The Thank You Game by Cheryl Richardson

The Thank You Game by Cheryl Richardson


I love this time of year and I'm always excited to announce the "Thank You Game," during Thanksgiving week here in the States. Whether you celebrate Thanksgiving or not, saying "thank you" to the people in your life is not only a wonderful way to bring some unexpected kindness to others, it's also a way to share the wealth of gratitude and to feel the power of connection. Showing your appreciation is like shining a bright, nourishing light on a beautiful flower - it causes people to open their hearts and smile.

So here's the deal. The object of the "Thank You Game" is to find a creative and inexpensive way to thank or acknowledge those people in your life who often get overlooked. Here are ten examples of what you might do...

1. Send a "thanks for being a great mom or dad" card to a busy parent and acknowledge them for contributing to humanity in a powerful way.

2. Offer thanks to a military family in your community. You could send a small gift of gratitude, help out with work around the house, or offer to take someone to lunch. Some of these folks have been away from their loved ones for months and months and they could really use your loving kindness.

3. Speak to the boss of an administrative assistant who has provided you with exceptional care and let him or her know how great you were treated.

4. Send a thank you card to someone who would least expect it like your auto mechanic, lawyer, accountant, dental hygienist, or doctor. If you own a deck of Grace Cards or Self-Care Cards, include a card, too. Trust me, you'll make their day!

5. Bring a box of goodies to the post office, your local fire department, or police station, and let the employees know that you appreciate them. From what I'm told, they rarely get this kind of acknowledgment, and seeing the surprised look on their faces is so much fun!

6. Leave a larger than normal tip hidden under a cup for your favorite restaurant server.

7. Send a free "Self-Care Card" or "Grace Card" via our new iPhone app to thank someone special.

8. Write the words "thank you" on the bills you pay this month (and include a Grace or Self Care Card, too). I've actually gotten calls from strangers about the cards they've received with my bills. You never know what a difference a small gesture of gratitude can make.

9. Bring some cookies to a local Veteran's or Nursing home.

10. Send a note of thanks to the teacher who takes good care of your son or daughter.

Whatever you decide to do, unleash your creative spirit and have some fun. As you play "The Thank You Game," you'll probably discover that saying thank you and giving to others feels so good you'll want to do it all year long!


Take Action Challenge


Stop for a moment and browse through your address book to identify the people who serve you, keep you safe, or help make your life easier in some way. Then, consider the people in your neighborhood, community, family or friends. Who could use a special "thank you" this week? Make a list of at least five people and thank one special person every day. Happy Thanksgiving!

Living a Five Star Life by Betty Mahalik

An excerpt from

Living a Five Star Life
by Betty Mahalik

I've watched the movie Chicken Run at least a half-dozen times. Just beneath the surface of its simplistic look and story line lie a number of wonderful messages told through the eyes of a bunch of Claymation chickens trying to break out of their chicken-wire world to escape their fate at the chopping block. Their freedom leader, a feisty little hen named Ginger, comments profoundly in one scene: "the fences are all in your mind." She reminds her fellow chickens (and us), that a bigger obstacle than the physical fences they're surrounded by are the mental fences that hold them captive.

It’s been a good reminder for me on those occasions when I’ve been dealing my own mental fences...those created by self-doubt, uncertainty, fear. Can you relate? Where have you fenced yourself in mentally in recent days or weeks? Perhaps your mental fence is procrastination, a deadening habit that keeps you stuck. Maybe yours, like mine, is related to self-doubt, and the on-going internal noise it produces that keeps you immobilized. Perhaps yours is the belief that you don't deserve success, so you sabotage yourself to avoid having to find out how successful you could be. There are a million variations of the theme, but the result is still the same: we stay stuck like the chickens in the movie.

One of the key questions in the Best Year Yet® program is: "How do I limit myself and how can I stop?" Those limitations are never external. They always live inside us. The antidote to being trapped by our mental fences is to create a compelling enough vision that, like Ginger and her flock of chicken friends, we're willing to resort to amazing measures to break out. The formula:

VISION + CONSISTENT ACTION = FREEDOM!
I challenge you to take some bold, even outrageous steps to break free of your mental fences. If it's procrastination, declare a "freedom day" and take action on everything you've been putting off: from cleaning your office to making phone calls or responding to emails you've avoided.

If it's self-doubt, sit down and write out everything you value and why it's important. Then challenge yourself to eliminate anything that doesn't absolutely reflect your values, or add something that is a profound statement of who you are.

FREEDOM IS JUST THE OTHER SIDE OF ACTION.
Recognize that your mental fences can only keep you stuck as long as you're looking at them. They can only contain you as long as you're not taking actions consistent with your vision. Go ahead, take the action you've avoided and leap into a future filled with possibilities. And remember, the fences are all in your mind!

Customer Love by Mac Anderson

An excerpt from

Customer Love
by Mac Anderson

As flight cancellations and delays wreak havoc on weary travelers, and planes are fuller than ever, the Wall Street Journal has managed to find a bright spot: United Airlines Captain Denny Flanagan.

On a flight headed your way, there is a pilot who is literally a gift from the heavens. For 21 years now, Flanagan, a former navy pilot, has put the friendly in friendly skies.

With his sense of humor and personal touch, he individually welcomes aboard every passenger on his United Airlines plane.

A father of five, Flanagan has also been known to buy food for planeloads of passengers on delayed flights. He snaps photos of dogs in the cargo hold to show owners their pets are safe and call the parents of children traveling alone.

"I want to treat them like I treat my family and it works. It's like hospitality. You stand at the door and you greet people when they come in and you say goodbye on the porch and wave to them," said Flanagan, who is 56 and lives in Ohio.

His unique brand of hospitality includes sending handwritten notes to frequent flyers and raffling off bottles of wine.

"How 'bout that? A bottled of chilled chardonnay from a pilot," said a delighted Paul Schroeder, a lucky United passenger.

He has developed quite a following in the air and online. One of the many posts on FlyerTalk.com about Flanagan read: "His effort rubbed off on the crew too, they were great."

Attitudes are truly contagious, and Captain Flanagan's is certainly worth catching!

Fast Food Love by Michael Webb

Fast Food Love
by Michael Webb Author, 50 Secrets of Blissful Relationships order
today at: http://www.TheRomantic.com/50secrets.htm

I read a news story a few weeks ago about a school that bucked
the system and tossed out the pizzas and french fries and other
kid-friendly food from its cafeteria and reintroduced healthy meals
that faded away over the last few decades.

At first, there was a big uproar. The kids wanted their fast
food back and others were worried about the significant increase
in cost for the home made, healthy food they were now serving in
the cafeteria. But something miraculous happened.

The kids now behave. The hallways aren't frantic. Even the teachers
are happy.

The school used to be out of control. Kids packed
weapons. Discipline problems swamped the principal's office.
But not since 1997.

Since then there have been zero expulsions, no suicides, not one
person caught doing drugs or carrying weapons. The fake food in
the cafeteria was replaced with real food and the vending machines
were carted away. And what a difference it made.

When kids are healthy their attitudes and dispositions change.

Now let's talk about love. Over the last few decades we've slowly
introduced so much fake love into our relationship diet that it has
now become the staple for many couples. Most people don't even
know what real, healthy love is these days. We no longer have
the patience to build love from scratch. We want fast-food love.
It's instantly gratifying even though it might make us sick in the
long run. Men and women don't want a courtship. They want to jump
straight from infatuation to intimacy. And we've got a lot of sick
relationships as a result.

While there is *some* nutrition in fast food, if it is your steady
diet, you are bound to suffer in the future.

Here are some examples of fast-food love: • Expensive gifts •
Quick physical intimacy • Flirting • Time together in silence
(like watching movies) • Dreaming about fantasies • Infatuation
("loving" someone you don't *really* know yet)

Healthy, nutritious love: • Serving each other • Sacrificing for
one another • Little gifts, just because • Regular, meaningful
conversations • Long physical intimacy with your spouse •
Planning together for the future • Commitment to someone you
really know

Is it any coincidence that as we introduce more and more fast-food
love into our relationships that they become more and more unhealthy
and the divorce rate keeps climbing?

Consider your own relationship. What does your diet look like? Maybe
its time to cut back on the fast-food love and start introducing
more healthy forms on love into your relationship (or get out of a
relationship that does not have healthy love). Yes, it takes more
time and energy, but the results are well worth it. And don't forget
that your real diet has a direct impact on your relationships just
as we saw what happened to the school children. Maybe its time to
start eating healthy too.

Dr. Wayne Dyer: Rewards Through Service by Marie-Louise Cook

SUCCESS Legend Series:
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer Rewards Through Service

by Marie-Louise Cook

Shoveling snow for neighbors and carrying their grocery bags is probably not taught as a success strategy by many business schools, but for Wayne W. Dyer, best-selling author and the owner of a multimillion-dollar business, it represents fundamental principles of success in business and life.

“I’ve run a business that’s been very, very successful. I run it on a very simple principle: I’m here to serve,” Dyer tells SUCCESS in an interview from his Maui, Hawaii, home.

While many business owners pay lip service to the idea of running a customer-focused company, few take it to the level that Dyer or his employees do. “If anybody writes me a bad check, I send them a gift. I send them something and remind them of that, and then I just drop it and I let it be in them. If we’re selling books at the back of a room, and somebody doesn’t have the money, we give the book to them. Always. When people make requests—‘Can we have this?’ or ‘Can you donate to this?’—the answer is always yes.”

Dyer’s approach to business may be unorthodox, but it has earned the psychoanalyst tremendous financial success, as well as a legion of intensely loyal fans around the world, during a career spanning more than 30 years. “

It makes sense to me to be generous, to be thoughtful, and to extend as much service as you possibly can and to suspend thoughts of what’s in it for you. It’s so simple. It’s not ‘He who has the gold makes the rules.’ It’s the other way around. Treat people the way you would like to be treated. That, to me, is a formula not just for business, but for life,” says Dyer, 69. “Lao Tzu [the ancient Chinese philosopher] says if you want to have meaning in your life, return to your original nature. He had what he called the ‘cardinal virtues,’ which is to have reverence for all of life, to practice gentleness and kindness to all beings, and to extend service. Instead of thinking about yourself, tame the ego. That’s how I live my life; that’s what I teach. I believe that businesses who do that will thrive.”

Philosophies Born Early

Dyer uses meditation to keep this philosophy at the forefront of his life and work. Even before a speaking engagement, in meditation, he asks, “How may I serve? How may I serve?” he says. “This helps me to keep my ego out of my talk. It keeps my attention off ‘What’s in it for me?’ or ‘How well am I going to do?’ or ‘How much money am I going to make?’ or ‘Are they going to like me?’ I meditate to let go of all of that and to really get into the moment of what it is that I am doing.”

Dyer’s belief in offering service stems from his early years, mostly spent in orphanages and foster homes in his native Detroit. He also learned self-reliance and the power of thought when he was very young.

“A woman once told me, ‘Wayne, if you don’t want something bad to happen, or if you want good things for yourself in your life, be careful about what you think, for you will become what you think as sure as the dawn follows night. Always remember, thoughts are things.’ Wow, the entire world wrapped up in those three magic words: Thoughts are things! A thought is the most powerful force in the universe. You can make of your life whatever you wish if you learn to make your thoughts work for you,” he says.

“I grew up in the east side of Detroit in an area where there was very little, except for a lot of scarcity, poverty and hunger, but I never woke up saying, ‘I’m an orphan again today, isn’t this terrible? Poor me.’ I never ever felt that I was unfairly treated. I’ve never been a complainer. There were a couple of very affl uent neighborhoods nearby, but I never thought for one second that those people had more than I had. It just seemed that they got what they were entitled to, and if I really wanted those things, then I would have them, too.”

Attracting Abundance

From the age of 4, Dyer discovered that service brought rewards. “I just knew how to attract abundance or prosperity or money into my life,” he recalls. “I was the richest kid in the orphanage. It was very simple: When it snowed, I’d go out and shovel the walks along the street. I didn’t ask for anything. I’d just go back and tell people, ‘I shoveled your walk.’ People would always give me money. I’d go to the grocery store down the street and help people carry their bags out. We had coal furnaces in those days, and I’d help people take the ashes out and park them in the alley. When I found out that an empty soda pop bottle was worth 2 cents when it was returned, I used to follow people around and ask them, ‘Are you through with that? When you’re done, I’ll take it off your hands.’ ”

After high school, Dyer enlisted in the U.S. Navy for four years’ service. The experience convinced him that he wanted to have control of his own life, so he enrolled at Wayne State University in Detroit. He went on to get a master’s degree in school counseling and later enrolled in a doctorate program in psychotherapy.

After six years of teaching, Dyer was 36, had a successful private therapy practice and was an associate professor at St. John’s University in New York. His lectures on positive thinking and motivational speaking techniques caught the attention of a literary agent who persuaded Dyer to write a book. The result was Your Erroneous Zones, published in 1976, which gave readers a step-by-step method for escaping the trap of negative thinking and taking control of their lives.

The following year, disappointed with the book’s initial sales and intent on preventing it from sliding into publishing oblivion, Dyer resigned from his teaching position to promote the book. He loaded up his station wagon with cartons of books for a nationwide tour lasting more than a year, calling radio stations, newspapers, TV stations and bookstores in each city he visited.

Hard-Earned Success

His effort earned his book a place on the New York Times bestseller list (where it stayed for 64 weeks) and resulted in invitations to appear on several TV talk shows, including The Tonight Show. The book has since sold 35 million copies in 47 languages and has become one of the best-selling books of all time.

Dyer has since written more than 30 books, created audio and video programs, and appeared in the movie The Shift. His most recent work is the New York Times best-seller Excuses Begone!

Employing his philosophies has contributed to his success. “One of the reasons most people are not good at solving problems and manifesting or attracting into their life what they want is because their thoughts are always focused on what’s wrong and on what’s missing and on the problem,” he says. “

To change the way you think about your life and create success for yourself, you need to put your attention not on what you want so much as on what you intend—what you intend to create, what you intend to manifest. When I sit down to write a book, I always have the publishers create a jacket for the book with the title on it, and I wrap it around a book that’s already written and I sit it on my writing space, and every single day, I assume this book is already completed. I think from the end always, and then I allow whatever needs to come through to complete it, to come through—that’s my secret. Use your imagination to assume the feeling of having your wish fulfilled. Begin with the end in mind,” Dyer says. “

There are endless ways to attract prosperity. Most people fall into that trap of believing negative things— that the economy is going into the toilet or things are going to get worse. If you buy into that, you become what you think about whether you want it or not. Why not pick the thoughts that are at least going to lead you where you want to go?”

Wayne W. Dyer’s books include Your Erroneous Zones; 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace; The Power of Intention ; Change Your Thoughts—Change Your Life; There’s A Spiritual Solution to Every Problem; You’ll See It When You Believe It and Excuses Begone! He also appears on PBS and in the film The Shift.

What You Want is Waiting For You! by Sugandhi Iyer

What You Want is Waiting For You!


What you want is waiting for you to get aligned to it.

Think about it this way-

You are here at point A, and you notice something that you decide
you definitely 'don't' want.

From noticing what you don't want, you have a thought of what you
really want, and it feels good to you.

For example, maybe one day you get into a restaurant where they
serve you food that is not fresh. From this experience of bad food,
you get a desire to eat better tasting/quality food. Your task now
is to let go of the experience of the unfresh (is this a valid
word? My spell check does not think so :-)) food, and move towards
the food that you will really like to taste. You may discover
another restaurant that you really like, or it could also be that
the same restaurant starts to serve you what you like- great
tasting food.

After all, anything is possible in this world of infinite
possibilities. I see such things happen all the time in my line of
work!

While thinking of the unfresh food, and talking and feeling bad
about it, you cannot really start to give out the vibrations that
you require to give out to have the experience of amazingly fresh
tasting food because your vibrations don't match up to what you'd
really like.

Your first job therefore is to let go of this contrasting
experience and start to get aligned with the food that you know you
will really like to have. Start to feel what it would feel like if
you could taste and enjoy this amazing food. Sometimes even a small
wish with some letting go, will allow the good stuff in.

Even though the above sounds simple enough, here is where the
problem lies for many people.

Having tasted the contrast and identifying what they don't like,
and from that discovering a desire for an improved situation,
people find it difficult to let go of the contrasting experience
and focus instead on the feelings they would really like to have,
and that is of a vastly improved situation.

This is where you have to learn the ropes and skills of creation.

Your mind, and especially your sub-conscious mind, has to get
trained and you then start to move towards what you want with rapid
speed.

It happens quickly once your mind is trained to get out of what you
don't want, and get into what you really want. You also need to
'see through' situations, and look at the truth of anything. Your
perception of the situation has to change.

While holding onto a cup full of bad coffee and sipping from it,
all the while feeling bad about it, you cannot make room for the
good smelling and tasting coffee that is just waiting for you.

But first you must know that this amazing coffee is waiting for
you. Just let go of the cup of bad coffee and make your way with
total determination towards the cup of aromatic coffee waiting for
you to take a sip.

Every wish and contrasting experience you've had till now resulted
in your desires already being fulfilled, ready and waiting for you.
While standing outside the space of the fulfilled desire, you
cannot experience it. Get in with these fulfilled desires and start
to enjoy them. No more waiting outside. After all when you see
people dancing, you don't wait outside do you? Your natural
tendency will be to get in and dance with your favorite partner. So
do get in, and do enjoy your dance. Your partner and everything
else is waiting.

Just get aligned to it. It's easy!



Lots of Love to you!

Love and Light, Sugandhi Iyer

Stay Focused on Your Core Genius by Jack Canfield

Stay Focused on Your Core Genius
by Jack Canfield

I believe you have inside of you a core genius... some one thing that you love to do, and do so well, that you hardly feel like doing anything else. It’s effortless for you and a whole lot of fun. And if you could make money doing it, you’d make it your lifetime’s work.

In most cases, your Core Genius is directly tied to your passions and life-purpose.

Successful people believe this, too. That's why they put their core genius first. They focus on it—and delegate everything else to other people on their team.

For me, my core genius lies in the area of teaching, training, coaching and motivating. Another core genius is writing and compiling books. Over my 35 year career, I have written, co-authored, compiled and edited more than 150 books, and I love to do it! I do it well, and people report that they get great value from it.

Compare that to the other people in the world who go through life doing everything, even those tasks they’re bad at or that could be done more cheaply, better, and faster by someone else.

They simply can’t find the time to focus on their core genius because they fail to delegate even the most menial of tasks.

When you delegate the grunt work—the things you hate doing or those tasks that are so painful, you end up putting them off—you get to concentrate on what you love to do. You free up your time so that you can be more productive. And you get to enjoy life more.

So why is delegating routine tasks and unwanted projects so difficult for most people?

Surprisingly, most people are afraid of looking wasteful or being judged as being above everyone else. They are afraid to give up control or reluctant to spend the money to pay for help. Deep down, most people simply don't want to let go.

Others (potentially you) have simply fallen into the habit of doing everything themselves. "It's too time-consuming to explain it to someone," you say. "I can do it more quickly and better myself anyway." But can you?

Delegate Completely!

If you’re a professional earning $75 per hour and you pay a neighborhood kid $10 an hour to cut the grass, you save the effort of doing it yourself on the weekend and gain one extra hour when you could profit by $65. Of course, while one hour does’t seem like much, multiply that by 52 weekends a year and you discover you’Ave gained 52 hours a year at $65 per hour —or an extra $3,380 in potential earnings.

Similarly, if you’re a real estate agent, you need to list houses, gather information for the multiple listings, attend open houses, do showings, put keys in lock boxes, write offers and make appointments. And, if you’re lucky, you eventually get to close a deal.

But let’s say that you’re the best closer in the area.

Why would you want to waste your time writing listings, doing lead generation, placing lock boxes, and making videos of the property when you could have a staff of colleagues and assistants doing all that, thus freeing you up to do more closing? Instead of doing just one deal a week, you could be doing three deals because you had delegated what you’re less good at.

One of the strategies I use and teach is complete delegation. It simply means that you delegate a task once and completely - rather than delegating it each time it needs to be done.

When my niece came to stay with us one year while she attended the local community college, we made a complete delegation - the grocery shopping. We told her she could have unlimited use of our van if she would buy the groceries every week. We provided her with a list of staples that we always want in the house (eggs, butter, milk, ketchup, and so on), and her job was to check every week and replace anything that was running low.

In addition, my wife planned meals and let her know which items she wanted for the main courses (fish, chicken, broccoli, avocados, and so on). The task was delegated once and saved us hundreds of hours that year that could be devoted to writing, exercise, family time, and recreation.

Most entrepreneurs spend less than 30% of their time focusing on their core genius and unique abilities.

In fact, by the time they've launched a business, it often seems entrepreneurs are doing everything but the one thing they went into business for in the first place.

Many salespeople, for example, spend more time on account administration than they do on the phone or in the field making sales, when they could hire a part-time administrator (or share the cost with another salesperson) to do this time-consuming detail work. In most cases, in a fraction of the time it would take them and at a fraction of the cost.

Most female executives spend too much time running their household, when they could easily and inexpensively delegate this task to a cleaning service or part-time mother's helper, freeing them to focus on their career or spend more quality time with their family.

Don't let this be your fate!

Identify your core genius, then delegate completely to free up more time to focus on what you love to do.

I believe that you can trade, barter, pay for and find volunteer help to do almost everything you don't want to do, leaving you to do what you are best at - and which will ultimately make you the most money and bring you the most happiness.


© 2009 Jack Canfield

"Never forget: the secret of creating riches..." Sir John Templeton

"Never forget: the secret of creating riches for oneself is to create them for others." — Sir John Templeton: Pioneer global investor and philanthropist


You know the story of Bill Gates. From a score of 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT to dropping out of Harvard. Then founding Microsoft and becoming the world’s richest man. But there’s something that’s usually forgotten about his story. He didn't climb to the summit of success alone — he carried millions of people with him. People from all walks of life who were able to prosper because of him. Find your own path — but make sure it's wide enough to handle all the lives it will change. Your Future You awaits.

Nightingale.com

One Day by Matisyahu

One Day by Matisyahu
Musician Matisyahu is the personification of harmony. He is a Hasidic Jewish musician from New York City known for blending traditional Jewish themes with reggae, rock, and hip-hop sounds. He pushes musical boundaries by incorporating a variety of genres to create unique sounds with deep messages that aim to unite and uplift. Matisyahu once said, "All of my songs are influenced and inspired by the teachings that inspire me. I want my music to have meaning, to be able to touch people and make them think. Chasidism teaches that music is 'the quill of the soul.' Music taps into a very deep place and speaks to us in a way that regular words can't." Listen to one of his latest songs 'One Day', which he created as an anthem for hope and a source of inspiration for people struggling to open their hearts and stay positive.

Be The Change!

"Blame" -- TUT... A Note from the Universe

Without "blame," at least 50% of all grounded relationships would have continued sailing.

And I'm all for sailing.

Your first mate,
The Universe

Not that "fault" doesn't exist .... but blame throws the whole thing out of context.

Thoughts become things... choose the good ones! ®
© www.tut.com ®

Thought Power by Swami Sivananda

Be careful of your thoughts. Whatever you send out of your mind, comes back to you. Every thought you think, is a boomerang. If you hate another, hate will come back to you. If you love others, love will come back to you. An evil thought is thrice cursed. First, it harms the thinker by doing injustice to his mental body. Secondly, it harms the person who is its object. Lastly, it harms all mankind by vitiating the whole mental atmosphere.

Every evil thought is as a sword drawn on the person to whom it is directed. If you entertain thoughts of hatred, you are really a murderer of that man against whom you foster thoughts of hatred. You are your own suicide, because these thoughts rebound upon you only. A mind tenanted by evil thoughts acts as a magnet to attract like thoughts from others and thus intensifies the original evil. Evil thoughts thrown into the mental atmosphere poison receptive minds. To dwell on an evil thought gradually deprives it of its repulsiveness and impels the thinker to perform an action which embodies it.

Very carefully watch all your thoughts. Suppose you are assailed by gloomy thoughts. You experience depression. Take a small cup of milk or tea. Sit calmly. Close your eyes. Find out the cause for the depression and try to remove the cause. The best method to overcome the gloomy thoughts and the consequent depression, is to think of inspiring thoughts and inspiring things. Remember again, positive overcomes negative. This is a grand effective law of nature. [...]

The science of thought power is very interesting and subtle. This thought-world is more real relatively than this physical universe. The power of thought is very great. Every thought of yours has a literal value to you in every possible way. The strength of your body, the strength of your mind, your success in life and the pleasures you give to others by your company - all depend on the nature and quality of your thoughts. You must know thought-culture, and develop thought power.

--Swami Sivananda, in 'Thought Power'