has been reported for sometime now, by researchers, that too much right brain activity may be the cause of depressive feelings.

Many artists, of all types, display right brained dominance or that tendency. Happiness is mostly a left brain function. It is literally what we say to our self and how we say it. The words and the tone. The left hemisphere is the seat of our ability to understand and speak language.

How we talk to ourselves is important. Unfortunately, many of us, have made less than glorious self-talk a habit. This does result in feeling less than glorious too. Monitoring and changing what we say is important to be able to change and feel better.

It is is a conditioning process. It requires mental exercise or practice similar to physical exercise or practice. That means replacing a bad chronic habit with a better, more productive habit.That takes effort but it can be done.

It takes consistent effort and dedication. It is simple but not always easy. Similar to exercise you have to do it repeatedly, for long enough, before you begin to see results and then keep doing it to further develop and then maintain the results.

A lot of people don’t realize how truly wonderful they are. They don’t appreciate how strong they are or how much they have already overcome. They should fully appreciate themselves for it.

I believe credit where credit is due. If you make a mistake, own up and at the same time forgive yourself. A mistake is just a mistake. Take it easy. Be gentle and compassionate. Never critical or harsh.

Anyone who suffers or has suffered from negativity and reports on it is already a winner! It means somewhere inside the person there is more than enough resourcefulness to get through it. There is a very strong and resourceful person to make it through the tough times.

This is great when you think about it! EVEN thought times have been incredibly difficult the person has been victorious. I hope that you, and others realize that. When you over come difficult times pat yourself on the back. Give yourself a hug and some praise.

If you attempted to overcome some difficulties but didn’t do so well at the time, give yourself a hug and some praise for trying. Encourage and nurture yourself along. This is very important. Say nice things to yourself. Make this a a habit.

The brain is very adaptable and can and will make changes. It may have wired in some old negative programming, depressive thoughts, anxious or fearful thoughts in the past, but those can be changed. They really can be changed. We don’t have to be held captive by the past or by our conditioning or by our genes.

Science has made some great strides forward. It takes time for the word to disseminate before enough people actually understand what the updates are. Research in neuroscience actually does point out that it is really true.

If you choose to think different thoughts, positive thoughts, even though it may seem tough, it is a choice you can make and force if you have to, it will make a large positive difference in time.You must do it again and again, by sheer force if necessary, as much as you can.

Think happy, positive, optimistic changes and you will re-wire the brain for more happiness. The brain is adaptable and responsive to this. Think happy thoughts speak happy thoughts. The reason most people don’t is because can be tough, or at least seems like it is.

Your brain can be re-wired! Talk to yourself nicely, all the time, that is the major way to start. Create nice supportive, positive self-talk and enjoy and celebrate everything. You have been victorious through difficult times.

As someone who is a victor, you can continue to move forward. While difficult at first it can get easier through time if you know what to do and then actually do it. People need to know that it IS possible to learn the knack of transforming less than glorious times more easily than they might think.

You have already done it. Be sure to take inventory of your talents, skills, abilities and resourcefulness in doing this. Appreciate yourself for accomplishing this. Add to it if you wish but know that you proven to yourself that YOU are able. I think that is marvelous.

Thanks for commenting and all the best wishes! Stay in touch if you like.'” Rex Sikes

Enjoy today!!

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!

Could Social Media And The News Cost You Your Dreams?

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“Do you think you have an accurate view of the world today? What is your place in the world? Are you able to easily make your dreams come true? What do you think?  Would you like to conduct a little experiment, some investigative research, on your own for a few days.

I’ll keep publishing blogs while you do, but I wanted to invite you, give your the opportunity, to examine something for yourself. If you are game, I hope you will have a go at it.

First things first. Napoleon Hill and Andrew Carnegie, among others,  were big proponents of accurate thinking. Unfortunately, most people are prone to gossip, media distraction, rumor and being a bit too gullible at times. They are easily lead astray. Do you think you are?

Without vetting the sources, the reports and the stories,  people erroneously believe or accept the ‘news’ or information they pay attention to. Then they pass that information along. Much is not accurate. Some is downright deceptive and manipulative.

However, most people don’t even not know this because they don’t bother to check. They accept it without much question. Not that long ago people used to get their news either in the morning, evening or prior to bed.

Now we are exposed to it 24 hours seven days a week without end. You can’t escape it if you use the internet.

Hill encouraged  readers to put their mental faculties to good use. He urged readers to insist on accurate, reliable information that was reported honestly. That way, when the time came, and if need be, they could make a well-informed decision.

Then they could  act or move forward productively based on it. You want reliable information when making important decisions, don’t you? Today, we have tremendous access to all kinds of information. Quantity is high, but what about the quality? Is it reliable and accurate? I will go further and ask, is it even truthful?

Hill boiled accurate thinking down to two important practices:

1.  Separate facts from opinions, fictions, unproved hypotheses, and hearsay.

2. Separate facts into two categories: important and unimportant.

He postulated, and I would agree, that few people do either of these. The first one takes effort. We have footwork to do. We must not just passively accept media messages as true. They might be but they might not be. Be vigilant. Test! Don’t blindly accept things.

I would add that more people today get caught up in the unimportant. They aren’t good at separating the two. People are distracted from what is relevant and important. Social media is a major time and attention suck.

We’re bombarded by juicy bits and distracted most of the time.

Here is a thought experiment you can conduct on your own. Go through headlines for the past 30, 50 or 100 years. Examine them Compare and contrast. Use any and all media; it can be newspaper, magazines, television , and the internet.

Notice whether the stories have changed much at all? The details will differ. For example, there are different wars, different celebrities. That is a given.

Note which themes reoccur? How frequently do the same issues arise? What does media keep the public focused on continuously? You may be surprised by what you discover.

It is true, players, come and go, parties change, events occur but notice whether the topics or themes ever change, or change much? What does media keep us paying attention to? Why might they do do this? Whose interests does it serve? What are we distracted for?

See if you detect patterns. What do you think you will find? I’m sure you already have thoughts about the media, news and reporting in general. Are we discussing anything really new or is a lot of it the same? Feel free to  post you discoveries in the comments.

Tell me, and others, what you find. We can discuss accurate thinking and your discoveries again in another blog post down the road a bit. First, do some investigative checking. And, as always, be grateful and celebrate everything!” Rex Sikes

Have a wonderful day!

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Horizons photo used with permission of Phil Koch.

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You Have Been Lied To! You Can’t Sabotage Yourself! Do You Know Why?

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“When people attempt to make a career or personal change but aren’t successful they believe, somehow, they sabotaged it. You want to lose weight but you eat that donut, right? Can we ever stop screwing it up? It seems as if something is working against your best intentions. Is it sabotage? Why on earth does this happen?

Do you know why you are you told it is important to think positive? You think positive to keep your mind OCCUPIED with positive thoughts. That is why you affirm, watch your self-talk and change it to the positive when you notice it less than glorious; to fill your mind mostly with good things; to exclude the negative and what you don’t want.

That is why you chant affirmations and mantras, read inspiring books, put posters and mottos up around your environment, listen to positive and motivational audios, hang with other positive people and attend live events. You do these things so that most of your waking hours are spent thinking and feeling good.

Your Thoughts Determine Your Outcomes

Keep your mind positively occupied most of the time because when you do you feel better. Then the preponderance of your day is spent less negative, more positive and more optimistic. You complain and gripe less. Look on the bright side. Instead of problems, issues gossip and negative distractions, you look at solutions and what is possible.

Your focus IS on the positive.  As you do this you reprogram you subconscious mind. Your subconscious relies on signals, or messages you send it. It pays attention to what has the highest emotional signal value and what you concentrate on most of the time. What you focus on expands. What you think about you bring about.

Your subconscious mind is your friend, your reliable supportive ally. It says YES to anything you say; whether positive or negative. It agrees with you thoughts and inner statements no matter what they are. It looks for an outer match in the world of results for what you already believe. It keeps you the same. It keeps you consistent.

What You Hold In Your Mind You Can Someday Hold In Your Hand

It streamlines things for you so you don’t have to relearn everything. It is your best friend. Yet, sadly, most people get it wrong. They claim your subconscious is against you; that it harbors beliefs and paradigms that make it difficult for you to change. That is just plain wrong. It’s good news, especially if your weren’t told this before!

Your subconscious is a learning machine! Everything you know how to think and do IT learned for you. Everything you do, positive or negative, good or bad, it learned to do and to keep doing it. AND it will keep doing it UNLESS you change it. IT is a reliable and faithful servant. They think it is sabotaging you. It isn’t it! It is serving you!

It is supporting you with what it learned to do. IF you want your subconscious to do something different for you, YOU have to tell it what you want. Train it to do the new thing the same way it learned to do the many things is already does. Through repetition and emotion; that is how you learned.

You Are Where Your Thoughts Take You

The issue for most people is that they let their brains run on without ever taking charge of it. They are not in control. They are passengers and their brain is doing the driving. They are in the  back seat of a car and go wherever the driver takes them. They aren’t driving the vehicle, they are being transported.

Your brain transports you and drives you unless and until YOU assume control. It does this because IT IS YOUR FRIEND and it does what it learned reliably so the trip is comfortable and familiar. It doesn’t want to rock your world or scare you. It serves you as it best knows how. It keeps everything the same for you. Consistent!

Since most people have been told change is hard they assume that is the truth. Our inner expectations determine what we tend to find in the outer world. Our brain seeks a match for what we already accept as true. So we assume change is difficult. In reality, it isn’t always easy, but it isn’t hard, for certain, Anyone, can learn to change!

Skill Comes Of Doing

Your brain learns easily and readily. It learned all kinds of wonderful and useful things. It learned all sorts of useless and less than glorious things. To transform yourself you want to remove or replace the less than glorious useless programming with more positive, productive glorious programming. You simply switch one for the other.

Many people learned to focus on problems, limitations and issues. They focus on debt, poor health, trouble, world calamity, instead of what they want. That is what they learned to do. The reason they never get out of debt or their health improves is that they continue doing the same things in the same way. They don’t change anything!

The want to be different but they keep doing what they have already done and hope it will be better. Unfortunately, that does not work. Then they blames themselves, others, god or the world circumstances and environment. They really only need to make a few simple changes. If they did everything could begin to change!

What We Will Do With Ease Seems Difficult At First

A few simple changes and they could be well on their way to an incredible new life. Sadly, most stop there. They say they tried and it didn’t work. They quit. Throw in the towel. Do you know when most people actually quit? Before they ever try anything. They think it will be too hard and they talk themselves out of it.

Have you ever done that? I sure have, in the past. Why do we do that? We quit before we try or we try and quit quickly. Our culture tells us to. We have popular phrases. ‘Three strikes and you are out.’ ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.’ Then WHAT?  THEN quit. We have been conditioned to try a few times and give up. Arg!

Abandon the pursuit. The reality is you must keep going until you break through. Consider this amazing fact. People have tunneled out of prison using only a spoon. Can you imagine that? Certainly, if they gave up after a few spoonfuls they’d never have gotten anywhere. You have to keep going until you break free. If you really want it!

If You Really Want Something You Will Find A Way

A few simple changes is all it takes to begin to re-condition your subconscious to do what you want it to do. If your lover constantly did something that annoyed you or hurt you wouldn’t you attempt to explain to them there was a better way they could treat you. You have to tell you subconscious there is a new way you prefer.

It loves to learn!  Give it the new task of learning to be more positive. Tell it you want to be a new, positive, productive, incredible you! Educate it. It knows how to learn. You don’t have to teach it that. It uses repetition and emotion to learn new skills. You need to provide it what it should learn. You need to tell it YOU are a positive person!

‘I want to be happy.’ ‘I want to be financially free.’ There are ways to instruct your brain so you get what you want. Right now, people are instructing their brains to give them more of what they precisely don’t want. They think about, fret over, worry and concentrate on exactly what they want to avoid or exclude. They negative focus.

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

BUT the only message the brain gets over and over again is what they are focused on. ‘I don’t want to be poor.’ ‘I have lots of bills.’ ‘I am in so much debt.’ ‘My back hurts.’ ‘The tumor has grown.’ ‘I am so unhappy.’ ‘I am worried.’ ‘I am stupid.’ ‘I am worthless.’ ‘I can’t do things right.’

‘I could never learn that.’ ‘Some people are lucky but not me.’ ‘Why do bad things always happen?’ Those statements all create negative images in one’s mind. The thoughts and picture are negative and unwanted. Your subconscious doesn’t make the distinction between positive or negative and good or bad. It only gets what you send it.

Whatever you focus on with emotion IS the message. What you think over and over again, most of the time, IS what you send it. It is what you affirm, assert and declare. It is your message. You don’t really want that but  your unconscious mind THINKS YOU DO. That is the message it gets. You keep sending a shabby message to it.

The More We Do The More We Can Do

Through constant repetition you tell it what is important. If large portions of your day are spent thinking or worrying about bills and then other portions of your day are spent in mindless distractions and negative internet news items, then the bulk of your thinking day and the message you subconscious gets is – are you  ready for this?

More bills, more bills, more bills. Because over and over during the day that is what you were concerned mostly about. Other times were ‘whatever moments’, daily distractions and traffic woes, etc. Your subconscious looks to create or find a match for what is IMPORTANT to you. It is trying to help. It is trying to help! It is!

It is not your subconscious fault you sent it crappy, unwanted instructions. Then you blame it for sabotaging you. Shame! It carries out your orders precisely giving you whatever you focus on most of the time. That is how IT works, that IS what it knows. It is simply saying YES to you and giving you exactly what it thinks you want.

If You Don’t Want To Do It You Will Find An Excuse

ONLY you consciously don’t want it. Rejoice! There is a better way. Instead, inform and instruct it in what you do want. ‘I want to be financially free.’ ‘I want money.’ ‘I want good health.’ ‘I want love.’ ‘I want great things.’ ‘I want to ski well.’ ‘I want to prosper and be successful.’ Great that is a start. Now, when do you want it?

Someday? Anytime in the future?  You can set a deadline that is good. A target to work towards. That can work. You can also imagine it as if it already has happened. Imagining what you want as if you already have it IS the most powerful way. Your mind sees you with it and feels what it is like for you to have the good you desire.

You see it as if it is RIGHT NOW. You feel the wonderful feelings you would have right now, as if you already got it. AND you assert, affirm and declare it in the present. It is all right now and it feels glorious. This instructs you subconscious mind what you DO want. It tells it precisely. Think, ‘I am rich.’ ‘I have plenty of money’. ‘I feel great.’

What You Say Is What You Get

Do this frequently, most of the time, each day and  your subconscious gets the message. Think about what you want as if you already have it. Feel the incredible feelings. DO this repeatedly. Remember, repetition and emotion. Over and over again. You become, or you get, what you think about most of the time.

‘I have more than enough money.’ ‘My business is prosperous.’ ‘I am financially free and live abundantly.’ ‘I am healthy.’ ‘I have tremendous health and well being.’ ‘I am physically fit.’ ‘I enjoy my loving relationship.’ ‘I adore my incredible new car or home.’ ‘I love the feeling a skiing safely down the mountainside.’

‘I love the snow, the breeze in my hair, the spectacular view.’ ‘This is the good life.’ Get it? Declare it, affirm it. Speak it over and over inside and out loud with great enthusiasm and positive emotion. Spend most of your day thinking positive on what you have. See it in your mental movie theater. ‘I am’ ‘I have’ Declare it! Affirm it!

What You See Is What You Get

See the dreams that came true and feel what it feels like to live them right now. Even thought outer circumstances may not have yet caught up with your inner reality THIS is how you reprogram you subconscious mind. You tell it, show it, and feel all the good things you want, as if you already have them.

You show it and tell it and feel it over and over and over again until you do.  Yes, it requires some time. It takes time to exercise and condition your body. It takes time to prepare, cook, serve and enjoy a meal. It takes time to get from one end of the country to another. It takes time to plant a seed and harvest. Everything takes some time!

You want magic and want it over night but that isn’t how it works. You weren’t a baby and then a fully grown adult. Everything is a process. You condition your subconscious mind for success. YOU condition it. You CONDITION it. You condition IT! Do you understand yet. Do it and you will get the results. Only if you do it!

Exercise Takes Time – Champions Aren’t Made In A Day

You have already proved it to yourself when you got the results you don’t want and you keep getting the same ones over and over again. You conditioned yourself for those. Stop it. Break those habits by developing new ones. You subconscious mind will love you for tasking it. It has new things to do. It loves learning!

Program it wisely. It is here to serve you. You aren’t here to serve it. Still, that is what most people do. They remain victims of their own shabby programming, because even though the message has been around them forever, they never ‘GET IT’, that THEY can do something about it. You can. You can be different from them.

Some people learn to be helpless and want others to do it for them. Some learn to be helpless and hopeless. Still, they can change. Some people need to hit the very bottom of the gutter in order to decide they have had enough and will change for the better. Some just  decide right where they are. Now is the time. Here is the place.

Champions Are Champions In Their Mind First – It Is A Mindset

The only thing that cannot be done is no one else can do it for you. You must do it. AND you must focus on what you want and ignore the contrast in your present circumstances. They will change in time with the new thoughts, but it will take time for outer circumstances to catch up. Focus on the positive and exclude the rest. Concentrate.

Pick one thing. One goal. Create a mantra or affirmation around it. I gave you examples above. Focus on it. See it inside, visualize and feel it. Chant your mantra day and night with passion and enthusiasm. Keep going until you get it. Be patient. Consider doing it most of the time for 30, 60, 90 days, repeatedly. Longer if necessary. Go for it!

You have everything you need within. You have an incredible ally in your subconscious. It knows what to do and how to do it. Use good judgement and tell it the positive, productive wonderful things you want it to do so you can begin getting those results. Be patient. Persist. Never quit. Tough times may come, they usually do.

When The Going Gets Tough The Tough Get Going

Push through it. Love yourself, forgive yourself, trust yourself and keep going. It may take some time reconditioning your mental muscle to give you what you want but it will ‘get the picture’ soon. It will GET IT quicker if you pick one thing to focus on exclusively for a while. Once you make that happen move on to the next thing.

You will re-educate your subconscious mind in this manner. It already says yes to you. Give it great things to say yes about. Be grateful you have such a magnificent servant at your disposal. It is faithful and reliable. Program it with what you want it to do. You can do this. If anyone in the world can do it, and many have, you can do this! Do it today!” Rex Sikes

Today is your day to shine!

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.

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How To Stop Struggling And Really Start Living!

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“Most people don’t want it. You can bet on that. They will do anything they can to avoid  it. Yet, through it greatness is often born. Success is not possible without it. Those who go the furthest are often challenged the most.

Nature may have provided it for us to help us evolve.  Whether it is a horrible experience or an incredible one is up to what we think it is. We decide, by our attitude to embrace it or try to avoid it. Through it we develop as people and expand our consciousness.

Napoleon Hill said, in adversity or challenge is the equivalent seed of opportunity. It is true. Someone else said, ‘I never lose. I either win or I learn’. Emerson said, ‘Do the thing and you shall have the power’. Make struggle your friend you will benefit in marvelous ways.

The More We Do The More We Can Do

Struggle toughens us up. It makes us strong. It makes us encounter the face in the mirror; our belief in ourself, our integrity, our abilities, the strength of our desires, our sense of humor, our persistence. We discover who we are and what we are made of.

It makes us move forward. It causes us to consider things we might otherwise never encounter. Most people don’t want it. They want the easy way, the path of least resistance. They want life comfy and cushy. Without struggle we will never know our true strength.

We would never know our true self without it. You can tell much about a person by how that person handles hardship. We grow in experience and wisdom. In these ways alone struggle provides us with opportunities. Magnificent opportunity if we only allow them.

Whatever We Want To Do With Ease We First Do With Diligence

Everything in life comes at some cost. Anything worthwhile comes with effort. If it were easy anyone would do it. Success seems elusive to all, except those who strive for it and make it happen. There is a price. Those who make dreams come true have struggled and pay it.

Hill pointed out, that of the 500 people he studied who were the top achievers and wealth generators of his day, most, nearly all threw in the towel prior to breaking through. He concluded that how high you rose seemed to depend on how low you had to battle hardship.

Those who made it didn’t stop because of struggles. The continued on in spite of them. They mastered their struggles and broke through. As a result, they got the rewards, and moved on to the next struggle. Everest is there for those who aren’t afraid of challenge.

Struggle! You Need Something To Talk About At The Top

Some people look for challenges to overcome others run away. Stop struggling with your struggles. Stop fighting. I know it seems tough to want to do this, but when you are able to say, ‘okay, bring it, give me your best shot,  I will prevail’ you are ready to come out on top.

Embrace the obstacles and challenges in your life and you will learn much. You will  move through them quicker when you don’t make an issue of them.  What you resist persists! Of course, some people love struggles because they can whine, complain and blame something!

I don’t know whether struggles are given to you from some god in the sky or a random result of evolution. It doesn’t matter. What matters is your attitude about them. You either sink or you swim. You either finish the race or you don’t.  Whatever your experience IS, is due to your decisions about it.

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

Consider this. Physical exercise, such as weightlifting, is a struggle to lift weight, to break down the muscle tissue so it will grow stronger and more capable. Facing challenge is our mental and spiritual exercise. We can expand ourselves because of it. We can become better people. We are better off for it.

If you can go through whatever suffering you have and learn from it you are better off than going through it and being broken from it. If you can look back on it and see the value, as you most likely will, why wait? Why not begin to value its lessons right now. Appreciate that you have an opportunity to learn, to grow and to become stronger.

Recognize it for the opportunity it is and you can start living in new and more productive ways. When you stop struggling with your struggles you are free to move through them and on to your successes. When you develop the attitude that you can handle anything life throws at you life may stop throwing things. If it doesn’t you’ll still be able to handle it. Either way, you win or you learn!!” Rex Sikes

The day will be what you make 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.

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Your Attitude Is Critical To Your Success And Happiness: Now Learn To Make It Work For You!

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“Do you need more success in your career?  Want a happier life? Make more money? Have more fun? Fulfill your dreams? You can! You can learn how to make all these and much more possible.

Neville Goddard said, “Man is only hampered by the weakness of attention and the poverty of imagination. The secret, the great secret, is a controlled and well sustained attention firmly focused on the objective to be accomplished.” I love Goddard.

Some people do not realize the importance of cultivating and maintaining a positive mental attitude. It has been proven beneficial for your health. You body produces different chemicals depending on what you think; peaceful, supercharged, loving, angry an so on.

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

Goddard points out that that it is critical to develop a positive mental attitude to control your attention and enrich your imagination to get your goals. You need to learn to control all of your thoughts you and feelings. You need to be in charge.

You need to develop your creativity and your imagination. Put your mind to work generating ideas and seeking new opportunities. As a result you  develop intuitions about what you need to do in order to move forward. Your mind supplies you with ideas and plans.

Energy flows where your attention goes. Most of us suffer from being distracted. Especially in this day and age. We have given in to the myriad of distractions that bombard us. Our attention spans whittled away by fast editing, change of topics, pop-ups and the like.

To Hit Your Target You Must Look At It

Why do I say suffer? Because we are distracted. We don’t harness our powers. We aren’t able to focus our energies because our minds are preoccupied with petty things. We are too busy with TV, social media, and the endless distracting bombardments each day. Each and every second!

We need to  take back control and develop our incredible ability to concentrate and aim our attention so we can focus that energy where we want it. Remember, ‘The great secret, is a controlled and well sustained attention firmly focused on the objective to be accomplished.’ United we stand, divided we fall applies to one, too!

By the force of your attention you firmly and repeatedly focus on the objective to be accomplished. You focus and make it happen. If you can’t focus , if you can’t keep your attention on your objective, you aren’t likely to make it happen. Get it? You mind is wishy washy.

You Must Keep Your Eye On The Ball

You must be able to see it clearly and vividly as if already achieved. You must be able to keep your attention there. Then your creative  imagination provides you with the plan for how you ‘did’ that and you take action. You move forward working the plans.

You focus, repeatedly, all of your energies on your goal until you complete it. Without this focus you mind is adrift. The people who are able to concentrate their energies and their efforts tend to be way more successful than those who are not. It is true!

Aim at what you want. Think positively and believe it is possible. A positive mental attitude helps you focus and accomplish your goals.  It moves your energies in the appropriate fashion so you achieve your chief aim. Negative energy and thinking does not do this.

A House Divided Will Never Stand

Negative thinking, while powerful, is destructive, in most all cases. You want to remain positive and learn to control your thinking process. You want to be able to choose what and how to think. You want to be in control of your mind. So, how do you learn to do this?

When you cultivate a positive attitude you have to become aware of and chose the most productive thoughts. You keep thinking those and eliminate all others. You force yourself to pay attention to what is positive and productive and exclude the rest. You are planting and weeding.

You do it to develop the habit. Just as you build any muscle you work your ability to focus. You think the thoughts, keep your mind there, when you notice yourself straying you return to thinking the positive thoughts. You keep doing this until you can regularly do this! It is a conditioning process. You must work it consistently.

Unite Your Energy And Your Efforts

By working out your mind this way you learn how to control your thoughts. You take control. You are in charge. You learn how to keep your attention strong on the positive thoughts which move you forward. Don’t get sidetracked with negativity or distractions. Learn how to control your thinking especially when times get difficult.

Most anyone can think positive thoughts when happy. That is easy. It is when faced with challenges that it is critical to maintain your positive attitude so you don’t quit. So you persist! You keep your attitude positive and see it through. You train your mind to be your servant.

That is how it is supposed to be, yet, most people are servants or victims of their own minds. They can’t control their thoughts. They habitually think the worst. They struggle but just can’t move it forward . That is just wrong! The whine, complain, blame everything but accomplish little. Sad, in the same way couch potatoes are sad.

You Are Where Your Thoughts Take You

You must exercise you will and your abilities if you want success and more. You develop them by consistent, productive exercise. Not everyone exercises their body. Fewer exercise their minds. Even fewer do both. Don’t be one of these. Choose to make a real difference for yourself. Put yourself in charge. Make it happen!

When the going gets tough the tough get going. Learn how to control your mind. Determine to take charge of what you think. Develop your concentration, your attention and your imagination. Develop you ability to think positive, powerful thoughts that help you to feel good and take appropriate action. Make your dreams come true.” Rex Sikes

Have a wonderful day of magical moments!

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!