So I was checking my email this morning and I found a really cool thank you letter from someone who I hadn’t actually met before.

So you’re probably wondering… if I had never met him, how the hell did I deserve the thanks?

Check this out to get the story:

Since filming the vid, I had a few more exchanges with Dean. Very cool guy with a great story.

THE BEST PART…

His product that he had some success with, was all about a topic I am currently needing advice and coaching on. He sent me a copy at no cost cuz he’s cool like that.

It’s all about outsourcing and Virtual Assistants. AWESOME TIMING!! I can’t wait to read it but in the mean time, go check out his offer here:

Building a Killer Business With VAs

(not an affiliate link )

Let me know what you thought about this overall topic in general. Is there someone you need to thank or acknowledge?

Since we were kids, all of us have understood the value of practice. If you want to get good at hockey, reading, piano, singing, or any other engaged activity, you have to practice.

Practice is defined as the application of a skill repeatedly or regularly in order to improve or maintain one’s proficiency. I think most people would agree that the highest achievers in an area of life are those who practice the most.

How does this apply to our every day lives?

If you think about your overall quality of life, it is basically made up by the accumulation of moments. Each moment you are expending energy in a certain way. Sometimes you are in a positive state and other times you are negative; and there a varying degrees of intensity in between.

Most of the time, we are all operating on auto-pilot. What I mean is that we are going about our day and we react and respond to events based on how we have conditioned ourselves to do so. If we have spent the majority of our lives practicing an anger response when things don’t go our way, we have become very proficient at being angry. Likewise, if you have spent the majority of your life reacting with laughter to various events and circumstances, you have become proficient at maintaining positivity.

This is a great place for any person to begin when it comes to improving their life so that it works… on all levels.

How do you do this?

Start by doing a basic assessment of your results. Are you constantly in a state of stress or anxiety? Do you constantly feel frustrated or upset? For any result that is not positive, examine what you have been practicing in that area of your life. If your current result is that you get angry and upset whenever the slightest thing goes wrong, think about how you can practice changing that result. You can actually begin looking for the next “opportunity” for something to go wrong so that you can practice a new response. Just like learning an instrument or sport, it may not go smoothly the first time but it is a start. Then you do it again and again and each repetition gives you an opportunity to get stronger.

In a relatively short period of time, you can develop an entirely new skill set that serves you better and improves the overall quality of your life. Try it. Challenge yourself. And see how your results change over time.

This is a guest post by a friend and regular follower of Ignite Your Essence, Garry Cyre

Any parent knows raising kids is not easy. You’ve brought this little life into the world and now it’s your responsibility to feed them, clothe them, teach them right from wrong, show them the ways of the world so to speak, not an easy job. My daughter is about to turn two and is starting to develop her own unique personality, as a parent this is a very exciting time. I get to watch as she discovers everything around her; I get to share in her excitement and I get to help in defining who she is. But something that has taken me completely by surprise is how much she has been teaching me about life and how it should be lived.

Everything is MINE.
She wants everything, my cell phone, cookies, her books doesn’t matter if she sees it she wants it and why not. Too many times we are told we can’t have it, you can’t be rich, you can’t be happy, and you can’t be successful, why not? The only reason she can’t have a cookie is because I said she can’t and the only reason I can’t do what I want is because someone told me I can’t.

There is no moment more important than this one
Young kids are awesome, give them something new and interesting and they are hooked for hours. My daughter loves books; she sits there totally engrossed in any book you give her. All her effort and attention is focused on that book and nothing is more important to her than reading those pages, or at the very least looking at the pictures. If I gave half the attention to my daily activities that she does just on that one book no telling what could be accomplished.

Persistence and patience are the keys
Trying to get a 2yr old to do exactly what you want can be a struggle sometimes, she wants a cookie and I want her to have a carrot. The conversation usually goes something like this: Me: carrot? Her: Cookie! Me: carrot? Her: Cookie! Me: carrot? Her: cookie? Me: carrot? Her: Carrot! All it takes is a little patience and some persistence in order for her to do what I want. Same thing goes with life; anything can be accomplished with a little persistence and patience.

Everyone is my friend
This is one of the most important things she has taught me. Whenever she meets someone new there is always that initial shyness, who are you and what’s your story, but as soon as that wears off you are now a friend for life. I accept you for who you are and I will show you exactly who I am no questions asked.

Everything is better with Cheerios
Need I say more?

Here is another video from Brad Gosse and myself giving out analysis on the importance of risk taking and learning how to develop a higher risk tolerance level!

After you watch the video, scroll down and check out a cool poem I found about risk taking. I first heard this poem in a Bob Proctor seminar and it has always reminded me of the importance of risk taking in order to live a full life.

ONLY A PERSON WHO RISKS IS FREE
by Author Unknown

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach for another is to risk involvement.
To expose your ideas, your dreams,
before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To believe is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken, because the
greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The people who risk nothing, do nothing,
have nothing, are nothing.
They may avoid suffering and sorrow,
but they cannot learn, feel, change,
grow, love, live.
Chained by their attitudes they are slaves;
they have forfeited their freedom.
Only a person who risks is free.

In this article, I would like to introduce you to a new online friend of mine. His name is Emanuel Kingson and he has a very interesting story to tell. I came across his story earlier this week and I could not get it out of my mind. He talks about an incident he experienced where he could have died in a plane crash. More importantly he talks about what he experienced after and how his fear seemed to disappear in the moment. An eye-opening testimony about the power of our minds and our ability to perceive life.

Here is his article from his blogsite: A Changing Man Blog

Survived a Plane Crash – Became Fearless

Fear is usually one of the most incapacitating and limiting things in a persons life. It can be anything like fear of spiders, fear of crowds or fear of relationships and it seems the list is just endless.

I, like most people, have a variety of fears in my life but fear of flying was never one of them.

A few years back I was going on a business trip with my business associates and we got on a plane  that was taking us from Zurich to Berlin.

It was a small aircraft with one or two seats on both sides of the isle and it was raining quite heavily.

Once in the air and the complimentary tea had been served and indulged the plane suddenly started bumping and jumping a bit. Since I’d been spending a lot of time in air crafts I wasn’t concerned at all and carried on with my reading or whatever it was I was doing at the time.

Suddenly the plane was struck by lightning.

Now that woke me up in a big way and I glanced over at the flight attendant and saw her looking deeply troubled and scared and I was equally scared and shocked.

At least for a fraction of a second.

Then everything became completely quiet and calm and from a state of chock and frantic fear a smile suddenly emerged on my face and I felt a profound sense of being in the moment. Completely accepting my fate and I was a hundred percent convinced this was it.

My life was about to end.

I remember seeing most people on the plane being in a state of emotional chaos and fear  but I also remember looking into the eyes of one of my friends on the plane and he was in the same state as me. Smiling and completely calm and accepting that death was imminent.

I also recall thinking:

“Aha, so this is it. Well I’ve had an amazing life and I’m totally ready to leave planet earth behind.”

And this was quite some time before my conscious spiritual journey ever started.

After a few more moments of mid air chaos the craft stabilized and I understood my time had not come yet and I was actually going to survive this.

There is probably a highly scientific explanation for the way I reacted having to do with endorphins and/or adrenaline being released in the bloodstream when this kind of chocking occurrence is experienced but I still think there’s an extremely important lesson to be learnt form this to reduce the crippling fear in our lives:

Completely accept whatever may happen.

In 1993 I saw a movie called Fearless that I really liked and it was actually about a similar thing where the main actor survives a plane crash and becomes completely fearless. For me it only lasted a little while and then the old fears came back but for the movie character it lasted for a prolonged time.

Many of us have a desire to control everything in our lives and then when we experience situations where we seem to lose that control anxiety often arises.

The amount of control we actually have can be discussed from a variety of standpoints such as psychological, scientific and spiritual(Law of attraction) but for instance it seems evident that even the strongest proponents of The Law Of Attraction don’t always experience only what they “want” and you probably won’t either.

James Arthur Ray’s tragic “Sweatbox” accident and Joe Vitale’s trip to Russia quickly comes to mind.

There are several different techniques to deal with feelings of fear, stress and worry and one method where I use acceptance is what I call “The Kingson Acceptance Method” and it has actually been more effective than anything else I’ve tried including Reiki Healing, Chinese Energetic Medicine, EFT and Theta Healing.

Emanuel Kingson

I am currently working on a new personal development audio program to help my clients accelerate their success on their path to achieving goals. As I have been writing this program, I have spent countless hours reading, researching and studying thought provoking works on the area of motivation.

I came across this talk by Dan Pink on the “Science of Motivation”. Have a look here…

The biggest lesson I learned here was very applicable in my life and in my business. The idea of an incentive-based system does work well but not all of the time. I have personally felt the pain of having my creativity crushed due the pressure of a financial incentive. Its almost like the fear of NOT achieving the result was too strong. By NOT achieving the result, I would NOT receive the financial gain and the entire process ended up crippling my creativity and problem solving skills.

How can we apply the insight from this video into our own lives and ultimately produce the results we are striving for?

I don’t think there is a single answer but as soon as this video completed I knew what my first strategy was going to be. I am going analyze every project I take on from now on. I will then ask myself to review all of the potential incentives and rewards of completing the task. Once I go through the list, I will make certain that the most significant incentive is not the financial reward but rather the personal satisfaction of completing a challenging task that I am passionate about.

I think every person understands this at a gut level but I am very grateful for this video presentation as it has brought this understanding to my conscious mind and I can now utilize this new knowledge to help me in my business life.

How do you see this helping you in your world?

Justin Popovic, Ignite Your Essence

What do the following people have in common?

Jack Canfield, Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, James Ray, Tony Robbins, Bob Proctor, David Lynch, The Dalai Lama, John Assaraf, Bill Gates, Tiger Woods, Wayne Dyer, T Harv Eker, Bill Harris, Hale Dwoskin

MEDITATION

When it comes to the study of success and achievement, one of the most popular forms of personal development is mediation.

I learned to meditate a few years ago and I am always on the lookout for new mediations that I can use to help me. I was talking to a mentor of mine about meditation the other day and I found he also uses it as a success tool and he has actually created a really powerful new meditation program.

Here is a snippet of an email he sent to me after our discussion:

One day each week I have a yoga instructor (Natasha) at the office to
do yoga for us. After yoga she does this fantastic meditation that
allows you to completely unwind and take your mind off the world.
Since doing yoga and meditation at the office, productivity has
increased.

I asked Natasha to come into my studio and record this mediation so
that others could enjoy it. She was very excited to have more people
hear her words and agreed.

Why do you need to meditate?
Our mind works in ways we will never understand. More importantly,
think of when your best ideas come to you, it happens when you are not
trying to solve problems. It usually happens when you are relaxed, on
vacation, partying or sleeping.

A good meditation has yielded me some amazing business ideas and
inspiration in a time when I am not thinking about business but simply
focused on my breathing and the now.

Advertising guru Simon Reynolds said he got his greatest ideas in a
30-minute meditation he took in his office each day.

Although he is selling his meditation CD offline for $25, he has extended a very generous offer to me and the subscribers of Ignite. You can get a copy of this guided meditation program as well as a second bonus program for $9!

Grab a copy today and let me know how this program helps your mental, physical and emotional well being.

Click Here To Download

Have you ever listened to “The Strangest Secret” by Earl Nightingale? I have had a link to it on my website for over a year now and I notice a lot of traffic flowing out to that site. If you have not yet seen it, please check it out before proceeding.

Now that you have had a chance to review Mr. Nightingale’s timeless message, I wanted to share another fantastic free video resource that I have come across. For those of you not familiar with Success Magazine, the publisher, Darren Hardy has created a Success Magazine video page. I was browsing the site yesterday and happened to come by another video by Earl Nightingale. The presentation is called The Miracles of Your Mind and once again I was blown away by the content.

Take some time right now to watch this video and let me know what you think:

http://video.success.com/from-the-magazine/nightingale-miracle/

I had the pleasure of being a lead sponsor at a live Jack Canfield workshop in Caledon, Ontario in 2008. The program featured a full day of coaching and learning with one of the world’s best success coaches. During this full day session, Jack shared his most fundamental teachings from his book “The Success Principles”.

I had a chance to meet Jack and talk to him about how his book has impacted my business and helped me shape my personal development presentation material. As usual, Jack was very gracious with his time and offered some great advice about how to become a good coach.

Below is a collection of material from Jack Canfield that I hope you will find educational and inspiring.

Taking Personal Responsibility For Your Life:
Download Audio File Here

The Power of Breakthrough Goals:
Download Audio File Here

Free Success Resources From Jack Canfield:
Check out Jack’s site for great gifts

Jack Canfield Video About Taking Action:

In the fall of 2008, my wife and I had the pleasure of attending a live seminar/workshop with Lisa Nichols. Ms. Nichols is a best selling author, speaker and featured teacher in the hit movie ‘The Secret‘.

Since joining the personal development industry, I have had the opportunity to see many speakers present at various self development events. Without question, Lisa is certainly the cream of the crop. She has the ability to connect with an audience like very few people can.

In speaking with the other participants at the event, this was a common theme. Lisa was able to help everyone reconnect with their goals, dreams, passions and vision.

She also invested a great deal of time at the end of the event in meeting with people and giving them an opportunity to speak with her and ask questions. A real class act!

If you ever have the opportunity to attend an event where Lisa is on the schedule, I highly recommend it!