Isagenix - Is It For Real?

I'm going to do something a little different today.


If you're a follower of this blog, then you know I normally discuss self-motivation, Law of Attraction or perhaps God and Faith. Today though I thought I'd share on one of the things I'm doing to improve my life and why I've stuck with it.

For those who may be have found this on a Google search, this is not an advertisement, I'm not interested in selling you on Isagenix. If you're researching it, almost certainly someone has brought Isagenix to your attention and I wouldn't want to try to 'scoop' their credit.

Isagenix

What is it: Isagenix is a multi-level marketing company that sells health products, with a primary focus on cleansing and longevity.

Now before you start rolling your eyes over another 'sucker' caught up in MLM schemes, here's a few facts to consider.

It's Never Done

In a number of areas in my life, I'm happy but not fully fulfilled.  That is to say, I'm grateful for what I have, it's comfortable and pleasurable but it's not at a level I really want it to be.

This lead me to a question of whether one should live in a state of discontent, demanding more out of life and expecting it - walking in faith, or if one should merely be grateful for what one has.  Or both.

Both points certainly have merit.  Unless we are following our true desires we simply aren't living.  We're existing.  By chasing our desires, we grow, we expand, we remain motivated and enraptured with life, even while it challenges us.  God asks us to walk in faith.  To be bold, go forth and to trust in Him (assuming right action).

At the same time maintaining an attitude of gratitude is immensely important.   Whatever we focus on we draw into our lives.  So if we look at what we lack, we'll tend to attract more of that.  We need to be focused on what is bringing us pleasure to attract more of that instead.  If you do not appreciate what God has already given you, why should you be given more?

This lead me to another question.  What if you have a job or relationship you really enjoy but isn't fulfilling you at a level you really want to be fulfilled at?  Do you leave it, boldly expecting to find something better?   What if you don't?  What if you go forth only to realize that what you had was already great?  Or you simply fail to find what you were looking for and have lost what you had?   Or the reverse:  What if by holding on to what you have, you lose the potential to find that which you really want?

The Eleven Power P's of Enduring Success

Remember these powerful 'P' words whenever life has you feeling down.

Patience - Are you being patient?  Things come in perfect unison to God's time and design, not ours.  Do not let your impatience frustrate you or move you from your path.

Persistence - More important to success than skill, talent or education.  Those who persist are the ones who are ready to jump when opportunity presents itself.  The rest are not only not ready, they usually don't even recgonize opportunity for what it is.

Positivity - A optomistic attitude is a choice and a habit.  Those that can find the good, no matter how small, in every situation, are the ones who get ahead.   Every adversity, every setback, every heartache provides the seed for an equal or greater opportunity.  A seed not planted is wasted potential.  Always find the positive.  Everything in life is there to serve you.

Prayer -  Sometimes we must rely on God to give us strength, wisdom and grace greater than our own.  Let Go and Let God.  Don't wait for crisis to arise to turn to God, make it a habit, and grace will follow you everywhere.

Perspective - Often the only real problem, is how we are viewing the situation.  We get so caught up worrying about the old, great tree dying, we forget we're in the midst of a forest.  As the old tree passes, the smaller trees finally come out of it's shade and are able to grow.

Promise - Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt... ...you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. - Matthew 21:21.  Whatever righteous thing you ask for, is given to you - in God's time and by God's design.  Hold on to your Promise and never let it go.  The enemy will always cloud your vision and try to steal it.

Progress - Do not stop.  Keep on, keeping on.  Learn from each of life's lessons and put it into immediate practise.  There is no standing still in life.  You are either progressing or regressing.  If you stop, you'll only have further to go when you start again.

Passion - Your passion is like a fire, it must be given fuel to burn and fanned to become bright.  When passion is turned into a bonfire, it will keep you warm through the coldest nights.  Neglect it and it will burn out quickly.   Purpose is fuel, Promise fans.

Purpose - Why?  What is your driving motivation?  What pleasure will success bring?  What pain will failure result in?  If you do not know, specifically, why you want what you want, how can you hope to substane? There is no wrong answer.  Follow your bliss. 

Price - Anything worth having is worth paying for.  There's always a price to pay but often in difficult times we lose sight that the challenges we are experiencing, are the price for what we want.  The price of growth, the price of wisdom, the price of freedom. 

Plan - Do you have a plan?  If so, is it working?  If not, goto plan B.  Then C.  Then D.   Don't worry if it's the best plan, any plan is better than no plan, even if it takes you the wrong way.  Movement is always better than procrastination. Things rarely happen the way we plan them, but plans keep us focused and give us comfort in structure.  Keep your plans flexible but the Purpose resolute.

Preston Squire is an author providing free positive thinking, inspirational, motivational and success materials. You can find more articles by Preston Squire at http://www.thecuphalffull.com/

©Preston Squire 2010

The Ninth Power 'P' of Enduring Success

By Preston Squire

By now you're probably wondering when this series is going to end.   To be honest, so am I.  Originally I had three, which become four, then five.   Last Sunday that exploded into nine in a burst of revelation.   This is the last of those, the Ninth Power P. 

However, the revelations keep on coming.   There are now eleven in this series and I feel strongly that there will be one more, that the Lord will reveal to me in due course.   It does concern me somewhat that this series or list of P's may be too long but I have not gone out looking for them, and as each is revealed they add unique value and integrate so beautifully with the others that I have not seen a need to purge.

The entire Purpose of this series was to give you a 'restart' when you feel defeated in life.   To recharge your batteries, give you a renewed sense of confidence and hope, so you can continue on, continuing on.

So far we have covered; Patience, Persistence, Positivity, Prayer, Perspective, Promise, Progress, and Passion

Today we cover perhaps the most profound Power P of them all.

Purpose

WHY?   Why are you doing what you're doing? What is your driving motivation?  What do you hope to accomplish?  What do you hope to gain?   What pleasures will you derive should you accomplish it?   What pains will you suffer should you not?

The answers to those questions will lead you to your true Purpose.   In short: What is your Purpose in life?  What meaning have you given it?

In the end, we all basically want the same thing out of life.   Joy, security / comfort, love, contribution and to leave a lasting legacy.  But how we arrive at those ends will be different for each one of us.  What works for one person may not work for you.   You must define your own path.

I know a lot of people are waiting for God to tell them what to do.   For God to reveal their 'God given destiny'.  In my mind that is backwards.   That is like you telling your children what they must do in their lives.  You MUST be a doctor.  You MUST be a lawyer.  Then directing their every action in life, through school, university and beyond until they reach that point.     I know this sounds good to a lot of people.  We want our children to succeed and doctors and lawyers are very respectable and important positions in life.   But when we impose our will on them what happens?  Generally they either break away, realizing that they have their own dreams to pursue or they crush their own dreams and do as they're told.   While there's nothing wrong with becoming a doctor or a lawyer, wouldn't it be better for them to follow their own dreams?

Now someone is going 'Oh you don't know my kid(s), they want to be a bum rock star', or 'go do charity work in Africa', or 'some crazy, fool thing.'   Sure, kids make a lot of poor decisions.  But where do you think the Bon Jovi's, Mother Theresa's and Picasso's of the world came from?   Obviously, they are people who followed their own hearts and dreams.   I'm sure their parents were very proud of them in the end, even if they worried about how it might all turn out.   It's right and proper to give our children direction, but we must allow them the freedom to find their own path.  In the same way God allows us to follow our own path and supports and guides us along the way.

Some will say, 'But I want God to tell me what to do.  He knows better than I.'   To this I agree.   If you want to know His will for you, you need look no further than your own heart.  The Father / Infinite Intelligence is IN you.  Whatever passion you have already (probably deeply buried, try to remember), whatever skills you have natively, THAT is what God wants you to do.   If you have a talent for writing, then write!  If you have a passion for the ocean's creatures, then go study and preserve them.  If you feel compelled to help the less fortunate, then DO that.   Maybe you're a gifted programmer, or cook, or singer.   Perhaps that doesn't seem special to you.  Probably because you can't see how that talent would benefit anyone.  Your talents are what you make them to be.   Open your mind, listen to the still, small voice inside, it will direct you and show you how your talent, can make a real difference.

"Follow your bliss."  ~ Joseph Campbell

I could write a whole chapter of a book on how to find your Purpose but let's move on here...

Even when we know our Purpose, we need to be constantly reminded.   In the face of current events, we tend to forget what we are all about.   We get so busy putting out little bush fires, we forget why we are even there in the first place.  Not for that!  We need to constantly remind ourselves.

Many workplaces nowadays like to post their mission statement.  Employees and management see it regularly and (hopefully) are reminded what the overall, overarching mandate of the business or program is.  While those go mostly unnoticed and forgotten in workplaces, it's a great idea to do that at home.   Write out your own mission statement and post it somewhere you will see it prominately, every day.

Get into the habit of actually reading it.  At least once a week, until you can recite it off the top of your head.  Then when you're struggling it'll quickly and easily come to mind.   You will know what you are about, and with that knowledge, you will know instintively where you need to head.

"Every decision you make—every decision—is not a decision about what to do. It’s a decision about Who You Are. When you see this, when you understand it, everything changes. You begin to see life in a new way. All events, occurrences, and situations turn into opportunities to do what you came here to do." ~ Neale Donald Walsch

Knowing our Purpose fuels our Passion which keeps us Positive, helps us to remain Patient and to Persist when things do not appear to be going our way.   Holding onto Purpose with one hand and our Promise in the other helps us to always have the right Perspective, and to continue to Progress through even the most difficult of times.

Do you know what your Purpose is?  If not, then is it any surprise you aren't seeing your life progress as you'd like?  Find your Purpose and with it, your destiny.

The Eighth Power 'P' of Enduring Success

By Preston Squire

Passion

I've taken a break for a few days because I knew the next Power 'P' was Passion and I wanted to be feeling really passionate while I wrote it.   However, I'm writing from work, as that's when I have the most time and least distractions - sad I know - and it's really hard to be passionate in this office.  Lol.  Serious.

Government jobs suck your soul.  Good pay, mediocore benefits, but great job security and pension keep people sticking with them even as the dullness and drudgery take their toll.  LOL.   Yes, this is a great start to a chapter on Passion!

The very fundimental problem with government jobs is that they give you security but at the cost of your passion.   You see a lot of young folk come into government jobs with lots of ideas of how they'll change the system, bring in innovation, make it all work the way it should.  They have tremendous energy and enthusiasm and the upper levels of management always seem happy to indulge them.   They are a breathe of fresh air after all.    However, within five years, the enthusiasm is long gone, replaced by a realization that the system will not be changed.   The system, although it screams for change, hates change; unless it's externally motivated change and then it happens lightning fast, because it must.   

That is not so unlike many of our lives, or parts of our lives.   We acknowledge the need for change, we want the change, but no amount of enthusiastic outpour, no amount of great ideas, no inspiration ever really makes a lasting change.   We do not want the change, because we, like settled in government workers, want our security, even though it costs us our passions.    So we're conflicted.   We associate pain to remaining where we are, but we have some comfort level there, and associate pain to change and to the unknown.

Being in a Pain-Pain situation can bring about learned helplessness.   You just accept that you can't change.  Nonsense.   If someone put a gun to your head you'd change in an instant!   We just need to get that motivation generated from the inside instead of from the outside. 
Without Passion we become stagnant.

When we think about passion we think of fiery emotion.  Like a fire, passion must be given fuel to burn and be fanned to burn brightly.   If we don't add fuel and fan our passion, like a fire it will slowly burn out.

For our emotional passion, as far as maintaining our motivation to succeed, the fuel is our Purpose and our Promise.    I will talk more about Purpose in the next blog entry but suffice to say, it is our reason for wanting to achieve, our reason for being.    Like logs to a fire, the mental logs of Purpose must be occasionally added to our passion.   We need to keep reminding ourselves WHY we want what we want and WHY we're doing what we're doing.    What are the pleasures to be obtained by doing it?   And what are they pains of failure for not?

Hand in hand with our Purpose, we must remember our Promise.   That our success is already Promised to us.   That whatever we ask for in faith, and do not doubt, will be given.  In God's terms and time, not ours. 

Promise fans the flames of our Passion.   We know why we're burning, the logs of Purpose, and the knowledge that it's guaranteed, our Promise, helps us to burn brightly, even when the logs are damp or the wind threatens to extinquish our flame.

Passion helps immessurably to help keep you focused, Progressing and on track.   When you are passionate about something it's a lot easier to remain Patient and Persistent when things are not going your way.  You Pray a lot more fervertently.  The more emotion you put behind your prays/desires the quicker you tend to attract them to you.   You can't help but be Positive about something that you feel Passionate about.  

One thing about living in Toronto.  People here are passionate about hockey and the Toronto Maple Leafs.  Every year you hear those fans saying that this is the year that they'll take the Stanley Cup.   Hasn't happened since 1968 but you've got to love their passion and positivity.

The other great thing about Passion is it's a massive enabler.  When people are really passionate about something they are willing to do more and endure more to get what they want.   I remember as a kid when the second Star Wars movie was coming out or even more recently when the Nintendo Wii came out, people lined up outside the theatres or stores for hours, some people for DAYS prior to the launch.  Just so they could have it or see it first.    Really?  Would it kill them to wait a week or a month or even a year?  No.  But they were so passionate, that camping out on concrete, in the winter, was a Price they were gladly willing to pay to get what they wanted as soon as possible.

So take care to fuel and fan your passion for once it's burning brightly, it takes on a life of it's own and will help drive you through some of life's most difficult times.

The Second Power 'P' of Enduring Success

By Preston Squire

Continued from The Power P's of Enduring Success

Persistence

Nothing in life is more important than persistence when it comes to achieving one's goals.  It's more important than education, skill, talent or money.  Most people give up when things get really hard, when the end is still out of sight, and there's no sign of a breakthrough.  If only they knew that just around the very next corner was the breakthough they were looking for.   If they had known that, 90% would have had the strength to endure that little bit longer but because they can't see it, they despair, tire and allow themselves to lose focus.

Recently I've began regularly going to the gym and working out.   One of the things I like best about it is that it's a very physical and easy to identify reminder of how to live life.   If I want to gain muscle mass, then I have to continually push myself past the point where I want to give up.   It's those last few reps, the ones you don't want to do, the ones your mind is telling you are too hard and should be skipped, that make the difference.   It's not until your body is pushed beyond it's limit that it grows.   This has to be exercised with reasonable precaution of course, injuring yourself isn't going to produce desired results but it's the mental game involved.

After a while you learn that it's at the point where your mind is telling you no, that you start getting excited, because that means you're now producing results. At least you will be if you don't listen to it and do a few more reps anyway.  If I'm aching and sore after, I'm happy because I know I'll be liking what I see in the mirror, and in my girlfriend's eyes, the next day.

Success in any other area of life is pretty much the same story.  Without the persistence to continue when you feel like your totally tapped out, you won't experience growth.   Without growth, you're not going to be playing at the level needed to achieve.

How long do you need to endure beyond when you feel like given it all up?   Surprisingly, usually not nearly as long as you'd think.    The reason being, because so few people do.   95% of people get to that point and give up.  So you only need to hold on a little longer than the 95% to achieve the type of results only the top 5% see.

Of course, you could be one of those early quitters, which means you will have a longer journey as you have to build up your mental muscles.   The only way to do that is practise and repetition.   Keep pushing yourself.  The more often you push past your comfort level the broader your comfort level will become.  You will keep breaking through to higher and higher levels until you achieve that success your looking for.  And by looking for, I mean the one you're willing to settle for, not the one you may be envisioning.    In the end the success we achieve is the success we are willing to achieve.   You may want 25 million but when you arrive at 2.5 million, you may decide that's enough to make you happy and you don't really want to bust your ass enough to earn 22.5 million more. Or it may just whet your appetite for even greater goals.  Either way, what's okay.  Follow your bliss.   Goals are there to serve you not torment you.  Just don't give up and settle for less than what makes you truly happy.

The Power P's of Enduring Success

By Preston Squire

On our journey to success there will inevitably be a lot of stumbling blocks.   Adversity is guaranteed, and is in fact, a necessary ingredient to success.   Without adversity to overcome, mentally, spiritually and emotionally, (possibly physically too) there is little to no growth and without growth we cannot expect to accomplish more than we are at this moment. 

However life can sometimes just kick you right in the balls.  There will be times when success seems to be within reach only to be snatched away again.  Or you could be at the top of your game, thinking everything is going smoothly, only to have your whole deck of cards collapse on you.

For myself this happened early on.   I had recently discovered Anthony Robbin's Awaken the Giant Within, and was using it to great effect.  I went from being an average sales person to the top sales person in the company I was working at.  I developed a sales technique so successful they had me teach it to the entire division.   I was married to a beautiful woman I loved very much.  Just had my second child, a beautiful baby girl.  I was being prepped for a promotion.  I had also started a writting career and had just finished my first published project.  Everything was wonderful.  I was charged!

Then my wife left me. I don't blame her, but at the time it was a low blow to the balls.  It caught me completely off-guard.   I hadn't seen any signs, I didn't know how to react.   I went from being on top of the world to sinking into the depth of dispair.   Not only did my personal life suffer, but my proffessional life as well.   My sales numbers plummeted with my attitude.  I was passed over for promotion and eventually moved off that program.  I lost my lust for life and blamed God for the injustices.

More recently, my friend and web guru who has been working from sporatic contract to contract finally landed a major deal, a six month contract with a major financial institution.   Assured he would be given the position he passed over a permanent position elsewhere that was offered just days later.   Then disaster.  The contract fell through and permanent position was otherwise filled, leaving him with nothing. 

He was feeling pretty frustrated and irate at life, like his best days were now behind him when he e-mailed me to tell me about it.

I gave him these three P's I'm about to share with you as they were top of mind, based on recent readings (I'm always studying success) and appropriate to the situation.    These types of disasters befall all of us from Donald Trump to Anthony Robbins to you and I.   No one is exempt.  When they happen we tend to ask 'Why me?'   Well, why not you?  Who are you to be exempted?  Welcome to the club.   Stop feeling sorry for yourself and start looking for how you can use this to your advantage.    That's easier said than done, granted.  And sometimes the only thing to gain is the lessons learned.   But those lessons are the most important ones.  We learn little from success, we learn a lot from our mistakes.  But unless we learn from them, unless we find the seed of opportunity, we cannot grow.

At these times it's often hard to see how they could ever benefit our lives.   Often it's only with the passing of time that we can look back and confidently say, 'Thank God that happened to me!  If that hadn't happened I never would have..."   So while you're in the midsts of recovering from the a low blow, remember these P's.

The Eleven Power P's of Enduring Success

Patience

Just accept it.   God does not work according to our schedule.  But God's delays are not God's denials either.   Any success guru will advise you to set a date for when you want to complete your goal.  That's absolutely necessary.  Without one you're prone to procrastinate.  However what do you do when you get to that date and the goal hasn't reach fruitation?   Set another date and keep going!

Now that's easy advice to give but I'll be honest.  This is one 'P' that I personally struggle with the most.  And I have messed myself up more than once by not exercising it.  God grant me a lot of great attributes but the kind of patience to patiently wait while nothing seems to be happening isn't one of them.  I'm the type of guy who would rather walk for 20 minutes than wait 10 for a bus.   Not because I want the exercise (although that's a nice way to justify it) but because I need to see progress.

I'm in a great relationship now with a truly fantastic woman but already I'm struggling with this P.   She just got out of a marriage with a guy who showed terrific promise but proved to be all smoke and mirrors once they actually got hitched.   It was a disaster.  She's understandably slow, and in no rush, to trust and really allow herself to love someone else now.   I know I'm the real deal and one hundred percent confident she will see that too but I have to keep reeling myself in and asking God for grace and patience because I can't see progress in the relationship most of the time.  I want to push things and while she may need some slight prodding and encouragement, pushing the matter will ultimately only drive her away.    I learned that the hard way with my last love.   By being patient and knowing, accepting and being grateful for that I have already recieved, I'm continually surprised and blessed by her.

Same thing when it comes to job hunting or waiting for a promotion.   Often we get frustrated or discouraged and want to either push things forward or give up.  Patience, patience.  Good things come to those who wait.   I'm not saying to sit idle waiting for something to happen but do stick with your plan, and then let go and let God.   Even when everything seems to be going wrong, like it is for my friend right now, triumph can be just around the corner.  Have faith, remain confident, learn from your mistakes and always stay focused on the end result you want, never on the current results that you don't want.

UPDATE:  Just wanted to note that my friend ended up getting the best job of his life soon after this was written.  The highest pay and the least amount of stress, but before he could be ready to recieve, he needed to turn his 'poor me' attitude around.  Fortunately he was and was blessed for his continued optomism.

Okay, I know last time I said I was going to do a series based on those 5 Key Steps of Achieving Goals but you know what?   I hate doing these series.  I like to write what's on my heart each day and really, while it may be more haphazard, I know I'll produce a better piece if I'm writing about what's inspired instead of some pre-determined topic.

So without further ado:

Without Action Law of Attraction Has No Traction

By Preston Squire

This has always been one of my biggest pet peeves.   People who want to just sit on their couches, visualizing away and expect the universe (God) to hand them whatever they want.    And we are all guilty of it at some point, myself included.  We simply don't want to do the work involved.  We want the easy way out.  In the sensational hit movie 'The Secret' it appears that all you have to do is 'Ask' and 'Recieve' but that's oversimplifying.

5 Key Steps to Achieving Goals

By Preston Squire


Step #1: Be Clear on What You Want

Be clear on want you want and why.  If you're not sure, ask yourself what you don't want.   Whatever is the polar opposite of that is what you ought to be shooting for.

Be clear on why it's important to you.   Make a list of all the benefits that achieving that goal will deliver and a list of all the adversity not achieving it will bring.

Set definite goals.  Be specific.  If you want money, for example, you could state that you want to earn an additional $250,000.00 by the end of next year. 

Make the goal something you believe you can reach even though you can't see how it's possible.

4 Ways to Create Burning Desire

by Preston Squire

Consider the story of the disciple who went to his guru one day and asked, “Master, how do I achieve enlightenment?” The wise old guru directed the disciple to the bank of the Ganges River and had him kneel with his head over the water. Then the guru put his hand on the young man’s neck and pushed his head below the surface of the water. After a minute and a half the young disciple was frantic. He pulled and heaved and flailed his arms, but the grip was like iron. He could not get his head back out of the water. After two minutes, when it seemed as though his lungs would burst, the grip was released.

The young man’s head jerked out of the water and he took great gulps of air into his tortured lungs.

The guru smiled. “Tell me,” he gently asked, “ what was your greatest desire just then?”

“To breathe,” the young disciple stated emphatically.

“Ah,” the guru said. “When you desire enlightenment to that degree, it shall be yours.”

To be able to persevere and succeed, despite whatever obstacles life puts in your way, requires burning desire.


This is most everyone falls short. While we all have desires, few us of ever cultivate a desire so strong that we will stop at nothing to achieve it.
 

Pushing Through to the Next Level

By Preston Squire


When the Student is Ready, the Master will Appear.

 I met Active Image President Cathy Morenzie at a very fortuitous time.  She had just started the Start Fast, Finish Strong 100 Day Challenge and prompted me to get involved too.   I had already decided to get more serious about my health and had recently joined a local gym.   So when I signed up for The 100 Day Challenge I made one of my goals to put on ten pounds of muscle mass.

That may not seem like a lofty goal but I had tried for years to put on weight, including going to a gym for a year in my thirties and working out with weights while drinking high protein weight gain shakes in my twenties and had only ever managed to gain five pounds at most.  For better or worse I was one of those people who could eat like a starving hippo and remain remarkably slim.

Cathy was kind enough to give me a fitness evaluation and set me up on a workout routine.  After that I was on my own.   During the fitness evaluation Cathy did mention something that really stuck in my head.

Tips for Maintaining Momentum

This is from my blog Preston's Path to Prosperity where I'm keeping a journal of my successes (and failures) in my life.

Currently I'm tracking my progress a I do the 100 Day Challenge. You'll see I'm struggling, like most people, but the advice was solid so I thought I'd share it here as well.

Patience is a Virtue

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful" Hebrews 10:23

The one item success coaches do not talk about enough, at least, not enough for my impatient self, in the need for patience. An entire chapter should be given to this subject for it is that critical to success.

If we accept Napoleon Hill's notion of "Whatever a man can conceive and believe, he can achieve." or from Matthew 7:7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” then we except the notion that whatever righteous thing we have fixed out minds on we can achieve.

But even given that, it requires two critical things - persistence and patience. I've spoken about a third; faith, already. It is obvious that if you want a thing, then you must put it into motion, not just once but continuously. This is one area where you have only to look around you to see that the overwhelming majority of people do not put it into practice. That talk a good talk but only timidly actually take rubber to the road and drive down the path to success. First road block they come to usually stumps them as this road has no GPS to tell them in advance what is the proper way to proceed but if they were to just take to the side street they would discover the detour is marked.

"Success it the ability to go from one failure to another without loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill

We must remain persistent with our actions even when the results are not indicative of success.

I have seen it commonly said that Thomas Edison had almost 10,000 failures before he successful invented the electric light bulb. That's not entirely true. The electric light had already been invented in Britain by Swan and Canada by Woodward before Edison even started. Edison bought Woodward's patent and eventually merged with Swan's company to sell electric lights in Europe. The reason Edison is credited is because he is the one that persisted in refining the idea until he had a design that would be practical and affordable to the average consumer.

Did it take 10,000 tries? Perhaps but in the end it was Edison's persistence and vision that enabled him to become rich off of it even though the initial idea and brilliance was from someone else. Edison expected success.

Had Woodward had the faith, persistence and patience to continue trying we might all be calling the electric light bulb a Canadian invention instead.

However the stumbling block for many of us, often myself included, is in the lack of patience. We persistently continue to try, continue to hold the vision - with faith but when we do not see the results we become frustrated. This is why patience is so critically important. We do not know when the breakthrough will come.

In the movie - The Secret - they talk about how the Law of Attraction has a delay factor. We must first create the seed of an idea and then plant that idea into our subconscious minds, from there it will germinate but like any seed growing into a plant or tree the process takes time. Depending on the seed it could be a day before we see a sprout, a week or even years later when certain conditions are met.

A plant seed has an advantage in that it never doubts itself. It doesn't sit on the surface of the ground and worry that it isn't planted under the earth to grow, nor does it fuss that perhaps it's been planted too deeply and won't reach the surface once it starts to grow. It simply waits for the right conditions and then it merely grows be it minutes after it's fallen or three years later. The universe provides the soil, the water, and the light it needs.

In the same way, once we have created an intense desire, we need to be able to live in a state of patient expectation that the desire will manifest itself into reality. Patient being the operative word for anxious or impatient expectations will only draw those things we don't want, those factors that could stunt our growth into our lives since that's what we've begun to focus on.

There will always be road blocks and detours on the way, that's natural, do not let them sway your expectations - remember, "He who promised is faithful". Cultivate a mindful state of relax and joyous expectation. Thank God every day for your success, envision what you will be doing once you have achieved it, mentally see yourself as being that person already. This will seem weird and like you're living a lie at first because your current reality is always a reflection of your past thinking patterns. Do not dwell on the current realities. Acknowledge them and act accordingly but do not dwell on them. Dwell only and always on the future you're in the process of creating.