Principles for Peace

As we look closer at what holds us back from inner peace this may very well be the most crucial topic that we have discussed so far.  Not only that, I also believe it is the most critical thing that could ever hold us back from acheiving inner peace or any goal we ever set for ourselves.  Although, a person’s desire to have inner peace and willingness to let go of the things that hold them back are certainly the foundations.  If you are new to the discussion you will find it very helpful to first read our previous posts on this subject by clicking here and here.

We have hit on this several times over the past couple of posts, especially in the discussion sections, but I didn’t want to go too deep into it at the time.  I was waiting for the right time…..

IR Rating

Okay, my question for you is, “What is your IR rating?”  You may think I’m a little confused here and that the “R” should be a “Q.”  No, we’re not talking about your intellegence quotient.  I think we can safely say that you can have peace with about any IQ score.  So what in the world is IR?  I thought you would never ask.

In the latest issue of Success Magazine, the publisher, Darren Hardy, does an exclusive audio interview with Paul J. Meyer, an incredible icon in the personal growth industry.  I have been totally blown away by this man through this interview. 

Darren asked Paul what he did to combat fear in the beginning of his ventures.  He told the story of how he was fortunate to have his mother to tell him at the age of 12 about the IR theory.  She said that who he was was his IDENTITY and on a scale of 1-10  asked how would he RATE himself?  She told him to rate himself a 10 for the rest of his life.  She said, “Do not let anyone, any time, ever say anything or do anything that affects who you are and your identity.  You’re a 10.  You came into this world a 10 and you’re going out a 10.  You started the day a 10 and your going to finish the day a 10.”  (If you haven’t figured it out yet, IR stands for Identity Rating.)  We could also call this IR a belief in yourself. 

Mr. Meyer said that he enters every day without the possibility of defeat.  It never enters his mind that he could fail at anything.  He says that he has a no limitations belief in God and a no limitations belief in himself.  The question is: Has this worked for him?   His life is example that it has.  He walks his talk.  Is he successful in business?  Oh yeah!!!  Just do a little research on him.  For our purposes here, was he a master at inner peace?  His life speaks of that very loud and clear.

Are you beginning to see how a score lower than 10 can hold you back???  If you don’t have a score of 10 do you think it is possible to acheive anything?  I believe that belief in yourself is the number one ingredient necessary to acheive anything in life, whether it be peace or any goal you set for yourself.

A few things for you to consider:  *IMPORTANT* These are not things to take lightly.

* What is your IR on a scale of 1-10?  (Do you have limiting beliefs in yourself? )

* Why is that your score?

* Who have you let tell you that you are not a 10?  Why?  What can you do to move forward? (Is forgiveness in order?)

* Have you allowed yourself to tell you that you are not a 10?  Why?  How can you overcome that?

* Do you have limiting beliefs in God?  What can you do to change that?

* Is your IR causing you to fear failure?   Remember: the past does not equal the future!  (that is…. unless you allow it to do so.  Then you allow your thoughts to become a self fulfilling prophesy.)

* The world gives you the exact same IR you give yourself.  You project that number at all times.

* Make a resolution to change your rating to a 10 - TODAY.  Write on an index card   “I am a 10.  God made me a 10 and that will never change.”  Carry it with you wherever you go.  Look at it when you get up in the morning and when you go to bed and often through out the day.  (I just made this card for myself.)

I HIGHLY recommend subscribing to Success Magazine if you are interesting in growing to become a better person.  Each issue has a free audio CD in it that is worth more than the subscription itself in my opinion.   You can download a free copy of the current issue to your computer, but you miss out on the CD that has so much great information.

Consider learning other gems from Paul J. Meyer.  He is an amazing man with lots to teach us.  Some of his most influential works are in a series called “Believing in Yourself.”

Harness the Power of Your Attitude (Believing in Yourself Set, Volume 1 of 5)

Positive Expectancy to Win (Believing in Yourself Set, Volume 2 of 5)

The Courage to Succeed (Believing in Yourself Set, Volume 3 of 5)

Never, Never, Never Give Up! (Believing in Yourself Set, Volume 4 of 5)

There’s Magic in Believing (Believing in Yourself Set, Volume 5 of 5) 

(Last I checked there were only one or two copies of each one.)

Share your thoughts on this post.  Tell your score if you want and how you plan to move your score to a 10. 

photo by: Darren Hester

Have you ever wanted something so bad you just couldn’t stand it?  Have you ever wondered why you just can’t achieve something or move forward?  You want something or you set goals, but no matter how hard you try you just can’t get there?  You’re not alone?  There have been many times in my lifetime when I set goals and I could never seem to reach them.  One goal after another and nothing, nothing.  Very frustrating to say the least. 

I have been thinking about a question related to this now for several weeks.  It has pervaded my mind and I keep thinking about it.  So I posed the question to my husband a week or so ago.  Do you have to figure out what is holding you back from acheiving something in order to acheive it or can you simply make a goal and be so focused that you acheive it?  My husband thought for a moment and then said, “I don’t know.”  Later he said to me “Honey, I think you’re becoming a philosopher with some of the questions you ask me.”  :)  I certainly never thought of myself as a philosopher, but I do enjoy thinking and figuring things out now - something I never took the time to do earlier in my life.

My conclusion, from years of expereience, is that yes, you have to recognize and figure out what is holding you back from accomplishing something and work to process and remove that thing so that you can move forward.  Everyone may not agree with me here, and I’d love to hear what you have to say if you don’t.

Do you want inner peace and happiness?  Do you want success?  Do you want to be the best at something important to you?  Do you want to leave a legacy?  What is stopping you?  That is what I want us to discover.

How do I figure out what is holding me back?

* Look deep and ask the quesion, “Why?”  Now there are two ways to ask the question, “Why?”  One way says, “Why me?”  or “Why is this happning to me? (or why did this happen to me?)”  In other words, “poor pitiful me.”  The other way to ask “why?” is to ask it in order to find the answers to what is holding you back and what you can learn from it.  This could be in the form of “Why am I not reaching my goals?  What is holding me back?  How can I learn from it and change it so that peace can prevail or so that I can move forward to reach my goals? 

* Realize that when you ask the question “Why?” that it is probably something deep burried in your subconscious mind.  This is not always the case, but often it it.  Nonetheless, it is something you are doing or not doing that is holding you back.  It is your weaknesses that you are not aware of.  Keep looking deeper and deeper and asking “why?” over and over again until you figure out the answer.  In Jeffrey Liker’s  book, The Toyota Way, he tells of how the Japanese in the Toyota company ask the question, “Why?” five times in order to find the source of a problem so they can improve upon it.  What you will likely discover when you do this is that…

* Beliefs are usually the things that are holding you back.  When you find these beliefs the next questions to ask are “Why?” (yes, again!)  Why do I hold these beliefs?  Where did they come from?  Are these beliefs real or accuarate?  Now that I see these beliefs what can I learn from them?  How can I change my thinking in order to change my beliefs, in order to accomplish what I want?  How can I use this information to help me have peace of mind and/or success at something? 

* Understanding how beliefs work can go a long way.  Beliefs form habits, habits that we are often not even aware of and these habits dictate your actions and your entire life without you even realizing it is happening.  You see, no amount of positive talk can get you where you want to be if you have negative beliefs burried deep within you telling you the complete opposite.  Uncover and remove the negative so that you can believe the positive.  Once you believe it you can acheive it as Napolean Hill says in his time tested best seller book, Think and Grow Rich.  If the voice burried deep within you says, “You’re no good.  You’ll never accomplish anything.  It’s not really possible for you to have peace” then it is right.  You will not until you first recognize that voice, figure out where it came from and then replace it with an accurate thought and belief.

One of the reasons I like Dr. Nicole  so much is because she uses the “why? approach to physical problems.  She digs deep asking why, why, why til she gets to the root of the problem, exposes it and there finds the solution.  She figures out what is holding people back from good health.  This is evident in her post about McInflamation and Tell Me What’s in Your Shopping Cart and I’ll Tell You What Is Wrong with You.

* Often the beliefs burried deep within you that are holding you back are fears.  Benny Greenberg is doing an excellent series on this topic of fear now which helps to reveal those fears that you may have hidden deep within you.  Recognizing these fears and learning to replace them can go a long way towards helping you have the life that you want - that peace of mind we all want. 

In the next few posts we will discuss some tips and some more things that hold us back along with the things that we can do to overcome them. 

In the meantime, this is open for discussion.  I would love to hear what you have to say about all of this.  What are some things that you have figured out that has held you back? 

 

Daily Evaluation
Do you ever feel like your day is spinning hopelessly out of control? I can identify! I am currently going through a book, Time Powerby Charles Hobbs, that is making me really think about things and do some major needed changes in my life. While he doesn’t mention it specifically (or hasn’t really yet anyway), this idea I’m going to blog about, it has certainly made me think a lot about it. The idea, the thought, is: evaluating your day at the end of each day.

Time Powerhas caused me to evaluate my entire life more than I ever have or knew that I could. I think it will be the most life changing thing I’ve ever done in my adult life. He has you to evaluate everything about your values and the way you live, but more on that in another post…..

Important or Urgent?
So this idea of daily evaluation….. Since I am now evaluating my life more, I have been thinking more at the close of each day about how I have spent my time, my day. I have come up with a list of questions to use to evaluate my day at it’s close. I hope they are helpful to you as well. I think I am going to start ranking each question on a scale from 1-10. Here are the questions:

Was it productive and efficient?

Did I do what I set out to do at the beginning of the day?

Did I waste my time?

Did I let fear and procrastination get the best of me?

Did my thoughts, attitudes and actions reflect my values and the significant people and things in my life? (Were my actions throughout the day a reflection of what is truly important to me?)

Did I spend my time working toward my clearly defined goals?

Or did I waste my time on things that were simply urgent, but not even remotely important? Did I rush around like a crazy person who has no control of time or her life in any way, “putting out fires” as some put it?

Or did I sit around watching TV all day or doing something meaningless like that?

For me, my struggle is putting out the insignificant fires - the things screaming for my attention that are urgent but not important. Many people get caught up into these things. If you feel like your life is spinning out of control asking yourself these questions can help get you focused.

What Next?
After ranking each question, the next question to ask is: “How can I improve? How can I make tomorrow better? Be specific and write down the answers to this question. Then at the beginning of each day, after you have gotten dressed for the day, look over this list of how to improve, along with your life goals. Then make a specific list of how to make your day match up with your goals. You may just be amazed at how much time you waste. I know I am amazed!

Time Power

Remember this quote by president Dwight Eisenhower: “Most things which are urgent are not important, and most things which are important are not urgent.”