The Law of Attraction

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:24)
Many writers nowadays have written about the importance of expecting good things. The law of attraction has become very popular. According to the law of attraction, whatever you anticipate and expect will happen to you. In other words, whatever you put your mind on will come to you. This principle isn’t new. It’s the same truth Jesus said 2,000 years ago, although with slightly different words. He said that when we ask for something in prayer, we need to feel like if we have received it already.
For example, let’s pretend that you’re in debt, and because of this you’re anxious, uptight, and worried. You can’t think about anything else. You anticipate losing your credit, your assets, and your reputation. How would you feel if you were debt free? Would you feel relaxed, happy, and free? If this is how you would feel, you must feel this way now. After you pray and ask God to free you from debt, you must feel as if you were already debt free. This is what having faith means. You expect good things all the time. You live as if you were what you intend to be. You feel as if your life were the way you would like it to be.
You might be wondering how you could be happy even though your life isn’t perfect. How can you be happy if you’re in debt, if your marriage isn’t good, and you’re sick? Do you have power over your feelings? The answer is yes. You can be happy by choice.
Look at what Jesus said about not worrying, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?” (Matthew 6:25)
In other words, Jesus said that we don’t worry because we have problems, but because we have a tendency to worry. Worrying is a habit that we form when we’re young. We worry because we saw our parents worrying, and then we think it’s the way to be. We unconsciously assume that we have to worry. We think that being relaxed and faithful amidst adversity is a sign of irresponsibility.
However, worrying is lack of faith and a bad habit. In order to overcome worry we need to make a choice. Jesus said, “… You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:32) Worrying is a bondage and it can be cured with a decision. We need to make a decision that from now on we will live in expectancy. We will anticipate blessings and we will celebrate our victories before they occur.
There is a difference between losers and winners. Losers are always thinking about problems and who is to blame. They regret their past mistakes, they blame people for what happened to them and they think that everything is lost. They are always expecting that something bad will happen. Winners, however, are always thinking about solutions. They see blessings coming their way and they are always celebrating. Their life is a constant worship.
I ask that from now on, you act as if your life was the way you would like it to be. Make a list of good things you want, ask God to give them to you, and then feel as if they were already yours. Thank God for having given you what you asked him.
Make a choice to be happy. Happiness is like a magnet that attracts blessings. Your blessings are proportional to your happiness. J

Visualize and Affirm Your Desired Outcomes:

Visualize and Affirm Your Desired Outcomes:
A Step-by-Step Guide
by Jack Canfield

You have within you an awesome power that most of us have never been taught to use. Elite athletes use it. The super rich use it. And peak performers in all fields are now starting to use it. That power is called visualization. The daily practice of visualizing your dreams as already complete can rapidly accelerate your achievement of those dreams. Visualization of your goals and desires accomplishes four very important things.
1. It activates your creative subconscious which will start generating creative ideas to achieve your goal.
2. It programs your brain to more readily perceive and recognize the resources you will need to achieve your dreams.
3. It activates the law of attraction, thereby drawing into your life the people, resources, and circumstances you will need to achieve your goals.
4. It builds your internal motivation to take the necessary actions to achieve your dreams.
Visualization is really quite simple. You sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes and imagine — in as vivid detail as you can — what you would be looking at if the dream you have were already realized. Imagine being inside of yourself, looking out through your eyes at the ideal result.
Mental Rehearsal
Athletes call this visualization process “mental rehearsal,” and they have been using it since the 1960s when we learned about it from the Russians. All you have to do is set aside a few minutes a day. The best times are when you first wake up, after meditation or prayer, and right before you go to bed. These are the times you are most relaxed. Go through the following three steps:
1. Imagine sitting in a movie theater, the lights dim, and then the movie starts. It is a movie of you doing perfectly whatever it is that you want to do better. See as much detail as you can create, including your clothing, the expression on your face, small body movements, the environment and any other people that might be around. Add in any sounds you would be hearing — traffic, music, other people talking, cheering. And finally, recreate in your body any feelings you think you would be experiencing as you engage in this activity.
2. Get out of your chair, walk up to the screen, open a door in the screen and enter into the movie. Now experience the whole thing again from inside of yourself, looking out through your eyes. This is called an “embodied image” rather than a “distant image.” It will deepen the impact of the experience. Again, see everything in vivid detail, hear the sounds you would hear, and feel the feelings you would feel.
3. Finally, walk back out of the screen that is still showing the picture of you performing perfectly, return to your seat in the theater, reach out and grab the screen and shrink it down to the size of a cracker. Then, bring this miniature screen up to your mouth, chew it up and swallow it. Imagine that each tiny piece — just like a hologram — contains the full picture of you performing well. Imagine all these little screens traveling down into your stomach and out through the bloodstream into every cell of your body. Then imagine that every cell of your body is lit up with a movie of you performing perfectly. It’s like one of those appliance store windows where 50 televisions are all tuned to the same channel.
When you have finished this process — it should take less than five minutes — you can open your eyes and go about your business. If you make this part of your daily routine, you will be amazed at how much improvement you will see in your life.
Create Goal Pictures
Another powerful technique is to create a photograph or picture of yourself with your goal, as if it were already completed. If one of your goals is to own a new car, take your camera down to your local auto dealer and have a picture taken of yourself sitting behind the wheel of your dream car. If your goal is to visit Paris, find a picture or poster of the Eiffel Tower and cut out a picture of yourself and place it into the picture. With today’s technology, you could probably make an even more convincing image using your computer.
Create a Visual Picture and an Affirmation for Each Goal
We recommend that you find or create a picture of every aspect of your dream life. Create a picture or a visual representation for every goal you have — financial, career, recreation, new skills and abilities, things you want to purchase, and so on.
When we were writing the very first Chicken Soup for the Soul® book, we took a copy of the New York Times best seller list, scanned it into our computer, and using the same font as the newspaper, typed Chicken Soup for the Soul into the number one position in the “Paperback Advice, How-To and Miscellaneous” category. We printed several copies and hung them up around the office. Less than two years later, our book was the number one book in that category and stayed there for over a year!
Index Cards
We practice a similar discipline every day. We each have a list of about 30-40 goals we are currently working on. We write each goal on a 3x5 index card and keep those cards near our bed and take them with us when we travel. Each morning and each night we go through the stack of cards, one at a time, read the card, close our eyes, see the completion of that goal in its perfect desired state for about 15 seconds, open our eyes and repeat the process with the next card.
Use Affirmations to Support Your Visualization
An affirmation is a statement that evokes not only a picture, but the experience of already having what you want. Here’s an example of an affirmation:
I am happily vacationing 2 months out of the year in a tropical paradise, and working just four days a week owning my own business.
Repeating an affirmation several times a day keeps you focused on your goal, strengthens your motivation, and programs your subconscious by sending an order to your crew to do whatever it takes to make that goal happen.
Expect Results
Through writing down your goals, using the power of visualization and repeating your affirmations, you can achieve amazing results. Visualization and affirmations allow you to change your beliefs, assumptions, and opinions about the most important person in your life — YOU! They allow you to harness the 18 billion brain cells in your brain and get them all working in a singular and purposeful direction.
Your subconscious will become engaged in a process that transforms you forever. The process is invisible and doesn’t take a long time. It just happens over time, as long as you put in the time to visualize and affirm, surround yourself with positive people, read uplifting books and listen to audio programs that flood your mind with positive, life-affirming messages.
Repeat your affirmations every morning and night for a month and they will become an automatic part of your thinking — they will become woven into the very fabric of your being.

© 2007 Jack Canfield

Jack Canfield, America’s Success Coach, is the founder and co-creator of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul and a leading authority on Peak Performance. If you're ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: http://www.jackcanfield.com/

The Person Responsible For Your Success

The Person Responsible For Your Success
by Jack Canfield

It’s time to meet the person who has been responsible for the life you live right now.
This person has created your income, your debt, your relationships, your health, your fitness level, your weight, your attitudes and your behaviors. Who is it? To introduce yourself, just walk to the closest mirror and say hello! This person is you!
Although one of the popular myths out there is that "external factors" determine how you live, the truth of the matter is that you are in complete control of the quality of your life.
It’s time to look at the life you’ve created and determine what is working and what is not. Certainly there are wonderful things happening in your life, whether it’s your job, your spouse, your grades, your children, your friends, or your income level.
Congratulate yourself on these successes; you are creating them for yourself! And then take a look at what isn’t working out so well. What are you doing or not doing to create those experiences?
It’s time to stop blaming outside factors for your unhappiness.
When you realize that you create your experiences, you’ll realize that you can un-create them and create new experiences whenever you want. But you must take responsibility for your happiness and your unhappiness, your successes and your failures, your good times and your bad times. When you stop blaming, you can take that energy and redirect to focus on creating a better situation for yourself. Blaming only ties up your energy.
It’s also time to stop complaining.
Look at what you are complaining about. Really examine it. More than likely it is something that you can do something about.
Are you unhappy about something that is happening? Make requests that will make it more desirable to you, or take the steps to change it yourself. Making a change might be uncomfortable to you. It might mean you have to put in more time, money, and effort. It might mean that someone gets upset about it. It might be difficult to change or leave a situation, but staying put is your choice so why continue to complain? Face the facts that you can either do something about it or not. It is your choice and you have responsibility for your choices.
Successful people take 100% responsibility for the thoughts they think, the images that visualize and the actions they take.
They don't waste their time and energy blaming and complaining. They evaluate their experiences and decide if they need to change them or not. They face the uncomfortable and take risks in order to create the life they want to live.
Taking responsibility requires you to first decide to believe that you create all your experiences. Second, to pay attention to yourself, your behavior, and your life experiences. And last, to face the truth and deal with what is not working in your life. You have to be willing to change your behavior if you want a different outcome. You have to be willing to take the risks necessary to get what you want.
Isn’t it a great relief to know that you can make your life what you want it to be? Isn’t it wonderful that your successes do not depend on someone else?
Commit to taking 100% responsibility for your every aspect of your life. Decide to make changes, one step at a time. Once you start the process you’ll discover it is much easier to get what you want by taking control of your thoughts, your visualizations, and your actions!
© 2007 Jack Canfield
Jack Canfield, America’s Success Coach, is the founder and co-creator of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul and a leading authority on Peak Performance. If you're ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: http://www.jackcanfield.com/

Daily Disciplines for Effortless Success:

Daily Disciplines for Effortless Success:
Six Steps for Activating "The Secret" in Your Life
by Jack Canfield

The first step to using Law of Attraction as presented in the movie The Secret is to clarify exactly what you want. Remember—determine, write down and talk about what you do want, not what you don’t want. Be as specific as possible. Once you have clarified what you want, do the following each and every day.
1. Morning Intention, Visualization and Releasing
As soon as you wake up in the morning, take about 5 minutes to focus your mind on your desires, goals and intentions. Start by sitting in a comfortable position, closing your eyes and visualizing your desires and goals as already being fulfilled. Spend 30 seconds to a minute on each of your core desires and goals. You can also take a few moments to visualize your day going exactly as you would like it to.
When you do this, you will often find negative limiting beliefs that are the result of negative programming from your childhood will come up. You may hear thoughts like “I could never afford that,” “there’s no way I’ll ever get that,” or “who am I kidding?” coming up. If you do, use one of the many releasing techniques that are available (see the list below) to release the negative thought. Don’t fight or argue with the thought; just release it.
Remember to also spend several moments feeling the feelings you would feel if you had already manifested your desire in your life. The intensity of the feeling is what fuels the intensity of the attraction.
Powerful releasing techniques:
The Sedona Method by Hale Dwoskin: http://www.sedonamethod.com/ (Hale will be sharing his techniques when he speaks at my summer trainingBreakthrough to Success.)
The Work by Byron Katie: http://www.thework.com/
The Emotional Freedom Technique: http://www.emofree.com/
2. Use External Images to Keep you Focused on Your Desires and Goals
To keep yourself focused on what you want to manifest surround yourself with visual images of the things and experiences you want to attract into your life. There are many techniques you can use for this.
1) Cut out pictures of the things you wish to own (like your ideal car or home) and pictures that represent the experiences you want to have (like the perfect relationship, your ideal job, perfect health, being at your ideal weight, more joy, inner peace or balance in your life)to remind yourself of how you want it to be. Tape them up where you will see them every day—on the mirror, the refrigerator, or your bulletin board. You can also scan them into your computer and make them into a screen saver or a continuously running PowerPoint program.
2) Combine your pictures and words that you cut out into a collage on a large piece of poster board.
3) Make a Dream Book by putting the pictures into a 3-ring binder pasted onto the pages or slid into plastic page protectors.
When you look at any of these pictures, do what Bob Doyle, who is featured in The Secret teaches— think the thought, “THIS IS MINE NOW! THIS IS WHO I AM!”
3. Think a Better Feeling Thought
Start paying attention to the many times during the day that you have emotional responses (to other people, experiences, or your own thoughts) that are not in alignment with having or producing your desires. Pay special attention to when you feel disappointment, resentment, frustration or anger about your experiences and circumstances.
Remember, it’s your feelings (which are created by your thoughts, opinions, and beliefs) that are attracting your current circumstances. You must make a vibrational shift by changing your thoughts to ones that make you feel better (i.e., raise your vibration). Remember that you must become a vibrational match for the things and experiences that you want to attract into your life.
It is especially important to focus your thoughts and behaviors on things that cause you to feel joy. Focus your thoughts on thoughts that bring you joy (your lover, your best friend, your grandchildren, your favorite vacation spot) and your actions on doing the things you love to do (pet your cat, work in your garden, listen to your favorite music).
4. Have an Attitude of Gratitude
It is critical to take time each and every day to focus on what you are grateful for. Some people do this in the morning before or after they visualize their desires; others prefer to do it in the evening. Focus on all of the things in your life (most of which you take for granted) that you are grateful for—your health, your children, your job, the nice weather, electricity, running water, a nice stereo system, your flower garden, your pets, your friends).
No matter what your situation, there are always things to be grateful for. The more you focus on what you are grateful for, the more things and experiences you will attract to be grateful for. You may wish to carry a “gratitude rock” like the one Lee Brower talks about in “The Secret.”
5. Take Action
There are two kinds of actions you can take. Obvious actions are things like, if you want a better car, going to test drive all of the models you are interested in and choosing the exact car you want to have, and saving 10% of your income in a “car account.” If you want to be a doctor, apply to medical school.
There are also what I call “inspired actions.” Once you begin to do the things described above, the universe will start responding by sending people, resources and opportunities you need to manifest your desired result. You are going to find that you have inspired ideas; you must act on them. You must follow those gentle proddings from the universe. Often these intuitive impulses will have no seeming connection to achieving your goal, but if you follow them, they will lead you down a path of wonderful fulfillment.
Here’s a quick way to know if the actions you’re taking are taking you closer to the fulfillment of your dreams and desires. If you are feeling joy while you are doing them, then you are on the right path. Remember, joy is your internal guidance system, just like the GPS system in a car, telling you are taking the right actions. Follow your joy.
6. Acknowledge That it is Working
If you start to see something change for the better, acknowledge that it is happening. Appreciate it. When you find the perfect parking space, acknowledge it. When you get the table you want in the restaurant, acknowledge it. When you receive unexpected income, acknowledge it. When you meet someone who can help you achieve your goal, acknowledge that Law of Attraction is working. The more you acknowledge that it’s working, the more it will work. It’s that simple.
If you are attracting things into your life that you don’t want, remember the Law of Attraction is still working. Instead of thinking or saying, “It’s not working,” ask your self, “What am I focusing on, thinking about, talking about, feeling or doing that is attracting this into my life?” If you want to know what you are thinking about, notice the results you are producing in your life. To change those results, you will first have to change your vibration by changing your thoughts and feelings.
While there are many techniques that are variations on these themes that you can apply, there’s nothing else you have to do.
Jack Canfield, America’s Success Coach, is the founder and co-creator of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul and a leading authority on Peak Performance. If you're ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: http://www.jackcanfield.com/

How to Accelerate Your Success with a Mastermind Group

How to Accelerate Your Success with a Mastermind Group
by Jack Canfield

We all know that two heads are better than one when it comes to solving a problem or creating a result. So imagine having a permanent group of five or six people who meet every week for the purpose of problem solving, brainstorming, networking, and encouraging and motivating each other!
This process is called masterminding and is one of the most effective success tools you can adopt! It is a powerful way to support your dreams and bring unlimited resources to your business and personal life.
Participating in a mastermind group has been critical to me. I can't imagine achieving all I have without one, and it certaily made my goals happen much faster.
A Process for Accelerating Your Growth
The basic philosophy of a mastermind group is that more can be achieved in less time when people work together. Sometimes called a "dream team", your mastermind group is made up of two or more individuals who voluntarily come together on a regular basis - weekly, biweekly, or monthly - to share ideas, thoughts, information, feedback and resources.
Your group can be composed of people from your own industry or profession or people from all walks of life. You can focus on business, increasing each other's income, building a business, raising better kids, or solving a social problem.
Within your mastermind group, you benefit from the other members who empower you and draw out your full talents, resources and abilities. They trigger, stimulate, and motivate you to become all you are capable of being.
Creating Your Dream Team
The key is to choose people who are already where you'd like to be in your life - or who are at least a level above you. In forming your mastermind group, start by carefully enrolling another friendly, on-purpose, like-minded individual. Start by meeting together and then adding other selected, unanimously agreed-upon individuals who will work in total harmony for the good of each other and for the good of the group.
1. Your Dream Team should consist of 4-8 people. Most people find that 6 is the ideal number.
2. Meet weekly, if possible, for an hour to an hour and a half. This meeting must be held sacred as a life-enhancing priority. The meetings should be upbeat, enriching, encouraging and beneficial to each individual and the group's purposes. I always start our meetings with a prayer or an invocation. You could also start with an inspiring story.
3. Each member must agree to play all out -- to openly share ideas, support, contacts, information, feedback, and anything else that will help advance the individual and group goals.
4. Start by having each member share something positive and good that happened since the last meeting.
5. Next, have each member share an opportunity or problem they have experienced since the last meeting and ask for whatever support they would like on it. Appoint a time-keeper to make sure that everyone gets the same amount of time. This is important if you want your group to last. Everyone must get value at each meeting.
6. End by sharing appreciations and acknowledgements.
You'll find one of the real values of a mastermind group is the accountability factor - other members checking up on you to make sure you meet your stated commitments. It's one way to ensure you'll accomplish a lot more!
For more details about masterminding, read Success Principle #46 in The Success Principles book or utilize the mastermind worksheets found in The Success Principles 30-day Audio Course.
Jack Canfield, America's Success Coach, is the founder and co-creator of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul and a leading authority on Peak Performance. If you're ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: http://www.jackcanfield.com/

Ten Steps to Loving Yourself, Having Good Relationships and Being Successful

Following are the ten steps to loving yourself, having good relationships and being successful. They are at the conclusion of the book

First, value yourself. You’re important, not because of what you have, but because of who you are. Nothing can make you inferior. No matter what happens to you, you’re always worthy. Other people can’t make you inferior, and even you can’t put you down. Thinking you’re inferior is a fantasy. By thinking you’re inferior, you suffer in vain, when you could be enjoying the fact that you’re unique and special.
Second, overcome pride. Many people confuse pride with self-value. They think that by having an arrogant attitude or by putting other people down they can have self-esteem. Nothing could be further from the truth. The more worth you feel, the more humble you are. Pride shows a lack of self-esteem. You’re proud because you don’t believe you’re valuable. You put other people down because you feel inferior to them. When you believe in your worth, you don’t need to boast anymore.
Third, love yourself unconditionally. Accept yourself as you are. You can’t love others if you don’t love yourself. If there’s a war going on inside you, there will be a war going on outside. When you love yourself, you believe in people’s love and as a result, you love them. Love isn’t an obsession, it’s a principle. When you love someone, you don’t do things for them because you feel a strong compulsion to do them. You act out of your will. When you love, you keep your promises and are a person of character.
Fourth, forgive yourself. We have a tendency to judge and condemn ourselves for things we’ve done in the past. Miguel Ruiz says in his book The Four Agreements that the human being is the only one who pays several times for the same mistake. We also condemn ourselves for things we do on a daily basis. When we mix all those condemnations together, we realize why we’re so unhappy. Forgive yourself and you’ll find happiness. Stop criticizing yourself and making a big deal out of your faults and you’ll be a better person, for good comes from love. You’ll never overcome your shortcomings while putting yourself down. The way to perfection is through forgiveness. You aren’t perfect to forgive yourself. You forgive yourself to be perfect.
Fifth, overcome anger. You feel angry because you don’t value yourself unconditionally. Every time you feel inferior, you become angry. You’re angry because you allow things to shape your self-image. You might think that you need to be angry to get people to respect you. However, by being angry, you show a lack of self-control and an inability to love yourself and others unconditionally.
Sixth, believe in yourself. You are what you think you are. You’ll never reach higher than you think you deserve. You attract to yourself the very things you expect. Expect good things, and you get good things. Expect bad things, and you get bad things. If you focus your mind on problems, failures, and fears, you’ll attract them like a magnet. Victory is on the inside. Set your mind to be a victor, be positive about your future, and you’ll see things turn out for the best.
Seventh, overcome the victim mentality. Your life isn’t the result of outside forces and influences. If you’ve allowed circumstances and people to shape your destiny, it was your choice. You can’t blame other people for poor results, when it was you who gave them the right to control your life. Don’t give other people permission to manipulate you and to have power over your outcome. You be the one who makes the choices. Don’t victimize yourself to get people’s love. Crying over your fate won’t prompt compassion. You don’t need to be bad to be loved. You have many qualities that make you worth being loved without having to resort to self-pity to gain appreciation. You’re unique, special, and talented. You don’t need people’s mercy, because you’re a victor and not a victim.
Eighth, overcome your fears. You fear that something bad might happen because you wouldn’t value and love yourself if that thing happened. You project your lack of self-love to other people and think that they wouldn’t love you, either. When you love yourself unconditionally, you no longer fear rejection. You believe in other people’s love because you love yourself.
Ninth, don’t demand from yourself. You can do things because you have to do them or because you want to do them. Although it sounds the same, it’s completely different. When you do things because you have to do them, you don’t take pleasure in the doing. You can’t have contentment while you force yourself and demand from yourself. When you do things because you want to do them, you have pleasure, because you love yourself every step of the way toward getting what you want. Love makes life enjoyable. When you love yourself, you stop criticizing yourself every time you make a mistake and you don’t push yourself beyond your limits. As a result, you have more fun throughout the process, which causes you to reach your goals faster.
Tenth, learn to say no. In order to say no, you need to believe in your own love and in other people’s love. Saying no doesn’t make you a bad person. Quite the opposite, saying no shows that you trust other people’s love and you love them. You say no to them because you believe they’re able to understand and love you unconditionally. Believing in other people’s love lets you say no with grace and respect. Your no is so confident and polite that it sounds like a yes. You say no with your mouth, but you say yes with your heart. You aren’t afraid of being rejected. You also don’t doubt your intentions and emotions. You know that you’re a good person and that you have other people’s best interests in mind. You believe in your judgment and decisions, and you express that when you say no.
© 2007 Claudio Vargas Silva

Who is Your Neighbor?

One day, a lawyer decided to test Jesus. He asked Him, “What is the most important commandment?” Jesus replied with, “What do you think is the most important commandment?”
The lawyer said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, strength and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27) Then Jesus said, “You are right. That is a very wise answer. If you do that, you will find salvation.”
Love is like a triangle. God is at the top, we’re on one side, and our neighbor is on the other. Why aren’t we or our neighbors at the top? Because if we don’t love God above everything else, we don’t love ourselves, and if we don’t love ourselves, we don’t love our neighbors either.
Love is a principle. When we place God above all things, we are people of integrity. We aren’t ruled by passions or feelings, but by principles. Here’s an example: Your teenager comes to you and asks you to let them take the car and you say no. Does that mean you don’t love your child? Quite the contrary, you’re following a principle of love. When you love, you say no for the benefit of the person who receives it. You say no with your mouth, but you say yes with your heart. However, if your child asks you to drive the car and you say yes, you are saying yes with your mouth, but no with your heart. When you say no to someone, it doesn’t mean you don’t love them, just that you’re placing your principles above your emotions. Therefore, saying no can be an expression of love.
Since we and our neighbors are at the bottom of the triangle, we need to love everyone equally, with no preferences or exceptions. We don’t prioritize people and we don’t engage in profiling. Everyone is special and unique. We don’t reject people because of their culture, origin, or skin color.
We need to love people like we love ourselves. Maybe we think that if we love people, we can’t love ourselves. We think that we can’t have both. However, we can’t love people and hate ourselves at the same time. People are like a mirror. We see ourselves reflected in them. If we accuse ourselves, we also accuse them. If we put ourselves down, we put them down. If we don’t accept our mistakes, we can’t accept their mistakes either. If there is a war going on inside us, there’ll be a war going on outside us. If we’re unhappy, we’re going to treat them with the same lack of respect we have for ourselves.
In order to love people, we need to forgive ourselves for hurting them. If we condemn, judge, and punish ourselves for having mistreated people, we will also condemn, judge, and punish people for having mistreated us. We do to them as we do unto ourselves. If we want to forgive people for what they do to us, we need to start forgiving ourselves for what we do to them.
We need to get to the bottom of the problem and accept ourselves as we are. We need to respect ourselves, be patient with our shortcomings, and forgive our mistakes. When we’re kind to ourselves, we’ll have the same consideration for others.
If you have done something to someone and carried the memory with you throughout your whole life, let it go. Learn to forgive yourself and then you will forgive others.
When we love, we are people of integrity. We usually think that when people hurt us and do things to us, we have an excuse to get even and hold a grudge. We refuse to let it go and proudly keep the hurt inside. We need to forgive and forget.
The Greek had two words for love; agape and filein. Agape is the love we have for the whole universe, for everyone, even those we don’t know. Filein is the love we have for those who are close to us, such as our family, relatives, and friends. The word feeling comes from the Greek filein.
The love that is above all love is agape. It isn’t a feeling but a rational love. This is the love Jesus had for his enemies whilst they betrayed, insulted and killed him.
You might ask, “How can I love someone who treats me so badly? How can I love the spouse that betrayed me? How can I love the man who killed my wife? How can I love the criminal that raped my daughter?”
You can’t have a passionate love for them, but you can have an agape love by placing agape above filein. You need to surrender your feelings to your principles.
Many marriages end because people are not ruled by principles. They are ruled by their feelings. If they feel like loving, they love. If they feel like hating, they hate. So they go from one emotion to another. This love isn’t stable.
Some people marry at the peak of passion. They have that strong feeling and they lose self-control. However, after two years, on the average, that feeling goes away and their emotions switch from love to hate. They wonder how they could possibly have loved that person and search for another person to express their passion with and start the cycle all over again. They know it’s wrong. They know it’s against the principle, but they start making excuses. There is no excuse for hating.
Jesus showed us that there is no excuse. If He could love the people that treated Him so badly, we can love as well. We can love by principle, and not by feeling. We can love people who mistreat us if we have the love of God in our heart.
In our story today, the man asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” By making this question he was suggesting that there are people who aren’t our neighbors. That’s how the doctors of law in Christ’s time got out of obeying the Scriptures. They interpreted it according to their desires and changed the real meaning of it. When God said, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself,” he meant to say that we need to love everyone, even those who don’t love us.
Jesus told him the story about the man who was going from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way, a gang of thieves robed and beat him so badly that he almost died. He couldn’t walk. He was lying by the road, expecting to die.
A priest came walking by and saw him, but didn’t stop to help him because he thought he was already dead. He knew that if he touched a dead man, he wouldn’t be able to do the service at the temple, and if he stopped to help him, he would be late.
A Levite walked right past him.
Both the priest and the Levite were hypocrites. They were going to church, to perform their religious rituals, but they didn’t have the love of God in their hearts. Sometimes, we deceive ourselves by thinking that because we keep the commandments and are church members, we are true Christians.
There was a time when I confronted myself with the question, “Am I a hypocrite?” One Friday night, an elder called me, complaining about my work. He told me I wasn’t organized and I didn’t have a work plan. He was so rude that he upset me. The next day, Sabbath, I preached about love. When I preached, I made it my main concern to attack that elder. I said things like, “Some people in the church are so inconsiderate and mean, all the way thinking they are true Christians. They accuse, bad-mouth, and fight for God, thinking that this is what God expects them to do.”
When I look back at that Saturday morning, and think about my preaching, I realize I was a hypocrite. I didn’t love that elder. I couldn’t accept his harshness and I couldn’t forgive him. I was the opposite of Jesus when he said to those who mistreated him, “Father, forgive them because they don’t know what they do.”
If you are a Christian and you hold grudges in your heart, thoughts of jealousy, or revenge, you aren’t a true Christian. You need to be able to love and accept people as they are, even when they mistreat you. You can do it.
In my list of goals, I wrote, “I will not engage in revenge.” Shoot me if you wish, I won’t try to get back at you. No matter you do to me, I will always love you.
It’s very easy for me to hate you now and then forgive you later. However, I need to love you while you hurt me. You might say, “That is impossible. That is too much.” When Jesus said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” was he mad at them? No, He did love them at the very moment they were hurting Him. My friends, it’s possible and we need to have this goal in our lives if we want to be true Christians. Don’t settle for less.
The priest and the Levite were busy. They had to go to church. They had to preach and perform their rituals. They put church first. The church was more important than man.
This is our problem. We place commandments and church rules above people. We judge, criticize, reject, condemn, and punish those who don’t fit the image we have of Christians. We use the Bible as a weapon against people. We hate them and think we’re Christians. When we do this, we’re nothing but a lie. We have a cover of Christianity, but we’re empty inside. We aren’t true Christians because we place church and rules above people. We don’t realize that the church and the commandments were created for the benefit of people and not the other way around.
We might get so occupied in doing things for our church that we don’t have time to help people. We think people are impeding us from serving God. We don’t realize that by serving people, we are serving God. Like the priest and the Levite, we let the weak, the poor, and the dejected suffer and go to church, thinking that we’re true Christians.
Why were we created? We were created to serve and to love. If our lives aren’t lives of service, there is no real purpose in our lives. Many people are despondent, convinced they’re victims. They always think of what other people are doing to them. They think that everything in life revolves around them. All their plans and dreams are self-centered. Friends, we need to learn to live for people. We need to center our lives around people and do everything to bless them. Sometimes that means that “One person is more important than the ninety nine.” In the parable of the shepherd and the lost sheep, Jesus talked about the man who left ninety nine sheep to search for the lost one.
The priest and the Levite were more concerned about what other people would think of them. They left the man to die, because they were more concerned with the approval and opinion of other people. At that moment, that one man was more important than the whole church.
I want to invite you to have the true love, the agape love, the love that places principles above feelings, the love that put people first. I want to ask you to not be a liar or a hypocrite. I want to invite you to be a true Christian, to love your neighbor like you love yourself, to not be prejudiced and to not make exceptions. I want to ask you to not use the commandments as an excuse for not loving those who don’t meet your standards. If there is a law you need to follow, if there is a commandment you need to obey, it is to love everyone unconditionally. Without this, all your knowledge of the Bible and all your righteousness means nothing. This love isn’t far beyond your reach. You just need to believe it’s possible and receive it right now by your faith. Everything is possible through God. He has the power to make you a true Christian.
© 2007 Claudio Vargas Silva

Faith is a Source of Strength

This is a chapter of my book. I hope that this message may help you to believe in yourself and to achieve your dreams

When you believe in yourself, you have the strength to get what you want. Faith is a source of energy. If you have faith, you’re strong, you’re courageous, and you’re powerful. Faith gives you the motivation to pursue your goals. It’s the vitamin of the soul. You wake up every day excited about your activities, you perform tasks with passion, you initiate new projects with boldness and courage, and you aren’t afraid of risk.
If you don’t have faith, you’re weak and don’t have the motivation to pursue your goals. You’re afraid to start new projects, and you feel lazy and discouraged. You don’t want to get out of your comfort zone to risk something new.
The most important thing you need in order to fulfill your destiny and to be successful is faith. You may have money, you may have influence, and you may have talent, but if you don’t have faith in yourself, you don’t have the power to see your dreams come true.
People who don’t believe in themselves are stuck in their comfort zone. The years go by, but they stay in the same place. They don’t seek to advance, because they don’t believe they can. They don’t learn anything new. They’re afraid to open a business because they don’t have faith in themselves.
When you have faith in yourself, you don’t stay in the same place. You’re always progressing. You’re always investing in something new. You don’t hold to the status quo.
Your mind works according to your faith. If you don’t believe in yourself, you don’t have ideas and thoughts of progress. You assume unconsciously that it’s a waste of your time to invest in your dreams, since you won’t be able to reach them, anyway, so you don’t give yourself the right to dream or to make plans to reach your goals.
On the other hand, when you believe in yourself, your mind is always dreaming and making new plans. Brilliant ideas are constantly bombarding your brain. You become exceptionally creative. You give yourself the right to dream and to believe that you can realize these dreams.

Faith brings action

People who believe in themselves are action-oriented. They don’t live out their lives just planning and dreaming. Since they expect positive results for their plans, they want to get started as soon as possible. They act upon their dreams because of their faith in themselves. They’re fueled and empowered by their sense of competence and capacity.
There’s a danger in excessive dreaming and planning. If you’re always dreaming and planning and you never act, it shows that you don’t believe in yourself. Your dream may seem too unrealistic and too good to be true. You may think “how good it would be if” or “it would be marvelous if I could,” but deep inside you don’t think it can become a reality because you don’t think you have what it takes. You stay in the dreaming stage and never go to action.
When you dream, take your dreams seriously. Dream about already making plans and establish a date when you’ll start realizing your dream. Don’t put that date too far away. If you dream about doing something more than one year from now, it may signify that you don’t believe you can achieve your dream. There’s a probability that one year from now, you’ll postpone the realization of your dream for another year. The best thing to do is to get started now.
Don’t wait for things to be perfect to start acting upon your dreams. Don’t wait for someone to believe in you or help you, don’t wait for the right amount of money, and don’t wait for the ideal opportunity. Don’t make excuses to postpone the realization of your dreams. Do whatever you can now with the resources you have. Just get started, and you’ll see that the resources will come your way.

Fear is the opposite of faith

“He who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” (James 1:6)
While faith makes you expect the best, fear does the opposite. If you don’t believe in yourself, you expect something bad to happen. If you have a job interview, you think they won’t accept you, and if you get the job, you think you’ll be fired.
Fear causes suffering. You become stressed because you fear defeat. If you have an upcoming test, you get nervous and worried because you think you’ll fail. When you study, you’re anxious because you doubt that you can learn. Then, when you’re taking the test, you sweat and shake because you don’t believe you can pass. Those fears may have nothing to do with reality. You may be prepared and know the material, but you still doubt yourself, and because of that doubt, you’re nervous.
It may be even worse when you have to do something in public, such as speaking, singing, or playing an instrument. You have the talent and you’ve practiced hundreds of times, but you’re still afraid. Everyone in the audience believes in you but yourself. Your lack of faith causes you to shake, your hands are cold, you stumble over the words, and you forget what you had to say. You make mistakes just because you’re afraid.
Sometimes you’re afraid of losing something. You may have a job, but fear losing it. You may be afraid your spouse will divorce you or that you’ll get sick and die. You can’t enjoy the good things in life because you’re constantly afraid of losing them.
Not believing in yourself brings fear, stress, and suffering. Instead of celebrating your job, your marriage, or your health, you live in fear of losing them. Everything you do is a source of anxiety because you don’t believe in yourself.
To have faith is to overcome fear and to expect the best. Don’t assume against yourself. Assume in favor of yourself. Always believe that the best will happen to you, and don’t be afraid that you’ll lose the good things you have. You’ll go into an exam believing that you’ll pass. You’ll make your speech, you’ll sing, and you’ll play your instrument confidently. You’ll get good results in everything you do.

Faith vs. pessimism

To be pessimistic is to believe the worst. When you’re pessimistic, you think you’ll fail. You think you won’t succeed because you aren’t smart enough. You always expect a negative result.
The problem with being pessimistic is that you attract what you expect. If you expect the best, you attract the best, but if you expect the worst, you attract the worst. Faith is like a magnet that attracts good things, while pessimism is also like a magnet that attracts bad things. You have the power to bring to yourself whatever you believe.
If you want to have good things in your life, you need to expect the best. Faith has the power of transforming dreams into reality. If you expect the best, the best is what you’ll get. If you’re optimistic about your future, your future will be crowned with success. The more faith you have, the more you’ll attract good things. Thus, every dream you have and every plan you make needs to be mixed with faith. Set a goal for yourself and believe you can reach it.

Look for the easiest way

Something that prevents people from reaching their dreams is the thought that it has to be hard. They don't like it when the process is easy and smooth. They don't feel thrilled. They like it only when it’s hard, slow, and full of setbacks.
Such people have a victim mentality. People who act like victims have a tendency to value things that make them suffer. They’re addicted to pain. If it’s easy, smooth, and pleasurable, they try to make it hard, rugged, and full of pain. They thrive in suffering because it makes them feel superior.
Sometimes it’s impossible to avoid pain. We will always encounter difficult moments on the way to success. However, we shouldn’t search for pain. We always need to look for the easiest, fastest, and most pleasurable way.
If you can reach a goal in a week, don't take a whole year. A good example was this book. For more than a year, I wrote only a page or two every now and then. I realized that I was being influenced by my old tendency to do things the hard way. Instead, I decided to write the greatest possible number of pages every day. I created a motto: "Just one more." I started writing at least five pages a day, and then increased the number of pages, just to extend my comfort zone and to prove to myself that things don't have to be hard and slow.
If you can double your income right now, don't wait until next year. If you can improve your relationship with your family, don't wait for things to get worse. Now is the best time to be all you can be. Just do your best today and make the most out this day. If you make your goal to use your time wisely in order to get the best result possible every day, you’ll make giant steps that will cause you to achieve your dreams much faster.

Insecurity at work comes from a lack of faith

When you don’t believe in yourself, you think you have to work more to compensate for your incompetence. You work longer hours and neglect your health and family. You think that more hours will make up for your limitations. You run in all direction to avoid failure. You’re a firefighter, trying to extinguish fires caused by your insecurity.
Working more hours won’t do any good if you don’t believe in yourself. Your lack of faith will catch up to you. Working more can’t compensate for a lack of faith. When you believe in yourself, you become more balanced. You aren’t stressed or afraid because you know you can handle things. You can rest confidently, knowing you’ll succeed.

Don’t limit yourself

When you don’t believe in yourself, you don’t realize how capable and intelligent you are. You’re blind to your talents and you take yourself for granted. You don’t see your potential. There’s a gap between what you are and what you think you are.
The result of limiting yourself is that you don’t reach your maximum potential. Your lack of faith holds you back. It’s like the cruise control in a car. If you set the cruise control at fifty-five, whenever the car goes a little bit faster, the cruise control pulls the speed back to fifty-five. The same happens to you if you don’t believe in yourself. For example, if you only believe in yourself eighty percent, that means that you’ll reach twenty percent less of your potential than if you believed in yourself completely.
A symptom of limiting yourself is when you think something is too hard for you to accomplish. When that happens, you feel overwhelmed by your responsibilities, which causes you to be stressed and worried. You fear that you’ll perform poorly and that you’ll let other people down. That fear is caused by limiting yourself and will probably bring about the exact thing you fear.
When you limit yourself, you see your tasks as being beyond your capacity. You look at yourself as if you were too small, and you look at your goals as if they were too big for you to achieve. You exaggerate the size of your dreams, you diminish yourself, and you amplify your tasks. You have a distorted vision of yourself and your goals.
Sometimes, you may face new situations in your life that you think you won’t be able to handle. I was married for one year when I learned that my wife was pregnant. Although I was already twenty-nine, I considered myself incapable of raising a child. I didn’t believe in my own maturity and still considered myself a child.
To overcome your self-imposed limitations, you need to think well of yourself. The less you limit yourself, the more successful you will be in everything you do. Don’t think that your spouse is too good for you, that your child is too stubborn for you to control, or that your goal is too big for you to accomplish. Don’t feel overwhelmed, and don’t feel that you’re incapable of performing anything. Believe you can handle anything that comes your way. You’re bigger than your goals and you’re stronger than your problems. Nothing will submerge you if you think well of yourself.

Think big

A good way to increase your faith in yourself is to think big. Don’t settle for mediocrity. Don’t satisfy yourself with poor goals. Have a large vision, a big dream, and believe you can reach it.
Throughout my life, I’ve encountered many people who said that if they could play the piano only half as well as I do, they’d be satisfied. They considered me a good pianist and thought that being like me would be impossible. I explained that if they could play half as well as me, they’d want to play better. After all, I don’t think I’m as good as I can be, and I’m still trying to improve.
I’ve set some musical goals for myself, one of which is to have the technique of a concert pianist. I also dream of playing jazz and improvising like the best jazz pianists. Those big dreams have helped me to be the pianist I am, and they give me the motivation to pursue my goals.
Two years ago, I was playing in a restaurant and had the opportunity of meeting Jefferson, a young Mexican man. He worked there as a waiter and had a dream of opening a business in a tourist area in Mexico where there are many other hotels. He worked about two years and saved the money he needed to open his business. Now he’s enjoying his life as an entrepreneur in Mexico.
Don’t set limited goals. Don’t think about having a small apartment. Instead, dream about having a two-story house. If you’re a student, don’t be satisfied with just passing. You can get B’s and A’s. Don’t dream about an income of $40,000 or $60,000 a year. Think about getting more than $100,000.
The problem with some people is that they think big achievements are for other people and not for them. When they think about something big, they discourage themselves with phrases like, “I don’t have what it takes,” or “This may be fit for other people, but not for me.” They even make fun of themselves, saying, “Who am I to think something so big?” As a result, they don’t take themselves seriously.
You need to have a deep respect for yourself. Don’t make fun of yourself and don’t criticize yourself. Whenever something big comes to your mind, don’t demean yourself. On the contrary, support yourself with words of faith and encouragement. Take yourself seriously. Don’t think that you’re too childish or too immature to think something so foolish. Think you can reach what you are dreaming of—or better than that.

The power of visualization

“Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)
Most things that happen to you’re a result of your visualizations. You bring to yourself what your see in your mind. Therefore, having faith means being able to see yourself achieving something. First you must picture it in your mind. What you see through the eyes of faith, you’ll attract.
We don’t realize it, but our mind is always visualizing something. We’re always dreaming about the future. The problem is that most of us visualize negative things. We expect our marriage to fall apart, our children to be rebellious, and our boss to fire us. We feed our mind with negative thoughts twenty-four hours a day and then get what we expect. We don’t have strength to achieve anything, since we don’t believe we can get it. We bring to ourselves all the negative things we see. Our marriage goes downhill, our children become rebellious, and our boss fires us.
You can change the course of your imagination. You can stop those negative images from coming to your mind and change them to positive ones. If you’ve been seeing yourself as a failure and incompetent, incapable of achieving anything, and destined to mediocrity, you can change that image to seeing yourself as a winner. You can change the course of your thoughts and have all the things you want.
You need a detailed picture in your mind of what you want. Imagine colors, smells, sensations, and sounds. If you want a house, think about its size, the types of floors, and the plants in the yard. It may be on a beach or on a hillside overlooking a beautiful valley. Imagine your children playing and you seated in the yard talking to your spouse.
Your brain has the power to make your dreams come true. That means that you can talk your brain into obtaining what you want. Positive visualization, mixed with faith, is the secret to success.
In August 2004, I started visualizing myself directing a children’s choir. At the beginning, it was hard to believe. I thought it was beyond my capacity. However, I talked to Miramonte School’s secretary about my vision and she believed in me. She kept encouraging me and saying I was able to do it.
When I thought about the choir, I felt excited, but it was a dream that seemed almost impossible to reach. However, I continued to visualize it and to take myself seriously. I fought against the idea that I wouldn’t be able to do it. Then, in January 2005, I was invited by a pastor to start a children’s choir at his church. I accepted his invitation and a month later, I started another choir at Miramonte School. On May 14, 2005, we put on a concert in which both choirs sang together. The event was successful and attracted even more children to my choirs, which already had twenty kids each. It was a dream come true. I visualized it, I believed in it, and it happened as I’d seen in my mind’s eye.
I could have buried my dream in the beginning. I could have indulged the doubts that came to my mind, but I believed in myself and envisioned my dream. I mixed my visualization with faith, and they stopped being mere dreams and became reality.
To achieve your dreams, mix your visualizations with faith. When you dream, take yourself seriously and believe you can achieve your goal. Then the next step is making plans. Establish goals and schedule them chronologically. You need an order of steps to follow.
The final step is to take action. You’ve dreamed and you’ve made plans. Now it’s time to act upon your dreams. Work out your plan. You must get the job done in order to get the desired outcome.
Even after realizing a dream, you need to continue dreaming. Have other visions to give meaning to your life. To stop dreaming is the same as dying while you’re still alive. A person without dreams is a person without purpose, so keep dreaming and visualizing new things every day.
When I was a chaplain, I worked in a nursing home where I met many people who had lost their purpose in life. They’d stopped dreaming. Many of them were still able to work and be productive, but they felt life had lost its meaning. They considered themselves incapable and useless. They didn’t believe they were still able to realize their dreams.
If you want to be successful, think good thoughts and dream good dreams. What you think and what you see in your mind is your choice. You have control of your mind and you can make it think positively.

© 2006 Claudio Vargas Silva

Establishing Priorities

Establishing Priorities

A while ago, I sent you a newsletter about the importance of having purpose in your life and setting goals. Now I want to talk about something equally important; establishing priorities. In order to establish priorities, you need to have a purpose in mind. You need to know if the things you do on a daily basis are helping you achieve your goal. Are you spending time with activities that will further your purpose or are you wasting your time with trivial details that won’t help you fulfill it?
What matters isn’t the amount of time you work on something. If you aren’t advancing your goals, you’re wasting your time. You can be very busy, but if you aren’t connected to your purpose, you won’t get anywhere. You need to work wisely. You must know which activities are really helping you reach your goal.
We need self discipline to establish priorities. It’s very easy to get caught up in emergencies. There are many activities that solve immediate problems, but don’t help us change our life for the best. While we waste our time with them, we never go beyond our present situation. In order to establish priorities, we need to decide to spend more time with activities that will help us achieve our goal.
I’ll give you a personal example. I had this dream of writing a book for 20 years, but I never wrote it because I thought I had more important things to do. I was too busy with my own survival and was waiting for a lull in activity. I realized that my lack of time was a product of not living according to my goals. I discovered that if I didn’t write the book, my life didn’t make any sense. I had to put first things first. I finally decided to write the book. For 2 years, I wrote one or two pages every now and then, and at the end of 2005, I had only about 200 pages. I made an inventory of these 2 years and found out that I was kidding myself. I was writing one or two pages to relieve my consciousness while I tended to petty emergencies. Then I decided to write at least 1 chapter per week, and I did everything I could in order to finish a chapter in a day or two. I became irresponsible when it came to emergencies. I learned how to ignore things that seemed important in order to finish my goal. I was able to look at a pile of papers in my office and keep typing the book until I finished it.
You can tell when you’re not establishing your priorities by how many emergencies you have. When you don’t do the most important thing, emergencies are a constant. You run from one place to the other to put out the fire and you don’t have time for anything but putting out fire. You’re an unemployed firefighter. If you want to see the fire extinguished once and for all, you need to put first things first. You must be prepared to say no to the emergencies and stay focused on what will really further your purpose in life.
Plan to spend at least 80% of your time with activities that will advance your goal. Before every week and every day, ask yourself what you can do to bring you closer to your dreams. Have the courage to say no to the trivial. Don’t allow people to control your time. Resist the temptation to be caught up with emergencies. Start your day doing the things that will further your purpose.

© 2007 Claudio Vargas Silva