How Success Starts

The famous actress Goldie Hawn once said about her longtime life-partner Kurt Russell and father of one of her sons that he woke up happy every morning. Kurt is a lucky man in many ways, and maybe he doesn't need a brownie for breakfast. Still, some mornings it couldn't hurt.

Doing something special for yourself soon after waking, getting that happy mojo started, specially if you didn't wake up happy, is very important for a successful day. Getting off to the right start and cultivating a happy, purposeful outlook is vital.

Some mornings a brownie for breakfast does it for me, but for many some quiet time, a hot shower, coffee and the newspaper, stretching and/or a run through the neighborhood, any of those could work. Getting the mood right is the first step to planning a successful day, one that keeps the joy of living working for you.

Success involves a plan and the right attitude. So, an inventory is important to catalog reasons why your self-confidence will help you make the day succeed. Some call it counting blessings, but I want to suggest counting recent successes, recent demonstrations of self-confidence to help you build more success today.

If that sounds too easy and glib, put it on your "to do list" every day and see if the discipline of getting your mood happy, maybe even ebullient, and congratulating yourself out loud for recent successes, promising to add more today, doesn't make a big difference. Why not?

People buy from people they like (whether you're selling yourself, a product or your ideas), and someone who shows up happy and self-confident is eminently likeable. Try it and see how good it makes you feel.

Realistic Self-Confidence
Leads to Real Success

To look at how to have confidence you need to understand that the typical person is always going to have some areas in their life that they are more confident than others.

You can be very athletic and comfortably confident in your athletic abilities while not feeling confident when meeting new people. Chances are you are confident in more ways than you may realize. The key to discovering a realistic self-confidence is to remove some of the false beliefs you may have developed.

1. False Belief:

I believe that to be successful in life I have to be competent in all the important areas of life.

Realistic Belief:

I know that achievement-based thinking is not the true way to feel worthy. I get some satisfaction when I achieve things that I set out to do, but I know that failures have nothing to do with my personal worth. I was born worthy.

2. False Belief:

The past has shown me how to have confidence in myself or not. My past is my most important guidance-system.

Realistic Belief:

As we grow we don't have the same vulnerabilities we did when we were young. You've gained some awareness on what you think should continue to influence you in life. You choose which areas of the past that you'll allow to steer the present, but you don't have to be a slave to the past.

3. False Belief:

Everybody knows that bad things happen more than good things. The good things I do can't be given too much importance with all the bad. People remember the bad so I should, too. Maybe if I concentrate hard enough, I'll have less bad results.

Realistic Belief:

I know that if I win 4 out of 5 times, that dwelling on the one time I lose and how terrible I feel is not a positive outlook. I know I can't win all the time! It's enough for me to do well at something most of the time.

I can use how good it feels to win next time things aren't falling my way, because I know it's only a temporary setback.

Learning how to have confidence has a lot to do with learning how to have a more realistic attitude towards life's ups and downs.

By Peter Murphy

Peter Murphy is a peak performance expert.

Because success in daily life

and planning a happy, productive day relate to self-esteem and self-confidence, today I am suggesting books closely related to those topics by two of my favorite authors: Gayle and Hugh Prather

Morning Notes by Hugh Prather

The Little Book of Letting Go by Hugh Prather

Shining Through by Hugh Prather

Spiritual Notes to Myself by Hugh Prather

How to Live in the World and Still Be Happy by Hugh Prather

I Will Never Leave You by Gayle and Hugh Prather

Spiritual Parenting by Gayle and Hugh Prather

Notes to Myself by Hugh Prather



and don't miss two blogs that will
show you great photos from around
the world:

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http://waterfallsuplift.blogspot.com
http://dreamy-destinations.blogspot.com
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More thoughts on the To Do List


Last week we looked at the importance
of a "sweet beginning" for your day and
the self-confidence inventory. Both of
these are from the daily "to do list."

Today I want to encourage you to look
at number 3 on the list.

3 Top 5 reasons you have to be happy
about the opportunities today and how
you intend to bring success to the day.

Only you can determine your specific
reasons, but I urge you to think deeply
and come up with appropriate ones.

Think on these as your day is beginning,
and you will find goal setting simpler.

Here are some reasons for happiness that
I have chosen in the form of quotes from
some great minds:


A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dare live.
- Bertrand Arthur William Russell

Anything you're good at contributes to happiness.
- Bertrand Arthur William Russell

Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change.
- Bertrand Arthur William Russell

A happy woman is one who has no cares at all; a cheerful woman is one who has cares but doesn't let them get her down.
- Beverly Sills

Happiness is mostly a by-product of doing what makes us feel fulfilled.
- Benjamin Spock

Brownies for Breakfast

is about starting your days
with a sweet beginning that will promote
greater self-acceptance and self-confidence,
more joy in your days and more contentment
in life. See what surprises can be ahead for you
each and every day.


To Do List Today

for me and maybe
for you too.


1 Brownies for Breakfast:
that sweet beginning works
for me, but your sweet start
could be quiet time in the
morning, a hot shower, the
sports pages or The Today Show.
But, you need to have just your
special treat to start off your day.

2 Self-confidence inventory: your
own review of just why you can
succeed in this day and how you
are prepared to make things happen.

3 Top 5 reasons you have to be happy
about the opportunities today and how
you intend to bring success to the day.

4 Plan for bringing joy and kindness to
yourself and others because you and
the people you encounter deserve it.

5 Commitment to getting what you want
out of your day and learning to want
what you get out of life today and every day.


Keywords, passwords to lead your day:
sweet beginnings,
success, self-acceptance, self-confidence, joy,
contentment, learning to love your life just as it
is today, and making the most of your opportunities.