A Change of Heart

It's the world we live in that made me feel that way. Otherwise I wouldn't have thought for a moment about sitting next to that beautiful young girl.

My recent trip to Kentucky ran smoothly except for a near two hour delay inPittsburgh. I must admit I have never had a major problem while flying acrossthis great country. In fact, I believe this was the first time I have ever experienced a delay that long.But I always tell my travel agent that if ever I need to be delayed let it be inPittsburgh. They have the greatest shops and restaurants to keep me busy forhours.They finally announced boarding.

Now I don't believe for a moment that I'm the only person who goes through this. From the moment I enter the plane I start scanning ahead to see my seat. "Who's sitting next to me on this flight?" I wonder. "Is there anyone in my seat already?" That's happened a few times."Are there any screaming babies nearby?"Flight time is precious time for me. I sleep, write or read. So screaming babies and frequent bathroom people become a problem.

Today I get to sit next to a beautiful young girl who appears to be about 12 years old. As I approach my seat she seems nervous, perhaps a little apprehensive and I must say very disappointed. You see walking in front of me was this handsome young male teenager. I could see that sparkle in her eye dim as he walked by and I sat down. I'll admit I was nervous and concerned. She was traveling alone and I was one of those strangers her parents told her not to talk to.

"Hi! My name is Bob," I said."Hello!" she replied without giving her name.Then we spent the next one hour and fifteen minutes not saying a word.

She was a typical kid. She never sat still for longer than five minutes. Oftentimes she reached into her carry on and pulled out what appeared to be six brushes, four packs of gum and all the empty wrappers, a bag filled with jawbreakers, a tube of rainbow colored sugar crystals and three foot long licorice.Oh, yes she also ate two bags of airplane peanuts. I gave her mine.

It wasn't until the last 15 minutes of the flight that I heard it. That sweetsounding Voice that said "Give her one of your books!"
"She's only 12," I argued. "She won't find my book interesting. Do they even know how to read at 12?" I thought sarcastically.
But again and again I heard it repeat, "Give her one of your books!" And so I opened one up, signed it and said, "I am a professional speaker and author.I'd like to give you one of my books if you would permit me."She giggle a bit and said yes followed by "Oh, thanks!"I then began to explain the story."It's a fictional story based on actual events. I changed the names but basically much of this is true. My oldest son, Keith had cancer and that's partof this book."
"Oh, I'm sorry", she said.
"No need to be. He's doing just fine, thank you.Where are you from?" I asked.
Then for the next ten minutes this young lady never stopped talking. In fact, as we were leaving the plane she talked and walked backwards down the aisle.
Much of what she said was all a blur for me after she said these words: "Wow, I just saw the Hershey Medical Center mentioned in there. Is that where your son went for his cancer treatments?" she asked.I nodded "Yes.""That's where I had my heart transplant," she said with a big bright smile.Heart transplant. This child had a heart transplant. Then I took notice. Rightat the top of her pink t-shirt, just below her collar bone, the beginnings of a scar peeked over her collar. This vibrant young, beautiful girl had the heart of a donor. Obviously a young donor who lived in a family who cared enough to save another child's life. She continued to share the details of her stay at Hershey. I continued to listen in amazement.
For the story she told was a familiar one. She was the girl down the hall we all prayed for. I never knew how things turned out for her until today.They say some lives cross because they were meant to. This was more than a chance meeting. I discovered that this child leaving Pittsburgh to go home to Kentucky was a patient in the same hospital, on the same miraculous floor, at the same time my son was there.
That little Voice inside of me kept telling meto give her a copy of my book. I argued.
The Voice won...as always.
The last words she said to me was...
"My Mom always told me that God was going to call me home but then He had a "Change of Heart!" Do you get it?"
Then she giggled and laughed as she walked through the last door into the arms of her loving family.

I got it. I heard the Voice say, "Now you know why!"

"I believe in you!"

Bob Perks © 2001http://www.bobperks.com

THE POWER OF YOUR BELIEFS

by Lisa Jimenez, M. Ed.

Your beliefs are the driving force behind your behaviors. Beliefs send powerful messages to your brain that affect your actions (and their outcome) in either a positive or negative way. Your beliefs will cause you to do one of two things:

Be fearful and RETREAT, or Be empowered and ACT!

That's how powerful your beliefs are. Your beliefs about failure, risk-taking, and success will either cause you to repel success, or act and attract it to you. Success takes two ingredients: belief and time. The more belief you have, the less time it takes.

How can you ensure your belief system is empowering and is actually attracting success to you? Three things:

First, it is imperative that you are making daily efforts to get the negative messages out of your life. You need to create an obsession with filtering what you allow in. Television, newspapers, some movies and songs, negative thoughts and people, all need to be limited – even banned from your day.

Second, you need to expose and replace the negative beliefs you presently have. Think about what you say on a daily basis. Observe your habitual behaviors in different situations. Tell the truth. Expose these negative beliefs. Only then will you be truly free. Then, replace these negative beliefs and bad habits with empowering ones. Think on these new thoughts and beliefs about success and over time you will retrain your mind and change your heart.

Lastly, create a compelling vision of your success. Craft a picture of you – as the person you want to be – in your mind and THINK ON THIS throughout your day. Not only will this vision put a smile on your face, this habit will actually create success.

Remember middle school science class? You learned the difference between potential energy and kinetic energy. Potential energy is energy waiting to happen. Not until it's moving and active will you see it in its kinetic energy state. When it's in the kinetic state it is a reality. Wow! That means you can create reality (the kinetic energy) with your thoughts and beliefs (potential energy). Never underestimate the power of your beliefs!

Change Your Beliefs and You Change Your Behavior
Change Your Behavior and You Change Your Life!

Have a great day!

Lisa Jimenez M.Ed.


"Helping people breakthrough hidden fears and self-limiting beliefs to live a more outrageous, faith-filled life."

Conquer your hidden fears of prospecting and create an unstoppable mindset!

Lisa Jimenez has helped thousands of top salespeople shatter their self-limiting beliefs and finally get the breakthrough success they want. When it comes to personal productivity and creating unstoppable momentum - there is no one better for you than Lisa. Lisa penetrates the hearts of your audience when she reveals her own experience of how she broke through self-limiting beliefs and turned them into the driving force behind her success. Then she used these new beliefs to sign a six-figure consulting contract just 9 months later.

To order Lisa's best-selling 'Conquer Fear! Ending Procrastination and Self Sabotage to Achieve What You Really Want' package call 800-929-0434.

Hold Tight To Your Integrity

While I might concede that the spoils of life don't always go to the most deserving. I hold true to the belief that without a doubt the"spoils" are always more enjoyed when one has lived a life with integrity and not sold out on the things they value most. I have known men and women who have gone from the top, to the bottom,and back to the top again, and a common thread among most all of them is that they always held tight to their integrity.

I would advise that you always make the effort to remain the person who never looks down on another, no matter what place in life you maycurrently find yourself. If you are in an enviable place, be thankful,but don't live in a way as though you are above anyone else. Life rewards those who remain humble no matter what success they mayacquire. At the same time, often the person that brags or begins to believe they are above another tends to find themselves caught in abit of "success quicksand" for lack of a better term. Be sure you never become that person struggling to get unstuck.

Yours in success,
Josh Hinds

Josh Hinds of http://GetMotivation.com specializes in helping peopleto achieve maximum success and live the life of their dreams. He is also the co-founder of http://AudioMotivation.com which brings you advice from leading motivational, business, and personal development experts.

The Power That Controls Our Lives

Deep within each of us lie two things that control our lives and the way we live them. Our behavior and attitudes and lifestyle are governed by them. If we want to change our life then we need to look at these foundational things that have governed us all our lives.
These foundations are our beliefs and our values. They color our lives even though we may not be aware of them. They are deeply affected by our upbringing and the things that have happened to us and the conclusions we have drawn from those things.

Let us look at our beliefs in particular. Our beliefs have a positive or negative influence on us. If we have experienced bad parenting we will have some basic beliefs based on the experience with the first two important relationships in our life. Perhaps your father was abusive, or neglectful. That will have set up a unconscious foundational belief based on that experience that will flow into your perception of all other men. You will compare men to the first role model of a man that you had. You may even have a deep belief that all men are like your father and a response of distrust of men, or an expectation that all men will neglect you.

Here are 3 quotes that demonstrate the power of our beliefs.

"If you believe you can, you probably can. If you believe you won't, you most assuredly won't. Belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad." -- Denis Waitley

"The most important thing about a man is what he believes in the depth of his being. This is the thing that makes him what he is, the thing that organizes him and feeds him; the thing that keeps him going in the face of untoward circumstances; the thing that gives him resistance and drive." -- Hugh Stevenson Tigner

"If you think a certain thought long enough and hard enough, it becomes a fixed belief and you will find yourself behaving on the outside in a manner consistent with it." -- Brian Tracy

Our beliefs will have a positive or negative effect on our life. We do however have a choice. We can choose what we believe, we can change what we believe.

First however we need to uncover what we believe. Take notice of fears and reactions as you live your life. They come from beliefs that you have, but you need to dig down to find the root. If for example the root is your experience of a bad father-face that experience and uncover the lie that you have believed from that experience. Your father was only one man, he made choices that were not good for you. Every other man is not your father, every other man does have to not make those choices and behave that way. You can choose to recognise the reality of your experience with your father and his actions, yet at the same time choose to believe that he does not typify what all men are like. He was a bad role model to you of what a man is like, but there are many men who are good fathers and treat their children the way you yourself would have liked your father to treat you.

That belief has been fed by your perceptions and expectations of men colored by your experience over many years and is deeply rooted in you. It will not change over night, but you can make a start to re-evaluate that belief and choose to believe differently. As you choose to change a belief, you will start to see changes in your behavior and responses. Start affirming the new belief that you have chosen, and look for evidence around you that confirms its truth.

Take back the power of false beliefs from your life and see the changes you desire.

For more articles like this visit http://www.livingbeyondbetter.com

It Could Have Been Me- But For The Grace Of God

This week the world has reeled in shock at the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in the southern Gulf States of America. Although other major events have also happened this week, people who live in North America, in particular, are still trying to come to terms with the reality and extent of this disaster in their own back yard. Thoughts and images of the affected area come to mind many times a day. With the highly developed technology available today, the media enables us to follow the tragic events as they unfold, and it feels as if it has happened closer to home, than the reality of thousands of miles away.
The Hurricane Katrina disaster, for me, and I’m sure many others, has evoked many questions and emotions. Although days have past since Hurricane Katrina took its toll, I still have strong feelings of shock and disbelief that this has actually happened! Feelings of empathy and sorrow for the millions of people who have lost so much overwhelm my heart, and then come flashes of anger at the looters and criminal element that are taking advantage the misfortunes of others. I understand how desperate people might resort to stealing to meet their urgent need for survival...........
Read more But for the Grace of God

The Cost of Raising Children

I have repeatedly seen the breakdown of the cost of
raising a child, but this is the first time I have
seen the rewards listed this way...
The government periodically releases the cost of
raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with
$160,140 for a middle income family.
Talk about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch
college tuition but $160,140 isn't so bad if you
break it down.
It translates into:
*$8,896.66 a year,
*$741.38 a month, or
*$171.08 a week.
*That's a mere $24.24 a day!
*Just over a dollar an hour.
Still, you might think the best financial advice
is don't have children if you want to be "rich."
Actually, it is just the opposite.
What do you get for your $160,140?
* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!

* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles under the covers every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.

* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
* Endless wonder over rocks, ants,
clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold, usually covered
with jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles, flying
kites, building sand castles and
skipping down the sidewalk in the
pouring rain.

* Someone to laugh yourself silly with,
no matter what the boss said or how
your stocks performed that day.
For $160,140, you never have to grow up.
You get to:
* finger-paint,
* carve pumpkins,
* play hide-and-seek,

* catch lightning bugs, and never stop
believing in Santa Claus.
You have an excuse to:
* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
* watching Saturday morning cartoons,
* going to Disney movies, and
* wishing on stars.
You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under
refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle
wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for
Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for
Father's Day.
For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck.
You get to be a hero just for:

* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,

* taking the training wheels off a bike,
* removing a splinter,
* filling a wading pool,

* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a
baseball team that never wins but always gets
treated to ice cream regardless.
You get a front row seat to history to witness the:

* first step,
* first word,
* first bra,
* first date, and
* first time behind the wheel.

You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to
your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of
limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great
grandchildren.
You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal
justice, communications, and human sexuality that
no college can match.
In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God.
You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away
the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart,
police a slumber party, ground them forever, and
love them without limits, So one day they will like you,
love without counting the cost.
All of this and more for just about one dollar per hour,
what a bargain!

You Can Be 100% Successful In One Area!!!

You Can Be 100% Successful At Being You!

You are totally unique. Just as no two snowflake crystals are alike, neither are people created alike. God created your unique characteristics, gifts, personality,appearance, and heart . You are uniquely created to make a you- shaped contribution to the world. Noone else can be as successful at being you as you can!

How many times a day do we hide who we really are? How often do you suppress 'you' and try to be like someone else to gain acceptance and approval from others? What is it that makes us want to fit in and not stand out? Why are we so uncomfortable with our uniqueness?

Everytime we try to be like someone else who we admire, or who seems successful we set ourselves up for failure. We can only be 100% successful in being ourselves, and no-one else can be you. When we celebrate and flaunt our uniqueness we give something totally unique to other -we are a gift to them that enriches their lives.

Sometimes we lose ourselves. We lose a sense of who we are and settle into a second rate existance shaped by the expectations of who others think we should be, or who we think we should be. We cannot find peace and inner freedom unless we accept and live as God created us to be. This happened to me and it took me years to realize what was happening. Then I started a journey of discovering who I really was. It is a journey, it is a process- yet the places that I have travelled in it have enriched my life and brought such peace and contentment. I am beginning to live as the person God created me to be. Would I go back? NEVER!!!

Discovering and Celebrating Your Uniqueness