The Ladder of Success

Think of the journey called success as if you were climbing a ladder. In order to get to the top you must put one foot in front of the other. If you slip and fall down a few rungs, you must gather yourself together and start climbing again. The higher we go the bigger the risk of falling and getting hurt. But, like climbing a ladder, we never look down (back). If we are afraid then we freeze and stop climbing and hang on for dear life. We may be passed by, by those with more courage or maybe even too dumb to be scared.
Climbing this ladder successfully requires help. Most of us can only go so far and then fear and doubt take over. The cure for this is simple, find a mentor. There is always someone who is successful doing what you do. Most successful people would love to be able to help someone reach greater heights, but you must ask for the help. There’s an old saying, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” As you are climbing reach up with one hand and grab your mentor’s hand and hold on so that they can help pull you up over the rough spots. When you have your mentor’s hand reach down with your other hand and grab hold of your student’s hand and the three of you go up together.
As soon as you learn something, teach it to your prodigy. Success is a lot more fun if you can share it. If you don’t have a mentor now but want to get started today, let books be your guide. Here’s a list of books that have helped me:

- How to Win Friends & Influence People, Dale Caregie, (year)
- Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill, 1938
- The Secret of the Ages, Robert Collier, 1926
- Three Magic Words, U.S. Anderson, 1954
- The Active Side of Infinity, Carlos Castaneda, 1998
- Jonathon Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach, 1970
- Infinite Mind, Valerie Hunt, 1989
- The Power of Intention, Wayne W. Dyer, 2003
- Happiness Is, Shawn Shea, 2004
- The God Code, Gregg Braden, 2004
- Power vs. Force, David Hawkins, 2004

Today’s Exercise: Read a book or climb a ladder, your choice.

Today’s Affirmation: I am perfect, God made me.

Points to Ponder: When the student is ready the teacher will appear.

Cause & Effect

When you change the way you look at things the things you look at change. I’ve used this phrase several times in this book and you may be wondering why I’ve repeated it so much. Because we need to change the way we interpret history, the Bible, religion, Heaven, Hell, and every other great mystery.
You may be familiar with the saying, “As ye sow, so shall you reap.” If you are looking at it from a religious stance, where everything is determined by whether you go to Heaven or Hell, this might be interpreted to mean that the moral, ethical, and lawful misconduct of human beings would be punished in the hereafter.
Suppose we look at this familiar saying from the spiritual viewpoint. It is said that we are part of God and there is no Hell, then the saying would mean that a positive thought sowed in the Subconscious Mind would reap prosperity and happiness.
Whether this thought is moral or immoral, ethical or unethical, has nothing whatever to do with the inexorable process involved for the seed having been planted must grow and grow it will into a physical reality. The choice becomes yours. How do you want to look at it?
The Subconscious Mind is a garden and as a garden on Earth knows only to reproduce the seeds that are sowed; if you plant a carrot seed, a cucumber will not grow. The garden of your Subconscious Mind knows only to create reality from the seeds of your thoughts. Every word you utter, every thought you have is either plantings of prosperity or planting of weeds. What do you want to reap from your garden? Success and Happiness or failure and misery? It’s your choice.

Today’s Exercise: Control your thinking. Your thoughts are previews of things to come.
Today’s Affirmation: I have a positive mental attitude, therefore I am a success.
Points to Ponder: The Subconscious Mind is a garden and is as a garden on Earth.It knows only to reproduce the seeds that are sowed. If you plant a carrot seed, a cucumber will not grow.

Stress

Stress has a stealthy and sometimes perplexing influence on our lives. It can motivate us to great accomplishments or it can nearly paralyze us.
The good news is that, while we often can’t control the “in box” of external pressures that weigh on us, we can always control how we think about them and how we choose to deal with them.
The bad news is that, if we have not been taking care of ourselves physically and mentally, our ability to handle inevitable stressors may be severely limited and our health compromised.
The ugly news is that if we are not aware of our ability to control stress, we will continue to be a victim of ourselves.
You must start each day saying:
Today I choose to feel good.
No one is going to make me feel bad.
Today I will feel healthy; nothing will make me feel ill.
Today I will feel happy; nothing will make me feel sad.
Only you can change your world and you can do it the instant you make up your mind to see the good in everything.
Evil, pain, suffering, hatred, racism, worry, stress, greed; sickness, and sin, are all man made, and are just as well eliminated by changing our thoughts.

Today’s Exercise: Today, I will change the way I think and the things I think will change.
Today’s Affirmation: Only you can change your world and you can do it the instant you make up your mind to see the good in everything.
Points to Ponder: … and God created every thing that was good.

Take Action

One of the most difficult tasks is to convince a person that just because they wish something doesn’t make it so. I desired to write a book for thirty years yet in those thirty years, I never so much as wrote one page. I didn’t desire to be a writer. Why? Because I didn’t actually believe I could write.
I started listening to the negative thoughts from my Conscious Mind, telling me I was not a writer. Here’s a few reasons that could have stopped me:
1. I couldn’t spell worth a darn.
2. How could I write a book on success when I didn’t feel I was successful. I wasn’t in my mind a success.
3. My grammar is atrocious, etc., etc.
So how did I overcome these weaknesses? It was easy. The weaknesses didn’t exist. Number one, spell check on my computer worked overtime. Number two; I was a success because I never gave up. Number three, I got other people to check the grammar.
This book is a reality because I picked up a pen and started to write. My desire became my destiny. I’m sure my Subconscious Mind said, Finally, I’ve been giving you all these ideas for thirty years, what the heck were you waiting for?
Don’t waste any more of your valuable time. Start now, here, with what you have; do what your desire commands you do. Don’t try. Trying is just a whole lot of noise accomplishing nothing. Just do it. William James wrote, “Individuality is founded in feeling; and the recesses of feeling, the darker, blinder strata of character, the only places in the world in which we catch real fact in the making, and directly perceive how events happen, and how work is actually done.”
Don’t confuse true desire with wishing. Wishing is admitting to the Subconscious Mind that you want something for nothing, or that you don’t feel that you can achieve it at your present mindset. The Subconscious Mind is perfect. It will manifest your desires into reality once you believe your desires are real. Your desires then manifest into your physical reality. And then, it is so.
Today Exercise: Success is taking action on your desires.
Today’s Affirmation: I am enthusiastic and confident.
Points to Ponder: Start now, here, with what you have.

About Faith

Here are some well-known quotations that are little understood, but accepted by everyone:

“Faith can move mountains.”

Do you actually believe you can move a mountain by simply having faith? Without faith, there is nothing. With faith, everything is possible.

“As you believe, so shall it be done unto you.”

If this is true, why do we have trouble believing? Why is so hard to accept the fact that we are the total sum of all our own thoughts; and if we control our thoughts, why do we think negative thoughts and have such little faith in ourselves?

How does a rich man become wealthy? Some are born into it, but usually their parents were not rich. Are some lucky? I don’t think so. There is an old saying, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” Most people say it’s timing, or being in the right place at the right time. There is no right place or time. The place is here and the time is now. It starts with your dreams, attitude, desires, and actions.

The most important element of success is faith. You only need to know that God does not create losers. Faith and faith alone will carry you as far as you want to go.

If you knew that you could not fail, would you do anything differently? Faith does not require a special skill, a level of education, rich parents, or being in the right place at the right time. Faith only requires that you believe that you are connected to God through your Subconscious Mind.

Remember: If you change the way you look at things the things you look at will change.

Today’s Exercise: Start dreaming of being a success.

Today’s Affirmation: The kingdom of God is within me.

Points to Ponder: Faith and faith alone will carry you as far as you want to go. Faith only requires that you believe that you are connected to God through your subconscious mind.