Follow these instructions to have the life of your dreams

In the last weeks’ posts, I said I was going to share with you the essence of what The Roadmap to Success program teaches. And please be clear that there’s a difference between “the essence” and the whole story. If you find the essence of interest, you can access the whole story at http://www.unshackledleadership.com/the-roadmap-to-success-program.

 Summarizing what we’ve discussed over these past few weeks:

• You were born with the same exact power to create as everyone else·        
  • You can create anything
  • And, you’re creating all the time
  • There’s never a time you’re not creating       

• There’s not one thing you see with our eyes that’s the truth – it’s only a projection of your past thoughts
• Your thoughts create your experiences 100% of the time
• Your emotions are the fuel that either makes everything happen or prevents things from happening

Given what I just said, how do you put these principles into action and create the life of your dreams?:

First, I recommend you create for yourself a morning ritual which you practice daily. My experience is that most people get up, shower, get dressed, grab something to eat, perhaps, and they’re off to work. For me, this is like going into battle unarmed. You must take some time every morning to prepare yourself mentally and emotionally for what you will surely experience during the day.

Exercise, do yoga, meditate, or all of the above. For me, I take quiet time first thing every morning to meditate and then read something inspirational to get me thinking positive, uplifting thoughts. Remind yourself every day that you’re an infinitely creative being, that your thoughts create your reality and your emotions are the fuel that makes everything happen.

Then, take some time to think about what you want, imagine it all being a reality, and see if you can feel the feelings you will have when it is all a reality. But here’s the real problem. Most people don’t know what they want. If I say to an audience that I’m going to give them a magic lantern and when they rub the lantern a genie is going to pop out and offer to give them everything they could ever want, and then I ask the audience: how many people would be able to tell the genie exactly what they want in complete detail, there is never a time when anyone raises their hand.

On the contrary, people are very good at telling you what they don’t want. “I don’t want to work for this company, or I don’t want to live in this house, or be in this relationship, etc.” The problem is: if you focus on what you don’t want, you get more of what you don’t want.

Or, if people know what they want, they’re frustrated that they don’t have it. “How come I never get what I want? How come he has the … and I don’t?” Resentment, disappointment and frustration are like a farmer throwing acid on his crops. All of those fearful emotions stop any possibility of having what you want.

So before you get back to whatever you were doing when you started reading this, get a clean sheet of paper, put your name at the top, and immediately below write: My Highest Vision. Then start to write. Create a picture of exactly what your life would look like if all of your hopes and dreams became a reality. Think about what your life would look like, what would you be doing, what you would see, where you would be living, how you would you feel, about everything. I have detailed instructions on how to do this. If you would like them, shoot me a quick e mail at scott@unshackledleadership.com and I’ll send them to you.

To be continued . . . 

Love or Fear - You get to choose

In the last weeks’ posts, I said I was going to share with you the essence of what The Roadmap to Success program teaches. And please be clear that there’s a difference between “the essence” and the whole story. If you find the essence of interest, you can access the whole story at http://www.unshackledleadership.com/the-roadmap-to-success-program.

In the previous post, I explained the incredibly simple and straight-forward creation process. It’s analogous to the creation process for a farmer. To grow corn, for example, you only need three things: fertile soil, corn seeds and water.

For you and I, the process is the same, just different components. For us, we awake every day into the fertile soil of creation, the seeds are our thoughts and the water is our emotions. This week, let’s explore that final component, our emotions. This is the most frequently overlooked part of the creation process and a major reason why so few people have what they really want.

The reason behind this component of the creation process stems from the simple fact that everything in the universe is energy. It’s OK if you don’t understand that, you just have to accept that that is what is. Just like a magnet works by attracting like energies to itself, that’s exactly how we work. We are basically a source of energy and our emotions determine the kind of energy we emit. Haven’t you ever been around someone who was angry and you couldn’t wait to get away from them as fast as possible? Haven’t you even heard yourself say about another that they had bad vibes? The simple fact is that our emotions determine the frequency we are and what we attract.

As a practical matter, what this means is that we must choose our attitude. Unfortunately, very few people do this. I have heard it said and truly believe that no successful person allows the circumstances to dictate their attitude. Successful people choose their attitude and bring it to the circumstances of life and this has proven to be true of every truly successful person I have ever met. Please read those last two sentences over and over again until you really get it. It may be the most important thing you’ve ever heard!

Let me make this easy for you. Consider that in one way of looking at life, there are ONLY two human emotions: love and fear. They both produce great results, just very different kinds. Loving emotions nurture your thoughts, like a farmer putting fertilizer on his crops, and dramatically accelerate the manifestation of your hopes and dreams. Fearful emotions kill off your thoughts, like a farmer putting acid on his crops, and literally prevent the fulfillment of your hopes and dreams.

So what does love look like: joy, passion, excitement, enthusiasm, optimism, faith, trust, confidence, a belief in abundance. Read that list carefully. Do any of those words accurately describe your predominant emotions? What does fear look like: worry, concern, frustration, anger, resentment, disappointment, depression, a belief in scarcity. Now read that list carefully. Do any of those words accurately describe your predominant emotions?

The great likelihood is that you can more readily relate to the fear emotions than the love emotions and the reason for that is that fear is the default way of being. I don’t like that it is that way but that’s the way it is. You must choose love because if you don’t, you get fear by default. Maybe no one ever taught you that but just take a look and you can see that it is that way. Most people spend most if not all of their time worrying, being concerned, frustrated, angry, resentful and/or disappointed. Unfortunately, we take those feelings for granted. We shouldn’t because they do a wonderful job of preventing us from having what we want. In conclusion, choose love!

Summarizing what we’ve discussed over these past few weeks:

• You were born with the same exact power to create as everyone else          
  • You can create anything
  • And, you’re creating all the time
  • There’s never a time you’re not creating
• There’s not one thing you see with our eyes that’s the truth – it’s only a projection of your past thoughts
• Your thoughts create your experiences 100% of the time
• Your emotions are the fuel that either makes everything happen or prevents things from happening         

To be continued . . .

Your life is a reflection of your thoughts

In the last weeks’ posts, I said I was going to share with you the essence of what The Roadmap to Success program teaches. And please be clear that there’s a difference between “the essence” and the whole story. If you find the essence of interest, you can access the whole story at http://www.unshackledleadership.com/the-roadmap-to-success-program.

In the previous post, I explained the incredibly simple and straight-forward creation process. For you and I, it’s analogous to the creation process for a farmer. To grow corn, for example, you only need three things: fertile soil, corn seeds and water.

For you and I, the process is the same, just different components. For us, we awake every day into the fertile soil of creation, the seeds are our thoughts and the water is our emotions. I asked you to think about this as the week proceeded, to map it onto your experience, and see if you can see how this applies to your life and those of others you know well. I hope you’ve done this and will continue to find evidence of how this works so you can begin to apply the creation process in your life.

This week, let’s explore what all this means on a very practical level. And I warn you up front, you’re either going to love or hate what I’m about to say:

First, you must understand that there is no such thing as a neutral thought. Every thought gets planted in the soil of creation and produces on some level. It just has to be this way. The soil can’t select the good thoughts from the bad ones. So no thought is neutral. Because of this, life is not happening to you, it’s happening from you. You really want to get that one. Life is not happening to you, it’s happening from you. You’re not what you often think you are, a victim of the world you see. You’ve created the world you see.

That’s the toughest thing to accept for most people. People think life’s circumstances just happen and all we get to do is to respond to these random circumstances. Nothing could be further from the truth. You’re the creator of all of your circumstances. I’ll bet you can’t even imagine that you’re that powerful. Well guess again. You really are.

Take a moment and think about something in your life you’re really happy about. . . . Congratulations, you created that. Now take a moment and think about something in your life you’re not so happy about. . . . Congratulations, you created that too!

Again, this is something that unfortunately most people are not willing to believe. Why? Because it means you have to take responsibility for everything in your life! Everything in your life is there because you created it being there. What’s not in your life is not there because you haven’t created it being there. You may not like that, but that’s just the way it is. I recommend you start accepting it.

Why? Because it’s really very very good news. If you really think about it, it becomes evident that if you want to change anything in your life, all you have to do is to change your thinking about it. Wow. You can give up all your efforts to change other people and your circumstances and work on the only thing that will ever make a permanent difference in your circumstances: your thoughts about you and your circumstances.

Want more money, change your thinking about money. Want more success, change your thinking about what you deserve and what success means. Want better relationships, give up your judgments about other people and learn to think in more loving ways. Want to improve your health, change your thoughts about exercise and diet and who you are as a human being.

If you run a company and have lots of problems and challenges, stop spending all your time worrying about and/or trying to fix your problems and challenges. Those thoughts will just produce more problems and challenges. Instead, follow the procedure laid out in Chapter 19 of Unshackled Leadership, http://unshackled.squarespace.com/unshackled-leadership-the-book/. Create a vision for your company, then create a strategic objective, and then live every day like that strategic objective is indeed your reality, and step back and watch those seeds become a reality.

The point here is that life is not meant to be a struggle. It was actually set up for you to win and have what you want. If that’s not happening, it’s just because you either don’t understand the game or are not playing it consistent with what you want. Either way, you have the power to change all of that.

To be continued . . .

The creation process has three components

In the last week’s posts, I said I was going to share with you the essence of what The Roadmap to Success program teaches. And please be clear that there’s a difference between “the essence” and the whole story. If you find the essence of interest, you can access the whole story at http://www.unshackledleadership.com/the-roadmap-to-success-program.

If you can successfully make it through the single most important statement you would find in the owner’s manual that you should have gotten when you arrived here: You were born with the exact same power to create as anyone else, we’re ready to explore the creation process.

I like to use an analogy to have you understand how simple the creation process is. Let’s say you’re a farmer and want to grow corn. If you really look at what you need, you discover quite quickly that you only need three things. The first is fertile soil, in a good climate, one hospitable to growing vegetables. The second is corn seeds and all you need to do is to plant the seeds in the fertile soil. The third component is water.

Are you clear that with those three components, you’re going to get corn? If you’re a farmer, you’re not going to get up in the middle of the night wondering if you’re going to get your crop. Follow the rules and the results are assured. As you awake each day, you’re clear you’re not going to find a field of watermelons. It just doesn’t work that way. Plant corn seeds in the fertile soil, water the soil and you’re assured to get corn.

For you and I, the process is the same, just different components. For you and I, we awake every day into the fertile soil of creation. You couldn’t get away from it if you tried. Quantum physicists call it the quantum field. Others call it the field of all possibilities. Others call it the intelligent universe. You can call it whatever you want. The point is you are literally swimming in an ocean of creative possibilities.

For you and I, the seeds are our thoughts. I will say more about this in a bit but for now, every thought you have plants a seed in the fertile soil of possibilities. There are hundreds of books that explain this phenomenon. If you haven’t read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, that would be a great place to start. Finally, the water is our emotions. That will be the subject of a future post.

There are so many examples of how this works. At four years old, Tara Lapinsky was watching the Olympics. Later that day, her mother walked into her room to see little Tara standing on a chair with her hand on her heart. Being concerned she might fall, her well meaning mother said: what are you doing on that chair? Get down this instant. To which Tara replied: I’m receiving my gold medal. So at four years old, Tara planted the seed of being an Olympic athlete and that is what she became.

Fred Couples and Jim Nance were college roommates. Fred dreamed of being a world class golfer, Jim dreamed of being a television sports announcer. They both were on the college golf team. Every Saturday after practice, Fred would walk into the dormitory, imagining it was Butler Cabin and he had just won the US Open, and Jim would interview him as if that actually happened. Fast forward many years later. Fred did win the US Open and Jim was a sports reporter. As Fred walked into Butler Cabin, Jim was there to interview him. They embraced each other and reminisced about how they had thought about this day so many times before.   

Mr. Marriott had a root beer stand in Long Beach, California. Conrad Hilton was an architect working for a local firm. Both dreamed about having a worldwide chain of hotels and both got their wish. And my all time favorite: Reverend Ike. He was born in the south during the days of segregation and was as poor as one could be. But on his way to school, he would pick up a stick and make believe he was driving a fancy car. His mother used to say to him: you have a rich mind.

So this poor African American boy became a very successful minister and motivational speaker and by the mid 1970’s, his weekly radio sermons were carried by hundreds of radio stations across the US. He became a multimillionaire and at least to me, demonstrated what people could accomplish by channeling their thoughts and tapping into the power of their minds.

As this week proceeds, please think about this creation process, map it onto your experience, and see if you can see how this applies to your life and those of others you know well. Next week we’ll take a deeper cut at what this means.

To be continued . . .

To have what you want, you must believe you can

In last week’s post, I said I was going to share with you the essence of what The Roadmap to Success program teaches. And please be clear that there’s a difference between “the essence” and the whole story. If you find the essence of interest, you can access the whole story at http://www.unshackledleadership.com/the-roadmap-to-success-program.

I started with the single most important statement you would find in the owner’s manual: You were born with the exact same power to create as anyone else. There has never been anyone who had a greater power to create than you and there never will be anyone who will have a greater power to create than you. Again I assert that those are all true statements but hardly anyone believes them to be true, and you likely don’t either. And that is the number one reason why so few people have what they want.

I don’t know about you but I spend time during the week thinking about the things that I write and it occurred to me this week what a huge issue this is. If you look at the staggering statistics of homeless, hunger and poverty and the incredibly high number of people who can’t find a decent job and care for themselves or their families, it all comes back to the fact that people just don’t understand how powerful they are and how easily they could change their circumstances. If you’re reading this, you’re likely not homeless or without a job, but still, do you realize how easily you could change your circumstances?

Probably the biggest reason why you and others don’t believe what I’m saying here is that you have an ego, your primary mischief-maker. And if you’ve read previous issues of this blog, you should know that your ego tells you three things about you: you’re not good enough, you’re not worthy, and you’re not loved or lovable. The only difference between one human being and another is how loud is the conversation and how much do you listen to it? And for the vast majority of people, the conversation is loud and you listen.

Take the worthy part, for example. Because people don’t think they’re worthy, most have huge issues with their self esteem. Think about it: if you don’t think you’re as worthy as others, why in the world would you assert yourself to express your power to create. After all, you surely don’t deserve to have what others have. And so people don’t assert themselves and end up settling for whatever comes their way. Perhaps this explains why I have heard that 83% of the people who win the lottery lose all of the money within five years.

Now let’s take the not good enough part. This was the big issue for me. Because I grew up in a family where when I did what I was supposed to do I heard nothing and when I didn’t do what I was supposed to do I heard plenty, I’m clear my ego started to tell me quite early in life that I wasn’t very smart, my version of not good enough. So when I graduated engineering school, being an engineer clearly wasn’t an option because I didn’t think I was smart enough.

I ended up going to law school at night and working at the U.S. Patent Office during the day and four years later, graduated in the top 10% of my class. You would think I finally figured out I was smart. Yet my ego would have none of that and for the next 18 years, as I practiced as an intellectual property attorney, there was never a day that I didn’t say to myself: if my clients only knew how many smarter attorneys there are than me, I wouldn’t have a client. In hindsight, it doesn’t surprise me that I spent most of those 18 years struggling.

So do you want to have the life, career and business of your dreams? Do you want to embark boldly on The Roadmap to Success? If yes, you must learn to confront the ego for what it is and stop listening to its constant assertions that you’re not good enough, you’re not worthy, and you’re not loved or lovable. Figure out your personal version of those generalities and start telling yourself the opposite. There are some suggestions on how to do this in The Roadmap to Success Program, which you can access at at http://www.unshackledleadership.com/the-roadmap-to-success-program.

You are as powerful as anyone who has ever walked on the face of the planet. But your entry into this game depends on you believing that. Are you willing?

To be continued . . .