Measuring the Success of Your Life


[one_half]You may have heard of the tongue in cheek expression, “The one who dies with the

Measuring the Success of Your Life most toys wins.” In bumper sticker wisdom, this is one way of measuring success. The implication is that life is about the accumulation of things. Of course, that is not true for most people. Life is much more than spending your time gathering things.

How will you determine if you are successful? If you are in your twenties while reading this, you are just beginning your life and discovering what it is you want. Those in the midst of intense study for a field such as medicine, law or other doctoral degree have no time to read short articles such as this. Only those who are looking for ways to move themselves forward, to find a way to achieve, would have the time and inclination to read this article.

Take ten minutes right now and reflect upon this question. If you died today, what can you look back on as achievements? Some people would list their education, projects accomplished, things they’ve accumulated. Others would talk about the people in their lives including their family and the number of friends they have. Still others, probably much fewer, would point to their relationship to their Higher Power and their spirituality. Be sure and do a quick list of your achievements before you read the next paragraph.

Now for the next question that you have probably heard many times. If you only have six months to live, what would you do? The purpose of this question is to assist you in discovering what is really important in your life. The problem with the time limit of this particular question is that every one of us would probably choose to  do something much different if we were told we had six months to live than if we were told we had ten years to live. The time constraint of six months [/one_half] [one_half_last]doesn’t require much long-term planning. For instance, you can run up your credit cards  to do whatever you want without having to worry about paying them back.

Did you answer the six months to live question?

Now answer the same question but with a ten year time limit. Let’s make it a little different. Let’s say you’ve been told you have ten years to achieve something significant with your life, but aren’t told the definition of significant. If you’ve accomplished this in ten years, you are granted another ten years. If you haven’t done something of significance at the end of that time period then your life is over. Once a year you’d receive a note in the mail reminding you of the progress of time, but not telling you if you’ve achieved significance or not. You have to decide that for yourself. Now what would you do? Take a few minutes to jot down a few things.

Your mind will answer the questions you ask it. That means your answers depend upon the way you ask your questions. The questions above are general in nature. You will receive different answers if you change the focus. For instance, answer this, “If you only had six months to make enough money to support yourself and three other people for a year, what would you do?” Did the answer change from the general “six months to live” question?

Play with the phrasing of the questions. Insert words such as “show someone you love them” or “build a new house.” How would your answers change? Here’s a scary one. “If you knew that a particular loved one only had six months to live, and there was nothing you could do to change that, what would you do?”

Questions which include time limits force our subconscious minds to respond in a certain direction. Play with your questions regarding success and discover what is important to you.   [/one_half_last]

Napoleon Hill on the Greatest Wealth

Napoleon Hill

Napoleon Hill on the Greatest Wealth

[one_half]There are few people striving to become successful who do not become acquainted with Napoleon Hill and his book Think and Grow Rich. Some are aware of his book The Law of Success. Even fewer know there are two versions of The Law of Success. One was written in 1925 and distributed by means of a series of small booklets. The other one, published in 1928, was a greatly edited version of the 1925 edition. Think and Grow Rich is actually a much edited version of the 1928 edition of The Law of Success.

Why is this important to you? The story goes that when Hill distributed the few copies of the results of his 20 year endeavor commissioned, but paid only travel expenses, by Andrew Carnegie, some of those he interviewed were horrified at what he had published. The story goes that they, especially Henry Ford, wanted the project squashed. These few men, and they were men, did not want the mass population to know the true secrets of acquiring wealth.

The researcher spent 20+ years interviewing the wealthiest people for the project of writing a new philosophy that anyone could follow. As I’ve roamed the internet learning more about Napoleon Hill, I’ve discovered that many people question him and his philosophy because he did not die as financially wealthy as did Andrew Carnegie, one of the primary men who established the steel industry in the United States.

It appears that most of the population believes that wealth refers only to financial riches. There is little realization that the term for Napoleon Hill meant much more than that. He states what he calls “my greatest riches” at the end of the preface of The Law of Success. His goal was to[/one_half] [one_half_last] assist people in achieving self-satisfaction on the deepest level. He wanted people to feel fulfilled. He wanted them to discover who they were, what they needed to be happy and then to accomplish that happiness.

Andrew Carnegie wanted Hill to be a greater success than he was, one of the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest, men of his time. Napoleon Hill states in The Law of Success that he believes he accomplished this. His standard was not in his bank account. His standard was that, by his writings, he made more millionaires than did Andrew Carnegie. His writings also helped millions of people come to know and take responsibility for themselves. He assisted millions in becoming successful as measured by their own standard.

Therein is the key to success. If you accomplish your personal goals and fulfill that which is in the deepness of your heart, then you have achieved wealth. If you measure yourself by the standards of others, you will never be satisfied and always fall short of success and personal fulfillment. If you depend upon others to tell you what you must do and accomplish to be a success, you will always fail. Only you can know in your heart what you need to do and be to feel fulfilled in life. It takes courage and perseverance to accomplish your goals and not someone else’s.[/one_half_last]

Collaborating with the Dead in a Writing Project

Collaborating with the Dead in a Writing Project

[one_half]Lately I’ve been working on a number of writing projects. Some are metaphysical in nature, another is a novel with its seeds in what I do with spirit release, and yet another is joining Napoleon Hill, who died in 1970, in a project. He’s already completed his part which is Think and Grow Rich. What I’m doing is taking the knowledge and skills I’ve gained over my 35+ years as a therapist and suggesting exercises at the end of each chapter to integrate his concepts.

We’ve learned a great deal about the mind and all its levels (conscious, sub-conscious, sub-sub-conscious, super conscious, super super conscious) since Hill published his books. I’m applying our (as in the people of the world) new knowledge so that people can get beyond the blocks to achieving what they want which are located, maybe even locked, deep in the subconscious mind.

If you’re not familiar with Think and Grow Rich, think of it as a precursor to the book The Secret. Hill took on the task and interviewed hundreds of wealthy folks, probably all men since they’re the ones who made money in the late 19th and early 20th century. He did this over the course of 20 years with the purpose of discovering commonalities between these wealthy folks. By the way, these were people who amassed their wealth themselves, not those who were born into wealth. For instance, he would have interviewed Sam Walton, before he died of course, not his children. [/one_half] [one_half_last]Think and Grow Rich is the most well-known of his books. He also wrote The Law of Success. From the research I’ve done, Think and Grow Rich is a distillation of The Law of Success and the latter book has a 1928 version which is a distillation of the 1925 version. I’m sure I’ll be reflecting more on these three books as I continue my work, but, for now, I won’t say anything else about The Law of Success. You might be saying, “Oh, come on, Cathy, give us a hint.” My reply, “Let me read the two versions first and then compare with Think and Grow Rich.” Yep, I’m grinning as I write that.

Back to my collaboration with Napoleon Hill and Think and Grow Rich

I’ve read Think and Grow Rich several times. The concepts within it may have been new to most people when first published in 1937. They aren’t anymore. The self-help era which began in the 1980s, motivational gurus and metaphysical teachers have taught the concepts for decades now. The Secret, which tells of a secret to abundance hidden for centuries, or so I’ve been told because I only skimmed the book, contains similar precepts as Think and Grow Rich.

The one of the key concepts I’ve heard in 99% of all manifesting abundance and manifesting the life you want info is to focus on the good, eliminate negative thinking and keep the positive in the forefront. There is an addition “secret” to manifesting that isn’t spoken of as much. That “secret” is called action… but that is a topic for another post. [/one_half_last]

The Difference between Disease and Dis-ease

The Difference between Disease and Dis-ease

[one_half]If you are not feeling at ease with something, what do you do? If you’re like most people you will find out what you can do to become more at ease.

What if you have a disease, say arthritis? What do you do? Most people go to their health care provider and get something to take, something outside of themselves, to manage the problem.

When you have dis-ease, even if it has manifested in what people call disease, you look for what you can do to change the situation. That may seem like semantics, but it is crucial.

The allopathic heath care system has trained people to look for something outside of themselves to fix physical problems called disease. It is a disease model.

As explained in the post in part 1 of distance healing, the key to supporting the physical body in healing itself is to change what is happening inside of you… thoughts, feelings, hurts.

That is the dis-ease which is resulting in the disease. You can change that dis-ease and bring your body to greater ease. This is done through healing.

Let me give you an example from years ago when I was teaching Healing Touch. One of the participants in the class came to me at a break to ask if there was anything I could do about his knee. The doctor’s hadn’t been able to give him much relief except through pain medication. The next step was surgery.

I invited him to lay down on the massage table and was going to do some energy balancing with him focusing on his knee. Intuitively, I was guided to have him communicate with his knee. This may [/one_half][one_half-last]seem strange if you’ve never done it before, but once you learn it is a powerful adjunct to your own healing journey.

After asking him a few questions while he was bringing his attention to his knee, he recalled a memory. He was about 12, riding with his friends on bicycles. They were doing something they weren’t supposed to be doing. I didn’t ask what it was because I didn’t need to know more to guide him through the process.

As he and his friends were speeding around a corner, his bike tire hit a rock and he went flying. Now, you tell me what 12-year old boy is going to cry in front of his friends when he falls off a bike? Not many, right? Although he wanted to cry, although he had been scared flying through the air for those brief seconds, he buried his feelings. He buried them there in his knee. His knee held the dis-ease of the event.

Once he got in touch with the feelings trapped in his knee, I guided him through an easy process to release those feelings using his breath. The pain was gone when he got up from the table. He walked with greater ease than he had done in a couple of decades.

I don’t know if his releasing the process healed the knee of all its physical problems. He may have had some physical damage to the knee. Let’s say he was diagnosed with arthritis. The arthritis is the disease. The feelings were the dis-ease. Dis-ease can lead to disease. When you release the dis-ease, you give your body the space it needs to heal. The disease is often on its way to healing.

Musings on Mind-Body Health

Musings on Mind-Body Health

[one_half]Teachers and writers, of which I am both, have this need to share what is on their mind and in their hearts. I’m also a therapist which adds focus to my writing.

I want a place I can share my musings, to put myself out there. There are times I just want to write. This blog serves the purpose of me wanting to write. Sometimes I’ll publish something in which I first wrote as an article for various ezines. Other times I’ll just sit down and write. My plan is to send out notices once a week or so about new blog postings. I plan on writing more often than that.

Mind-body health is a wide ranging field. Everything we think, everything we feel, everything we do affects our body in some way. I suppose that means I can write about anything I want. Of course, it being my blog, I can write about anything I want.

There will be times I write about emotional and mental health. After all, that is what I’m trained in. I’m also trained in energy medicine using various modalities. My primary two are The BodyTalkSystem and PSYCH-K TM. Because I find both of them so powerful, I usually integrate them.

PSYCH-K balances beliefs. You can eliminate the non-supporting beliefs which have been sabotaging your life. You replace them with supportive beliefs. For instance, my step-dad used to say about someone, “He snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.” If you have a tendency to quit or find some way to sabotage yourself when you are close to your goal, you have a limiting belief. It could be fear of success and all the responsibility success has. People say fear of   failure, but I’m [/one_half] [one_half_last] not sure  that’s the right way of saying it. It’s probably fear that you won’t succeed and then you’ll look like a fool. Perhaps a post on this later. I digressed…

Body Talk can balance the mind, body and spirit. It balances on all levels. Sometimes there is a belief in there which prevents your innate wisdom from allowing a particular balance. Let’s go back to the fear of success. Let’s say you have a belief that your family will disown you or not want to be with you because you actually succeed. They may think you are uppity. In some convoluted way you hold onto physical problems so you don’t have to face that possibility. When you balance the belief which holds the fear, innate wisdom then allows for the balancing of the body so you can be healthy. The two modalities are a powerful combination.

Just for fun I’m going to start on a series of articles about distance healing. This is something I do often. In fact, it’s become my favorite way of working with someone. Why? I am better able to focus. I am able to go deeper into myself to connect with all my spiritual helpers. I have the computer in front of me in case I get a link that says “liver, left lobe, more specific.” When I got left lobe, innate brought me to the depth of my knowledge about this liver. If I need to know more I just Google it. (I’ve only Binged a couple of times.)

I have received some amazing comments from people who have had truly healing results. Much fun… and I do love to have fun.

Enjoy reading my musing. I’m glad you’re here.  [/one_half_last]