Declaring What You Want

In recent weeks, I have come to realize how powerful it is to declare your intentions, not just thinking about it in your mind but actually conveying that intention with someone else and let The Law of Attraction go to work.

A classic example was wanting to be part of a Mastermind Group as described by Napoleon Hill in his amazing book, "Think and Grow Rich". I had been thinking about it for a couple of months and it was an idea that was interesting but not compelling at that time. So obviously, a lot of energy was not given to that idea.

About a week and a half ago, I was discussing some marketing strategies with a marketing consultant and mentioned to him that belonging to a group of like-minded people is so important because they can help you stay focused and committed. To my surprise, he mentioned that he is planning to start a Mastermind Group in our suburb and invited me to join if I was interested. I laughed as I shared with him what I had been thinking about for a couple of months. We left it by agreeing that he would let me know when he was ready to kick off the group.

But to my surprise, a couple of days ago, I got an email from someone from Bob Proctor's publishing company inviting me on a conference call with the aim of starting a Mastermind Group. Needless to say, I accepted and will be on the call at the end of this week.

The lesson for me was that declaring what you want is so important for an idea to start moving into physical form. The more you speak about what you want, the more energy you give to it and the quicker it will become your reality.

The Courage To Succeed - Part 1

The following article has been excerpted from three-time Olympian, Ruben Gonzalez's book, "The Courage to Succeed".

No matter what your dream is, whether it's to be the best Dad or the best Mom, the best husband or the best wife, the best employee or the best boss, the best salesperson or the best student you can be, to make it a reality, you will have to have the courage to act in spite of your fears.

High achievement requires courage, self-confidence, boldness, and the willingness to go for your goals with no guarantee of success. With courage you can do anything in life. Without it, none of the other qualities will help you.

The first time I saw the Olympics on TV I was in the third grade. As soon as I saw the Olympians I knew I wanted to be just like them. What impressed me the most about the Olympians was not their athletic ability. What I admired about the Olympians was their values. You see, these were people that had a dream, and had the courage to commit fully to it for years with no guarantee of success.
That's what impressed me about them!

Sure they had outstanding athletic ability. But more importantly, they had the faith, the guts, the boldness, and the willingness to go for it with no guarantees of success.
They had that rare attitude of not worrying about the possibility of failure. They were going to go for it and commit 100% to winning no matter what. It's like they said to themselves, "It's my dream and I'm going for it.
That's it period!"

When you move boldly towards you goals, when you make the decision to do whatever it takes (and all it is is an attitude change, a choice), magic happens. All of a sudden, unseen forces will come to your aid. The bolder and more committed you are, the more your subconscious will work for you. You will unconsciously start to attract the people and resources you need to achieve your goal. All of a sudden, you will draw energy to making your dream a reality.

People will start saying you are lucky. Winners know there is no such thing as luck. All that is really happening is that now, you have become driven. You are known for your goal.
Everybody can see it. Your every action is broadcasting to the world where you are headed, and all of a sudden, anyone who might be interested in helping you, can see you are serious.

When you are focused on your goal, your mind starts acting like a guided missile. It becomes tuned to anything that might help you achieve your goal. This is not any different than when you buy a new car and all of a sudden you notice how many other people are driving the same model car.

When you put all of your energy into one goal, you tap into huge resources. That single decision changes everything. All the stress and worry disappears. Your mental attitude changes completely. You are now the hunter. The dream has become the prey that will eventually succumb to you.

When you make the decision to commit 100%, the winner inside you comes out. The champion inside you comes out.
The real you comes out. You just have to have the courage to face your fears.

Your fears are a smokescreen. They are like ghosts that keep you from being the real you. Your best you. It's OK to be afraid. Everyone is afraid! If everyone is afraid, what's the difference between a brave person and a coward? The brave person acts in spite of his fears.
The coward allows his fears to overwhelm him and control his thoughts, feelings and behaviors.

Can courage be developed? Absolutely. Aristotle said, "Through repetition, any quality can be developed.
You become what you repeatedly do." Do you realize the implications of that statement? It means we are not doomed to being the way we currently are.

You can change! You can grow! You can be a different person three months from now! In case you haven't figured it out, that EXCITES me! You see, if that is true, and it is, now you know that it is within you to grow into the kind of person that can make your dreams come true.

Back to courage. The way to develop courage is by practicing courage in every situation where courage is required. How do you do that? Through a decision.
You come to the realization that whenever you are afraid to do something, you are simply being tested.
You make a decision that from now on you will win over your fear. Remember; if you do what you fear, the fear will disappear. If you don't do what you fear, the fear will control your life.

Make a game out of conquering your fears. You can get started with small things. For example, if you usually wait to see what everyone else is having when you're ordering in a restaurant, next time, be the first to order.
When you do that, you will have experienced a small personal victory. You just won over that fear. Next time you are talking to somebody and you want to ask a question but you are afraid of looking stupid, ask anyways. Guess what? You've just won another personal victory.
Score:
Fears 0, Courage -2

You need to win many many personal victories before you will win a public victory. Michael Johnson, the 200 meter and 400 meter Olympic Gold medalist, says in his biography, "I did not miss a scheduled workout in 10 years." His public victory did not happen overnight.

By becoming conscious of your fears and making a game out of conquering them, before long you will begin to understand in your heart that fears are just smokescreens. And by playing that game all the time, you are becoming more courageous every day.


Ruben Gonzalez is the author of the critically acclaimed book, "The Courage to Succeed" and is featured in the movie, "Pass It On". His experiences as a three-time Olympian, entrepreneur, and professional keynote speaker give him a unique perspective on how to conquer the corporate struggles of today. For more details about his services and products, go to: "http://www.thelugeman.com"

Grabbing Opportunities That Come Your Way

I recently watched a presentation given by Les Brown a few years ago that was called "Being Hungry". What Les was referring to was that when you have prepared yourself for something that you really want, and it does present itself, you must be hungry. In other words, you must be is the position and vibration to grab that opportunity with both hands.

Opportunities are always coming our way. We attract things into our reality by our thoughts and what we choose to focus on. When the universe does conspire and grant us our wish, our job is to ensure that we are ready to accept it. The accepting part is an action step. By us accepting what we have wished for, it sends a message back to the universe that we were hungry and we want more. And guess what? The universe will listen to you again and give you more of what you want.

I found Les Brown's presentation motivating, insightful, and entertaining at the same time. If you want to watch the free presentation online, go to: "Les Brown Presentation".

Date With Destiny Recap

After taking a week to assimilate everything I experienced at Anthony Robbins' most intimate seminar, Date With Destiny, I can now share some of my major learnings, which is complimentary to some of the principles I discuss in my book, "Hoops and Freedom".

Like Tony said, "It was a blind date" but for everyone who attended, "Life will never be the same again!"

We were equipped with the skills and knowledge to decide how we want to feel in advance. It is so easy to change from dis empowering states like frustration, overwhelm, boredom to powerful and empowering states like excitement, passion, and joy. All it takes is a change in focus and physiology to completely change how a person feels.

We looked at the six human needs which can be summarized below:

1. Certainty

This is a survival instinct and every person has this need. The only question is how do you get it – the answer is different for everyone.

2. Uncertainty / variety

If you were certain about everything all the time, pretty soon you’d be bored. Remember to love all the surprises you get, not just the ones you want!

The secret to life: your quality of life is in direct proportion to the amount of uncertainty you can comfortably live with.

3. Significance

This is the need to feel important, unique, or special. Some get this through religion, money, or giving more. The easiest way to get significance without risk of fear is to find big enough problems, but, the only thing keeping you from getting what you really want is the story you keep telling yourself about why you can’t have it.

4. Connection / love

People often think that if they are significant enough, everyone will love them. Very often though they reach their goals but are still unhappy. The reason is they met their goals but not their need for love and connection.

Everyone finds a way to meet those first four needs – our fundamental needs, or the needs of the personality. To be fully fulfilled though, you must meet the last two ultimate needs: the spiritual needs.

5. Growth

If you don’t grow you die.

6. Contribution

We must contribute beyond ourselves. Tony has a great line, "Life is not about me, it's about we!"


We also looked at our model of the world. The principles that guide our model of the world are:

1. Global Beliefs - what we believe will affect our ability to avoid pain and gain pleasure

2. Values/Rules - our beliefs about what is most important to avoid and/or get in life and when to feel good/bad

3. Primary Vehicles - our primary ways we have learned to get out of pain and get into pleasure

4. Primary Focus/Questions - our beliefs about what is most important to avoid and/or get in life and when to feel good/bad

5. Primary Fear - The ultimate fear that all people have is loss of love and/or loss of worth.


The most intimate day was relationship day! Relationships are the area of life that provides both the greatest pain and the greatest pleasure. Pain in a relationship is usually caused by fear.The biggest lesson was that relationships provide us with the ultimate spiritual lessons in life. We must learn to give our gifts and love unconditionally. Tony did some powerful interventions that left us all hanging onto our seats wondering what was going to happen next.

There were so many powerful moments in the seminar and I'm truly grateful for the opportunity to see a master sharing his knowledge and skills in such an entertaining and inspirational way. The "Oneness University" blessings were also a tremendous gift to everyone.


I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I look forward to attending other live Anthony Robbins seminars in the years to come. I would recommend this seminar to anyone who is looking to take their life to the next level.