Appreciation Is a Key Ingredient for Success

On January 1st or 2nd, most people set out to create a list of resolutions, things they would like to see, change or do in the upcoming year. Sadly, most despite their good intentions either never follow through or abandon their new ideals within a month or two after singing “Auld Lang Syne”.

With this in mind as Thanksgiving is now upon us, I would like to take this moment to appreciate the great things that have manifested for me over the past year, as well as all of the positive things that I will experience and manifest in the year ahead.

Unlike resolutions, appreciation allows you to focus upon all of the positive things that you have already accomplished, reflect upon the not-so good things that you have successfully navigated or endured, and recognize those who help or helped you on your journey thanks to their continued love, support and encouragement toward helping you be your best.

So how does appreciation really help you manifest your success?

In my new book, Growing Success: A Young Adults Guide to Achieving Personal and Financial Success, I discuss a model that I designed called “I AM FOR I BELIEVE” (which I describe in more detail in the book), which is based on the lessons and concepts that I learned from my Law of Attraction coach, Christy Whitman.

My model for manifesting appreciation into success begins with:

1. Creating Your Own Abundant Reality: This process starts or begins with one’s own goals, thoughts and desires, which need to become so real and vivid (i.e.; vision) that these goals, thoughts and desires manifest themselves into one’s daily beliefs and values. I call this step: Proving It to Yourself.

2. Creating Your Own Tools for Action: Once your goals, thoughts and desires become your daily beliefs and values, you need to look within yourself to enhance and refine your own inner tools for abundance (your creativity, intelligence, style, charisma, and more), as well as expand your access to abundant resources (people, time and money) in order to take positive steps toward achieving your probable outcomes. I call this second step: Tools for Action.

3. Creating Your Own Call to Action: The sooner you become aware, receptive and most importantly appreciative of the positive gifts you have or will receive through the utilization of your daily beliefs, values, tools and resources, the sooner you will begin to manifest even more enhanced success. I call this third step: Taking Action.

Once you start to really acknowledge and appreciate what you have accomplished as well as recognize those that helped you acquire such success, you will begin to find new opportunities and incentives for success. This will ignite the entire process over and over again while manifesting and creating even greater opportunities for success.

Exactly one year ago, I sat down and designed my new abundant reality. I followed the exact steps that I described above and I immediately surrounded myself with mentors and friends that helped me take the appropriate action steps that enviably let to my amazing transformation over the past 12 months for which I am eternally grateful and appreciative.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I would like to express my sincere appreciation for the following accomplishments, but more importantly, my sincere thanks to the people closest to me that really helped make these past 12 months such a huge personal success:

  • I lost 60 pounds and completed 2 marathons and 5 half-marathons, thanks to the support and guidance of Annie Mello and Dan Manns.
  • I left Los Angeles and a 22-year career in June. As of Nov 1st, I began my dream job as the Executive Director for the Percussive Arts Society/Rhythm! Discovery Center in Indianapolis, thanks to the encouragement and support of Steve Houghton, John Tafoya, Vinnie Freda, Kenny Aronoff and Aaron Snyder who all took the time to speak up on my behalf and recommend me for this exciting new position.
  • I will be appearing in the upcoming book: Ready, Aim, Captivate! in January as a contributing author alongside Deepak Chopra and Jim Stovall, thanks to the guidance, efforts and foresight of my manager and friend, Jennifer S. Wilkov, who is also helping me to publish Growing Success in 2013.
  • I co-taught my first stock options class for Online Trading Academy in September, thanks to the generosity and mentoring of Todd Davis.
  • I scheduled my final defense for my doctoral dissertation for February 15, 2013, thanks to Ennette Morton for modeling the way.
  • I am DJing for my old FM radio station, WTTS-FM, thanks to Laura Duncan and Brad Holtz’s time and patience in helping me to transition into 21st Century radio.
  • My Mom, family and friends for supporting and encouraging me when I decided to take this unknown leap of faith toward pursuing my abundant reality. And most importantly,
  • My girlfriend, Kate Sancer – thank you so much for making me laugh, for not allowing me to take myself too seriously, supporting and encouraging me, and helping me to prove that patience and persistence really does bring about life’s greatest gift.

I hope all of you will take my lead and spend this Thanksgiving enhancing your abundance by truly appreciating your own accomplishments, and more importantly recognizing all those special people around you who continue to help you grow your success.

 

Sliding Doors for Success

Did you ever have that feeling of disappointment when you really set your mind to doing or achieving something and it did not turn out quite the way you planned? You sat down and drew out all the action steps necessary to achieve your desired goals; you studied or learned a new skill; you spoke to others you believed were the right people that could help you get what you had been looking forward to for months and then wham; nothing.

My Dad used to refer to this unfortunate universal outcome as Man Plans; God Laughs.  Despite all your well-intentioned efforts, things don’t always turn out as you planned, but was that really by accident?

There was a 1998 movie called Sliding Doors with actress Gwyneth Paltrow that looked at one day in time and examined several possible outcomes based upon a series of different events. If this had not happened at that exact moment, then this would not have occurred, and on and on.  We all have experienced those moments at some time in our lives and it’s enough to make you crazy. But there may be some truth to all of this.

Disappointment, or more importantly negative emotions, that results from unpopular outcomes may simply be nothing more than a sliding door moment in your life ahead of something better in the near future. Although our immediate instinct is to get angry or upset at ourselves or others, maybe we just need to take that same moment to ask ourselves if that outcome was really something that we truly needed or wanted.

Rather than shutting ourselves off from other possible opportunities that may lie in our path, we could take this opportunity to pat ourselves on the back for attempting something that we thought we wanted. All the time and effort that we put in to learning something new or networking was not wasted because even though we did not accomplish our immediate goal, we did put other things into motion whether we realized it or not…and who knows what new opportunities will lie ahead as a result of those efforts?

As my friend Andrea Squibb recently reminded me when I got frustrated because things did not work out exactly as I planned, although it was nerve wracking for me, I still have my plan and I did take the necessary time to think things through. Although I did not get the immediate response that I wanted, I should still give things time to play out before I give in to my disappointment.

She also reminded me that some unexpected positive things have also recently happened to me, thanks to my good friend Jennifer Wilkov, and that I was on the right path. This was a great lesson for me to keep my eye on the positives and let the other stuff go.

I will plan to continue my efforts toward accomplishing those intended goals, but I will also remember to take the time to appreciate and accept things that may also come my way simply by keeping my eyes and ears open for unexpected detours.

Some great takeaways:

  • Don’t stay too focused on a desired outcome if it prevents you from experiencing or seeing other opportunities that lie right in front of you.
  • Keep things in perspective; “Rome wasn’t built in a day” as they say. Temper your expectations accordingly.
  • Most importantly, success is awarded to those that always follow their hearts and continue to practice patience and persistence.