The phrase “You can do it if you just believe” has become so watered down to the point that people just roll their eyes when they hear it. They’ve tried it and it just doesn’t work for them.

Here are just a few quotes on the subject.

“To succeed, we must first believe that we can.” - Michael Korda

“Your belief determines your action and your action determines your results, but first you have to believe.” -Mark Victor Hansen

“Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve.” - Mary Kay Ash

“You have to believe in yourself” – Sun Tzu

“Believe that you will succeed, and you will.” - Dale Carnegie

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, he can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill

Notice how they are all saying essentially the same thing, that if you believe it, you can do it.

Well, let me just say I wholeheartedly agree, but I think they left out one very important part and that is:

How do you believe?

It’s not enough to just say “Oh, just believe and it will happen.” I hate with a passion of a thousand suns, advice that’s just given to us without any proper procedures or guidelines to follow on how to implement it. That’s what drove me to write the “How to Find What You Love to Do” article.

Furthermore, I think the reason why such people have a hard time believing is because we’ve never done it.

What I mean by that is we never really formed our own beliefs.

Think about it.

Trace back all your beliefs on religion, politics, money, people, society, and the world in general. You’ll find that the root of the majority of your beliefs came from outside of you, whether it was through your parents, friends, or media.

“Don’t talk to strangers. They’re bad.”

“Money is the root of all evil.” (it’s actually “the love of money is the root of all evil”)

“If you don’t do good in school, you’ll fail in life.”

“You have to go to college to get a good job.”

The majority of people have never really gone through the exercise of creating their own beliefs, because we’ve been spoon fed them from day one.

It’s time to take charge of our own beliefs.

In order to find out how to believe, let us examine the process in which some of the most powerful beliefs in human beings were created.

I’m talking about people’s beliefs in religion and politics.

The beliefs rooted in religion and politics are EXTREMELY powerful.

We fought other kids over them when we were young.
Families became divided over them.
World wars were fought over them.
Millions of lives were taken because of them.
Men and women even went so far as to take their own lives because of them.

Clearly, the power of people’s beliefs in religion and politics and the effect it has on their lives is unquestioned.

If we can analyze the procedure in which these beliefs were formed and apply that procedure to create our own beliefs, we will be able to achieve anything we want.

The next question is:

How did these beliefs form?

Let’s do this.

Step 1: You must state a specific belief FIRST in order to believe it.

I know it sounds obvious, but there are a lot of people who don’t believe in anything.

You ask them, “Do you believe you can lose 20 pounds of fat?”

“I don’t know….maybe…..we’ll see.”

This is not a belief.

This is a cop out.

STATE a SPECIFIC belief.

It does not matter if you don’t believe it at first.

Just take that first step and STATE it.

So for the purpose of this article, let us utilize a belief that will not stir any controversy, not cause any ill will toward any reader of any religion or political affiliation.

Let us choose a belief that is positive and that many people have a hard time believing.

In fact, let’s continue with the example of the belief stated previously.

I will lose 20 pounds of fat.

Ok, so the first step was taken. A specific belief was created.

I will lose 20 pounds of fat.

Now to all the readers who have tried to lose weight and failed to do so, I can imagine what you are thinking.

“I can’t lose 20 pounds. I tried every miracle diet, drug, fad, exercise, machine, etc., but none of it helped me lose weight. I’ll always be overweight”.

If that’s your automatic reaction, that’s fine. I’m not going to tell you to change your self-talk for now because I know it’s hard to do so.

Don’t get overwhelmed or discouraged. Take it one step at a time.

Now that you have STATED a SPECIFIC belief, what is the next step?

Step 2: HAMMER that belief into yourself CONTINUOUSLY. Beliefs are NOT formed overnight.

People did not come to believe in a political ideal or religion overnight. It was due to a constant hammering of information over a long period of time. Most people got it when they were young from their parents, friends, religious leaders, teachers, coaches, etc. They heard it at the dinner table, when they went to religious service, on TV, books, magazines, friends, acquaintances, etc.

However, this time, nobody is there to hammer the beliefs in you.

YOU created your OWN BELIEF and it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to HAMMER it into YOURSELF.

It doesn’t matter if your self talk is negating your belief.

A constant hammering will always drive the nail into the wall of your self talk.

Just hammer it in.

The nail will always go in the wall if you continuously hammer it in.

This is where 90% of people fail and conclude that the whole “if you believe, you can achieve” idea is utter bull*&%$.

We live in a society where distractions are rampant. Internet, text messaging, cable TV, email, cell phones, TV on our cell phones, ipods, wireless internet access, etc.

We are a spoiled generation. We live in an instantaneous society. We want results NOW. We have lost the virtue of patience.

We have music, video, news, entertainment, all on demand with a push of a button. We can get in touch with anyone in the world by dialing 12 digits. We can look up all sorts of information with a click of a mouse.

It’s so easy to get sucked into the newest things and forget about the importance of continuously focusing on hammering in our new beliefs.

It’s also easy to become discouraged when we don’t see any quick results from hammering in our own beliefs.

We have lost the notion of sticking through with something and not quitting until the goal is achieved, no matter how long it takes.

How can you avoid doing that?

1. Write your belief down everyday.

This is one of the most powerful things you can do in order to hammer a belief in yourself.

I’m reminded of an essay I read online that was written by Scott Adams, the creator of the famous Dilbert cartoon strip.

In it, he mentions how he continuously wrote daily, the belief that he would become rich in the stock market. He soon invested in Chrysler and Ask, two of the best performing stocks at that time and reaped a very nice profit.

He then wrote down the belief that he would hit the 94th percentile on the GMAT, even though he had scored at the 77th percentile when taking several practice tests.

He took the GMAT and the results came in. He hit the 94th percentile.

He became so convinced of the power of writing down his beliefs that he used it to write down that he would become a famous syndicated cartoonist. The rest is history.

I know it sounds a lot like affirmations, and it pretty much is. However, you might have had previous experiences with affirmations and not have had such good results from them.

You will soon see though, that there is much more to believing than just writing down affirmations.

2. Put it everywhere you see.

Another thing you can do is to write your belief down on paper or print it out and paste it everywhere you see; on your refrigerator, mirror, door, computer, TV, wall, bathroom, front door, screen door, everywhere.

This way, you will drill the belief into yourself even when you are not writing it down.

3. Visualize your belief already achieved everyday.

This is another powerful exercise you can do and it’s one of the other things that Scott Adams did alongside the writing of his beliefs.

Your brain does not know the difference between what it sees with your eyes and what you imagine in your mind.

You know what that means? “Things” don’t really exist. What I mean by “things” are the objects you think are real. The pen, the computer, the piece of paper.

The reality is that you take in all the information from your environment via your 5 senses and process that in your brain and in there, your experience is created.

Reality lives alone in the brain.

And because reality lives alone in the brain, you can create your own reality. So create the reality of already having achieved your belief by visualizing it in order to help hammer the belief into your brain.

You must take time each day to hammer your belief in.

If you do it sporadically, your belief will never take root. Rome was not built in a day. Masterpieces were not created overnight.

Anything worth of any significant value was not created instantaneously.

Deep down inside, you know it’s true. There are no shortcuts in life. Does this mean it will take years for your beliefs to come true?

If you consistently hammer in your beliefs and take the following steps that will be outlined, you will find that your beliefs will come true faster than you realize.

Step 3: Continually associate with those who share your beliefs.

If you look back at how beliefs in religion and politics were formed, you’ll find that continuous association on a regular basis with those who shared the same religion and political affiliations helped enormously in solidifying their respective beliefs.

People did NOT habitually associate with those who did NOT share their beliefs.

Muslims did not habitually associate with Jews. Atheists did not habitually associate with Christians. Hardcore conservatives and liberals did not habitually associate with one another.

Each group managed to attract one another and form their own support group.

People who believe the same things will naturally gravitate toward one another. Rich with rich, poor with poor, middle class with middle class. It is indisputable fact.

When the hammering of your belief starts sinking in, you’ll find that you will naturally gravitate toward those who share the same beliefs.

If you find yourself doing that, it’s a very good sign you’re going in the right direction and it shows that your belief is getting hammered in.

You will find yourself looking to those who share the same beliefs for advice and/or support.

For example, if you constantly hammer in the belief that you are a great public speaker, you will naturally start looking for speech classes, books, and tapes. You will buy the books and listen to the tapes. You will go online and search for the nearest Toastmasters club in your area and join. You’ll take a speech class at the local community college and meet lots of other people there who share the same beliefs.

This is another aid in helping you hammer your belief in. When you habitually associate with those who share the same belief, you hammer your belief in even more.

Step 4: Confirm Your Belief in Your Environment

If you’ve been continuously hammering your belief in yourself and surrounding yourself with people who share the same belief, you will start to find confirmation of your belief in your environment.

For example, people who believe in Christianity will go to church on a regular basis (habitually associating with those of the same beliefs) and they will begin to see atheists living a hard life and conclude that living life as a Christian is the best way to live.

On the other hand, atheists will see the wars waged in the name of Christianity and conclude that it must not be the true religion. Atheists will point at the suffering of the world and conclude that God does not exist, thus confirming their beliefs in their environment.

Reality will start to shape according to your belief.

When you find reality starting to shape according to your belief, it is another sign that your belief is sinking in even deeper.

Whenever you see confirmation of your belief in your environment, RECORD IT.

Write it down. Start a belief confirmation journal.

That way, it will serve as a reinforcing mechanism for your belief.

You’ll find that one of the best ways to confirm your belief through the environment is to look to the people who have already done it.

The greatest evidence that something can be done is if another person has done it.

You will begin to see/meet people who have lost weight successfully. You will see them on TV, read about them, maybe even meet them in the gym.

Collect inspirational stories of people who have done it. Refer to them often and confirm your belief to reinforce it whenever you feel it fade.

By confirming your belief in your environment, you drill your belief deep down in yourself even further.

Step 5: Take Action to Reinforce the Belief

All right. So you’ve STATED a SPECIFIC belief, hammered it in yourself continuously, frequently associated with those who share the same belief, and reinforced it by confirming it in your environment.

You are now ready to take action.

The great thing about this is that you’ve already laid the foundation of belief.

Therefore, taking action will not be hard. It will be natural.

Your ability to easily take action is directly related to the degree to which your belief is hammered in you.

Since you’ve already set up a very strong foundation of belief, you will find it easy to take action.

The reason why most people fail in the attainment of their high set goals is because they try to take action FIRST, without taking the time to really set the foundation of FIRST believing that they can.

You know exactly what I’m talking about.

People who want to lose a ton of weight get psyched the first few days, go the gym, run, bike, box, go home, throw out all their junk food and eat healthy for the next few days.

You visit them a week later, they’re sitting on their butt eating buttered popcorn with a big tub of Dreyer’s Cookies and Cream and a large coke with hot dogs and chili cheese fries watching all six Star Wars movies in a row.

If I were to ask you, do you believe you can make $1 today? The answer would be “Yes, of course”. And if I were to say “Show me.”, you would take immediate action by selling your DVDs, books or clothes and easily make that $1 today. You took action because you already had the belief inside of you that you can make $1 today.

If I were to ask you, do you believe you can make $1,000,000 today? The answer would be NO. You have NOT FIRST set the foundation of believing you can, therefore you would not be motivated to take any action. (If the person reading this is Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Tiger Woods, etc., your answer would be “Yes”, because you’ve already set the foundation of believing you can because you have the resources to do so.)

What I’m trying to say is that if you’ve done a good job of drilling the belief into yourself, you will find it easy to take action toward it.

Japanese air fighters during World War II, had drilled down the belief that sacrificing their own lives for their country was the biggest honor, and as a result, were easily able to sacrifice their own lives.

Taking your own life is an extremely hard thing to do. Most people who attempt it won’t go through with it.

But these Japanese kamikaze were easily able to take that action. Why?

Because their beliefs were effectively drilled down deep within them.

If you’ve done a good job of drilling the belief into yourself, you will find it easy to take action toward it.

Step 6: Acknowledge Your Own Progress to Further Reinforce Your Belief

Let’s go back to the belief we were using in this essay.

I will lose 20 pounds of fat.

All right. So you’ve STATED a SPECIFIC belief and hammered it in yourself continuously.

You frequently associated with those who share the same belief by joining Weightwatchers, LA Fitness, etc.

You’ve reinforced your belief by confirming it in your environment by reading stories of people who have done it, meeting them in person, etc.

You’ve also naturally taken action to fulfill it by habitually exercising and eating right.

When you lose that first pound, rejoice! You know you’re on your way now.

If you can lose that one pound, you can lose another, and another, and another, and another until the rest of the 19 pounds are shed.

This is where your belief starts to grow EXPONENTIALLY.

You must feed your belief by acknowledging your own progress and reinforce it so it grows exponentially.

For you math people out there, think of the graph y=e^x. You know it slowly increases along the x axis until it starts to sharply increase exponentially.

Acknowledging your own progress is the catalyst for the exponential increase.

Because this is such an important catalyst, record it. Write it down. Don’t trust it to memory.

Write it down so you can refer to it often to reinforce your belief.

Step 7: Loop steps 2-6.

Believing is analogous to starting a roaring fire. If you’ve ever tried to start a fire, you know it’s not as easy as taking a lighter and putting the flame on a big log.

You have to first gather all the moss, twigs, grass, leaves, and build a small mound where the fire can reside, consume the fodder, and grow strength.

You have to work at it, coax it, feed it, breath on it, until it starts to grow.

When it grows, you have to keep on feeding it with more and more pieces of small wood until you start bringing in the big chunks of wood.

The result is a blazing fire you can use to do anything. You can use it to light other people’s fires. You can use it to burn down walls. You can use it to warm people and give them light.

Even though I’m speaking metaphorically, you know what I’m talking about.

So feed the fire of your belief and loop steps 2-6 to do it.

Conclusion

I believe if you analyze any one of your current beliefs, you will find that it went through exactly the 7 steps listed here.

Try it and see for yourself.

Let’s use an example of a common disempowering belief that a lot of people have.

Bad things always happen to me. I can never catch a break.

Ok, let’s take it through the 7 steps.

1. They’ve sure STATED a SPECIFC belief.

2. They’ve hammered it in all right. They tell it to themselves on a daily basis and they tell their friends and family too, which hammers it in even more.

3. They hang out with other people who believe the same thing. Misery loves company. Birds of a feather flock together.

4. They point to all the bad things in their life to further reinforce their belief. They point at the flat tire they got that day on their way to work or the promotion they didn’t get and conclude that bad things always happen to them.

5. They naturally take action to reinforce their own belief. This is commonly known as self sabotage.

6. They acknowledge all the bad things that are happening to them and use it to further reinforce their own behavior. This is also known as “always looking on the negative side of things.”

7. They repeat steps 2-7, get stuck in a vicious cycle without ever realizing it, and live a life that just plain sucks.

How can they get rid of this disempowering belief?

By creating a NEW one and taking it through the 7 steps.

Step 1: You must state a specific belief FIRST in order to believe it.

Step 2: HAMMER that belief into yourself CONTINUOUSLY. Beliefs are NOT formed overnight.

Step 3: Continually associate with those who share your beliefs.

Step 4: Confirm your belief in your environment

Step 5: Take action to reinforce the belief

Step 6: Acknowledge your own progress to further reinforce your belief

Step 7: Loop steps 2-6.

However, you must realize though that this will not happen overnight.

It takes time, discipline, and perseverance, which is why most people won’t do it.

Now you know the EXACT process of how to believe and in turn, achieve.

I know what must be going on in the mind of some readers right now and that is:

“If you believe, can you really do anything?”

My answer to you is a resounding YES.

100% Certified, Grade A, Y-E-S.

And you know what? So are the answers of Napoleon Hill, Sun Tzu, Michael Korda, Dale Carnegie, and everyone else who has said it time and time again.

You can do anything if you really believe it.

Is it really that hard to swallow?

If Edison did not really believe he could invent the light bulb, we would have nothing to do but sleep when the sun set.

If Graham didn’t really believe he could invent the telephone, we wouldn’t have our precious cell phones today.

If Lance Armstrong didn’t really believe that he could fight testicular cancer and win, we would not have the inspiration he provides today.

If Ghandi didn’t really believe he could bring peace without fighting, who knows what the world would be like today?

I could go on and on, but you get the point.

You can do ANYTHING if you BELIEVE it

It sounds farfetched, but I urge you not be so close minded.

We once thought the world was flat and that the earth was the center of the universe.

I will leave you with the following thought:

If you accept the fact that it doesn’t matter what you believe, because you know if you believe it, you will achieve it, why not hold one of the most powerful beliefs of all, which is:

I can do anything if I believe.

Now you know how.

By: Brian Kim

* Due to the huge amount of email Brian gets on this subject he has created a step-by-step guide on this very subject. I bought it and have read it 3 times. It inspires me my writing every single day.

How to FINALLY Find What You Love to Do AND Get Paid For Doing It: The DEFINITIVE Guide to Finding and Successfully Pursuing Your Passion !

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This article was inspired by Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford University. In it, he says the advice we’ve all heard a thousand times:

“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” - Steve Jobs

Well then, the question naturally arises:

How do you find what you love to do? It’s such a big question.

What absolutely boils my blood is that we hear we should be doing what we love to do all the time, but there’s not any step by step advice out there on how to find what you love to do. The advice that is out there helps to a certain degree, but it’s just a bunch of pieces thrown together with no coherent logical structure or order.

A perfect example is this. In order to find your passion, we are told to ask ourselves: “What would you do if you had a million dollars (tax free)?”

The typical answer ensues: “Well gee, I would put it in an account that yields high interest and live off the interest each year. Then I would move to Hawaii, buy a house, sip margaritas all day, play video games, go to the beach, swim, travel around the world, taste all the cuisines, read the books, play the sports, and on and on and on.”

Does this really help? Not really. Sure, you figured out what your lazy butt likes to do, but it doesn’t really answer the question that’s hidden, which is “How do I make money doing what I love to do?

What’s the result? People working in jobs they hate, feeling trapped because they can’t quit as they rely on that sole source of income to finance a lifestyle tailored to escape their grim reality, drifting aimlessly in life, in short, leading lives of quiet desperation, as so eloquently put by Henry David Thoreau.

Why don’t they just quit their jobs and pursue what they love to do you ask?

Two Reasons.

Reason #1: They don’t know what they love to do.

Reason #2: Fear. They’ve got a lifestyle to uphold, bills to pay for, families to take care of, fear of no steady source of income, fear of what other people might think or say about them, etc. Fear.

Conquer indecision in Reason #1 and ACT, and you will most definitely conquer all fear in Reason #2.

The very fact that you are seeking to find what you love to do (by the very fact you came across this article and started reading it) is a BIG step believe it or not. Many people in their lifetime avoid or do not even seek to find the answer to that question. They hear the question in their head but have become extremely adept at silencing it.

It is extremely important to answer the question on how to find what you love to do.

You must decide what destination to steer your life in. Otherwise, you leave yourself wide open for others to direct your life, as well as at the mercy of the winds and storms of life. If you know where your destination is, the rest is easy.

You will find once you know what you want to do, all uncertainty and burden will be lifted off your shoulders and you will have clear vision as to what your journey is and that journey will truly be joyful.

By the time you finish reading this article, I sincerely hope you experience that.

What about how to make money doing what you love?

The question of how to monetize doing what you love is certainly a valid one. There are bills to pay, stomachs to feed, families to support, etc.

Don’t worry about that for now. That will be covered later in this article.

First things first, you’ve got to find what you love to do.

Why is it so hard to find what you love to do?

The answer is:

It’s not hard at all.

You read right.

It’s not hard at all.

Then why are so many people having difficulty finding what they love to do?

Because they’ve never truly asked themselves.

What amazes me is that there seems to be a stigma attached to spending time with oneself. You have to constantly be doing something, whether it’s going to the game, drinking beer with the buddies, going to that hot party or club downtown, etc. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with doing all that, but I suspect the vast majority of people who engage in this “I have to be doing something every minute because I can’t be by myself” mentality are just putting up a front to show people how satisfying and fulfilling their life is, when in reality, it’s just the opposite. The irony here is that spending time with oneself is EXACTLY what you should be doing to lead a satisfying and fulfilling life.

People think you have to travel around the world, experience new things, etc to find what you love to do. No. You just have to sit down and decide. The answer is already within you. You just have to dig it up and avoid procrastinating. Your brain has absorbed all sorts of information and experiences and it has the answer ready to be unraveled.

Just let it out.

Be honest. Have you actually sat down by yourself with no distractions, with your sole focus on asking yourself what you love to do without picking up your cell phone, surfing the net, watching TV, chatting on AIM, listening to your favorite song, playing solitaire or minesweeper, checking your email, returning a call, getting a drink of water, going to the bathroom, looking at the clock, reading a magazine article, I could go on and on but you get the point. I’m going to go out on a limb and say you haven’t for the sole purpose of you reading this article. Why is that?

Fear of what the answer will be if you ask yourself what you love to do.

The answer is: I don’t know.

But that is exactly why you MUST find out. You’re avoiding the question because you know the answer is you don’t know, but that’s ok. Admitting you don’t know is perfectly fine. There’s nothing wrong with it. You’re way ahead of a ton of other people who learn to quiet the voice within that asks the question of “What do I love to do?”

And let’s say you’re one of the few people who actually specifically know what they love to do. The next thought that pops in their head is “Oh, I can’t make any money off of that.” The seed that was planted never grew.

I hate vague answers. I want clear, logical, definitive answers to questions.

So let’s do this.

Step 1: You WILL find the answer. No doubt.

You will find the answer. You will find it. No doubt.

Approach the question with this mentality and you are sure to find it. How long will it take? It doesn’t matter. Bottom line, you will find the answer.

By doing this, you automatically instill an anti quitting mechanism within yourself, because you know you will find the answer. If you know what you want to do, then you will do it.

For example, if you know you want to arrive in New York, you’ll find ways to get there. You’ll hop a train, bus, or plane going to New York and will arrive in New York.

If you don’t have the cash, you’ll borrow it, or get a job and save up, or get a job as a flight attendant to get there for free. It doesn’t matter how long it will take or what you need to do because you know you’re going to New York.

All your actions onward from the decision that you want to arrive in New York will revolve around getting to New York.

Read that last sentence again.

All your actions onward from the decision that you want to arrive in New York will revolve around getting to New York.

Finding what you love to do = Deciding to arrive in New York.

Step 2: Make a list of your skills and interests in two columns and WRITE THEM DOWN (I’ll explain why you must write things down later):

I’ve taken the liberty of creating a document you can print so you can easily fill in the blanks. You can download it here. KEY is to WRITE THESE DOWN!! I cannot emphasize this enough. Don’t think you can do it all in your head. WRITE IT DOWN.

When I mean by skills is any skill. It could be an intangible skill. Empty your clip here, list EVERY skill you have. It could be programming, making web pages, talking, listening, persuading people, typing, flirting, analyzing, giving speeches, making things easy to understand, whistling, blowing bubbles with your spit, it could be anything. Don’t be bashful. List everything you perceive your skills to be.

On your other column, lists your interests and don’t be shy here as well. List EVERY interest you could possibly think of. Spiders, shoes, hair, makeup, basketball, tennis, thinking of ideas, babysitting, walking, hiking, fireworks, helping people, making fun of people, fishing, tai chi, karate, seashells, seaweed, can openers, anything goes. Yes, I did say can openers. Your interests can also include subjects you are knowledgeable about as well. Computers, economics, biology, baskebtall plays, football plays, magic tricks, etc.

To help you write down more interests, think of what you were interested in at your previous jobs and write them down. Also, think of what you were NOT interested in your previous jobs and write the exact opposite.

Asking yourself the following questions may shed light as to what skills and interests you possess.

If you went in a bookstore, which section do you naturally gravitate toward?

Ask friends for any skills and interests they see in you. You’ll be surprised at how much insight they have on you that you’ve never thought of before.

What do you spend most of your time doing? What do you look forward to doing?

Go back and think of your accomplishments as a child. What kind of skills and interests revolved around your accomplishments?

What did people praise you on doing?

What did your teachers or parents say you had a skill or knack of doing?

Why am I emphasizing skills and interests here?

Skills: Because you’ve got to leverage what you’re strong with. And don’t say you don’t have any. Everybody has skills. You’ve just never sat down and thought about it and wrote it down. By using your skills, you’ve got a head start, a catalyst.

Interests: Simply because you’ve got to love what you do. By including interests, you include another form of an anti quitting mechanism.

Focus on generating as many skills and interests you can possibly think of and WRITE IT DOWN!

You may find that your skills are gravitating toward one or two particular skills. The same may hold true for interests. Keep that in mind for step 3.

Step 3: Set aside some TRUE alone time with no distractions to focus and figure out what you love to do by asking yourself the right questions.

It amazes me how people set aside time for taxes, cooking, watching movies, reading, but when it comes to their own personal future, they NEVER set aside any time. How much MORE time should you set aside to figure out the path that will make you happy?

Ok, you’ve set some private alone time with no distractions; now what?

You must ask yourself an extremely clear question. Clarity is key here. The clearer the question, the easier the answer will be.

For example, if I ask you what 12 times 12 is, the answer comes easily, 144.

However, if I ask, what is some even two digit number times some other even two digit number? Guess how long it’ll take you to answer that question?

Clear questions lead to clear answers.

Another key thing is to WRITE it down. I know you’ve heard it a billion times and it’s so cliché but there’s a reason. Writing things down allows you to easily make connections you’ve never thought of before because you see it on paper. It also allows you to “free room” in your brain for other thoughts because they are put in another container so to speak.

If I ask you, what’s 257 times 852, try doing that in your head vs. writing it down. When you write it down, the answer comes out easier, not to mention more accurate.

If you haven’t already wrote down your skills and interests in the previous step, STOP and DO IT NOW. It won’t do you any good having them in your head.

So, let’s use your alone time to ask yourself a clear question in writing. What is the question you should ask yourself? Is it: “What do I love to do?”

That question is a bit broad, so let’s narrow it down a little. Try asking yourself:

What would I love to do on a daily basis utilizing both my skills and interests that will add significant value to people?

See the difference here? The more detailed and clearer the question, the easier it is to answer it. Why did I add the add value part? Because that will lead you to find a way to make money doing what you love.

By incorporating the question of how to add significant value by utilizing your skills, you automatically filter out all the “common answers” that people come up with when asked what they love to do. Common answers such as: “I love to watch TV.” Or “I love to play video games.” Answers such as that discourage people because they see no way of making money from it.

Adding to that, many people tend to make the mistake of focusing on how to make money. A lot of people fail to realize that money is just a byproduct of adding value in the form of a product or service to people.

When you know how you can add value to people, you’ll know how to get money.

Open up Word or get out a blank sheet of paper and write that question up at the top. Here it is again in case you don’t want to scroll up.

What would I love to do on a daily basis utilizing both my skills and interests that will add significant value to people?

The KEY is to WRITE YOUR ANSWERS DOWN!! I cannot emphasize this enough. Don’t think you can do it all in your head. WRITE IT DOWN.

Looking at the two column list you made in the previous step, start writing down a list of answers. Just write. It doesn’t have to be perfect and it doesn’t have to make sense because sooner or later, you will connect the dots. Here’s a story to illustrate what I’m talking about.

There was a story about a small town with a ski resort which attracted a lot of tourists, which in turn helped the town’s economy. However, when it snowed, the snowfall collected on the power cables, until the weight was enough to collapse the cables, resulting in several power outages. Slowly but surely, tourists stopped coming, so the town held a meeting to discuss how to solve the problem of having snow collect on the power cables. Solutions were tossed out for quite some time.

Then somebody shouted in a loud voice from the back of the room and said “Let’s hang pots of honey on the power cables to make the bears climb up. When the bears climb up and get the honey, their movement will shake the snow off the power cables.”

The audience laughed and somebody else deciding to play along said “How will we refill the pots of honey?” “We’ll use a helicopter”, another person said.

Then the answer dawned upon them. By having a helicopter fly by the power lines, the wind from the propellers would shake the snow off.

The main point here is that answers, no matter how ridiculous they may seem, should not be feared because more often than not, they lead to results. It’s all part of the process.

Even if an answer seems ludicrous, write it down. Write down all your answers. Do it until you have 20 answers and look them over. You will find that as you write down answers and look at them, it will in turn propel you to think of new creative answers that you would not have come up with before.

You will be amazed at all the things you wrote and the different solid creative ideas that come about.

Now the time comes for focus.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the sun and magnifying glass analogy pertaining to focus but I’m going to say it again. If you try to do a bunch of things at once, nothing will get done. If you wave a magnifying glass around on the hottest day, you won’t burn anything. You’ll dissipate all your energy among the trivial many.

By focusing and harnessing all your power, energy, time, focus, thinking, etc. on one goal, you will be amazed at how deep and quickly you can accomplish that. Just as you steady a magnifying glass on a single object, with the hot burning sun rays analogous to your desire, focus, power, energy, time, etc, you will make an impact.

The notion of focus is so important that I’m going to use another analogy. Imagine you’re a cheetah and you see two juicy gazelles grazing in the grass. Spending your time chasing both = no food = death. Hunt one down. It might take time to catch it and kill it, but when you do, you’ll be recharged. You will soon start collecting information on how the gazelles run, which direction they run, where they like to graze, etc, which will help you catch more gazelles in the future, thereby putting you in a favorable cycle. Case in point, focus on one.

So look over your list you just made and choose one idea that seems the most appealing to you. You may find you can combine a few ideas into one idea. Nevertheless, choose one idea that you will garner the greatest satisfaction not just for yourself, but to other people.

You might want to zero in on the ideas that combine your skills and interests that you’ve listed in the beginning. The reason being, psychologically speaking, you’ve probably listed your greatest skills and interests first and then as you started listing them downward, so did your degree of skill and interest. This might not be true. You might have 20 different but equal skills and interests, which if you do, I congratulate you. Just a tip I thought I would throw out.

How Will You Know You’ve Found What You Love To Do?

Does it make you feel good? If you feel it in your gut that you’ve hit the jackpot, you’re right.

If your friend were to bring up the idea you picked, would you be all over it talking about it?

You have to have no reservations about it. If you feel the slightest doubt that it’s not your passion, then it’s not. You must hunger to overcome any obstacles to pursue your passion.

Once you have that, your search is over.

That, right there is what you love to do.

As for how to make money off of it, you might have already found ways when you wrote down your answers. If you still want to find more ways to make money doing what you love, just follow the same steps.

Step 1: Know you will find the answer.

Step 2: Write a clear question, write down the answers, and you will be amazed at the many ways you can make money from it.

I’ll leave the money making question up to you, but it shouldn’t be hard to do.

Now that you know what you love to do and how to make money from it, you must ACT.

That’s a whole other story. Most people get to this stage but don’t act and it doesn’t make any difference in their lives.

By: Brian Kim

*** Due to the HUGE amount of email Brian gets on this subject he has created a step-by-step guide on this very subject. I bought it and have read it at least 4 times. It inspires me my writing.

How to FINALLY Find What You Love to Do AND Get Paid For Doing It: The DEFINITIVE Guide to Finding and Successfully Pursuing Your Passion !

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When we are young, there are things we want to do, but often we are told we can’t or it isn’t appropriate or you’re too young or too old or not smart enough or don’t have enough money or something. I suggest to you that you may not feel a burning desire for anything because what you really want to do is no longer on your list of possibilities. I suggest to you that it’s possible you might have turned away from the one thing you would most enjoy doing. I know at least that I did.

I’d like to share a little process that literally changed my life. It helped me see what I really wanted to do with my life. It might help you. It’s simple. It’ll only take a little time over the next couple of weeks.

Here’s what you do: Get a little notebook, small enough to keep with you at all times. Now, during the day, try to remember times you were happy. When you think of a time — even if it was very long ago — write down where you were, who you were with, and what you were doing.

If anything happens to you during the next couple of weeks that makes you happy and brightens your spirit, write that down the same way. Just those three things: where are you? who are you with? what are you doing?

At the end of a couple of weeks, go over your notes and see what common thread runs through those moments. Then, find people you trust and without telling them what you saw, ask them what they see common to all those times.

I did that process many years ago and realized I’d always wanted to be a teacher, but I’d been told many times that “those that can, DO, and those that can’t, teach; and those that can’t teach, teach teachers!” But the truth is, I loved to teach and over the years I’ve become, what I jokingly call, a “freelance teacher.” I give talks on things I think will help others. I love doing this. It’s makes me feel like I’m doing what I was born to do.

Collecting that little list of things that made me happy got me to see that I’d turned my back on something I really wanted to do.

Maybe the little happiness notebook will be your compass to your purpose in life. I hope so.

And one last tip: You can also discover your interests indirectly by monitoring your level of effort. As interest increases, the effort required to do the task decreases. Given a high enough interest, it can be hard to stop doing it. Like reading a great book. But try to read what you are not interested in and the effort to get through the material inches upward as you interest in the subject declines. So, sometimes when you can’t figure out what your interests are, look to the level of effort you’re using to do the task at hand.

I just want you to know that you can find your purpose and desire in life. You can. Even turning ever so slightly in the general direction of your purpose will increase your strength. It brings out our best to be going after something important. The more important the task, the more strength we have to do it. We are all capable of more than we imagine. The challenge will bring out your best.

Doing What We Love To Do Brings Out Our Best

One couple comes to mind and I thought I’d just give you a little bit of their story. We did that process with the notebook to collect times they were happy. The man realized that though he would not be able to quit the job he had and do what he loved because he needed the money and security of his job, he DID manage to go back into radio and found a small town station that had a Sunday morning spot open. So he went back on the air for his two hour show each Sunday morning. Now, you might think that only doing what you love for two hours a week wouldn’t do much, but it made a big difference in his life. All week he had something to think about and look forward to. I tell you this, because sometimes you can only add a little bit of what you love, but even a little bit will make your life happier. In his case, much happier. He had his little radio show and he had the money and security of his “regular” job. Sometimes it doesn’t really take that much to make us happy.

And his wife found out that the only times she was really happy was when she was having lunches with her lady-friends and talking about stuff. Well, you might say, what are you going to do with that? She decided to start a little women’s group that would meet once a week, which she did. Then she started to charge a little fee for coming. Then she realized she really and truly did love talking with women and helping to support them and she went back to school and became a counselor and now has her own practice. It took a few years, but we grow older anyway whether we’re going to school or not.

By the way, you’re only 36. That’s a great age to be. You have enough experience to guide you and enough years left to make a change.

Happiness is not a slight thing! Happiness literally makes us healthier. When we’re happy we have more access to our intelligence and we make better decisions and our character is stronger. Plus, all those around you — your wife, your family and your friends — will all benefit from your happiness because you will be a better person in their life.

Hesiod said: If you should put even a little upon a little and do this often, soon you would have a lot.

Little changes now can totally change the years ahead.

by: Klassy Evans

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More than 50 years ago, a little book called The Power of Positive Thinking took the world by storm. Written by a minister, Dr. Normal Vincent Peale, the book was a remarkable mix of natural psychological insight and faith-based principles applied to everyday problems of living.

The publishers are re-releasing the book, and it crossed my desk the other day. I was astonished when I looked it over. There is a tremendous amount of wisdom in it.

I thought I’d pass along some of the best advice in the book, because it’s worth using. It has a very timeless quality to it, and it does have the power to be highly motivating.

The most important principle is to believe in yourself. The secret, said Dr. Peale 50 years ago, and he might just as well have said it yesterday, is to “fill your mind with thoughts of faith, confidence and security. This will force out or expel all thoughts of doubt, all lack of confidence.”

“Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful or happy,” Dr. Peale wisely observed. Here is how he suggested you build up your confidence.

1. Formulate and stamp indelibly on you mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. And hold this picture tenaciously. You can’t ever permit it to fade. Over time your mind will develop this picture, brighten the detail. Never doubt the reality of the mental image, because doing so is dangerous. The mind also tries to complete what it pictures. So always picture “success” no matter how badly things seem to be going at the moment.

2. Whenever a negative thought concerning your personal powers come into mind, deliberately voice a positive thought to cancel it out.

3. Do not build up obstacles in your imagination. Minimize every so-called obstacle. Difficulties must be studied and efficiently dealt with to be eliminated, but they must be seen only for what they are. They must not be inflated by fear thoughts.

4. This might be the most astute piece of advice. Do not be awestruck by other people and try to copy them. Nobody can be you as efficiently as YOU can. Remember also that most people, despite their confident appearance and demeanor, are often as scared as you are and as doubtful of themselves.

5. Dr. Peale advised readers to repeat ten times a day — starting this minute — the following word from the bible. And while they refer to god, you could substitute your own belief system: “if God be for us, who can be against us?”

6. Gain self-knowledge. Learn the origin of your inferiority and self-doubts, which often begin in childhood. If necessary, get a competent counselor to help you understand why you do what you do.

7.Another affirmation, also from the bible, also to be repeated ten times daily, was advised as a powerful antidote to inferiority thoughts: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Again, you can alter the wording to suit; it’s the thought that counts.

8. Another gem of wisdom: Make a true estimate of your own ability — then raise it 10 percent. Do not become egotistical, but develop a wholesome self-respect. Believe in your own powers.

by PsychologyToday.com

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People around the world have been talking about a movie so powerful that it can change the course of your life. This movie, The Secret, was created by Australian Rhonda Byrne, and she says that if you follow its philosophy, you can create the life you want—whether that means getting out of debt, finding a more fulfilling job or even falling in love.

Rhonda says she stumbled on what she calls The Secret at the end of 2004. At the time, everything in Rhonda’s life had fallen apart—physically, emotionally and financially—and she was in “total despair.” Then her father died suddenly, and she was worried about her grief-stricken mother. “I wept and wept and wept, and I didn’t want my daughter to see me sobbing,” Rhonda says.

That’s when Rhonda’s daughter gave her a copy of The Science of Getting Rich, a book written in 1910 by Wallace D. Wattles. “Something inside of me had me turn the pages one by one, and I can still remember my tears hitting the pages as I was reading it,” Rhonda says. “It gave me a glimpse of The Secret. It was like a flame inside of my heart. And with every day since, it’s just become a raging fire of wanting to share all of this with the world.”
After that first discovery, Rhonda read hundreds of books, listened to hundreds of hours of audio tapes and scoured the Internet for more information. She says she traced the idea of The Secret through history—all the way from 3500 B.C. to the present day. “Since I discovered The Secret, every single moment of my entire life has changed, and I am living my life for the first time,” Rhonda says.

Rhonda defines The Secret as the law of attraction, which is the principle that “like attracts like.” Rhonda calls it “the most powerful law in the universe,” and says it is working all the time. “What we do is we attract into our lives the things we want, and that is based on what we’re thinking and feeling,” Rhonda says. The principle explains that we create our own circumstances by the choices we make in life. And the choices we make are fueled by our thoughts—which means our thoughts are the most powerful things we have here on earth.

To help teach the philosophy, Rhonda created the DVD The Secret, which features experts including the Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith, James Arthur Ray, Lisa Nichols and Jack Canfield—who not only teach other people about The Secret, but say they are successful in their own lives because they know and use the principle.

The Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith says he was a drug dealer in college—until he was arrested in a deal gone bad. Michael says he had a spiritual awakening during his trial and decided to turn his life around. Today he leads the Agape Spiritual Center in Los Angeles, where he teaches thousands of faithful followers the path to reaching their highest potential.

James Arthur Ray was insecure and awkward as a teenager until weight lifting helped the self-described geek gain confidence in his 20s. He says that surviving a near-fatal motorcycle crash and almost going bankrupt forced him to focus on the life he truly wanted. Now he runs a multimillion-dollar corporation dedicated to teaching people how to create wealth in all areas of their lives.

Lisa Nichols grew up on the tough streets of South Central Los Angeles. She admits that as a self-conscious teenager, she often used sex to feel loved by men. After hitting rock bottom at age 19, Lisa prayed for a better life. Now, she has made her fortune by motivating more than 60,000 teenagers to make better choices in their own lives.

Chicken Soup for the Soul creator Jack Canfield was deep in debt before he made it big. Now his best-selling books have sold more than 100 million copies worldwide, and Jack travels the country teaching the secret of his success.

The law of attraction means that everything that happens to you—good or bad—you attract to yourself. Lisa describes it as if you’re placing an order. “If you were at a restaurant and you ordered something, you fully expect it to come served that way. That’s how the universe is. You’re putting out orders—consciously and unconsciously,” Lisa says. “So if you say, ‘I’ll never have a great relationship,’ you just placed an order.”

Jack says everything you focus on can have an effect on your life—from books to magazines to thoughts. “All of that affects how we feel, and the feelings actually send out a wave into the universe, and anything that’s vibrating in a similar level gets attracted into our life,” Jack says.

“Most people focus on how it is. We talk about our current reality—’I'm in debt. I’m overweight. I’m not happy. I’m sad. The world’s not working. We’re at war,’ whatever. And the more you think about that and focus on that and talk about it, the more you attract that [negativity],” he says.

Although thoughts are powerful, Jack says the feelings that the thoughts generate are what actually attract things into our lives. “Too many times people are thinking a thought like, ‘I want to be my perfect body weight of 185 pounds.’ But they look at the scale and they see 205 and they think, ‘But I’ll never make it,’ … so they feel bad,” Jack says. Instead of wallowing in those negative thoughts, you need to find the positive in the situation. Jack says you should stop feeling bad about the weight, and instead feel positive that you are willing to do something healthy to make your life better. Carrying with you those positive feelings is one key to your success.

James says that in order to attract the things you want into your life—to place the right order—you have to do what he calls going “three for three.” “Your thoughts, your feelings and your actions all have to be firing simultaneously in the same direction,” he says. Visualizing your future life can help to hone your thoughts and feelings toward the things you want.

The panel says the thoughts and the feelings are often easy for people to grasp, but you still have to do something about them. “A lot of people watch The Secret and they say, ‘Well, I’m sitting around visualizing my millions coming into my lap.’ Well, they’ll come take your furniture away. And then how are you going to visualize [when you're living] on the curb?” James says. “You’ve got to act on it. Make decisions on where you’re going versus where you have been.”

Jack says that everything in the world is made up of energy, which is controlled by thoughts and feelings. According to Jack, thoughts can travel long distances, so you are sending out signals to many people without even knowing it, and these signals attract like energy to you.

Jack and James say that this means there is no such thing as a coincidence. “Everything happens by principles and laws in our universe. And so consequently, we have an absolutely unlimited power within us,” James says.

Michael says that thoughts—which turn into experience, speech and behavior—become the “feeling tone of your life.” “An individual can actually begin to generate a certain feeling of gratitude, of love, of peace and of harmony, and the universe will begin to match that feeling tone—and what will flow into your life will match the feeling that you’re holding,” he says. “It means that everyone…can release themselves from being a victim and begin to take control of their life’s destiny.”

Gratitude is one example of the magnetic force of the universe. “Basically, nothing new can come into your life unless you open yourself up to being grateful [for what you already have],” Michael says.

“If you think about it, the universe has a conveyor belt of presents lined up for you, and until you receive the one and fully are grateful for it, the next one can’t come out of the chute. It’s all lined up,” Jack says.

Lisa says this perspective applies to weight, family, friends and other aspects of life. She says too many people who want to make things better focus on what’s wrong with the present. “Instead of wanting to change it, appreciate what’s there,” Lisa says. “Find the things about it that work … and by doing that, you create a space for it to get better.”

For example, Lisa says she would like to lose some weight. But instead of focusing on the negative—that she hasn’t dropped the pounds yet—she loves and appreciates the present moment. “I accept it. I love it. I embrace every inch, every pound,” she says. In this way, Lisa is creating the space to “celebrate the now” and then invite better things into her life.

According to the panel members, much of the energy that people project into the world is done unconsciously. “People aren’t walking around thinking, ‘I want a bad thing to happen to me,’ but there’s an unconscious fear. There’s a doubt. There’s a worry. There’s a sense of separation there that’s running them,” Michael says. He adds that spiritual growth is “allowing that which is unconscious to become conscious.”

Michael says that spiritual growth does not mean religion but our “real identity.” “The love, the peace, the joy, the wisdom, the harmony—these are all qualities of the spirit that it’s seeking to express through us,” Michael says. “And so as we become more awake, more aware of that, our life is filled with that kind of vibration, that kind of feeling tone. To grow spiritually is to actually become more aware of who you really are.”

Ryan Bell, a single mother of a 4-year-old, is currently $43,000 in debt. “I’m just in over my head,” she says.

Ryan says her financial woes started back in college when she took out loans. After college, Ryan got a job, got pregnant and got married. To cope with the new bills, the couple opened more credit cards, and Ryan helped put her husband through school. Then the unthinkable happened: She and her husband got divorced—and Ryan’s debt worsened. “I went from living on two incomes to living on one income, but I kept the same bills,” Ryan says.

To support herself and her daughter, Ryan works long hours at a high-end clothing store. After her daughter goes to bed, Ryan works at her second job, a home-based Internet business. “It could be huge, but I can’t spend the amount of time on it that I need to to make it successful,” she says.

Now, Ryan sees every day as a struggle and won’t even go to the mailbox because she knows there are bills waiting for her. “I’m sick and tired of being a victim,” Ryan says. “How do I get out of this endless cycle of debt?”

Ryan’s choices have attracted debt to her, the panel says. To attract a solution, Jack says Ryan should turn her focus from her debt to what she knows her life will be like when she’s financially free.

Simply changing her language can also start to make a dent in her debt. When asked how she is, Lisa says she shouldn’t respond with phrases like “I’m surviving.” “That’s not the kind of life you want to live,” Lisa says. “When people ask me how I’m doing, [I say], ‘I’m phenomenal. I’m great’. Even in the midst of all—I’m great,” she says. “I’m great because I made it through.”

James, especially, can relate to Ryan’s troubles, having been on the edge of bankruptcy twice himself. He urges Ryan to take an “action step” toward her dreams. For Ryan, that’s starting a debt retirement program to pay a certain amount of money toward her credit automatically so she can focus every bit of energy on financial freedom.

Still, the most important stride toward a debt-free life, Michael says, is forgiving her ex-husband and to stop feeling like he owes her something. “Let him know in consciousness, in your awareness, that he cannot determine your destiny. You’re not leaving him unaccountable, but you’re severing those emotional vibratory tonalities so that you can be free.”

True forgiveness, James says, is when you can say the following to the person who hurt you: “Thank you for giving me that experience.”

But how can you forgive when something truly tragic or terrible happens? James says you should grieve, but eventually you need to look for a hidden gift. “Here’s what I encourage people to ask themselves: How does this serve me? … If you’re really willing to dig, there’s a lesson in there,” James says. “And secondly, what can I learn from this situation?”

Even if you can’t identify the gift now, Rhonda says to remain positive in order to benefit from of the law of attraction. “You can say, ‘There are so many gifts in this for me. I can’t wait to see what they are,’” Rhonda says.

In chronic situations with no end in sight, Michael says you should ask yourself another important question: “If this were to last forever, what quality would I have to grow to have peace of mind? Now, as my attention goes to the quality I have to grow, that quality starts to emerge,” Michael says. “The issue that I’m resisting and fighting against becomes less and less intense … it begins to dissolve because it doesn’t have your attention any longer.”

Panel member Lisa Nichols says her life was spiraling out of control before she learned The Secret. She grew up in South Central Los Angeles, where there were gangs, poverty and violence.

In fifth grade, Lisa was in the first class to be bused to the Valley—a predominantly white neighborhood—where she thought she would be welcomed. Instead, she was met with name-calling. “My self-esteem went way down,” she says.

Although she eventually became a popular student, Lisa struggled with depression. “At 17, when my best friends were thinking what college to go to, UCLA or USC, I was contemplating suicide and trying to figure out how to do it without getting blood on my mother’s carpet because I knew they couldn’t afford to move,” she says.

Growing up, Lisa was also told that she wasn’t pretty and wouldn’t find love. She began having “a lot of sex looking for a little love,” searching for her own validation in men. “The sex led to a lot of pain. I thought if I was saying no to the sex, I was saying no to potential love. And I didn’t want to say no to love.”

Lisa began to gain weight in order to avoid men altogether. After gaining 100 pounds, Lisa says she was obese and embarrassed.

Finally, Lisa reached a turning point. “I got on my knees and I said, ‘God, if you bring me through this … I promise I will spend every moment, every breath, supporting and encouraging others to do the same,’” she says.

Lisa decided to stop being a victim. She stopped looking for love elsewhere and fell “madly in love” with herself. Now, she teaches people how to treat her. “I’m the first example of how the world is supposed to love me and I have to give them the best example ever,” she says. “We expect someone to show us our greatness when [instead] I’m supposed to show up understanding my greatness and allowing you to celebrate it with me.”

After 16 years of marriage, Carlton and Beverly Credelle say the passion in their marriage had fizzled. “It just felt as though our life was just mundane, really passionless, almost emotionless,” Beverly says. “Like I didn’t have his mind anymore, his soul, his heart.” At one point, the couple hadn’t been intimate in a year.

Then, Beverly watched The Secret. “For the record, I’ve seen it 62 times. But the first time is when that lightbulb went off,” she says. Beverly realized she was part of the problem. She stopped complaining and began to focus on her gratitude for Carlton. “I started telling myself, ‘I am beautiful. I do deserve passion. I am in a passion-filled marriage.’”

Things changed immediately after Carlton also watched the DVD. Soon, he started making romantic gestures, like taking Beverly out for lunch dates and calling her during the day. She began doing little things for him, too—leaving him a rose in his car and surprising him with his favorite cookies.

Michael says Carlton and Beverly are an example of how gratitude brings about change. “My marriage now is wonderful,” Carlton says. “I feel the passion. I’m loving it.”

Launell is successful in all areas of her life—except when it comes to taking off the baby weight she started gaining 14 years ago.

The first step, James says, is to be grateful for her health and choose to stay healthy and whole. “I want you to start every single day … saying, ‘Thank you for the health I have.’ Say, ‘I love my legs because they’re working functionally,’” James says. “Concentrate on your health and wholeness every day, and you’ll attract more health and wholeness every day.”

Lisa says Launell also has to believe she has the right to have the body she wants. “Make a decision. Do you have the right? Are you ready for it? Are you ready to look in the mirror and love every inch?” Lisa says. “Make 2007 about showing up in the now for you,” Lisa says.

Repeating after Lisa, Launell declares, “I choose today to give myself the best life ever!”

You can start living the The Secret today by following three simple steps: Ask. Believe. Receive.

Michael says to start making a conscious effort every day to take actions that will sync with the energy of the life you dream about. “When you’re talking about action, you’re talking about walking in the direction you want,” Michael says.

But not just any action will do, James says. It has to be one that comes from the heart and will provide a real service. “It’s not, ‘If you build it, they will come,’ necessarily. It’s, ‘If you build it and it provides value, they will come,’” he says. “It’s that heart space. Not ‘What can I get?’ but ‘What can I give and how can I serve?’ And when you’re in that moment, the universe lines up behind you and it’s at your command.”

From: The Oprah Winfrey Show - The Secret

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