Success is now!

Many people rush toward the goal of achieving success and miss what is expressed by the saying "Stop and smell the roses."  Success is often eluded to as something that is a little beyond our reach and "waiting for us around the corner."  Being in the present moment will draw you attention to what is at hand.  It is the little things that make the big things that create the big picture - beautiful landscape r cozy house.  Really make it anything that you want but don't make yourself limited by your mind's ideas.  You mind may be inclined to have a room with a low ceiling that doesn't allow you to grow tall.  Make that room a huge area with an open glass ceiling to see the sky above.

Always start with clearing what is inside you.   Ask yourself what is creating a negative vibration that is repelling the success that you are working to materialize?  It could come from sources such as resentment, anger or greed.  Whatever it is you are the only one who can identify it and uproot it from your psyche.  You may need to start with counseling depending on where you are.  Always meditate because meditation is a means of connecting with the Universal Power that brings issues to the surface, without having to mentally examine the root causes.  I would advise you not to take medication if they are offered but to stay with the feelings that arise and let them pass through you.  Only if you are ever at a point of having thoughts of suicide or self harm do I advise that route.  And if you take medication before you learn to clear thought the process of meditation, thus increasing your brains ability to function at a higher frequency its obviously okay because it won't be permanent as you gain more traction on the spiritual path.  As you learn to associate the feeling with its root cause you will find that it will loose its grip or power over you.  Pretty soon you will anticipate when you will switch back into some negative association in response to an external event and be able to escape the whole process with a smile and perhaps a laugh at what once caused you anguish and despair.

Don't spend an enormous amount focusing on the negative but keep your hope on the future that lies before you.  Know that by staying in the present moment you will accomplish your objectives that will lead toward your goals.  If you begin to worry that the future will somehow not provide the positive outcomes that you plan on look at why that question is coming up for you.  Is it because of some tangible force or shift in circumstances outside your control.  For example the stock market might not be returning profits for the type of industry that your company represents.  There is no harm in pausing and gathering facts.  Hire a consultant if you need to who will lend a second opinion.  Always read the news and stay abreast of public policy as this affects us all and especially small businesses.  Become politically active and contact your Representatives and Senators whenever you have a concern about policy that can affect your business adversely.  Join organizations that have similar customers, goods or services who can help through being a resource.  Learn how to use your intuition and if you gut feeling is not to do something don't do it until it feels right.

What others say about you personally and as a business owner will impact your success.  Whenever you are in public always remember to be on stage and not to let your tongue get away from you.  There is a term that people in the hospitality business learn - on stage and off stage behaviors.  Until you are in a safe spot or with trusted friends be sure to keep your conversations in safe proximity. You want to be able to project an image that says you are trustworthy and are bound to your principles and virtues.  If you say a kind word to someone that person will always think of you with compassion.  Give to others as you would want them to give to you, as Jesus taught.  When you want to leave an impression in the world make it a good one.  It is much harder to try to salvage the damage that can be caused by a thoughtless rebuke of someone whom you considered insignificant.  You never know how much unofficial power and influence a person holds.  Take for instance a twitter follower.  A person may contact you directly and you may be someone with power and importance and drop that follower for their direct approach.  Who is the looser here?  That person who might not be a political player themselves can have thousands of followers and be a useful support to your business or campaign.  See things in perspective.  Nobody is to small to fail in God's eyes.

Marketing is a key component to success and it takes time to develop relationships.  Don't push to hard to recruit new customers.  Trust that when you put out the best product or service people are going to be able to find you.  Nothing is quite as fast as wild fires and word of mouth.  I read a book a few years ago on the  Grapevine as a marketing strategy that is used by companies who employ people to go out into the public and speak well of their products.  Most of us know who important it is to get a referral when we are looking for a lawyer or dentist for instance.  It puts our minds at ease if someone has a relationship with the person whom we need to obtain goods or services from.  Social network sites have allowed a forum in which we can get to know people over time.  Really get to know your client's well.  Chat with them on line and find out about their lives.  Coach, Tommy Spaulinding coined the term "Return on Relationship."  Just like a farmer who plants the seeds that will grow in response to environmental conditions, you are creating your wealth seeds through relationships.  Each interaction and each helpful gesture that you plant will grow.  Whoever you have influenced positively will look to your company for information or results when the need arises.  Make sure that you have done the ground work with your relationships and enjoy the financial rewards of providing services and goods at the best standards possible.

Your personal life plays a role in your success.  You may be motivated to meet your family's developmental milestones such as buying a home, providing vacations and sendidng kids to college.  Raising children is probably the heaviest financial undertaking that we take.  During your years of raising a family make sure that you are spending time with them.  Make your motto "I like my family better than money."  I watched a television program about Donald Trump and while his blended family members could report that he was a good provider there wasn't any real meaning to their relationship beyond that.  You will have to ask yourself whether you can get up earlier and attend breakfast meetings to accommodate leaving the office to see your kid play in little league.  Prioritize with your family as a focal point.  Spend time with your children each day.  Even for the financailly well off their children are at risk of being deprived of the love and security that can only be learned through contact with parents as role models.  Hire a nanny to spend time with your kids while you and your spouse spend some time together on trips.  Make it a fun time for your kids by planning some local trips with their nanny in your absence.  When your home life is in harmony with your business or professional life you will facilitate and magnify abundance in your life.  Use the model of the four goals of life to evaluate and contemplate how harmonious the areas are: wealth, health, knowledge and liberation (or self-actualization.)

I recommend that you spend a recommended amount of time exercising daily.  I promote yoga because it keeps the body subtle and doesn't put stress on joints.  Whatever you choose is going to work for you because your body needs to be maintained just like the engine of a Porche.  Yoga poses unite your body with the intention that the pose was created.  Yoga poses often use animals and nature to illustrate our own body's needs.  For instance I like the mountain pose because it helps me stand firm in my life and feel grounded.  Find a yoga studio or class near you and committ to a series of physical and inner transformations.  Someone whom I have taken classes from in the past when I visited my Meditation teacher is John Friend.  Check his website for videos etc. to help you with this amazing practice.  Be mindful of what you expose your senses to by not indulging in things that are of a lower nature and I think that you will get my jest without my having to spell it out for you.  When you take in negative qualities through exposure to wrong use of body, hurts your spiritual development.  Don't think that you are free from the effects of the wrong that others participate in because your are viewing it only.  Not so! 

Keep regular hours for sleep and wake up early to meditate.  The early hours are auspicious as the earth is still and that makes it easier to go within.  Learn to use the breath to guide you into meditation.  Breath in deep and long and exhale completely.  Oxygen is essential for life and the more we can get to our cells the better our bodies will be.  Eat vegetarian foods.  Today I received an email claiming that it was a plot from the left to promote vegetarian foods.  I am conservative and don't have to know anything more than from my own experience of being vegetarian has made my intestines clean and body healthier.  I am against factory farming and the inhumane slaughter of animals.  Once you realize the sacredness in all life you will not want to harm other forms of life much less eat them.  Instead join animal rescue organizations and see how these farm animals relate to humans.  If you like your own dog or cat you will like how pigs and goats love you too!  Don't shun what is best for your own good because of your social conditioning.  Learn vegetarian recipes and enjoy eating in a way that promotes health and reverses illnesses such as coronary artery disease as Bill Clinton has recently shared.

Have gratitude for your many blessings that are showered on you throughout the day!  Be at peace and mind the words you use.  I will discuss more about the power of words tomorrow.  Feel free to contact me at lawrencerita511@gmail.com

Start where you are - don't fence your self in through inner obstacles.

Somehow it is human nature for us to believe our lives need to be improved in some area such as education or finance and that we cannot start on a course of action because we convince ourselves that the fences are real and allow them to hold us in.  Break free of the fences that corral your life into a tight and limited space.  Be bold.  Be true to yourself and step out into the unknown with confidence.  Journal and enquire of yourself what is it that keeps from giving your all to your life.  Why do you chose to take the short stick and risk exposing yourself to heights of self discovery and achievement?  Only you can do this work nobody else can do it for you.  Once you find out what your particular barriers are, you can start to erase and reverse your thinking and experience.  Are you afraid of public speaking perhaps which is a common phenomenon because we fear inside that we are going to be ridiculed, not respected or any number of imaginings. 

I worked with a young man once who overcame fear of being on stage for his part in a play in front of kids in a new magnet school.  We meditated together and everyday at home the young man and his mother made this a regular practice for calming the mind and stilling their inner being.  These two results made it possible for him to go in front of an auditorium full of people without fear.  He had to experience calm and confidence inside and have a steady mind before he could appreciate what a pleasurable experience sharing his talent was for him.  We also used the worrier yoga position that was developed and used by people to tap into that part of our psyche and consciousness that brings out the warrior in us.  He literally went from worrier to warrior because of his self effort.

When you identify a part of yourself that doesn't want to participate with you to uplift your life, shine the light into that part of your life and then it will loose its power over you.  You are in control of your life and destiny and you can smile at what lies ahead because you can trust yourself to create the right circumstances for your success.  If you are afraid of failing school, enroll in school and get a tutor.  I have not always got great grades because I believe one of the reasons is that I am an independent thinker.  That is not a bad thing but you have to be aware that there will be consequences to seemingly going against the system that you philosophical differences with.  For instance I got a low grade from my professor for writing a paper because I didn't agree with applying only one philosophy in the nursing field.  For one thing I through it would be boring and for another each individual doesn't fit the same cookie cutter.  When you feel what you have going on is not going for you, you have to make it happen through change.

I always tell myself that I can make it through courses.  I have taken numerous hours of chemistry for instance and for someone who left school at fifteen it was quite an accomplishment.  Pull all your resources together and make sure that you put time and effort into what you do.  Give your whole self to what you chose to do and don't go for half measures.  Be prepared to sacrifice for your schooling as that will award you with opportunities ahead that you don't yet imagine.  Do things the right way.  Don't cheat on tests or plagiarise other's work when you write papers to be handed in for grading.  It has been my experience that this is quite the norm as I had a mentor in graduate school who was a graduate of Boston University in a very competitive program.  Her advise to me was to keep a drawer in a filing cabinet in my Sorority and share papers that particular professors had graded favorably.  I saw some of my class mates passing papers between them in the hallways.  I would always rather do my own work because you are the one who is going to be accountable for producing that knowledge in your work place by making the right choices and other job performance measures.

Faith and prayer is a big part of how I go about doing things and if God wants you to do a particular thing you will be awakened to and driven by that powerful urge to further your education, buy a particular property or whatever it is.  Pray and some people use fasting which works for many and is recommended in the Bible.  Be humble before God always and let His love guide you.  Be careful for what you wish for the saying goes.  Similarly be careful what you pray for because you most likely will receive what you ask for.  Once you have been infused with the energy and desire to create wealth, knowledge, health etc., in you life you will then take the next step in the process which is action.  Experience yourself energetically in the place where you want your goals to materialize.  For instance when I moved to the Bay Area in California I actually could see myself there and had contacted people and thus started the ball rolling.  I also cared for one of the most lovable and remarkable people I have ever known.  So we might be drawn for a certain purpose and God will have an additional purpose for us as we are His servants here on earth.  My friend had an immense influence on my life and I have felt great love for him ever since.

Learn to modify your goals and dates that you have set to achieve them.  Bruce Lee said that we don't necessarily have to achieve our goals, it's the process that counts towards our happiness and character building.  There are no mistakes, only learning experiences.  Meditate regularly and if you feel a certain resistance or block let the meditation guide you to your next step.  You have the answers you need inside and you will learn to trust in your abilities to meet all of your needs.  Start each day early.  My Teacher used to say the best hours for meditation were between 3 and 6 am before the world awakes and the earth is still.  Meditation allows you to go deep inside and connect with your higher self.  You can take care of your daily chores and self care needs and have your day planned before breakfast!  Connecting on the inside makes it easy to focus on what your priorities need to be and what steps are necessary for you to reach your daily goal.  Set a main goal for yourself and then break it down to weekly and daily goals.  Self talk is important so don't be overly critical if you don't achieve the outcomes you wanted.  Be grateful for what you did accomplished and know that the next day you can reevaluate your strategy and start again.  Never give up.  I repeat never give up.  You will be able to make breakthroughs, you just need time.  Whatever you give yourself to will yield fruit.  When things appear to not be working out you don't know how this will benefit you in the grand scheme of things.  It might mean that money will come to you because of a project you have given yourself to and perhaps someone stole the project from you because of their lack of knowledge about universal laws.  Know that if anyone intentionally tries to harm you through stopping you from earning the money you deserve it will haunt them.  The laws of attraction and karma work that way.  It will hit them in the back as they say.  Just be patient, use your resources and keep working on your goals.  Sarah Palin says that her father told her to "Reload the gun!"  That means not walking away from aggressors.  Apathy is not a good thing and in my experience is disempowering.  Put your power behind what you believe in and keep walking and praying as an African American friend once told me to do.

I will use two quotes to summarize what I have written:  "Cherish your vision and your dreams, as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements." ~ Napoleon Hill.  "All great achievements require time." ~ Maya Angelou.  Walk with the Lord in your heart and your life will shine like a bright star.  When you have walked the path don't shut the gate behind you but stand at the gate and welcome others to journey with you to free themselves from their own inner limitations and obstacles that will lead to success.  God bless you!

Please feel free to contact me:  lawrencerita511@gmail.com