Another Success Secret?

Something interesting happened to me last night.

Remember how I said my only real Hurricane Katrina concern was my folks' safety and my cats?

Well, yesterday afternoon I found out that my folks were safe and sound. Flooding is anywhere from a few inches to a few feet (not as bad as we expected) so we're pretty certain the cats are fine.

So what thoughts come next? Thoughts about "stuff."

You know, material stuff....even 2 inches of water in the house means anything wood or electronic that touches the floor is toast. My grandmother's dining room furniture. Our 61-inch big screen TV. Sofas. Carpet. Wood flooring. Computer equipment. Books on the bottom shelves of our bookcases. My daughter's stuffed animals. Food in the pantry. All that kind of stuff.

So throughout the afternoon and evening yesterday, these thoughts crossed my mind from time to time.

Where is our wedding album? It is on a high shelf? It is on the floor of our closet? Not sure.

Where is my signed copy of Stephen Frink's photo picture book? How about my autographed Peter Max book? On the lowest shelf of the coffee table, darnit. Oh well. Both artists are still living, so there's a chance to get another copy from each one.

The maddening thoughts continued until last night when I sat down to journal (as I do every night...as most successful people consistently do). I began relating the events of the day, sorting through my thoughts, feelings and choices.

Suddenly, I had a paradigm shift.

Instead of thinking about everything I would lose as a result of flooding from Hurricane Katrina, I started to realize that becasue I carry heavy homeowner's and flood insurance, I was going to get ALL NEW stuff.

New furniture. New flooring. New books and bookcases. We could literally get a check for $100,000 to go shopping for new home furnishings.

What's more, we've been talking about moving. We can re-do our current home even better than it was and sell it for a profit. Then we can buy a bigger, better home.

How's that for a change in thinking?

The same is true with success--the minute you change the spin in your thinking from what's wrong with the current situation to what's possible for the future, your entire world can change in the blink of an eye.

This isn't the first time I've learned this lesson. Maybe I'm what you'd call stubborn. I have to learn and learn and re-learn a lesson over and over until it becomes habit. OF course, it is habit for me - I mean, a hurricane struck my home town and it took me less than 1 day to shift my thinking. In the past, it would have taken me a lot longer. But I continue to practice so taht one day, I don't even have to shift my thinking. I can just immedately go to the happy, prosperous, solution-focused bright side without ever venturing over to teh dark side of negativity.

But maybe the touch of the dark side is what makes us Human instead of purely Divine. If that's true, it's the ability to switch from negativity to solution-based thinking must be what gives us humans the ability to be Spectacular.

See? I promised you Success Secrets for Spectacular Living. Change your thinking and that's exactly what you'll get--a Spectacular life. And you don't even have to be Divine to get it.

So my question for you today is this:

Beginning today, what 1 way of thinking can you change that has the potential to change your life?