Do you ever ask yourself "why am I doing this...what difference will it make?" I ask myself that daily! Will it make a difference to provide people with information that they may not know about and encourage them to check things out for themselves before they just swallow the band aid solutions that are provided on a regular basis...perhaps looking at all of the choices/options before just blindly going along with what is presented.
Here's some more food for thought from Mr. Pilzer - followed by some of the transripts from Headline News - Joy Behar's interview with Suzanne Somers 1/12/10 ( I highly recommend reading the entire transcript and watching the video clip):
As my research (Paul Zane Pilzer)led me to the medical industry, I encountered large multinational companies whose nefarious practices made those of the food companies pale by comparison. It quickly became apparent to me why an economist needed to write a book about obtaining good medical care along with how to obtain food for a healthy lifestyle.
When patients go to see a physician, they believe they are receiving a prescription for the best drug or treatment available for their specific ailment. Not likely.
Just as obese consumers are the target market of the food companies, physicians are the target market of the medical and pharmaceutical companies. In the United States, doctors typically prescribe completely different treatments for the same ailment, depending on which drug company has the dominant market share in their region.
Although the ethical (prescription) pharmaceutical companies around the world justify the very high prices of their drugs by citing the high cost of research and development, drug companies actually spend much more money marketing drugs than they do on research and development. Moreover, a considerable amount of the research and development that leads to the creation of new drugs is funded by the federal government through grants to nonprofit entities such as research labs at universities, medical schools, and the National Institutes of Health.
In recent years the pharmaceutical companies have hired the same advertising firms as the food companies and have begun direct image-based advertising to consumers. In these advertisements for prescription-only items that may be legally dispensed only on the written recommendation of a doctor, the patient is directly urged to demand the product and told to "ask your doctor" for a DAW (dispense as written) prescription-with the knowledge that if the doctor refuses to write the prescription the presold patient will simply find another doctor who will.
Sadly, most physicians have become technology dispensers for the products and services of the large multinational medical companies-companies that always seem to tip the scale between profits and patients in favor of profits.
These practices have pushed the price for U.S. drugs so high that patients cannot afford to fill approximately 22 percent of the prescriptions written each year. Prescription drugs now represent the single largest monthly expense for most over 65 U.S. citizens - approximately $300.00/month - millions of people are forced to make the terrible choice of purchasing food or medicine. Medicare pays for doctor visits but generally does not pay for prescriptions.
It is more profitable for medical suppliers to produce products that consumers use for the rest of their lives than to make products that a consumer might use only once. Invariably, this means spending research and development funds on products that treat the symptoms of disease rather than the causes or the cures.
Clips of the interview on Headline News with Joy Behar:
SOMERS: But with all due respect, with the dismal results of chemotherapy, and you know so many people have died, and it`s a horrible death, and particularly with pancreatic cancer, which I have three different doctors who say we all know in the oncology world that chemotherapy does absolutely nothing whatsoever.
BEHAR: So why do they give it?
SOMERS: They said it`s palliative. I said what is palliative. It means it makes the patient feel better, it makes the family feel like something is being done, and when the patient dies, a horrible and very -- it costs about $500,000 to die of chemotherapy, they all feel they did the best they could.
BEHAR: I`m back with Suzanne Somers and Drs. Julian Whittaker and Steven Lamm. OK, this Dr. Burzynski you say has found a cure for cancer?
SOMERS: Dr. Burzynski has completed phase two clinical trials in compliance with the FDA, having a 60 percent success rate with the worst kind of brain tumors. And like Dr. Whitaker was saying, if you can control cell multiplication, you`ve found a cure to cancer.
BEHAR: And how did he do that?
SOMERS: He has found that all people with cancer are missing a specific peptide and amino acid in their liver that controls cell multiplication. He`s dedicated his life to replicating that peptide, puts it back in, and in 60 percent of his brain tumor patients he`s having success. He`s just completed and approved for phase three clinical trials.
BEHAR: Approved by whom?
SOMERS: FDA. My whole point in writing "Knockout" having been diagnosed twice now with cancer, the last time being told I would die, all I want when someone says you have cancer, we can do standard care, which is surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and harsh drugs, or if that doesn`t appeal to you, you can try x.
These are all the options and Dr. Burzynski -- if I had a brain tumor, I would be on in Houston, I`d be on the train last night.
BEHAR: Dr. Lamm, would she survive if she went to Dr. Burzynski with a brain tumor?
LAMM: Let`s put it this way -- I would hope that`s the case, but I`m a little skeptical, and I think some of this fine doctor`s work has been reviewed, and, you know, the medical community has not at this point been able to validate that it truly makes a clinically significant difference.
WHITAKER: That`s non-sense! Listen, I have visited Burzynski`s clinic four or five times. I have been in a room where they were celebrating 30 years where children who had cancer 15 years ago were standing up there vibrant, prosperous, and holding a child on their hip.
BEHAR: Why doesn`t the FDA and the medical establishment say this is a good thing and we`re going to approve this?
WHITAKER: I can tell you why. There`s so much money tied up into conventional medicine that to actually allow him free reign --
BEHAR: This sounds conspiracy-theory like.
SOMERS: If some little guy in Houston has the cure to cancer, it wipes out a $200 billion a year business.
WHITAKER: Trillion.
SOMERS: Trillion.
LAMM: The medical profession is not rooting for disease. I think it`s being very -- as you say, conspiratorial to actually believe or delude yourself that doctors would rather their child die of cancer if a cure were available. There are no secrets in medicine.
WHITAKER: Wait a minute, no, no, look. It`s not individual doctors scheming to let children die. It`s the system. Never has medicine at any time in human history ever been so tied up into business. And when you have a business where you`re training physicians to do it this way, they think this way, and all of a sudden a guy says, wait a minute, the body has a parallel system to control cell division, and I have discovered how it works. Well, then that challenges all of the purging the body -- let`s do this chemo, let`s do that chemo. And now all of a sudden the cancer just disappears.
BEHAR: I remember years and years ago people used to say that the cancer business was so big that they would never find a cure. And here it is 50 years later, or whatever it is, and they still haven`t found a cure for cancer.
SOMERS: The FDA tried to put Dr. Burzynski in jail for 300 years for unlawful dispensation of unapproved drugs across state lines. Hundreds and hundreds of his patients marched in front of the Houston courthouse, and the lawyer who was representing them was not able to ask if they were cured, but he was able to say you had stage four liver cancer how many years ago? 12 years ago. Thank you, sir. He would bring them on one after another, and it spoke volumes.The jury acquitted Dr. Burzynski and he was allowed to continue his work. I really think that they are jealous of Dr. Burzynski because it`s a little guy in Houston who figured it out.
BEHAR: I believe -- one of my doctors, I said to him, does acupuncture help you to lose weight? And he said, if it, worked, there would be an acupuncturists on every corner. And I say unto you the same thing. If this worked, if this guy can cure brain cancer in children, I`m sure that the medical establishment would be right there.-
SOMERS: But he is curing children.
WHITAKER: But he is doing it.
SOMERS: He is doing it.
BEHAR: But no one from the AMA is going there to find out?
SOMERS: You have to understand that our medical schools are pharmaceutically funded, our government bureaucrats are pharmaceutically funded. You`ve got to connect the dots. I know if I had cancer, I`d try alternative first.
There`s pockets of doctors who have decided they can`t do it anymore. They have stepped out of the standard of care box, and they get persecuted by the medical establishment for doing so.It`s very hard in a hospital setting to go against standard of care. So those of us who want to go alternative, we`ve got to find it on our own. And that`s all I`m trying to do.
BEHAR: I know, I hear you. Dr. Lamm, do you think these doctors, this Burzynski, they lack credibility because the AMA and the FDA are not behind them?
LAMM: I think people lack credibility because there`s no evidence for their work.
BEHAR: He`s telling you to go there.
LAMM: I understand. I`m happy to. But you have to remember, this has been going on for many, many years. This is not a new thing. This has been going on since 1992 1993, 1995.
WHITAKER: Let me make a statement here. Dr. Burzynski patented all of his therapies beginning in the early `80s. The National Cancer Institute visited him in the early `90s and saw that it worked. They then put it consultant in there and they actually patented all of Burzynski`s work under a different name and assigned it to HHS. I have those patents. It is unbelievable.
SOMERS: And the FDA is in Burzynski`s office all the time.
LAMM: I would root for him to work, but I`m skeptical. (CROSSTALK)BEHAR: You`ve heard this conversation out there, so you decide for yourself. Thanks to Suzanne and my panel for joining me tonight and thank you for watching. Goodnight, everybody. END
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
How Economics Perpetuates Obesity & Malnutrition
Packaged food companies, such as General Foods and Procter & Gamble, employ some of the best and brightest minds to study consumer psychology and demographics. In trying to decide what sorts of foods to sell us, they invariably apply one of the great unwritten laws of marketing: it is easier to sell more product to an existing customer than to sell that same product to a new customer. In other words, it is easier to influence a regular customer to ear four additional bags of potato chips per month than it is to persuade a new customer, who may never have tasted potato chips, to buy even one bag of this exotic new substance.
Most processed food sales, such as Hostess Twinkies, Orea Cookies, and McDonald's Happy Meals, are governed by what those in the business call the "potato chip marketing equation." According to this law, more than 90% or product sales are made to less than 10 percent of their customers. In the case of processed foods, that coveted 10 percent consists largely of people weighing more than 200 pounds and earning less than $35,000 per year. The targeting of overweight customers is especially lucrative since these unfortunate individuals typically consume twice the amount per serving as a person of normal weight.
Each company studies its 10 percent, known as the target market, like rats in a laboratory. Customer surveys reveal their likes, dislikes, hopes, dreams, hero's, and desires. High-consumption customers are recruited to take part in focus groups, where they are asked to sample new products, view advertising, and offer opinions.
No expense is spared to hit every psychological button that matters to the target market. If people in that market like a particular actor or singer, that very celebrity will soon appear on radio or television, praising the product. If a certain look, feel, or lifestyle appeals to people in that market, legions of stylists and designers will descend on the studio to simulate it. Like a deer in the scope of a hunter at close range, the target never has a chance.
These companies do something even worse than targeting lower-income, unhealthy, overweight consumers for their products. Once the target actually tries the product and becomes a customer, company chemists ensure that they will never be satisfied with eating just a healthy amount of it.
Say, for example, I give you an apple, a banana, a stalk of asparagus, or almost any food in its natural state. After eating two or three apples or bananas, your body begins craving a different kind of food, as the pleasure you feel in your taste buds lessens with each bite. But if I give you a chocolate bar, a McDonald's french fry, a can of cola, or almost any other item of processed food, you almost always crave more and more of the same item, because the chemical flavorings have been altered to ensure that "nobody can eat just one" of them. This chemical alteration causes great over consumption, promoting obesity and destroying the natural tendency of our taste buds to seek variety in what we eat.
The human body requires a daily intake of 13 essential vitamins, most of which the body cannot manufacture on its own. These vitamins, along with certain minerals, are necessary to sustain the millions of chemical reactions our bodies perform each day. Eating a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the day gives us all of what we need. But the majority of Americans are not getting the minimum amount of these vitamins and minerals that their bodies require because of the chemical alteration of the processed and fast foods that they consume.
Over the short term, these vitamin and mineral deficiencies manifest themselves as mood swings, lack of energy, joint pain, failing eyesight, hearing loss, and thousands of other ailments that medical science tells us to accept with advancing age. Over the long term, these deficiencies cause major illness like cancer and heart disease.
The above information was taken from The New Wellness Revolution - Paul Zane Pilzer
In my opinion its not just the over overweight, economically challenged consumer who is the only target. Everyone who has a busy lifestyle is a target!
The mother who works full time, comes home tired, has to feed the family, clean up the mess, perhaps help with homework, do laundry...etc. The last thing she feels like doing is spending an hour in the kitchen preparing dinner...so what's quick? Something from a package or take out!
The business person who doesn't have time to go out to lunch...grabs whatever they can on the fly.
Most processed food sales, such as Hostess Twinkies, Orea Cookies, and McDonald's Happy Meals, are governed by what those in the business call the "potato chip marketing equation." According to this law, more than 90% or product sales are made to less than 10 percent of their customers. In the case of processed foods, that coveted 10 percent consists largely of people weighing more than 200 pounds and earning less than $35,000 per year. The targeting of overweight customers is especially lucrative since these unfortunate individuals typically consume twice the amount per serving as a person of normal weight.
Each company studies its 10 percent, known as the target market, like rats in a laboratory. Customer surveys reveal their likes, dislikes, hopes, dreams, hero's, and desires. High-consumption customers are recruited to take part in focus groups, where they are asked to sample new products, view advertising, and offer opinions.
No expense is spared to hit every psychological button that matters to the target market. If people in that market like a particular actor or singer, that very celebrity will soon appear on radio or television, praising the product. If a certain look, feel, or lifestyle appeals to people in that market, legions of stylists and designers will descend on the studio to simulate it. Like a deer in the scope of a hunter at close range, the target never has a chance.
These companies do something even worse than targeting lower-income, unhealthy, overweight consumers for their products. Once the target actually tries the product and becomes a customer, company chemists ensure that they will never be satisfied with eating just a healthy amount of it.
Say, for example, I give you an apple, a banana, a stalk of asparagus, or almost any food in its natural state. After eating two or three apples or bananas, your body begins craving a different kind of food, as the pleasure you feel in your taste buds lessens with each bite. But if I give you a chocolate bar, a McDonald's french fry, a can of cola, or almost any other item of processed food, you almost always crave more and more of the same item, because the chemical flavorings have been altered to ensure that "nobody can eat just one" of them. This chemical alteration causes great over consumption, promoting obesity and destroying the natural tendency of our taste buds to seek variety in what we eat.
The human body requires a daily intake of 13 essential vitamins, most of which the body cannot manufacture on its own. These vitamins, along with certain minerals, are necessary to sustain the millions of chemical reactions our bodies perform each day. Eating a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the day gives us all of what we need. But the majority of Americans are not getting the minimum amount of these vitamins and minerals that their bodies require because of the chemical alteration of the processed and fast foods that they consume.
Over the short term, these vitamin and mineral deficiencies manifest themselves as mood swings, lack of energy, joint pain, failing eyesight, hearing loss, and thousands of other ailments that medical science tells us to accept with advancing age. Over the long term, these deficiencies cause major illness like cancer and heart disease.
The above information was taken from The New Wellness Revolution - Paul Zane Pilzer
In my opinion its not just the over overweight, economically challenged consumer who is the only target. Everyone who has a busy lifestyle is a target!
The mother who works full time, comes home tired, has to feed the family, clean up the mess, perhaps help with homework, do laundry...etc. The last thing she feels like doing is spending an hour in the kitchen preparing dinner...so what's quick? Something from a package or take out!
The business person who doesn't have time to go out to lunch...grabs whatever they can on the fly.
Have you seen what's in the school lunch programs and vending machines?
I often wonder how I managed to make meals almost every night while working full time back when my kids were growing up. The one key thing that sticks in my memory is pre-planning as much as possible...on Sunday afternoon I would make myself a cup of coffee and go thru cookbooks and plan my menu's for the week...that also helped to keep the grocery bill down. My husband would love to have those days back...minus teenagers...I now find myself in the same trap as the majority of the population too much to do and too little time to do it! However, the same principals apply...if you desire to live a healthy lifestyle, and keep the weight off, you have to take the time to plan ahead...if that means chopping veggies and having fresh fruit ready to grab and go... or buying protein shakes so that you can have one at work when you don't have time for a break...it boils down to how bad do you desire to be healthy and fit.
Being over weight once was enough incentive for me to make the effort not to let that happen again!
Monday, January 11, 2010
Why We Need A Wellness Revolution
First, lets check out the definition:
rev-o-lu-tion
a: a sudden, radical, or complete change
b: a fundamental change in political organization
c: activity or movement designed to effect fundamental changes in the socioeconomic situation
d: a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something: a change of paradigm
The seventeenth- century English writer John Milton saw revolution as the right of society to defend against abusive tyrants-creating a new order that reflected the needs of the people. To Milton, revolution was the means of accomplishing freedom.
The eighteenth-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant believed in revolution as a force for the advancement of humankind-a natural step in the realization of a higher ethical foundation for society.
The nineteenth-century German philosopher G.W.F. Hegal saw revolutions as the fulfillment of human destiny, and he saw revolutionary leaders as necessary to instigate and implement reforms.
These insights aptly apply to the wellness revolution.
Entrepreneurs and revolutionaries are really the same kinds of people born into different circumstances. Both see the status quo in need of change, and both are willing to take risks, and reap the rewards, of changing it.
The revolutionary leaders in wellness are the entrepreneurs who grow and procreate wellness, the inventors who instigate wellness services and products, and the practitioners and distributors who carry the wellness message throughout society.
The above content taken from The New Wellness Revolution by Zane Pilzer
FACT: The U.S. Government has spent billions trying to find a cure for heart disease, cancer and other diseases and yet...
41% of all deaths are cardiovascular related - 1 out of 3 women will be affected by heart disease - 1/2 of the people that develop a heart attack will not survive.
70% of children have the beginnings of hardening of the arteries by the time they reach 12 years of age.
23% of all deaths are due to cancer - 1500 people die of cancer everyday
Add to these figures diabetes which is now said to be the third biggest killer
Still think that things are OK in the health care system?
Yes, there is a cost for wellness, but there is a MUCH bigger cost for sickness...are you willing to pay it?
Sunday, January 10, 2010
The Wellness Revolution
A decade ago if you would have seen me on the street, you would have thought that I was healthy and fit, which just goes to show that you can't judge a book by it's cover! Most of my life I've been able to maintain a fairly slender build...and the times I haven't...well, at those times I learned to be a master of disguise. :)
There comes a point in life where eventually you ask yourself "if I don't do anything different where will I end up?" I reached that point just prior to my 5oth birthday, I felt like I had one foot in the grave and couldn't envision the aging process going very well for me considering how lousy I felt...between the monthly migraines that lasted for days at a time, extreme joint & tissue pain, insomnia, and depression...probably brought on by all of the other issues. I felt like a ticking time bomb.
There comes a point in life where eventually you ask yourself "if I don't do anything different where will I end up?" I reached that point just prior to my 5oth birthday, I felt like I had one foot in the grave and couldn't envision the aging process going very well for me considering how lousy I felt...between the monthly migraines that lasted for days at a time, extreme joint & tissue pain, insomnia, and depression...probably brought on by all of the other issues. I felt like a ticking time bomb.
I'm a huge skeptic, so when a client of mine told me that I should go see a lady that she and her husband had gone to for years and that she would whip me up a tincture, (her words!) I had visions of some far out, hippy type person, mixing up herbal remedies! Much to my surprise, she was a very professional lady in a suit...imagine that. That's where my journey started and I've been on a mission ever since to make sure that I don't end up like the majority of the population who work their whole life, save their money, plan for their retirement, and then end up with some illness or disease that either takes away their quality of life or wipes out everything that they have worked for. The sad truth is that it's not just the older population...according to statistics over 1 million middle and upper middle class Americans are forced into bankruptcy every year due to medical related issues. What's even sad er is that most of it could have been prevented.
The book The New Wellness Revolution, by author Paul Zane Pilzer, called "economist turned wellness guru" by the New York Times, has many examples of "why" a Wellness Revolution is necessary. Paul received an honorary doctorate for the role the book played in helping Congress pass Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and other health care reforms-reforms that now allow wellness-oriented consumers to save money on their health insurance and finance their wellness.
Although millions of new consumers every day embrace wellness, millions more remain outside the reach of the current wellness industry and become more overweight, malnourished, exercise less and or continue to smoke.
The New Wellness Revolution explains how the population of every developed nation continues to divide itself into two opposing socio-economic groups - those who are fit and healthy and take care of their wellness, and those who don't.
We are only at the beginning of the public consciousness of this growing need - because most people still are not aware of how simple choices affect their health and well being.
Approximately one-sixth of the US economy, about $2.0 trillion, is devoted to what is erroneously called the "health care" business. Health care is a misnomer, as this one-sixth of the economy is really devoted to the sickness business - defined in the dictionary as "ill health, illness, a disordered, weakened, or unsound condition, or a specific disease."
The sickness business is reactive. Despite its enormous size, people become customers only when they are stricken by and react to a specific condition or ailment. No one really wants to become a customer.
Most of the one-sixth of the U.S. adult working population that work in the health care industry today focus on treating the symptoms of disease rather than on preventing disease. This is because it is more profitable for medical companies to research and develop products that create customers for life.
The wellness business is proactive. People voluntarily become customers - to feel healthier, to reduce the effects of aging, and to avoid becoming customers of the sickness business.
Wellness is defined as "the quality or state of being in good health especially as an actively sought goal (emphasis added)"
The above statements are taken from the book The new Wellness Revolution...so don't get upset with the messenger!
I've been told by a few in the medical profession that if government health care does in fact happen, we won't even be able to get vitamins without a prescription! Wake up people...we CAN NOT afford to lose anymore of our rights.
Although millions of new consumers every day embrace wellness, millions more remain outside the reach of the current wellness industry and become more overweight, malnourished, exercise less and or continue to smoke.
The New Wellness Revolution explains how the population of every developed nation continues to divide itself into two opposing socio-economic groups - those who are fit and healthy and take care of their wellness, and those who don't.
We are only at the beginning of the public consciousness of this growing need - because most people still are not aware of how simple choices affect their health and well being.
Approximately one-sixth of the US economy, about $2.0 trillion, is devoted to what is erroneously called the "health care" business. Health care is a misnomer, as this one-sixth of the economy is really devoted to the sickness business - defined in the dictionary as "ill health, illness, a disordered, weakened, or unsound condition, or a specific disease."
The sickness business is reactive. Despite its enormous size, people become customers only when they are stricken by and react to a specific condition or ailment. No one really wants to become a customer.
Most of the one-sixth of the U.S. adult working population that work in the health care industry today focus on treating the symptoms of disease rather than on preventing disease. This is because it is more profitable for medical companies to research and develop products that create customers for life.
The wellness business is proactive. People voluntarily become customers - to feel healthier, to reduce the effects of aging, and to avoid becoming customers of the sickness business.
Wellness is defined as "the quality or state of being in good health especially as an actively sought goal (emphasis added)"
The above statements are taken from the book The new Wellness Revolution...so don't get upset with the messenger!
I've been told by a few in the medical profession that if government health care does in fact happen, we won't even be able to get vitamins without a prescription! Wake up people...we CAN NOT afford to lose anymore of our rights.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
So Many Books So Little Time
I've spent most of the day reading and wishing that I could just run my hands over the books and absorb all of the great information and inspiration that they contain!
A friend of mine, who has been such an inspiration, recently sent a link to an ebook of Joe Vitale (The Secret) called Attract Money Now. I've only made it to page 63 so far but its full of insights into what keeps most people from attracting wealth, success, or happiness into their life. Here is a little clip from pg 43:
What you put out into the world comes back to you several times over. If what you put out into the world is positive you receive positive returns. If what you put out is negative, then you receive negative returns. Its that simple. When you were young, you were probably taught the ideas of 'give unto others' or 'its better to give than receive' along with other similar truths. These ideas are simple statements of the Law of Attraction. If you give freely, without expectation of return, you will receive back in kind many times over - not to mention the sheer joy that giving brings into your life.
As you've probably guessed...I've become a book junky! Another book that I found during a trip to Starbucks...my favorite coffee shop...has a large 1 on the front and the question "How many people does it take to make a difference?
I'll end the week with two pages of this book to give you something to ponder!
One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself or anyone else is inspiration. Inspiration to get in touch with your dreams. Inspiration to seek out your deepest passions. Inspiration to make a difference in the world, a difference that only you can make. This is not a book about making a living; it's a book about making a life. It's not a book about fame or acclaim; it's about making a contribution and service. Instead of asking "What can I get from life?",watch what happens when you ask "What can I give?"
What does a GREAT LIFE look like?
Ask a hundred people what a great life looks like and you'll probably get a hundred different answers-but certain answers will make virtually every one's list.
Most people would agree, for example, that a great life includes something worth living for, maybe even worth dying for. A portion of a great life would be devoted to something bigger, greater, grander, than yourself. Something that inspires you, energizes you, pulls you forward. Something that responds to your unique talent or touch and, ultimately, makes a difference in the world around you.
A great life you naturally bring more meaning, purpose, love, laughter, wonder and adventure to your days. And, at the end of your journey you would look back on a life of significance, rather than regret-knowing in your heart that you left the world a better than you found it. Knowing that you made a difference in the lives of others. Knowing that you got something wonderful out of it, and you gave something wonderful back.
A great life, of course, is not something we experience, it's something we create. That's what this book is all about.
I love it...can't wait to work thru it!
A friend of mine, who has been such an inspiration, recently sent a link to an ebook of Joe Vitale (The Secret) called Attract Money Now. I've only made it to page 63 so far but its full of insights into what keeps most people from attracting wealth, success, or happiness into their life. Here is a little clip from pg 43:
What you put out into the world comes back to you several times over. If what you put out into the world is positive you receive positive returns. If what you put out is negative, then you receive negative returns. Its that simple. When you were young, you were probably taught the ideas of 'give unto others' or 'its better to give than receive' along with other similar truths. These ideas are simple statements of the Law of Attraction. If you give freely, without expectation of return, you will receive back in kind many times over - not to mention the sheer joy that giving brings into your life.
As you've probably guessed...I've become a book junky! Another book that I found during a trip to Starbucks...my favorite coffee shop...has a large 1 on the front and the question "How many people does it take to make a difference?
I'll end the week with two pages of this book to give you something to ponder!
One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself or anyone else is inspiration. Inspiration to get in touch with your dreams. Inspiration to seek out your deepest passions. Inspiration to make a difference in the world, a difference that only you can make. This is not a book about making a living; it's a book about making a life. It's not a book about fame or acclaim; it's about making a contribution and service. Instead of asking "What can I get from life?",watch what happens when you ask "What can I give?"
What does a GREAT LIFE look like?
Ask a hundred people what a great life looks like and you'll probably get a hundred different answers-but certain answers will make virtually every one's list.
Most people would agree, for example, that a great life includes something worth living for, maybe even worth dying for. A portion of a great life would be devoted to something bigger, greater, grander, than yourself. Something that inspires you, energizes you, pulls you forward. Something that responds to your unique talent or touch and, ultimately, makes a difference in the world around you.
A great life you naturally bring more meaning, purpose, love, laughter, wonder and adventure to your days. And, at the end of your journey you would look back on a life of significance, rather than regret-knowing in your heart that you left the world a better than you found it. Knowing that you made a difference in the lives of others. Knowing that you got something wonderful out of it, and you gave something wonderful back.
A great life, of course, is not something we experience, it's something we create. That's what this book is all about.
I love it...can't wait to work thru it!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Are the Days of Networking and Niches Over?
What a blessing finding this article in my inbox was this morning!
I got involved in the "Health/Wellness" business 2 1/2 years ago because of my own personal life changing events. I was so excited about the changes that I experienced with my health & well being and that of several other people that I've shared the information with that I set out to share it with whoever would listen. If you knew that there was a product that had changed the lives of hundreds of people wouldn't you desire to share it with people?
Unfortunately, at this time, my excitement, passion, and belief has had an impact on a select few...in the big scheme of things...which has been very disappointing to say the least! Especially when the people closest to me, who know for a fact that my life has been truly changed as the result of the products that I've been introduced to...and having issues themselves, but still won't listen...ugh...its enough to make you throw in the towel and say "If I can't even get these people to listen to me who will?" I know I'm ranting but hey it makes me crazy some days...I'd like to knock on peoples heads and say "Is there anyone home up there?" I'm sure I've been that blatant at times to the ones I'm closest to so if you're one of those people reading this I do sincerely apologize.
Ahh...and then comes an article like the one below to fill you with certainty that you are on the right path for the right reasons...to keep plugging along and touch the lives of those who will hear with their hearts...who do desire to live a healthy, vibrant life...those are the people that I will attract into my life...one person at a time!
Are the Days of Networking and Niches Over?
by Karen Frank, Networking Expert
Boy, you can tell that the gurus - and everyone else - is scrambling desperately to figure out this new economy thing. It's pretty interesting actually because one thing I have noticed is that almost no one has a clue what to do - and so they are beginning to bash the experts - and each other.
Of course the two that have caught my attention are the Niche bashers and the Networking haters. Lots and LOTS of people are out there screaming that the emperors (experts) on these two subjects have no clothes.
What's most interesting is that these people with all of the thwaking and whacking of these two "n's" have utterly failed to realize that they are 'undeniably and reliably dead' - wrong. (to borrow a phrase I particularly like from the Munchkins). And there's blame to share because most of the experts also have it wrong - hence the internet airtime battle.
Here's the truth that EVERYONE is failing to see:
Your business is supposed to be an expression of who you are - your highest and best self.
If you don't believe me realize this:
During the industrial age it was important to our economy to have large numbers of people trained to obey and do "big box" corporate jobs - both blue and white collar. Even our school system was created to provide industry with an unlimited supply of ready workers. We, as a society forgot how to be entrepreneurs. As children we were taught that money doesn't grow on trees so we had to give up our deepest desires, be responsible and go get a job. Our jobs became separate from our "regular lives" and our dreams were forgotten.
That was all well and good in 1950 (sort of). Now it's 2010 and schools, business schools, big business and society in general tells us that the 1950's way is "safe and sensible." Don't believe me? Just watch the news tonight. BUT the new economy is all about changing those paradigms. True, many of the experts and gurus haven't caught up, but neither have the naysayers because they too are still coming from this mentality.
"I am not my job, I am a human being." said the Elephant Man and many of the networking naysayers. Well sure you are, but in the new economy your job, your business is not just about making money any more. It's about helping and healing people on a global scale - and that is where the disconnect lies. Your business IS who you are and it is important to be able to articulate that.
Your uniqueness aligns you perfectly to do something that will change people's lives, even if just on a small scale. It's no longer about you making money, it's about you helping people - even if you are "just a financial planner."
And don't get me started on how spirituality and integrity are incompatible with having money. Just how many people can a homeless person help? How many lives will be changed by someone whose business is failing?
The fact is that by successfully communicating who you help, what you help them with and who your perfect client is, you will make the money you need to stay in business and make a difference in this world however you choose to do it.
I can teach networking and why niches are important all day long BUT if the student is "just in if for the money" and they'd rather be off doing something else in their spare time, it's a total waste of time and money because it won't work.
This is also why the network marketing people really struggle. They go money to money. They see their job as changing people's lives by giving them an "opportunity" - which is about making money and recruiting more than it is about helping people with their problems which (oh my god) sometimes have nothing to do with money (imagine that).
So my first request of you in 2010 is to think about what your ideal life would be like. Not just the things you want, but your life, your experiences. What would you like your perfect day to be like? Where would you go? What would you do? With whom would you do it?
Take out a sheet of paper and write it down - seriously.
When you answer these questions, you'll be able to see clearly whether your business is really an expression of you or if you are "just in it for the money." If your job is a mismatch for your ideal life, then you need to make some adjustments. I am not saying close your doors necessarily, just notice and adjust.
Finally, as you think about how to talk about what you do and for whom you do it (your networking statement and your niche) remember your passion. The deep "why" buried beneath the surface of why you do what you do. When you speak with that passion to someone about what you do, the words come easily and don't matter so much, because they will hear you with more than their ears. They will also hear you with their hearts.
And that is what Networking is all about.
Want to use this article in your newsletter or on your website? You can! Just be sure to include the entire article and include this complete "blurb" with it:
Networking Expert, Karen Frank publishes Networking News, a semi-monthly newsletter devoted to helping you avoid marketing disasters and networking faux pas. Get the home study course "The Seven Deadly Sins of Networking and How to Avoid them" Free when you sign up for Networking News at www.3ecommunications.net.
I got involved in the "Health/Wellness" business 2 1/2 years ago because of my own personal life changing events. I was so excited about the changes that I experienced with my health & well being and that of several other people that I've shared the information with that I set out to share it with whoever would listen. If you knew that there was a product that had changed the lives of hundreds of people wouldn't you desire to share it with people?
Unfortunately, at this time, my excitement, passion, and belief has had an impact on a select few...in the big scheme of things...which has been very disappointing to say the least! Especially when the people closest to me, who know for a fact that my life has been truly changed as the result of the products that I've been introduced to...and having issues themselves, but still won't listen...ugh...its enough to make you throw in the towel and say "If I can't even get these people to listen to me who will?" I know I'm ranting but hey it makes me crazy some days...I'd like to knock on peoples heads and say "Is there anyone home up there?" I'm sure I've been that blatant at times to the ones I'm closest to so if you're one of those people reading this I do sincerely apologize.
Ahh...and then comes an article like the one below to fill you with certainty that you are on the right path for the right reasons...to keep plugging along and touch the lives of those who will hear with their hearts...who do desire to live a healthy, vibrant life...those are the people that I will attract into my life...one person at a time!
Are the Days of Networking and Niches Over?
by Karen Frank, Networking Expert
Boy, you can tell that the gurus - and everyone else - is scrambling desperately to figure out this new economy thing. It's pretty interesting actually because one thing I have noticed is that almost no one has a clue what to do - and so they are beginning to bash the experts - and each other.
Of course the two that have caught my attention are the Niche bashers and the Networking haters. Lots and LOTS of people are out there screaming that the emperors (experts) on these two subjects have no clothes.
What's most interesting is that these people with all of the thwaking and whacking of these two "n's" have utterly failed to realize that they are 'undeniably and reliably dead' - wrong. (to borrow a phrase I particularly like from the Munchkins). And there's blame to share because most of the experts also have it wrong - hence the internet airtime battle.
Here's the truth that EVERYONE is failing to see:
Your business is supposed to be an expression of who you are - your highest and best self.
If you don't believe me realize this:
During the industrial age it was important to our economy to have large numbers of people trained to obey and do "big box" corporate jobs - both blue and white collar. Even our school system was created to provide industry with an unlimited supply of ready workers. We, as a society forgot how to be entrepreneurs. As children we were taught that money doesn't grow on trees so we had to give up our deepest desires, be responsible and go get a job. Our jobs became separate from our "regular lives" and our dreams were forgotten.
That was all well and good in 1950 (sort of). Now it's 2010 and schools, business schools, big business and society in general tells us that the 1950's way is "safe and sensible." Don't believe me? Just watch the news tonight. BUT the new economy is all about changing those paradigms. True, many of the experts and gurus haven't caught up, but neither have the naysayers because they too are still coming from this mentality.
"I am not my job, I am a human being." said the Elephant Man and many of the networking naysayers. Well sure you are, but in the new economy your job, your business is not just about making money any more. It's about helping and healing people on a global scale - and that is where the disconnect lies. Your business IS who you are and it is important to be able to articulate that.
Your uniqueness aligns you perfectly to do something that will change people's lives, even if just on a small scale. It's no longer about you making money, it's about you helping people - even if you are "just a financial planner."
And don't get me started on how spirituality and integrity are incompatible with having money. Just how many people can a homeless person help? How many lives will be changed by someone whose business is failing?
The fact is that by successfully communicating who you help, what you help them with and who your perfect client is, you will make the money you need to stay in business and make a difference in this world however you choose to do it.
I can teach networking and why niches are important all day long BUT if the student is "just in if for the money" and they'd rather be off doing something else in their spare time, it's a total waste of time and money because it won't work.
This is also why the network marketing people really struggle. They go money to money. They see their job as changing people's lives by giving them an "opportunity" - which is about making money and recruiting more than it is about helping people with their problems which (oh my god) sometimes have nothing to do with money (imagine that).
So my first request of you in 2010 is to think about what your ideal life would be like. Not just the things you want, but your life, your experiences. What would you like your perfect day to be like? Where would you go? What would you do? With whom would you do it?
Take out a sheet of paper and write it down - seriously.
When you answer these questions, you'll be able to see clearly whether your business is really an expression of you or if you are "just in it for the money." If your job is a mismatch for your ideal life, then you need to make some adjustments. I am not saying close your doors necessarily, just notice and adjust.
Finally, as you think about how to talk about what you do and for whom you do it (your networking statement and your niche) remember your passion. The deep "why" buried beneath the surface of why you do what you do. When you speak with that passion to someone about what you do, the words come easily and don't matter so much, because they will hear you with more than their ears. They will also hear you with their hearts.
And that is what Networking is all about.
Want to use this article in your newsletter or on your website? You can! Just be sure to include the entire article and include this complete "blurb" with it:
Networking Expert, Karen Frank publishes Networking News, a semi-monthly newsletter devoted to helping you avoid marketing disasters and networking faux pas. Get the home study course "The Seven Deadly Sins of Networking and How to Avoid them" Free when you sign up for Networking News at www.3ecommunications.net.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
The Law of Attraction
The Law of Attraction is as scrupulously fair as a mirror.
Man tends to attract to himself that which he loves, fears, or steadily expects; that is, those things that he keeps at his central (focal) consciousness.
Man fears certain negative experiences, and quite logically, he attracts them. There will come times when the negative will edge toward the center, but the instant he notices this, he will immediately say "I resist that suggestion" and he will again bring back into focus that good that he wishes. Gradually, he will notice that the good, more and more, tends to stay at the center, while the negative tends to fade away.
The above is taken from The Science of Mind by Frederick Bailes
Thoughts attract that upon which it is directed. Recall that it was Job who said: "For the thing which I have feared has come upon me." Our fear thoughts are just as magnetic in attracting troubles to us as are the constructive and positive thoughts in attracting positive results. So no matter what the character of the thought, it does create after its kind. When this sinks into man's consciousness, he gets some inkling of the awe-inspiring power which is his.
We hear and read much about various stages of thought, degrees of consciousness, thought concentration, the strength of our faith, all of which deals with the intensity or degree of power we send forth. Creative force comes only when there is a fully developed mental picture, or when the imagination can visualize the fulfillment of our ambition and see in our mind a picture of the object we desire....just as if we already possessed them.
As a result of my studies of the so-called mystic teachings, the various mental sciences and the regular orthodox church teachings, I am convinced that they all work in varying degrees, but only to the extent that their followers believe. So it is with prayer, whether it be a part of a church service or the purely spontaneous and personal supplication of the individual.
However, I am forced to the conclusion that many people go through the lip-service act of saying their prayers without the slightest belief that those prayers will be answered.
Taken from the Magic of Believing by Claude Bristol
It is written; "it is done unto you as you believe"
When I first started reading these materials it was just too out there for me...a lot of it went against my personal spiritual beliefs and some of it still does...however, the more I dig into it the more I realize that a lot of the principles presented are found throughout the scriptures of all religions. What I've learned thru this process is; even though we may not agree in full with what is being presented, when we close our minds to things we may miss out on some pearls of wisdom that can be gathered along this path of life.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge...knowledge is limited."
Einstein
Man tends to attract to himself that which he loves, fears, or steadily expects; that is, those things that he keeps at his central (focal) consciousness.
Man fears certain negative experiences, and quite logically, he attracts them. There will come times when the negative will edge toward the center, but the instant he notices this, he will immediately say "I resist that suggestion" and he will again bring back into focus that good that he wishes. Gradually, he will notice that the good, more and more, tends to stay at the center, while the negative tends to fade away.
The above is taken from The Science of Mind by Frederick Bailes
Thoughts attract that upon which it is directed. Recall that it was Job who said: "For the thing which I have feared has come upon me." Our fear thoughts are just as magnetic in attracting troubles to us as are the constructive and positive thoughts in attracting positive results. So no matter what the character of the thought, it does create after its kind. When this sinks into man's consciousness, he gets some inkling of the awe-inspiring power which is his.
We hear and read much about various stages of thought, degrees of consciousness, thought concentration, the strength of our faith, all of which deals with the intensity or degree of power we send forth. Creative force comes only when there is a fully developed mental picture, or when the imagination can visualize the fulfillment of our ambition and see in our mind a picture of the object we desire....just as if we already possessed them.
As a result of my studies of the so-called mystic teachings, the various mental sciences and the regular orthodox church teachings, I am convinced that they all work in varying degrees, but only to the extent that their followers believe. So it is with prayer, whether it be a part of a church service or the purely spontaneous and personal supplication of the individual.
However, I am forced to the conclusion that many people go through the lip-service act of saying their prayers without the slightest belief that those prayers will be answered.
Taken from the Magic of Believing by Claude Bristol
It is written; "it is done unto you as you believe"
When I first started reading these materials it was just too out there for me...a lot of it went against my personal spiritual beliefs and some of it still does...however, the more I dig into it the more I realize that a lot of the principles presented are found throughout the scriptures of all religions. What I've learned thru this process is; even though we may not agree in full with what is being presented, when we close our minds to things we may miss out on some pearls of wisdom that can be gathered along this path of life.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge...knowledge is limited."
Einstein
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