The woman also told her pastor that she wanted to be buried with her favorite bible. Everything was in order and the pastor was preparing to leave when the woman suddenly remembered something very important to her.

“There’s one more thing” she said excitedly………

“What’s that?” came the pastor’s reply. “This is very important.” The woman continued. “I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand.” The pastor stood looking at the woman not knowing quite what to say. “That shocks you doesn’t it?” the woman asked. “Well to be honest, I’m puzzled by the request” said the pastor.

The woman explained. “In all my years of attending church socials and functions where food was involved (and let’s be honest, food is an important part of any church event; spiritual or otherwise); my favorite was when whoever was clearing away the dishes of the main course would lean over and say “you can keep your fork.”

It was my favorite part because I knew that something better was coming. When they told me to keep my fork I knew that something great was about to be given to me. It wasn’t Jell-O or pudding. It was cake or pie. Something with substance.

So I just want people to see me there in that casket with a fork in my hand and I want them to wonder “What’s with the fork?” Then I want you to tell them, “Something better is coming so keep your fork too.”

The pastor’s eyes were welled up with tears of joy as he hugged the woman goodbye. He knew this would be one of the last times he would see her before her death. But he also knew that the woman had a better grasp of heaven than he did. She KNEW that something better was coming.

At the funeral people were walking by the woman’s casket and they saw the pretty dress she was wearing and her favorite bible and the fork placed in her right hand. Over and over the pastor heard the question “What’s with the fork?” And over and over he smiled.

During his message the pastor told the people of the conversation he had with the woman shortly before she died. He also told them about the fork and about what it symbolized to her. The pastor told the people how he could not stop thinking about the fork and told them that they probably would not be able to stop thinking about it either.

He was right. So the next time you reach down for your fork, let it remind you oh so gently that there is something better coming.

Published on Motivateus.com

The book wasn’t very interesting, but between its pages there was something very interesting indeed. It was a thin strip of vellum on which was written the secret of the “Touchstone”!

The touchstone was a small pebble that could turn any common metal into pure gold. The writing explained that it was lying among thousands and thousands of other pebbles that looked exactly like it. But the secret was this: The real stone would feel warm, while ordinary pebbles are cold.

So the man sold his few belongings, bought some simple supplies, camped on the seashore, and began testing pebbles.

He knew that if he picked up ordinary pebbles and threw them down again because they were cold, he might pick up the same pebble hundreds of times. So, when he felt one that was cold, he threw it into the sea. He spent a whole day doing this but none of them was the touchstone. Yet he went on and on this way. Pick up a pebble. Cold – throw it into the sea. Pick up another. Throw it into the sea.

The days stretched into weeks and the weeks into months. One day, however, about midafternoon, he picked up a pebble and it was warm. He threw it into the sea before he realized what he had done. He had formed such a strong habit of throwing each pebble into the sea that when the one he wanted came along, he still threw it away.

So it is with opportunity. Unless we are vigilant, it’s asy to fail to recognize an opportunity when it is in hand and it’s just as easy to throw it away.

Author Unknown
Bits & Pieces
Economics Press

To his surprise, he hears the voice repeating, somewhere in the mountain: “AAAhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

Curious, he yells: “Who are you?” He receives the answer: “Who are you?”

And then he screams to the mountain: “Answer me!”  The voice answers: “Answer me!”

Angered at the response, he screams: “Coward!” He receives the answer: “Coward!”

He looks to his father and asks: “What’s going on?” The father smiles and says: “My son, pay attention.”

Again the man screams: “You are a champion!”  The voice answers: “You are a champion!”

The boy is surprised, but does not understand. Then the father explains: “People call this ECHO, but really this is LIFE. It gives you back everything you say or do.

Our life is simply a reflection of our actions. If you want more love in the world, create more love in your heart. If you want more competence in your team, improve your competence. This relationship applies to everything, in all aspects of life. Life will give you back everything you have given to it.”

YOUR LIFE IS NOT A COINCIDENCE. IT’S A REFLECTION OF YOU!

As Richard Bandler, (bona-fide genius & co-developer of NLP) says “He who hesitates…waits…& waits…& waits…” Almost everyone has situations where you would like to do something, but find yourself hesitating. I’ve heard Bandler describe hesitation as one of the main barriers to learning, & he focuses a great deal of time & energy on helping people to overcome it.

Would you like fries with that

One day in London, I was on the tube on the way to train some telesales people, helping them to overcome ’sales call reluctance’ (ie. not wanting to pick up the phone & dial.) I was reading the book Change (by Watzlawick, Weakland & Fisch) & came across a story describing how Watzlawick helped a student who had been unable to complete his thesis due to anxiety. He told the student “Go into three shops over the next week & make an absurd request.” The student did so, reported a shift in attitude, & finished their thesis shortly thereafter.

I loved the idea, & thought it might be useful with the reluctant telesales team, but I knew that I couldn’t ask them to do something I wasn’t willing to do myself. I said to myself “You have to do this now”, & as soon as I got off the tube, I went into a well-known fast-food hamburger joint outside the station. I joined the queue, looking around at the other customers. My heart was pounding like a drum; even though I knew rationally that I was in no danger, my neurology was responding as though I were about to stick up a bank.

When I got to the counter, I looked at the person behind it &, with a straight face, asked for a ham & pineapple pizza. She looked confused and said “What?” I repeated my request. She said “We don’t sell those.” “This is a chinese restaurant isn’t it?” I replied. She said no, I said thanks anyway and left. I felt like I had just knocked out Mike Tyson – I felt invincible!

Now, before you send me loads of email saying how childish this is, & how it isn’t really NLP – I know. But the result was amazing. In the days following, I did several similar acts. Each time, my physical response was diminished, but in other areas of my life, the opposite happened. I started to exhibit less hesitation and more wanton ‘go for it’ than ever before!

Thrilled with my success, I invited the telesales people to do similar absurd acts, and they reported similar liberating results. I knew I was onto something.

The PIZZA-WALK EXPERIENCE

A few years ago, I became interested in Tony Robbins & went to one of his weekends, eagerly anticipating the fire-walking, which I had heard so much about. I was really looking forward to it, and Robbins did a great job of building up the anticipation, but when the time came, I found it impossible to actually believe that walking on the hot coals was in any way dangerous. As a result, walking across them didn’t have much impact on me as a metaphor for overcoming fears in other areas of my life (though I know it really works for some people.)

By comparison, THE PIZZA-WALK EXPERIENCE costs nothing, can be done virtually anywhere, and is incredibly powerful. So…

1) Identify a few of the areas in your life where you hesitate and would like to just go for it.

2) Choose a commercial premises (eg. shop, restaurant, petrol station) and make an absurd request (ie. ask for something they definitely don’t sell) while keeping a straight face. Be polite, safe and non-threatening.

3) Repeat twice more in the course of a week.

4) Look forward to the situations where in the past you would have hesitated, and enjoy your new responses.

One of my clients used to have difficulties asking women out on dates. I sent him out to a burger joint to get some Italian food. Within the week he had a date and now has a full diary. This stuff works!
For those of you who are worried about the person behind the counter, in all the times I’ve done this, their response has been anywhere from bemused to very amused, but never frightened. The key is for you to be non-threatening and polite (ideally coming across as a bit confused.) For those of you who are thinking this is pointless, foolish or humiliating – you probably need this more than most

Why does this work?

Our central nervous system is set up to protect us from dangerous situations. Many of us have been heavily conditioned against making mistakes (by teachers, parents, peers etc.) and code mistakes as dangerous. Yet making mistakes is an incredibly important part of learning, growing and exploring. A willingness to make mistakes is an absolute must for anyone who wishes to become skilled at NLP (with me, I used to be almost phobic of making mistakes, but no more.) The Pizza-walk Experience seems to help you eliminate this unhelpful response. There are lots of other NLP techniques which can reduce hesitation & increase ‘go for it’, but this one’s the easiest & quickest to communicate in writing. By the way, obviously there are times when it’s useful to hesitate (eg. when about to step into a busy street.) Keep those.

More advanced

This is also great for playing with beliefs around money. I was in Egypt a couple of years back, and found that you are expected to haggle over the prices of items in shops – it’s a cultural norm. When I returned to the UK, I went into a large DIY shop, picked up £300 worth of expensive equipment and offered them £40 for it. Once again, my neurology responded as though I was in a dangerous situation, even though I was perfectly safe. By doing this, though, I was able to start changing my beliefs around money (Stuart Wilde’s book The Trick to Money is Having Some is where I got this idea.)

This is an excerpt taken from one of Jamie Smarts News Letters.  In my years of working with businesses this little exercise has definitely proved to be the most fun, most scary, most rewarding and most exciting experience.  In fact, I personally practice the PIZZA-WALK regularly as a test for myself.

For other great NLP tools and tips visit www.salad.co.uk and sign up for “Jamie Smart’s NLP  Tips” newsletter because it is full of great ideas.

You can even grab “The Science of Getting Rich” by Wallace D. Wattles that Bob is taking about right here:

Oh yes, if you want to be taken by the hand and shown step-by-step how to apply the Wealth Creating Principles click on Bob Proctor on the Right.

I post my daily affirmations to my Twitter account and although many people enjoy them I see that some people just don’t understand affirmations.  Probably because they have tried them and not been successful or maybe because they just seem hokey and far fetched.

A person asked me the other day when I discovered the power of affirmations and every time I settle on a point I am reminded of a period before that I used them so I just give up trying to remember and put affirmations down to my psychological makeup.

Here is an example……

In my late teens I had an absolute desire to win the South African Junior National Rowing Championships.  I remember it never being an option to lose.

Our team, a coxed VIII, seemed to get onto the water and the entire world disappeared. For me the focus in the boat was so intense that a training session disappeared in time.

I remember going to bed at night with the vision of crossing the finish line first and dreaming about it repetitively through every single night leading up to a race. I never ever lost in my dreams. We never ever lost a race.

The point that I would like to make is this:

Imagine our team had lain on our backs all season looking into the clouds and visualizing winning races.  Or walking around our school yard affriming that we were the best.  Do you think we would have won?

You see Visualisation and Affirmations are tools, very powerful tools, but tools none the less.  Without ACTION they are useless.  Without getting in the boat and rowing for 2 hours a day, spending an hour a day in the gym or a hour on the rowing machines visualisation and affirmations are useless.

Visualisation gives you a clear picture of your goal.  Affirmations prepare your mind for receiving your goal.

And with your goal clear and your mind prepared any goal is achievable.

So when you read my daily affirmations on my Twitter time line know that this is the conscious action that I take during that day.

For example: If one of my affirmations is “I am at peace” then if I am feeling restless or agitated then I simply remind myself that “I am at peace”.

And I definitely don’t sit at my desk chanting to myself.  For me, affirmations have become an unconscious reaction for any situation be it a sales presentation or even feeling under the weather.

Simple and so very effective for taking control and leading your life in the direction that you need it to go.

Making a habit out of Affirmations can be quite difficult in the business of life.  That is why I was so excited to find this cool little piece of software with gigantic ability to keep my Affirmations in front of me while I go about my day-to-day work……

Joe was kind of scared so he asked his little daughter, “Sweetheart, please hold my hand so that you don’t fall into the river.”

The little girl said, “No, Dad. You hold my hand.”

“What’s the difference?” Asked the puzzled father.

“There’s a big difference,” replied the little girl.

“If I hold your hand and something happens to me, chances are that I may let your hand go. But if you hold my hand, I know for sure that no matter what happens, you will never let my hand go.”

In any relationship, the essence of trust is not in its bind, but in its bond.

As you may already know, over the last 40 years of Bob Proctor’s life he’s been holding people’s hands and leading them step-by-step across the bridge to a life of richness and success.

If you allow him to hold your hand… he promises to keep your faith and lead you to a world of insane wealth and prosperity.

Click here to find out exactly how he’ll be holding your hand and leading you step-by-step to the other side of the bridge:

Because of the high altitudes the mountains are hard to walk in, not to mention run in, many disheartened world class athletes quit the race……..

More than a hour after the gold medal winner had been crowned and as the last spectators were trickling out of the stadium and the lights dimmed a lone Tanzanian runner entered the Colosseum.

As he plodded into view people began to laugh and the laughter turned into silence as the exhausted runner, legs wobbling right knee wrapped in a now dangling bandage with feet bleeding slowly moved across the last 400 meters of the race.

The stadium lights flashed on as he took his slow painful strides. The crowd that mocked him only a few minutes earlier now cheered him on.  Others seeing even deeper into the mans spirit began to cry.

Years later sports journalist Bud Greenspan asked the former Olympian John Stephen Ahkwari, who had since become a coach, why he had continued to run hours after it had become clear that he had no chance for a medal.

The Grand Coach replied “I come from a small poor country and many people made sacrifices for me to go to Mexico City to run in the marathon. They didn’t send me to start the race, they sent me to finish the race”

Have you ever quit a race? Do you want to learn to finish?

Recently I joined Bob Proctor’s mentoring program called Six Minutes to Success because I have a race, that I need to finish, to prepare for.

Join me now because in 6 Minutes every day you will learn to finish every race that you enter.