There is perhaps no power principle, or life principle for that matter, quite as important as gratitude because it is at the foundation of all the most important things. Unhappiness, lack of success, lack of fulfillment even the lack of confidence in life can and many time do stem from a lack of gratitude. The law of attraction that has been equally as passionately accepted and dejected is at it’s root deeply intertwined with one’s ability to be grateful for exactly the state they are in. The sentence that follows is important so please don’t overlook it… If you can wake up each day and go to bed each night having spent the day grateful for what you already have as well as what is over the horizon then you have found the keys to a fulfilled life. All you have to do from then on is be consistently grateful during the good times and the bad.

As your level of gratitude increases you’ll find that you naturally put yourself in a better mindset. Whether or not you believe in the law of attraction this is going to be beneficial to you. Stress will melt away, problems that cease to be focused on can be corrected as you become more aware of what you have to be grateful for in your life right now and begin taking action towards making tomorrow a day you can be even more grateful for.

The few paragraphs we have room for here will not and in fact can not do this principle, this lifestyle, justice. You will only begin experiencing the benefits of leading a grateful life when you stop each and every day to count your blessings and give thanks. Be it a gratitude journal, a gratitude board or just a daily break you take to spend a few minutes giving thanks in a quite corner you will be amazed at the difference this will create in your health, wealth, and general wellbeing.

What follows would, in many ways, fall under that final category. It is a fictional speech written by myself (cofounder and co-owner Lucian) in a moment of contemplation and spontaneity. It is not a pulitzer prize winning piece of fiction, merely a speech that a president might give addressing our country from a unique and yet unheard of perspective in politics today. All of us here at Visionskape hope you enjoy this small piece of writing and invite you to leave your comments and opinions.

Thank you very much for visiting,

Visionskape LLC

It is a basic truth in life that people will often fall short of our expectation of who they are or should be… what is crucial is that one never stop believing the berst of the people around them. It is when this happens, when our faith in the basic goodness of mankind or in mankind’s ability to pleasantly surprise us fails, that hope is truly lost.

In recent days it seems a constant stream of pessimism has been glowing through the very heart of our country, though all of humanity. No matter the direction we turn we are likely to be greeted with our limitations and downfalls, reminded of our boundaries by people who have no right to set them nor any idea where they truly lie. To return their pessimism with an optimistic opinion or hopeful word about the future is no longer acceptable either, in that case we are labeled as naive. Positive thinking has become so overused that it is now confused for one of the basic and basically good qualities that this country was built on, optimism.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we are losing that quality. As present problems are focused on present blessings blend into the background, forgotten and unappreciated until they disappear leaving us more problems upon which to place our focus. Today we are faced with the mammoth task of reversing this cycle lest we allow our children to inherit our prejudices. We must call upon the best in each other and not lose faith when, on occasion, we are met with disappointment or failure. We must look to the future with glistening eyes full of hope and promise of better days not because they are owed us, but because we will EARN them!

I promise you that if we can make this drastic shift in the collective mindset of our country then we can look forward to a day when our children can inherit a beautiful and blessed place. A place built upon the sweat of our brow and the joy in our hearts. Friends, this is our goal for the coming four years. Not to raise or lower taxes or argue about individual freedoms and petty disputes. Our goal is simply to move determined towards a brighter tomorrow for our children and ourselves.

If this seems a lofty enough aspiration then I invite you to join me in accomplishing the impossible.

Thank you and God bless.

In a recent power principle we mentioned the fact that we wanted to focus on the basics and we can’t think of a more simple and beautiful way to approach it. This question is what happiness in life really boils down to for most people. Do you approach life as an Eeyore? Always sad, depressed, convinced you are always to be the victim of circumstance. Or are you a Tigger? Positive, perennially happy and convinced that each and every task you set out to accomplish is “what Tiggers do best?”.

When you get right down to it this is as simple as positive thinking gets, it’s all about attitude. What attitude are you going to approach your day, your circumstances, even your current outcomes with? It’s a basic truth in life that you’re going to be about as happy as you make up your mind to be, and attitude is what this is all about. So today we’re challenging all our readers and ourselves to try and be a Tigger for one full day. It won’t be easy because we’ve gotten in the habit of blaming and playing the victim but we believe that it’s possible to get just one full day out. If you feel better about yourself after that day, more in control or your outcomes, more responsible in a good way, more in control of where you’re headed and what you’re accomplishing then make it a goal to make this a permanent life change.

The world would be a much more peaceful and joyful place if we would all adopt the Tigger attitude… of course take the good and leave the bad because last we checked Tigger still hasn’t mastered that whole spelling his name thing ; ).

For this reason we’re pushing back the release of our Power Principle on Gratitude and talking instead today about getting back to basics, about “de-evolving” perhaps to a time when motives were pure and a major part of the equation. It seems that along with the rise in popularity of “The Law of Attraction” there as also been a huge misunderstanding and departure from the foundation upon which all self-improvement and personal development was built. As people began to realize that they truly could achieve anything they set their mind to, and that thoughts did in fact have a major role to play, they forgot the role of good hearted action and pure motivation completely. As the realization dawned that, as individuals, all of us are capable of incredible things, the knowledge that one should use money and love people became flipped upside down.

It seems that today this industry, our industry if you’ll forgive us for being so bold as to claim it, has forgotten the shoulders upon which it stands, and the teachings that made those men great. Men such as Zig Zigler, Jim Rohn and Tony Robbins who believed all major changes in the world and in our individual lives had to begin on the inside, with a change in perspective and a dedication to hard work and consistency.

Perhaps the books are right in one respect, perhaps on occasion a “self-help guru” has gone too far. There is no need to even state the relevant example again as we are all familiar with it. But as an industry Personal Development has been, is, and always will be about a few key things. About giving to others, about Loving People and Using Money, and ultimately about serving the world by becoming the best most joyful version of yourself. In the midst of controversy, and while titles such as “self-help” and “positive thinking” are dragged through the proverbial mud, we assure you that here, we haven’t forgotten the shoulders we stand on and the foundation upon which our beliefs are built.

What’s the problem here? The problem is that if you’re not already a successful person doing what you love to do, if you fall into that space between where you’re still working a job you don’t necessarily like but are developing your dreams on the side, then you have to be able to balance focusing on/doing your best in your current situation and heading with determination in the right direction. Moving forward consistently is something that can never be underestimated, but the difficulty of doing so while still dealing with the chains you’re in the process of shaking off is no walk in the park either.

The reality here is that there is no one way to keep focused consistently without effort. The effort is part of the price you pay in order to live the life you truly want. The one thing you must always keep in mind that can help make the focusing easier (other than just doing it and correcting when you go off course) is to keep being grateful for how incredibly fortunate you already are while also being grateful for the direction you’re going and the goals you haven’t quite achieved yet. Gratitude is a whole other power principle in it’s own right, but what we’re talking about here is applying gratitude to your current situation to make looking forward an easier action.

So what exactly is today’s power principle? Focus! Never allow anything to take your focus away from being/becoming the best version of yourself. That includes the life you want to live, the toys you want to own, but most importantly the person you want to become in the process. Gratitude will help you, and is a power principle coming soon to a computer screen near you, but today we are all working on our focus in the midst of mediocre lives and daily drudgeries (lives that some people would die to have mind you).

We’ve all at one point or another experienced the feeling of wanting to give and give freely and openly to others from either our time, money or – more importantly – our heart. A sharp example of this was a few short weeks ago when a devastating earthquake thundered though Haiti. The images on television sets and computer monitors inspired an outpouring of humanity that only a natural disaster ever brings.

Well today we challenge you not to wait till the next natural disaster to do what needs to be done in your community and beyond. Charities and volunteer-dependent organizations need help and donation each and every month of the year and your donations, be they monetary or more personal, will always make a difference. Browse a list of charitable organization or maybe even look up volunteer organizations in your own city and start giving back once a week, or even once a month. It may not be the most overtly powerful principle towards your own success or wellbeing, but those who have given without the expectation of receiving in return can attest to the fact that no other act does more good for the soul.

From your friends here at Visionskape we ask you kindly to Give Love and Give Life… by the simple act of Giving BACK from the abundance you’ve been blessed with.

If you do not know who Jim Rohn was then you are part of an unfortunate few, if you knew of him you are part of the great majority, but if you were personally touched by his teachings then you are part of a fortunate group that includes tens of thousands of people who owe most of their success and happiness to this great man. Over the years the name Jim Rohn has become synonymous with success and self-help, being included in lists alongside great names such as Anthony Robbins and Zig Zigler who founded and shaped this great industry. We can say with conviction that without Jim Rohn, personal development would not be what it is today, and for that we are indebted to him a great deal.

Jim Rohn believed in living a life of happiness and wealth by becoming the kind of person who naturally has those things. Success to him was a byproduct of becoming an incredible person, and if he is to be any kind of example then Mr. Rohn was very accurate in his assumptions. As a business man he was unmatched, as an inspirational force, unparalleled, and yet he devoted his life to helping others become better more incredible versions of themselves, always reaching down to help people up to his level, and allowing them to stand on his shoulders instead of sabotaging other’s success for his own benefit. He was a man who left this life at peace with his accomplishments and the indelible mark which he left, and although he is gone that mark will neither fade nor tarnish.

At Visionskape names such as Jim Rohn and Anthony Robbins are hallowed, for these men layed down the foundations upon which many of us build our success today. So we raise our glasses and turn our eyes upwards towards the Heavens for a great man today. We can only hope that he forgives us our late arrival at the celebration of his wonderful life.

“Don’t wish it were easier, Wish you were better.” -Jim Rohn, Self-Improvement Legend

You a great deal of Jim Rohn’s life’s work at this link.

But we’re not about surviving here at Visionskape, we’re about THRIVING. The list we’re talking about is a list of what I call Critical Tasks that you put together each night before you go to sleep and it includes an action step for several, if not all, of your major goals. For instance if your goal is to become a big time author then a good action step for any particular day would be to write a page for your book, or contact an editor or publisher to ask questions, or even try and get in touch with an already famous author to see if they’ll mentor you. This way you’re always taking steps towards your goals, not only getting you that much closer to realizing them, but motivating you because you start to take the little steps in between the big successes.

The timing for this is critical though, although it may be easier to just put the list together in the morning it’s crucial that you do it at night. Getting those action steps down in writing the night before gets your subconscious thinking about all the things you need to do to achieve those steps tomorrow. In a way it’s like your brain is planning how your day should go and starting to attract the resources and motivation you’ll need. For the over achievers (so everybody reading this post) you can kick it into an even higher gear if you’re willing to read over that list after you write it/right before you go to sleep and visualize exactly how you want the day to go. Imagine you got everything on that list done easily, as if everything was going your way. This’ll do an even better job of getting your subconscious working and after a few weeks of being consistent you’ll start to see the results that being this productive naturally bring!

Whether these facts are true is up to you to decide, as we have stated before we will not take a side in the dispute but only wish that justice might prevail regardless of the implications. We are here to update you on the latest Self-Improvement news and nothing more. Up until now it seems that Mr. Ray and his company both have kept out of the fight, allowing the news to take it’s shots without so much as a peep in reply. This move was interpreted by many, we believe, as an acceptance of guilt of some sort. Well no longer. Yesterday Mr. Ray, or rather James Ray International, posted a message on JamesRay.com addressing the accusations against both him and his company in regards to the tragic incident.

Mr. Ray even went so far as to title the message sent out to his Mailing List as well as the one posted on His Blog “Setting the Record Straight” although it is currently titled “Important Updates Regarding the Sedona Investigation” on the front page of the website we linked to. You can find the post here and make your own judgement on the matter. Though we as a company do not wish to get involved in the mud slinging that has been commonplace in this case we were relieved to see Mr. Ray at least attempt to defend himself. Whether or not he was at fault is up to the authorities to decide but we commend his decision to stop “hiding” and face the issue head on as we believe this lends credence to his possible innocence in the matter. This is also a welcome move as it addresses some serious questions that several articles and witness accounts have brought up. A “rumor vs. truth” section can be found at this link JRI has set up specifically for those affected by the Sedona Tragedy.

Whether this move is appropriate at this time and whether the information within James Ray International’s investigation is skewed in the company’s favor we still do not know. The only thing known for sure is that three people lost their lives in a tragic incident, and we hope that no amount of mud slinging in either direction will take away from the lesson to be learned here.

UPDATE 02/04/10 Mr. Ray was arrested yesterday afternoon and charged with three counts of manslaughter. His hearing is scheduled to start today at 11am immediately following an emergency hearing to determine whether the judge will allow the use of camera equipment in the court room. More updates soon to come.

UPDATE 02/05/10 Mr. Ray plead not-guilty in his first hearing on February 4th. He refused to comment to the press however his lawyers still stand by the fact that, through the sweat lodge was tragic, it was simply an accident and not the result of negligence on the part of Mr. Ray and or James Ray International.

If you go online and google “write down your goals” you’ll be amazed at how many hits you get. Everybody that’s successful or has ever achieved anything of great importance has understood and applied this power principle, isn’t it time you do too!? Start today by taking the goals you have and writing all of them down on a piece of paper, be specific and make sure you put what, how much and by when. Then set that paper aside and pick up a different one on which you write down your vision, exactly what you want your life to look like in a year, or two years, or however many years it takes to get it to be your dream life. Now take both of those pieces of paper and go laminate them. Now each day if you can find the time to do this, on top of reading over them and visualizing their contents vividly, re-write them.

You won’t believe the kind of transformation consistent use of this simple technique can yield. And if you want more information then check out the book Write It Down, Make It Happen by Henriette Anne Klauser PhD, you’ll be glad you did!

-Product Link — Write It Down, Make It Happen