Total System For Success

"Anyone can apply benchmarks and timelines, then work hard and make money. The secret truly successful people master is total alignment of values and purpose with their skills and strategies. This total system for success is certainly more challenging, but worth it."

-- Cliff Michaels


"You can live a lifetime and, at the end of it, know more about other people than you know about yourself."

-- Beryl Markham


"To be authentic is literally to be your own author..., to discover your own native energies and desires, and then to find your own way of acting on them."

-- Warren G. Bennis

How To Start Forgiving

"To forgive, we do not have to say that whatever happened was okay. In fact, before we can forgive, we need to allow ourselves to really feel the pain of the experience. If we don't fully acknowledge our hurts, we will continue to carry them subconsciously and they will drain our energy.

To forgive, we need to decide that we won't allow the memories of the event to poison us any longer. We're ready to heal this wound from the past and open to a fresh new beginning.

The blessing is that when we're really ready to experience our pain and we open to it, it usually fades away. By honouring our pain, we release it."

-- John Robson


"You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you."

-- John Bunyan

No Hardship In Work You Loved

"When a man is engaged in work that he loves it is no hardship for him to do more work and better work than that for which he is paid, and for this very reason, every man owes it to himself to do his best to find the sort of work he likes best."

-- Napoleon Hill


"To get to forgiveness, we first have to work through the painful experiences that require it."

-- Christiane Northrup


"We must let ourselves feel all the painful destruction we want to forgive rather than swallow it in denial. If we do not face it, we cannot choose to forgive it."

-- Kenneth McNoll

Do It Now and Try

"Success is achieved by those who try.  If there is nothing to lose by trying and a great deal to gain if successful., by all means try! Do it now!"

-- W. Clement Stone


"When the heart grieves over what it has lost, the spirit rejoices over what it has left."

-- Sufi epigram


"Don't do any task in order to get it over with. Resolve to do each job in a relaxed way, with all your attention. Enjoy and be one with your work.

- Thich Nhat Hainh

How To Lead To A More Successful Life

"Patience provides time to gather knowledge; Knowledge provides options and a faster route; A faster route saves time and money; Time and money create power and leverage; Power and leverage lead to more opportunities; More opportunities can lead to a happier and more successful life.

-- Cliff Michaels


"There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and recovered hope."

-- George Eliot


"Seek not happiness too greedily, and be not fearful of unhappiness."

-- Lao-tzu

Understand The Probable Outcomes

"Think of success, not failure. In taking risks, understand what the probable outcomes will be. Then do whatever you can to improve the chance of getting the outcome you desire."

-- Pat Mesiti


"Our sadness is an energy we discharge in order to heal. ...Sadness is painful. We try to avoid it. Actually discharging sadness releases the energy involved in our emotional pain. To hold it in is to freeze the pain within us. The therapeutic slogan is that grieving is the 'healing feeling.'"

-- John Bradshaw


"To weep is to make less the depth of grief."

-- William Shakespeare

Don't Violate Your Confidence

"There is within each of us a desire to be right, think right, and act right. When we go against that desire we put a cancer in our conscience. This cancer grows and grows by eating away at our confidence. Avoid doing -anything that will cause you to ask yourself, "Will I get caught? Will they find out? Will I get way with it?" Don't try to make an "A" if it means violating your confidence."

-- David Joseph Schwartz


"One word frees us from the weight and pain of life; that word is love."

-- Sophocles


"Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity."

-- Simone Weil

Remember These Words

In exploring the enneagram, Riso and Hudson have identified a lost messages that we needed to hear as children but didn't. The absence of these words may be at the heart of our most basic fear. And unconsciously we may still be seeking to hear these words from others.

Review the following messages and note if any one touches you more strongly than the others:

"You are good."
"You are wanted."
"You are loved for yourself."
"You are seen for who you are."
"Your needs are not a problem."
"You are safe."
"You will be taken care of."
"You will not be betrayed."
"Your presence matters."

-- John Robson


"Oh the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are -- chaff and grain together -- certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away."

-- Dinah Mulock

Be Thankful For Where You Are

"I’m thankful for failures. They teach lessons.
I’m thankful for challenges. They build character.
I’m thankful for what I don’t have. It shows possibility.
I’m thankful for what I have. Too much would be a burden.
Mostly, I’m thankful for where I am. It’s where I’m supposed to be."

-- Cliff Michaels


"When you are saying that you are happy and you are not, there will be a disturbance in your breathing. Your breathing cannot be natural. It is impossible."

-- Osho


"Your body is the ground and metaphor of your life, the expression of your existence. It is your Bible, your encyclopedia, your life story. Everything that happens to you is stored and reflected in your body. In the marriage of flesh and spirit divorce is impossible."

-- Gabrielle Roth

Success or Failure Is Your Attitude

"The more I search to discover the powers of the human mind and how to use them, the more I am convinced that success or failure is primarily the result of the attitude of the individual.  The attitude of the individual is the result of a motive, and a motive is the inner urge that incites him to action."

-- W. Clement Stone


"There are times when we may fool ourselves. There are times when we can fool others. But we can never fool our body. It is the most sensitive barometer of our inner world."

-- Sherrill Sellman


"Instead of frittering away your vibrancy with worry or distraction, realize your mind and body are inextricably united. What calms and tones up one, soothes and improves the other."

-- Marsha Sinetar

If You Really Want A Higher Level of Success

"If you want to create higher levels of success, you are going to need to drop some of your habits (not returning phone calls, staying up too late watching television, making sarcastic comments, eating fast food every day, smoking, being late for appointments, spending more than you earn) and replace them with more productive habits (returning phone calls within 24 hours, getting 8 hours of sleep each day, reading for an hour a day, exercising four times a week, eating healthy food, being on time, and saving 10% of your income)."

-- Jack Canfield


"Nothing in the affairs of humanity is worthy of great anxiety."


-- Plato


"If you don't take care of your body, where will you live?"

-- MotivationStuff.com

Don't Waste Your Insights and Inspiration

"Insights and inspiration come to us for a reason. Don't let them disappear on you!

When a great idea pops into your mind, write it down and capture it. Keep a mini-journal or piece of paper with you at all times.

Reflect on your insights. How might you anchor this great idea so it enhances your life?"

-- John Robson


"Everyone who has ever taken a shower has had an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off, and does something about it that makes a difference."

-- Nolan Bushnell

Whatever Your Passion Is

"Whether your passion is yoga, sports, or cross-training, the key is breathing and moving. In study after study, physical fitness is as critical to longevity (and a healthy brain) as anything else. Even if you have injuries or limitations, do what you can, breathe, walk, stretch, meditate it all counts."

-- Cliff Michaels


"The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper."

-- W.B. Yeats


"Ideas can come from anywhere and at any time. The problem with making mental notes is that the ink fades very rapidly."

-- Rolf Smith

Higher Power Knows The Best

"If we are prompted to ask for spiritual blessings for ourselves or others, how do we best do this?

Speaker Kimberly Herkert offers that it is best to simply ask the divine for health and help. As human beings, we are not capable of seeing the big picture for anyone's situation. As a result, we are not able to judge what is best for anyone, including ourselves.

The Higher Power always knows best, and the general prayer for 'health and help' acknowledges the wisdom that exists there and our faith in divine will."

-- John Robson


"God answers prayer in His own way, not ours."

-- Mohandas Gandhi


"There is no silver bullet for ending conflict; meaningful change requires people working at all levels to disrupt the status quo."

-- Eva Armour

Prosperity Is Not Lack of Money

"The biggest hindrance to prosperity is not a lack of money, it’s a wrong mindset. Change how you see yourself and others. Your life will not advance until your mind is set to advance. Your view of wealth is wealth’s view of you."

-- Pat Mesiti


"Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another."

-- Voltaire


"More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones."

-- Mother Teresa

Plan for Quiet Time, Relaxation and Stillness

"If our minds are always busy, they don't get time to do basic maintenance - to sort, tidy up and take out the trash. If we don't periodically clear out space in our minds, there is no room for new ideas to take root.

Where do you find stillness each day and each week? Plan for quiet time, relaxation and stillness daily, even if it is only for 5 or 10 minutes."

-- John Robson


"For peace of mind, we need to resign as general manager of the universe."

-- Larry Eisenberg


"My greatest wealth is the deep stillness in which I strive and grow and win what the world cannot take from me with fire or sword."

-- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Break Away Habits That Get You Stuck

"Who am I? To answer this, we must first learn to become more aware of ourselves. To be aware, we must STOP and PAY ATTENTION! We need to STOP and objectively watch ourselves in action.

We live most of our lives by habit. These habits keep us stuck in patterns that limit our experience of life. Once we detect a pattern we were previously unconscious of, we can choose differently, if we want. With awareness comes choice and with choice, we gain freedom."

-- John Robson


"To be authentic is literally to be your own author..., to discover your own native energies and desires, and then to find your own way of acting on them."

-- Warren G. Bennis


"Self-knowledge is the great power by which we comprehend and control our lives."

-- Vernon Howard

In Order To Have a Healthy Mind

"I had made it a practice to try to get some physical exercise every day, such as tennis in the summer and ice skating in the winter, and when I was at a health resort, I'd take advantage of its facilities. I was convinced that to have a healthy mind, one should try to develop a healthy body."

-- W. Clement Stone


"I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it."

-- Maya Angelou


"You can live a lifetime and, at the end of it, know more about other people than you know about yourself."

-- Beryl Markham

None Matter If You Don't Commit to Action

"You can obtain the finest education and read all the books. You can think positive until you’re blue in the face. None of it matters if you don’t commit to action."

-- Cliff Michaels


"No matter what difficulty you are facing, it is coming from Divine Light to bring you to a higher place within. Write down every conceivable reason that this situation can contribute towards your growth. Write down every way this experience can possibly set the stage for serving to uplift others. When you are complete, and have come to the other side of this experience, you will then know 'why' it happened."

-- Barbara Rose


"The period of greatest gain in knowledge and experience is the most difficult period in one's life."

-- Dalai Lama

Write Down What You Want in Life

"Plan ahead and avoid roadblocks. You have heard this all your life. Now is your chance to do some real planning. Write down the jobs or businesses you want to have. Write down the kind of client, employee or employer relationships you want to have. It is all yours for the asking, and the sooner you ask, the easier your life will become. Eventually, you will overcome all roadblocks. Life is meant to be easy and effortless."

-- Thomas L. Pauley and Penelope J. Pauley


"Each difficult moment has the potential to open my eyes and open my heart."

-- Myla Kabat-Zinn


"Even the most daring and accomplished people have undergone tremendous difficulty. In fact, the more successful they became, the more they attributed their success to the lessons learned during their most difficult times. Adversity is our teacher. When we view adversity as a guide towards greater inner growth, we will then learn to accept the wisdom our soul came into this life to learn."

-- Barbara Rose

Your Subconscious Mind Accepts Any Idea

"Psychologists and psychiatrists point out that when thoughts are conveyed to your subconscious mind, impressions are made in the brain cells. As soon as your subconscious accepts any idea, it proceeds to put it into effect immediately.  Working by association of ideas, it uses every bit of knowledge that you have gathered in your lifetime to bring about its purpose."

-- Joseph Murphy


"You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make."

-- Jane Goodall


"It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness."

-- Charles Spurgeon

Our Subconscious Mind The Director

"Our subconscious mind creates our lives perfectly according to how it has been programmed. It works 24 hours of every day, 365 days per year. It accepts instructions from the conscious mind, checks on old inner programming and executes.

The subconscious mind acts on old beliefs stored over a lifetime. Many of those beliefs you may have accepted without thinking. Or you may have absorbed them when you were too young to exercise choice. Many of the beliefs that govern your life may no longer match what you now hold to be true.

Nonetheless, the subconscious mind is the director till you rewrite the scripts. Put some effort into getting it working on your positive, conscious intentions instead of your old limiting, unconscious beliefs and your life will change."

-- John Robson


"The power to move the world is in the subconscious mind."

-- William James


"If a man devotes himself to the instructions of his own unconscious, it can bestow this gift [of renewal], so that suddenly life, which has been stale and dull, turns into a rich unending inner adventure, full of creative possibilities."

-- Marie-Louise von Franz

Our Soul Exists in This Moment

"Soul exists only in this moment. Every moment, no matter what the conditions, offers opportunities to touch and experience life in a new way. Our egos, with their fears and desires, easily get trapped in the past and the future, but the power to change exists only in this moment.

We don't need to know more or have more before we can live more deeply. We simply need to pay attention to what's happening now. To open without judgment to the worlds around and within us."

-- John Robson


"Nothing is worth more than this day. You cannot relive yesterday. Tomorrow is still beyond your reach."

-- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The Happiest and Most Successful People

"For what it’s worth, the happiest and most successful people I’ve met are not celebrities or billionaires who measure wealth by fame and fortune. They measure wealth by love, purpose, and good health. They measure riches by what they’re able to share with friends and family, even strangers. For me, abundance is measured by all these things and more."

-- Cliff Michaels


"Why not concentrate on the now instead of hoping for better times in the future? Why not understand the now instead of forgetting it and hoping for the future? Isn't the future just another trap?"

-- Anthony de Mello


"Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity..."

-- John Muir

Relationships Bring Out The Full View

"Despite our passion for romantic love, relationships are not the easiest way to find love and peace. They are, however, one of the most effective for finding our blocks.

Relationships naturally bring out into full view our desires, attachments and unconscious programs - our likes, dislikes, belief systems, judgments, compulsions, conformities, etc. Relationships challenge us because they take us deep into thoughts, feelings and experiences we have suppressed for a lifetime. That's why they provide the very best arena for personal growth!"

-- John Robson


"Human relationships are the perfect tool for sanding away our rough edges and getting at the core of divinity within us."

-- Eknath Easwaran