Author: Katie Darden

A Life of Service?

Service takes many different forms.  For some, it is an obligation (as in military service).  For a few it’s akin to a “higher calling” (as in Mother Teresa’s service to the poor).  And for others, it’s a way to give back to their community through involvement in issues that are of importance to them.

The California Conservation Corps is a service organization.  It employs 18-25 year olds in a variety of conservation-related projects and provides emergency services in times of floods, earthquakes, fires and other major efforts.  The corpsmembers receive education, training and valuable life-skills during their term of service.

The local Fortuna Center CCC is also home to several AmeriCorps programs.  Through special partnerships with the CCC, these programs offer the opportunity for over 100 corpsmembers to provide education and assistance within the community while learning valuable skills in their program’s focus area.  Programs include conservation, mentoring, emergency services and dental health.

Last Friday, TOOTH AmeriCorps (Teaching Oral Optimism Throughout Humboldt) sponsored a “Give Kids A Smile Day” at the local Humboldt Library in Eureka.  After attending on Friday, I happened to see my own  dentist, a man who regularly travels within the county to provide assistance for families in a remote, low-income, area of Humboldt county. 

When I mentioned the TOOTH program, my dentist told me that a fellow dentist in the remote location had expressed his gratitude for the group, saying that they are well prepared and do a much better job of keeping the local dental consortium working than when the dental professionals attempted to do so on their own.

AmeriCorps members commit to approximately 1 year of service at approximately minimum wage.  They have health benefits, and the opportunity to receive a scholarship for completing their term of service.  Most members have chosen this route as a way to increase their understanding in their educational focus, and/or as a way to contribute to society in general.

There are many ways to be of service.  If you have a desire to provide service, to give back to the community, and have the time to devote, perhaps you might like to look at some of the many AmeriCorps programs that are operating in your area.

Take a look at the fun TOOTH was having in the community just a couple of days ago:

New Year, New Choices

Well, we’ve hit that time of year when we’re encouraged to put together resolutions for the next 365 or so days. 

Unfortunately, most of us, if we thought much about it, would realize we’re simply recycling the same things from the past several years (or decades!!).  Perhaps that’s part of why such a large number of people break their resolutions within the first month of the new year.

I’ve never been big on New Years’ resolutions, but I do appreciate the periodic review of effectiveness and setting myself back on a healthy, prosperous and/or more interesting track.  And of course, that can happen anytime – not just on December 31 or January 1!  (I like to use my birthday.)

Rather than fixating on the specific things we consider to be deficiencies,  it’s so much more effective to focus on the larger picture.  Successful businesses, while they look at the particulars regarding their success (or failure) in the marketplace, periodically take the opportunity to actually create a larger vision or purpose for themselves, ultimately leading to methodology that allows them to create the results they want. 

I’m thinking this would be a very useful exercise for all of us – sort of a strategic plan for our lives.

When we focus on specific acts (tactics), rather than our overall desired outcome or the plan to get there (strategy), it is much easier to fail.  For instance, having a resolution to give up coffee or sugar is very specific.  But it’s a tactic, rather than a strategy.   And, as soon as you succumb to the sugar or coffee, you have failed in your resolution.

How much more room is there for success when you shift “giving up sugar” to “eating healthy foods”, or “eating mostly unadulterated foods”, or “having natural fruit as a snack”, or even “leaving additional sweeteners out of anything I eat”?  While these last are tactics, too, they are much more broad, and they offer solutions rather than deprivation. 

That’s another problem with resolutions (re-solution – to solve again).  Not only are we attempting to solve something for the second or third or twentieth time, most resolutions are formulated in the direction of deprivation, loss, removal of some pleasure, etc.

While there are those among us who are motivated by fear and loss, most of us are more likely to achieve what we desire when we frame the choice in a positive direction – just like when we write affirmations.  Giving yourself something is always more pleasant than taking something away.  And of course, you can always use both the stick and the carrot – which for some people is an effective strategy, too.

As you think about what you would like to be different in your life this year (or month or week),  kick it up to a higher level than just a tactic by identifying what you are attempting to fix, correct, or what you stand to gain by accomplishing that tactic, not just what you must give up. 

What is the result you are looking for in giving up coffee?  Is it having a natural energetic balance?  Is it getting rid of gastro-intestinal upset?  Is it to calm your nerves?  Is it to keep that extra $4 per day instead of giving it to Starbucks?  Use whatever you discover to create that larger outcome and ultimately to create an overall strategy. 

Once you identify the larger picture for yourself, you can set your natural problem-solving talents on the task of coming up with multiple ways to accomplish that larger outcome.  And in doing that, you will have many more ways to be successful and feel good about your results.

Rather than depriving yourself through your resolutions, I encourage you to offer yourself more choices this year by looking at your own larger picture to develop the new habits you want in your life. 

Good luck, and let me know how you’re doing!!

Affirmations…Do They Really Work?

[PLEASE NOTE:  Although the items discussed below are still available, the special offer has expired.]

 It seems the jury is still out on the usefulness of affirmations.

Some people swear by them, and credit affirmations with helping them to make massive positive changes in their lives.

Other people say they are ineffective and wishful thinking.

Well, this is a case where both sides really are correct. Although the use of affirmations and the reasons behind their effectiveness is definitely up for inspection!

Affirmations, when done correctly, can help desired change happen far more quickly. When affirmations are framed appropriately, designed to support the desired change(s), and implemented in the proper manner, then they can seem to work like magic.

However, there are some simple basics to affirmations, that many people don’t understand. There is a form (or formula) to creating effective affirmations, and a method for integrating them into our self-development work that makes a huge difference in how well they will work for you. If you’ve been using visualization and affirmations, but you’re not getting the results you want, then you are probably missing out on at least some part of this basic understanding.

If you’re ready to have better results, then this could be your lucky day! Over the past week or so I’ve discovered 2 very useful tools that can help increase your success in using affirmations.

The first was a software product that intrigued me. So I bought the rights to it, made some basic modifications, and tested it out myself. I think you’ll like it. In fact, I’d like to run a little test with it, and you can be a test subject if you’re game! More about that in a few minutes…

The second tool I discovered was a quick-read ebook called “Why Most Affirmations Fail and the Four Building Blocks of Successful Affirmations” by Jennifer Shepard, a syndicated columnist with a tagline of the Lipstick Mystic ®.

This book contains a lot of useful information about how and why affirmations do and don’t work, and what you can do to make them more successful. I really liked Jennifer’s approach, and so I contacted her to see if I could set up a special offer for my readers.

While affirmations may seem to be esoteric to those who are not familiar with them, they use some very solid premises based on how the brain codes and uses information. They are useful for any area of your life, whether your focus is personal or professional.

Well, it didn’t take a lot of convincing, especially after she saw how connected the Prosperity Challenge is to the work she is also doing. So, she graciously agreed, and the result is that Jennifer is allowing me to offer you her $27 book for only $17 – which is more than 35% off her regular price.

There is a condition, however. This price will only be good until April 17, 2007. The link and the discount disappear on April 18. You can find out about Jennifer and her book by clicking here to be taken to the $17 page.

This great little book will give you lots of insight into how to tune up your affirmations so they work better. She offers some great ideas on how to overcome blocks and get things back on track. I think you’ll enjoy reading the book as well as the articles and suggestions she has to offer on her website.

So, now that we’re talking about affirmations, this is where my new software comes in. I purchased rights to a subliminal message affirmation software program that works on your computer desktop.

The actual affirmations were written based on ideas in “The Secret” – you know, the movie everyone has been talking about for months now. But I found the affirmations to be very basic, so I “pumped them up” to make them even more powerful, using my understanding of linguisitics and how the conscious and subconscious minds work.

While the focus is mostly on wealth and abundance, there are also some affirmations and suggestions for other areas of your life, too. As we know, abundance isn’t just about money. It’s also about health, relationships, self-confidence, etc.

So, here’s my offer to you: I am currently selling this software at http://Subliminal-Messenger.com for $7. I know that’s a really low price, but I do want people to have the opportunity to use it if they are interested.

However, I also want people who want to write their own affirmations to have a solid grounding in what works and why. So when you decide to pick up Jennifer’s book, I will give you a free copy of the Law of Attraction Subliminal Software.

All you have to do is send me a copy of your PayPal receipt for the book and I’ll send you a link to get the software for free. That means you get both the book and the software for $17 – less than half of the full price!

So, if you’re interested, here’s what you do:

  1. Go look at Jennifer’s site, http://free-daily-affirmations.com
  2. Go look at the software, http://subliminal-messenger.com
  3. Then, use this link: http://prosperitychallenge.com/affirm.html to buy the book
  4. Send a copy of your PayPal receipt to prgm@prosperitychallenge.com
  5. Read the book, apply the principles
  6. Install the software, enjoy the results!

Oh yes, and if you do use the software, please let me know how it works for you – what you liked, what you didn’t like. I am planning to develop several more little affirmation scripts for various specific issues, so I really want to know what you think, and how it works for you.

By the way, personally I think affirmations are great and I use them often! But I also know their effectiveness is dependent upon several factors.

At some time in the future I will be writing my own book about my successful experiences using visualization, language and various specific techniques and processes. In the meantime, I encourage you to pick up Jennifer’s book. You are sure to learn something new and useful – I did.

To Our Continued Success!

Katie

P.S. I will be posting a link to both the book and the software on the Prosperity Challenge and the Career Life Institute blogs. The book will continue to be available after April 17 – but it will go back to its full price of $27.

Time for a Break!!

Taking vacations are an important part of life and especially of our working life.

When we spend all our time doing nothing but working, we miss out on the random connections that can help us create innovative solutions.

Most “genious” solutions come from a kind of cross-pollenation (so to speak).  They come from arenas that have nothing to do with the work at hand.  Like the scientist who gets a brilliant new idea while working in the garden, or the writer who finds inspiration watching his grandchildren play.

If you are spending too much time at work, you generally become stale.  You miss out on those new perspectives that doing something different can bring you, and you certainly become more narrowly focused.

Now, taking a vacation means different things to different people.  My husband and I are getting ready for 5 weeks in New Zealand (after only one vacation in 15 years!!!), and he told our travel agent that he’d rather hang out in the pub with the locals than to sit in the hotel lobby with a bunch of tourists.

A good friend of mine, however, would rather spend her time in the museums than with “a bunch of strangers”.  She has no interest in meeting people on her vacation. 

Now, isn’t it interesting that for me, part of the pleasure is in getting to know the people in an area – getting a flavor of what it’s like to live there.  And for her, she wants as little contact with the locals as possible.

Everyone’s different.  And what refreshes one person is a drag to another.

For instance, I could never just lie on the beach in the sun.  I have to read a book, go swimming or snorkeling, or SOMETHING.  I would be bored stiff and probably fall asleep if I didn’t have some other engaging activity going on.

So, the moral?  Find something that refreshes you.  It doesn’t have to be a full blown vacation, but it does have to be something that takes you away from your routine.  Then embrace the new experiences and let them “seep” into your brain.

You’ll find that when you turn your focus back to your work, you have an enhanced appreciation for what you are doing, and perhaps your new perspective will give you new ideas, too!

Warmly,

Katie

P.S.  What’s your favorite idea for a vacation?  How about a mini-vacation?  Think about some of the best ways you’ve discovered to both clear your head and have fun at the same time.  Then come post your best ideas here….