No, not really. The self help industry is safe for now. But this video clip begs the question, “Should it really be that hard to solve your problems?” Maybe this video about self help oversimplifies things just a little bit… but then again… maybe not!

Enjoy this classic self improvement clip from Bob Newhart on the MadTV television show and decide for yourself!

Okay, now that you have watched the video…… what was your first reaction?

After you were done laughing that is.

Did you say something like, “If only it was that easy!”, or “I wish that were all it took!”??

Let me ask you…

What does it take for you to stop a self-destructive habit that is causing you pain?

If saying ‘STOP IT!’ to yourself is not enough… what is?

• Blaming doesn’t work.
• Complaining doesn’t work.
• Explaining doesn’t work.

All the strategy in the world won’t help you until you make a conscious decision to change.

This is a lighthearted look at solving your personal problems, and yet it touches on the very core of the self growth process.

All change comes from within.

If you look for the solutions to your problems out there in the world somewhere you are going to continue to struggle. If you take responsiblity for your life however, and make a conscious decision to change… Now you are tapping into your full potential.

What do you think? Is this skit with Bob Newhart pretty much right on the money when it comes to the majority of your ‘problems’?

Isn’t there something in your life that if you just STOP IT you will be much better off?

Go ahead. Be brave.

STOP IT!

Peace,

Bob Crawford

p.s. Stopping bad habits and starting successful habits are one and the same. Doing both is essential to creating the changes in your life that you are seeking, and are the types of strategies I share in the Peaceful Spirit newsletter. Subscribe today and grab your free gift – my latest law of attraction ebook. Click here –>www.FreeLawofAttractionReport.com

Decide to Succeed!

Are you clear about the direction you are heading in? Or are you simply taking whatever life throws at you? If you find yourself struggling everyday you are probably stuck in the first step of the manifesting process, which is deciding exactly what you want your life to look like.

Now, you might say that deciding what you want is not the problem, you know what you want… you are just having a hard time getting it to manifest in your reality, but the truth is that knowing what you want is not the same as deciding what you want.

We all have dreams. We all have wishes. We all have desires. But none of those will become a reality for you if you don’t decide to make those dreams real, if you don’t decide to change. It is the decision to focus on your goals and move toward them that changes them from wispy dreams into solid reality.

But that’s not the end of the battle, is it? You have probably decided to reach out toward several dreams and even though you have made the decision, you’ve decided that this is what you want, you can still struggle to make those dreams real. You can still find yourself faced with obstacles and roadblocks that make you doubt your ability to actually make this happen.

How can this be?

It happens because getting clear about the changes you want to make, in other words, deciding what you want, is not really one decision, it is actually two separate decisions.

The first is a decision to move toward a specific goal. This is where you’ve narrowed down your desires and chosen a particular dream that you want to create. This is the decision that gets written about and talked about all the time. Decide what you want, decide what you want, decide what you want… unfortunately, that’s not enough.

The second decision in the process is the important one. This is the step that gets left out and causes you so much grief and struggle. The second decision is when you decide to make the changes necessary to bring your goal to life.  You see, it’s one thing to decide to lose weight, it’s another to decide to change your eating habits or alter your beliefs about eating.

It’s easy to decide what you want. What causes you struggle is your resistance to the changes you need to make.

Every new thing that you bring into your life, every new part of your being that you want to express, requires you to change.  YOU.  Not the world, not your neighbors, not those annoying people in your life… YOU have to change.  You have to decide that the changes you want are worth the effort. This is what throws many people off track. They decide what they want, but they are unwilling to change anything in their life to get it.

One of the biggest misconceptions about self improvement is that once you learn the process you can have everything you want in life. That’s what all the books and movies tell you, right?

WRONG.

You can have anything you want in life, but you can’t have everything at once. Many of your desires are actually at odds with each other, and if you try to have both in your life at the same time you wind up feeling blocked and you meet with mountains of struggle.

Let’s stick with the weight loss example. You may decide that you want to lose weight, that may be an important goal that you want to create.  But at the same time you find yourself unwilling to change your eating habits, or your exercise, or even the very thoughts that you have about food. This unwillingness to change is at the heart of your struggle. This is true regardless of your goal.

The solution is simple, but one that you might find yourself having a hard time committing to. You have to prioritize your wants and desires and see which ones are most important to you. While you may enjoy gorging yourself on your favorite foods, you will discover that you can’t lose the weight unless you change your eating habits.

You see, the decision to lose weight is not enough in itself to power your success. You must also look at your decision and see what changes you have to make right now in order to bring that dream to life. You might look at your decision to lose weight and discover that there are many changes you must make in your life. Each one of those changes requires you to make another decision. You can feel like you are ‘giving up’ something. It can be frustrating.

The secret to success is looking at your desires and honestly assessing the changes you need to make. If you find yourself unwilling to give up your fast food addiction then you probably aren’t really committed to making weight loss a reality.

A happy, successful life is not about punishing yourself or going without. It is about learning your true desires and deciding which ones are important enough to you for you to begin changing. Life is full of choices and many times you will find yourself being pulled in more than one direction at a time.

The key to your happiness lies in understanding that you CAN have everything you want, just not all at once. Decide which of your dreams is most important to you and decide to make the changes that will make your dream a reality.

Peace,

p.s.  There are lots of great ways to help you choose your path and succeed in life, but none are matched by the power of a strong support network and positive feedback.  Those are just two of the benefits that a mastermind-style group can provide you.

p.p.s. Don’t forget to DREAM BIG!

Create Your Day!

You can learn to create your day, you can learn to improve the very quality of your day, simply by deciding to. You may not believe it but you are the one who is really in control of how you perceive your day to be.Are you having a good day today?

Or is today one of those days… you know, one of those days that seem to drag on and on, one of those days where one thing goes wrong after another, one of those days where you can’t wait until the day is finally over?

We all have those days, don’t we?

The problem is often that you have too many of them. It can feel like nothing ever goes your way… like the sun never shines.  It can feel like you have no power to control the quality of your day… stuff just happens ‘to you’ that brings you down and ruins your day.

Would you like to have less of those kinds of days? You can. Just by applying the ideas that I’ll share with you in this post.

You see, you don’t have to suffer at the expense of your happiness. You can choose the type of day that you’d like to have. You can choose to be happy. Or you can choose to let yourself get bounced around by life.

You can create your day, you can literally mold it and shape it into the kind of experience that you want.

I know that you may find it hard to believe, that you have this kind of power. But it is true! The key thing to remember is that it’s not the events around you that create a good day or a bad day for you. It’s how you perceive those events around you and how you react to those events around you.

That’s what makes the difference between success and failure. Between happiness and struggle. Between having one of those days and having a GREAT day!

It’s your attitude… your outlook. Do you expect today to be another lousy day? Well, guess what? It will be! If you expect today to be full of opportunity, it will be!

In order to create your day you have to be willing to look closely at your perceptions and make a decision that in spite of whatever challenges you may encounter that today will be a good day.

The choice is yours!

You can make today a great day by deciding to focus on those things that matter to you, that are important to you. You understand this on a subconscious level. You know that you are in control, you simply forget to use that control.

Go ahead. Decide that today will be a good day. Decide that in spite of whatever curveballs life throws at you today, that you will create your day in a fashion that suits YOU.

Peace,

p.s. Learning to control your mental attitude is just one of the inner skills that we spend time learning about in the Inner Circle of Success group. I’d love for you to join us and begin your own journey of growth and achievement. You can get all the details at www.bobcrawford.info.

p.p.s. Let me know how you do! Share your comments below and let others know that deciding to have a great day can really impact your life.

Confused?

Is the universe sending you signs and signals?  If it is, are you aware of them?  Are you taking advantage of them?

I started thinking about signs and the role that they play in our lives after a reader sent me an email about an article I have posted on my site.  You can read this article about signs from the universe by clicking here: www.bobcrawfordonline.com/articles/002-signs.html.  It’s called “Signs: Coincidences or Messages from the Universe?”

Anyway, this reader was troubled and confused by the apparent contradictory signs that she received from the universe regarding her personal situation.  She was looking for a way to make sense of the mixed answers she was getting.  Although I answered her email personally, I felt that her questions raised a few good points that all my readers could benefit from.

I believe that there are two main areas where you can get hung up when it comes to interpreting signs and guidance from the universe, and my dear reader was struggling with both of them.  Unfortunately, she’s not alone.  I know that she is experiencing the same challenges that many of us face when it comes to receiving and acting on guidance from sources outside of ourselves.

Let’s look at each of these areas:

The first challenge to being aware of and taking advantage of the signs around you is your ability to separate your desires from your reality.

Sometimes, your ‘wanting’ a particular answer or outcome to a situation influences your perception of the signs around you.  In other words, instead of trying to interpret a sign and trying to understand what it means to you, you look for signs to prove that you made the right choice.  Worse yet, you ignore obvious signs from the universe because you don’t want to accept guidance in a particular direction.

This backwards approach to accepting universal guidance ALWAYS leads to struggle and confusion.  Why?  Because after the fact you can always find a sign to support your decision, no matter what you decide.  Always.

The act of desiring a certain outcome will cause you to filter what you see and hear and as a result you start interpreting from a mental level and not from an inner level.  In the original article I stressed the importance of allowing yourself to feel your emotional reaction to the signs that you experience.  The emotions you feel are a reaction from your inner self.  If there is no emotional reaction to the experience of a ‘sign’ then you are in that mental state – making the signs fit the circumstances.

In fact, if you desire a certain outcome there really is no need to be worrying about signs in the first place, because you have already decided what you want.  You’re not looking for guidance, you’re just looking for affirmation.  But the only real affirmation you need is your desire.  I believe we are all given the tools we need to move and act in harmony with the universe and our intentions.

The second challenge when it comes to interpreting signs is avoiding the temptation to bargain with the universe or to set guidelines about the shape and meaning of the signs that you encounter.  I’ve been guilty of this one myself.

“I’m only going to do this if you show me a sign.”

“If the next car I see is a red one, then I’ll take the job.” (or make whatever choice you are uncertain about.)

These are examples of trying to set boundaries for the signs that you want.  Rather than experiencing an event and having a clear understanding that the event has some meaning for you, you are trying to force signs to appear at your command.

This leads to trouble too, because once again you are not operating from an inner level, you are up there in your head, thinking and causing trouble for yourself.

Asking for guidance and then waiting for a sign to help you choose a direction or make a decision is fine… but saying to the universe, “Alright, if you really want me to do this then show me a sign,” doesn’t work.

The bottom line when seeking guidance of any kind, from any source, is always the same.  Trust your heart.  When you are faced with a decision and are seeking guidance from your creator or the universe you have to step back and allow yourself to experience what you need.  This can be difficult, especially if you are in the middle of a crisis, but it is only by allowing and not forcing that you will find yourself recognizing meaningful signs and messages.

Like so many other aspects of your self growth, learning to see and use these signs and messages begins by trusting your inner self and staying out of your own way!

Peace,

Bob

p.s.: Why not leave a comment and share your take on the sign vs. coincidence issue?

When it comes to dreams and goals I have one hard and fast rule…

There is no dream too big!

That’s right!, your dreams are your own.  One of the greatest truths that we have discovered is that YOU get to decide what you want to become or experience in your own life.  You get to choose your own path through life by choosing which of your desires to go after.

People around you, like your friends and family, can put labels on your dreams and tell you that they are too ‘big’ or too ‘small’ or some other such nonsense, but only YOU get to decide the true importance of your dreams.

YOU label your dreams as important the moment you decide to go after them.

It is your yearning, your desire to improve your life situation that moves you to take action and to make your dreams a reality. You get to decide which dreams you want to create in your life.  Nobody else.  You get to decide which of your dreams are big ones and worth going after.

It is those big dreams that you will find yourself pouring your energy into.  It is those big dreams that keep you awake at night and get you out of bed early in the morning that have the power to come true.  Those big dreams are the ones you will be willing to make sacrifices to achieve.

The good news is that your dreams become big dreams the moment you decide to achieve them.  Once you commit yourself to bringing a dream into reality you begin to unlock your full potential and power.

Here are some questions to help you start thinking about those big dreams.

• What area(s) of your life are you struggling in?
• Where do you need to make changes?
• Are they big changes?
• Little changes?
• How will your life improve if you make these changes?
• What will happen if you don’t make these changes?

… and probably the most important question of all…

• When are you going to make those changes?

Asking yourself questions like these is an excellent way to get clear about what is really important to you.

Don’t let the size or apparent difficulty of your dream hold you back either! The world is full of stories of women and men who overcame tremendous obstacles to achieve their dreams.  YOU can too.

The secret, if there is such a thing, is simply to make up your mind – to decide – that your dream is worth pursuing.  The flip side of this secret is that you will always have a hard time achieving those goals and dreams that aren’t important to YOU.

So decide what is important to you and begin moving towards YOUR dreams.  You will be surprised at how the universe responds when you commit yourself to improving your life.

Peace,

p.s. I invite you to take a moment and share some of your biggest dreams and goals with other readers by leaving a comment below.

Here’s a quick question for you: How many times have you wished you could make better decisions? Or that you could get better results from the decisions that you do make? Or that you didn’t have to make so many decisions in the first place?

These are common frustrations; frustrations that can prevent you from reaching your goals and dreams.

You can eliminate these frustrations by simply deciding, right now, to make better decisions.

That’s right. Simply decide that from this point on you will make better decisions.

You might scoff at the simplicity of this technique, but this is the essence of the law of attraction. Once YOU decide to make better decisions, you will begin making better decisions.

Successful people in every field understand this and apply it either consciously or unconsciously. They don’t doubt their decisions. They know, on a deep, inner level, that each decision they make is made with the full intention and power of their desire to achieve their goals and dreams.

What happens to many of us is that we allow ourselves to fall into a cycle of doubt and worry. Each decision that we make is agonizing and painful. We’re plagued by ‘what ifs’ and we constantly worry about making the wrong decision.

This is a prime example of the law of attraction in action. Because you doubt your decision making ability, you allow all those fears and possibilities to get in your way. You literally attract them to yourself. You become unable to base your decisions on facts and reason and instead base them on what are really nothing more than fantasies and imaginary troubles.

The key to learning to make good decisions is to simply state your intention to do so – to yourself. Write your intention to become a good decision maker down, make it your mantra, repeat it to yourself over and over. Integrate it into your daily affirmations, (you are using daily affirmations, right?)

Remember, you didn’t learn to doubt your decisions overnight, it was a slow, gradual process. But, once you begin this process of reinforcing your decision making skills you will notice a change in the way that you approach decision making. You will become more confident. It will become easier to make decisions. You may even find yourself enjoying making decisions.

It all begins with you and your intention to succeed. Once you make success your destination you will find yourself attracting the tools and inner resources that you need to succeed!

Take action today! Decide that you always make the best decisions for your self and your future!

Peace,