Bringing Balance to Life: Visualize Success

Imagination powerfully influences successful out­comes. When imagination and willpower compete, the imagination always wins. Force of will never keeps you striving for success, but proper visualization will. Visualization will make you a winner on the golf course or tennis court and it will enable you to be more success­ful in business and your daily life.

All peak performers visualize success. Before shoot­ing a free throw, skilled basketball players see the ball ripping through the net. Before great golfers hit each ball, they vividly picture where they want the ball to go.

Likewise, when we visualize a pleasant and con­tented family life, we will most likely have a happy home. And visualizing business success enhances a good outcome.

A relaxed mind enforces the effectiveness of visual­ization. Practice this exercise: Assume a relaxed posi­tion. Close your eyes. Silently repeat these words, "Breathe in relaxation; breathe out tension." When you feel relaxed, visualize what you want to happen. Focus on this positive visual image for a few seconds. Open your eyes and hit the golf ball straight down the middle of the fairway        …or successfully complete that sales call…or peacefully persuade your truculent child to go to his room.

Bringing Balance to Life: Choose Enthusiasm

At a fruit stand the farmer arranged his blueberries in attractive baskets but said nothing to the first ten customers who passed him. Only one person purchased blueberries.

He offered the next ten a basket of blueberries with this assertive query, "You want some blueberries, don't you?!" Half of them purchased his blueberries.

He asked the last ten, "Do you want one or two baskets of blueberries?"  Four customers bought two baskets; five acquired one basket; only one refused to buy.

Enthusiastic assumptions assure successful outcomes. Corporate presidents voted enthusiasm the most valuable personality trait. It's the biggest single factor in successful selling. It wins ball games. Inspires audiences. Enhances learning. Builds team spirit. Propels careers. 

Become enthusiastic by acting enthusiastically. See your dreams come true. Talk enthusiastically.  Your words and actions determine your level of enthusiasm.

Make dull days bright by adding zip to everything you do. Put a bounce in your step. A hearty handshake indicates you are glad to be alive and happy to be with the other person. A robust smile radiates enthusiasm. Reply to the mundane, "How do you do?" with an attention getting, "Fantastic...and I'm going to get better!" Put spirit into your speech by varying the pace, raising and lowering the pitch, changing the tone and modulation. Talk with more than your mouth----use wide sweeping gestures. Don't hold back. Turn it on. Force yourself to act with enthusiasm and soon you will feel enthusiastic.

Broadcast good news. Take sunshine to work. Positive news promotes good will and spreads enthusiasm.  Talk about the exciting things your company is doing. Compliment people you work with. Always aim to make people feel better than they otherwise would.

Bring rainbows home.  Talk to your family about the amusing, pleasant things you experienced during the day. Be a positive, optimistic example for your loved ones. 

Learn something useful. The more you know about some­thing, the more your enthusiasm for that subject soars. Make an effort to learn all you can about people----ask about their occupation, their families, their hobbies, their dreams and ideas. Keep asking and you're certain to find something to get enthusiastic about. 

Find time to play. Free and spontaneous activity emphasizes enjoyment not achievement. Emotion, not effort, enhances play. 

Cultivate gratitude. Glorify in your blessings, your expectations, and your abundant opportunities.

Bringing Balance to Life: Attitude Adjustment

Two shoe salesmen were given a new territory on a Pacific island. Immediately upon arrival, the first sales­man placed an urgent call to the home office:  "Get me out of here. No one on this island wears shoes."

The second salesman sent an request to the factory, "Please put everybody on overtime. Will need as many shoes as you can manufacture. No one on this island has any shoes."

Attitude----the altitude adjuster----determines whether we fly high or low, crash or soar, glide or slide. Attitude is more significant than what's happened or what's hap­pening. Attitude is more consequential than the past, than genetics, than education, than money, than appearance, or talent. Attitude is more important than what other people think about us. 

A couple of days ago I had a pity party. I became upset with everything and everybody. Suddenly I felt ashamed. I wasn't any better than a spoilsport. I rebuked myself:  Anybody can have a positive attitude when things are going well. It's how you act when things are going badly that determines the strength of your character. An appropriate attitude means feeling hopeful in challenging times. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Count your blessings. Look for the good.

I shared my insight with a friend who, later that day, gave me a adhesive label to place on my bathroom mirror. Now whenever I shave, brush my teeth, or comb my hair, I see the message: Attitude is Everything. This little reminder helps me tidy up my point of view.

Whether we are running hot, running cold, or sim­ply running on overload, we can take charge of our atti­tude by remembering these aphorisms:

• Emotional disposition outshines our social position
• What matters is what happens in us not to us
• Choices, not circumstances, determine how we think
• Activity cures misery
• The most certain way to success is to try one more time
• Act "as if" to get positive results
• What I think trumps what others think
• Contentment depends on our response to events
• Gratitude adjusts our attitude.

Do platitudes help us live better? Do bathroom decals influence us? Are positive stories helpful? You bet!  Inspiration transforms attitudes. 

Bringing Balance to Life: The Power of Optimism

A fishing guide once said that catching a trout depends more on who's holding the pole than the bait that's on the hook. "Optimists catch more fish," he said. "They believe they're going to catch 'em and they catch 'em."

Optimism helps athletes. Swimmers were given a psychological test that measured attitude. Those who scored high on optimism performed better after a defeat. Swimmers who scored low on optimism performed worse after a defeat.

Optimism helps students. Psychologists gave col­lege freshmen tests to measure optimism. Four years later, the psychologists found that optimism predicted college grades better than SAT scores or high-school grades.

Optimism helps sales people. Optimistic sales people sell almost forty per­cent more product than pessimists sell. Three quarters of insurance salesmen quit in their first three years. Guess what? Pessimists quit twice as often as optimists. MetLife Insurance executives hired a special group of applicants who failed the normal screening tests, but scored high on optimism. The first year on the job the "dumb" optimists sold 21% more insurance than 'the "smart" pessimists. The second year, the optimists sold 57% more insurance than the pessimists. "Dumb" opti­mists sell more insurance than "smart" pessimists.

Optimism can be learned! Increase your belief in several areas of your life:

• Believe in a God who gives strength for the task ahead: Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. 
• Believe in a country that gives you the freedom to develop your talents.
• Believe in a free-enterprise system that provides you a method to succeed.
• Visualize success. In your mind's eye paint a vivid picture of yourself succeeding.
• Feel in advance what it would feel like when you succeed.
• Assume a confident posture: Stand tall, head erect, eager gaze. 
• Believe in positive action.
• Nothing builds optimism more than action. 
• Act and learn from your actions.
• Succeed by taking little baby steps toward success. 
• Each successful attempt teaches you how to improve. 
• Your optimism soars every time you improve on what you learn.

Bringing Balance to Life: Word Programming

The mind is like a computer: Our lips are the keyboard; our cerebral cortex is the storage disk. Negative talk programs our storage disk (the subcon­scious mind) for poor outcomes; positive talk programs our mind for positive results.

If I listen carefully to everything I say about myself, I’m surprised to discover that I sometimes program my mind for negative feelings: I wish I had done this. I should have done that. I’ll never learn. I’m dumpy. Doddering. Dumb. Done for. 

I’ve decided to rid myself of negative talk by:

• Speaking hopeful words
• Never missing an opportu­nity to genuinely compliment others
• Finding and saying something good about others
• Speaking thankfully
• Showing appreciation at every opportunity
• Encouraging the timid
• Praising good behavior, ignoring bad behavior
• Expecting and speaking positive outcomes
• Eliminating shoulds, oughts, and musts from my vocabulary
• Refusing to beat myself with negative words
• Speaking (to myself) what I want to be
• Telling myself in a soft whisper: God is with me wherever I go; the Holy Spirit will guide me; Jesus forgives me

Bringing Balance to Life: Life's Clock

During our visit to Lyon, France we toured Cathedrale Saint-Jean Baptiste. Begun in the twelfth century and completed in 1497, the cathedral has an astronomical clock from the 14th century.

"What's an astronomical clock?" I asked myself. When I got home I looked it up: The astronomical clock reveals the position of the moon, sun, and planets as well as giving the time of day....But after reading, researching, and reading some more, I can't tell you how it works.

But I do know this:

• Spend time following your own dreams; don't waste time living a life planned by others.
• If you don't protect your allotment of time, no one else will.
• Once you've wasted your time, you'll never get it back.
• Instead of counting every hour in the day, make every hour of the day count.
• Taking time for rest, relaxation, fun, and friendship keeps your clock ticking.
• Love is spelled T-I-M-E.

Bringing Balance to Life: Choose the Beautiful

Poor emotional health robs us of valuable time and prevents us from enjoying a balanced life. The good news: Our emotional health depends on our attitude. The proper attitude creates a life worth living and makes time worthwhile. We can choose: 

• To accept or refuse love
• Grow from or surrender to challenges 
• Enjoy or complain about our work 
• Modify our habits or let our harmful habits control us
• Cultivate tranquility or be overwhelmed by stress
• Seize opportunities or cower in a corner 
• Enjoy being alive or dread waking up. 

Our response to life's difficulties determines our happiness and health. Within us resides the gift to accept responsibility for our own happiness. We can shape adversity into an advantage. We can turn tragedy into hope. We can live the life we choose. The power to change gives us the opportunity for a blessed and balanced life.

The blind poet, Milton, wrote, The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. 

Thoughts of two famous people underscore Milton's point:

• Napoleon who had power, riches, and glory said, I have never known six happy days in my life. 
• Helen Keller, rendered blind and deaf from childhood meningitis, declared, I have found life so beautiful. 

Events and acquisitions fail to give us lasting happiness. Our thoughts can. Mind-body research (psychoneuroimmunology) proves that negative thoughts produce stress hormones. Optimistic thoughts cause the release of endorphins and other beneficial brain chemicals causing good feelings. What we think determines how we feel.

Let's choose the beautiful.

Bringing Balance to Life: A Time for Healing

A cheerful heart does good like medicine, but a crushed spirit dries the bones.

                                                                                                                         Proverbs 17:22

Research involving the mind-body connection (called psychoneuroimmunology) can be summarized in one sentence: The cerebral cortex (the thinking part of the brain) is connected to the limbic area (the feeling part of the brain) that is linked to the hypothalamus (the hormone control button of the brain) that, in turn, influences the rest of the body through a series of extremely complex microbiological connections.

When we have a thought or a feeling, our brains make chemicals known as neuropeptides. These protein­like molecules attach to the receptor sites of blood cells allowing brain and body cells to talk to each other chemically. Immune cells that repair tissue, heal wounds, ingest bacteria, and protect us from cancer have receptors for these chemical messengers.

Messages flowing between the brain and the immune cells are transported instantaneously. When we experience joy, the white blood cells receive that mes­sage immediately. Conversely, when we are unhappy, a negative message is transmitted directly to the white blood cells. Thus, our emotional reaction influences physical health. Positive message, good health. Negative message, poor health.

What's more intriguing, scientists have discovered certain cells in the body can make the same chemicals that the brain makes when it thinks. Our body cells make harmful or beneficial chemicals depending on our mood. A cheerful heart does good like medicine, but a crushed spirit dries the bones...is more than an aphorism. Likewise, there may be biological truth in the statements, He's a pain in the neck, or She makes me sick.