Discover a New, Little Known Secret to Success

I have spent the last few posts discussing the concept of success and shared how it is applicable to anyone (corporate leaders, single-parents or individuals experiencing traumatic change in their life). I defined success as: "Gaining or attaining the desires of our heart" and concluded that it's not necessarily related to finances, material possessions, who we know or where we go.

Now, I’d like to share with you a surefire framework that will guarantee success. This framework uses a concept I call: The 3R’s.  This concept came about during a period of self-reflection and personal growth where I looked back over my life and tried to determine the infinitesimal difference between success and failure. I used this concept to write and publish my book titled: “The 3R's of Spiritual Growth”.  The 3R's are: Recognition, Reconciliation and Reconnection. This framework can be utilized by anyone to successfully address and solve any of life’s problems areas.

The first step is to Recognize the impartial forces, factors and issues that are at work in our life and influence how we respond to it. We then recognize our negative core beliefs, which hinder us from attaining our goals.

Next, we learn how to set goals that are aligned with who and what we are. Much of our stress occurs when we set goals or desire objects that have been attained or belong to someone else which are not aligned with our purpose for living. This easily happens when we allow our desires to run rampant and influence our activities. These are the times when our lives really begin to get out of whack.

The cool part about the 3R framework is that it recognizes each and every one of us has a purpose for living that only we can achieve. This framework provides us with comfort and satisfaction as we proceed towards our goals by helping us stay in touch with our 3-part nature.

Next, we Reconcile where we are in life with what we want and desire. We do this by taking responsibility for the circumstances and situations in which we find ourselves.  We then develop a plan that moves us in the direction of our desired success. Along this path we will employ our understanding of “The Law of Cause and Effect” which simply says: “We choose how we experience life”.

Finally we take what we learned and Reconnect back into every nook, cranny, circumstance and situation in our life. We apply what we've recognized and reconciled into those areas of our life that aren’t working. When we accomplish this we will find that: our stress will be reduced, our health will improve and we will be able to experience life's unspeakable joys by remaining in the present moment and trusting in our new ability to successfully respond to whatever life throws our way.

This 3R framework can be easily taught to anyone desiring it. I hope that you have enjoyed this post and here's hoping that you live today and every day passionately and with purpose. Thank you and God bless.

7 Steps to Finding and Living Out Our Purpose

What's your purpose? What reason do you have for getting up each morning and going through the day? I'm not looking for some altruistic answer such as: to make the world a better place or to get rich (which is not so altruistic). It can be as simple as: to be a better parent or get a better education or to spend more time with loved ones. The point I am making is that without an overreaching goal or purpose for living we will be at the effect of life and not at cause with it. We would be like a rudderless and powerless ship on the surface of the ocean being forced to go wherever the wind or current takes us.

7 steps to help us define and live out our purpose:

1.     Articulate it. Speak it as if your purpose has already been accomplished. For example say: “I am a great parent” or “I am educated”.  There is power in the spoken word.
2.     Write it down or place an image of it in a place where you will see it daily. This act in and of itself will signal your intellect through the use of your subconscious mind to direct the body’s actions towards your purpose.  This worked for me as a young lieutenant in the Marines when I had purposed myself to become a Naval Aviator. I placed a picture of myself, seated inside the type aircraft I wanted to fly, on my bathroom mirror. Two years later I was assigned to a squadron and flew in that type aircraft.
3.     Trust it. Here is where many of us become discouraged and afraid because we fear the unknown and cannot lay out a specific roadmap or timeframe. In these instances we must trust that our mentor will always lead us in the direction of our highest and best good.
4.     Visualize it. As many times as possible throughout the day use your imagination to see yourself as if you've already accomplished your purpose.
5.     Live it. Allow yourself to act it out in your life. No longer allow yourself to be tied to old ways and habits. Become one and at cause with life and your purpose.
6.     Review it. From time to time review whether or not the results you are receiving are in line with your purpose. Be aware that many times our intellectual nature allows certain negative core beliefs to interfere with the successful achievement of our purpose
7.     Refine it. As we find ourselves nearing our goal it may be necessary that we tweak it to fit our individual circumstances. Don’t be too concerned about this because our mentor/spiritual nature will signal us when necessary.

I hope that you find these 7 steps useful in determining and living out your purpose. Did you notice how our spiritual-intellectual-physical natures complement each other in attaining our purpose? 

Until next time here's hoping that you live today and every day passionately and with purpose. Thank you and God bless!

Be Aware of Your Instincts

In my last post I continued the discussion on our intellectual nature, which I call “The Battleground”. I stated that it is central to how we live out our life in this physical world. What I mean is that we too often unquestionably rely upon the direction it provides us and it’s this unquestioning aspect of our three-part nature that I will discuss here.

We must understand that our intellectual nature in and of itself is error-prone. How many of us have made and followed through on a decision that was based solely on our intellect and contrary to what our instinct told us? And later we regretted that decision shaking our heads and saying, "I should have listened". How many of us know really smart individuals who continually mess up their lives by making dumb decisions? You know there really is a difference between book sense and common sense, don’t you? We just have to know when to apply which.

Our intellect is a valuable tool in specific areas such as: schoolwork or applying specialized knowledge to solve problems. But when it comes to solving life's problems the intellect by itself isn’t enough to get the job done. We need to team it with other aspects of our nature. Allow me to provide an example.

I owned a successful Information Technology company that was recognized by Inc. Magazine and included in their Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing privately held corporations in America. However one year I was having a really tough time and it was touch and go as to whether I could even stay in business. Luckily, we received a subcontract from a major corporation that would provide us enough revenues to pay our expenses but make very little if any profit.

In finalizing the paperwork for this subcontract a question was asked  "Who would pay the payroll and overhead expenses for individuals hired to accomplish the work?" Since I always figured that amount in my bid price I, like I had always done in the past, initially responded that my company would cover these costs. However, something inside me (an instinct) urged me to respond that I expected the prime contractor to cover that cost. So, I followed my gut and changed the answer from my company to theirs. To my surprise the contracting officer accepted this response My profit increased from something negligible to a very substantial amount. This gave me enough working capital to comfortably plan for the following year.

My point is that we should not be so set in our ways that we don't take a few moments to examine why we do what we do if we're not happy when we get where we go. In this case I teamed my intellectual nature with what I call awareness.

I will discuss the subject of awareness in my next post. Until then, here's hoping you live today and every day passionately and with purpose! Thank you and God bless.