The First Cause of Failure is Having No Plan for Your Life

Drifting, without aim or purpose, is the first cause of failure.

Without a plan for your life, it is easier to follow the course of least resistance, to go with the flow, to drift with the current with no particular destination in mind. Having a definite plan for your life greatly simplifies the process of making hundreds of daily decisions that affect your ultimate success. When you know where you want to go, you can quickly decide if your actions are moving you toward your goal or away from it. Without definite, precise goals and a plan for their achievement, each decision must be considered in a vacuum. Definiteness of purpose provides context and allows you to relate specific actions to your overall plan.

Napoleon Hill

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Decide Now To Live Your Life With Unconditional Love

This gorgeous story about love is not for the faint of heart and it is not to be missed my friends. Read it in its entirety and decide now to live your life with unconditional love. It came to me via Bob Proctor's Insight of the Day and I repeat again, sign up and receive these goodies at your front door.

Don't Hope, Friend...Decide!



While waiting to pick up a friend at the airport in Portland, Oregon, I had one of those life changing experiences that you hear other people talk about. You know, the kind that sneaks up on you unexpectedly? Well, this one occurred a mere two feet away from me!


Straining to locate my friend among the passengers deplaning through the jetway, I noticed a man coming toward me carrying two light bags. He stopped right next to me to greet his family.


First, he motioned to his youngest son (maybe six years old) as he laid down his bags. They gave each other a long, and movingly loving hug. As they separated enough to look in each other's face, I heard the father say, "It's so good to see you, son. I missed you so much!" His son smiled somewhat shyly, diverted his eyes, and replied softly, "Me too, Dad!"


Then the man stood up, gazed in the eyes of his oldest son (maybe 9 or 10) and while cupping his son's face in his hands he said, "You're already quite the young man. I love you very much Zach!" They too hugged a most loving, tender hug. His son said nothing. No reply was necessary.


While this was happening, a baby girl (perhaps one or one and a half) was squirming excitedly in her mother's arms, never once taking her little eyes off the wonderful sight of her returning father. The man said, "Hi babygirl!" as he gently took the child from her mother. He quickly kissed her face all over and then held her close to his chest while rocking her from side to side. The little girl instantly relaxed and simply laid her head on his shoulder and remained motionless in total pure contentment.


After several moments, he handed his daughter to his oldest son and declared, "I've saved the best for last!" and proceeded to give his wife the longest, most passionate kiss I ever remember seeing. He gazed into her eyes for several seconds and then silently mouthed, "I love you so much!" They stared into each other's eyes, beaming big smiles at one another, while holding both hands.

For an instant, they reminded me of newlyweds but I knew by the age of their kids that they couldn't be. I puzzled about it for a moment, then realized how totally engrossed I was in the wonderful display of unconditional love not more than an arm's length away from me. I suddenly felt uncomfortable, as if I were invading something sacred, but was amazed to hear my own voice nervously ask, "Wow! How long have you two been married?"


"Been together fourteen years total, married twelve of those," he replied without breaking his gaze from his lovely wife's face. "Well then, how long have you been away?" I asked. The man finally looked at me, still beaming his joyous smile and told me, "Two whole days!"


Two days?! I was stunned! I was certain by the intensity of the greeting I just witnessed that he'd been gone for at least several weeks, if not months, and I know my expression betrayed me. So I said almost offhandedly, hoping to end my intrusion with some semblance of grace (and to get back to searching for my friend), "I hope my marriage is still that passionate after twelve years!"


The man suddenly stopped smiling. He looked me straight in the eye, and with an intensity that burned right into my soul, he told me something that left me a different person. He told me, "Don't hope friend...decide." Then he flashed me his wonderful smile again, shook my hand and said, "God bless!" With that, he and his family turned and energetically strode away together.


I was still watching that exceptional man and his special family walk just out of sight when my friend came up to me and asked, "What'cha looking at?" Without hesitating, and with a curious sense of certainty, I replied, "My future!"


Michael D. Hargrove


© Copyright 1997 by Michael D. Hargrove. All rights reserved. Used with author's permission. Visit Michael's website at: http://www.bluinc.com/

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Find The Courage to Say "No"

"We need to find the courage to say 'NO' to the things and people that are not serving us if we want to rediscover ourselves and live our lives with authenticity."



Barbara De Angelis

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Start An Attitude Inventory and Make Your New Year Successful

I can find no simpler yet profound action for the new year than this attitude inventory from Michael Josephson that came to me via Bob Proctor's Insight of the day.

How to Make the New Year Successful and Fulfilling: Start With an Attitude Inventory


It's a wise custom to end an old year and begin a new one with serious self-reflection. What did you learn this year that could improve your life and make you a wiser and better person?

If you want to have a successful and fulfilling New year, start by examining the way you think and feel about your job, your relationships, and yourself. After all, the single most important factor in personal happiness and your impact on others is your attitude.

In the geometry of life, the axiom is "positive attitudes produce positive results." They make success more likely, failures less harmful, pleasures more frequent, and pain more bearable. Some people tend to bring warm sunshine wherever they go; others bring cold chills. What do you bring?

To find out where you can improve, take an inventory of your predispositions, the attitude you're most likely to start with:

Are you generally optimistic or pessimistic?

Do you tend to assume the best or expect the worst of people?

Is your first instinct to be empathetic or judgmental?

Is your first instinct to be supportive or critical?

Do you send the message that you enjoy life or that you're barely enduring it?

Do you come across as the captain of your own ship or simply a passenger?

Wherever you are on the positive-attitude spectrum, think how much better things could be if you were more consistently and self-consciously optimistic, empathetic, supportive, grateful, enthusiastic, hopeful, and cheerful.

So why not resolve to think, act, and speak more positively about yourself, your family, your coworkers, and everyone else in your life?

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
Michael Josephson (charactercounts.org)

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT - Choose To Change Your Mind

It is time to Be The Change people. It starts with me, how about you.

I had a startling realisation just now about all that lovely money that I thought I always wanted to make and it surprised me.

I thought for the past fifteen years that I had to make it i.e. become stinking rich as the saying goes and it is only in this past two weeks I realise that 1) that adjective "stinking" is very negative, 2) I love feeling wealthy because money has no smell, and 3) I had it, I lost it and thought I had to keep striving again to get it back.

Yet this word "striving" also connotates negativity. Plus I kept feeling irritated whenever I would receive mail about making more money only to realise today that I find such feelings connected about all this marketing strategies very tiring.

So what does that signify for the wealthy lifestyle I no longer enjoy and want to experience again? I have no idea but I feel relieved and nervous at the same time At the same timeit is a great way to begin 2012 by figuring out what I really do want in my life.

On the heels of that aha! moment came the following quote from A Course In Miracles which I find very apt indeed. Check out the hardcover edition on Amazon.

"Seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. What you see reflects your thinking. And your thinking but reflects your choice of what you want to see."

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I AM in Control of My Life and My Emotions

2011 was very difficult for me and I suspect many others as well. When I thought it could not get worse it did and so, I could no longer ignore the elephant in the room.

Have a gander at this from the great Napoleon Hill. When I saw it I knew it was the perfect first post for 2012 and aligns perfectly with my new motto - No More Drama - in other words, don't even pick it up!

Print copies and put it on notice boards, in your handbag, wallet, on smart phone, dashboard and tablet and read it every day.

You can’t control others’ acts, but you can control your reaction to their acts, and that is what counts most to you.

No one can make you feel any negative emotion — fear, anger, or inferiority — without your express permission.

There will always be people who find perverse enjoyment in upsetting others, or who simply play upon your emotions so that they can use you for their own selfish purposes. Whether or not they are successful depends entirely upon you and how you react to their negative behaviors.

When you are forced to deal with such people, recognize from the outset that they are trying to upset you, not because of something you may have done to them, but because of some problem they have with themselves. Tell yourself, “This isn’t about me. I will not allow this person to upset me. I am in control of my emotions and my life.”

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