The Cure for Despair
November 25, 2009
by Dr. Joe Vitale
During dinner the other night, one of the people in our group looked at me and asked the question I didn’t want to hear -
“How did you become homeless?”
By now most people have heard my story of being on the streets of Dallas in the late 1970s and struggling in poverty in Houston for many years after that. Some of it is explained in my new audioprogram, The Awakening Course.
But I had never explained exactly how I ended up in such dire circumstances.
When I answered the question at dinner, everyone at the table stared at me.
The woman who asked the question sat there with her mouth open and eyes un-blinking.
She asked, “Why have you never said this before?”
My friend Mark Ryan was sitting there, also staring, and said, “As long as I’ve known you, you’ve never told this story before. It’s riveting. This changes everything.”
Changes everything?
Riveting?
They all said I had to tell the story now.
“Given the current financial crisis and with people losing their homes and their jobs, this story needs to be told more than ever before,” Mark said.
I heard them and realized I agreed.
So here’s the story…
I knew I wanted to be an author when I was a teenager. I wanted to write books and plays that made people happy. Everywhere I looked I saw un-happy people. I believed I could help them with humor and stories.
During that time of the mid-1970s, I watched sports. I don’t today but back then the Dallas Cowboys were the rage. Roger Staubach and Tom Landry were heroes. I got caught up in the excitement and felt the place for me to make my name was in Dallas, Texas.
I lived in Ohio at the time. Born and raised there. I worked on the railroad as a trackman, doing heavy labor all day long, working weekends and summers since the age of five.
I saved my money, packed up my bag, and took a bus to Dallas. It took three days to get there.
I was lost in the big city, of course. Being born in a small town in Ohio didn’t prep me for the hustle and bustle of a city the size of Dallas.
Before long, I wanted out.
But I still wanted to be an author.
At that time major companies were building oil and gas pipelines in Alaska and the Middle East, and offering to pay big bucks if you were willing to go to either place.
I wasn’t keen on going to a foreign country and doing more labor, but I saw a chance to make money, save it, and then go on a sabbatical where I could write for a few months or even a year.
It seemed like a brilliant strategy.
I answered one of the newspaper ads that promised to get me pipeline work at a extraordinary hourly wage. I went in their office, met an upbeat sales person, and ended up giving him all of my money – my entire savings, about a thousand dollars at the time – based on his promise that I’d have overseas pipeline work in a week or two.
You might guess part of what happened next – but you won’t guess all of it.
Within a week or so, the company that took all of my money went out of business.
Their doors were closed, no one answered the phone, and no forwarding addresses could be found.
Shortly after that, the company went bankrupt.
And not long after that, the owner of the company committed suicide.
There was no one left to try to get my money back.
I was alone.
I was broke.
I was in Dallas, far from home.
I confess that my ego got in the way here. My family back in Ohio would have taken me back in and welcomed me back home. But I was head strong and determined to somehow survive.
Well, I did survive – by sleeping in church pews, on the steps of a post office, in a bus station.
It wasn’t an easy time, as you can imagine, and I never used to talk about it. It was too embarrassing.
When I told this story at dinner, everyone agreed I had to share it with you.
They said that people are finding themselves in the same situation – they trusted a government, or a corporation, or a person, or a bank, and now they are losing their homes and their jobs.
Hearing that I went through the same thing three decades ago and not only survived but prospered to a level that the Joe Vitale of thirty years ago could hardly imagine, ought to be inspiring to you, too.
I got off the streets and out of poverty by constantly working on myself – reading self-help books, taking action, scrambling at times by taking whatever work I could find, but always always always focusing on my vision: to one day be an author of books that helped people be happy and stay inspired.
If you’re in a place right now that doesn’t feel so good or seem too safe, I urge you to remind yourself that this is only temporary.
This is the cure for despair.
As I say in my book, The Attractor Factor, this is simply current reality, and current reality can change.
You can help it along by doing what you know and need to do.
But remember, the sun will shine again.
It always does.
Your job right now is to focus on what you want and keep it in sight.
Yes, keep taking action;
yes, stay positive and surround yourself with positive people;
yes, be of support to others.
But remember, if I or anyone else can survive homelessness, poverty, job loss, or any other hard time, then you can survive it, too.
Please hang in there.
One last thing:
I admit that there were times I wanted to throw in the towel and get myself out of this life.
Thank God I stuck around. Had I left early, I would have missed a life of magic and wonder, success and fame I never dreamed of before, priceless relationships and experiences, and more.
I have no idea what wonderful good is headed your way – and neither do you.
What you have to do is stay the course and follow your heart.
And remember -
Expect Miracles.
Ao Akua,
Dr. Joe Vitale
Founder of the movement to end homelessness
www.operationyes.com
Self Improvement – Achieving Your Dream
November 20, 2009
By Jeff Boo
Are you afraid of change and trying out new things? If you are, do you know why? Is there any past bad experience you had which deter you from taking up challenges and missing out all those rare golden opportunities? Well, if you just too afraid of taking that first step, you should just need to take some time to digest the idea that all things happen to you with a purpose. By allowing yourself to be overcast by the shadow of your past failures will only deny you from achieving what you should deserve in this life. Treat all negative past experiences as your self improvement lessons so that you will become wiser when coming to your next attempt to achieve your dream.
So what does self improvement have to do with achieving your dream? Well, to be successful in life, you need to have what it takes. And with that, I mean you must have those great personalities in you to walk through the uneven path towards your dream. Hence, self improvement is one essential quality you must have to develop those great personalities in you.
1. Self-esteem
You need to develop high self esteem in thyself in order to believe in yourself. Past failures are simply some great lessons learnt and you should be moving on with your adventures. You can only expect others to have the confidence in you only when you have the self-confidence in yourself.
2. Be Positive
How can someone with a negative mindset be successful in his endeavors? Yes, you may still be successful with a negative mindset but you need a lot, and I mean a lot, of luck. Stay positive in facing all challenges in life and believe in yourself that you can do it if you want to. Everyone has problems and this is a fact. The only difference is how you view them and how you are going to deal with them. A person who sees problems positively is actually having a higher chance to solve his or her problem more easily as he or she doesn’t waste the precious time in worrying and complaining.
3. Self-motivation
With great positive mindset, you should develop that self-motivation in you so that your energy will not run out. Are you waking up every morning feeling excited and can’t wait to start your day? Or are you someone who has to force yourself up and drag yourself to work? Yes, that is one difference between a person with self-motivation and a person without any. When you have the motivation, you will develop that passion in you to get you job done. You will not be focusing on the tons of “work” waiting for you to complete, but you will be concentrating on the end results that you will bring about.
4. Goal Setting
If you have a dream, set your goal to achieve it. With all the enthusiasm in you but without a goal, you will only end up hitting against a wall. Set your goal very clearly and set the time as in when you are going to achieve it, then you are all well prepared to set out the journey to achieving your dream.
It takes you some effort, time and great self improvement personalities to achieve your dream. Don’t ever hope that you may one day be attaining overnight success. It will only happen if you are talking about lottery but I suppose we shouldn’t define that as being successful. There are indeed many areas where self improvement is concern and I cannot be possibly mentioning each and every one of them here or this article will become a book. So, start today to explore through the world of self improvement so as to increase your speed towards achieve your dream in life.
Why Success is Your Personal Responsibility
November 16, 2009
By TJ Philpott
Success is your personal responsibility and not an entitlement! You can not assume nor expect that others will ‘do for you’ in the quest for your own personal desires; that only happens for children and not grown adults! Many who have aspirations of achieving success in various aspects of their lives often times fall short.
All too frequently the cause for this can be traced back to a lack of personal accountability for their own efforts. There is no doubt that having goals and objectives is an important step towards improving yourself or your situation. However setting goals while also taking responsibility for your own efforts to achieve them is how to become successful.
When you take personal accountability of your own actions while planning or pursuing anything worthwhile you have taken the first step towards eventually reaching your goals. Just to want something however is not good enough; this desire MUST be reinforced by some type of proactive behavior on your part. Let’s look at 5 ways taking personal accountability influences and determines the level of success you will achieve
Vision
You and only you know what it is that you want and how it will affect your life. The vision needed to put together a realistic plan can only come from within the person who has the desire to make this vision a reality. This is not something you can ‘outsource’ to another since these visions are rooted in your own dreams.
Goals and Objectives
Once you have established your vision you will next need to put together the ’steps’ you will have to take to make this a real part of your life. Your goals and objectives are the actual steps you will need to take to make your vision your reality.
Once again only you are familiar with the ‘full context’ of what your vision really is and what it means to you so only you can establish the ‘unique’ goals needed to achieve this dream. After all your vision is just that, a dream, until you succeed in making it your reality. It is also important that you keep these goals realistic. They must be something you have the necessary skills and resources to accomplish otherwise you will be wasting your time.
Plan
You now must put together a ‘workable’ plan that will be effective in helping you reach your goals. As with every other step that has come before only you know what it is you are capable of regarding your skills, patience, resolve and resources.
Execution
As we spoke of earlier it is not reasonable or realistic to depend upon the efforts of others for you to accomplish your own goals. The plans you have laid out now require your personal involvement. Nobody can breath, walk or talk for you so why would you expect different in the pursuit of YOUR OWN goals? The actions needed to accomplish these goals must be by you and it is up to you to be sure these actions are carried out correctly.
Charting Progress
If some system is not developed or implemented for charting your progress there is no way of determining how far you have gone and how far you have to go. A sense of measurement is necessary to also keep you motivated by reminding you of the progress you have already made. By taking personal responsibility of your own actions in the pursuit of goals and objectives you have set increases your chances of reaching your goals.
Achieving success in any situation is dependent upon the active role you play in both the planning process and by taking the necessary actions. To become successful in any aspect of your life you MUST become actively involved in the 5 step process as we reviewed above. To believe your personal achievements can be realized through the efforts of others is foolhardy and will only set you up for repeated failure and disappointment.
TJ Philpott is an author and Internet entrepreneur based out of North Carolina. To learn more about the role of Personal Responsibility in your success and to receive a free guide that teaches valuable niche research techniques visit: http://affiliatequickstart.com/
