This was emailed to me by a reader of my blog. Thanks for sharing it:

He spoke to me about a native American that walked down a path through some forests in the 1800's, he saw a water puddle ahead on the path. He angled in a direction to go around it on the part of the path that wasn’t covered by water and mud. As he goes to the puddle, he was suddenly attacked!

Yet he did nothing for the attack was so unpredictable and from a something so completely unexpected. The Native American was startled as well as unhurt, even though he had been hit many times already. He backed up a foot and his attacker stopped attacking him. Instead of attacking more, he hovered in the air on graceful butterfly wings in front of him. Had he been hurt he wouldn’t have found it amusing, but he was unhurt, it was funny, and he laughed. After all, a butterfly was attacking him!

Having stopped laughing, he took a step forward. His attacker rushed him again. He rammed him in the chest with his head and body, striking him over and over again with all his might, still to no avail. For a second time, he retreated a step while his attacker relented in his attack.

Yet again, he tried moving forward. His attacker charged him again. He was rammed in the chest over and over again. He wasn’t sure what to do, other than to retreat a third time, after all, it’s just not everyday that a butterfly attacks a person. This time, though, he stepped back several paces to look the situation over. His attacker moved back as well to land on the ground. That’s when he discovered why his attacker was charging him only moments earlier.

He had a mate and she was dying. She was beside the puddle where he landed. Sitting close beside her, he opened and closed his wings as if to fan her. The American Indian could only admire the love and courage of that butterfly in his concern for his mate. He had taken it upon himself to attack him for his mate’s sake, even though she was clearly dying and he was so large. He did so just to give her those extra few precious moments of life, should he have been careless enough to step on her.

Now the American Indian knew why and what he was fighting for. There was really only one option left for him. He carefully made his way around the puddle to the other side of the path, though it was only inches wide and extremely muddy. His courage in attacking something thousands of times larger and heavier than himself just for his mate’s safety justified it. He couldn’t do anything other than reward him by walking on the more difficult side of the puddle. He had truly earned those moments to be with her, undisturbed. He left them in peace for those last few moments, cleaning the mud from his boots when he later reached his teepee.

Since then, Native Americans have always tried to remember the courage of that butterfly whenever they see huge obstacles facing them. They use that butterfly’s courage as an inspiration and to remind himself that good things are worth fighting for.

If you have anything positive or motivating, please feel free to email it to me at
ntnocn123 (at) yahoo (dot) com. I will continue to respond to all of your emails.
Thank you for helping me build something to help me stay positive.

12 days of motivation – Here is what I am doing.
Day 1 – Write a letter of appricaition for someone you care about
Day 2- Give compliments to 3 strangers
Day 3- Volunteer at a soup kitchen
Day 4 – Send money to your favorite charity
Day 5 – Call a friend or family member for no reason and tell them why you value their relationship
Day 6 – Go out of your way to help someone
Day 7- Send someone a thank you letter
Day 8- bring your neighbor a Christmas treat
Day 9- Do something for someone that you have been thinking about doing but haven’t.
Day 10 – Meet with a charity to see how you can help them
Day 11 – Order pizza for your local police or fire dept.
Day 12 – Take a friend to lunch.

Last week I completed some (personal non-business) interviews with 2 very good people that I like. One runs the positive news network and the other one has written an updated version of Think and Grow Rich. What I like about both of these people is that they are both trying to create good in the world beyond themselves. It is challenging for people to remain positive in their own worlds let alone create time to try and help others.

This weekend I spent time reading one of my best articles for motivation for myself that I have collected:

Arthur Winston - The story of a bus janitor in LA that became a church icon when people found out about his 70 year track record of perfect attendance. 1 missed day for his wife’s funeral over 70 years. Some people have accused me of trying to be a Tony Robbins or just trying to post here to help people become millionaires. This blog is just something I am sharing.

I have been blessed but in more ways than just money. I never believed that money alone yields happiness but I also never believed that having money was exclusive of happiness either. Is Arthur Winston wealthy? I doubt it. I respect his story nonetheless. Was Clara Barton wealthy? No, but I respect her greatly for the work she did with the Red Cross.

I just had an email sent to me from a good friend of mine: What an inspiring story. It makes me think that I am capable of more than what I am doing and it really creates positive energy in me. I am posting this to remind me of what is possible.

---
Strongest Dad in the World
[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars–all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much–except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

“He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. “Put him in an institution.''

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. “No way,'' Dick says he was told. “There's nothing going on in his brain.''

“Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? “Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, “Dad, I want to do that.''

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described “porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. “Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. “I was sore for two weeks.''

That day changed Rick's life. “Dad,'' he typed, “when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

“No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyt's weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, “Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? “No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for “the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time'? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992–only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

“No question about it,'' Rick types. “My dad is the Father of the Century.''

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. “If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor told him, “you probably would've died 15 years ago.''

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

“The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, “is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.''

I just received an email telling me I won an award and asking me to put their link on my blog. Thanks for the award but I am not going to promote your site for giving it to me. Thank you for your consideration. I think everyone gets one of these award emails right?

Another email asked me: What is my favorite quote? I have so many but...
One of the life statements that I do try to live by is do things that can help that cannot hurt.

Another email asked me my favorite food? Ok one of my favorites is chocolate protein powder. A really different food is called bodybuilder pudding. Mix chocolate protein powder into cottage cheese. Odd?

A question I was emailed yesterday. "What am I trying to sell?"

Answer: Nothing.

I woke up this morning grateful that I don’t need to use the Internet as a way of making money. I also received a couple that thanked me for not trying to promote anything and that motivational sites that they have gone to have tons of ads trying to sell them products. This blog is really something for me and I am just sharing.

I get far more emails than people that respond here and I will respond to all emails until it gets out of hand. A note to the people that are emailing me: I have enabled my posting feature so that you can post without being a google member.

I was reading last week about one of my life heroes Clara Barton (founder of the red-cross). I think she sometimes gets overlooked because her birthday is on Christmas maybe?

I wanted to thank Steve Liewer of the San Diego Tribune with providing me with information to send gifts to wounded troops in Southern California. He warned me that addressing gifts to "wounded troops" would not always work due to security concerns at many of the centers. Mr. Liewer was kind enough to supply email contact information to people that were able to help me.

This idea came to me from another blogger that I really like that posted an address to send letters to "wounded troops". This might work for letters and it might not due to security concerns. I have reached out directly to the centers to ensure that items I send get to the correct people.

Thanks Steve for your help I appreciate it.

More things I feel positive about this morning: To be clear these are always just things I do:

---- My diet trick. This is often debated but I really like the idea of having a time to cheat on my diet. My weakness is sweets and I have learned through studying bodybuilding over the years something that some of them have been doing for years. There is an hour that some bodybuilders call "the get out of jail free card” during this hour a person can eat sweets and it can actually help build muscle? At first I didn’t believe it but after reading more I found there was actually support for it. It spikes insulin levels, which during most times it is a bad idea but right after a weight workout it can help to build muscle. I look at it this way if a person is likely going to cheat anyways.... what is the worst that happens by doing it right after a workout? Ill post more on this another time,

----Quote analysis - Here are two quotes

#1-Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

#2-Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.

Now try and match the quote to the person. Mae West and Mick Jagger.
Think for a minute.


----Questions I asked myself this morning.

Who am I grateful for?
Who can I help today?
What three people can I compliment today?

Spiritual---The verse I wrote down. James 2:17

Here is the answer to the question from above. #1 Was Mick Jagger and #2 was Mae West. Now do you know which person Warren Buffett (The 2nd wealthiest person in the planet behind Bill Gates according to Forbes) quoted?

---
If you want to see my critics you can go to.

http://uselessmen.blogspot.com/ ---- #424.



http://uselessmen.blogspot.com/

Positive mental attitude

#1- Diet - blueberries are one of the best foods that are both anit-oxidant and anti viral, this means they can help with either colds and flu.


#2- Positive thinking in writing - If you write down the reasons that you like your occupation you are able to then remain more positive towards your position and be happier about it.

#3- Music - I have made a cd of all of the most positive message music that I can find. It is very challenging. One of my favorites for positive messages is Triumph. (Yes a little obscure).

#4-Spirituality - Mathew 17:20

#5- Exercise - Jogging or cardio workouts are a good way to get positive emotional flow as well.

#6- Modeling - Being around good role models for positive thinking helps you also create a positive mental attitude.

#7-Helping other people - When you help others you feel better about yourself.

Thank you for helping me break 1,000 visitors with such a simple site.

Positive attitude through diet. I have read scientific research that has shown possible correlations between vitamin C intake and studies have shown a fairly strong link to being able to lower poor moods through the intake of vitamin C. I have done studies on myself to see how vitamin C in doses of 1 to 2 thousand milligrams per day helped and I found it to work. Most doctor’s recommend 1000 miligrams but I have used much higher dose and it seems to help. Dr. Wiel has suggested taking up to 5,000 when you are feeling a cold coming on.

I take half in the morning and half in the afternoon. Simple, inexpensive and effective and with low (if any) health risks.

Here is another anonymous poem that was included in Think and Grow Rich. What I like about it is the way that it provides hope right now of greater possibilities just by thinking differently. I have been told you can think all these things are going to happen and still lose right? And I say yes. But as long as you keep your dreams alive you live and quite often when you let them die you die along with them. Hope for future achievement is greatly stressed by napoleon hill as being something that makes a person rich as well.

I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store;

For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial's hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have gladly paid!

Positive mental attitude through poetry:

If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don't.
If you like to win but think you can't
It is almost certain you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you're lost.
For out of the world we find
Success begins with a fellows' will.
It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are.
You've got to think high to rise;
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man;
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.


Good morning it is 5:32 AM here in So. Cal.

I am always looking for new and creative ways to remain positive regardless of the world around me. This poem is by an unknown author but it is included in the book Think and Grow Rich. I have a woman with a very attractive voice that I have tape various things for me to listen to and this one of the items on the tapes. (well now they are burned onto cds). I beleive the simple memorization of things like this helps people. As long as you dont try using this as the sole method of creating PMA you have little to no risk.

The reason I use it is to have something positive in my mind to offset all the negativity we have around us not only on the internet, but on television and the radio and newspapers. We have so much negative that I use forced positive mindfeeding all the time.

Positive mental attitude through the help of a billionaires words of encouragement.
Here is a letter I emailed to Mark Cuban, he is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks.

I know you are the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and that you are very wealthy. I would appreciate it if you gave some words of encouragement to give people a positive mental attitude during this holiday season on a personal blog that I have. I think it is incredible the work that you do on the charitable side. That is what I really like about you, as a person is how you give to people that you don’t know and are really secretive about it. It would be great if you could post about some personal information about yourself.

I feel you have a genuine caring side. I have been very blessed in business as well and I have learned to care about people. I wish you the best.

Here is the blog I would feel honored to have you post on.
http://sms100.blogspot.com/

Happy holidays.


The question is. Will he respond?

Turning Tragedy into something positive. Going beyond positive thinking.

Thinking positive alone is not enough. People face difficult life situations and they are faced with negative unwanted emotions. Go to your mailbox and it says IRS. How many people think great and get excited? You are on vacation and your boss leaves a message on your cell phone saying call right away. Do you think that people get a flow of positive emotions over that? No way. It does not happen.

I am going to take on the most difficult situation here first. Death of a loved one it is likely the biggest negative you will ever face. I am here to offer you a suggestion to help you. I lost a relative to suicide at a very young age and unexpected time that got involved with meth unexpectedly. I don’t think it makes me an expert counselor for people dealing with something terrible but I do understand what I didn’t want.

I didn’t want people trying to give me advice that was basically telling me to remain positive. Trust me that is not enough during that time. So if I told you I had a solution for your pain would you believe me? If I said I had a step-by-step solution would you do it? Let's see.

Here is what I found to work. I started taking the frustration, anger, and resentment and directed it into something positive. I started writing letters of appreciation to as many people as I could. I wrote to friends, family, business associates and people that I respected and admired. Guess what happened? I started to feel better. Writing is an antidote for pain and at the same time I found out that not many people in the world get letters like that. Simple one page letters telling them 5 to 10 positive things about them and how you value their relationship. You don’t even have to know the people you can send these to authors of books you have read, disc jockeys that play songs that uplift you, people that write articles that inspire you or people that are just nice to you and offer a good service to you like your postman.

I just gave you 5,000 dollars worth of free therapy there. If you go through a challenge write letters like this. Send me copies of 5 letters you write with your name and address and phone number and I will send you a free gift with no strings attached. Knowing this information is great. Applying this information is life changing.

Thank you for your support: 600 hits. No pics, no ads, no highlighted buzz words, no linked blogs and no vulgarity. 1,000 might be possible?

THE SELF CONFIDENCE FORMULA
Think and Grow Rich method to faith I had emailed to me. A freind sent this to me.
This is from the book Think and Grow Rich and I was told that he memorized it. I wonder how many people have this memorized?


First. I know that I have the ability to achieve the object of my Definite Purpose in life, therefore, I DEMAND of myself persistent, continuous action toward its attainment, and I here and now promise to render such action.

Second. I realize the dominating thoughts of my mind will eventually reproduce themselves in outward, physical action, and gradually transform themselves into physical reality, therefore, I will concentrate my thoughts for thirty minutes daily, upon the task of thinking of the person I intend to become, thereby creating in my mind a clear mental picture of that person.

Third. I know through the principle of auto-suggestion, any desire that I persistently hold in my mind will eventually seek expression through some practical means of attaining the object back of it, therefore, I will devote ten minutes daily to demanding of myself the development of SELF-CONFIDENCE.

Fourth. I have clearly written down a description of my DEFINITE CHIEF AIM in life, and I will never stop trying, until I shall have developed sufficient self-confidence for its attainment.

Fifth. I fully realize that no wealth or position can long endure, unless built upon truth and justice, therefore, I will engage in no transaction which does not benefit all whom it affects. I will succeed by attracting to myself the forces I wish to use, and the cooperation of other people. I will induce others to serve me, because of my willingness to serve others. I will eliminate hatred, envy, jealousy, selfishness, and cynicism, by developing love for all humanity, because I know that a negative attitude toward others can never bring me success. I will cause others to believe in me, because I will believe in them, and in myself.

I will sign my name to this formula, commit it to memory, and repeat it aloud once a day, with full FAITH that it will gradually influence my THOUGHTS and ACTIONS so that I will become a self-reliant, and successful person.

Scientific version of faith? I am using a technique called counter blocking to write out the reasons I believe something that I have not done yet to push past a mental block. For example say that you think you can’t get up before 5 am. Write down 50 reasons that you can and that changes belief. That takes something you don’t believe in and changes into something you not only believe but that you also become more likely to do. I also have a more spiritual version that I am conducting but that is information that I am only sharing with people outside of the internet.

Do you think faith can be created? If so. How? I am going to write an entry shortly on how I intend to create faith. It is a personal experiment on the creation of applied faith approached from a scientific base. I have never seen or heard of anything like this being done before and I have spoken to some biblical people about this first.

It is my experiment in developing faith if you have an idea on how to do it before I post about it please do so.

This applies to the materal stated on this blog as well:
It can take up to 50 reasons to start to really look deeply at something differently. This is based on the scientific principal that we think on different levels of thought one being chatter, the other being thinking and the third and deepest where change takes place is in feeling. Please keep that in mind when reading the content here. To get people to take the time to look at things differently is challenging, on the internet there is a great deal of searching for the quick fix. The other scientific principal is that we use material the most that we come into contact with at least 20 times. Until you have been in contact with something 20 times it really does not start getting used much.

I was reviewing the list of the 12 things that make a person rich and right at the top of the list is positive mental attitude. What I find interesting is how many people really see that as being the case. Having a PMA is more important than having financial wealth according to Think and Grow Rich. Funny that this is on the tapes but not really highlighted in the book.

Today, I journaled a RAK in my book. RAK for me stands for a random act of kindness I cant tell you what it was or it would not seem random to me. I am experimenting by tracking them and tracking the positives that happen in my life.

What is possible? I was told that I need to run ads, put in key words, post pictures of women or write about sorrid stories to get people to visit this blog. I think they are wrong. I was told there are no sites with over 1,000 visitors that dont sell things have sex, negativity or links to other blogs. We will see. I have some very Positive people that I associate with.


I was reading Think and Grow Rich this morning and was reminded of something: There is a quote inbetween chapters that says : happiness is found in doing not only in possessing. Do you know what is powerful about that for me? Bill Gates has said "If I had to pick between my wealth and my job I would choose my job" and Warren Buffett has said "I enjoy the process far more than the proceeds" and further back in time Mark Twain has said "the secret to doing well in business is to turn your vocation into your vacation". I find it interesting how they tie together.

My daily journal, I have been as many of you know journaling for over 5 years. I have found that by revisiting the journal quarterly I come up with some great ideas to use and recall things. Some of the notation I use is L circled which represents something I learned, a G circled which represents something that I am greatful for and a plus that is circled that represents a positive thing that happened that day. I have others as well but those are the most common. I journal simply using spiral ring binders that I save.

I was emailed a question on one of my favorite movies. There is a movie called Running on the Sun that is listed. The movie is about the Badwater Marathon, it is a run that is 135 miles apx in Death Valley during the summer. I have an article that I keep in my motivational folder of a man with 1 leg and 1 arm that completed it. I use it as a reminder of what is possible.

Is it possible to create happiness?

I was told this morning that there is a scientific method to being happier. Turns out that if you think back on your day just before you go to bed, and do it a particular way, you have nicer better dreams, sleep more soundly, and generally feel happier.

The key to this is supposed to be? Reflecting on three positive things that happened during the day and figuring out why they happened. Analyze what went right, the experts say, and you create more of it, both mentally and physically.

Is this a possible solution?

Going the extra mile - On the Think and Grow Rich tape series Napoleon Hill talks about going the extra mile and how most people dont even go the first mile. Being willing to do more than what you are paid to do is a habbit you are supposed to have. I always wondered what the world would be like if everyone was going the extra mile as a habbit.