2 Words of the Wise: Believe and Celebrate!

• November 19, 2014

I would like to offer you an app, a wearable digital device or a quick fix to master Golden Rule #5 (Believe and Celebrate BodyWHealth). I don’t have this for you. It’s not that simple. To inspire your belief and encourage your celebration, I offer you a collection of quotes from smart, successful people, and two books.

“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Why my obsession with successful people? We all know somebody that has the power to make a difference. Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Ghandi are my two icons. It’s hard to describe what differentiates them from the rest of humanity, although their impact is dramatically different. Think Steve Jobs, Winston Churchill, The Pope, The Dalai Lama, Teddy Rooseveld, Albert Einstein, Mother Teresa. Each of them holds a common power that elevates them. We would probably each call it something different: confidence, determination, intention, belief. We must learn from them to achieve BodyWHealth.

“Whether you think you can or you can’t, you are usually right.” (Henry Ford)

Believe: The first book I commend to you is The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne. It’s a persuasive account of the Power of Intention and the Law of Attraction. Don’t be detracted by the grim-faced, serious scientists and critics who don’t understand it. I don’t understand it from a traditional scientific perspective either, and I’m a serious scientist. But I profoundly believe her message. There is abundant evidence that regular people have enjoyed extraordinary achievements by believing in success and refusing to contemplate failure. Intention becomes a powerful fuel for change. Change and hard work are, in turn, the tools of success. The Law of Attraction loosely states that you become what you think about most. It’s not a quantifiable physical law like Newton’s law of gravity. It’s more an observation and recommendation that appears entirely consistent with our experience of successful people.

“What you resist persists.” (Carl Jung)

Belief works both ways. If you spend your time bemoaning or “resisting” being overweight, your mind remains occupied with negative images, you continually reinforce the belief that you are overweight, and guess what … it persists and you remain overweight.

Celebrate: The second book I recommend, Whale Done, has a special place on my bookshelf, and celebrates the power of affirmation. The principle author is leadership guru Ken Blanchard (with Jim Ballard). Their coauthors Thad Lacinak and Chuck Thompkins are marine mammal trainers from Sea World. The gentle beauty of this story is the underlying knowledge that marine mammals like dolphin only respond to positive reinforcement. You can only train a dolphin to dive deep below the surface of a pool, circle three times in opposite directions from its mates, then leap high into the air to do a front flip before tipping a ball with their nose …. by rewarding it. Imagine how impactful we would be in our own lives if we could master the power of affirmation. Frankly, everybody should read this book just to live better. In our context, as you read the book, imagine how you can evoke the power of affirmation to celebrate BodyWHealth, reinforcing forever WHealthy habits in you and your loved ones!

“I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” (William Ernest Henley in his Victorian poem “Invictus”, which means unconquered)

Believe and Celebrate BodyWHealth!

Have fun,

Roddy