Our Attitude is Contagious!

Do you ever have those days where you’re not quite feeling it? You know, you wake up and you’re in a bad mood and everything is sort of irritating? Well, we could look for all sorts of answers for why we have all had these days. There can be any number of reasons at any given moment to be feeling down in the dumps.

Now, do you let it carry throughout the rest of your day? Or do you nip it in the butt and toss it away? Although, it may not be easy, it’s important we give it a toss. Once we’re in that state of unhappiness it’s contagious. Whether you like to admit it or not, your energy bounces off everyone you come in to contact with. So remember if we’re having a rough day, what right do we have to take someone who is having a great day and pull them into our negativity? On the other hand, the complete opposite is pure gold. When we’re in a good mood the same thing happens. We pass on our energy to others adding value to their day rather than taking away from it.

For the most part, when we’re not quite feeling it, we are focused on what we don’t have, what we’re missing out on and even what we don’t want to do. If we’ve found ourselves stuck in this mindset, we can flick a switch to begin turning our thoughts.
I’m currently reading a few books. One in particular is “The Art of Happiness” by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler. M.D. Here is an excerpt from page 25 that relates to today post.

“Researchers have conducted a number of experiments demonstrating that one’s level of life satisfaction can be enhanced simply be shifting one’s perspective and contemplating how things could be worse. In one study, women at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee were shown images of the extremely harsh living conditions in Milwaukee at the turn of the century or were asked to visualize and write about going through personal tragedies such as being burned or disfigured. After completing this exercise, the women were asked to rate the quality of their own lives. The exercise resulted in an increased sense of satisfaction with their lives. In another experiment at the State University of New York at Buffalo, subjects were asked to complete the sentence “I’m glad I’m not a …” After five repetitions of this exercise, the subjects experienced a distinct elevation in their feeling of life satisfaction. Another group of subjects was asked by the experimenters to complete the sentence “I wish I were a …” This time, the experiment left the subjects feeling more dissatisfied with their lives.”

So, the morale of this post and the above excerpt is that, when we are feeling down, we should reflect on the things we do have and be grateful for these things. Once we flick that switch and begin to be thankful for our health, for the roof over our head and the great family and friends we have you can wash away those thoughts that placed you in a bad mood. Let’s face it, we don’t enjoy those moments of self doubt and insecurity. By monitoring our thoughts we can slowly but surely change the way we think and finally be in control of our destiny!

Scott Wain

The Law of Attraction

Are you truly passionate about what you do? When you wake up in the morning, are you excited to get your day going? Or are you like the people in the Monster.ca commercial where the whole town climbs the hill on the horizon to fight the sun rise on Monday morning? If you answered yes because you’re passionate about what you do, congratulations! If you answered no, then, I’m sorry to hear it. My next question then would be, why?

There can be many different reasons why you don’t follow your dreams and passions. A popular one would be financial security. You took a job and made decent money, then you probably bought a house, a car and you like to go on vacations and you have bills to pay. So, in a way you can’t follow your true dreams because your financial responsibilities, right? So, what to do? You could continue to get up in the morning and walk through the same painful routine as always. In this case you will naturally reassure yourself why, you can’t take a risk and do what you love.

I’d like to reference a great movie “The Secret”. For anyone who hasn’t watched it, I recommend it. You can watch a good chunk of it for free when you search in Google Video. Again, I highly recommend it for anyone who hasn’t watched it. The law of attraction is the entire concept of the film. Whether we like it or not we attract everything in our lives. It can be a tough pill to swallow for some of us out there. However, the sooner you can finally swallow that pill and face reality that we control our fate, the sooner you can give up that job you can’t stand and begin to live your life to the fullest.

Before I wrap up, I want to make reference to Jack Canfield. Jack Canfield is the author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul collection. He is also going to be in London ON this month too! In The Secret, Jack shares his experiences with the law of attraction. As a struggling author with little money he was facing some very tough times mentally. Finally at one point he decided he was going to make 1 million dollars! This is a huge goal and in most minds a distant dream. So what he did next was very powerful. He took a marker and turned a bill of low denomination into a 1 million dollar bill. Next, he taped the 1 million dollar bill on the ceiling above his bed where he would see it each and every morning as he awoke.

Less than 1 year later Jack had made his 1 million dollars. He actually made much more than that. His first edition of Chicken Soup for the Soul took off. He had taken the power of the laws of attraction and turned it into his dream. If you are thinking this is a scam, good luck to you. I say that for one reason, if you think it is a scam, then you’re telling yourself it could never happen. You’re thinking, yeah right, like I’d ever be able to make a million dollars with a stupid bill taped on my ceiling. You’re right. with that state of mind you’re attracting your results. It’s a simple cause and effect.

Visualize your dreams, talk about them with others and believe you can make them happen. This is the first step in achieving self fulfillment.

Scott Wain

Attitude is Everything - It's a State of Mind

I enjoyed Super Bowl XXLII this weekend. It turned out to be quite the game too. Not too many had given the New York Giants a chance. I mean, they were facing an 18 – 0 New England Patriots team who had been flawless all year. Earlier on Sunday while I was watching some of the pre-game, I heard a story that gave me a funny feeling the Giants were going to win. Way back before game three, the New York Giants season started off 0 – 2. As they got ready to face of the Washington Redskins, Army Lt. Col. Greg Gadson gave a 15 minute pep talk to the team and coaching staff.

Army Lt. Col. Greg Gadson was wounded in Iraq while driving his HMMWV or Hummer (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle). He drove over an explosive device which threw him from the vehicle completely vulnerable losing both of his legs. His “team” risked their lives to get him to safety. The act of his fellow soldiers was completely selfless and came without any hesitation. The new perspective and motivation the Giants team gained from his speech guided them all season long. The old cliché “there is no I in team” cannot ring more true for this Giants team and coaching staff. At one point before and important game Army Lt. Col. Greg Gadson surprised the team when he showed up not in his wheel chair, but standing on his own with his new prosthetic legs. It was clear that even when the odds are against you, an individuals’ resiliency and determination can surpass insurmountable odds.

The entire Giants team felt that Army Lt. Col. Greg Gadson is a part of their team. Without him, they wouldn’t have had the opportunity to be the road warriors they became and finally upset the perfect season of the Patriots. During the story many of the team members made it clear that Army Lt. Col. Greg Gadson was to get his own Super Bowl ring. If he wasn’t to have one, multiple players would be glad to give him their own.

I wanted to share this story because it reminded me of a few of things. First off, we need to place more faith in people. As I’ve talked about before collaboration can achieve amazing feats. Secondly, too often it takes great tragedy or near death for us to open our eyes to see what is before us. Plus, we can all provide more selfless acts without looking for something in return. We have the ability to make the world a better place. One selfless act at a time. Remember, we are in control of our own destiny. If you allow outside pressures to discourage you and keep you down, it’s your own choice. Be resilient, control your thoughts and attitude and great things will happen. Look at Army Lt. Col. Greg Gadson. and the New York Giants.

Scott Wain

Anything is Possible

I want to talk a little bit about goals today. One of the main reasons is that, I have made a goal for myself to immediately adopt a healthier lifestyle. It isn’t a New Year’s resolution, because I’ve only just started going gym. We could call it a longer life resolution, if you like.

How many of you have goals? I’m sure most of you. Now of the individuals who have goals, how many of you have them written down? Of the few who have them written down, how many of you have your main goal broken down into small manageable tasks? Now, of the fewer, which of you truly review them regularly? By monitoring our progress we can allow for adjustments. Certain things may come up overtime that can interfere with the achievement of one of our goals. Don’t stress! We make a minor adjustment and away we go!

The importance of recording your goals is of the utmost. Taking the time to sit down and review your goals is critical. The significance of evaluating the progress of your goals is to measure where you are and how close you are to achieving them. If you don’t break them down into small manageable tasks, the goal can seem daunting. In this case you can easily convince yourself it was an outrageous goal in the first place. We will justify in our minds why we didn’t accomplish something if we don’t protect against it. Think of each task as a small goal on its own. It’s like a check list. Slowly but surely you check them off as you go. When you’ve reach a milestone, reward yourself with something you love. This will give you something tangible to reach for. You see, once you are underway and you are slugging through the hustle and bustle, you may slowly veer off course. This is the time where you look back and ask yourself “what happened?” Or you tell yourself “it wasn’t possible anyway.”

I am guilty of this many times over. Looking back it’s mainly because A) I didn’t actually record a goal. B) If I did record it, I didn’t review it frequently. Or C) I didn’t assign a timeline to it. It is extremely important that you assign a deal line for completion of the goal. If you want to like me, adopt a healthier lifestyle, you have to assign specifics of how you want to adopt it. For example: Attend the gym regularly, plan my meals for the week, not eating after 8pm, drink lots of water, get on the ice for some shinny at least once a week, etc… The mind is easily distracted these days. We have so many things being thrown at us from all angles. Don’t leave it up to your intuition to figure this out all on its own. Be specific, assign a time line and post it where you’ll constantly be reminded of it.

So let’s take a moment to recap our steps in completing and achieving a goal.

- Write your goal down.
- Break your goal down in to small manageable tasks.
- Assign a timeline for achieving your goal.
- Check the tasks off your list as you complete them.
- Reward yourself for reaching certain milestones.
- Review your progress and adjust for changes.
- Tell everyone you are going to accomplish your goal. This one is powerful.

You are on your way to chasing your dreams. I encourage you to put these practices to the test. Please feel free to share any milestones you have met. I love success stories.

The last point in the recap is about intrinsic pressure. A great topic for another day!

Remember, anything is possible!

Scott Wain