Personal Expansion Fundamentals-Part 2

    The second fundamental element of the Personal Expansion Principle that you must master in order to complete a solid track record of accomplishment is your willingness to go above and beyond what people expect of you. It’s easier for you to learn from your failures than it is to do more than what you’re paid to do. Accordingly, the notion of productivity above and beyond the boundaries of requirement and payment received will not sit well with you unless you are determined to expand your being, thinking, and doing.

   This is so for several reasons. When you have operated under someone else’s rules and regulations, you are used to selling your time for money and you expect to make the most money in the least amount of time possible. Your “time for money” mindset is not a Personal Expansion Mindset because it misses the crucial point: your personal expansion has nothing to do with exchanging your time for someone else’s money, but everything to do with your personal creation of value that will benefit others.

   Another reason why you may not want to embrace the element that requires that you go above and beyond what people expect of you is that somehow you believe that you’re entitled to expand just because you showed up to work or otherwise function for someone else’s benefit. What you fail to realize is that everybody else in your same situation also showed up to do exactly what you’re doing—on time, and not late like you are as an employee or volunteer! News Flash: the person who creates their own life and future must work harder over longer hours, days, months and years than she or he did as an employee or volunteer.

   A third reason you may not want to go above and beyond what people expect of you is that you haven’t yet been programmed to go the extra mile, or distance yourself from those around you by the quality, quantity and content of your product or service. The one seeking personal expansion must strive to do the work, write the book, compose the music, sell the product or provide the service with ever-increasing skill and effectiveness. In short, only proactive, forward-looking and resourceful people will attain the personal expansion they claim to be seeking.

   When you go above and beyond what people expect of you, you set yourself apart from most people. In fact, you place yourself in a position where you have few—if any—competitors! Having such a posture allows you to own what you do and take pride in it.

   Under these circumstances, the product or service you provide has personal meaning to you. Also, you seek to improve your own performance and look for ways to upgrade or otherwise improve the entire process of whatever it is in which you’re engaged. Your productive and attitudinal mindset change is unmistakably and immediately noticeable to your clients and customers. It sets you apart—even if no one else cares—because you feel better about what you’re doing and you’re no longer selling your time for money: you’re creating value greater than what you could ever receive in dollars and you are adding worth to yourself through your conscientious effort to do what you do to the best of your ability.

   Your will and determination to go above and beyond what people expect of you causes a radical change in your work ethic and your own sense of self-worth and appreciation of who you are as a productive person who is no longer alienated from the product or service you provide. This behavior of yours, over a consistent period of time, begins to earn you a reputation that will follow you wherever you go. This reputation is the bedrock of the solid track record that you have established that will lead you to your ultimate personal expansion.

Personal Expansion Fundamentals-Part 1

 The Personal Expansion Principle (PEP) is not related to who you know, what you know, the economic climate, or luck. It is the result of a process of adhering to universal laws that have stood the test of time. This process of personal expansion includes learning and practicing 7 fundamental elements of the Personal Expansion Principle: 1) learn from past failures; 2) go above and beyond what people expect of you; 3) show initiative and leadership; 4) exhibit patience and self-control; 5) excel at cooperation; 6) respect and tolerate others; and 7) function with a positive attitude.

   The first of these fundamental elements of the Personal Expansion Principle that you must master is probably one of the most important lessons you must learn early in your quest for personal expansion. You will not begin to experience the personal expansion available to you if you do not learn from past failures.

   Failures will inevitably come to you along the road to your ultimate expansion. Indeed, they are the stepping stones to your expansion. You will never learn from your successes unless they were unforeseen and purely accidental—many successes have come from failures to achieve intended results. With this minor exception, you can only learn from your failures. If you can learn from your failures, that learning itself lays down a solid track record that will aid you in your continued expansion.

   Every expanded person has failed utterly at something. You must understand that part of the process of personal expansion is moving through failure without being discouraged or disheartened to the point of giving up on your dream. Personal Expansion is not for the faint of heart, the cowardly in spirit, or the proud. To expand in every area of your life, you must not be easily intimidated. You must be willing to strengthen yourself. You must fight your fears, admit mistakes, and add to your learning

   Be self-confident enough to take risks, but wise enough to assess the risks, consider the rewards and then proceed. If you have done your homework properly, then when you fail you can pinpoint where you went wrong. You may have begun with the wrong assumptions, insufficient facts, or dependence on an unreliable source. Wherever you went wrong, whatever you miscalculated in the environment or whoever you misjudged, overvalued, or undervalued will become the lesson plan you use to learn, grow and add to your store of wisdom. To learn from past failures is never to lose your boldness and self-assured status on the one hand, and always to gain humility and even more fearlessness on the other.

Overlooking the Visible-Part 2

   The electronic theory explains how all matter is evolved from one homogeneous Original or Primary Substance. But this theory does not explain how motion originated to create or produce something different from the Original or Primary Substance from which the negatively and positively charged electricity particles came. It is here that the Universal Law of Cause and Effect comes in.

   The Law of Cause and Effect says that for every effect—whether motion, release of energy, a tree growing, or rain falling—there is a cause. Science is quite clear that living things can only come from—be caused by—living things. Only Life can give birth to life. Science is also clear that if anything is moving—whether that thing is animate or inanimate—its movement has been caused by someone or something.

   At the beginning of creation, the Original Cause of all things was Intelligent Spirit: God. What He used to set all things in motion was the creative process.

   Science understands that sound is transmitted through waves. Technically, in physics, mathematics and related fields, a wave is a disturbance—a change from a resting value—of one or more fields (physical quantities, represented by numbers that have a value for each point in space-time) such that the field values oscillate repeatedly about a stable resting value. So much for our technical discussion of waves because we are concerned only with what causes these vibrations or waves. We now know that sound is the cause of the effect of the waves generated by it.

   So what was the cause of the first sound at the beginning of creation? Are you saying it was the “Big Bang”? If so, Who or What caused the “Big Bang”? Whatever primordial substance there was at the beginning, had to have been created prior to going “Bang!” It could not have existed before it was created. And once created, it would have been in a state of inertia—unable to move in any way that would ultimately end up in a great “bang” collision.

   No. The Eternal Originator of all things was behind whatever “bang” there may have been, and His Voice, His Word, His Utterance caused what was inert to become ertia—energy.

   Now this energy is located everywhere in space-time and also in everything—animate and inanimate that is visible and invisible. In fact, it is the invisibility of energy with which we must be concerned, for it is the inside of everything, visible and invisible. And the Law of Polarity makes clear that if there is an inside, there must be an outside, in the same way that if there is an outside, there must be an inside.

Overlooking the Visible-Part 1

 Before there was anything anywhere at all, there was the Word. So, you must understand that the “beginning” which the first verse of Genesis speaks of is not the “beginning” of time as we know it, or the Word, Himself, but rather the “beginning” of the cosmos which we now inhabit. The Word was the Voice of God who was with God and existed as God. All the things that the Word made were made by the sound emanating from the Word—“Let there be”—after the Spirit of God moved or was in motion (Genesis 1:2-3).

   Only after the Word spoke—generated sound—did anything come into being that was not in being before the Word spoke. So, we must discuss what science has found to be the relationship between sound and first causes.

    To begin with, modern science acknowledges that every chemical atom is made up of particles of only one substance—the Original or Primary Substance—which seems to occupy all space-time. The specific identity of a given atom—whether it turns out to be iron, phosphorous, hydrogen or some other substance—is a function of how many particles of negatively charged electricity revolve around a center of positively charged electricity, and the rate or speed at which they move. Thus, the number and speed of motion of these particles determine the nature and identity of the specific atom they form.

   Modern science also acknowledges that all material substance—inanimate matter as well as animate matter—has no inherent qualities or characteristics that distinguish one part of this Original of Primary Substance from any other part of it. This is extremely significant. Out of this undifferentiated (all the same) Substance, particles are produced which are different from the very Substance that produced them. Their specific difference is that they possess negatively and positively charged energy.

   What I have just discussed is an electronic theory that explains how all matter is evolved from one homogeneous Original or Primary Substance. But this theory does not explain how motion originated to create or produce something different from the Original or Primary Substance from which the negatively and positively charged electricity particles came. It is here that the Universal Law of Cause and Effect comes in.

   The Law of Cause and Effect says that for every effect—whether motion, release of energy, a tree growing, or rain falling—there is a cause. Science is quite clear that living things can only come from—be caused by—living things. Only Life can give birth to life. Science is also clear that if anything is moving—whether that thing is animate or inanimate—its movement has been caused by someone or something.

   At the beginning of creation, the Original Cause of all things was Intelligent Spirit: God. What He used to set all things in motion was the creative process.

   Science understands that sound is transmitted through waves. Technically, in physics, mathematics and related fields, a wave is a disturbance—a change from a resting value—of one or more fields (physical quantities, represented by numbers that have a value for each point in space-time) such that the field values oscillate repeatedly about a stable resting value. So much for our technical discussion of waves because we are concerned only with what causes these vibrations or waves, and we now know that sound is the cause of the effect of the waves generated by it.

Quantum Physics Basics 3

 There are those who think scientists must just accept that quantum physics explains the material world in terms they find impossible to square with their experience in the larger, “apparent world.” Others think there must be some better, more intuitive theory out there that scientists have yet to discover.

   Even given all of the above, quantum theory has not been able to explain the second of the five fundamental forces of nature—gravity.

   Gravity remains the exclusive territory of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, a firmly non-quantum theory that does not even involve particles. Every intensive effort over the decades to bring gravity under the quantum umbrella and so explain all of fundamental physics within one “theory of everything” has come to nothing.

   Meanwhile cosmological measurements indicate that over 95 per cent of the universe consists of dark matter and dark energy, phenomena for which scientists have no current explanation within the “standard model,” and conundrums such as the extent of the role of quantum physics in life itself remain unexplained.

   What is known so far is that the “apparent world” is at some level quantum, but what is demonstrably clear is that quantum physics is by no means the last or best word about how the “apparent world” or the other worlds which I have not discussed—alternative universes or states of matter and being that quantum physics experiments allude to, or by implication, predict or confirm their existence.  

   If the quantum world behind our “apparent world” is not objective—i.e., it does not exist in isolation from our observation of it, but rather is influenced by our attempts to measure it—then the “apparent world” must not be objective to that same degree.

   This means not only that our engagement with the invisible quantum world influences how it behaves under certain circumstances, but also it means that our engagement with the visible “apparent world” influences how it behaves under certain circumstances.

   So, it must be said that if you cannot “see through and past” the visible all around you, it is extremely doubtful that you will have complete insight into the invisible world that is also all around you through strictly scientific means. You will need something more.

   You will have noticed that I left the elephant in the room undisturbed and unexplored—Spirit, the Original Cause of everything—without discussing Him. I will bring you back to the Alpha and Omega later.

   Suffice it to say that I have raised these challenges in quantum physics to lay the foundation for a fuller discussion of how you can take advantage of what quantum physics has taught you, and use that knowledge (or lack thereof) as a launching pad for initiating your own personal expansion as a human being, who has been called by God to be an ever-expanding, ever-evolving human being, in rank just slightly below that of angels…and so says the Scripture.

   

Quantum Physics Basics 2

    Over the past five decades or so three theories have been brought together in a catch-as-catch-can manner, known as the “standard model” of particle physics. Despite the fact that this model on close examination appears to be held together by spit and chewing gum, it turns out that until recently, it was the most accurate basic picture of how matter works that had ever been devised.  

   The “standard model” proved its worth in 2012 with the discovery of Higgs boson, the particle that gives all other fundamental particles their mass, whose existence was predicted on the basis of quantum field theories as far back as 1964.

   Conventional quantum field theories work well in describing the results of experiments at high-energy particle smashers such as CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, where the Higgs was discovered, which probe matter at its smallest scales. (CERN is the world’s largest particle physics laboratory—an international scientific collaboration without parallel in its scale and ambition—located on the border between Switzerland and France.)

   CERN was established by international convention in the aftermath of the second world war by the European Council for Nuclear Research and was originally intended to foster collaborative research into fundamental physics for peaceable purposes. Today, some 12,000 researchers from across the globe use its facilities each year, and it has been the scene of seminal scientific and technological breakthroughs—notably the World Wide Web, invented in 1989  within its doors to allow particle physicists to exchange data across borders.

   In spite of these great scientific breakthroughs using quantum physics, there are some lesser problems that still remain insoluble—e.g., how electrons move or do not move through a solid material and so make a material a metal, an insulator, or a semiconductor.

   The multiplied billions of interactions in these crowded environments require the development of what are called “effective field theories” that gloss over some of the gory details. The challenge quantum physicists face in constructing such theories explains why many important questions in solid-state physics remain unresolved—e.g., why at low temperatures some materials are superconductors that allow current without electrical resistance, and why scientists cannot find a way to get this to work at room temperature.

   Beyond these practical problems lies a huge quantum mystery. At a basic level, quantum physics predicts very strange things about how matter works that are completely at odds with how things seem to work in the “apparent world.”

   For example, quantum particles have the capacity to behave like particles that are located in a single place; or they can act like waves, distributed all over space or in several places. How they appear seems to depend on how scientists choose to measure them, and before they are measured, they seem to have no definite properties at all. This leads to a fundamental insoluble problem related to the nature of basic reality itself.

   One example of this is the paradox of Schrödinger’s cat, in which, thanks to an uncertain quantum process, a cat is left dead and alive at the same time. Quantum particles also seem to be able to affect each other instantaneously even when they are far away from each other. This is called entanglement or, in a phrase coined by Einstein, who contributed to, but was quite critical of quantum theory, “spooky actions at a distance.”

   Even though these quantum powers are by no means completely understood, yet they are in fact the basis of emerging technologies such as ultra-secure quantum cryptography and ultra-powerful quan-tum computing.

 

Quantum Physics Basics 1

   Quantum physics (sometimes called quantum mechanics), is the branch of physics that explains how the invisible particles that make up matter behave and the forces with which they interact.

   Accordingly, its venue is in the realm of sub-atomic particles which cannot be seen with the naked eye. Quantum physics is the modern explanation for how atoms work, and why chemistry and biology function as they do. From quantum mechanics we learn how electrons move through a computer chip, how photons of light get turned into electrical current in a solar panel, or amplify themselves in a laser, or how the sun keeps burning.

   Although modern scientists can learn a great deal from quantum physics, it can also—and often does—give them huge headaches. For instance, there is no single quantum theory, which means scientists have had to innovate and adapt in order to alleviate their headaches.

   In the 1920s, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, and others developed quantum mechanics, the basic mathematical framework that underpins (theoretical) quantum physics. It characterizes simple things such as how the position or momentum of a single particle or group of few particles changes over time. But to understand how things actually work in what I prefer to call the “apparent world”—in opposition to what others might call the “real world”—quantum mechanics must be combined with Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity.

   Einstein’s theory explains what happens when things move very rapidly, and it is his special theory of relatively, combined with quantum physics, that give quantum physicists the ability to create quantum field theories that alleviate at least some of their headaches.

   There are actually five fundamental forces that govern everything in the universe: 1) Spirit; 2) gravity; 3) the weak force; 4) electromagnetism; and 5) the strong force. Physical sciences are concerned with the last four of these, while three quantum field theories have been able to grapple only with three of these.

   Three different quantum field theories have carved out three of the five fundamental forces by which matter interacts: electro-magnetism (which explains how atoms hold together); the strong nuclear force (which explains the stability of the nucleus at the heart of the atom); and the weak nuclear force (which explains why some atoms undergo radioactive decay).

  

Start with Faith

 

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. Hebrews 3:11

 

   You must begin your quest for personal expansion with faith in order to understand what you learn on your journey. Then you must apply that learning to your present conditions in ways that lead to your psychological soundness and physical/mental wholeness. When you move in this direction, your present endowment of Eternal Life in joy and fulfillment will begin to help you “see through a glass darkly” your limitless potential for growth and productivity of good.

   And note that it is not some undifferentiated, nebulous faith, but a specific, localized, personal faith in the One God who is the Originator of all that is inanimate and animate wherever situate in the Universal Worlds. To begin your journey on any other ground is to leave the foundation of The Truth (Rock) to build on a lie (sand).

   Once you are firmly established upon The Truth, you are ready to examine your personal relationship to The Truth, for this relationship determines whether you will either open up or close down the opportunities afforded you for limitless possibilities that simply await your coming.

   So, armed with the foregoing perspective and vantage point, you will begin with looking at what is visibly solid matter—chairs, rocks, tables, and any other thing that comes to your mind—from within or from the inside out.

   This brings me to the first Law that you must acknowledge before going further—the Law of Polarity. In order to exist, a thing must have an opposite pole: if light exists, so must darkness; if there is a left, there must of necessity be a right; and if there is good, there must be bad.

   Since science has already proven the biblical statement with which I began, I will continue the next phase of this discussion from a strictly scientific point of view—a view from the lens of quantum physics.

 

Know, Accept, Believe In, and Love Yourself

   Each person who has ever become extremely successful in business and life has had one important and unmistakable trait in common: they each knew, accepted, believed in and loved themselves. Knowing, understanding, and loving one’s self is the bedrock upon which true wealth, prosperity and personal success are built. But knowing, understanding and loving one’s self can be extremely difficult because there are so many distractions around that most people don’t take the time to figure themselves out until much later in their lives. The busyness of life—earning a living, raising a family, coping with the stresses and strains in life—often overwhelms people, so that when they get the chance to assess themselves, they’re too physically tired or mentally exhausted to do so.

   Because you’re on the path to becoming a successful entrepreneur, you must take the time to get to know, understand, accept and love who you really are. You need to make a list of all your strengths—1) those things you do really well; 2) those skills and abilities that you bring to the table; 3) those qualities that showcase your greatest character traits; 4) those qualities that show off your best people skills; and 5) those situations that allow you to do what you enjoy most. Then make a brief mental note about your weaknesses—1) those things you don’t do well; 2) those skills and abilities that you can’t bring to the table; 3) those qualities that showcase your greatest character flaws; 4) those qualities that expose your worst people skills; and 5) those situations that make you do what you hate. Although you should write down and keep a copy of all your strengths, you should NEVER write down your weaknesses—if you do, they will become worse! Just make a quick mental note of them so that you can avoid situations where they may come into play. (Feed your strengths and starve your weaknesses. Be sure that you NEVER divulge your weaknesses to others—they will always hold them against you!)

   Build who you are now on the foundation of your strengths. Just as you are no longer a baby in diapers, a 7-year-old playing ball on the sand lot, or a teenager rebelling against your parents, you are not who you used to be! You are ever-changing, ever-evolving, and always getting better, smarter, wiser, and surer of yourself and the gift that you are to the human race. Learn to encourage yourself, accept yourself and love yourself so that you can encourage, accept, and love others.

Love must start with you—know yourself so that you can love yourself and the people with whom you will do business. 

Pre-Suasion: Secret to “Marketing” Your Positive Ideas

 Pre-Suasion is the notion that there is a specific process of arranging an agreement in your idea “customer’s” mind even before your actual offer of the idea is made. It is a marketing concept related to the core message you are presenting to your idea “customer” that temporarily changes what is most important to her or him at that given moment. For example, if the person you’re trying to influence is busy or pre-occupied with other things of which you are aware, then your knowledge about, research on, and interest in those things could be the lever that shifts that person’s attention from them to you and what ideas you have to offer.

 

Another advanced idea “marketing” technique is to understand the times and seasons when your idea “customers” are most likely to be amenable to new ideas and change.

 

Studies have shown that people are more likely to change at the beginning of the year, at the beginning of the month, and at the beginning of the week.

 

Having this awareness under your belt will allow you to think creatively about how, when, and under what specific circumstances you will choose to “market” your ideas using pre-suasion.

 

The key to using Pre-suasion and the Seven Principles of Positive Thought Leadership “Marketing” is developing yourself on the inside, so that what you do is not manipulative, but is personally heart-felt and intended for the good of your “customer.”

 

This requires that you invest in your own learning, gain practical experience, and continue to stay on the path to Personal Expansion.

Seven Principles of Positive Thought Leadership "Marketing"

 Whenever you attempt to share your ideas with people, you are attempting to influence them to “buy” your ideas and put them into practice. In effect, you are “marketing” your ideas as a “product” to be “bought” in the marketplace of ideas. Your intent is to lead your “customers” to think and behave in positive, life-affirming ways.

 

And although it would appear that your ideas are the “product” that you are attempting to “sell,” you are actually “selling” yourself. Only your perceived credibility with your “customers” will ultimately determine whether your ideas will be “bought” or left unsold.

 

So, the first principle of positive thought leadership “marketing” is to understand that YOU are the message! Therefore, before you put your ideas on the “market” for “sale,” you must be able to demonstrate that you are living by those ideas, and that you are a living ad for the usefulness and efficacy of the ideas you want to “market.”

 

The second principle of positive thought leadership “marketing” is embodied in the Law of Reciprocation: people who receive something from you feel a desire and obligation to give something back to you. What can you offer your idea “customers” that will inspire them to give a “yes” to your ideas?

 

The third principle is Scarcity: the notion that there is not much of what is being offered. It is the idea of something being unique, rare, or only available to a few people. How can you “ethically market” your ideas as only available to select people?

 

The fourth principle is Authority: the notion that if someone is deemed an expert or is otherwise in a position that is respected by others, then people are influenced to do as that person does. How might you expose your “customers” to other people who are respected in the community and have “bought” your ideas?

 

The fifth principle is Consistency: the notion that a person will accept change if they are led to take a small step that will lead to a big change. What can you suggest to your “customers” that will permit them to take a small step that will be consistent with their current state, and yet move them to a big change?

 

The sixth principle is Liking: the notion of locating and raising similarities between you and your “customer” or providing your “customer” with duly earned—not false or phony—praise and compliments. Your “customers” will only “buy” ideas from people they know, Like, and trust.

 

The seventh principle is Consensus: the notion that people want to follow people who are like them and do what they do. What might you use to demonstrate to your “customer” that she or he is in good company when they agree to “buy” your positive, life-affirming ideas? 

Four Fears You Must Master

 The four fears that you must master in order to get to the personal expansion you desire for your life are: 1) being alone; 2) leaving and losing everything; 3 aging; and given the coronavirus, 4) the fear of debilitating disease.

 

The fear of being alone is so common in our society that people rush into meaningless and unfulfilling relationships in order to avoid it. In fact, countless people stay in unrewarding and lifeless relationships just so they won’t experience being alone.

 

Somewhere deep in the recesses of our brains is this fear of abandonment, of being left alone forever. As with any fear you may experience, the first step is to acknowledge it and seek to discover what in your past caused this fear. Discovering the root cause of this fear is important for gaining the confidence you need to overcome it.

 

You cannot get to personal expansion without taking risks—large, life-changing risks. The risks related to moving forward, however, are not as scary or difficult to face and overcome as the risks associated with leaving the comfort zone of your present experience. If you’re not careful, the fear of leaving and losing everything you have will keep you from moving into the future where your success lies. In order to take any journey, you must leave where you are to get where you’re going.

 

Your fear of losing everything you know, understand and with which you’re familiar rears its ugly head whenever you’re required to move away from your past in order to embrace your future. Countless people let this fear of losing everything inhibit them from risking the loss of their current life to gain the benefit of a better, more fulfilling life. Success cannot be achieved without taking significant personal risks—not once, but over and over again.

 

Fear of aging is not something that crosses the minds of young people: they presume that they will be young forever. But for people over the age of 35, there just may be some momentary, fleeting thoughts about what life will be like when they’re older.

 

Modern medicine has actually heightened the fear of aging for many people. Because medical science has found ways to treat chronic illness and prolong life, many people are worried about outliving their resources. So the thought of aging brings with it the fear of ending up in poverty, regardless of the financial success that may have been part of life when they were younger. You must decide not to worry or fret about what might happen to you when you’re 95. You must believe that you will never get old until you decide to be old—which may be when you’re 137!

 

Giving the coronavirus pandemic, the fear of contracting or inheriting a debilitating sickness is more on the minds of aging people and younger persons who are aware of their family medical history than on people in the population generally. This fear has the ability to limit people’s choices for themselves today because they feel tethered to inevitable time-lines in which they see themselves crippled physically, mentally and/or emotionally tomorrow. Consequently, they make what they believe to be “safe” choices—not the choices they would even consider for themselves if the fear of a debilitating sickness were not hanging over their heads.

 

Like every other fear that stands in the way of your personal expansion, this fear must be faced squarely and conquered. You must decide and focus your thoughts on the fact of your long-term health and well-being. You must live your life believing that nothing can keep you from achieving your destiny. Such an attitude will allow you—in the worst-case scenario—to adjust to whatever happens to you and keep moving forward into the future, undeterred. Your Faith and Iron Will are sufficient to get you where you desire to be in life.

Preparation for Initiation: The 10th Virtue of Maat

The tenth virtue of Maat is preparation for initiation. In essence, this tenth virtue is the launching pad from which you will make the decision to commit to the business choice you have made, and give your whole self to its pursuit.

Preparation for initiation is your decision to move away from talking about going into business for yourself and taking the necessary action to do so. It is moving away from simply thinking about going into business and actually doing it.  Preparation for initiation is moving away from merely asking the theoretical questions related to going into business and embracing the practical reality of setting up shop.

The first step in your preparation for initiation is to save the money you need to get started in business while you do a thorough check—your due diligence—of the business opportunities available to you. The second step is to engage a seasoned professional who is qualified to assist you during your decision-making process.

Confidence in Your Own Ability: The 9th Virtue of Maat

 

The ninth virtue of Maat is confidence in your own ability. Without confidence in your own ability, you can never achieve personal and business success. The power of who you are as a person created in the image and likeness of God cannot be unleashed until you believe in yourself. This belief in the self and the self’s ability to succeed is an acknowledgement of the power of God’s DNA at work within you.

 

The true atheist is not the one who disclaims belief in the Deity who created the universe and humankind, but the one who refuses to believe in the self-created by God. To denigrate your own ability is to practice false humility—the attempt to appear humble, when in fact, you are insulting the God who created you.

 

You are what and who you persistently think and believe you are. If you practice seeing yourself and feeling yourself to be successful, that is what you will ultimately become. Confidence in your own ability is the driver of your personal growth and expansion, just as belief that you will fail is the driver of your stagnation..

Confidence in the Power of the Master (Teacher): The 8th Virtue of Maat

The eighth virtue of Maat is confidence in the power of the master (teacher). This virtue is important because you do not know everything there is to know about the business you will choose to begin from scratch or purchase as a franchise or licensee. You must learn the ropes from somebody and you will not learn what you need to know if you have no confidence in the power of the person who is teaching you what you need to know about the business.

 

The virtue that is hiding behind this eighth virtue is that of humility. A prideful person has difficulty acknowledging that anyone knows more than she or he about anything. Consequently, there are many entrepreneurs struggling in business because they refuse to learn from those more experienced than they, or to take their advice.

 

It’s not always pride that can make you leery about having confidence in the power of the master (teacher), sometimes it’s your bad past experience with a so-called teacher who turned out to be incompetent at best or a shyster at worst. That is why you must check out carefully the company or the business you choose to invest in to make sure that the people who will be teaching you the ropes know what they are doing. 

Freedom from Resentment: The Seventh Virtue of Maat

The seventh virtue of Maat is freedom from resentment. It’s amazing how many people are stuck in an undesirable space in life simply because of their resentment toward other people: a parent, a sibling, a former lover, a current colleague or fellow worker, to name just a few. In too many cases, resentment is the excuse unsuccessful people use to justify their failures in life.

 

They love to blame others for what is actually their own inadequacy. They will talk about the father who abandoned them, the mother who didn’t love them, the teacher who discouraged them, the close friend or lover who betrayed them, and on and on.

 

To have freedom from resentment is to be so self-directed that you will not allow any person or circumstance to keep you from attaining the goals you have set for yourself. Freedom from resentment provides you a platform from which you can create, innovate, and focus on your positive future, rather than to stay mired in your troubled past or hurtful present. As a virtuous, highly successful entrepreneur, you will learn that the pure success you earn in your life is far sweeter than any bad feelings you could have harbored or any acts of revenge you could have carried out.

 

The way to gain freedom from resentment is to make yourself grow large enough internally to forgive the people who have wronged, betrayed or otherwise treated you unfairly. Forgiveness is not easy, but it is easier than holding on to resentment, because resentment traps and holds you, while forgiveness sets you free to become all you can be.

 

Along the road to economic prosperity there will be potholes and other rough spots that are designed to discourage and waylay you as you seek after true wealth—wealth that includes financial success. Remember that the Law of Attraction will bring you whatever you focus on in your mind. Don’t waste time and energy on negative thoughts of resentment because they will attract more negative things and people to your life. Forgive those who have wronged you, and the people whom you have wronged will forgive you. 

Evidence of A Call to Spiritual Order: The Sixth Virtue of Maat

The sixth virtue of Maat is evidence of a Call to Spiritual Order. Spiritual Order is when you become fully aware that you cannot live for yourself and family alone: you have a call to destiny that goes beyond your own private sphere of living. You have the obligation and responsibility to live a virtuous life that impacts, influences, and encourages others to do good, live well and to be a blessing to others.

The old adage, “To whom much is given, much is required,” is in play here. Every truly expanded person must be a leader, whether she or he understands that or not. A leader is someone who is followed. People who wish to become personally expanded follow the lead of those they believe to be personally expanded. Because people will be watching you as you develop into a greatly expanded individual, you must be a good example for them to follow.

You cannot afford to be selfish, stingy, or rude if you intend to obtain true personal expansion. You must show love, compassion, empathy, and personal discipline. You cannot live the kind of life that you have seen some rich people live. Your life must have meaning, purpose and Spiritual Order. True wealth and long-term profitability can never reside in a person who lives a dissolute life—a life wasted in self-indulgence and self-absorption.

Be the expanded person who leads others to be good, do good, and have good follow them! Be the person who evidences a Call to Spiritual Order!

Showing Evidence of a Mission: The Fifth Virtue of Maat

The Fifth Virtue of the Ten Virtues of Maat is showing evidence of a mission. There is more to the Virtuous Entrepreneur than merely earning a living or creating wealth for the family. There must be a sense of mission that is evidenced in the passion one exhibits about what one does. Passion is feeling; it is emotional involvement in the work undertaken. It is not cold-blooded, but warm-blooded engagement in providing the goods and/or services that one provides.

In a court of law, every fact must be proved by evidence that goes well beyond the mere speaking or articulation of a particular fact. There must be something more than talk, more than promise, more than the usual hype that accompanies all good advertisement. So, too, the Virtuous Entrepreneur must demonstrate evidence of a mission that grounds, rationalizes and supports her or his business activities.

True wealth, in all its aspects, precedes and follows the Virtuous Entrepreneur. That is why the committed entrepreneur who is seeking more than mere financial wealth must develop her or his character to such an extent that the passion for excellence, dependability and service to others becomes the evidence of a mission that envelops and consumes her or his life.

We exist for much more than eating, sleeping, working, having fun, and then getting up and doing that all over again. Each of us is here for a purpose—a purpose that makes life worth living for not only ourselves, but also for everyone with whom we have the privilege to influence.

The secret to showing evidence of a mission is to find your purpose. When you have found your purpose, you will find your passion. And when you have found your passion, you will be the evidence that you have a mission.

My mission is to add value to everyone with whom I come in contact, and to serve my clients by maximizing my own personal development, my highest and best use, and that of the resources I receive and create. Accordingly, I am passionate about preparing my clients to succeed to the point of being able to create true wealth for themselves and their families. That is why my commitment to speaking, teaching, training, supporting and coaching clients—and adding value to them—is my evidence of a mission as a Virtuous Entrepreneur who continues to invest in true wealth for myself and each of my clients.

Identify with Higher Ideals: The 4th Virtue Of Maat

The fourth virtue of Maat is the ability to identify with higher ideals. This is an important virtue for aspiring entrepreneurs because it underscores the reality that true success in business is geared to a higher standard than just making a profit. Although making a profit—and a substantial one—must be the financial goal of the entrepreneur, he or she must resonate with and have an affinity for identifying with higher ideals.

To provide people with goods and/or services that add value to their lives is a higher ideal than just making a profit. When an entrepreneur can serve people in a way that enriches their lives, then he or she can experience the satisfaction that comes with rendering such service. This behavior over a consistent period of time is the basis for referrals of business customers from already satisfied consumers. Advertising is necessary and good, but referrals are much better and their results last much longer.

When an entrepreneur chooses to run a business from the place of identifying with higher ideals, she or he is investing in people in a way that will come back in ways even more valuable than the money earned through the business transaction. A reputation for excellence, attention to detail, thoroughness or dependability reflects an entrepreneur’s functioning with the higher ideals of exceptional service and value to the customer regardless of compensation.

One’s ability to identify with higher ideals sets one apart as virtuous—a status that is in scarce supply in the marketplace. Consequently, such a virtuous business person has little, if any, competition because consumers care about price, but they care more about the business experience. A customer’s good business experience with you will speak more volumes than all the ads or commercials you will ever buy.

Steadfastness: The Third Virtue of Maat

The third virtue of Maat is steadfastness—sticking with someone or something until it’s completed. You can control your thought and your action, but if you have no steadfastness—stick-to-it-iveness—you will never fulfill your destiny as a successful entrepreneur.

Steadfastness is the stuff of character that refuses to quit, become discouraged, or otherwise abandon the dream of succeeding in whatever business you have chosen. Life is hard and business is harder. There are no quick fixes or easy roads to the kind of success that lasts over a long period of time.

Just as studies have shown that people who win big lottery amounts are broke within a year after, in the same way, a quick business financial gain—with no more effort put into it than the “luck of the draw”—will always end in business failure. Any business you enter must be nurtured over the long haul by your attention to detail, excellent customer relations and provision of superior goods and/or services.

Another element of steadfastness is planning beyond the moment to the future. While you are delivering excellence to your customers today, you must study today how you will exceed your customers’ expectations tomorrow. You must constantly improve your product or service and consider your customers’ needs past the particular product or service you are currently offering. Thus, steadfastness is not only “hanging in there” for today, but also planning improvements and upgrades for tomorrow.

The same steadfastness that keeps you from quitting when times are difficult must keep you motivated to never stop improving yourself and the goods or services that your business offers.

I’m looking for hard-working, forward-thinking people of character who have the courage to see their business goals through to the end. If you can control your thought, control your action and have a tenacity that won’t allow you to quit, then contact me: you’re the kind of person I’m looking to help! 

  

Control of Thought: The First Virtue of Maat

Long years before the Torah was written, Maat was the moral and ethical system used in ancient Kemet (Egypt) more than 4,000 years ago. Maat has multiple meanings, but according to The Husia, its sacred text, it essentially means moral and spiritual rightness in relation to the Divine, nature, and other humans. It is also an interrelated order of rightness which requires right relations with and right behaviors toward the Divine, nature and other humans.

According to Maat, there are 10 Virtues that define an ethical person, the first of which is control of thought. This ancient virtue is especially important for people today who seek to be more, do more, and have more, because what one thinks determined what one does. In accord with the ancient Kemetic understanding of the importance of controlling one’s thoughts, modern business leaders and coaches stress the importance of a successful person’s control of thought as the key to business and personal success. Modern business leaders are not alone in their urging the necessity of a person’s control of thought.

Quantum physicists have shown that thoughts are the creative force in the universe. In other words, all created things were once conceived in thought before their appearance in material form. So, if one’s thoughts are negative, the universal Law of Attraction will draw negative created things, persons and circumstances to that one. On the contrary, if one’s thoughts are positive, serving the needs of others and tend toward doing right, then that same universal Law of Attraction will draw positive created things, persons and situations into that one’s orbit.

The first leadership lesson for the aspiring entrepreneur to learn here is that all thoughts of impossibility, doubt and failure with respect to starting a business—whether starting from scratch or buying a franchise or license—must be eliminated from your mind. You create your own success or failure by what thoughts you allow to stay in your head.

The second leadership lesson you must learn is that you must compete against yourself. Your true opponent does not exist outside yourself. You are the only one who can be your worst enemy by failing to believe in yourself and your capacity to succeed. Fight every thought that comes to you saying, “you can’t,” “you don’t have what it takes,” and “don’t take the risk.”

Dare to control your thoughts and you will control your world!

Do One Thing Each Day to Reach Your Goal

Wherever you are on your life’s journey, do what’s at your hand to do. Don’t sit around waiting for your purpose in life to show up one day. Seek it; pursue it. The way to go after your destiny is to take small deliberate steps to explore what interests you. Some people know what their passion is early in life and are able to run with that passion. But if you happen to have several interests, none of which is so compelling that you would give every other interest up in order to follow one, then simply take each interest, one by one, and take one action each day to explore it.

Your commitment to do just one act every day related to a goal you have set for yourself has powerful significance. You may begin with only one step that you can see ahead of you. But after you take the first step—and sometimes it’s the only step you can see to take—another step, not visible to you before you took the first step, will emerge for you to take. You may never be able to fully script your life’s journey in advance, but it will always emerge as you move forward, one step at a time. It’s like driving through a thick fog that has been forecast to hang around for several days. You can decide to pull to the side of the road and wait until the fog lifts, or you can drive slowly in faith and inch toward your destination. However, unlike a fog, life does not lift in several days—it tends to go on interminably!

So, you are forced to come to grips with the Law of Faith. You can’t take a step forward in the fog or the dark or into the unknown without having accepted the Law of Faith at some level. Somewhere inside of you, you have to believe that what you’re doing will turn out right, whether you can see clearly now or not. Living by the Law of Faith means simply believing that your life has meaning and purpose, even if you don’t know what it is yet. The Law of Faith teaches you that you don’t have to know—indeed, you cannot know—everything. All you need to know is that if you muster the courage to move ahead, the way will be opened for you to advance. The Law of Faith is completely unrelated to your religion or religious preference or nonpreference—it is related to your belief in you and your knowing that you are not alone in the universe. There is help out there, waiting for you to summon it and appropriate it. The biblical definition of the Law of Faith is still true:

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. (Hebrews 11: 1-3 NIV)

Every person who has achieved success at any level has believed that whatever his or her goals in life were, they were achievable. In almost every case, great achievement has come to those who moved past criticism and the negative comments of those who kept telling them that what they were after was impossible to attain. What drove them on was their adherence to the Law of Faith.

Every solid created thing that you can see with your eyes and touch with your hands is made up of things that you can’t see with your eyes or touch with your hands. All matter is made up of elements that are made up of atoms and their three components: protons, neutrons and electrons—none of which is visible to the naked eye. In the same way, every new invention, every great idea, every forward advance in science begins in the invisible realm and only later manifests itself in the visible realm. In other words, everything that comes into existence begins with and is brought to its birth through the Law of Faith. But, that’s just the beginning—and not the end—of the story, as your own life experience and the biblical record maintain:

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:17 NIV)

So, the Law of Faith teaches you that faith alone is insufficient to get you where you want and need to be. In order for your faith to be effective, you must act—do something—that puts your faith into action. If you say that you have faith that the big chair in the corner can hold your weight, and yet you refuse to sit in the chair, then you don’t really believe the chair can hold your weight. You cannot believe yourself into success without taking relevant and timely action to get you there. Your faith is what inspires you to take one step at a time to get to your next destination. But it is your action spurred on by your faith in yourself that takes you to the next destination!

If you have enough faith in yourself to accept the challenge of being teachable, accountable and willing to do what it takes to succeed, I pledge that I will do all in my power to help you succeed in business and in your life. Contact me at jchurchville8@gmail.com.

Attain Self-Mastery, Interdependence, and Reflective Leadership

Develop Self-Mastery. Self-Mastery is the first and deepest laid foundational building block for your business success. It is taking complete responsibility for your own behavior and deciding to control your own reactions to outside pressures. This means that you will not blame others for your past mistakes and your present circumstances. You will use your own self-awareness, self-knowledge, imagination, conscience and will-power to be self-determining and proactive. Self-Mastery says, “My success depends on me.”

Seek Interdependence. Interdependence is the second layer of foundational building block after obtaining Self-Mastery. Interdependence teaches you to develop strategic relationships with key people and to understand that you need them to help you create successful business outcomes. Once you have achieved Self-Mastery, you will realize that you cannot attain maximum effectiveness by your own thinking and behaving alone. You learn that by working in concert with others while being personally responsible for your own actions, a team mentality develops. The team mentality allows you and every member of the team to contribute to the effort at maximum levels and to experience maximum satisfaction from the process of working together.

Use Reflective Leadership to maximize business outcomes. Reflective Leadership is the “beyond myself, my family, my community and my organization” third course of foundational building block that requires interdependent organizational strategic partners to function as a “think-tank.” The goal of this Reflection is to think and plan together in new ways, using new approaches to create new products, services and solutions that meet needs and effectively address common problems. At this foundational level, there is a collective focus on working together to leverage the strengths of each group involved to maximize their collective profitability in their particular sphere of influence.

Everything you desire in life begins with your attainment of Self-Mastery. Once you have gained Self-Mastery, you will come to realize that you cannot become your highest and best self all by yourself. This will lead you to seek out principled people—or to be sought out by principled people—with whom you will develop strategic alliances. When you and those with whom you are strategically allied have gone as far as you can go, you will realize that your circle and sphere of influence must be larger and wider. It is at this point that—through your intention and action—the way will be opened to collaborate with partners who believe in the power of the Master Mind, and together, you will create new systems, products, services and applications that can be implemented to impact, empower and energize multitudes of people for their good and the welfare of millions of people around the world.

How to Find Your Purpose in Life

If you don’t know what you want in life, you’re probably confused. If you know what you want, but don’t go after it, you’re probably frustrated. But if you know what you want and are going after it with everything you have, even though you haven’t gotten where you want to be, you probably feel fulfilled just because you’re on the journey.

One way to discover your purpose is to imagine that you have $3 billion dollars in the bank and you owe no money to anyone and have no responsibility to anyone. If that were your situation, what would you want to accomplish in life?

If you don’t know what you really want in life, the most important question you can ask yourself is, “What really excites me so much that I can see myself getting out of bed every morning and doing that thing?” If what you’re doing now doesn’t make you feel like that, it’s time to find that thing that God created you to be and do.

You’ll find your purpose when you have a clear vision of what you want to do; you’ve figured out how your gifts and talents will help you do what you want to do; know what motivates you, what your values are, what’s important to you, and that your motive for doing your thing is good.

You must obey four universal laws: the Laws of Awareness, Action, Accountability and Attraction. In order to do what you want, you must be aware that you can do it; you must take specific and decisive action; you must be accountable to some human being who can be honest with you and challenge you to stay on course. Finally, your thoughts, speech and action must be aligned with what you want to do so that what you need to do it is attracted to you.

Once you’ve taken these steps, you must practice being committed, consistent, creative, purposeful, reflective and grateful.

Every highly successful person has at least one coach or mentor in their life. A reputable and highly-trained mentor or coach will require that you have a teachable spirit. If you’re hard-headed and already think you know everything, neither I nor any coach or mentor I know would waste time working with you. Then you must be prepared at each session; you must ask questions, show that you’re learning, and be accountable.

Mentoring and coaching are quite different fields. In the mentoring relationship, you become accountable to someone who is doing or has done what you want to do, and the relationship is cyclical in nature. In the coaching relationship, you are the captain. The role of the coach is to raise your awareness, based on the truth that every answer to every question you have is within yourself. The coach helps you become aware of faculties and abilities within yourself that you didn’t believe were there and to help you do things you didn’t believe you could do. Take the second step now! Contact me and discover how I can help you grow as your coach.

My African/Edenic Ode to Freedom

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1 NIV

African/Edenic People living in this eurocentric-oriented racist society

Must grasp Personally and Resolutely an understanding of Who Jesus IS.

IS Revolution, IS Truth, IS Now, IS Future Forever.

Is not reaction, is not religion, is not the status quo christian lie.

Is not retrenchment, is not forgiveness without repentance.

IS a Body for an Eye, IS Judgment without Mercy, IS Wounding Love.

IS Reconciliation only after Unconditional Surrender, IS Power at Work

Now and not in future contemplation, IS Philosophical: Posits an

Understanding of the world from behind and anterior to it.

Is Psychological: radically altering the way African/Edenic People

Think Themselves, Think others and Think God.

Jesus—divorced from eurocentric-oriented religion—IS True Freedom,

Fundamental level, IS that State of Being in which African/Edenic People

Make Decisions, Plan Actions, Take Power, Manifest!

Jesus IS the truth that, without a revolutionary struggle that overcomes

The current African/Edenic Self-Image, we  are forever slaves in a

World-system matrix inimical to our best interests,

Opposed to our limitless capacity for personal

Human growth and development, and bent on Our total destruction.

Jesus IS the reality that the only road to African/Edenic freedom

Is Our connecting with Jesus, In Ourselves, submitting to Our

Radical leadership, engaging In Effective counter-hegemonic struggle.

Jesus IS the development of Our Critical Understanding—Our ability to be Transformed from non-critical, incoherent “common sense” African/Edenic People (Objects) to Kingdom-Oriented “Organic Intellectuals” (Subjects) who are Willing, Able, and Committed to Principled Leadership for counter-hegemonic struggle.

The Law of Concentration

The Law of Concentration makes you use your ability to imagine a situation, circumstance or reality that you have never experienced in the past. It is your gift for seeing the future, as well as your capacity to create what you have seen in your mind into a visible manifestation that others can see. Your endowments of imagination and creativity are proof that you have God’s DNA within you. It is also evidence that the Law of Concentration is immutable—it cannot change or be changed.

The Law of Concentration teaches you to focus the attention of your imagination in order to create your own future. Your destiny is determined by disciplining your thought life. Thus, disciplining your mind to concentrate on the definite goal or object that you wish to achieve is an urgent matter.

The Law of Concentration teaches that you must focus your mind on whatever your goal or object is until the circumstances that will manifest that goal or object are firmly in place and your goal or object has been realized. This means that you must place your desired goal or object into your unconscious by repeatedly holding the image of your goal or object in your mind, waking and sleeping. In addition, it means moving beyond just thinking about your goal or object and actually feeling what it would feel like to have already obtained your desired goal or object—i.e., you must emotionalize your goal or object to such an extent that you experience enjoying the feeling of having achieved your goal or object in the present moment.

Placing your desired goal or object into your unconscious mind and forming the habit of practicing this thought-life habitually are the two pillars upon which the Law of Concentration stands.

Your subconscious mind stores whatever you repeatedly think and practice. Then it acts silently and relentlessly to bring about the realization, in concrete form, of the object of your imagination. Thus, concentration is the habit of fixing in your mind the thoughts, desires and creations of your imagination and insisting on their reality. You can do this because of the DNA of God that is within you and because of the unchanging nature of the universal Law of Concentration.

You must believe that what you concentrate on will happen for you. This principle of calling things not yet in being as though they now already exist is content-neutral. It doesn’t matter what the object of your concentration is. For example, if you believe and keep concentrating on the idea that you are sick or inept or clumsy, then you will eventually get sick, be inept and become clumsy. If you believe and keep concentrating on the idea that you will fail in business, then you will fail in business. On the other hand, if you believe and concentrate on the idea that you are well, strong and able to succeed in business, then you will ultimately be well, strong, and you will succeed in business and in life.

The Law of Speech

One of the open “secrets” of success that can be of enormous help to entrepreneurs is the Law of Speech. The Law of Speech says that whatever you speak about yourself, your family, circumstances or situations will come to be because you have God’s DNA, His power of speech. Everything that was created by God, with the exception of humankind, was created by God’s word—His speech. Speech is more powerful than anything else because it creates out of nothing whatever is consistently spoken.

Speech does not follow religious guidelines or moral laws. It is a universal law that is morally neutral. It is available to you and everyone else. Those who use the law well, prosper. Those you don’t, fail. What this means is that whatever you speak continuously will come into existence, whether the spoken thing is good, bad or indifferent. The Law of Speech is one of the central laws that drive systems, products and service innovations. New systems, products and services begin their existence as non-material ideas that people have the courage to speak again and again. Invention begins with speaking the rearrangement of known created things into a new form. It is the power source that God has placed in your hands that allows you to create your own future.

This understanding of the Law of Speech teaches you to promote your own health and welfare. Such positive speech sets the atmosphere in which all the powers in the universe are unleashed to create for you what it is you continue to speak. But there is more.

The Law of Speech requires that you not only speak wholeness, but also commit your active intention—your focused life-force—to the object of your speech. In other words, your speech must be accompanied by specific actions that are aimed at realizing or manifesting what you have spoken. Speech without deeds is useless in the same way that faith without deeds has no value. It is positive speech that must overcome the inertia of the status quo to produce the desired new outcome. That is why focused attention (intention) is the catalyst that brings about the birth of the created thing that has been set in motion by positive speech followed by positive action.

   

You must understand that successful entrepreneurs do not have in their vocabulary such phrases as I can’t, it’s impossible, I don’t deserve and I don’t believe. These are the limiting negative words that people who don’t have the courage to take responsibility for their own lives and livelihoods use to justify their enslavement in a prison of self-loathing, self-doubt and unbelief in their own unlimited possibility as creators, inventors and innovators.

If you are looking for a way to free yourself from the economic and social limitations that are affecting your life, then use your positive speech and create the future you want for yourself. Speak your dream, write it down, and then work toward it!

What is your experience with the power of speech? Does the concept make sense to you? Has it worked, or not worked for you? Leave a comment below and let’s have a conversation about it.

The Twelve Components of True Wealth

True wealth is much more than financial wealth, although financial well-being is definitely a significant part of it. The first and most important component of true wealth is having a positive mental attitude. People who lack a positive mental attitude are miserable, despite whatever money they may have accumulated, while people who maintain a positive mental attitude attract wealth to themselves.

The second and next most important component of true wealth is sound physical health. You can lose all your money and recover more than you lost, but if you lose your health you’ve lost something that may never be regained. Spend time on maintaining and sustaining your health by eating healthy food and exercising often.

The third component of true wealth is harmony in human relations. Harmonious and peaceful relationships, both in the family and then with business associates, lead to good will, a good reputation, cooperation and peace of mind—a personal state of well-being.

The fourth component of true wealth is freedom from fear. No fearful person can enjoy life or its perks. Fear robs you of the ability to enjoy life to your fullest capacity and imprisons you in a dark place where there is no peace of mind or joy in being alive.

The fifth component of true wealth is the hope of future achievement. It is this component that gets you out of bed every morning to pursue your dream of success. Without hope for the future, you are poverty-stricken even if you are sitting on millions of dollars.

The sixth component of true wealth is the capacity for applied faith. The capacity for applied faith is your ability to believe in the dream you have for success to such an extent that you actually do something to make it happen. Applied faith is acting to make your dream a reality, while unapplied faith is merely wishing for something to happen for or to you without doing anything to make it happen.

The seventh component of true wealth is willingness to share your blessings. You cannot have true wealth if you’re stingy and completely self-absorbed. The truly wealthy person gives to and helps others achieve their goals.

The eighth component of true wealth is to be engaged in a labor of love. True wealth is only experienced by those who are doing something good that they love. There is nothing in the world more satisfying than being able to do what you love and know that what you are doing is benefitting other people.

The ninth component of true wealth is to have an open mind on all subjects and toward all people. The truly wealthy person does not think that the world is only as she believes it to be. She is open to learning from others, listening to their opinions, and not judging them for not seeing the world as she does or believing in the same things as she does. She accepts people for who they are, not for what she believes they ought to be, in her opinion.

The tenth component of true wealth is complete self-discipline. The truly wealthy person is self-directed. He is not driven by the whims and demands of other people, but by the goals he has set out to achieve. That is why he has mastered complete self-discipline: he refuses to allow any outside influence to distract him from the task of achieving his goals.

The eleventh component of true wealth is wisdom with which to understand people. Your life in the world, in your family and in your business consists of interacting with people. To gain true wealth, you must first study the people with whom you interact. But studying them will not give you the wisdom to understand them. The only way you can gain the wisdom to understand people is to put yourself in their place and deal with them from their—not your—point of view.

The twelfth and final component of true wealth is financial security. It is not an accident or an oversight that financial security is the last component of true wealth. Every component that comes before it paves the way for financial security and guarantees that once you have the financial status you desire, you will be able to maintain it by treating everyone by the standard of the Golden Rule.

True wealth begins on the inside spiritually before it manifests outside materially. Strive to accumulate spiritual wealth internally, and as you do, you will accumulate material wealth externally.