A Beautiful Lesson In Life and Adversity

A carrot, an egg, and a cup of coffee. You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again.

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up, She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word...
In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, ' Tell me what you see.'

'Carrots, eggs, and coffee,' she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, 'What does it mean, mother?'

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

'Which are you?' she asked her daughter. 'When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor..

If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

If you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy. The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so at the end, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

Brighten someone's life today on purpose.

May we all be COFFEE!!!!!!

To your unstoppable success...

Success and Abundance Mindset Carnival #9

Art Thailand presents Genesis of a gallery. Genesis of a life. posted at artThailand.

Chris614 presents Remember Your First Day Of School posted at The Philosophy of Change.com.

Edith Yeung presents I Have Confidence and The 7 Rules of Networking Made Easy posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act..

Tupelo Kenyon presents How to Keep Your Word posted at Tupelo Kenyon

Debra Moorhead presents Accept Responsibility posted at Debra Moorhead.com.

Susan Velez presents What Are You Willing To Do To Become A Millionaire? posted at The Secret To Life.

Peter S C presents 5 Reasons to Grow Rich posted at I will change your life . com.

Joseph presents time management posted at Self Help and Personal Development.

John Wesley presents How To Become a Highly Productive Night Owl posted at Pick the Brain.

Christine Kane presents Are You Saving Money or Wasting Time? posted at Christine Kane's Blog.

Tupelo Kenyon presents The Subtle Side of Manifestation - part 1 of 4 posted at Tupelo Kenyon

Christopher J. Brunner presents Tips for Gaining and Impressing Potential Investors posted at GreatFX Business Cards

Aaron M. Potts presents How to Make Money with the Law of Attraction and Conscious Creation posted at Today is that Day.

Brad Trnavsky presents Choose your attitude! posted at Brad M. Trnavsky - Sales & Management Blogger.

Scott Allen presents If You Could Ask John Assaraf and Murray Smith One Question... posted at About.com Entrepreneur's Guide.

Sean LeMay presents Use Military Tactics to Reach Your Dreams posted at Sean LeMay.

Ted Reimers presents Benefits of getting an MBA posted at CampusGrotto.

Anastasia Kile presents How Long Does It Take for the Law of Attraction to Work? posted at Beyond Manifesting - Anastasia Kile's Official Blog.

Coach Peter Khoury presents Beyond The Secret! posted at InControlCoaching.com.

Stacey Derbinshire presents Why You Would Be VERY Wise To Start A Business While You Still Have Your Day Job posted at Starting a Small Home Business.

Tom Stanley presents How to Investigate a Business Franchise Opportunity posted at Tom's Franchise Information Blog, saying,

Mike Harmon presents Home Based Business Tips - Three Reasons to Outsource Your Businesses Accounting Needs posted at Basic Accounting,

Randy Nichols presents Learn to Invent and Reinvent Your Future posted at Career Advice by Randy

Matt Hanson presents Matt’s Creative Advertising Blog » Blog Archive » Is Traditional Publicity Dead? posted at Matt's Creative Advertising Blog

Stacey Derbinshire presents Licensing Your Way to Wealth posted at Starting a Small Home Business

Lucynda Riley presents A Little Weird and I posted at The Crazy Cat Woman.

Anastasia Kile presents Where Are You Now? posted at Beyond Manifesting - Anastasia Kile's Official Blog.

This concludes this edition of the Success and Abundance Mindset Carnival.

The Only Way to Solve Money Problems - Name it and Claim it

I am frequently astounded at how people "claim" their problems. Just look around the Internet and pay attention to how people talk about problems. I am even more astounded that people have web sites based on their problems. What could possibly be the purpose of this focus and attention?

I am reminded of a great quote:

"Celebrate what you want to see more of" Thomas J. Peters

Celebrate what you want to see more of, is basic Law of Attraction. I refer to it as Name it and Claim it. What you give focus and attention to comes to you, so why would anyone give attention and focus to any "problem".

Now, first of all, I do not support simply ignoring your problems. However, you deal with problems as temporary challenges, taking whatever action is necessary to resolve them and then you let them go. Once something is history, it should no longer control your energy and attention. This means you should not talk about it, write about and dwell on it.

Constant discussion only buys into the drama of the story and brings more adversity into your life. It is the "claiming" things as a problem and holding them in our lives that puts us in situations we can not climb out of.

When you give attention to something at this level, the drama of it brings more of into your lives.

You have total control over your life, not only the way you handle things and react to them, but how long they are a part of your life and to what level they affect you. You even have total control over your finances, but if you talk about them in the negative, you get negative results, not prosperity. So why would you want more of the "bad stuff?"

The only way to resolve any problem, especially financial is to deal with it quickly and succinctly and then let it go. Put it in the past where it belongs.

Do not dwell and talk about things that bring you frustration or anguish.

Talk only about the positive things and leave the negatives where they belong.

Yes, I have had great adversity in my life and every time, it was very short and very temporary. Instead I chose to have more and never told anyone about the problems, because I did not want more of them to come to me.

And that is the point, I choose success, I choose happiness, I choose everything good to come to me.

When it comes to money issues, it is best to get someone else to deal with them for you. The energy you give the situation, will bring you down, so by having someone else deal with it, gives you an opportunity to focus on what life will be like when it is behind you.

Name and Claim only what you want in your life, never what you do not want. Talk about it, think about it, dream about it, write about it. The more energy you give it, the faster it will come. Name and Claim only the good stuff, never the bad. Get rid of the chatter in your mind that holds you back. Do not voice your problems out loud either, words have a power of their own and will completely block your prosperity.

Keep it simple, keep it quiet and keep moving toward your goals.

To your success!

Praise and Celebrate Your Life - The Power of Gratitude

"The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate." Oprah Winfrey

This is a powerful quote and I encourage my readers to post this where they can see it everyday. Turn on the power of gratitude. Gratitude is an energy, a force, beyond all others.

You can not open the doors to receive in your life until you are grateful for what you have, and not just the things you have, but the circumstances the people, your mind, your inner power, your dreams, your desires, your life and all things touching your life. It is all a part of who you are and the future you have.

Be grateful

Does Taking Responsibility Mean Admitting You Were Wrong?

When working with individuals, assisting them in moving forward to find their own greatness, I am always amazed at their hesitation to take the next step. Here you are, with a very strong desire to double or triple your income, live the lifestyle of your dreams and you just will not take the steps to move you to your destiny. So what is this all about?

As I have written many times, the first step to move forward is accepting responsibility for where you are. You must realize your current situation is the result of your own actions and your best thinking, not the actions of other people. You must change your thinking from where you were to thinking that will take you to where you want to be.

So the question arises, "If I accept responsibility for where I am, meaning that my decisions in life brought me to my current bad situation, then do I have to admit I made wrong decisions and had wrong judgement?" Absolutely not!

We are evolving beings. Everything we do in life is part of a journey. It is a continuing process to get to where you are intended to be. The challenge we face is recognizing when it is time to move to the next step.

Too often, people give up on their dreams because they have made mistakes. But moving forward means you are a creative thinker and you grow from each setback or each challenge.

God wants success for everyone on earth. But to have success, you have to evolve. You are perfect and a creator, given the ability to have anything you desire. You do not have to find anything, other than what is inside you. You have the ability to move forward.

With this said, then any bad situation or challenge you have encountered is just a part of the journey. Let the challenges or miscalculations go and continue to evolve. Be grateful for the things you learn from and the things you can leave behind. My approach is very simple. When I realized wrong judgement or decision placed me where I did not want to be, I express gratitude for the lesson and vow to myself to let it go.

So, take responsibility for where you are, regardless of where it may be. Be grateful for the opportunity to move beyond that point and let it go! You are a perfect person, a creator to mold your future. The past is history and regardless of how hard you try, you can not change it. Move on and create your life for tomorrow.

Moving Beyond a Challenge

Life presents us with challenges. A simple but true reality. The obvious question is why some people deal with adversity or challenges, better than others, why some people conquer challenges and others just woefully submit to them, only to wait for the next challenge to come. Is there something underlying here, something that some people have that others do not that allows them to deal with challenges better? How do you handle your challenges? Do you balk in the face of them or do you move through them like a Sherman Tank? Do you relive them over and over or do you forget them once they are resolved? Do they energize you or suck the life out of you? Are you grateful for them or devastated by them? These are important questions that you should evaluate for yourself.



As an avid student of personal development and personal responsibility, I have learned one thing above all else. The spiritual and environmental laws, not legalistic laws that govern us on this earth bring us challenges. Sometimes they are major, other times they are minor, the key though is how we deal with them. The Law of Attraction is very simple, you attract into your life what you think about, talk about and expect, or in other words “what you think about will come about”. Any situation you have in your life, good or bad, is there because you attracted it. There is a reason why you have adversity and challenges always coming up in your life.



Let’s take a look at some important factors in dealing with challenges:



1. Any situation you have in your life is the result of choices you have made and what you expect to happen. Have you ever had something happen and find yourself saying “see, I knew that was going to happen”? Take a few minutes to look at your challenge. Walk though the events leading up to it and identify the choices you made that might have created it. Write down those choices. Once you have done this, go through the list one by one and strike them out, writing out what choice you could have made instead that would have given you a different outcome.



2. Say to yourself “This is my problem and I am going to correct it.” Attitude is everything when it comes to getting through a challenge.



3. Talk with someone who is very positive and supportive. You should never mentor with people who feed your problems. If the person you are listening to does not offer solutions and hold you accountable with positive support, find someone else to mentor you.



4. Embrace the opportunity to change the root of your problem. All problems are a result of the direction you are moving. Evaluate your direction and regroup.



5. Consciously make an effort to change your belief system. Get involved in a good personal development program and work on the paradigms that drive your beliefs.



6. Take control of your feelings. If you get emotionally involved with a problem, it will consume you and seem much bigger than it really is. Approach it without fear. You have total control over how you feel, choose to not feel fear.



7. Look only at the things that can go right, never look at what can go wrong. This will provide you with positive feelings, therefore having a positive effect on what you are attracting.



8. Set some major goals. If you are not working with a goal system, you should incorporate one immediately. By keeping your eyes on your goals, you will go right through adversities as a minor diversion and they will never consume you. Your goals should always be much bigger than your situation. If your goals are not big enough to get you through adversity, you should change your goals.



9. Create your own outcome. By visualizing, or creating a movie in your mind, of how you want things to play out and staying tuned into this movie, you will be able to overcome anything.



10. Be grateful for the challenge. A challenge is an opportunity for you to improve your beliefs, your goals, your optimism and your self esteem. Once you have overcome a challenge, you will look at it from a new direction, seeing it for what it really is, a diversion keeps things in perspective. Therefore, when the next challenge comes, you will move confidently closer to your actual goal.



Problems, adversities or challenges should never stop you from moving toward your goals. They may sometimes provide a slight diversion, but if your belief system and your desires are strong enough, they will never change your outcome. Always have faith that you are moving in the right direction. Keep in mind that fear and faith are the same thing, believing in something you can not see. However, one will destroy you and the other opens the door to endless possibilities. It is entirely your choice.

Taking Action versus Accepting Fear

In my last post, I talked about not taking action. As I am looking at my post, I remember that at one point in my life I probably would have not taken action myself. I would have been consumed with humility and not acted for fear of what others would think if I admitted I had not achieved my goals in life. Well, hogwash!

It is a very sad state that I lived in such a non-empowering state, and many people live the same way now. Just think, you have not succeeded (failed), and to choose success you have to admit it to yourself and change what you are doing. Successful people take action and admire others who take action. It takes intestinal fortitude to step out of your box and claim your life. Fear (false evidence appearing real) can totally control your life only if you choose to let it.

Fear is the exact opposite of faith but yet they are the same thing. Both are believing in something you can not see. Personally, I choose faith in making my choices and it has proven to be an exceptional direction in my life. Faith is hope, expectation, empowerment and courage. You must choose faith over fear if you choose to create the life of your dreams.

People who criticize or frown on postitive action are not the people you want in your life anyway. You are the people you associate with, so choose not to associate with anyone who does not support your dreams and your actions. If you want something, you must surround yourself with the people who are getting the same results.

Wouldn't it be much better to look forward knowing, expecting life to give you exactly what you want, instead of fearing that you won't have it? We all deserve to have exactly what our hearts desire most. The only way to have those things is to not worry about what other people think, be responsible for yourself and take action to make fabulous things happen in your life.