SPIRITUAL PROSPERITY

It is well documented that many people fail to achieve their goals in life due to the phenomenon known as "fear of failure" but are you aware that a major factor that is often overlooked, is a state known as "fear of success"?

Fear of failure will lead many people into inertia - the inability to make decision or take action in case they receive rejection or negative outcomes. This mental state is fairky easy to identify and there are many tools in the personal development industry to help combat this plague and reprogram the mind for success. However, the fear of success is much more subtle, harder to spot and also harder to eradicate.

Perhaps you have this tendency in your life. Here are some indications of a fear of success mentality.

Studying and trying to implement self-improvement techniques and/or personal development tools but your life does not improve or may even get worse.

You settle for less than you feel you deserve or are capable of achieving.

You start new projects full of enthusiasm and optimism but wane in your efforts or stop short before you have completed them.

You expect things to go wrong no matter how well the situation appears to be at the moment.

Can you identify your own patterns in the any of the above statements?

The fear of success can also make you behave in ways that hold you back. Look at the list below. These are ethe symptoms of the fear of success.

Procrastination - putting off what needs to be done or not doing what you know will bring you closer to your desired result. Everyone suffers from this inner 'demon' at some point in their lives (although some of us suffer from it more than others!).

Procrastination is a 'success killer'! How can ou expect to reach your destinationm if you do not take steps towards it? Strive to do little things each day that will bring you small steps closer to your goal. This is why having a personal development plan is an essential ingredient in the fight against procrastination. Take action! Any action! Refine your steps as you go along but do not sit and do nothing. Taking action is one of the key aspects in personal development.

Can't see the forest for the trees! - this is almost the opposite of procrastination but has the same effect on your personal development. The aforementioned saying is well known but have you ever given it real consideration?

Don't get caught up in your plan believing that it is more important than the materialised goal! For many years I got caught in this trap. I started to think and act as though my plan was more important than my end result and thus missed many opportunities to alter my path and reach my goals more quickly! Let go of your ego and allow the Universe to show you a quicker route to your goal. Remain flexible.

Thinking that the time is not right - have you ever waited until the timing was perfect before starting a venture? Have you ever waited until you had more information on a better plan?

Again ACTION is the key to the door to success. Taking small steps forward are better than taking none or waiting to see if your foot is landing on the right spot! Even if your actions take you away from your goal you have at least gained insight and knowledge about what does not work!

Being a perfectionist - this is similar to the point above and has the same effect, namely, that you never really move forward. No matter how good a job is when its finished it can always be improved! I have heard many great musicians tell how they hate listening to their own songs because they can find a million things that need improved. Yet, we still enjoy them. I think a classic example of this is "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Paul Simon. This song is hauntingly beautiful yet Mr. Simon does not think its good enough!

Seeing only problems - how do you use your focus? Do you constantly see only and alll the problems involved? If you are this way inclined it is pointless trying to change overnight! However, you can use this mindset to your advantage while you strive in your personal development to acquire an opportunistic frame of mind instead.

"How can you use seeing only problems to my advantage?" you say. "Easily", is my reply! Look at the problems and prepare a plan to deal with them. Everytime you overcome one congratulate yourself. Use them as a gauge for your achievements. If you keep seeing more problems remind yourself of how well you dealt with the others. Look at how far you have come! If you see a problem ask yourself, "how best can I overcome this challenge?" or "how quickly can I rectify this situation?". The quality of your questions are important as I have outlined in a previous article. Use the problems as fact finders. Is there a real problem now? If so then deal with it. Is it a potential problem? If so then create a contingency plan in case it does occur but don't get caught up in it just be prepared.

Enjoy the journey, follow the above guidelines and you will achieve success. Eventually your fear of success will dissipate and you will have moved a long way forward in your personal development.

Have you ever thought who you are? Are you the body you see every day in a mirror? Of course you are not. Your body is constantly changing. It is different now than ten or twenty years ago. According to some scientists cells in our bodies are constantly replaced by the new ones. Although the scientists differ in their opinions, most of them agree that every seven years we have a completely new body. Not even one cell is the same.

Anyway, most people intuitionally feel that they are not their bodies. When someone dies they say he has left. So, what has left? The body it’s still there.

Are you your mind? You can observe your own mind. You can notice what you are thinking about now. Maybe you are reading this article now, but you are thinking about something else? Doesn’t it happen often? You can observe how your mind works, so you are not your mind.

But most of the time we don’t observe it. It’s just the opposite, our minds constantly play different films in front of us, and it is not easy to stop them doing it.

Have you ever tried to control your mind? Try for five minutes to concentrate on something. Let’s say visualize a yellow triangle. Do not think about anything else. Just concentrate on the yellow triangle. Can you do it? Notice how many times you have thought about something else than the yellow triangle. It’s very difficult to control a mind. Usually our minds control us.

What do you mostly think about every day? If you are like most people you think about your past or your future.

Our past reminiscences can be happy or sad, but past is the past. It’s gone. Future is unknown, but we are creating our future now. Whatever we are thinking about now will manifest in the future. So if we think about our problems, lack of money, difficult situations, our future will be like this. If we think how make ends meet, it will happen. We will just make ends meet.

What if you started to live now? What if you stopped thinking about your past and stopped worrying about your future. You could think now that your life is happy. You could think that NOW you and your family have everything that you want and desire. Try it. Try to really visualize your perfect life. Don’t think about future. Think that it’s now and be grateful for it. If your visualization is good, you will feel happy and excited. You will feel good, but most important is that you have just started making it really happen in the future.

Of course, you need to train your mind to do it every day. You need to learn the science of manifestation and practice. Great things don’t come easily. That’s why so many people don’t live the lives of their dreams. They don’t control their lives. They live their lives automatically. But you can change it. You can be happy, healthy and wealthy. You just need to make some effort.

Gratitude or appreciation of what we already have is necessary to attract things we want. Every day when you wake up try to be thankful. Think about the good things in your live you should be thankful for. Appreciate your job (even if you don’t like it).

Feel gratitude for a place to live. If you have some food, some friends or anything else you can find to appreciate, appreciate it. A lot of people don’t have enough even basic things like food, water and their own place to live. It’s natural that you want more, that you want to improve your standard of life, but first you need to feel gratitude for what you already have.

If you start your day with feelings of gratitude you will feel good and you can keep that feeling all day.

But you should also write down something like this: “I am so happy and grateful that…” and then write what you would like to have. For example: “I am very happy and grateful that I make $1 million per year; that I have wonderful and loving wife…etc.” Use the present tense, visualize the things you want, be grateful for them, and think about them as already yours. When you achieve them, you can add new things to your list. When you write about money, start first with amount you believe is possible and then increase the amount when you got the amount you’d written down. Be specific.

When you start doing as described above, at first you might feel strange that you are using present tense for the things you want to have in the future, but it’s important to train your mind and force your mind to think about them in present tense. After some time of playing such “mental ping pong” your mind will obey and will help you to achieve the things you want.