Much of what is being taught is good but not all of it.

Why not all of it? There is too much being taught with a very important step missing. In fact this step is so important that without it, the rest of the teaching will not work.

We are being told to focus on the positive to overcome the negative, and this is good. I teach that too, BUT not by itself. By itself it is not the whole story.

You will probably find it hard if not impossible to see a change in your life and circumstances by simply speaking and thinking positive words.

This is only the beginning.
There is another important ingredient which I call the missing link.

What is this missing link? ACTION.

You cannot change your life or your circumstances without action.
Yes, you start with changing your thoughts, but you cannot stop there. Those who do stop there end up very very frustrated and are usually the ones who say that changing your thoughts to change your life does not work. They are half right. But only half right!

All too many folk are looking for a magic wand that will sweep them away to the land of success. Such a thing does not exist.

Everything you and I do, we do in our minds first.
So yes, the FIRST step is to change your mind. Change your focus and belief system.
Then take action, and this is where many fall down. They don’t take action.

What stops you from taking action:

• Are you waiting for inspiration? Think about this:
  Doing doesn’t come from inspiration inspiration comes from doing Billy Cox
• Are you sure enough of goals? Perhaps you dreams/goals are not crystal clear. Make sure you order a copy of Find Your Why Now RIGHT NOW.
• Are you confident enough in yourself?
• Are you passionate about your goals?. Are you dreaming?- allow yourself to dream, and dream big.
• Just plain laziness – some folk spend their lives waiting for the magic formula (not you though).

Dream – focus on your dream – change your belief system – think positive thoughts AND take action!

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We live in a world that has a negative default. This means that we are surrounded by more negative influences than we are positive influences.

Therefore there is always plenty to worry about IF you focus on the negative!

Calvin Coolidge is quoted as saying:

If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.

Isn’t this true? How many of those things you worried about actually came true? And even those that did, you have to wonder if your worry made it possible for them actually happen.

Here’s a question for you:
How easy is it for you to worry when you are focused on positive thoughts?

It is not possible right?
Negative and positive thoughts don’t mix. Sure it is possible to go back and forth from one to the other, but they cannot dwell together.

Overcoming worry:
Your mind is like a muscle just the same as other parts of your body.

When you do not take care of those muscles, what happens?

Here are two more questions:
Are you in good physical condition? In an emergency, how fast could you run?

Of course in an emergency you would have a little help from your adrenaline, but nevertheless you would need to be fit to sustain a long run.

In the same way your mind needs to be in good condition.

Now, how do you get your body into shape? It takes daily exercise and right diet.

How do you get your mind into shape?

1. Consistent right diet

• This includes what you are listening to, watching and reading every day, as well as right food diet that will nourish your brain and keep it alert.
• Watch and listen to motivational and inspirational recordings and videos every day. Read from a non fiction book every day!

2. Consistent right exercise.

• Aerobic exercises are good for the brain.
• Read at least 10 pages of a non fiction book every day. Make notes from what you read.
• Meditate on words that will build your faith. For example The New Testament, Psalms or Proverbs in the Bible, the notes your made from your daily reading.
• Determine to speak only faith building positive words. Your brain responds to your voice!

Get your mind and your brain into shape and you will not fall into the futility of worry.

Then you will be equipped to conquer worry and focus on positive solutions.

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Remember they are:
Disobedience (to your own heart) and -
Control (you can’t control anything in life but your own mind).

Now let’s tackle the BIGGEST cause of stress in our lives today! What is it?

Fear! Yes fear is a HUGE cause of stress.

Fear is actually the root cause of ALL other causes of stress. Fear is behind them all.

Did you know that faith and fear have a common denominator. What is it?

How can you tell when fear is present in your life?
One good way is to note your first SPONTANEOUS reaction to a challenge and the thoughts that go with it.

• Did you gasp and think or say: How am I going to cope with this?
• Did you lose your breath for a second and then find a host of “what if thoughts” flooding your mind?

Those are certainly reactions of fear.

So how can you change those reactions?
Well first you need to face the fact that the fear habit did not grow to this magnitude overnight, and it is likely it will not disappear overnight.

Here’s how you can cultivate faith:

• Take note of the words you listen to (and only listen to positive faith building words).
• Take note of the words you are speaking and stop speaking negative words. Make an dedicated effort to speak only positive words no matter what the situation.

  This will take discipline, determination and development to achieve completely. Remember habits are developed!

• Stop associating with negative people.
• Stop watching negative and violent programs on TV.
• Read, listen to and watch strong faith building books, articles and messages.

These things will certainly put you on the road to developing faith habits and fear will have to flee.

Once fear is gone, you will find that your life will have a LOT less stress.

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