One of the greatest personal and professional development mentors I have ever had has just died. This person was my Dad.

My Dad and I had many conversations about the need to bring more positive thinking into schools, into universities, into businesses – we talked again and again about the power of the mind and how important it is to use effectively.

We talked about the ideas of Earl Nightingale, Napoleon Hill, Jim Rohn, Og Mandino and Norman Vincent Peale – some of the greatest pioneers behind the personal and professional development industry today.

We reflected many times on the story of how the mind is like fertile soil that does not care what you plant in it but will nourish and grow everything you seed. If you sow thoughts of anger your mind nourishes the growth of more thoughts of anger that will expand more and more into your life. If you sow seeds of love your mind will nourish the growth of more thoughts of love that will expand more and more into your life. You have the choice with what you sow and focus on. You will reap the results.

These conversations became part of the inspiration that lead me to creating The W.O.N.D.E.R. Technique ®. Thank you Dad.

In celebration of my Dad’s life we had a special service that was attended by hundreds of people who wanted to share their time in honor of the joy and happiness my Dad brought to them.

Below I share with you a sort of poem that I wrote early one morning after the passing of my Dad. I shared it with the audience at the celebration of life. I share these words here because I want to pass on a little bit of the greatness my Dad brought to our world. Greatness I am sure you are bringing to this world as well step by step.

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Dad,

I take your hand in mine to thank you for your presence and all the gifts you have given to me:

The Joy of Continual Learning

The Pleasure of Supporting Family

The Power of Co-operation

The Magic of Great Service

The Willingness to take Risks

The Desire to Nourish People’s Lives

The Courage to Let Go

Dad, you lived just the way you wanted to.

You leaned into life pushing the boundaries and stretching the mind – creating new possibilities.

I thank you forever for the spark you ignited in me and the fire of your love that will burn within me forever.

With endless gratitude,

Your son, David

I believe personal development is a life long experience and I enjoy each and every new discovery. Two weeks ago I discovered something I have been looking for over the last few years to help nourish my mind and body more effectively. It might be of interest to you.

It is a book by Richard Bandler one of the co founders of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). This book finally (for me) puts into simple words step by step actions you and I can use to take control of our emotions. So we can use them to energize not de-stabilized our lives. All the other NLP books I have read have been very complicated.

Indeed, I have been a big fan of NLP for a quite a few years and if you remember parts of my seminars I have shared some of the tools I have learned. Today I am just going to share one of Bandler’s ideas on How to Feel Wonderful and really soon I am going to display here a more comprehensive review of the book Get the Life You Want by Richard Bandler which comes with an educational CD at no extra charge.

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How to Feel Wonderful

Step One

Take a quiet moment and focus on a time in your life when you felt really wonderful.

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Step Two

With your eyes closed imagine in as much detail as possible the event as if you were experiencing it again right now. If it was a fantastic vacation use your memory of the scenery and people to generate images and sounds and colors to really start to ignite the experience as if it was now.

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Step Three

As you build up the experience in your mind right now take a moment to notice how your body is responding.

How does your body respond when you have good thoughts and images rolling around in your mind? Focus on where you are experiencing the positive feeling in your body and as Bandler says ‘spin’ that feeling faster and faster so that it gets more and more intense. You most likely will start to feel even more positive sensations.

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Step Four

As you ‘spin’ the emotion to a greater intensity think now of a time in the future when you would like to feel positive feelings instead of negative feelings.

For example, perhaps you want to have a positive feeling when you are at work and the day is stressful. As you are ‘spinning’ your wonderful feeling start adding images and thoughts of doing your work during stressful times yet you still feel good. With practice you may be surprised you could start feeling good when you used to feel stressed.

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There you go.  Without copying Richard Bandler’s words I hope I have given you a sense of one of the exercises he shares early in the book. He offers many more approaches to help us all in many areas of our lives. Of course, it would be better you read his words. Naturally, since this book has helped me I do recommend you check it out. Follow this link to learn more about Get the Life You Want: The Secrets to Quick and Lasting Life Change.

Enjoy a wonderful day,

David

I have never written about this idea before on my website. Only those of you who have read a copy of my eWorkbook 19 Steps to Reduce Stress and Increase Success and Well Being will know it. It is an idea I created to use in my personal life with my family. However, I sincerely believe that if this idea is used more it may be one of the simplest and most valuable ways to help us all nourish positive relationships at home and at work. Please let me know what you think:

It goes like this: we all like to hear positive statements about ourselves (even if we only admit this secretly) ‘What I like about’ is based on the idea that in my family in the evening before the children go to sleep we each take turns to say what we like about each other person present with a particular focus on something that happened that day. Sincerity is requested and no interruptions or prompting is allowed and definitely no statements of dislike. The sharing of good thoughts and the anticipation of hearing good thoughts is refreshing. It is amazing how good we all feel when we do this activity.

To me, it would also be very interesting to hear and see the impact on a workplace or office board room if once a week before meetings each person in a room said what they liked about each person present. It will definitely help us all focus on the positive.

Action Step

The next time you have a family meal or work meeting or get together among friends share this idea. If you find a spark of interest take the time to test it out and please let me know with an email how things turned out.

If you would like to get your own copy of 19 Steps to Reduce Stress and Increase Success and Well Being or another one of my FIVE free resources click over to my Free Resources section now.

Your friend on the journey,

David