When you’re driving and you see the traffic light turns red, what do you do? You go into the DMV handbook and find out what red light means, right? Too late!

We live our daily life driven by something on the inside of us, something deeper than just our thoughts. It’s called our belief system.

Your beliefs produce your thoughts which then produce your actions. Your consistent actions produce your habits.

Your habits determine your success or failure.

You may have watched in the news that some people can commit certain acts or behave in a certain way which to us seem outrageous. However, you’re only seeing the fruits. And the fruits get their ideas all the way from the root, the belief system.

Our Creator made us good in His eyes. He designed us with such a complex system of spirit, free will, intelligence, emotions, and physical body. We were created with the capacity to live good and godly principles so everyone could have a good life.

How?

By planting the right principles into our belief system which is part of our spirit. Yet, what is good can be misused and abused, for example, in this case, what you often read and watch in the news.

You may have failed in many areas or met dead-ends in many things that you try to accomplish. And you wonder why. You try so hard to change what you do. You try to think in a different way and end up with the same actions.

Is it hopeless?

Were you made this way and there is no chance you can achieve what you dream of? Absolutely not!

The key is, you guess it, changing your belief system, uprooting the old one and planting a new one. The problem is, you can’t just tell the old system to go away. I wish it would be that easy.

There’s only 2 ways to replace your belief system.

Intensely emotional experience: This method acts much like a shock therapy. It can work well with positive experiences. Too bad the opposite is also true. Children, whose belief system is still in formation, can grow healthy and mature, or wounded and scarred, depending on the strongest experiences they have and remember for the rest of their life.

Constant reminder or repetition: This method acts slowly but surely. Try exposing yourself for a while to musical lyrics which talk about disrespect or murdering people for no reason, and watch in awe how your behavior follows what you have repeatedly heard or seen. On the other hand, remind yourself all the time of your dreams, your goals, and most importantly, the principles by which you want to live, let it be planted deep inside and watch how your life prospers.

In closing, you only have one shot in this life. Make it count, and live it with the right principles. And there’s no better source from which you can learn than the Word of your Creator. He knows what’s right for you because He made you.

So, even when you’re talking with your friends while driving and the light turns red, you don’t have to tell your foot to step on the brake, it should already be planted in you, I hope.

I’d appreciate if you take time to comment and share your testimonials. Like this post? Please subscribe to my blog, re-tweet, or share on Facebook.

Roses! Chocolate! Cards!

These are the stuff we can give to our spouse, lover, kids, friends, even stranger, to show our token of love and affection. Thank God that we still have the ability to love despite the ever increasing hatred, resentment, and selfishness in the world we live in.

Yet, more than just stuff, we need to walk in love every single day. We’re busy, we’re overwhelmed, we’re burnt out, yet when we regularly give love, we will receive love. And that really helps in defusing any tension we are going through.

The best place to start is our own family.

In our busyness (or business), we tend to go overdrive and make sure our daily to-do list is being completed. We strive to achieve bigger and better results yet sometimes at the expense of the most important thing and the very reason we do our best to succeed in business in the first place: our loved ones.

So, start today!

Here are some simple suggestions:

1. Set aside a special, uninterrupted time for you and your spouse or partner every other week, or even weekly. Have a good dinner or watch a movie at the theater.
2. Take your family and drive to an outdoor setting with lots of green and water. Beach, mountain, lakeside or countryside are good places to go. Don’t travel too far. Find a place one or two hours drive from your home.
3. Play sports, board games or family oriented video games with your kids. You don’t realize how they will appreciate even two or three rounds spent just with them. No phone calls.
4. Find some projects around the house where everybody has their own part to complete. Have a reward for everyone at the end of the day.
5. Have a memorable conversation with one family member at a time. Take one of your kids today, go to Starbucks, and just talk.
6. Mail a card to your spouse’s work place to surprise him or her. Or, better yet, make a simple video card (like the one below) and email it to them or tag it to their Facebook profile.

What are some of the things you do in your own family? Leave a comment (or two). I’d love hear it.

Enjoy your day!

P.S. To make your own video greeting card, try Animoto.com. Use this special Animoto referral code: ikpbztys when asked.

A successful business is always associated with its founders or owners – how well they have prepared for launching and how they grow the business consistently.

The secret?

They continue to learn of, adapt to, and even anticipate new changes. They continually increase their own knowledge and their skills, and develop new ones along the way. They are ultimately lifetime students.

Regardless of the kind of business you do, there are 2 most important skill sets you must have in order to compete and win in the marketplace.

Communication. You can do no business if you don’t know how to properly communicate yourself and your ideas. Learn how to express different thoughts to different groups of people. Learn how to ask the right questions in order to get the right information. Learn how to use different media to broadcast your company, products and services.

Leadership. As smart and talented as you are, you can only do so much by yourself. You will need other people to help you or work with you if you want to take your business to the next level. It takes a mature character to be able to lead effectively. You must learn how to treat your workers and partners well, how to encourage strong work ethics, and how to properly delegate others according to their own expertise.

If you can master these two skills, you will always be able to tackle every challenge that comes your way. The most successful entrepreneurs are not always the ones with graduate degrees and tons of certificates. Go back to history and learn about Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, and Michael Dell. They are business leaders who know how to communicate their ideas and find the right people to run with them.

Yes, you need to know in general about accounting, technology, and other specialized areas. However, you can always find good people to work on them while you focus on growing your business and leading your team.

Next, we’ll talk about goals.

Taken from Dictionary.com, the word “passion” conveys several meanings. Basically it refers to strong or intense feelings and desires, or even violent anger.

I believe that every man and woman was born with a set of passion that makes them unique from each other. So the first step to starting your own business, or fulfilling your life purpose for that matter, is to discover what you’re most passionate about.

It can be things that you will happily devote your time and energy to, or issues and causes that will arouse your anger, in a positive way of course.

When you discover your set of passion, you will likely be more motivated to work on your business and to stay in the long term.

Running a business is not for the lazy and running a successful one is certainly not for the faint-hearted.

When it comes down to routines and discipline, failures and setbacks, it is always a good thing to be able to tap into your passion pool and draw in the energy you need to keep the ball rolling.

On the following posts, we will look into why we need to go beyond our passion and be prepared in any situation by having a solid business plan.