Joel Johnson & Associates

                                                FAITH TO BELIEVE
“Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.
                                                                                                           _St.Augustine
    In order to change you must first have faith that it is possible for your dreams to come true, even though your current understanding and examination of your personal abilities may not match the words that you affirm. Faith is to believe what you do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
    You and I have a tendency to have faith in things and in people we don’t even know. We have faith the airplane is in good working order and the pilot knows his job well enough to fly it and faith the airplane will arrive at its destination safely.
    We have faith our new car is manufactured properly and will not disassemble while we are traveling down the highway at seventy miles per hour, often only minutes after driving off the dealer’s lot; faith the elevator we ride will not take a sudden free fall; faith the medicine the doctor prescribes for us will cure us and not cause us to become addicted or kill us; faith the drill our dentist uses won’t suddenly slip and cause him to do a frontal lobotomy; faith we will awaken after a night of wonderful sleep. We have faith in other people and in machines, yet often we do not have faith in ourselves.
    It is much easier to have faith when we understand and obey the laws of the universe. Although he may attempt to, man cannot control the universe. It is controlled by the natural laws of physics—God’s laws. It would be wise to learn and understand the law of gravity, the law of motion, the law of cause and effect, the law of aerodynamics, physical laws, and spiritual laws, just to name a few. You can try to get around these natural laws, but you will not win. They are irrefutable. It would be easier to blow out the sun than to beat the setup―God’s laws that govern the universe.
    Universal laws include the law of sowing and reaping. When you plant a tomato seed you don’t get pumpkins, you get tomatoes. The good part is that you get lots of tomatoes. That part of the law, getting more back, applies to good action and bad actions as well. Beware of the seeds you plant.

We talk to ourselves more than 80% of the time. What are you saying to yourself. Want to change your life? If you have to have it, you will get it. If you don’t, you won’t.

It’s an 80/20 world. You know the rule. Eighty percent of all the work gets done by 20% of the people. Eighty percent of the worlds population live in mediocrity. Twenty percent live in luxury. Eighty percent of all the money placed in the collection plate in your church, on any Sunday, is given by 20% of the congragation.  Are  you a twenty percenter or an 80 percenter?

We are hung by the tongue.

YOUR FIRST ASSIGNMENT
For the next thirty days repeat the following affirmation; when you first arise, just before lunch, just before your evening meal and aloud just before bed time. Skip a meal, but don’t skip your affirmation. Begin today!

     Today I am cleaning my subconscious mind of all ill-conceived, poorly perceived and fallaciously interpreted, self-imposed stories that for too long, has forced me to suffer a life of mediocrity.

Today I am reborn into a life filled with love, happiness and abundance.

Today my heart is filled with love. I will greet everyone I meet, regardless of their outward appearance, race or gender, and to myself I will say, “I Love you,” for I know that within him/her is a living spirit experiencing life in a temporary form.

Today I am grateful for the gift of life and for all gifts to come. I give thanks to God for creating me in His spiritual likeness and for making me unique among all creatures in the entire universe, for there is none other exactly like me and there will never be another exactly like me.

Today I give thanks to the God of the universe for giving me the wisdom to know that though I am not complete, I am at this moment in time and space the person I am meant to be.

Today I am aware that I look at the world through the eyes of the observer-self and I know I am being molded as a potter molds a uniquely beautiful vase. I cannot fail. All things are possible though the spirit that lives in me. I am in God and He is in me. In His love I am.

I have come to realize that the mind and the brain are not one and the same. The brain is the servant of the mind. The mind instructs the brain. The computer just sits there until your mind tells your fingers to touch a particular key on the keyboard.

While I do not have to think to make my automatic body functions work (breathing, balance, blood pressure, temperature, heart rate, etc.), my mind can control them when focused thinking is applied.

It is proven that by concentrated thinking you can actually increase or lower your blood pressure, control your breathing and heart rate and much more.

It is a true awakening, when you are still and in total silence, with your mouth closed, thinking only of the breath coming from you nose, that you can become aware of the observer self within – the spirit within.You should immediately realize that you are not who or what we see in the mirror. That is only a physical form. It is not you. You are much more than can be observed or understood with the human senses alone.

As normal human beings we tend to confuse our own reality with mental programming that has been unconsciously and subliminally embedded in the deepest recesses of our subconscious mind. Unaware, we often emulate those we are programmed to believe are the kind of people we want to turn out being.

In reality, you could never become any those people because you are a unique individual in mind and spirit. No matter the broken body, ugliness, beauty or physical fitness, you were uniquely designed to achieve a specific purpose that only you can achieve within your assigned space and time.

Regardless of what we or our parents may believe about conception and birth, they did not and we did not just happen. Everything in the universe has its purpose and place in the spectrum of space and time. Every living thing from the largest object in the universe to the smallest (invisable to microscopic imagery) has its reason for being.

I believe you were conceived and born for a universal divine purpose―a mission pre-ordained that only you can accomplish. No matter how large or small that purpose might be or how long it might take to achieve it, it is yours alone to do and you will do it. You have no choice. You may die not knowing what your purpose was, but if you do, it is because you did not seek it. Still, your reason for being will be achieved. Even in death there is life.

The way you are turning out being is the way you were meant to turn out being at this point in time, in this present moment. With all your positive attributes and your flaws as well, you are what is. The way you are turning out being is part of the universal formula for all things working together for good.

Included in the universal formula is your strong desire to discover your reason for being, but if you really knew what your reason for being is, you wouldn’t believe it. Staring you in the face, you will continue the search, all the while feeling that empty hole in your heart.

Look at your physical form (your body) in the mirror and become aware that you are aware that there is someone or thing that rest behind your eyeballs looking out at the form. Become consciously aware that you are aware of consciousness and of a living spirit within.

Close your eyes now, and slowly become aware of your breathing. Move your fingers and toes. Feel the muscles in your body. Feel the aliveness in the form and realize, assuming you are still breathing―your reason for being has not yet been realized or achieved and realize that you have much to live for.

STRUGGLES WITHIN

© Joel Johnson- October 2011

What keeps you from being the leader you want to be—as a natural part of your own self-expression?

There has been much written about leadership and being a leader―what it is, what it isn’t and how to be one, but in truth none of this makes one a leader or develops leadership.  Being a leader and leadership, as a natural part of your own self-expression, must come from the inside.  It’s about discovery and transformation. 

It is about wrapping our mind around new realities and understanding that there are many things that we know about ourselves and our concept of reality and there are things we know of, but we know we don’t know about.  Then there is the discovery that there are things that exist within us that we don’t know about.  What’s more, we don’t even know that we don’t know about them.  You cannot move to the level of true leadership, as a natural part of your own self-expression, until you have exposed the truth about the things you don’t even know you don’t know about yourself.

In this blog I would like to submit to you two fantastic books that will help you expose the truths about yourself that has kept you from being the leader that you want to be, as a natural part of your own self-expression.

First:  The Three Laws of Performance – Re-writing the Future of Your Organization and Your Life. By Steve Zaffron & Dave Logan. Published by Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Imprint– www.josseybass.com -   ISBN #978-0-470-19559-8 (cloth)

As Warren Bennis wrote in the editor’s note: “I believe this book may be one of the most important written in many years.  The ideas…aren’t tips, tools, or steps, but are in fact laws that govern individual, group, and organizational behavior…This book can be a resource for generations to come.”

Second:  EGOnomics – What makes ego our greatest asset (or most expensive liability). By David Marcum & Steven Smith – A Fireside Book Published by Simon & Schuster- New York, NY.  ISBN # 1-4165-3323-8

Using five years of exhaustive research, Marcum and Smith provide compelling evidence and matter-of-fact answers on striking the balance between ego and humility to reach the next level of leadership.  The authors include case studies to illustrate how ego subtly interferes with success, but also how ego sparks the drive to achieve, the nerve to try something new, and the tenacity to conquer adversity.

The personal power you will gain by reading these two books…NO…studying these two books will change your life forever.