Now That Thanksgiving Has Passed

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I know I did. But most importantly did you give thanks for all the blessings in your life and for everyone that is apart of it? Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays right next to Christmas. My question is why does it take these special days to get us thinking about how thankful we are and how giving we can be? We should be thankful everyday and full of gratitude for the many people and things in our lives.

We all get caught up with busy work and things that we believe are so important, we tend to forget to really be grateful for the things and people who are. I'm guilty myself. I had one such experience here lately where I realized I was neglecting an important person in my life because of my drive to complete some of my goals I had set this year and had given them more attention. I can't stress enough how important it is to tell those you love how much they mean to you and never assume that they "just know".

We're not perfect and we will all make mistakes but I wanted to share this because I had hurt my girlfriends feelings, and didn't even realize it. Better yet I was stubborn enough to not even recognize it. How's that for a shock. Now as we enter the last month of the year lets all do something better yet make a new year's resolution. Think of something everyday, doesn't matter how big or how small it is. that the special people in your life do for you. This could be a quality you love about them, something they do that makes you laugh, whatever it may be. Think of something that you appreciate about them, and let them know what it is, and watch what happens.

This will be a Thanksgiving I'll remember forever. Its times like this where you have a paradigm shift in your thinking that causes you to explore and think in different ways. Its the feedback you need to change course in your direction. When it comes down to it, the people that matter most in your life, are the things that cannot be replaced. They're special and unique and should be treated that way.

Thanks for reading and God bless!

Have You Ever Felt Like Quitting?

How many times have you felt like doing this? Its seems just so easy, its right at the tip of your tongue. You question yourself by asking is it worth it, do I really want to endure the pain to move on? Have you ever felt like this? I have.

I've been to the brink of just letting completely go, but right as I'm at my weakest, I stop. I begin to see visions of my family, my life, and my inner most deepest emotions come to the surface and compel me to move on. I close my eyes and I get goosebumps, and its right at this moment I become my strongest. How's that for inspiration?

See we all face challenges but we all expect not to. Why is that? Why do we expect that if we reach our goals, or reach "our" definition of success, do we think that problems, pain, and issues will go away? That is simply not true. Once we reach our ultimate success new problems and issues will arise giving us more room yet to grow.

I've suffered foreclosure, repossessions, a nasty divorce, emotional stress, a troubled childhood, and many more problems yet something inside of me - I can just feel it pouring through my veins - knows that I'm superior to circumstance and keeps me pressing on. I've emerged through each of these trials smarter, stronger, and more flexible and agile to change. Even better, I've emerged more stable in every aspect of my life, emotionally, financially, and spiritually.

I've found God in my life as a young man and I still pray for guidance. The most influential and motivating book I've ever read was the Bible. Teachings in the Bible can be seen in other books but just rewritten and articulated differently. The power to create your own life and master your mind can be found in many places including the words from David when he said, "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."

Think about this statement for a minute. It is truly profound. The story of Job and how he lost everything, his home, his wealth, his children, his life as he knew it. He began to lose hope and felt like quitting; then in his weakest moment he asked for forgiveness from God and he become at that moment, the strongest he'd ever been. How's that for inspiration?

The story of Joseph is amazing right from the start. He was exiled by his brothers, sold into slavery, then through perseverance, he became one of the most powerful men in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh, and found his true self in his journey through life filled with trials and struggles. See we all have the seeds of personal growth within us, but few ever realize the importance that circumstances play in nurturing those seeds to trees of opportunity.

When you are faced with life's greatest challenges, and you feel like there is no hope, remember that you are a creator of your life. You have the power to decide your direction, your attitude, your results, and your success. We've been "taught" or "conditioned" to believe that we are victims of circumstance and that we should point the finger at others when we don't get what we want or reach our goals. It keeps you in the "victim" stage, where if you do nothing to rectify your state of mind, you will rot there until you die.

Take responsibility for your life and your actions. Don't be a victim and point the finger. Train your mind to be flexible and agile to change. Continuous improvement is just that, continuous. This process is never-ending and should be treated and embraced as such. Just thinking about the powerful and emotional impact this will have on your life will bring tears to your eyes. Precious tears of joy and relieve that you can now take control over YOUR LIFE.

This may sound so harsh a bit but believe it. If you are not growing you are dying. So the next time you're at the brink of quitting, remember, its there that you will be at your strongest.

So I ask you, do you feel like quitting now?

Copyright © 2008 by Dustin Swigart

Personal Responsibility

Okay this is a touchy subject but I'm going to so tell on myself on this one. What ever happened to personal responsibility? We know that we have control over our thoughts, our lives, out attitudes, yet we still look for things or people to blame. Let me tell you, there is definitely many things out there you can find to blame but how about turning that finger around at yourself and get right down to the root of the problem, YOU!!.

When circumstances happen in life who decides how to react to them? You do. Who decides how to perceive those circumstances? You do. See a pattern here? It boils down to you and only you. Take a good look in the mirror. If you're not happy who's fault is it? Yours! Don't think so, then who will change it? Don't worry I'll wait....... Yep you're right again - YOU DO!

I do this to. Its so hard sometimes because we caught up in the moment or we get caught up in the rapid thoughts running through our minds, and then our emotions starting getting out of control. Then after you calm down you say to yourself what was I thinking. How could I be so stupid? I don't know what came over me. Sure you do, you were thinking about it while you were doing it but your attitude at that time was "I don't care" so you acted irrationally and now you come to this point where you feel bad about it.

I know this is hard to think about. Nobody wants to think that everything that happens to them is their own fault. But just try to contemplate this for a second. Who makes the choices to our you interact with the people in your life? Who is the one that is thinking on decisions before you make them and instead of logic, you act emotionally and then feel bad afterward?

Lets talk about a few examples. Is it your spouses fault that you cheated because you don't think they pay attention to you? Or could it be that you're upset and inside you could "get back" at them or "show them" so you cheat? Then you get caught up in the lies and cover up. Who's doing that? Certainly not your spouse.

How about deciding on taking a job? Is it you that makes that decision? So is it your bosses fault you're not happy? You made a commitment to them to do your job and they made a commitment to pay you for it. So can they say because they are not happy today so they don't want to pay you? No, so just the same, if you are having a bad day does that mean you don't hold up your end of the bargain? Again the answer is no.

So as we think about these couple of examples can you start to see a pattern of WHO makes the decisions? Its really simple, take personal responsibility for your actions, thoughts, attitudes, and every decision you make in life. When you start to grasp this topic, and really take it to heart, your eyes will open. And OPEN WIDE they will.

You begin to see things in a different light, a paradigm shift if you will. You will begin to appreciate life more because you will grasp the fact that you control your life. Circumstances don't control you because you are the ultimate judge of the circumstance. What someone else may feel about it doesn't matter. Its nothing until YOU call it what it is.

Remember this the next time you're faced with a decision or circumstance. Be cognizant of your feelings at that moment. Be aware that you are contemplating what decision to make and what the pros and cons are of each. Try to disconnect your feelings from the topic and review subjectively. Then with a clear mind make a decision knowing that you fully take ownership. If you screw up so what, everybody does.

I screw up so bad sometimes that I hate myself for a minute but I begin to realize my negative behavior, and then begin looking and analyzing the situation searching for the lesson that's buried in it. I'm very positive yet I have so much happen to me its ridiculous. The important part is that after the initial shock I actually invite the situation and embrace it. This is because I know that I'll learn something from it and in the end I'll be stronger because of it.

Problems begin to not seem like problems, they seem to be just another item on the to do list. Over time you gain strength, power, energy, and wisdom. You really do have control you just have to know and believe you do. Once this happens, watch out, you'll be energized just by the thought of it.

Copyright © 2008 by Dustin Swigart

Have You Told Them?

I just wanted to take a moment to ask an important question. I know we all get up in day to day activies and we can get so busy that we are just dead tired at the end of the day and we just want to relax. Have you told your loved ones today how much they mean to you? Did you give your spouse or children a warm hug that was heart felt today? Its only in times of trouble or crisis that we really "feel" appreciation for our loved ones. This is not always the case but it happens more times than not.

Tell your wife or husband you love them and let them know how special they are to you. In life we get so used to a routine and assume our loved ones "just know" how we feel. While that is true they also need to HEAR that its true. Life is about sharing moments, and creating memories. It doesn't have to be all about reaching your career or financial goals, you'll reach a time in your life where you'll be an absolute success but have nobody to enjoy it with. Do you want it to be that way?

Balance of goals is key and personal and spiritual goals should be included in your plans. People are not happy because they're successful, they're successful because their happy. Think about his for a second. Keep thinking a minute. If you're only happy because you are succeeding in your finacial or career goals and your moods vary based on the roller coaster ride we call life, you'll never have true happiness.

I must say I suffered from doing this myself. I got so "worried" about being productive that I didn't even think about balance. I pressed myself for time and missed out on some really important moments in my children's lives. Time is something you can't get back so don't waste it.

Love those who love you. Tell them, with feeling, how much they mean to you. Live every moment as your last in appreciating the very seconds that tick by because once they're gone, they're gone.

Copyright © 2008 by Dustin Swigart

Where Has Your Focus Been?

We all know we get distracted and off course from time to time. We begin to ask what happened? Why is this not working? What am I doing wrong? I'm not saying don't worry about performance and results, and not to make changes as needed, we just tend to focus on the wrong things when it appears we're not making progress.

We set our targets on heads, but we're thinking about tails. We judge our days by the harvest and not by the seeds we plant. Persistent effort to follow through with nurturing of those seeds to trees of opportunity is needed.

What do your daily activities consist of? Are you implementing systems? Are you prospecting? Are you improving your knowledge and efficiency of your systems? Its so easy to get caught up on what's going on in the news. You see headlines of a troubled economy yet there are still people thriving, hitting their goals, and growing their businesses.

What's the difference? Its obviously their focus. We can get and stay busy ALL day with busy work. We can shuffle papers, search the net, and even complain about whatever we want to. Now I don't mean to say that you shouldn't know what's going on or even that you shouldn't care. When the economy suffers, people lose jobs and I personally can't stand to hear that.

My point is you don't have to be inundated with it. Use the information to be creative and proactive, taking advantage of opportunity. A slowdown is normal in a business cycle. You should be ready not scared. Your energy will flow to where your focused attention goes. How you think and perceive something will affect how you act toward it thereby creating your reality.

If you think and focus on business is slow; your actions will follow with decreased work hours, your attitude is affected, your creativity slows, your momentum wains, and now your results spell business is slow. If you're focused on the many opportunities that are available, then you begin acting as such. Your attitude is great, you see your targets clearly, creativity is spiraling upward, momentum is gaining, and your results show the same. In other words you find what you're looking for and get what you find.

So where has your focus been? Has it been on all the negative and bad things you can find? Or, are you focused on hitting your targets and reaching your goals? I struggled a lot for a long time due to my impatience. I'm going to tell on myself a little here. I would get so frustrated when I didn't see results instantaneously. I would think, well I worked so hard what happened? I just wouldn't give anything enough time, I wanted instant gratification. This type of focus won't work.

Only when I created a learning environment, and judged my days by the seeds I sowed, did I begin to see the fruit of my labor through my results. I began to steadily and incrementally increase my power and I learned so much from it.

I do want to add something though. Don't ever forget your loved ones. I know we all want success but burning the candle from both ends will only invite adversity and failure. Balance is key. We all want golden eggs, but you have to take care of the goose to insure more golden eggs. We can leverage our time, energy, and money but once time is gone it's gone forever. Cherish and appreciate it like you do the air you feel in your lungs right now.

The bottom line here is stay a student of life, don't "grow up" so to speak and think you know it all. Keep the mindset of a child, in the sense, that you are going to pour your all into everything, keep things simple, have fun, and love those who love you.

Copyright © 2008 by Dustin Swigart

Are You Getting Where You Want To Go in Life?

Okay I was sitting at my desk the other day just thinking, as I usually do for about 15 minutes every morning, just contemplating on how I can better serve my readers and followers. I finally, after a few minutes of deep thought, realized that I should ask a very important question first. It may seem simple but its powerful.

Are you getting where you want to go in life? Well let me elaborate a little. We all have dreams we all have goals, we all want to do many things in life. We're bombarded by marketing ads that promise the good life but what we really don't do is try to connect to what we value the most in life. What I mean is, are you writing down ideas that move you or are you just "trying something new"? Do you really love what you do or does it just pay pretty good? Do you jump out of bed every morning ready to tackle the day? These are some pretty good questions that should be asked everyday. Why? Well it will tell you whether or not you are getting where you want to go in life.

Lets take me for example, I love to help people in many ways. I personally care for my clients and I want them to succeed. I don't feel that what I'm doing is work therefore I throw myself into it and I'm achieving great success. I've written down a road map, a plan to how I'm going to achieve what I want in life. See to me, my goals will never be "finished" so to speak. This is because I'll find more worthwhile goals that I'll want to achieve after I reach the ones I have written down now. This is growth.

The most important thing to remember is to keep looking at that plan everyday to make sure you are steadily moving forward. We all hit bumps in the road but that's what helps us learn and we become creative by stimulating our mind and thinking of solutions to our problems rather than complaining about them. We embrace them and are happy at the challenge. See complaining gets you nowhere; and the longer to sit and complain the less time you're devoting to finding a solution.

Sometimes our circumstances are actually blessings in disguise. We soon see that our "old way" of thinking is not bringing us to our desired result so we must make some adjustments and change course in our direction. We need that negative feedback so we can improve. Let me ask you, what are passionate about? What moves you? We must focus on steadily increasing our power through self-analysis, awareness, and strengthening decisions that bring us to the finish line in reaching our goals. There is always room for improvement, just keep a focused mind on this and you'll see dramatic changes in your thought patterns, which in turn, will change your life.

When you focus your thoughts on productive activities and you keep your mind strong, powerful transformation will happen in your life. You'll realize that you are very strong willed, and that you will rarely get stressed. This is because you become a bigger person than your problems and they don't even register in your mind as problems anymore. They are just something else that needs to be done through the course of the day. You'll gain strength and courage. You find that once you can separate your emotions from objective and powerful thought, you'll be able to remain completely calm and level-headed when making decisions. This is very important because when emotionally rattled, you can't possible be in a position to make great decisions.

So are you getting where you want to go in life? If you're not I suggest you take some time, think deeply about your current situation. Practice deep thought every morning before you start your day. Imagine what great things you'll accomplish and then you must incorporate the most important step, you must take ACTION!!!!

As a thanks for reading my blogs I'm going to give you a FREE GIFT, as a token of my appreciation. Go here, http://www.BestInternetMarketingEbooks.com/optin/millionsonline, right now and get your FREE GIFT!!!

Thanks again

Dustin

Copyright © 2008 by Dustin Swigart