Ideas to Action

Napoleon Hill said, “What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”  I would like to take the time to break this quote down for all to understand.

“What the mind can conceive,” is a most precious statement.   It is a fact that our human mind has the ability to conceive an idea.  It is through ideas that great things happen.  Thomas Edison had an idea about a light bulb.  Henry Ford had an idea about mass-producing the automobile.  Abraham Lincoln had the idea of abolishing slavery.  Our founding fathers had an idea of a constitution that would be the foundation of one of the greatest and most powerful countries on earth.  Every success, great or small, came from an idea that was birthed in the mind.

An idea is great, but it is necessary to take the next step, “believe.”  Belief is necessary for the idea to be fueled with passion.  Belief in an idea makes us passionate and causes us to get excited about the possibilities and even the certainty of the workability of the idea we conceived in our mind.  Without belief an idea will die as fast as it was birthed.

Belief comes by holding the conceived thought in our mind constantly.  We think about the idea and even see it in our minds eye as already ours.  We think about it, we talk about it; we dream about it until a red-hot belief that it is ours overcomes our 5 senses. WOW!

Now comes the challenge…”Achieve.”  We have to achieve and achievement comes by taking action!  It is not good enough to conceive and idea and just believe it.  We have to achieve it through action.  As you dwell upon your idea and it comes the predominate thought in your mind, you will be prompted from within with thoughts of actions that you can take to bring that idea into reality.  Some of these promptings may seem ridiculous, but do not ignore them for each action will pave the way for more action that will eventually lead to the reality of your conceived idea.

The Bible says that, “Faith without works is dead.”  You can have an idea and believe that you will realize that idea.  However, without action, nothing will happen.  When Jesus healed the man with the withered hand he asked him to take action by stretching forth his hand.  The man who had the withered hand had the faith to take the ACTION and thus received the healing.  This was true of all such events in the Bible.  Faith requires some kind of action. 

Most people, especially of the Law of Attraction persuasion, miss this point.  You may condition your mind to focus on what you want, but without action, what you want will not come to you.  As you focus on what you want, you will receive inward promptings to take certain actions.  Again, do not ignore this.  Taking action solidifies your belief  and causes the things you want to appear in you life.  The process is simple:

·      Think with your mind

·      Ideas will be conceived

·      Focus on that idea until you believe that it is already yours

·      Take action based on the inner promptings

·      Each action will lead to further actions until your idea becomes a reality

If you want to experience one of Mr. Hill’s greatest teachings, learn to take action!

Re-choice!

Choice is unique to human beings.  We can actually choose the kind of life that we desire.  Animals cannot choose, they just respond to the stimuli in their environment and act according to instinct.  Come to think of it, that reminds me of most of the humans I know!

You, yes YOU can choose.  You can choose to be happy or sad.  You can choose to be good or bad.  You can choose to be wealthy or in lack.  Your life, to date, is the sum total of your choices.  You can’t blame ANYONE or ANYTING for the way your life has thus turned out.  You have to look in the mirror and take total responsibility because the life you live is your choice—for better or worse.

I have good news for you; you can re-choice!  You can make different choices and change the outcome of your life.  Don’t be like a dog that just reacts to the environment, exercise your will and make a great choices.  You can be a looser or a chooser; it’s totally up to you.  You can choose to watch CNN (Constant Negative News) or you can read a good book like THE GO-GIVER or THE SLEIGHT EDGE or BEACH MONEY.  You can choose to fill you mind with possibilities or complain about the world and everything in it.  You can take action to make a difference or you can let the environment take action on you.  You can mold or be molded.  The choice is ALWAYS yours.

Humans have a tendency to give up their humanness and act like cattle, just following the herd.  I like what my coworker says, “Look at where the crowds are going and choose the opposite direction!”  Don’t sacrifice your right to make good choices by playing it “safe” and following the crowd.  Jesus said, “Narrow is the way.”  The crowds don’t take the narrow way; they go the broad and easy way.  The crowds are making easy, mindless choices; they are mindlessly following the crowd to NOWHERE!  They do their jobs, come home and mindlessly sit in front of the boob tube or surf the net and then go to bed only to get up the next morning and do this insanity all over again!   There are different choices one can make those choices can change everything.

What kind of life do you want?  Do you want to be common or extraordinary?  Do you want to make a difference during your stay on earth or just follow the crowd?  You have to choose.  You may not be where you want to be right now, but you can re-choice!  Don’t be a loser and cop-out of making a choice to be above the crowd, to be a better person who will make a difference.    

To be a re-choicer, you must have faith.  What is faith?  Faith believes the incredible, sees the invisible and receives the impossible.  Your faith should not be misguided.  Your faith must be in God who, according to the Bible, “Calls things not being, as being.”  God is the source of all.  He made you.  He made you with the ability to choose.  He gave you the power to make good choices, choices that can produce good results.  He even gave you the power to make great choices that will issue in stratospheric results!  God didn’t create losers; He created choosers.  Don’t be a loser; be a chooser! 

If your past is full of bad choices, right NOW, you can re-choice!  You can choose THIS DAY what you will do, who you will become, and what you will possess.  Your choices will need faith, especially if you chose to be an outstanding citizen.  Especially if you choose to be something more than you can “see” now.

How do you feel right now?  Is your life the way you want it?  Are you unsettled in you thoughts?  Are you where you want to be in life?  Whatever the answer to these questions, rejoice that you can re-choice!  You can change.  You can do or be whatever you desire.  Have faith and make a decision to do the “impossible” for all things are possible to the one who believes. 

Re-choice!

Dreams and Determination

Joseph was a 11^th of 12 sons born to his father.  One day he had a dream and dreamed that his father, mother, and brothers would all bow down to him one day.  Well, needless to day, that offended his family, especially his brothers.   How would you react?

Over time his brothers had an opportunity to sell Joseph to some nomads who eventually sold him to a man in Egypt.   How could such a thing happen to a young man with such a high dream?

Eventually Joseph found favor in this man’s sight and he was placed over the Egyptian’s household.  However, the Egyptian’s wife had “a thing” for Joseph and wanted to have sex with him.  Joseph was honorable and refused.  As a result the lustful wife became angry and lied, saying that Joseph attempted to rape her. As a result his master became angry with Joseph and ended up putting him into prison.

Joseph eventually found favor with the warden of the prison and was put in charge of the prisoners.  One night two of his fellow prisoners had dreams and Joseph used his gift of interpreting dreams and told them the meaning of their dreams; both dreams came true just as interpreted by Jospeh.  One man was beheaded and the other was released and returned to his position as the King’s cupbearer. 

So far, we see a “dreamer.”  Joseph was a man with a dream of greatness, who only seemed to experience one bout of “bad luck” after another.  I bet he was wondering if HIS dream would ever become a reality.  He had a high and lofty dream but ended up being sold to a foreign land (because of envy) and eventually ended up in prison due to a false witness against him.  What a bummer!  Even with such events, Joseph always found favor with someone while in his seemly “bad” situation.

Well, the day came when the King of that country had a dream and no one was able to interpret it.  It was then that one of his fellow prisoners, who was released, told the King of a man named Joseph and his ability to interpret dreams.  The King sent for Joseph who accurately interpreted his dream.  The dream and its interpretation was so important that it saved a nation and also saved Joseph’s family, who eventually ended up bowing down to him.  Joseph’s dream became a reality!

The story I just wrote about is true and it portrays what you will have to go through in the pursuit of YOUR dream.  You will tell others of your dream and they will become jealous and mocking.  This normally comes from family members; who mean well, but KNOW that you can’t make it because none of them ever did.  They will call you crazy and tell you to give it up!

Then you may be lied about and put into what feels like a prison (isolation).  Isolation, because you are on your own, fighting for what you determined to have in life.  You are not average; you are determined to be above average.  As a result you will find favor, as Joseph did, along the way.

Though, in this prison, you help others achieve their dreams, who might reach theirs before you do because of your help.  You get discouraged because it just doesn’t seem to be happening for YOU.

Then the day comes when one of those folks, who you helped realize THEIR dreams, refers you to someone who will change you life forever and, what seems like overnight, you dream becomes a reality. 

Well, my friend, this is just the way success works.  It is not granted to the faint of heart.  It is the prize to those who determine to achieve what is in their heart.  The majority quit before they even get started.  Others quit just a day, week, month, or year before their dreams could have been realized.  But the determined “dreamer” WILL achieve their dreams if they do not lose heart.  This is the only way that it can be!

Friend, if you are reading this, I would bet that you are a determined dreamer.  I want you to know that your dreams will become a reality if you stay the course, help as many people as you can, and keep on keeping on.  I have no doubt that you will get what you are after.  The key is, do you doubt?  If you do, banish all doubt by thinking and speaking your desires into existence.  Focus on what you determine and don’t let anyone tell you that, “It can’t be done!”   The fact is, whatever the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve. 

My final word to you is to keep the course.  Dream, dream big and dream often.  No matter what happens, know that your dreams will come true…if you are determined.  May God bless you and give you the determination to reach your goals.

 

Beliefs Can Make or Break You

Beliefs are just thoughts that we give energy to.  The more energy we give a thought the stronger the belief.  Beliefs are formed from birth and many were imposed on us without any or much resistance.  We heard our parents say over and over that rich people are crooks.  We heard the religious say that money is evil.  We heard many such things and we believed them.   When something is heard over and over again it can becomes a belief; especially if what is being said is spoken with intense emotion.

I talk to many people that seem like mind numb robots.  I know, I was one of them!  They say things that are untrue as though they were fact.  This is especially true for those who sit in front of the “tube” day after day taking in all the things they see and hear over and over again and then spew them out like they are experts or something.  We live in a society where we are taught WHAT to think and not HOW to think.   This is a shame!  Not even our educational system teaches our kid HOW to think!

How many times have we network marketers been told that we were in a pyramid scheme?  How many times was we warned that, “That won’t work?”  Who did all the warning?  People who “believed” something they heard in the past; people with strong opinions that have not mastered the ability to think.

For the sake of this post, I will tackle that belief that money is evil.  I heard that saying over and over again throughout my over 50 years and believed it.  After all, rich people had to take from the poor to get their money, didn’t they?  I was lead to believe that being poor and dead broke was a virtue!  I had a belief that desiring wealth was bad and that I should be content with what I have even though I was miserable.  This is just the “tip of the iceberg” as far as my beliefs went.  However one day I began to look at that believe and question it.

One way to deal with false beliefs is to question them.  For example:  Is money really evil?  First of all, how can money be evil?  Money is an object.  It is merely a means of trade and commerce.  It does not have a mind; a soul and thus cannot do evil.  Money is neutral.  However, some people do evil things with money.  They gamble, buy drugs, pay for prostitution, etc.  Therefore money in and of itself is not evil.  It’s how some people use it that can be evil.

Most people do good things with money.  They support themselves and their families; give to charities, hire people, purchase things and all of these things make our economy grow.  Again, money is neither good or evil, it’s the people who handle it that make the difference. 

Now I have reasoned away the false belief that money is evil.  What is evil is the love of money.   To love money, worship it; treating it like your god is evil.  Again it’s the person that makes the difference.    Now I have a new belief that having money is good and not evil.  I no longer give energy to the thought that money is evil.  Money to me is a means to make this world a better place.  With money I can treat my family and friends to the best things in this life.  I can buy things that keep the people who make them employed.  I can give to the poor and support the ministries as my Lord leads me.   I can do awesome things with money, but am totally enslaved by debt.

I have only touched on one belief, but all beliefs should be handled in the same way.  Until limiting beliefs are dealt with, new and more powerful beliefs cannot be realized.  If you have been trying to adapt new beliefs with little success, maybe it’s time to examine the beliefs that you do have and see if they are repelling the new believe.  If you want to be wealthy and deep down “believe” that wealth is wrong, you will never be wealthy.  You have to question the false or limiting beliefs and crush them by studying each one to see if it holds any water (so-to-speak).  If you discover that that belief is not true then just dismiss it and establish an new and more powerful belief such as, money is good and I can do awesome things with money.

I put together a movie to help me establish new beliefs.  You can view it on You Tube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRX_aGMg5U4

More on this subject will be covered in future posts.  My point is, don’t be imprisoned by your false beliefs.  You can do something about those limiting beliefs, develop new ones and achieve great things.  I pray the best for you!