Tag Archives: Success tips

A Simple, Easy Way To Treat Your Loved Ones Right

no excuses - when you really matter

“With technology comes advances. There is no doubt we are better off the more we have invented.  As we advance the same technology can create problems. Nothing is inherently good or evil. A hammer can be used to build or tear down.

Social Media Is Separating Us and Dividing Us

We don’t ‘connect’ as we used to. Instead of calling and speaking we text each other. Often, we group text or we tweet followers and post to friends on social media. It is devoid of human speaking and listening and give and take.  Frequently, we are just posting or reading announcements on walls or watching video without any give and take.

Enter a room anywhere today and you will see people staring at their devices instead of talking together.  Most all of them gazing at their phone are gaming, or texting or reading or watching some media. Human interaction is limited and if there is any at all in that room it is through electronics with someone somewhere else.

This prevalent form of ‘staying connected’ is not meaningful contact. We are not actually talking and listening to or trying to understand anyone anymore. These are not conversations where meaning and understanding are important.

These are written notes littered with abbreviations and emoticons. We don’t hear their voice and their expression we read texts in our voice with our expression. Because we don’t listen or look we assume and misinterpret. Since we don’t actually talk we don’t actually connect.

We think we are more connected through electronics and social media but we may actually be more isolated and less exposed to diverse thinking, cultures and people. A room full of people all on their devices instead of interacting together is not a coming together.

Living Through Your Phone Or Lens Is Not Living

Watching a documentary on an African town is not the same as visiting the town and getting to know and experience the people. We are missing out on actual experiences. We opt to live vicariously rather than to really live. We have become passive observers, shielded behind our mobil devices, rather than participants in life.

Instead of it making us better it lessens our experiences and feelings. It allows us to escape. It preoccupies us. Instead of meeting the new person sitting next to you you retreat into the reliable escape of entertainment.

You game, watch youtube, text someone, read FB to avoid an actual real life encounter with the people right there with you. You are shut off not involved. You are limited and not expanding.

Give It A Rest And Take A Break

Make time for family and friends. Shut off your phones and put them away. Have some real face time with the people you love and care about. PUT THE MOBIL DEVICE AWAY. Your children OR your parents deserve YOU and your uninterrupted time and attention. Don’t deprive them.

Don’t be tempted to answer the call or the text. The person in front of you is more important, most likely, than the person texting in. Most texts and phone calls can wait. Make time for people in your life. Make time for your loved ones! Respect each other!

Respect the other person by giving your undivided attention. Give your complete attention without checking your FB wall. It is rude to be constantly picking up your phone instead of listening and looking at the human with you. It is annoying to others to be conversing with you only to be interrupted by text tones and phone calls. Stop it!

Learn To Live Without Your Phone 

You will survive! Many people, if they forget their phone, panic. STOP IT! It is only a phone. Yes, it is shiny, has bangs and whistles and costs a fortune but it is no where near worth the value of your real friends and family who want to connect with you.

Put it aside. Learn to live without it so you can enjoy it without being addicted to it. If you forget it at home, so what, you will survive. Those feelings of ‘gotta have it’ are the feelings and the stressors you want to eliminate. Relax, it is only a phone. You will survive!

In olden, by gone days, (a few years back) no one had personal devices to stay in touch and for the most part the world went on and on anyway. It is a fallacy to think we need the phone just in case. That is a sense of immediacy and foreboding that is artificial and only causes worry and stress. You don’t need it.

Hug Not Hold

True, once and a while you had to make an important call or you might have missed an important call BUT life went on. There is no reason to be a slave to your electronic device. It is the people that are important not the devices. It is the human you can hug not the gadget you can hold that matters.

Relax. Schedule time to connect. Have a date night with your loved one or friends and turn off your phones. Leave the electronics behind. Make it a point to shut the phone off for half a day or more. You can do it even if it seems as though you can’t.

At the end of your life you won’t say, ‘If I had only spent more time texting and posting to Facebook. If I’d only answered the phone more often.’ I bet you are going to wish for more time with the people you love.

Do not cheat yourself of them of your time and attention. Realize right this instant what is important and who is important in your life right NOW!, Spend the quality time together you and they deserve.” Rex Sikes

Have a wonderful day. Connect with someone in a special way!

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How To Get Miraculous Results

gandhi there is a force in the universe

“When you practice giving to others unconditionally you not only benefit them but you truly benefit you. Because you are not looking for any return your motive is pure. You want to help another. Your goal is to help another feel blessed, to heal and to prosper.

Your focus is not on what you can get but on what you can give. Your care is for them not for you, When you give in this way you open yourself up to allow others to gift you too. You open yourself up for the universe to gift you. Doing this is an incredible gift YOU give to you!

Because your care is on them and not that they return your kindness you open yourself to be gifted in whatever way it manifests. If it manifests instantly that is wonderful if nothing immediately happens that is wonderful tool. Recognize that everything is perfect.

Today, practice graciously receiving. Allow yourself to remain open and receptive. Let others give to you. Find delight in the smallest of things. Celebrate being open. Know good things are coming your way even though you may not be able to see them. Live in faith.

Practice this daily. Give and allow. Practice the Golden Rule; think the best and do the best for others. Celebrate them. Go the extra mile in helping people. Rejoice in their good fortune when good things happen for them. Celebrate everything!

Be receptive and expect good things to come your way without demanding anything. Practice gratitude. Really feel grateful. Discover your joy and in bask in it. As you do these things you become more of these things. You transform!

You become what you think about most during your day. Your life can completely transform. You will find yourself more blessed than you might imagine. You will heal and you will prosper! The results of your thoughts and actions can be miraculous!” Rex Sikes

Delight in this day!

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Do This And Improve Your Odds For Happiness And Success

whatever you do do well

“What would you like another person to do for you? If you had a wish for something wonderful, something small, that someone could do easily for you, some nicety, what would be your hope? If someone could ease your burden a little bit and put a smile on your face what would it take? Have you some things in mind?

Have you thought what would make you feel lighter and happier? Have you sorted through simple tasks another person could perform that would make you feel better; make you feel special, more valued; feel loved? What tiny thing could it be that might make all the difference in the world to you?

Got some? Very well. Are you easy or difficult to please? Did you find some simple things or are you still thinking? Okay, for those of you this might be difficult for and who will only be pleased if larger things are taken care of WHAT larger actions could someone take to make you feel better, feel validated, special and love; that would put a smile on your face, lighten your load and be worthwhile?

Got something now? Okay then.

Whatever you came up with small or large that would improve your life circumstances and make you feel better is exactly what you can do for someone else. Go do it! You want to feel better GO and make someone else feel better! Yes, you can ask them and find out what they actually want or you can surprise them with a gift.

Perhaps, it is as simple as phoning a loved on and telling that person you care. Maybe it is as easy as holding a door open for someone and saying a kind word. It could be you buy someone who looks hungry a meal, give a neighbor a ride, help out with chores around the house without having to be asked. Whatever you can do to help make someone feel special and cared for DO! Do it!

In giving you will be receiving. You will open the doors for your kind actions to be returned. This is especially true if you expect nothing in return. If your kind actions are in and of themselves enough reward for you you will be rewarded. NOW and perhaps in the future. It may not come from the person you helped but you are making a positive difference in someone’s life.

I don’t think it is mystical at all. It is the law of cause and effect. You cause someone to feel good sometime, somewhere, somehow it will be returned. Again, do it for no reason if you really want the greatest benefit. Your own good feelings can be enough reward. Whenever you are down, or down and out, help another person first and you will find strength, joy and comfort.

Go help a child. Volunteer. Visit the elderly, go to a hospital. Help out at a shelter or soup kitchen. Go for a walk with someone. Visit a shut in. Send a thank you note. Help out at an animal center. Whatever you choose to do is up to you. It will make you feel good inside.

The Golden Rule is to treat people AND hold people with the same regard and respect as you want them to treat and respect you. Don’t wait for others to start it YOU begin it and watch what happens. You may not notice much at first but keep at it. You will make the world a nicer place as you pay it forward.

Smile at someone on the street. Say hello. Ask someone how they are doing or feeling. Be genuinely interested. Listen without judgement. You will be doing a world of good for yourself and for others. You may be surprised. Take your wish list I asked you to come up with and bestow it on others bit by bit. Nothing need be grandiose it only need be genuine! Care! ” Rex Sikes

Make magic happen today!

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This Ability Separates The Successful From The Unsuccessful

invest in yourself

“How do successful business people and entrepreneurs handle stress and disappointment? Do they do things differently than the rest of the people? It turns out they do. What they do makes a critical difference in how they live and work and why they succeed.

Attitude Makes The Difference

Everyone faces challenges so it isn’t the challenges that sets these successful people apart from the rest. It was their ability to take disappointment or setbacks as only temporary. They were not defeated by defeats. They kept going.

Often in business setbacks come one after the other but successful people did not let that dampen their motivation or persistence. They continued onward. They maintained their attitude and expected things to work out for the best.

They were not born this way. These are skills they learned and cultivated. You can learn to be more adaptable and flexible in your approach too. You can be more resourceful in your work and in pursuing your goals and dreams.

You can move forward and not give up when challenges come your way or pile up. How?

Keep Everything In Perspective

It is your attitude that makes the difference. The CEO’s and successful entrepreneurs understood that you have to care but not that much! When dead none of this matters. Work is just another game you play. It is what you do to make money. Keep this in mind.

No one benefits if you work yourself to death or injure your health so that you are unable to enjoy your family and friends. Live first. Enjoy Life! Work hard BUT don’t kill yourself to get ahead.

It isn’t worth it to win the race and lose one’s life. Work or career is is not worth damaging your mental, emotional or physical health.

Enjoy Life Apart From Work

Have fun. Enjoy your family and friends. Enjoy hobbies and activities that have nothing to do with the work you do. Cultivate other interests that you look forward to doing. Find things to be passionate about.

Make time to do things you want to do with the people who are important to you. Walk, exercise, go to the gym.  Get out and have a good time. Take it easy and relax. Prioritize a healthy life over stressful work. You will work better and smarter the healthier and better adjusted you are.

Follow Your Purpose In Life

Hopefully, you are following your purpose in life through your choice of work. If not, look for ways that your work contributes to or helps you fulfill your life mission in other ways. Maybe, it is a means to save enough money to start your own company.

Perhaps, it is a stepping stone to the future whereby you gain valuable experience in needed areas. Find those reasons you are doing what you are doing and that keep you moving forward. Acknowledge and validate your efforts. Understand that whatever you are doing matters. You contribute to yourself and to others.

Keep going. Don’t quit when times get hard. See them through. You attitude and the reasons you are doing what you are doing will assist you in staying the course. You will remain committed for the right reasons. Persevere!

Smile, Giggle, Laugh And Breath

Smiling and laughter keeps us loose and relaxed. We stay healthier and happier and more relaxed when we laugh frequently. A good sense of humor is essential in dealing with life stressors. If you can find a silver lining in dark clouds or humor in adversity you will be on top of your game.

Norman Cousins wrote a book on the healing that laughter can bring. Watch funny movies and video. The internet is a good source for finding short clips to enjoy. Read humorous books and listen to funny audios. Obviously, you can watch comedians doing stand up.

The goal is to smile and laugh more each day. You can begin each day purposefully laughing out loud for at least five minutes while you get ready for work. It can be a form of meditation for you.

The laughing meditation. Just laugh. Even if you have to force yourself and it feels fake at first – do it. It will come more naturally the more you laugh. Laughing helps you to breath differently and breath deeper. It massages your diaphragm and is healthy for you.

Smiling more helps others feel better too. When you work with people and you look friendly and energetic and smiley it helps everyone. If everyone in the workplace did this imagine how enjoyable it could be,

Take deep breathes. Learn to breath correctly from the belly. Taking deep breaths is a stress reliever.  Throughout the day, lean back and deep breath for a minute or two. It is great for the immune system and over all health and well being.

Be Inspired And Stay Inspired

Read inspirational material daily. Entrepreneurs and successful business people surround themselves with posters and mottos. They read inspirational materials daily. They listen to audios that keep them motivated. They understand the importance of of a good, strong, healthy mindset.

Attitude is everything. When you fill your mind consistently with high quality inspiring thoughts you feel better. When you feel better you look better. You naturally smile and laugh more. You are more relaxed. You are better equipped to handle any setback or disappointments that comes your way.

Positive Thinking Is Solution Focused Thinking

Positive thinking is not fantasy thinking. It is realistic thinking. It is the ability to find your resourcefulness and apply it to any situation while expecting the best outcome. You work to find the best solution. You maintain a powerful frame of mind.

Since you are solution oriented you naturally you expect the best outcome whatever that may be. It is not wishful thinking. Positive Thinking is the application of strong thoughts about what you can and will accomplish and how. When you keep your mind inspired and positive you can achieve more.

Meditate, Visualize and Be Grateful

Meditate. The are many different ways to meditate. Close your eyes and listen, simply listen. Do nothing else. Pay attention to or feel your breath. Visualize relaxing in a wonderful place outdoors. Pick your favorite natural spot. Enlist all five senses and enjoy the peace and tranquility this brings.

You can repeat a mantra, a power word or a meaningful phrase to yourself. State an affirmation again and again. Manage your self talk – only say positive things to you. Alternatively, watch your thoughts come and go as an unbiased observer would, without judgement. Watch them drift off like leaves floating downstream.

Discover which form of mediating you prefer most by trying many. Take a minute or five whenever you are able. A good practice is to aside a specific time to mediate each day. You can do so for a few moments or an hour. It is up to you.

Visualize your goals as if you have already accomplished them. Since you made them happen see what you did to bring them about. Notice how you overcame any challenge or disappointment. Especially notice the wonderful feelings of having what you wanted, of making it your own and bask in these feelings. Enjoy these.

Feel grateful. Keep a journal. Visualize what you feel grateful for. Express your appreciation for yourself, others, events, situations and circumstances in your life. Be grateful for what you have done and what you have. Acknowledge others and be appreciative. Express your thanks. Live in celebration and abundance.

Enjoy The Good Feelings

The most important part of feeling gratitude is the feeling. The most important part of visualizing your future and what you want it to be are the feelings that accompany your wants. Emphasize and feel the feelings. Enjoy them. Savor them. Accentuate them and linger with them. The more you feel good and the longer you feel good the better overall.

Develop Successful Habits That Support You

Because the entrepreneurs made these practices habits they were more successful than those who do not. They were better able to keep going, not give up and handle challenges and disappointments when others weren’t. Because they kept a daily regimen for being positive, happy, healthy they work better and enjoy life more.

As you develop and sustain successful habits your life takes on a wonderful new sense of meaning. Everything becomes much easier and more enjoyable. The tough times don’t necessarily go away but you handle them better and get through them quicker because you are much more resourceful.” Rex Sikes

It is your day today! How are you going to spend it?

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Need More Energy? Want More Life? How To Have It Now!

there is nothing impossible

“Would you like more energy to get through your day? Can you imagine feeling more wonderful more frequently? What if you were to live with more passion and enjoyment wouldn’t that be marvelous?

Well, you can! You can grab hold of life and give it a good squeeze. You can go for the gusto and smile, laugh, delight and live more energetically. You can take hold of your thoughts, feelings and your experience and make it more of what you want it to be.

In the decades I have been leading workshops and seminars I have had hundreds and thousands of people demonstrate this to themselves time and time again.

Energy Comes From How We Use Our Mind

How we use our mind is critical to how we feel and what we do. When we think sluggish we will feel sluggish. Our thoughts control our reality. Little things we think repeatedly (not just the big negative things) can drain us of happiness and energy so we want to think our very best to feel our very best.

We become and get what we focus on. If we repeatedly think negative, defeatist, thoughts we don’t feel up and filled with energy. In order to feel better now you need to take charge of your thoughts!

These blog pages are filled with how to help yourself think and feel better.

Energy  Comes From How We Use Our Body

There is a lot of documented research proving how we feel affects think. How we move and and use our body affects how we think. In my workshops I provide many demonstrations and exercises proving these points to individuals just like you.

One study published in the ‘Journal of Behavioral Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry’ found that subjects felt worse and remembered more negative things and fewer positive things when they  walked slouched over, shoulders hunched and didn’t move their arms much. This is how people typically walk when sad or depressed.

Stand And Walk Tall And You Feel Better

People felt better with spring in their step, pep, shoulders back, chin up. They felt better, they thought better and thought more positive. When we straighten our spine, pull our shoulders back and put our chin up we use our muscles differently AND breath differently. There are many reasons why we feel better when we stand and walk taller.

When you want to feel better move and walk with more energy and you will begin to feel that way. THEN keep at it.  Don’t return to slouching continue to walk feeling great! Think how soldiers march and the determination and confidence they exude. They wouldn’t if they hunched and slouched over.

How To Have 2 Times More Energy Right Now

You can imagine how you would feel if you had 2x more energy. Literally, you ARE able to do this. So do it. Try it on. How would you look, what would your expression be like?  Do it now. Imagine how you would be sitting and reading this if you had 2x more energy. What would your posture be like? Adopt that posture and that expression. Notice how you feel when you really do it.

Stand up and walk about with 2x more energy. Pay attention to how you walk and move. Notice how your gait is different. Notice your chin and shoulder position. Examine how you are breathing? What are your steps like? How do you move your arms? Do a complete check over and keep walking as if you have 2x more energy.

Linger in it. Bask in the energy, enjoy it. Spend time sitting, walking and standing with more energy. Practice it daily. Rehearse it. Make it a habit. You can you know. Anytime you want to feel better you can, because you know how. So make it a habit and use it.Great now double it again!

Walk and move as if you had 4x more energy. You can do it! Adjust your body and movement. Go walk about. Notice that you have control when you actually take control and do what is required. It affects you positively. Great now imagine 5x more energy. How about 10x more energy?

Make It A Habit And You Will Always Have It Available

Any time you want to you can imagine and have more energy and delight, more confidence and passion, more determination and enjoyment. You can use your body and mind to serve you anytime.

Stand in one spot and shake your entire body quickly for 30 seconds or a minute. That will charge you up. Put your arms over your head and wave them rapidly. Dance, skip, sing, and laugh to get more energy whenever you want it or require it. All you have to do is start it.

You can sit behind the steering wheel of a car and go nowhere, doing nothing, or you can start the engine and be on your way. If you want something to happen it will always be up to you. Think better thoughts and you will feel better. Feel better and you will think better. Do both and you will live with more passion and enjoyment and life will be more grand. Delight in in!” Rex Sikes

Have a fun filled day!

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Don’t Suffer! Create The Life And Success You Want!

I can I will end of story

“What causes suffering? The act of comparison. When we compare where we are to where others are, what they have versus what we have it is possible to suffer. If we compare and come up on the short end and we are envious or jealous it can hurt. If we compare where we think we should be in our career or in life to where we actually are, and we don’t like it, we create more room to groan.

Whenever we create a division, a dichotomy, an incongruency, cognitive dissonance, we suffer. Many people, who expect the Law Of Attraction to save them from where they are in life, begin the process of wishing for changes. Then they keep checking to see if they are closer to getting what they hope for. If they find they haven’t made much progress they abandon hope.

That checking, that constant seeking to find out if anything is happening causes suffering. These people fail to realize that results take time and you just have to give it the time it takes! You have to learn to trust! I think the reason things take time IS so you have to learn to trust or you give up. Trust, faith, belief in oneself, one’s ability to ultimate create what one’s want is acquired through trials.

You Must Realize Everything Takes Time

If you wanted an orange or an apple or a grape it would take time. You have to plant the seed. Then  it sprouts and grows and blossoms. It produces fruit, which is harvested.  Then you to enjoy. You can’t be checking and digging up the very seeds you planted. You must let them go through the process.  The same is true with your goals and dreams and your plans.

You don’t wish for an orange you plant the orange so that you later get it. You expect it to grow and one day be yours. You don’t doubt that you will have it and wonder and check and worry and check yet again. You know at the right time it will be yours. Wishing has nothing whatesoever to do with creating what you want.

Decide What Your Dominant Chief Aim Or Purpose Is

Specify it! See it clearly in your mind. Imagine it AS IF  it’s already happened in your mind.  Do this daily, frequently, accentuating the all the positive feelings that come as a result of imagining your goal already completed. Enjoy and accentuate those feelings. Enjoy and celebrate! Really celebrate! Really feel it. The stronger the emotions the sooner you get what you want.

Wait patiently with expectation and eagerness knowing it will come about it. Know that you will create it. It is your faith, it is that expectation, and those feelings that bring it about. It is the passion and enthusiasm that make it all happen. What you are consumed with, what you obsess about you bring about.

The More Powerful The Emotions The Sooner We Make It Happen

That is why the  goal is to feel the best you can  all the time! If you feel incredible most all of the time and you vibrate joy and gratitude and celebration it works faster. The more positive and powerful the feelings  the more you resonate with your goals and your dreams and desires.

When you are excited and expecting good things and you are celebrating everything you’re not resisting nothing. Do you get that?You are not resisting but allowing and accepting. Feeling great is when you’re able to invite and receive. Negative feelings and thoughts block and prevent yourself from making it happen.

You will suffer if you doubt, fear, get anxious, worry or check to see if it is happening.

Focus On What You Want NOT On What You Don’t Want

If you expect riches and you focus on what you don’t have you create more of what you don’t have. You attract like thoughts of lack or poverty. You get more and more of them. This is how it works. In order to get the riches you have to celebrate having the riches before you actually have them.

You develop the rich mindset first! You develop the happy mindset first! You develop the successful mindset first before you make the results in the world! The mind is in the right place prior to you getting what you want. We are happy first and then we become successful or rich IT doesn’t work the other way around.

Thought Precedes Action: Believe It And You Will See It!

If you are impatient and go back between what you have and what has not yet arrived you will suffer AND prevent yourself from succeeding faster. You will stall your results. You must stop the suffering and develop faith that you will make it happen in the right time, even if you presently don’t know how to at this moment. The how will come in time. BELIEVE IT!

THINK ABOUT THIS: You develop such a powerful, unstoppable, positive mindset in the face of all odds that you can’t help but bring about what you want and desire most. What you are obsessed about, what you think about and talk about and dream about day and night you will make happen. You develop the wherewithall to accomplish anything and you keep on going until you get it.

It Is WHO You Become While Pursuing Your Wants That IS Most Important!

Fill yourself with delightful thoughts and feelings and you’ll accomplish them soon rather than later.  Remember, it is simple. You’re either trusting or you’re not. You’re either believing or you’re not. You’re either patiently waiting or you’re not. You’re either making your dreams come true or you’re not. You’re either positive or you’re not. You’re either feeling good or you’re not.

You’re either contributing to making things happen in a positive way or you do not understand this process. Wherever you spend most of your time; whatever occupies your attention the most; whatever are the predominant thoughts and feelings that you think and feel; whatever consumes you IS WHAT YOU CREATE AND ATTRACT!

You get back what you focus on. You become what you think about! You get back what you put out there. You create what you think and what you feel. If you’re getting what you don’t want instead of what you do want it is BECAUSE you’re focused on what you DON’T want. You need to change that!

The Problem: Most People Are Focused On What They Don’t Want

You have to focus on what you want. They harbor doubts and worries that it won’t happen. You have to stop this and believe you will make it happen in time. They think they are consumed with their goals if they spend a minute or two, or five minutes, or a half hour a day thinking about their goals when most of the time they are thinking about distractions.

You are not believing and celebrating and expecting and consumed pasionately with your dominant chief aim if you are whining and complaing and blaming and gossiping and fearing and doubting and upset with the little and big things that happen each day. If you are caught up in the daily drama of living you are missing. You become what you predominantly think about.

The law of attraction IS AN ACQUIRED attitude and mindset that you bring about by dedicating yourself passionately to creating the life and future successes you want. You learn it by trial and error and through overcoming hardship. You learn to pay attention, concentrate and focus your mind on making what you want happen like a laser beam. You set your sights on the target and never give up.

It All Starts With Believing You Can Do It.

Through this you learn what to do and how to do it. The reality is success is 99% mental and 1% effort. When the mind is right the effort comes easy. It MAY require massive action BUT you are prepared to do it. You have cultivated a winning and expectant mindset. You have made your mind a powerful ally and tool. You are focused and prepared. You are powerful and unstoppable!

‘Whatever the mind can conceive and belive you can achieve!’ said Hill. It begins within to bring about the results without. It isn’t luck or wishes being granted it is the application of principles and dedication that brings about the results. YOU do it because your mind is set to do it. You work alone and in friendly co-opeation with others to make it happen in spite of opposition or circumstances.

You train your mind to be positive and look for opportunity. You develop success practices you make into automatic reliable habits. Lombardi said, ‘When the going gets tough THE tough gets going!’ You do it because you have evolved yourself into the kind of person who succeeds. This is why Henry Ford’s statement is so accurate and applicable. “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t you are right. It is all in what you think.'” Rex Sikes

This is your day to celebrate!

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Want To Feel Great No Matter What?

phil koch purple flower horizon

“Inside every adversity is a seed of equal opportunity!  In every moment, good and not so good, there is much to celebrate and enjoy. The key is to look for, and find, whatever it is, no matter how tiny, that you can validate and celebrate.

If you want to feel great, feel grateful! When you practice feeling more grateful the results can be profound!

What Is Gratitude?

Celebration and gratitude unlock the door for greater opportunity and benefit. We all have the ability to feel more grateful. It simply means that instead of complaining, whining or blaming we focus on, express and feel good about all we have.

Gratitude means we appreciate the people, the circumstances, the situations or events in our lives and the things we have rather than thinking about what we don’t have or should have. We focus on the good, even in the bad moments. We manage our thoughts and feelings.

Psychological Health Improves

A leading researcher in gratitude study, Robert Emmons, confirms, after multiple studies, that the practice of gratitude increases happiness and reduces depression. Other research conclude it improves resilience in people and raises self-esteem.  It reduces aggression and helps increase empathy.

People who practice gratitude tend to be more relaxed, have more enjoyable feelings and happier memories. They are less envious and less materialistic. They are more optimistic and less self centered.

The practice of feeling grateful reduces toxic chemicals in the body and increases the experience overall more well being. People feel less stressed and overcome trauma more easily.

Physical Health Improves

Grateful people experience fewer aches and pains and are sick less often. They have increased energy and are apt to exercise more. They take better care of themselves and they sleep better. All of which contributes to longevity.

It was determined that sleep comes more easily to those who spend time counting their blessings prior to bed. People who wrote down things they are grateful for had longer and improved your sleep.

Relationships Improves

People who feel and express gratitude tend to be more social and develop nurturing friendships. The practice of thanking others, even strangers, led to more opportunities.  People who were grateful and appreciative recognized and accepted their own, and others, accomplishments more readily. They are kinder.

Career Results Improves

Grateful people tend to experience better career success. They are more likely to make better decision and accomplish their goals. They network more, use their time more wisely are more productive. People who were more grateful tend to generate more income.

More Happiness

The important areas in one’s life all showed improvement. These benefits were tied to keeping a gratitude journal. The simple act of writing down what you are thankful for and what makes you feel good  has profound effects.

The results, the benefits comes to those who take five minutes to concentrate on their blessings. Take some time each day to feel grateful. Stop everything else and focus on what you feel thankful for. It is worth it when you do!

The more people express true gratitude the more people experience greater happiness. If you want to feel more satisfied with life develop an attitude of gratitude. It’s easy! Just count your blessings!” Rex Sikes

Have a beautiful day!

Horizons photo used with permission of Phil Koch

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Experience The Incredible Presence And Power Of NOW!

Present-Moment-GaryZukav-quote

“There is plenty more to discuss about energy, visualization, affirmations and living powerfully. There is much more to talk about making your dreams come true. Life is a process and we are always somewhere in the middle of it. We are in a flux, a flow and if you think about it you are always right where you are.

That seems like a weird thing to say but you are always in the perfect place EVEN when you don’t think so. If you were to take a trip in a canoe you would always be right where you are on the river. What causes us pain or joy is wanting to be elsewhere than where we are at any given instant.

Accept Right Where You Are

If we’d rather be elsewhere we experience discomfort. If we are in a hurry we may be in pain. If we are completely happy and content to be right where we are on the river all is good. We can relax and notice the beauty surrounding us.

We can be alert to anything wonderful or not so wonderful that requires our attention. We can be totally present and that means we can be fully alive right. We can enjoy being where we are fully. The same thing is true about right now!

We Can DelightIn Right Now 

In this instant you and I  are in the right place. If we don’t think we are it is only because we are making a judgement. Actually, it is fairly egotistical to think we might not be, as if we knew better what the right place to be in the moment is.

When we think we know better and criticize ourselves for not being enough, or for the moment not being the right moment we cause our own suffering.

Surrender Is About Giving In To Whatever IS Right Now

Drop into the moment fully. Appreciate NOW for whatever is or isn’t going on. No judgement, just acceptance, allowing, awareness, appreciation, alertness to this moment. Right now! You are alive! Can you feel it?

Don’t think about it just experience it. Let this moment be everything there is and nothing else.

Wherever you are, whatever you are doing NOW is the only time you actually have. Live in the present moment! One can be filled with gratitude right this second. One can feel positive and more alive and feel blissful this very second. This IS good, high, positive energy to be filled with.

Today, Appreciate NOW Whenever You Can.

Bring your awareness to the moment and just experience the pleasantness of now. In that instant it can seem eternal. Take a deep breath and relax into it. Savor the now. Whenever you remember to remember this moment, drop fully into it. It is all awareness.

Celebrate today. Live in gratitude. Be more silent, listen to the world around you. Notice the sounds and the sound of silence. Allow the energy inside you to bubble up and overflow. Accept.

Whenever you notice yourself pushing it or resisting relax and allow. Notice how it feels  when you stop effort-ing or striving and allow, accept, and receive instead. Create a gap, a space, between you and ‘trying’ and just BE for a while.  Find the joy of nothingness.

Let Today Be Filled With Joyous Moments.

Moments pass. If you encounter less than glorious moments let them pass too. Don’t hang on to them. Notice how it feels to let them go when you stop re-living the old, or the painful. Notice what it is like when you stop clutching onto them. Live and let go!

Celebrate and enjoy! Find bliss wherever you are. You are now and this is the only moment you actually have. Dive into this moment. Live in the now, not in the past or the future,.

Live NOW Because NOW Is When You Live!

Today, live, love, laugh and celebrate!” Rex Sikes

May today be incredible for you!

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Success Defined: How To Be A Success

I can I will end of story

“For some people success seems to come easy, doesn’t it? We think they had it handed to them or were born to it. For others, success seems elusive, a struggle, or if there is success it comes only after much effort.

We are told, in the U.S., work hard and sacrifice and anyone can be a success in time, but only if they really work hard. Sweat, toil, work 3 jobs. That doesn’t seem like the American dream does it? Is success difficult? Does it require hard work? Will you be successful?

Let’s take a look into this notion of success.

Some equate it with career or money. Others include happiness and living well as being successful. Most of us it seems define success as an end point to our efforts. We work hard and then succeed but is that what success is? Is it at the end of the work?

Napoleon Hill stated, ‘Success is the development of the power with which to get whatever one wants in life without interfering with the rights of others.’

The development of the power with which to get whatever one wants IS success to Napoleon, BUT, without interfering with the rights of others. Beautiful! I like this. It is the development of the power to achieve what one wants. Obviously, things develop over time AND while we are developing this power, for ourselves, we are not limiting anyone else.

He further stated, ‘Before success comes in any man’s life, he’s sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That’s exactly what the majority of men do.’

Of course, if we quit we will never know what might have been.

Some don’t let failure deter them. Look at Edison. ‘Edison failed 10,000 times before he made the electric light. Do not be discouraged if you fail a few times,’ said Hill.

Helen Keller is one person who faced incredible odds. Blind and deaf shortly after birth she grew up to become an educated speaker capable of inspiring countless others because of her spirit and attitude. She is only one example of someone who prevailed though facing enormous odds.

Hill stated, ‘Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.’ The seed of an EQUAL or greater benefit! Opportunity and advantage! However, in order to recognize the benefit, the opportunity, we must be aware and attuned with correct mindset.

His own son was born without ears. He didn’t have the external or internal physical auditory equipment to hear. Hill, refusing to believe this would be a limitation for his son, thought it a blessing. It made him special and he passed this attitude onto his boy who did learn to hear and went on to accomplish much.

To some it may seem as though success comes after much effort but Hill said the it was NOT about hard work and that hard work was a myth. That DOESN’T mean no work! Hill meant attitude comes first. Success takes work but it can be enjoyable work with the right attitude. It does not have to be hard work. This is important to note!

Hill emphasized that successful results followed the development of a successful mindset. In order to succeed in the world one had to first learn to control one’s own mind and develop a winning mindset and attitude. Then one was unstoppable and could command great things.

Success first begins within.

He emphasized this often, ‘What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.’ AND ‘Success comes to those who become success conscious.’

He stated that, ‘It is true nothing can bring you success but yourself.’ If one is to be successful it is up to that person to develop their mindset and their powers to accomplish whatever it is they want. I’ve discussed this many times in these pages. It would serve you well to re-visit again and re-read. Also read Hill!

He pointed out regarding wealth accumulation: ‘When Riches begin to come they come so quickly and in such great abundance that one wonders where they have been hiding during all those lean years.’

He points out that our minds ‘become magnetized with the dominating thoughts we hold in our minds.’ AND ‘These magnets attract to us the forces, the people, the circumstances of life which harmonize with the nature of our dominating thoughts’.

‘All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination; Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth.’ AND ‘Any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.’

It is up to us to take control of our minds. To learn to use them in developing our own happiness which in turn leads us to success.

Success need not be difficult.

He made THIS important point many times: ‘It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.’ AND  ‘Success in life depends upon happiness, and happiness is found in no other way than through SERVICE that is rendered in a spirit of love.’

Zig Ziglar put it this way, ‘You will get all you want in life when you help enough other people get what they want.’

Help others and you help yourself. Help others and they can help you. The energy grows stronger in helping each other than in struggling alone. We can rise faster together. Every one rowing in the same direction increases the speed at which we are able to move forward.

People who step on others may get tot he top but they frequently fall or do not enjoy the journey nor the destination.

Earl Nightengale defined it this way. ‘Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.’

Success is not an end state, an ultimate goal, we end up at. It is not result of our efforts but a process we live. The progressive realization means it unfolds; it is a journey not a destination. We are successful while pursuing a worthy goal or ideal.

Don’t Wait To Be Successful!

Nightengale also said, ‘Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don’t wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how really precious is the time you have to spend, whether it’s at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savored.’

One of the most brilliant definitions of success I have every heard is this: Define it for yourself. You write the rules. You play the game so play so you can win. Success is whatever you say it is. Don’t chase something elusive be successful now! Make it easy to succeed and you will have more success immediately. It is only far off if you keep it far off.

Some people compare themselves against others. They keep a score that keeps them losing. You need to keep a score that keeps you winning. Stop comparing your results to other’s results. Don’t get distracted by focusing on the wrong things. If you want to compare compare yourself against yourself and commit to being a little better each day.

Decide you are a success and you will begin to succeed. Decide to be happy and you’ll find your happiness! Decide to live to the fullest and life becomes worth living! Everything worthwhile in the world first began as a thought before it became a reality.

Manage your thoughts. Aim them in the right direction and you will travel in the right direction. Make your reality what you want it to be AND begin now! Everything can change inside a single moment when you make a powerful decision.” Rex Sikes

Enjoy your day!

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How To Get Along With Everyone

be the type of person you want to meet

“Napoleon Hill asked his audience, ‘Do you have any idea why it is if I can have all of the religion, the followers of all religions in my classes and get along well with all of them. The Catholics and Protestants, Jews and Gentiles all the races, all the priests.  Do you know why it is?’

The audience shouts out:  ‘You love them all.’

Hill says: ‘That’s right. To me, they’re all one brand. They’re my fellow beings. They’re my brothers and sisters. That’s why I get along with them. I never think of anybody in terms of what he believes politically or religiously or economically.’

‘I think of him in terms of what he’s trying to do to better himself and to better somebody else. That’s the terms that I think of people in and that’s why I get along so well with them.’

I love this. ‘To me they are all one brand’.

Politicians divide us and segregate us into as many possible factions as possible to control and manipulate us and our interests. We are not our skin color, our religion, our economics, our nationality, our politics, our gender, or our preferences. We are all one brand! We are one species. We are human.

Tolerance is the ability to allow those unlike you to co-exist. Acceptance is to embrace without distinction. Our colors, our religions, our economics, our politics and nationalities, whom we love, make us richer not poorer. We ARE diverse and not cut from the same swatch.

That is what is wonderful about our world.

Still, we are one species and we need to understand that. These divisions for control are wrong. We need to end hate not by focusing on what is wrong but by focusing on what is right. We don’t need to declare another ‘war on something’ in order to end it. All the wars we have ever declared on anything go on and on and on and proliferate what we claim we want to eradicate.

We need to love and give, forgive and forget, allow and accept, enjoy and embrace all people. The Golden Rule is so wonderful in this regard. Treat others the way you wish to be treated. Make them feel as comfortable and loved as you want to be. Help them be as rich and successful as you can be. Accept and allow them to thrive as you wish to.

Celebrate and assist each other.

We are all in it together. We are a species on a globe hurtling through space at high speed. We ought to figure out how to peacefully exist together delighting in one another instead of fighting. Most people fight more over ideology than they do over resources. They fight over religion and who loves whom, or the physical characteristics of their neighbors.

It’s Simply insane.

‘Love one another as I have loved you’, said Jesus. That is pretty darn straight forward. It starts with each of us. You cannot expect the other person to go first. You must go first! Begin with you neighbors, the people you meet, greet or see each day. Accept those who cross you path. Practice patience, kindness, love, generosity, acceptance!

THAT IS THE POINT of the Golden Rule. GO FIRST! We put it into practice! One by one and we pay it forward. Of course, you must have an open mind and an open heart in order to do this.You must be flexible and accepting. You must like people and want to get along.

If enough people did this we could reach that Tipping Point. We could fulfill the 100th Monkey Principle and we would make our world a better place. Each of us needs to be responsible for making our world a little bit better.

If each of us actually did this IT WOULD BE better. If you and I decided to start making a difference things will be different. Focus on what we can positively do. Practice becoming a living solution!

I say, begin today, if you haven’t already! Commit to helping make our world the garden paradise it was meant to be.” Rex Sikes

Celebrate everything today!

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