“Success doesn’t come to you…you go to it.”  Marva Collins

Think of the last time you felt success.  What were the strategies that you used to make that happen?

Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many counselors bring success.  (Prov. 15:22; NLT)

Success can be defined in many ways and means different things to different people.  Success can be pursued on many different fronts, from career to spiritual; to relationships; to marriage — the list is virtually infinite.  With such a diverse set of definitions and objectives of success, is it really possible to define some “universal” keys, i.e., keys that will advance one toward success no matter what the definition or objective?  I believe it is, and would like to end this week’s DG series by giving you what I consider to the six universal keys.

1.  Prayer and commitment
If you believe as we do that prayer changes things (note that I didn’t say that prayer changes God), then you would be hard pressed to ignore the power of prayer when it comes to success on any front.  Similarly, commitment is a must as well.  It’s not success if there aren’t some obstacles to overcome and some barriers to get around or through.  Commitment to stay the course when those obstacles and barriers are encountered is an absolute must.

2.  Focus on the light, not on the darkness
I suppose that might be better said to focus on where you want to go rather than what or where you want to leave, but I like the idea that light attracts and darkness repels and that darkness cannot exist in the presence of light.  But I do believe that success requires you to keep your eye on the goal.

3.  Regular and consistent accountability
Accountability is a powerful concept that can seem to work wonders.  Unfortunately, accountability has been misused to the extent that probably the majority of us are uncomfortable with the idea.  But the support, encouragement, and motivation that accountability can supply is virtually required for success.

4.  Be satisfied with small steps
Too often we’re overwhelmed or discouraged when we look at a goal.  Too big…too far…too costly, etc.  We tend to forget that a few small steps toward that goal each day or each week will will ultimately reach the goal.  Breaking the goal into smaller, easy to accomplish steps is an important strategy for success.

5.  Reframe failure as learning.
The word failure is so misunderstood in our culture.  How many times does a toddler fail while learning to walk?  How about when they grow a little and learn to ride a two-wheeler?  Maybe it’s expectations, but failure is almost encouraged when young people are learning new skills, because those around them can see that it shows that they are trying and will ultimately succeed.  Somewhere as we grow older, failure takes on a finality that usually translates to “quit.”  Every failure should be viewed as providing information on what not to do, which makes the decision about what should be done that much easier to find.

6.  Surround yourself with like-minded friends
It’s been said many times that you take on characteristics of your five or six closest friends.  “Birds of a feather flock together.”  You want to be around people who either have already attained what you’re after or are clearly on the road to getting it and who are ahead of you.  The encouragement and possibly instruction and insight will prove to be critical to your progress.

So that’s my list.  As I look it over, each one could be a DG or two.  Hmmmmm…maybe that’s where I’ll go in the next week or so.  In the meantime, make yourself a very successful weekend.  Blessings!!!

Prayer Power
Father, we thank You that You have created us and programmed us for success and not for failure.  Be a lamp at our feet as we move toward our goal.

Link of the Day
What is Success and How Do We Achieve It?

Blessings to you as you apply the above six keys to success.

“Soak Up the Goodness of Life: Start Soaking Your Grains.”  Elizabeth Walling

How familiar are you with soaking whole grains?

May God give you of heaven’s dew and of earth’s richness– an abundance of grain and new wine. (Gen. 27:28; NIV)

This article is taken from naturalnews.com.  However there are many other sources promoting this ancient tradition.  I’ve made reference to soaking nuts and grains before in previous DG’s,  but this article offers a sound treatise on the subject.  I routinely soak nuts and most grains, although I have decreased consumption of our grain intake since learning this information.

“In recent years, countless warnings about refined grains have led many people to make the switch to whole grain foods. Whole grains contain far more fiber and nutrients than refined grains that have been stripped of their natural goodness.

“However, the answer isn’t that simple. Even whole grains have been linked to health issues such as celiac disease and digestive problems.  From Africa to Mexico to Ireland, traditional civilizations have made a habit of soaking grains for a period of time before cooking them.

“The importance of soaking your grains is no myth. In fact, now that we have a better understanding of the composition of grains, we can see clearly from a scientific standpoint why soaking them is so vital.

“Soaking breaks down phytic acid, a substance that binds to phosphorus and prevents the absorption of vital nutrients in grains like calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc. Phytic acid is in the bran, which is why frequent consumption of bran by itself can cause serious digestive problems such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Whole grains also contain enzyme inhibitors which prevent proper digestion and absorption of nutrients.

“Soaking activates (neutralizes) phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors, breaking them down until they are no longer harmful. As grains soak, their vitamin content increases, especially the B vitamins that are so lacking in our modern diet. Soaking grains makes nutrients easier to digest and absorb.  Water for soaking should be warm and slightly acidic. Adding a small amount of apple cider vinegar, lemon juice or cultured buttermilk to the water will improve acidity.  As an added benefit, soaked grains tend to cook much faster than grains that have not been soaked.”

Prayer Power
Father, we thank You for continued knowledge and revelation on how to care for our bodies.  May You give us strength to implement what we know is true and best.

Link of the Day
Be Kind to Your Grains …And Your Grains Will Be Kind To You

Blessings on you as you experiment with soaking your whole grains.

“When you teach your son, you teach your son’s son.”  Talmud

When is the last time you received some bad advice?  Did you have any inclination that it was not right?

Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.  (Psa. 37:4; NKJ)

A couple of days ago, I was pointing out that we receive a lot of our limiting beliefs or limited thinking from our parents or other authority figures when we are very young.  (Click here for that DG.)  Certainly, when we are young, we have no reason (nor ability) to challenge those seeds of doubt as they are planted into our minds, usually with the best of intentions.

But, it doesn’t stop just because we grow a little older.  Maybe it’s a little less, but we still are quick to accept “pronouncements” from authority figures just because of who they are.  Often these false and limiting beliefs extend to entire cultures.  Let’s list a few:

• Heavier than air flying machines are impossible.
• It’s impossible for any human to run a mile in less than 4 minutes.
• Everything that can be invented has been invented.

Some can be a little more personal, for example:

• You’ll never be able to make a living doing that!  When are you going to get a “real” job?
• You have cancer (diabetes, heart disease, or whatever) and unfortunately there is no cure.
• He’ll never walk again nor be able to eat solid food (that’s what my parents were told when I had polio as a child).

Why are we so quick to trade our dreams for these “opinions” of other so-called experts?  When we accept their beliefs, we automatically turn our face away from our visions.  Even more ironic, we readily accept the opinions of these so-called experts, but rarely ever ask the opinion of the Expert, our Designer.

I encourage you to weigh carefully the credentials (and motives) of your trusted advisors.

Prayer Power
Father, forgive us when we choose to believe the report of those around us without even seeking You for Your report.  Or maybe just as bad, for knowing Your report but then choosing to believe our human advisors.

Link of the Day
Whose Report Will You Believe?

Blessings on you as you choose to “filter” the advice of your experts

“Who doesn’t love pouring warm chocolate sauce over a bowl of cold vanilla ice cream or using it as a dip for fresh strawberries?” Stephanie  Jaworksi

How are you doing with eating proper portion sizes of your food?

The mandrakes send out their fragrance, and at our door is every delicacy, both new and old, that I have stored up for you, my lover.  (Sol 7:13;NIV)

As I mentioned before, I never set out to do a month of chocolate recipes.  However, we had a healthy chocolate pie the first week, a whole foods chocolate cake for Valentine’s Day, and an old fashioned, favorite cookie treat last week.  With one more week in February, I wondered what to make.  Ah, hot fudge or chocolate sauce seemed to fit the bill.

Now, I’ve been making chocolate sauce since I was a young girl living on the farm.  However, I’ve never used a recipe nor have I ever measured anything.  I make it different every time.  For many years, I didn’t make it all.  But, over the past several years I’ve made healthy, homemade vanilla ice cream from time to time.  Warm, homemade chocolate sauce poured over homemade ice cream is one of life’s ultimate treats!  Who needs Hershey’s when you can easily have homemade?

Making chocolate sauce isn’t difficult at all and it is so much healthier than what is available in the stores.  Since I usually don’t have baking chocolate in the house, I’ve developed a recipe that uses cocoa powder instead of the baking chocolate.  Carob can also be used instead of cocoa powder.  Sometimes I’ll add hot water to the cocoa powder and make a paste.  Then heat that mixture and add sweetener and a little cream, butter, and vanilla.  With today’s recipe I actually melt the butter and then add the cocoa powder and the sweeteners.  Then I add the cream or coconut milk.  (The coconut milk will not alter the taste, nor will it taste like coconut.)

The sauce needs to be stirred constantly while being made to prevent burning the chocolate.  Burned chocolate is NOT appetizing.  Always add the vanilla extract last and after you remove the pan from the stove, otherwise the alcohol in the vanilla can bubble up and burn you.  The addition of peanut or almond butter also makes the sauce yummy if you like chocolate and peanut butter together.

Prayer Power
Father, we thank You for our faithful readers and for those who encourage us.  May You pour out blessing after blessing on them.

Link of the Day
Chocolate Sauce

Blessings on you as you enjoy some healthy chocolate sauce.

“We’re really the product of somebody else’s habitual way of thinking, until we get to a point where we start to understand we truly do have control over our life.”  Bob Proctor

What are some of the dreams you once had that you have given up on?  Why did you give them up?

Then after I have poured out my rains again, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions.  (Joel 2:28; NLT)

Have you ever considered the old sayings, “chip off the old block,” and “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree?”  These idioms carry a lot more truth than most of us care to acknowledge.  Without getting into the debate about percentages, most experts will quickly concur that we are programmed as children, particularly up to the age of six or so, and that there are both genetic and environmental factors that contribute to that program.

This is not to give you an excuse to blame your situation on your parents or on your environmental roots, for we all reach an age where we are responsible for the choices we make.  We can choose to continue to allow our “program” to run our lives, or we can choose to take active steps to change those elements of that program that are not serving us.  But of course, we would never be motivated to take those steps leading to change if we don’t accept the truth that “we truly do have control over our life.”

I concluded last week by drawing a distinction between thinking and mental activity, and proposed that a great deal of what many of us are caught up in is simply mental activity. (Click here for that post.)  A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the upward spiral that everybody is pre-programmed with from birth, i.e., the ability to imagine and envision a better future and then begin to think and act as if it were so. (Click here for that post.)  I propose that the thought process that would chart a path leading toward that preferred future is true thinking and not just the mind responding to a barrage of sensory perceptions.  The sad situation is that most of us are so totally directed by our five senses that we spend all our “thinking” time focused on the things going on around us, and have little or no time left over for true thinking that would produce growth.

This unfortunate cycle is exacerbated by the fact that most of us are programmed as little children to focus on what we believe we can get rather than what we truly want.  Or perhaps to only focus on what we believe we can do rather than what we would really want to do.  Can you see the distinction?  Can you see the importance of what you believe you can do or can get?  Maybe more importantly can you see where those (probably) limiting beliefs came from?  If your parents or other authority figures thought they couldn’t do or have something, they were likely to tell you that you could never do or have that thing either.  And you believed them.  And stopped dreaming for it.

Think how sad that must be for the One who created and designed us to be or do or have those greater things.  The Talmud says, “Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, ‘Grow, grow.’”  Do any of you have any stories you would be willing to share about limiting beliefs?  Use the comment box below to encourage others who may be going through something very similar.

Prayer Power
Father, we thank You for those dreams you planted in our hearts and ask Your forgiveness for so easily allowing others to rob us of our destiny.

Link of the Day
There is Only One Person You Can Change or Improve in the Universe and That Person is You

Blessings on you as you choose to begin to dream again.

“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is why so few people partake in it.”  Henry Ford

How do you define thinking?

I stay awake through the night, thinking about your promise.  (Psa. 119:148; NLT)

A little over a week ago, I published a DG entitled, “You’re Always Thinking.”  So what’s this “NOT” business about?  Am I changing my mind that quickly?  Well no, but I just read something that makes me want to expand on that a little bit.  Maybe it’s just a semantical issue, but I suspect it’s much larger than that.  Let me explain…

A better title might have been “You’re Always Engaged in Mental Activity.”  Besides being harder to say, what’s the difference?  Is there a difference between thinking and mental activity?

Read the rest of this entry »

The sixth of a series of articles on Complementary and Alternative Medicine that I’m writing was just published on Ezinearticles.  Here’s the summary:

For decades, scientists have understood the “stress reaction” that triggers a powerful physical response throughout our bodies. We already know from this research that the constant triggering of the stress reaction day after day can have a negative impact on our health.  This article argues that it’s the wrong beliefs we hold within ourselves that are the very core of the excessive stress that brings destruction into our lives, but then ends by holding out tremendous hope for healing those core beliefs.  Click here to check it out.  I believe you will find it interesting.

Oh, and if I may be just a bit presumptuous, while you’re viewing the article, I would be a blessing to me if you would take the time to rate it.  Just go to the bottom of the page and you will see a 1-5 rating scale.

BTW, if you would like easy access to the entire list to date, just click the Ezinearticles icon over on the right side.

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“If I had only one single herb to depend upon for all possible health and dietary needs, I would without much hesitation choose the Indian spice Turmeric.”  Dr. David Frawely

How familiar are you with turmeric?

It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.  (Luke 13:19 KJV)

There seems to be a new “buzz” around the bright yellow spice called turmeric.  According to Dr. Joseph Mercola, turmeric has been an important part of Eastern cultural traditions, for nearly 5000 years.  It is valued for its medicinal properties and warm, peppery flavor.   This yellow-orange spice has more recently earned a name for itself in Western medicine as well.

Turmeric comes from the root of the Curcuma longa plant, which is native to Indonesia and southern India, and is widely used as an ingredient in curry dishes and yellow mustard. As research into this powerful spice has increased, it has emerged as one of nature’s most powerful potential healers.

Dr Mercola goes on to offer a number of beneficial effects of turmeric which are becoming common knowledge in the natural health arena.  Turmeric strengthens and improves digestion by helping reduce gas and bloating.  It also improves elimination of wastes and toxins.

Turmeric contains ingredients known as cucuminoids which are potent phytonutrients and contain powerful antioxidant properties.  These curcuminoids help the body to fight cancer cells along with being powerful anti-inflammatory agents.  Inflammation is rampant among today’s society.  Inflammation in the joints is known as arthritis.  Who doesn’t know of someone who suffers with this debilitating and painful condition?

Curcumin is turmeric’s active anti-Inflammatory ingredient.  Curcumin is the pigment that gives turmeric its yellow-orange color, and which is thought to be responsible for many of its medicinal effects. Dr. Mercola says there are an estimated three to five grams of curcumin in 100 grams of turmeric.

Jerry and I both began taking a supplement containing turmeric about a year ago.  It’s a bright yellow-orange capsule.  Even though we’re both fit and work out on a regular basis, I still had occasional aches and stiffness.  I had some limited mobility in my upper arm as well.  Once I began taking this supplement,  I noticed improvement in my mobility.  We ran out of the supplement and within a matter of days, my limited mobility returned.  Hmmm….I wonder?  Yep, sure enough when I began taking it again, my mobility returned and the inflammation decreased.  I’m a believer now!

Prayer Power
Father, thank You for all of the wonderful herbs and spices that You have created for us.  May we continue to seek You for knowledge on how to best use them to help our bodies.

Link of the Day
The World’s Healthiest Foods: Turmeric

Blessings on you as you begin to learn about turmeric.

Last Saturday I sent out a blog post announcing the upcoming release of Ann Sieg’s latest e-book, “The Attraction Marketer’s Manifesto.”  I’ve just learned that the book will be available on Monday, March 2.  And it will be free, just as her earlier book was.

I’ve configured a link that will tell you a bit more about the book, e.g., table of contents, screen shots of selected pages, etc.

http://www.JirehMarketing.info

At that site you can also put your name on a list that will allow me to send you notification as soon as it becomes available.

In case you missed what I sent out Saturday explaining the significance of this new e-book, I’ve duplicated it below:

Network Marketing Abuses

Many of you know that Sharon and I are involved in network marketing or MLM.  (And no, this post is not to pitch you on our latest product or on network marketing.)  We both feel strongly that the overall structure and benefits of direct marketing far outweigh the more traditional mass marketing approaches.

However, network marketing has been misunderstood, misapplied, and has received a terrible reputation over the years due to the misuse and blatant abuse by unscrupulous and uninformed participants promoting it as a vehicle for instant riches.  A couple of years ago, a free e-book written by Ann Sieg “rocked” the industry by exposing “The Seven Great Lies of Network Marketing.”  This infamous 35 page free report was called by many “the most controversial book in MLM.”

Attraction Marketing

Ann Sieg’s blockbuster book virtually spawned what has become known as “attraction marketing.”  Attraction marketing is based on the premise that you attract customers that are interested in what you have to offer rather than pursue prospects that may or may not be interested.  For most, especially in the networking business, it was a complete turn-around in mindset.

I have worked with a couple ministries and also with a couple coaches to apply the attraction marketing concept to promote their callings.  Attraction marketing is the anecdote to the horrendous interruption marketing that we have all become so sick and tired of.

All this to say that it looks like Ann is about to publish another industry-shaking book titled “The Attraction Marketer’s Manifesto.”  At this time, I don’t know much about it, other than the author’s credibility and reputation, but the “buzz” is that it is going to be even more significant that her earlier Seven Great Lies.

When more details are available, I’ll send out a quick announcement, but I just wanted to give you a “heads up” as I know that many of our readers are significantly involved in the direct sales industry as well.

Have a great weekend!

BTW, here’s a Squidoo lens I put together on this topic.

“I believe that our greatest need is to be seen, to be known and to have an impact. And yet, for most of us, who we truly are and what we truly have to offer — our heart — has rarely been noticed by those who are the most significant to us.  Except for God who sees and knows us and has created us to impact others deeply.”  Gary Barkalow

Recall a time when someone unexpectedly encouraged you in something you were having difficulty with…what impact did that encouragement have on you?

Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds.  (Heb. 10:24; NLT)

A coaching colleague and friend of mine, Dean Denis who hails from Kansas, sent me the video link I’m passing along to you today.  It struck me as a magnificent example of finding a “win-win path” like I wrote about earlier this week.

This is an incredible story of an idea that one high school football coach had that would indelibly leave a mark on the hearts of all the players and fans who were part of this otherwise ordinary Friday night football game.   (If you can watch this without a lump forming in your throat and a tear forming in your eye, your “wood must be all wet.”)

Again, I invite you to look for a situation or situations where you can be instrumental in developing a win-win path.  The results are almost always amazing.

Prayer Power
Father, we thank You for Your love and never ending encouragement.  So often we choose to listen to the deceiver whose whole purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy.

Link of the Day
A Game of Hope

Blessings on you as you provide hope to someone today.