Two Powerful Tools for Success

If you know you have gifts to offer and are still in hiding, let me tell you about this story of the Golden Buddha.

In 1957, a group of Tibetan monks were informed that a highway was being built through the area of their shrine and they would have to move this very large and heavy clay Buddha.

As the crane was lifting the huge statue, it began to crack. The monk in charged stopped the procedure, and upon examination, they saw several cracks, and realized that it was far heavier than imagined. They would need to wait until the next day for a larger crane. Because rain was predicted, the monks covered the Buddha with water proof tarps to keep it dry. The monk in charge of this could not sleep, and decided to go check on the large stature.

With his lantern, he went under the tarp and began to examine the cracks. He noticed a bright light shining from one of the cracks, and decided to look more closely. To his utter amazement, he found that there was gold beneath the clay!

He called the other monks, telling them to each bring a hammer, chisel and lantern. Before long, they had uncovered the magnificent Golden Buddha, which had been covered with clay over 200 years before. The monks of that time had been trying to protect the statue from an invading army, and had all been killed, so there was no one to tell the story of what was beneath the clay.

We are all in some way like the Golden Buddha, with the most precious parts of ourselves, our essence, hidden from the world. It happens to each one of us over the course of our lives as we adopt limiting beliefs and fears. And if we let those beliefs and fears take over, we will never unearth the brilliance of who we are.

It is this very essence that is our Divine Duty to uncover and shine forth. To do it, we need the

• Lante
of our vision
• Hammer of our will
• The chisel of our focus

One of the best ways to do this is to set goals, and use goal cards on daily basis. In a study of students in the 1979 Harvard MBA program, it was found that 3% had written goals, 13% had goals not in writing, and 84% had no goals at all.

Ten years later, the 13% with goals were earning twice as much as the 84% with no goals.

Here is the kicker! The 3% with written goals were earning 10 times as much as the other 97% put together!!!

OK, you may be convinced now that it is a good idea. I want to make it simple for you, and combine goals with affirmations, because be putting them in the form of affirmations, you activate something called the RAS (reticular activating system).

When you write a goal card, it is important to keep the following in mind:

• Start with “I AM”
• Positive
• Present tense
• Brief
• Specific
• Action verb (ing)
• Feeling word

Example: “It is December 2011, and I am excited and grateful for the huge response to my (name your program) which has doubled my income for this year.”

“It is October, 2011, and I am easily and effortlessly making healthy food choices while maintaining my ideal weight (write that in) and feeling fully satisfied.”

It works like this: the RAS filters most things out of your awareness and allows in what is for your survival and most important goals. It allows in whatever matches your beliefs and self-image.

If you write your affirmation/goal on an index card and say this every morning, visualizing yourself at that ideal weight, and you are not there yet, a certain structural tension arises, causing your subconscious mind to resolve the conflict between what you are visualizing and where you are at the moment.

In a sense, your subconscious mind figures, “Wow, she is really serious about this and it must be important!” It is as if you take the lantern, hammer and chisel out to uncover the body you want.

To make it even more powerful, at the end of your affirmation, say “This or something better. Thank you very much.”

You can do this about anything, and it works if you stay with it. The limiting beliefs in your subconscious mind did not get there ove
ight. It is through the committed repetition and healthy use of your will and imagination that you can change anything you set out to do.