Attitude, The Ultimate Power

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

The Optimism Revolution

Following is an interesting article from Psychology Today in regards to the health benefits of being optimistic. I have only reprinted a portion of the article. Because of Copyright protection you will have to follow the link to get the complete article, directly from Psychology Today.

Optimism as you know it isn't always the best medicine. In the new view, behavior trumps positive outlook. Why a healthy mentality paints the world in light and shadow.

By:Jill Neimark

The pain was blinding," recalls Larry Dossey of the afternoon last August when he was thrown by two different horses—within a mere two hours. Dossey, his wife, and another married couple had just spent two weeks camping and fly-fishing in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming—a place so beautiful, he says, that it makes him feel like he's "in touch with the gods."

Dossey, a doctor as well as an early champion of mind-body medicine, cracked his ribs when the first horse spooked; but he allowed the wranglers to mount him on a second horse—their most experienced one—with the hopes of reaching civilization soon. The second horse bolted up the mountain, lunged over an embankment, and sent Dossey flying. He fractured his spine, though he didn't know that at the time.

After testing his ability to wiggle his toes and turn his head, Dossey concluded his best chance for survival was to walk out of the wilderness. "I realized that this was an extraordinarily serious situation with no good solution that I nonetheless had to overcome," he recalls. "And somehow I knew I could overcome it with sufficient courage and resolve." So he suggested that the women, wranglers, and pack horses ride ahead, and that his friend accompany him by foot. Night fell. For 10 hours he walked, in pain "with every step, one flashlight between us, across some of the most rugged territory I've ever seen," says Dossey. "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. I focused on the act of putting one foot in front of the other. I put my consciousness down in my feet. I stopped every 15 minutes to get on top of the pain."

At about 4 in the morning, they reached the wranglers' base camp, and from there his wife drove him to the small town of Lander, Wyoming, an hour away. But his back pain only worsened, so that he could hardly stand. Two days later they located a spinal specialist in Bozeman, Montana, who diagnosed the fractured vertebra and hospitalized Dossey, putting him on intravenous morphine. For months he wore a body brace , encased in plastic from chin to hips. He now wears a lighter brace and suffers from daily back pain. His conclusion: "I'm absolutely grateful I didn't land on my head or neck. I came within just a whisper of being a quadriplegic. I reflect on this every day."

That's an optimistic appraisal if there ever was one, but Dossey's background as an experienced physician—he's knowledgeable about both trauma and the impact of attitude on health—helped prepare him for what he calls "grounded optimism." So did his experience as a seasoned outdoorsman who'd made annual treks into wild country for three decades, and the fact that he'd served as a battalion surgeon in Vietnam, where he'd often observed the limits of human endurance. As he puts it: "Characterizing optimists as smiley-faced romantics is unfair. Optimists are actually realists who take steps to solve problems"—for instance, the literal steps Dossey took for 10 hours. According to this definition, Dossey and other true optimists are flexible, and anchored in reality. And most important, they get things done.

Optimism: The New View

Optimism has long been considered a straightforward asset when battling illness or adversity. And, broadly speaking, it is. Harvard graduates who were optimists at age 25 had better health outcomes for the next three decades. As Dossey explains, "Optimists have more stable cardiovascular systems, more responsive immune systems, and less of a hormonal response to stress compared to pessimists. They have a stronger sense of self-efficacy, so they're more likely to invoke healthier behaviors because they think it can make a difference."

Of course, to be considered optimistic you have to have a positive long-term outlook and some degree of hope for the future. But a new view of optimism holds that to have a real impact on health, outlook is less important than behavior. By this definition, it is the act of engaging with the world, of taking concrete steps toward goals, that improves health. But there's a wrinkle: Under trying circumstances, optimism can actually lead to fatigue and temporary immune suppression. That finding has helped researchers rethink optimism and how it really works.

It turns out that our standard view of optimism is simplistic, and it is only by observing the nuanced impact of "optimistic" behaviors on the immune system that we can get a more complete picture of this coping style. Grounded optimism gives the brain a built-in action potential: It replaces emotion with motion.

In the end, the hidden key to optimists' better health outcomes may be their propensity to engage with the world and to persist in the face of difficulty, whether it's a night of agonized walking through the wilderness or the willingness to seek out second and third opinions for a medical condition. "Here's the really important piece to understand," says Suzanne Segerstrom, a University of Kentucky psychologist and author of Breaking Murphy's Law: How Optimists Get What They Want from Life—and Pessimists Can Too. "If you're an optimist and working harder at a task, your stress hormones may go up. Your immune function may dip a bit. But it's like doing crunches at the gym. Short-term, more crunches hurt. Long-term, you get a big payback in terms of health and fitness. Optimism leads to increased well-being because it leads you to engage actively in life, not because of a miracle happy juice that optimists have and pessimists don't."

Segerstrom herself embodies this principle: She recently suffered an injury (also involving a horse) that led to unexpected complications, including bursitis and sciatica. "My attitude was, well, somebody has to fix this. So when one doctor couldn't help me, I found another. And I made progress."

Her conclusion? "The more I work on optimism, pessimism, and health, the more I believe optimism's benefits have less to do with mood and much more to do with persistence. The kind of optimism I study is based on a very simple concept: Do you think the future will be mostly good or mostly bad?" If you believe it will be mostly good, says Segerstrom, you'll be motivated to persist through tough times, whether you are naturally cheerful, a worrier, a grump, easygoing, or a bit neurotic.

Optimists' persistence is evident in a study conducted by Lise Solberg Nes, one of Segerstrom's graduate students. Subjects were given a series of anagrams to unscramble. One was impossible and the other 10 were difficult. Pessimists worked on the difficult anagrams an average of 9½ minutes, while optimists worked for an average of 11½ minutes. For the impossible anagram, pessimists worked an average of one minute, while optimists worked twice as long—two minutes.

Faced with a health challenge instead of an anagram, the active, problem-solving approach stands people in good stead. Carol Farran, a professor of nursing at Rush University Medical Center and author of Hope and Hopelessness, was diagnosed with breast cancer 20 years ago at age 42, when her children were in junior high school. Farran had already been conscientious in dealing with two other chronic health problems: endometriosis and fibromyalgia. "For fibromyalgia, I use low doses of antidepressants, massage, and yoga, and I say to myself each day, 'Well, Carol, you can choose to sit around and mope or you can live an active life anyway.' To me, that decision is the axis around which optimism truly turns."

Farran's proactive outlook may have saved her life—it was she who discovered a lentil-size node in her breast. When it turned out to be breast cancer, Farran first suffered crying jags and panic attacks. Shortly after surgery, "I was out with my kids and panicking. We went to a music store, and I got a metronome. Symbolically it was very important. I could set the metronome to whatever speed I wanted, and it reminded me that I could set my life to my own time, fast or slow." Whenever she listened to the metronome, she remembered that it was her choice to reframe and reappraise her life. "It gave a certain meaning to my struggle," she concludes, and it is meaning that helps us regain a sense of control and mastery over our own lives. "You make new choices in life," says Farran. When one goal becomes impossible, the dispositional optimist will find another goal to work toward and bring satisfaction instead.

That ability to reframe life, to find new meaning, is part of an optimistic strategy. "When a crisis strikes," says University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of The Happiness Hypothesis, "optimists tend to alternate between active coping and reappraisal. If active coping fails to fix the problem, they reappraise the situation, looking for hidden benefits, and, invested with flexibility, write a new chapter for their life." For instance, optimistic patients who received bone-marrow transplants for cancer were able to sustain relationships and re-enter the world more readily than their pessimistic counterparts, largely because they used emotional coping and tried to gain something positive from a generally negative experience. Optimism also predicts whether people will remain actively engaged with life after falling ill. In a study of 250 adults with chronic illnesses such as arthritis and cancer, Farran found that 85 percent had to give up meaningful activities (exercise, gardening, traveling). But the hopeful among them replaced lost activities with new and meaningful ones (playing music, writing, socializing) to remain fulfilled.

The rest of this article

A Fly In My What?

A Fly in My What??

Keep Scrolling all the way to the end.

When I went to the men's room in the Schiphol Airport when we got to Amsterdam , I saw the fly and didn't think much about it.

Now I know why it was there.

Who says you can't potty train a man?

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Gary's Weather Forecasting Stone

Power Of A positive Attitude

One of my goals is to bring everything that I can find, that focuses on the "Pursuit, Capture, Care and Feeding of a Positive Mental Attitude" to one place for my readers. There have been, and will continue to be, many good article written, by both well known motivational writers as well as far lesser known ones, everyday people, who's writing should be given a forum. The following is such an article written by Saravjit Kahlon. This is not the first and will not be the last of such articles.

How we handle stress depends upon our attitude. Attitude can also affect the way stress handles us. Optimists are able to cope more effectively with stress. It also reduces their chances of developing a stress-related illness. When optimistic people do become ill, they tend to recover more quickly.

Pessimists are likely to deny the problem, distance themselves from the stressful event, focus on stressful feelings, or allow the stress or to interfere with achieving a goal. People with a more pessimistic attitude tend to report poorer health compared to people with optimistic attitudes.

People with positive attitudes view situations differently from those with negative attitudes. Here are some general statements. Think about how you would respond to them:

In times of uncertainty, I usually expect the best.
In times of uncertainty, I usually expect the worst.
I look on the bright side of things.
I look on the dark side of things.
I hardly ever expect things to go my way.
I do not always expect things to go my way. When they do not, I try to learn something from the experience.
Attitudes can even be detected in the words we use. For example, "I won't," indicates choice, whereas "I can't" indicates powerlessness.

Our attitudes develop from the time we are children. It is difficult for pessimists to change overnight. One way to start developing a more positive attitude is through "thought stopping." Start by noticing your attitude in various situations to see if you have a more negative or a more pessimistic view.

The next time you are thinking or saying a pessimistic comment, picture a big, red STOP sign stopping the negative thought. Then replace that thought, or the statement, with a more positive or optimistic statement.

If you would like to learn more about how our attitudes can influence our health and the way we handle stress, contact your local community or adult education center. They often offer classes that include information on positive attitudes.

If you feel that your negative attitude toward life could be affecting your health, contact your healthcare provider. They may refer you to a person who specializes in the area of change in attitude or in the area of wellness. There are several books on positive thinking available in the libHave a positive attitude." How many times have we heard that one? While our emotions can not cause fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome, they no doubt affect our symptoms. But how can we maintain good thoughts when our bodies feel so lousy? This challenge, of course, does not pertain exclusively to chronic illness, but to any time when things do not go as we wish. But in the case of ongoing illness, seeing the positive presents a continuous struggle.

Yet our moods are not perfectly correlated with our physical state. Most likely we can all recall times that despite much pain or fatigue, we were able to cope and even achieve high spirits. Perhaps the weather was perfect, good friends visited, we just accomplished something or helped somebody, making us feel good about ourselves. Other times, depression seems to take hold even when our physical discomfort is at a manageable level. Why is this? Answering this question is the key to finding optimism.

To me, the vicissitudes of fibromyalgia feel like a swim in the turbulent sea -- sometimes it seems we have fallen and the waves continue to crash on our heads, as we fight to rise, only to be knocked down yet again. But that same ocean sometimes allows us to find a wave we can ride smoothly to the shore.

What can we do when we feel under the waves? How can we find the strength to climb back on top, and the patience to know that we will? Here are ten cognitive exercises I use to maintain the most positive attitude I can:

1. Expect bumps! It is important to acknowledge that we will sometimes feel down. Who wouldn't in our condition? But by expecting rather than dreading down time, such periods become more tolerable. In addition, recognizing that we will have blue periods helps keep them in perspective. We will be able to say to ourselves, "I was depressed before, and got out of it; this time, too, it will pass." It is easy to forget that before our illness, there were times we felt down. Now these periods are wrapped up in our medical problems; but everyone gets depressed some of the time. After accepting that we will sometimes feel sad, and even experience self pity, we can concentrate on ways to shorten these periods and make them fewer and farther between.

2. Track the changes. Keeping track of moods helps put ups and downs into perspective. During your best times, make a conscious attempt to capture the feeling. Leave notes on your wall attesting to the way you feel. Living with chronic illness easily creates a Jekyll-and-Hyde persona, where your optimistic self and your flare-up self are not sufficiently acquainted. When we feel bad, it becomes quite difficult to imagine that things can be otherwise. Similarly, during times of improvement, it's amazing how quickly we may forget how bad a previous period was, making subsequent flare-ups not only intolerable but shocking. Counting and measuring the duration of the bad times -- as well as the good ones -- can put them into perspective. It may be that over time, our worst occurs about once a month, although it feels much more frequent. This knowledge is empowering, because we can remind ourselves that a bad flare is, for example, our monthly temporary setback, and find ways to ride it out until our baseline returns.

3. Stockpile fun distractions. We all need to keep lists handy of the things that make us happy. One of the cruelties of our condition is that when we need distractions most, we are least equipped to seek them out. For this reason it is important to compile a list of our favorite activities when we are feeling optimistic to be used when we most need them. People with fibromyalgia often describe how even their worst pain can be put on a back burner, so to speak, when they become engrossed in an activity. This is not only a psychological but a physiological response: our brains can only process so much input at once. When we are engrossed in a beautiful movie, talking to a good friend on the phone, or listening to our favorite music while lying on a heating pad or in the bathtub, we can trick our pain receptors into leaving us alone! Meanwhile improvements in spirit have an added impact on our entire well-being. Laughter is good medicine; while dwelling on our troubles tends to compound them.

4. Shape your perspective. Is the glass half empty or half full? Perspective determines, quite literally, how we view the world. Having a chronic illness creates an ambiguous construction of reality for us. Am I, for example, a successful cripple or an unsuccessful professional? In American culture, much emphasis is placed on independence, individualism, and achievement. Through this lens, developing a condition that makes us feel more dependent and less productive is likely to be a huge disappointment. Yet as we get older, it becomes more likely that we, or somebody close to us, will experience debilitating problems. People are often forced to adapt to sudden, new conditions by adopting a perspective that accommodates change. Our perspectives are shaped by the comparisons we make and the expectations they create. Consider, for example, the immigrant who had been practicing medicine in his home country, but flees to the US to escape a repressive political regime. Here he works as a janitor; after years of medical study, he has lost a prestigious and rewarding occupation. Yet he is thankful for the opportunity to work and wakes each day driven by hope, perhaps, of a better future for his children. Yet his difficulties are also quite apparent. What keeps his spirits up and makes him thankful rather than bitter? His perspective.

5. Create a new self. If we hang on tightly to the "old self" we were, finding the value of our "new self" becomes increasingly difficult. (We may even exaggerate how fit that person was: "I didn't need any sleep, I never felt bad, I could do anything!"). This does not mean we should totally discard our previous conception of self; rather, we need to find a way to integrate the two. In other words, we should seek to find in our new bodies new ways to enjoy and experience the things that we had done before. Consider all the aspects of yourself that you like, and the things that you most want to do; then step by step, find ways to achieve as many of these as you can. At the same time, recognize that our expectations must shift so that we can once again meet them.

6. Don't forget the good stuff. While the physical symptoms of fibromyalgia can feel all-encompassing, there are other parts of our life--our social relationships, passions, family -- that also exist. By focusing on the positive aspects of our life, we become more aware of how many there are: the friends that stuck by us, the things we still enjoy, and the accomplishments we have been able to make, however small, under very different conditions. Because each task now represents a challenge, we should celebrate whatever we manage to accomplish. As we have been told many times, if we shorten the list and pace ourselves whatever we do eventually adds up to something to be very proud of.

7. "Oy, it could be worse." (The Jewish mantra). As comparisons shape our view, it is helpful to find comparisons that will provide a fuller appreciation for what has befallen us. OK, the "eat because children are starving in (fill in the developing country)" did not work for you as a child. But try to think of it this way: Many bad things happen in the world. The odds are that some of them will happen to us. Not because of anything that we have done, but because, as the saying goes, shit happens. It takes only a short view of the evening news to remind ourselves of the horrors occurring every day. So, this is what has happened to us. We too were caught. Let us examine what we have: (a) We know our condition is not terminal, so we need not begin contemplating our pending mortality. (b) As bad as we sometimes feel, our underlying condition is not going to get worse. We have already experienced the worst, and, to our credit, have gotten through it. (c) Although few people achieve permanent remission, many improve significantly. As we understand how our actions and emotions influence our general well-being, we can find ways to partake in more and more activities.

8. Keep the hope alive! There is so much room for hope. It has only been since the 1990s that our condition has acquired any legitimacy from the medical community. We are in a far better position than the generations before us who suffered without ever receiving validation. We know much more about the important roles of exercise, medication, stretching, pacing and meditation to bring relief and a sense of control. Furthermore, as medical research increases, it is only a matter of time before better therapies (and perhaps even a cure!) are introduced.

9. Lean on me! A single most important predictor of how we do is the support network we create. We certainly appreciate what it means when someone helps us when we feel especially lousy. Make sure that, within your means, you continue to be a good friend to those you care about. We still have lots to give. During a good moment, write to a friend that you are thinking about her. Help your family and friends find ways to maintain their relationship with you. Invite them to your place to eliminate traveling (and do not worry what your place looks like! They came to see you, not your housecleaning abilities). Try to be open with family members, while at the same time supportive of their needs. Put yourself in their shoes as often as possible -- it can be scary to have someone you love be sick! Also make sure to seek help outside of your immediate circle so as not to drain your closest friends and family. There are now all sorts of support groups, both live and in virtual computer space.

10. Indulge whenever you can. We have lots of time to focus on our thoughts. Most people do not have the luxury of taking time to relax and think. OK, we did not ask for these "time outs." They are demanded by the needs of our bodies. Nevertheless, we have control over how we use this extra time. Instead of dwelling on what our bodies are not doing, give your fantasy full liberty. Turn these rest periods around to be indulgent time. In our mental playground, we can practice dance steps we used to know (for there will be some times we can dance!). We can use the time to think through problems we face and how we want to spend time when we are feeling ready, or we can analyze a movie we recently saw, say prayers, or mentally write a letter to a friend.

Research - Index

Positive Thinking Article, Research & References

Stories - Index

Unexpected Surprises

Terrorist??

Monday, June 18, 2007

I'm still waiting.....

I did what you told me...

I sent the email to 10 people like you said....

I'm still waiting for that miracle to happen....

The Place Where Success Lives by Dwayne Gilbert

There is a place within each of us. A place where there is complete peace, and a connection to everything around us. Inside each and every one of us, hidden deep behind all the beliefs and ideas and perceptions of the world around us, there lays a spot that success lives. In this place, when we truly live there, everything flows as it needs to. Creativity connects with the world around us and understands all that it needs to understand. People who are successful at what they do live in this place. They breath this place. They are this place.

This place is within us all. We need to learn to get out of it's way long enough for it to flow and come forth into the world. When we let it flow from us, when we are in touch with where we are and what we are doing, when this place opens up and the light that is within us begins to shine in the world, there is nothing we cannot do. There is nothing that is impossible or untouchable for us. This place knows all there is to know. This place within us has all it needs to accomplish what you want to accomplish. This place is all that you need to be. This is the place of success. When you connect with this place, it no longer becomes about success at all, but being in the moment and connecting with the creativity inside of you. It is about connecting with the universal force that flows through every single one of us.

As the greatest writers in history have done. As the most notorious of artists have known. As every great mind through out all of time has discovered, there is a place within each of us that strives to come forth and be heard. A place that longs to be seen. When you truly connect with yourself and the inner place of your being. When you find something you have a passion for accomplishing and doing. When you finally realize your place in the world, the place inside of you that needs no knowledge will open up. The place that needs no prompting will flow. This place is a beautiful place and expresses itself to the world in amazing ways.

So what is this place exactly? What does it look like? How do you find it and use it? This place is a spot inside of you that is rarely used. It is a place where you get out of the way, and let your true essence flow. A place where your mind no longer exists, but your inner beauty does. A place where you simply sit back at watch in awe at what you create. It as though you are looking through different eyes. As a writer puts his fingers on the keyboard and lets the thoughts just flow from him like water from a waterfall, this place lives in you and flows from you the same way. You must learn to open up to it. Learn to connect to the world around you. Feel the air as it enters your lungs. See the light as it enters your eyes. Smell the air as it passes through your nose. Feel life around you as it touches your skin. Connect with the universe at large as it touches your emotions and moves you. Let it move you as you see fit, and let it use your creativity to bring light to the world.

The hardest part of opening up to this place of success is getting out of your own way. We often want to use our heads to understand things or to create things. We want to force things to happen, and this is not at all where success lives. Success lives by a moment of inspiration that comes and hits us in a moments notice. Success lives in an idea that moves us to take action and spurs emotions in us that are incredible. Success lives in a place deep within each of us that wants to come out and play. It is the inner child in our heart that takes a pen and turns it into a million different tools or toys of entertainment. Success lives in a place that allows us to be a part of the world. A place that causes us to recognize beauty in the setting sun. A place that allows us to see innocence in the eyes of a child. In a place that causes us to love and feel and connect without any effort on our part.

Success lives in a place that allows us to truly feel and experience the world around us. A place of emotion and ideas. Not of emotional reaction to the crap around us, but of truly feeling like we are a part of something great, even if that great thing is our own creation. Not ideas that we muster up from within ourselves, but ideas that flow from a place within us in a way that we never even imagined possible. Ideas that amaze even us as we think them. Success lives in a place deep inside of you that you can connect with on a regular basis, if you let yourself. Watch someone who loves what they do. Watch them as they do it. They find a place that simply creates. A place that is not tainted by their concepts of the world or their emotional insecurities. A place that is untouched by their perceptions. A place that pure, and innocent deep within them. A place where creativity takes everything in the world around them and turns it into something new, something unique. Something amazing.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Are You Prepared For Success? (Installment #14)

(If this is your first time on this site, please begin with "Are You Prepared For Success [Introduction])

At this point you, hopefully, realize how important positive attitudes are. You may even be saying to yourself "If that's all it takes, I'll start thinking positive thoughts right now." I wish it was that easy. If it was that easy, why are you still searching?

A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

-George Bernard Shaw

The positive attitudes have to be born and nurtured in the deepest recesses of your mind, of your entire being...in the same place that your emotions come from. Remember, when we discussed the dark place within us that is filled with demons and monsters... well, at the successful completion of this program, you will be able to go back there and see that what you were scared of was nothing but half-truths and lies. In fact, it is this same place, that was once filled with demons and monsters, that you will now fill with soaring eagles, courageous lions, confidence and self-belief.

It is virtually impossible for negative and positive emotions to occupy the mind at the same time. One or the other must dominate both your conscious and your subconscious. It is your responsibility to make sure that you use the repetition aspect of this program to insure that the positive messages and emotions dominate your mind. With the constant repetition of these rhyming poems fed by passion, eventually, positive feelings will dominate your mind so completely that the negatives feelings from your past cannot re-enter.

There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.

-Aldoux Husley

He who conquers others is strong;

He who conquers himself is mighty.

-Lao-Tzu

You will be able to take responsibility for your actions and thus, own your successes. If you stumble (formerly known as fail) along the way, you will know to take responsibility for it, learn from it, and quickly move on to success.

Failure is success if we learn from it.

-Malcomb S. Forbes

Don't hurry through The Process. Take your time; enjoy it; savor it; engage it with your whole being. The poems are a compilation of great motivational rhymes written by some of the masters of motivation and insight (some slightly altered to fit the profile of this process), as well as numerous original rhymes, written specifically for The Process. The rhymes that I have altered and created are by no means the end all. I strongly encourage you to create your own. The creative process has far greater power than reading someone else’s work. After you have read the rhymes in Section (II), and even during the reading, I, again, encourage you to create your own. By know you must have a pretty good understanding of what the differences are between positive and negative messages. The goal and the difference between Section (II) and Section (III) is OWNERSHIP. Again, you have to own the attitude; not borrow them, not taking them out and admiring them, not even leasing them, but OWNING them.

Remember, I am dedicated to the Pursuit, Capture, Care and Feeding of a Positive Mental Attitude. Once you have read my final installment, it’s not over. If you take it seriously and have ownership of a PMA (positive mental attitude) you will have completed the pursuit and capture aspects. You then enter the Care & Feeding stage. I will have much more to say about this at the end of the process.

Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.

-Émile Coué

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

-Francis Bacon

Have faith. Faith can be the strongest and most productive of the emotions. When reading these rhymes, know that they will counteract the negative attitudes that may be controlling your life. Have total faith that you will be able to eliminate the negative feeling that you have about yourself. Show it and feel it in your readings. The faith that you need will become stronger each time you read the rhymes. Using all three legs of the "Empowerment Triad," passion, pleasure and repetition, is what will ensure that this program will work for you, and in the least amount of time. It's up to you! I make no guarantees, because I can't be there with you to ensure that you follow the procedure. You will get out of it only what you are willing to put into it.

I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.

-Winston Churchill

Faith is the strongest and most productive of the emotions.

-Napoleon Hill

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.

-Vincent T. Lombardi

The next installment will contain the first of the poems (both the male and the female versions. Have faith. It will work if you want it to. It's time to recognize, understand and take control of your life. It's time to let go of the past. It's time to cleanse yourself. It's time to soar like an eagle and "Live your dreams."

No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.

-William Blake

Do it trembling if you must, but do it!

-Emmet Fox

Congratulations, you have completed Section I of "The Process." I strongly recommend that you go back and re-read all 14 installments before moving on to Section II. It will probably be a few days or so before I begin posting Section II. This will give you time to re-read.

By Mel Kaye

Go to "Introduction into Section II"

Article / Essays - Index

Monday Morning Power / Mel Kaye

10 Rules of Focus

Others

Humor - Index

CURRENT AS OF 9/9/08

Funny Pictures

Jokes, Lists and Just Plain Funny

11 People on a Rope

Jeff Foxworthy

Larry The Cable Guy

The Process "Are You Prepared For Success?" - Index

CURRENT AS OF 07/21/08

The Empowerment Process:
This process is currently in the process of being posted in installments. For those of you who are wondering if this has any religious connotations.....it does not. This process is all about casting off the role of "victim" and taking on the role of "controller"; taking total control of your own life. To accomplish this I use a combination of "Passion," Repetition", and "Pleasure."

Each installment is linked to the next. Where applicable I duplicate installments into a "male version" and a "female version." Why I do this will become abundantly clear when you get to "Section III."

The Empowerment Process is divided into three Sections:

"Section I" - Preparation & Explanation
"Section II" - Understanding & Acceptance
"Section III" - Ownership & Becoming

Side Notes:

Side Note - 1

Introduction:

Introduction

Section I - Explanation & Preparation:

Section II - Understanding & Acceptance:

Section III - Ownership & Becoming:

The Unusual - Index

Poems - Index

Motivational Quotes - Index

Inspirational Quote

Happiness Quotes

Motivational Quotes (5)

America is too great for small dreams.
Ronald Reagan

A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last.
Both do the same thing; only at different times.
Baltasar Gracian

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities
brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems.
John W. Gardner

The great question is not whether you have failed,
but whether you are content with failure.
William Shakespeare

The fastest way to succeed is to double your failure rate.
Thomas J. Watson

Caring is a valuable business advantage.
Scott Johnson

Most of my advances were by mistake.
You uncover what is when you get rid of what isn't.
Buckminster Fuller

You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.
Wayne Gretzky

A year from now you will wish you had started today.
Karen Lamb

There has never been another you.
With no effort on your part you were born to be something very special and set apart.
What you are going to do in appreciation of that gift is a decision only you can make.
Dan Zadra

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed
is more important than any other one thing.
Abraham Lincoln

One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night.
Kahlil Gibran

"Successes like pleasing results . . .
Failures like pleasing methods"
Cavett Robert

"If we study the lives of great men and women carefully and unemotionally
we find that, invariably, greatness was developed, tested and revealed
through the darker periods of their lives. One of the largest tributaries of
the RIVER OF GREATNESS is always the STREAM OF ADVERSITY."
Cavett Robert

Everything which is properly business we must keep carefully separate from life.
Business requires earnestness and method; life must have a freer handling.
Goethe

We become what we think about.
Earl Nightingale

I'd rather attempt to do something great and fail
than to attempt to do nothing and succeed.
Robert Schuller

The best way out is always through.
Robert Frost

Spectacular achievement is always preceded by spectacular preparation.
Robert Schuller

See Motivational Quote Index for more quotes.