Category: David

Hello David!

Thanks for taking my question!

How do you determine what is reasonable when setting timelines for goal attainment? Or should timelines be left out of the equation altogether?

Hi James!

Sometimes, time is not a factor when setting goals, and other times, it’s important to do your research before setting that goal.

Some business owners use time as an excuse. They say things like:

“When I get x number clients, I’ll do z.”

This is a dysfunctional way of looking at time, and I certainly don’t recommend it, especially when a quantum leap can sometimes occur just by making a decision that time is NOT a factor.

If you do have a goal that requires time, for example, building a house, you must do your research and be flexible with your timelines.

Obviously it’s tough for me to guess at what your goal entails, but be honest with yourself.

Are you using time as an excuse or are you building in reasons to delay?

OR

Do you need to gather more information to see what tasks need to be completed to you to attain your goal?

A GREAT resource for you is the chapter titled, Desire, in Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich, especially if you’re setting a financial goal.

Happy goal setting!!

PS: The Neagle Code: Directions for Life is a weekly no-cost program that is open to everyone! Each week, I'll select and personally respond to one question received via the above “The Neagle Code” page that I feel in my heart will help the most people. (You may choose to remain anonymous if you wish, with our full support.) It is my deep, heartfelt intention that ~ in answering your questions ~ I may provide you with the Universal Truths that in committed application, will set you free. Simply submit YOUR burning question at: www.DavidNeagle.com/ask-david to participate.

As I told you last time, if you want to change the subconscious beliefs that are creating undesirable results in your life, you need to take action.

But, of course, you don’t want to take just any old action.

You want to take the action that’s going to lead to the result you want.

You want to make sure that you’re pushing the right thing in the right direction.

How do you determine what that right action should be?

That’s what Step 3 is all about.

Cause and Effect
Step 3 is based on the Law of Cause and Effect, which states that whatever you send out into the universe comes back to you.

Every action has a reaction.

Every cause has an effect. And every effect has a cause.

For example, let’s take money. Money is an effect.

The abundance or lack of money in your life is the effect of something you’re doing or not doing.

Your lack of money isn’t caused by the economy or the class in which you were raised or your lack of training and education.

Those are all excuses we tell ourselves so that we don’t have to take actions that might expose us or make us look foolish or upset someone’s idea of who we should be.

Think of all the sales calls you never made, the opportunities you never followed up on, the rates you were reluctant to raise.

A myriad of actions and inactions causes abundance and the lack of it. And all of those actions and inactions create the balance in your accounts.

The same is true for every effect, every result, in your life. Every effect in your life has a direct cause.

What Is the Cause of the Result You Want in Your Life?
Therefore, it follows that every effect, every result that you want to have in your life would have a direct cause as well.

And that’s why in Step 3 you want to identify the cause of the new result that you want in your life.

It’s actually pretty simple in today’s day and age to figure this out. There’s always somebody you can ask or information you can get from the Internet.

It is a little harder to employ because it does take some effort. There’s no question about it. But figuring it out is not difficult to do.

And once you identify the cause of the result you want, not only do the actions you need to take present themselves, but you will feel empowered as well.

Because you will begin to realize that, ultimately, you are the cause. YOU are the cause of the abundance in your life, in every area.

For instance, let’s say the effect you desire is more friendships — healthy, supportive, fun, intimate — friendships.

Then the cause of that would be to look at yourself, and consider how you can take steps to BE a better friend yourself, and start doing those friendship actions on a daily basis.

Once you start taking those actions, as I’ll show you in Step 4, you will start seeing results, and you’ll feel your tremendous power to bring in as much of whatever it is that you want in your life.

You won’t let anyone else dictate the actions you take. You’ll be free from the perceived constraints of others.

You’ll be well on your way to building the kind of self-confidence that truly is unshakeable.

David,

I’ve simply stopped setting goals. I resist even thinking about goals because my pattern is to not follow through. It’s happened so many times, that I think to myself, “Why bother…you’re not going to do it anyway…”

How do I finally break this pattern?

Thanks so much!

Thanks for the question!

I’m going to skip trying to understand why you’re sabotaging yourself and go right to the solution.

If you’re really committed to changing this, do exactly as I tell you below and sooner rather than later you’ll be on your way to success!

First, start with DAILY goals.

That’s right. We’re not talking about 6 and 12-month goals right now, we’re going to start small and build to strengthen your self-confidence muscle over time.

Tonight before you go to bed, take out your notebook and pen and right down THREE things you MUST accomplish before you go to bed tomorrow.

I recommend that these be income generating “things”, but it’s ultimately up to you. Sometimes it’s best to start REALLY small.

When you wake up tomorrow, put that list in front of you, and DO NOT GO TO BED THAT NIGHT until all 3 of those items are completed.

You must be disciplined here…do not allow yourself to make excuses and DO NOT GO TO BED until you’ve checked those three things off your list.

Do the same thing tomorrow night. Write down three ”things” you need to accomplish the next day, and the next day, don’t go to sleep until all 3 things are accomplished.

Setting these small, yet important, goals are small stair steps to your bigger goal and to developing the discipline, confidence and trust within yourself to succeed in whatever you put your mind to.

Once you master the daily goals, begin setting weekly goals on top of your daily goals!

You’ll gain momentum quickly and break the pattern of not following through.

PS: The Neagle Code: Directions for Life is a weekly no-cost program that is open to everyone! Each week, I'll select and personally respond to one question received via the above “The Neagle Code” page that I feel in my heart will help the most people. (You may choose to remain anonymous if you wish, with our full support.) It is my deep, heartfelt intention that ~ in answering your questions ~ I may provide you with the Universal Truths that in committed application, will set you free. Simply submit YOUR burning question at: www.DavidNeagle.com/ask-david to participate.

Hi David! I've recently taken a big leap of faith and left my J.O.B. to pursue my passion. I've gone from making a great salary (6 figures) to making nothing. I'll admit I'm a bit scared, but more excited about my future. I KNOW I can do this! What is the best advice you could offer me to really kick-start my new business?

Congrats on making the decision to pursue your passion, Teresa!

The best advice I can offer you is to master the art of influence.

Webster’s definition of influence is: a person or thing that affects someone or something in an important way.

I see too many new business owners throw all their time and energy into websites and marketing, and really if they would just focus on the art of influence, their business would grow so much faster.

If you master the art of influence, you’ll be able to understand your prospect, pinpoint exactly how you can help them, and enroll them into your programs…all without websites, systems or strategies.

Talk to as many people as you can, speak in front of groups and really get out there!

After you’ve built some capital and have a growing practice, then consider investing in a website, lead generation, and a team.

For now, focus on mastering yourself so you can master your ability to effectively and confidently communicate with your prospects and enroll them into programs that will change their life.

PS: The Neagle Code: Directions for Life is a weekly no-cost program that is open to everyone! Each week, I'll select and personally respond to one question received via the above “The Neagle Code” page that I feel in my heart will help the most people. (You may choose to remain anonymous if you wish, with our full support.) It is my deep, heartfelt intention that ~ in answering your questions ~ I may provide you with the Universal Truths that in committed application, will set you free. Simply submit YOUR burning question at: www.DavidNeagle.com/ask-david to participate.

This series is showing you how to create a new, unwavering belief in yourself.

That way, you’ll pursue your own vision of happiness, and not waste time doing things because other people say you should. You’ll know what you want and go after it.

We got that ball rolling in Steps 1 and 2, when I had you determine the thought, belief or story that was keeping you from seeing the results you want, and then replace that thought with one based in Universal Law.

In Step 3 and 4, you’re going to start creating real change in your life, but in order to do so you have to understand the foundation for why your efforts can be so successful.

How Beliefs Are Formed
Your subconscious does its best to keep you right where you are. It’s designed to carry out programming, and it does that job very well.

Who controls the programming of your subconscious?

You do, with your ability to accept or reject an idea.

However, you don’t develop that ability to reason until about age seven. Until then, without realizing it, you simply absorb the beliefs of your guardians, teachers, and others around you.

By the time you become aware of your consciousness, you are already seeing through a filter of your programming, and you don’t even realize it.

The problem is compounded because your programming creates your reality, the situations and circumstances in your life, and then you react to those circumstances in the way that you’re programmed to do, and, thus, perpetuate the cycle.

In addition, since you’re trained to experience life with your five senses, you likely perceive that everything that is happening around you is not only real, but fixed.

You probably say things like, “This is the way that it is. This is my experience. This is reality,” when, in fact, it’s just what you’re creating in the moment.

Are you beginning to understand why you might be stuck?

How, try as you might, on certain issues, you just haven’t been able to make any headway?

Your New Reality
Now, the good news is that you can change your subconscious through experience.

If you give yourself a different experience, by taking action, your subconscious has to accept it, and then you form a new belief and start to create a new reality from there.

Your subconscious starts generating results based on your new belief, and your self-confidence grows.

For example, I had a student who literally changed her life by flying first-class to Europe. That experience emboldened her so much, that over the next two years, she transitioned out of her old business, which she’d built because it was “safe,” and created a new business of her dreams.

She is now so much more confident, that she’s hardly recognizable to family and old friends.

Her experience is far from unique.

As you grow in confidence, you start taking bigger actions, which create bigger and better results.

And before you know it, you’re trusting yourself implicitly, and your life has truly changed.

I have recognized how comfortable chaos is for me. It’s startling to wake up and admit to myself that when I grow, I create chaos, and then I sit in that chaos until something forces me out of it. I use the chaos as an excuse to stop. I’d like so much to change this, but am not sure how.

Thank you.

What a fantastic question!

Here’s the good news…

You don’t need to create chaos every time you grow and stretch.

And the thing is…you can control it all by controlling your thoughts.

This is something I learned very early on in my own journey, and it’s why even today, I study profusely. Everywhere I go I carry my books with me.

You see your thoughts and emotions CREATE your circumstances. Most people have that backwards. They think that their circumstances “happen”, and then they allow those circumstances to control what they think and feel. This in turn just creates more of the unwanted circumstances.

The next time you stretch in your business or personal life, arm yourself with the TRUTH.

As soon as you feel your mind going into chaos, take control of those thoughts by studying the truth.

Read books like, Working With the Law by Raymond Holliwell, As a Man Thinketh by James Allen, The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles, or even better, pop in one of my home study programs

The most important thing here is that YOU control your thoughts and your thoughts create your circumstances.

You see, THOUGHTS ARE THINGS.

Fill your mind with the truth and the chaos will stop.

PS: The Neagle Code: Directions for Life is a weekly no-cost program that is open to everyone! Each week, I'll select and personally respond to one question received via the above “The Neagle Code” page that I feel in my heart will help the most people. (You may choose to remain anonymous if you wish, with our full support.) It is my deep, heartfelt intention that ~ in answering your questions ~ I may provide you with the Universal Truths that in committed application, will set you free. Simply submit YOUR burning question at: www.DavidNeagle.com/ask-david to participate.

Did this happen to you?

Did you get stuck or confused as you tried to apply Steps 1 and 2?
(As you tried to determine the thought that keeps you from seeing the results you want, and then replace that thought with one based in Universal Law?)

If so, I encourage you to try again.

It’s almost certainly the case that you got stuck because weren’t working on the correct problem.

You see, most of us have layers and layers of stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, so it can be a real challenge to accurately identify the thought, belief or story that is the core of our difficulties.

In other words, your issue likely isn’t what you think it is.

Case Study: Fear of Sales Conversations
For instance, a student of mine had a lot of fear come up around sales conversations and thought the core problematic belief had to do with the outcome, so he might have created this Step 1:

I can’t do sales conversations because I’m afraid they won’t be successful.

While that might be true, it wasn’t the problem that was keeping him stuck.

The real issue was about his father.

He was a grown man, but he kept getting hooked into an old story that was triggering fear with other people. He had the secret hope and wish that his father would stop rejecting him and start accepting him.

Because this was all subconscious, every sales conversation became a conversation with his father.

He wanted his prospects to accept him. He needed them to accept him, because he didn’t accept himself.

Once he realized the right problem, he could then apply Steps 1 and 2 correctly:

Step One: I want to do sales conversations, but I can’t because I might be rejected, which triggers the rejection I felt from my father.

Step Two: I can do sales conversations because the outcome doesn’t matter to my self-esteem. Whether the person chooses to work with me or not, I accept myself. I am worthy just as I am.

Can you see the difference that would make?

Freed from his need to be accepted by the people he wants as clients, instead, he can show up powerfully and serve them.

A Common Problem
I used my student’s story, because it’s very common.

Many people desire approval more than money, but most people aren’t aware of that. They just struggle and don’t know why.

When you’re making sales, you’re putting yourself in the position of being rejected more than being accepted. That is a mathematical fact in business. More people say no than yes, and that goes for every business on the planet.

So you have to get to the point where you approve of yourself, and you are your own authority.

That’s what this series is all about.

So try again with Steps 1 and 2, and begin to kick your core problem to the curb.

And then with Step 3, next time, you can finally start seeing the results that you want in your life.

(Click here to find the earlier Step 1 and Step 2 articles.)

Hi David,

I really, really desire a new car. But I also have credit card debt that I need to pay off. I hear your voice in my head telling me to act on my desire, but I also have a voice in my head telling me to pay off my debt FIRST. Am I thinking about this inaccurately?

Great question!

I think the real question here isn’t actually about where to spend your money; it’s a question of mindset.

You see, the lower and middle class mindset is steeped in the word “OR”.

They ask, “Should I do this OR should I do that?”

They see limitation and lack.

The wealthy think in terms of “AND”.

They ask, “What would need to happen for me to do this AND that?” OR “What would I need to do differently so that I could have this AND that?”

They see possibility and abundance.

I want to encourage you to think like the wealthy.

What are you resisting doing or being that would allow you to pay off your debts AND purchase the car?

That’s the question you must ask if you wish for your financial situation to change.

PS: The Neagle Code: Directions for Life is a weekly no-cost program that is open to everyone! Each week, I'll select and personally respond to one question received via the above “The Neagle Code” page that I feel in my heart will help the most people. (You may choose to remain anonymous if you wish, with our full support.) It is my deep, heartfelt intention that ~ in answering your questions ~ I may provide you with the Universal Truths that in committed application, will set you free. Simply submit YOUR burning question at: www.DavidNeagle.com/ask-david to participate.

Hi David,

I recently heard you say that a fear of success is not real. And yet, I think I have a fear of success. I have every opportunity to have a thriving business, but when I get close to thriving, I put the brakes on. Can you explain to me how this is NOT the fear of success, because it sure feels like it.
 Thanks!

Hi Amanda,

First, I want to be clear. What you are dealing with is not the fear of success.

No one is afraid of success. You succeed in different areas of your life everyday.

What you are struggling with is the fear of what you believe you will need to leave behind in order to achieve success.

You put the brakes on because:

A) You’re worried about what people are going to think of you if you make a mistake

B) You’re worried about what people will think of you if you do achieve success

C) You’re worried about who you will need to leave behind if you seek your own success

D) You’re worried about what you will have to give up to accept success into your life

You see, it’s never about the fear of success, it’s about the stories you have around success.

Check in with yourself right now.

Ask yourself the following questions:

1) Who will I need to walk away from to be successful?

2) What risks will I need to take that may threaten my fear of what people may think of me?

3) What things will I need to walk away from that will no longer support my success?

4) Am I willing to do whatever it takes for my own success?

These questions will help you see how your sub-conscious mind is getting in your way of standing confident in your decision-making.

As soon as you shine the light of the truth on this, you’ll be able to see things in a whole new way!

PS: The Neagle Code: Directions for Life is a weekly no-cost program that is open to everyone! Each week, I'll select and personally respond to one question received via the above “The Neagle Code” page that I feel in my heart will help the most people. (You may choose to remain anonymous if you wish, with our full support.) It is my deep, heartfelt intention that ~ in answering your questions ~ I may provide you with the Universal Truths that in committed application, will set you free. Simply submit YOUR burning question at: www.DavidNeagle.com/ask-david to participate.

Strong words in that title, but how else would you describe the thoughts, beliefs and stories that undermine your efforts to have the life you want?

That’s why Step 1 of my Five Simple Steps to Unshakeable Self-Confidence is to root out these thoughts by finding the “I can’t, because…” messages that are operative for you.

I walked you through this last time, but, as a reminder, these are things you say to yourself, such as:
“I would like to go to the conference but I can’t, because I’m not accomplished enough.” Or “I would like to make more money, but I can’t, because I’m a creative person. Creative people don’t make money.”

Once you identify the limiting beliefs that are lodged in your subconscious, Step 2 tells you to replace them with a higher thought.

Choose to believe in an idea that is based in powerful Universal Truth.

Flip It
The simplest way to find that higher thought to believe in is to flip the I can’t, because message.

This is a two-part process:

1. Instead of saying why you can’t do something, start saying why you can.

For instance, “I want to go to the conference, but I can’t, because I’m not accomplished enough,” becomes, “I want to go to the conference and I can because________”

2. And then you find a reason to put after “because” that is based in Universal Law.

The best Universal Law to employ on a regular basis is the Law of Polarity. This states that if you have an idea or desire the means of attaining that desire is already around you. In fact, you could not have an idea if it were impossible for you to manifest it.

Your New Story
After applying Step 2, your new stories might sound like this:

“I can go to the conference because I am accomplished enough to benefit from it. Otherwise, I would never have had the desire to go. The idea never would have occurred to me.”

And, “I would like to make more money, and I can, because I have that desire; therefore, it must be possible for me as a creative person to make more money.”

More Work to Do
Step 2 is a solid start, but you’re not done yet.

It’s very likely that the ways you think things should be done are also based in your old story.

So while you start telling yourself that you can make more money, and you realize, in fact, that some of the wealthiest people on the planet are creative, you still might not see the results you want.

Because the ways that you apply that new belief, the actions that you take, are still based in your erroneous thinking.

And that’s why rebuilding your unshakeable confidence, and making a lot more money, requires three additional steps.

More on that, of course, next time.