DEPRESSION AND BUSINESS OWNERS

 Like much of the world, I lament the untimely death of actor/comedian Robin Williams.  His death by suicide highlights the role of depression in our lives.  Certainly, as a practicing clinical psychologist and neuropsychologist, I frequently treat clinical depression in my patients.  Business owners and entrepreneurs are not immune.  In fact, they may be more vulnerable in some ways given the rate of startup business failure.  After all, if you lose a job that's bad enough.  If you lose the dream business you sought to create, that is quite a psychological blow to anyone.  Business owners' self-esteem can be more intertwined with the degree of business success.  Estimates are that $60,000 is lost to depression related costs per 100 employees.

What are some of the causes of depression?  Experts note multiple causes to include genetic vulnerability, stressful life events, medications, medical problems, neuronal transmission, faulty mood regulation by the brain, and one's view of the world.  The last two should sound familiar to readers of Success and Mindset posts.  The influence of the brain on how we think and feel as well as how our thoughts (mindset) influence the brain is reciprocal.  In depression, three brain systems are involved:

1.  Hippocampus.  This area of the brain is involved in memory and emotional processing.  Neuroimaging studies have shown how the hippocampus is reduced in size in depressed individuals, possibly secondary to stressful life events resulting in reduced neuronal connections.

2.  Amygdala.  This structure is in the limbic system processing memory and emotional reactions.  This is where, in conjunction with the hippocampus, we relive stressful and fearful events.  The joint influence of the amygdala and hippocampus is where the colloquial phrase "once bitten, twice shy" arises.

3.  Thalamus.  This structure manages sensory input to and from the brain and serves as a relay station for many areas of the brain.  Some research relates this area to manic depression as it links sensory input to pleasant and unpleasant feelings. 

Our view of the world (mindset) further influences whether we react to events in a negative, self-blaming view versus a more growth/adaptive/positive view.  These views in turn influence various brain structures to our benefit or not.

So, how might the business owner deal with the multiple challenges to avoid a depressive episode?  I would recommend six actions/strategies:

1.  Make time for your loved ones.  It reduces the psychological over reliance on the business as a source of emotional gratification.

2.  Maintain social relationships.  This is exactly what depressed individuals do not do and is one of the greatest risk factors for clinical depression.

3.  Ask for help.  This sometimes is difficult for business owners and entrepreneurs, who are used to being in charge and value their independence.  There is much help available.

4.  Get proper exercise and watch your diet.

5.  Build an identify apart from your company.  You are more than your company or business.  Get involved in some other activity which you value, it reduces your risk for depression.

6.  Reframe failure and loss.  As I frequently discuss, how you explain setbacks has to do with your mindset.  The idea is for you to identify, challenge, and avoid overgeneralizing statements about setbacks to include "I'm a failure", "I'm no good at business", "This always happens to me", among others.  For more information, go to www.successandmindset.com and read in particular the post on S.U.E. Your Way to Success.

     There is much hope for business owners and entrepreneurs to avoid debilitating depression and enjoy your life both business and personal.  Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Results.

MINDSET AND THE BRAIN INFLUENCE FINANCIAL BEHAVIOR

How does our brain influence financial decisions?   Dr. Alec Smith recently attempted to answer this question.  He is a neuroeconomist at California Technological Institute (Caltech) in Pasadena.  Neuroeconomics is a discipline using a physiological approach to try to understand financial and economic decision making.  In his study of simulated stock trading, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, he found that a part of the brain associated with pleasure, reward, aggression, and impulsivity was activated during trading for many study participants.  Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to track blood flow to different areas of the brain.  The nucleus accumbens, a part of the brain dealing with reward and pleasure, showed increased activity on MRI scans as stock prices rose to excessively high levels before crashing back to more basic values and levels.  Thus, there seemed support for the idea that during “bubbles” there is a correlation between activity in certain parts of the brain and risky trading behavior.  In contrast, not all traders in the study showed the same pattern.  Another group tended to sell earlier than others and earn the most in the study and showed activation in a different area of the brain.  That area was the anterior insula, which tends to alert persons to more physical sensations as well as risk.  For study participants for whom this was the area highlighted by the MRI, they got rid of their riskier assets before others, a more cautious approach.  These individuals were fewer in number than study participants showing activation of the more pleasure seeking nucleus accumbens area. 

For those of us in business but not in stock trading, what can this tell us about our economic and financial decision making?   The answer appears to be that there is a relationship between your brain activity and behavior to include financial/economic decision making.  This study did not directly address different mindsets I’ve discussed in other posts.  There is indication that more success oriented versus more limiting mindsets activate different areas of your brain.  These different mindsets and areas of brain activation influence your subsequent business actions and decisions as well as outcomes (see the post Success Mindsets Change Your Brain on my website www.successandmindset.com).  Also, in my SAMURAI Success System (Success and Mindset Underscore the Relationship of Attention and Interpersonal Characteristics), there are four different attentional styles influenced by interpersonal characteristics such as self-esteem and speed of decision making, among others.  We all have a dominant attentional style. Particular combinations of attentional style and interpersonal characteristics predispose you to differing mindsets.  Given the apparent relationship between our mindsets and brain activation, I would advise business owners to maximize their business success through focus on the factors of mindset, attention, and interpersonal characteristics.  These factors affect your leadership style, productivity, stress level, and turnover in your business.  Change your thoughts and change your results. 

"S.U.E." Your Way to Success

While the above may seem an odd title for an article on success, it has nothing to do with legal approaches.  Rather, "S.U.E." is an acronym for several powerful mindset strategies which will help you overcome most mental obstacles you have so that your thoughts can work for you instead of against you.   Some credit should go to Dr. Martin Seligman, a psychologist.  In his book "Learned Optimism" he showed how we can learn to be more optimistic, while some people think we're just born the way we are.  It is how we explain events that influence how we will perform, whether in business or in our personal lives.  Now here is where my acronym "S.U.E." comes into play.

S - stands for Specific, contrasted with general.  If you are criticized, or if you have a setback, or a customer hangs up in your ear, then there is a specific response you can make.  You could say that was annoying that this person hung up in your ear but that's all, I've had a number of other successful experiences.  The person who becomes demoralized by such events tells themselves that what just happened is general, in contrast to specific.  If you think about setbacks more generally, that then becomes more demoralizing and depressing.  You may become prone to avoiding other similar possible events based on the one.

U - stands for Unstable contrasted with stable.  If you view the upsetting situation as unstable you are saying that it happens from time to time but it's not a regular part of your life.  If your business call did not work out well, you could decide that this is annoying, frustrating, inconveniencing but doesn't always happen and that you often have successful calls.  That's more of an unstable view which is what you want.  A more stable view (and more upsetting), is if you tell yourself that everything bad happens to you, you are a bad businessperson, and nothing works for you. 

E - stands for External contrasted with internal.  The idea is that if the same negative event happens, you view it as more outside yourself and not a permanent negative characteristic or trait of yourself.  Please understand that I am NOT saying to blame everyone else and take no self-responsibility.  What I am saying is to consider that the response you got is external to you, e.g. the prospect may be having a bad day, it may not be the best time for this product or service for them.  This is in contrast to the view that I am an incompetent person (internal view).  These internal self-characterizations cause you more difficulty because you will get down on yourself more often and overgeneralize about your negative aspects. 

So don't go to the courthouse to file legal papers.  Rather "S.U.E." frustrating situations by thinking of them as specific, as unstable, and as external to you and not reflective of your internal capacity or ability.  Learn to identify, dispute, and change your limiting thinking.  You will be less likely to overreact to setbacks and obstacles.

     If you have not already done so, you can go to the Free Download tab on the website www.successandmindset.com, provide your name and email, and download the entire ebook titled "S.U.E. Your Way to Success".  Change your thoughts to change your results.

GROWTH MINDSETS IN BUSINESS

What assumptions do you make about yourself and the business world and how do they influence the decisions you make in business?  Mindsets are the beliefs and assumptions we hold about ourselves, others, and the world to include business.  Mindsets determine the possibilities we see in the business world.  Dr. Carol Dweck, in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, distinguishes fixed and growth mindsets.  In a fixed mindset, you see your qualities as unchangeable.  All talents you have are fixed and immutable.  What you lack you will continue to lack.  This applies to how you see others as well.  In a growth mindset, you see your basic qualities as able to be cultivated.  You can grow and improve through effort.  Qualities are just a starting point.

One critical aspect of this work is that, according to Dr. Dweck, the greatest threat to success is avoiding failure.  With a fixed mindset, you likely avoid challenging situations because success depends on promoting your fixed qualities and covering deficiencies.  With a growth mindset, you will focus on learning and development and pursue challenges that can lead to either learning or failure. 

Mindset affects and molds business activities as well.   In human resources, we know that turnover and attrition are an ongoing problem in businesses.  Too often, managers with fixed mindsets emphasize attracting and retaining talent rather than cultivating talent.  Thus, managers focus resources on individuals with perceived knowledge and thus overlook and lose employees with limited talent base but great learning potential.  Also, managers with fixed mindsets underestimate the values of learning and development and don't get as much out of those employees they value.  Managers with a growth mindset, in contrast, understand that qualities can be developed.  They focus on work environments that foster talent development and encourage employees to learn and develop new skills.  This occurs often through working with others.

Regarding team building, managers with fixed mindsets see the world as having a fixed sum of talent and this fosters conflict and mistrust as well as relationships governed by power.  Managers with growth mindsets view broader possibilities.  These include the idea that by working together more value can be created than by working individually, often in conflict.  In improving the performance of all employees, we can create more value for the business as well as foster greater levels of trust and team cohesion.

The good news is that mindsets are changeable.  Particularly in a rapidly changing business environment, future success will come to those who can adopt a growth mindset, for themselves as well as for their perception of others and the business world.  A good start is to examine your own basic assumptions as they play out in your business decisions.  When you change your thoughts (beliefs/mindsets), you change your results. 

Success Mindsets Change Your Brain

Business owners and entrepreneurs always are looking for an edge to help increase sales, revenues, and productivity.  Neuroscientists are helping to understand how we change our brains in response to experiences, known as neuroplasticity.  There is a body of work done by Dr. Earl Miller at MIT studying how environmental feedback triggers plasticity.  That feedback is success.  In studies using monkeys performing simple tasks with feedback, their rewards on successful task completion led to firing of neurons in the prefrontal cortex and striatum, higher order areas of our brain.  The brain apparently tracked success and made the monkeys more efficient in subsequent tasks.  It appeared that the brain stored information about what made the monkey successful.  Interestingly, failure resulted in little brain activity.

In moving from monkeys to humans, the definition of mindset is the series of beliefs we hold about ourselves.  Dr. Carol Dwieck of Stanford University has studied fixed (rigid) vs. growth (belief we can learn through effort) mindsets.  In research studies, humans with different mindsets were faced with task failures.  Depending on the different mindset, different areas of the brain were stimulated.  People with more growth oriented mindsets showed more brain activity in the caudal anterior cingulate cortex, bordering on the frontal lobes, our higher brain area.  In contrast, people with fixed mindsets had more activity in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex, closer to the more emotional areas of our brain.  It is worth noting that the caudal anterior cingulate cortex is the area stimulated during yoga, meditation, and other mindful states. 

So what can we take from this?  It is clear that mindsets affect brain activity and that success helps the brain learn so as to make our functioning more efficient.  Combining growth mindsets with success stimulates brain areas increasing our chances of improvement and efficiency.  However, it also is clear that failures and fixed/negative mindsets do not help us from a brain perspective.  How do we respond to failure so as to limit a negative mindset?  I will take that up in a subsequent post.  But for now, change your thoughts, change your brain, change your results. 

SAMURAI SUCCESS SYSTEM

For many US business organizations, there is a near epidemic of lowered productivity, high stress, poor leadership, high employee turnover rates, and high absenteeism reaching staggering proportions.   The cost in dollars is estimated to be in the billions by most surveys and estimates with treatment estimates over $11 billion annually.   At the same time, corporate America needs more skilled leadership in an increasingly competitive global environment.

     Dr. Paul Longobardi of the Success and Mindset Group offers a program to help business organizations maximize their human potential, leadership, business productivity, and revenues.  The SAMURAI Success System is an acronym for Success and Mindset Underscore the Relationship of Attention and Interpersonal Characteristics.  The SAMURAI system captures the spirit of the ancient warrior and leader group with its emphases on personal strength, tenacity, fortitude, persistence, and focus.  The system focuses on key factors in success to include a proper growth mindset, attentional style, and relevant interpersonal characteristics.  Using a neuropsychological and cognitive approach, Dr. Longobardi shows how mindset underlies attention and concentration at a brain level and how it can be changed.  The SAMURAI system shows how we all have one of four attentional styles as well as how to use these to our best advantage in our lives and business organizations.  In the SAMURAI system, participants learn how to incorporate their mindset, attentional style, and interpersonal characteristics to function most effectively.  The system includes a 10-step program blending the key factors assessed in detail with feedback for participants at the beginning of the program.  Results of the assessment guide the individualized plan for every participant.   

     Dr. Longobardi offers this program via one and two day workshops, as well as individual or group coaching.  For further information, visit the website at www.successandmindset.com.  

Five Tips on Managing Your Use of Caffeine

We are celebrating National Caffeine Awareness Month this March.  Over 80% of Americans consume caffeine in some form each day, most commonly in coffee.  Research studies have shown that drinking 3-4 cups of coffee per day (300-400 milligrams per day) has no adverse effects for most persons.  In fact, there are some beneficial effects of caffeine consumption to include improved mood and increased mental awareness.  In part, this comes from caffeine’s blockage of adenosine receptors which act as depressants.  However, too much caffeine consumption has negative effects to include increased anxiety, sleep disorders, as well as increased heart rate and blood pressure.  In the mental health arena I am familiar with the psychiatric diagnoses of caffeine induced anxiety disorders such as panic states as well as caffeine induced sleep disorders.  These represent extreme states of dysfunction secondary to excessive caffeine intake.  Given that most people will not give up their caffeine (including me and my morning coffee), what are some tips and strategies to try to manage and limit your caffeine intake? 

1. Get enough sleep.  Then you will need less caffeine during the day.  Most people need 7-8 hours per day but often get less in our busy world.
2. Engage in exercise.  This gets your body active, including your heart, blood flow, and your general metabolism. 
3. Get active and take a walk several times a day outdoors or around your building.  As you move about you get energized and if you go outside you absorb Vitamin D.  You will feel more alert.
4. Take some deep breaths way down in your stomach.  With deep breathing, you get more oxygen to your brain and feel more alert, less sleepy, and have less need for caffeine.
5. Keep busy. Activity builds on itself.  If you stall on some major project, engage in smaller projects that can be done more quickly.  While this might seem to violate the tenets of time management in staying with the high priority task, sitting around inactive too long will result in the kind of decreased alertness and drowsiness which may drive you to the coffee pot. 

So, you need not entirely give up your caffeine but rather manage it before it manages you.  If you can tell yourself that you can manage it you will.  As I always say, “Change your thoughts, change your results”. 

FOUR TIPS TO BOOST YOUR SELF-ESTEEM

Well, here we are in February, National Boost-Your-Self-Esteem Month.  It can be easy to get down on yourself.  The holidays are over and, for many people, the resolutions made in January are lapsing.  Now is the time you need a boost.  Here are four tips that can help recharge your positive mindset and get you on track:

1.       Challenge your negative thinking.  Your first thought about a situation may not be the only way to look at that situation.  Ask whether your negative thought, e.g. “I always mess up . . .”, is consistent with the facts of your life or whether the problem is specific only to your immediate event, e.g. “Well maybe I didn’t do well on this but I often do well”. 

2.      Stop comparing yourself to others.  If you try to live up to or exceed others’ accomplishments, you are on a road to discouragement.  Rather, focus on being the best that you can be.

3.      Adjust your thoughts.  Avoid “should” and “must” statements.  Such imperatives result in your putting unreasonable demands on yourself or others.  Eliminate these and you will be able to make reasonable expectations.

4.      Focus on your accomplishments.  Celebrate your victories, no matter how small they seem to you.  Find at least one or two things you have done each day and give yourself credit.  So, if you exercise for only 10 minutes instead of the 45 you wanted, give yourself credit for doing something.  You will be amazed how quickly you can get into a more positive mindset. 

FOUR TIPS ON HOW TO WORK YOUR PROPER HOURS

Work Your Proper Hours Day is February 22, 2014, a Saturday this year.  The day recognizes the millions of people at work who regularly do unpaid overtime, giving their employers billions of dollars of free work.  If you are one of those people, consider how well or poorly you are balancing your life and what effect this is having on your mindset.  Then, consider four alternatives to help you make the most of your own time:

1.       Take a proper lunch break.  Read something interesting, get some fresh air and take a walk.  You’ll be surprised how much more refreshed you will feel when you go back to work.

2.      Engage in stress reduction.  Take several short breaks during the day to close your eyes, breathe deeply and say “relax” to yourself when you exhale as you imagine a pleasant scene.  Overwork and stress are detrimental to your mental and physical health.

3.      Leave work on time and enjoy your evening.  Enjoy your relationships whether with a significant other or with your children. They will all appreciate it and you will feel better and more relaxed when you retire for the night.

4.      Give yourself mental permission to enjoy your own time.  You can affirm to yourself that “I work best when I care for myself”.  If you repeat it several times, before long you will get in the habit of working your proper hours.  AND YOU WILL ENJOY YOUR LIFE MORE.

As always, remember that when you Change Your Thoughts You Change Your Results.

Five Tips on Keeping Your Positive Mindset Throughout the Year

We all intend to keep positive and frequently make New Year's resolutions to do.  Like so many other resolutions, we often have no specific idea how to do what we resolve and no plan as well.  To help you maintain your most positive mindset in this new year, see below for five tips which will help you if you implement them.   

1.       Be grateful for what you do have.  Even when you are going through challenges, there are many things for which you can be grateful.  Take several minutes at the start and end of each day to recognize those things.

2.      Understand and accept that you will have challenges, everyone does.  Adopt the SUE method to overcome them.  Treat the challenge as specific (not general), unstable (doesn’t always happen) and external (not internal and a reflection of your deficiencies).

3.      Surround yourself with positive people.  The people you have around you have a big impact on you in terms of how you see yourself, how successful you are, and how you spend your time.  If all you hear is negativity that is what you will come to think.  Make a conscious effort to be around more positive people.

4.      Have a clear plan for your day and week.  As the old saying goes, “If you don’t know what route to take to Rome, any one will do but you won’t get there”.  The same is true for your life.  If you know what you want to accomplish, you will focus more on those goals.  Daily plans lead to weekly goals and you will accomplish more.

5.      Have an exercise plan.  It is well known that regular exercise contributes to mental health as well as physical health.  It combats depression and improves your mood.  Build this activity into your daily routine, preferably in the morning. 

     So, I suggest you start by implementing one tip per week over the next five weeks and then incorporate them into your daily routine.  Good luck.  Remember, change your thoughts, change your results.  Dr. Paul

Three Tips on How to Stay Stress Free During the Holidays

Dr. Paul Longobardi, National Speaker and Founder of Success and Mindset Group Shares Insight on How to Remain Stress Free During One of the Most Stressful Times of the Year!

We are all well aware that the holiday season can bring on immense amounts of stress. Between the shopping, social events, extra hours at work, and extracurricular time expected of you overall—things can get a bit hectic. Dr. Paul Longobardi focuses on helping people discover a positive mindset within themselves, and maintain that state of mind. He coaches on how you can remain stress-free, no matter what circumstances you are in, and even gives a few helpful tips on how you can obtain that stress-free state of mind you wish to have this holiday season.

Tip number one - maintain healthy habits through the holiday season, no matter how hard it can be. If you’re at a Christmas party or a get-together with friends, don’t overindulge in the calorie-loaded treats sure to be there. This will only add stress and guilt, or if you may, give you eater’s remorse. To help curb this, enjoy a healthy snack before heading to parties, this will curb your hunger, and you will be less likely to chow down on all of the food present. Also, just not overdo it—get proper rest and maintain your physical activity, this is still just as important as ever.

Tip number two -The holidays are meant for vacations! Or at least some time to yourself. If you’re unable to take a weekend trip, try to at least make some time for just yourself. Whether you are just sitting with your favorite book and album playing, or you’re taking a walk around your neighborhood, having time alone is healthy and conducive to clearing your mind. As you take this alone time, be mindful of slowing your breath, really take it all in and help restore your inner calm.

Tip number three - Don’t feel pressured to be a part of everything. There is obviously going to be a lot going on this holiday season with family, friends, and co-workers. If there is something you do not want to do, simply say so! There will always be next year, or next weekend for that matter. As Dr. Paul says, “Don't give away control of your time and your life to others or events, you are responsible for your choices, make wise ones.” Be mindful of what is best for you, and what you want, not what everyone else wants.

Don’t let you get the best of you. Step back and take a breather every now and then. Take care of yourself as we end 2013, so you can start 2014 on the right foot! 

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Mental Roadblocks To Avoid

Individuals who experience more success tend to be able to avoid or successfully dispute troubling thoughts and beliefs. In the article below, author Mara Gold offers some thoughts about three particular mental roadblocks to avoid. See if you see yourself in any of these.

Successful people think differently. They see problems as opportunities and know how to leap over setbacks today to successes tomorrow. The rest of us have to stop stepping on our own toes and find ways to adopt the success mindset that can help us get through the hard times. Here are some mindsets you want to avoid if you want to create more successful outcomes.

Blaming the Situation

Some people will always be stuck because they think that the situation has to change before they begin working toward their life goals. One year it is their beat up car with the missing window and the am radio, the next year it is the economy. Always it is another excuse why they do not have to get started and start working on their dream. Unfortunately, complaining about the situation not only gives them an excuse to cop out on their dreams but also it creates a vibration that continues to attract these undesirable conditions and root the person in failure.

Set your mind to making the changes you can that lead you in the direction of your dreams, no matter what is going on around you, and you will attract more solutions than situations. Maybe you will not always see the solution at first, but if you are looking and expecting to find a solution you can begin working on, you will see that a success mindset attracts success.

Blaming the Feedback

Some people are stuck because they cannot process and respond to the feedback they receive. Upon hearing that their work is below par they strike back with excuses and arguments against the feedback or the person who provided the feedback. Like students who blame the test for their failure, these people hold themselves back. Worse than that, they make enemies of those who might help them, who may not give valuable feedback so easily again.

People who want to succeed ask for feedback so they can make improvements. Receive feedback gratefully, even when you do not agree, so that others are not afraid to offer advice you might do well to heed.

Blaming the Radio Station

People who have abdicated responsibility for their life choices can become locked into a mindset where they believe their lives are programmed for failure. They may blame the messages they received in their childhood or a bad marriage for the negative mindset they allow to dominate their outlook.

Those with the success mindset do not respond with defeat when faced with a problem. They write and speak the words that will drown out the old programs from the past. They stay focused on their goals and work for their success. They surround themselves with positive messages and embrace friendships and activities that strengthen their well being.

You can get off the blame train and start living the life of your dreams. You can adopt the success mindset that allows people to face down adversity without fear and see through to their overall victory. If you keep blaming your situation, the feedback you receive, or the programmed messages you hear for the life you are leading, you risk remaining stuck where you are.

Do you need help adopting the success mindset? http://www.thesuccessprinciplesworkforme.blogspot.com collects proven tips and strategies Mara Gold has used to create the life of her dreams. You can start living the law of attraction today.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mara_Gold

In an upcoming post, I will offer some specific ideas on how to deal with some of your most troubling beliefs increase your success. Look for it soon. Change your thoughts, Change your life/Dr. Paul

Tapping Your Inner Power and Turning Pro

In his book Turning Pro author Steven Pressfield offers interesting perspectives on the challenges of overcoming fears and resistance in the service of turning pro, versus being an amateur.  Turning pro refers to any/all life endeavors, for example, being a loving parent, spouse, employee, entrepreneur.  All you have to do to turn pro is to change your mind.   This should sound familiar to students of mindsets and their role in success and fulfillment.   The amateur is terrified with a range of fears to include fear of success, fear of failure, fear of looking foolish, fear of poverty, fear of "not-knowing" what we think we "should" know, and fear of really living up to who or what we might be.  The difference between pros and amateurs is in their habits.  These habits, or repetitive patterns of thinking and behaving, can be helpful or harmful.  Pressfield listed various habits the professional possesses that the amateur does not.  These include showing up every day, staying on the job all day, commitment, patience, acting in the face of fear, preparation, accepting no excuses. asking for help (see an upcoming post on growth vs. fixed mindset for more on this), self-validation, persistence in the face of adversity, and the reinventing of self.  But what gets in the way of these beneficial habits?  Resistance, self-doubt, self-sabotage.  When we struggle against resistance, Pressfield noted that we are engaged in a struggle not only on the material, mental, and emotional level but also on the spiritual as well.

Our resistance comes from many sources.  These include our past experiences and our current environment. both of which influence our mindset, the set of beliefs we adopt about ourself, others, our world, and our future.  Our limiting beliefs get in the way of what the psychologist Abraham Maslow referred to as our highest realization, that of self-actualization.  Clarification of what we really want is a part of lessening and eventually eliminating the influence of our limiting thoughts, as well as garnering proof in support of our ability and capacity to attain what we want.  Sometimes a good coach or counselor helps guide the journey.

In any event, I recommend highly Pressfield's book as you ponder what resistances interfere with your higher functioning and how you may begin to limit and eliminate them.  Change your thoughts, change your life.   Dr. Paul

Dr. Paul's Blog

Through Dr. Paul’s Success and Mindset blog you will find that it is packed full of information that not only is very interesting to read, but will give you some excellent perspectives from he and others who share similar view points and mindsets on how to lead successful and happy lives. Dr. Paul uses his blog to supplement the already useful material found on his website, and drives point(s) home with the articles and pieces that can be found on it.

Powerful Secret of Outrageously Successful People

Please see the link below for an interesting article on the power of meditation and mindfulness in the success of famous individuals such as Oprah Winfrey and Rupert Murdoch. More companies are encouraging the use of meditation and mindfulness strategies to help managers and employees reduce stress, remain centered, and actually increase productivity. Check it out and let me know what you think.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/05/business-meditation-executives-meditate_n_3528731.html?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl4|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D341204

And remember, change your thoughts, change your results. Dr. Paul