Category Archives: jack canfield

Grateful for Assignments

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Oops – I was so excited to talk about our sacred gifts yesterday that I completely forget it was Wednesday.
So this week’s Gratitude Project post is on Thursday. 🙂

Feel free to click here (or below) to learn more about our Gratitude Project. 
Okay – now for today’s post:

I have always loved school. I was the one who would asked for extra assignments. It was truly the best day of my life when my 3rd grade teacher gave me an entire packet of worksheets to complete over summer vacation. In elementary school, the smell of warm, mimeographed homework sheets always brought a smile to my face.

It’s been awhile since I’ve been in school, and I have missed these assignments.


I recently enrolled in a program that feels a lot like school. We have assignments, worksheets, reading, and learning. The only difference between this and school is that I won’t be given a grade at the end. This is real life, and how well I do will determine how my professional life looks in the future.

So I am getting back into the habit of studying – getting back into the discipline of finishing my assignments – and being held accountable for doing what is expected of me.

In addition to this program, I have also been studying a lot on my own – we are all students of life, and the learning never stops. I have been introduced to so many wonderful teachers who have inspired me to live my best life.

One of these teachers is Jack Canfield. I was on a group call yesterday with him – each month he answers his students’ questions about a certain topic, and it’s always so inspiring to hear his wisdom. He always gives homework for the month, and I loved yesterday’s so much that I would like to share it with each of you.

For the next month, do something each day to stretch yourself.
Do something each day that will push you out of your comfort zone.
Do something that makes you feel a bit uncomfortable – not extremely uncomfortable. Just a bit. Just enough to notice what it feels like to push your limits. 

Keep a list of what you do, so at the end of the month you can look back and see how much progress you have made.

This is a big assignment for me, and I am looking forward to seeing how I can push through my fear and comfort and stretch myself.

I hope you’ll share with me how you decide to get out of your comfort zones, too.

So today I am grateful for assignments. I am grateful for inspiring teachers. And I am grateful for my ability to learn, stretch, and grow.

Pushing Through the Obstacles

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Sometimes we are on a roll in our lives where everything feels like it’s going really well and flowing effortlessly. 
And then we add something new – something that is out of the norm from our every day life. We stretch a little bit out of our comfort zone and expect things to continue flowing. 
And sometimes they do. 
 But sometimes we come across obstacles where we didn’t expect them to be. 
Sometimes we even come across road blocks that seem to be right in the way of reaching our dreams.
When this happens, take a look at these obstacles and notice where they are coming from and what messages they are conveying.
Are they coming from fear – is our ego stepping in and warning us that it might be scary to try new things?

Are they coming from outdated beliefs that we have about achieving success and finding true happiness?

Or maybe we haven’t stretched our adventure muscles in awhile and just need more practice. 
Over the past week, I have been writing my book, and I have stumbled upon many obstacles – some that I had a feeling would show up and others that I’ve been surprised by.
And while I recognize them for what they are (old fears and distractions coming up to keep me comfortable), I still have to work through them and move them aside. This dream is too big to allow anything to stand in my way.
I was listening to a powerful telesummit yesterday with Jack Canfield where he was talking about how we can live our ideal life – even with the obstacles. 
He brought up the great point that we are always going to have obstacles – but our response to these obstacles is entirely our choice. 
We get to choose our thoughts, which means we also get to choose our outcome.
So the next time we are reaching for our dream and we come across an obstacle – take some time to go within and try to get to the bottom of the message it brings up. And then thank it for showing up and teaching you more about yourself, and either push through it or go around it. Keep moving forward.
We are all learning lessons every day. And with each lesson, we are all getting closer and closer to our truest self – our divine soul.
And every obstacle and road block is helping us do just that. They are also great tools to show us just how passionate we are about achieving our dreams and living our ideal life. 
Every obstacle we push through and every barrier we eliminate 
leads us closer to our dreams.

Saturday Selection – The Law of Attraction

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For this week’s Saturday Selection, instead of choosing just one book or website to feature, I selected one of the seven natural laws in our universe: The Law of Attraction.

Like many of you, I first learned about this law by watching The Secret. 
I had dabbled with this concept before that. I believed that our thoughts became our reality, but when I watched this movie several years ago, something in me clicked and I have been on this path toward learning more about this law ever since. 
Here is how we define the law of attraction in our book: As If:

This book is based on the Law of Attraction–the principle of “like attracts like”–which says that what you focus on becomes your reality. We’d like to help you consciously focus on the life you want and make that your reality.

But, as the British musician Joe Jackson sang, “You can’t get what you want till you know what you want.” If you have no clear vision, or if you send mixed messages (e.g., saying you want prosperity, but spending half of your time focusing on debt and lack), you will get unclear, mixed results. On the other hand, if you can send a very clear message of exactly what you would like to manifest, it’s much more likely that these things, people, and experiences will start moving toward you.
The more you clarify, feel, and focus on your ideal vision, the stronger it gets. And the stronger it gets, the more it acts like a magnet, pulling your present self/life closer and closer toward your ideal until they are one and the same.
No matter how you work with the Law of Attraction, one thing is for certain: as you become more conscious of this principle, you will observe its power at work all around you and in your own life!
Use it consciously. Use it lovingly.

If you are new to this wonderful concept, I thought it would be helpful to list some books that have helped me (and continue to help me) learn more about it and become more conscious of what I attract into my life:

Keep in mind that this law is a law. It is working whether we think about it or not. We are constantly attracting into our lives whatever we believe we are worth and whatever we focus on and give the most energy to. And so why not be more conscious of our thoughts and attract the life that we truly believe we are worth?
Another thing to keep in mind that it is not just about creating financial abundance. It is so much bigger than that. By understanding how this law works, you can consciously create the life of your dreams – whatever that means for you. You can consciously attract everything that you want and need to live your ideal life. 
You get to decide. And this is such an amazingly powerful realization!
I have just begun to really tap into this law and truly understand how it works. I am currently working on discovering my own beliefs surrounding it and making sure that my thoughts are positive and in line with my ideal life.
I invite you to learn more about this and start consciously creating your ideal life as well. 
It starts with just one thought. 
And if you have 51% positive thoughts – then your life will be more positive than negative. 
That’s a great place to start. 🙂
P.S. – Dan and I were invited to be a part of a movie screening today for Scott Blum’s wonderful movie: Walk In. It was an amazing opportunity to watch it before its release, and I can’t wait for it to be finished so everyone can enjoy it! I’ll be sure to write about it when it comes out.

Dream A Big Dream

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I was listening to a wonderful seminar yesterday with Jack Canfield. He is the author behind the wonderful Chicken Soup for the Soul books, was featured on The Secret, and has written several books on positive thinking and achieving success. He is such an amazing person with a kind spirit, and I love that he is happy to share his knowledge and wisdom with others. 
This particular seminar was a motivational talk for authors who would like to achieve success with their own books, which came at a perfect time because Dan and I are each in the process of writing our own books and look forward to applying his wealth of information to our own lives. 
While he had tons of great advice for authors, 
the one universal theme that stuck with me the most was to dream big. 
When he wrote the first Chicken Soup for the Soul book, he always referred to it as a bestselling book – right from the start. He visualized it sitting at the top of the New York Times bestsellers list. He imagined full displays in bookstores. He imagined selling millions of books in the first year. 
And he kept that dream alive even when almost 150 publishers turned him down. He kept it alive when it was finally printed and sales were dismal in the first few months. He kept it alive when the publisher was having doubts about it and said he would be lucky to sell 20,000 total copies. 
He believed in himself, and he continued to dream big. 
He kept raising the bar for himself and dreaming even bigger than before. 
Even bigger than he thought was possible. 
They now have nearly 200 books in the series and have passed all of his dreams along the way. He has had to come up with even bigger dreams, which is a great thing! 
He talked about how if you are dreaming and visualizing anyway – what’s the difference between a safe dream and a “shoot for the moon” dream? The universe and the energy to attract your dream don’t know the difference – your feeling behind this dream is what will bring it into fruition. Your emotion and desire and belief in knowing that you deserve this dream will make it real. 
So you might as well dream in a big way. 
Raise the bar for your own dreams. 
And then take action. 
Once you set a clear dream and truly believe it and see yourself living it, 
you can take action to make it a reality. 

I always have felt that if you meet the universe half way, amazing things can happen. 
You set your intention, which sets everything in motion… 
and the results can be magical if you truly believe. 
So let’s all dream bigger than ever before, and get ready for amazing results!