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Title: Chicken Soup for the Soul Living your Dreams Author: Jack Canfield |
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After reading the book, you will come to realize how powerful dreams are to people. You can achieve whatever dreams you dream. Dreams are the motivating force only. When you want to accomplish your dreams, you also need to take action and determination. In other words, you need to be persistent. Life is gorgeous while learning so many captivating and amazing stories in the book.
In the first chapter of the book, there are ten steps teaching you how to make your dreams come true. Here are the simplified ten steps:
Step 1. Decide what you want
Step 2. Believe in yourself
Step 3: Build on your intelligence
Step 4: Build an awesome dream team alliance
Step 5: Visualize and affirm your desired outcomes
Step 6: Act to create it
Step 7: Respond to feedback
Step 8: Never give up: the power of determination
Step 9: Celebrate your victories and be thankful
Step 10: Give something back
The 10 steps above, of course, are just like the tip of an iceberg. If you want to discover more about the iceberg, you have to read the details by yourself. They are never difficult steps. Your success depends on how much effort you make on the way to accomplish your dreams.
In the following chapters, you will be touched, inspired, encouraged and motivated by all the true stories. You will come to know life will be empty without dreams. Only when you dare to dream, you will make your path a complete difference.
Apart from learning people’s stories, you will also learn those meaningful quotations in every chapter. They are powerful tools healing people who are down or frustrated.
Hope you can be enriched after reading the book. Also, remember, live your dreams and make them come true. How to live your dream?
Step 1: Decide what you want
The indispensable first step to getting things you want out of life is this:
Decide what you want. (Ben Stein, actor and author)
Be willing to dream big dreams
Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. (William Faulkner)
Set goals that will stretch you.Don’t compromise when you write down your goals
The genie in the lamp. When you achieve your goals .
Your ideal vision
Write down your dream list
Turn your dreams into goals and objectives
Start by eliminating all the little things that annoy you
Make a list
Step 2: Believe in Yourself: Use positive self talk
If you keep believing what you’ve been believing, you’ll keep achieving
what you’ve been achieving. (source unknown)
Control your self-talk
You are either the captive or the captain of your thoughts. (Denis Waltley)
you are always programming your subconscious mind
Cancel, cancel
No matter what you say or do to me, I’m still a worthwhile person (It is important to understand that what other people say is not what makes you feel bad. It is what you say to yourself after they stop talking that determines how you feel.)
Use affirmations to build self-confidence. Examples:
I am worthy of love, joy and success.
I am smart enough to get everything I want.
I am lovable and capable.
I create joy wherever I go.
I am able to solve any problem that comes my way.
I enjoy total success in all I do.
I handle conflict with grace and ease.
I find it easy to express myself.
I have all the energy I need to do everything I want to do.
I think prosperous thoughts and become ever more prosperous.
My prosperity makes everyone better off and no one worse off.
I am attracting all the right people into my life.
Step 3: Build on your core genius
Step 4: Build an awesome dream team alliance
Step 5: Visualize and affirm your desired outcomes
Mental rehearsal (p.24)
I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp, in focus picture of it in my head. (Jack Nicklaus, professional golfer)
I visualized every step of the 400-meter race until I saw every stride I would take. (Lee Evans, Olympic gold medalist)
- See yourself at your ideal weight
- Create goal pictures
- Create a visual picture and an affirmation for each goal
- Index cards
- Use affirmations to support your visualization
- Creating goal affirmations that work (starts with’ I am..’, in the positive and present tense, short, specific, an action verb ending in –ing, feeling word and about yourself.)
Step 6: Act to create it
what we think or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do. (John Ruskin)
( *3 areas: exercise, food and climbing stairs?)
The rule of five (do 5 things every day)
Satisfaction comes from action ( satis means ‘enough’ and facere means to make ---- enough making /action)
Don’t let fear stop you
And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more. (Erica Jong)
Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. (Will Rogers)
If you want to G-E-T, you have to A-S-K!
Rejection is a myth. I have lived a long life and had many troubles, most of which never happened. (Mark Twain)
If there is something to gain and nothing to really lose, then you should by all means ask!
Act as if
Develop new habits of success
Don’t wait….. Get started today
Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step. (Martin Luther King J)
Step 7: Respond to feedback
Ready, fire, aim ( In fact, life is kind of like a game of darts. )
Ask others for feedback
On a scale of 1 to 10
Ask yourself for feedback
Ask your higher self for feedback
Step 8: Never give up: the power of determination
Press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. (Calvin Coolidge. 13th Am. President)
Adversity and discouragement are inevitable
Step 9: Celebrate your victories and give thanks
celebrate our victories
your inner child
have an attitude of gratitude
the power of acknowledgement
thank your higher power
Step 10: give something back
Tithing always pays the best ROI(return on investment)
Quotations
The fear of rejection is worse than rejection itself. - Nora Profit
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. – Mark Twain
The fear of rejection is worse than rejection itself. - Nora Profit
No one ever finds life worth living – he has to make it worth living. (Author Unknown)
Dream are powerful reflections of your actual growth potential. (Denis Waltley and Reni L. Witt)
I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do. (Edward Everett Hale)
What becomes fragile when we age is not our bodies as much as our egos. The best time to take some daring steps is when we get older. (Helen Hayes)
We don’t have eternity to realize our dreams, only the time we are here. (Susan Taylor)
One of the most courageous things you can do is identify yourself, know who your are, what you believe in, and where you want to go. (Shelia Murray Bethel)
Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. ( Helen Keller)
What do we live for it if not to make life less difficult for each other? ( George Ellot)
Start by doing what is necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible. (Saint Francis of Assisi)
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you are going to go to bed with satisfaction. (George Horace Lorimer)
A journey of a thousand miles begins and ends with one step. (Lao-Tsu)
It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared. (Whitney Young Jr.)
You must back up your ambition by your whole nature, by unbounded enthusiasm and a determination to win that knows no failure. (Orison Swett Marden)
If you don’t hear opportunity knocking, find another door. (Omar Periu)
Struggling to contain my excitement, the next day I phoned the theater where
Salome Bey was appearing and unabashedly acted like a professional writer.
When I hung up, scared out of my mind I felt as though I had jumped into a pool
of quicksand and was about to be swallowed up with no chance at salvaging my
dignity.
Putting my heart into it, I struggled for days with draft after draft – rewriting and reediting my manuscript countless times.
Having failed to convince Nick of the futility of his efforts, I went back to my yard work.
Wringing my hands, I fought tears and asked…
He told such an captivating and persuasive stories that the audience was found pulling money out of their wallets to buy a bumper sticker on the spot.
Going back to high school seemed like a huge mountain to conquer.
Now I was burning the midnight oil and asking her questions.
Here was someone offering the key that might unlock the door in her dark life.
At the moment, layer upon layer of emotional distance, of defenses built against disappointment and hurt, began to peel off.
Ignoring the taunts of my classmates, I dutifully trudged down the hall as Miss Alma called to me.
did the most paradoxical and unbelievable thing that a teacher had ever done to me.
Once again I was enveloped in that warm, encouraging hug.
…most poignantly of the things….
It sounds so quaint.
The people who had the least to give often gave the most.
….rummaged through his garage and handed me …
..from a meek little girl with glasses and freckles…
.. but their exuberance for the upcoming Keystone State Games was evident.
Pain shot through my heart.
She was garnering points for the team.
Applause ripped through the rafters of the frigid arena.
..but it was more their antics that created hilarity on paper,…
It was a bleak, rainy day, and I had no desire to make the drive from …
..the perilous Rim of the ….
A riot of questions filled my mind.
Discouraged and disenchanted, I picked up and moved to …
I learned that dreams are never destroyed by circumstances; dreams are born in the heart and mind, and only there can they every die. Because while the difficult takes time, the impossible just takes a little longer.
Surrounded by dozens of people sniffling, coughing and blowing their noses, ..
My shock and embarrassment at finding Mother in tears on Wed. was a perfect index of how little I understood the pressures on her.
I could sense her pain and the tension of holding back the strong emotions that were interrupted by my arrival.
.. his iron persistence and his resolute determination, he did develop…
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Author: Mitch Albom Publisher: Hyperion |
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‘Every family has a ghost story,’ says the author. If you think that is too scary, then consider this: If you had a chance to fix up what you did wrong in the past, would you have the courage to take that opportunity?
Charles Benetto, an alcoholic, lived his life discontentedly and aimlessly. Then it came the day when he tried to end his life after he learnt about the marriage of his only daughter. He was furious that his divorced wife did not tell or invite him to the wedding. He was so deeply hurt that he collapsed. Finally, he made up his mind to kill himself at Pepperville Beach, a place where he grew up with his mother and younger sister. However, on the way there, he had a very serious car accident.
Before he was taken to hospital, he met a ghost, his mother, who died years ago. Then he started his one more day with her. All those misunderstandings, regrets, angers and resentments between his mother and himself ended that day. Learning a lot of truths from his mother, the conflicts inside him were resolved. He felt relieved and his messy life ended.
Later, he found himself in hospital and of course he was alive. He started a new life again. A life which was quite opposite to the one he had before. He had a very good relationship with his divorced wife and daughter and he led a peaceful life again.
If you are curious about that ‘one more day’, you should read the book. If you want to know how great a mother is, you should also read this book. I bet you will have inspirations about ‘one more day.’