christev
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 Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 7:02 am Post subject: 2 articles from The Certain Way |
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Favorite articles fromThe Certain Way
How A Down and Out Baseball Player Boosted His Income 700 Per Cent in Ten Short Days
By Rebecca Fine
$185 may not seem like much (at least not here in North America), but when it's your whole month's pay — and when last month you were getting only $25 — it takes on some serious significance.
Now imagine yourself back in the year 1907, and that $185 starts to look a whole lot better, doesn't it?
That's when a young baseball player named Frank Bettger discovered a simple secret that changed his whole life.
And while he probably didn't realize it, he also discovered a surefire way to "more than fill [his] present place" and to give everyone he encountered "the impression of increase."
Bettger made his discovery the way many of us learn our best lessons: He was under the gun and HAD to come up with a solution. He'd been fired by the manager of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, team, and things looked pretty grim. But as we learn in the amazing 1910 forgotten classic, The Science of Getting Rich, TRUTH is usually difficult to see when "appearances" loom large.
Was getting sent down to a bush league team that paid peanuts a good thing or a bad thing? Well, let's see ...
As the manager sent Frank on his way, he gave him these words of advice: "Whatever you do after you leave here, for heaven's sake, wake yourself up, and put some life and enthusiasm into your work!"
See, Frank had been so nervous, so scared that he'd been holding back on the field, taking it easy and playing it "safe." He thought he was successfully hiding his fear from everyone, but he was only holding himself back, holding himself down.
(Ever been THERE? I sure have!)
Fortunately, Frank took his manager's words to heart. On his first day with his new team in Connecticut he determined that from then on, no one would ever be able to accuse him of being lazy. He said, "I made up my mind to establish the reputation of being the most enthusiastic ball player they'd ever seen in the New England League.
"I thought if I could establish such a reputation, then I'd have to live up to it."
My friend, that last line right there is brilliant strategy! And Frank implemented his strategy right away. That first day, with the temperature nearing 100 degrees, he became a wild man on the field, running, throwing and hitting with force and feeling — and leaving players, coaches, and spectators all shaking their heads and wondering what on earth was going on.
For example, he slid into third so energetically that the third baseman fumbled the ball and Frank was able to go on and score just when the team really needed a run.
And here's the zinger: It was all a show, just an act, just pretend. Frank was practicing what people today call "Fake it 'til you make it." He didn't feel enthusiastic at all. He just CHOSE to act "as if" he did.
Did it work? Well, listen up to Frank's own words ...
It worked like magic. Three things happened:
1. My enthusiasm almost entirely overcame my fear. In fact my nervousness began to work FOR me, and I played far better than I ever thought I was capable of playing. (If you are nervous be thankful. Don't hold it back. Turn it on. Let your nerves work FOR you.)
2. My enthusiasm affected the other players on the team, and they too became enthusiastic.
3. Instead of dropping with the heat, I felt better during the game and after it was over than I had ever felt before.
The next morning the newspapers were all over Frank, calling him an inspiration. Better yet, within ten days his $25 a month shot up to $185, and Frank notes, "Let me repeat — nothing but the determination to ACT ENTHUSIASTIC increased my income 700% in ten days! I got this stupendous increase in salary not because I could throw a ball better — or catch or hit better, not because I had any more ability as a ball player. I didn't know any more about baseball than I did before."
And two years later Frank's income had multiplied an incredible 30 times over — all because of enthusiasm.
Now some of us scoff and approach this subject in a way my great-grandma would have called (excuse me, please) "bass ackward." We think things have to be really good and THEN we'll be enthusiastic. But that's sort of like telling your car that if it'll only get you across town right now, you'll fill up the gas tank later!
One of the questions I get asked most has to do with the concept of being bigger than your present place — so that you are ready to evolve upward into a larger place (with larger rewards). The other most frequent question is, how do I give the impression of increase to others?
Well, my friend, Frank has shown us one EXCELLENT way to do both! In fact, enthusiasm is probably the most important and most effective way. And you CAN do it, and you can begin doing it right this very moment. (In fact, Mr. Wattles would surely say that THIS is an appropriate use of the will, don't you agree?)
Don't feel enthusiastic? So what? Be like Frank! Anthony Robbins has people stand up, lift their chins and look upward, hold their arms out wide, put big smiles on their faces, then vigorously swing their arms together in a big handclap while shouting "Yes!" And then again, and again, and so on.
See, one part of the enthusiasm formula — as Frank discovered on that sweltering baseball field — is that if you make a change in your physical state, you get a corresponding change in your emotional one. Try it.
Don't like your present job? What if you temporarily pretend you do and attack it with fresh enthusiasm — yeah, even fake enthusiasm — today? All day. Just play the part. You might get an immediate change in the situation — or you might have to keep on pumping enthusiasm in for a while.
What have you got to lose?
And if you DO like what you're doing, you can still load in a fresh supply of enthusiasm and see what happens. It worked for Frank! And it's worked for countless others through the years. It works as well or better today as it ever did. I know this from my own experience and you probably know it, too — even if you've forgotten.
(Not to worry. Frank forgot it himself and had to rediscover it years later when he became a salesman — a sorry, sorry salesman 'til he rediscovered the power of enthusiasm.)
The founder of the Methodist church, John Wesley, once advised, "Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn."
My friend, if you're in that place where nothing seems to be going right, or perhaps it's more that nothing's really WRONG, but you're just feeling restless or dissatisfied, it's time to light your own fire — and to be the great, blazing torch of a person you were born to be!
You can — and you ARE! If you need to do this, please start right now, this very moment. You'll see (and feel!) great results in every area of your life.
And our world needs the light. YOUR light.
Note: Read more of Frank's entertaining and useful experiences and insights in his 1947 book, How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling. (You do NOT need to be a "salesperson" to mine the gold in this delightful book!) It's available in most major bookstores and many public libraries, or get more information and order online at:
http://tinyurl.com/kemdq
Just $10 US — and worth a lot more!]
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Rebecca Fine is the founder of The Science of Getting Rich Network where you can download your free copy of the amazing 1910 forgotten classic, The Science of Getting Rich. http://tinyurl.com/kemdq ©2000 Certain Way Productions.
You may use this article in your own publications or web sites as long as no changes are made to the text and the "Resource Box" above is included in its entirety.
Favorite articles from The Certain Way
"Live" from The Epicenter!
By Rebecca Fine
I'm sure you've plinked a stone into a pond and watched the ripples spread out from the center. Or seen a boat plow through a lake or harbor, a massive vee of wavelets widening behind it.
But I'm also pretty darned sure you've NEVER seen ripples start at the EDGES of a body of water and spread into the center — unless, of course, you also live on that water's edge, 15 or so miles from the epicenter of a 6.8 earthquake.
I won't bore you with all the details (which were pretty exciting while they were happening yesterday!). Everything and everyone around here is OK, just still a little dazzled by the experience of standing braced in the kitchen door, watching the whole house shake like crazy amidst the crashing and creaking and wondering if the house would stay here on our little bluff or end up in the drink.
But I learned a few things that just might be related to our purpose here and I'd like to share them with you. (And one more thing that isn't related at all: An earthquake-terrified cat looks just like it's stuck its paw into an electrical outlet — and, wow, they can open their eyes REALLY wide, too. Big as golf balls.)
Recently we talked a bit about guarding our thoughts, since the thoughts we give our focus, feeling, and faith to will sooner or later show up as actual people, places, or things in our lives.
And I suggested (as I have here before) that rather than trying to resist and fight off the whole raft of negative thoughts that come unbidden into our minds every waking minute — especially the strongly emotional ones that can just seize hold of us, hang on, and shake us up much more than a mere 6.8 — we might be better served to learn how to simply take a mental step back from the experience and sort of let go and just "watch" the thought pass through.
This is surely not anything original with me; it's ancient — if largely unused — wisdom. Jesus taught the concept of nonresistance and so did the Buddha, among others. And it applies both to thoughts and actions.
In the wake of the quake, I watched an engineer explain why there was relatively little damage to newer buildings in the big cities, while the worst destruction was visited on older ones. Now, this quake was a deep one, which usually causes less shaking and destruction than one nearer the surface. But the other main ingredient is the way newer buildings are "planted" in the earth.
Nowadays, a large structure can be seated on what amounts to giant shock absorbers, so that when the rumbling and shaking begin, rather than having two hard and unyielding surfaces jolting together, the resistance is dissipated and absorbed into the special material. Without that, the resistance builds and the force — having nowhere else to go — is passed up through the structure, magnifying the movement and ultimately tearing the building apart. And now there's havoc and ruin.
It's really quite the same with us! When we resist those thoughts we don't want to give our focus to it's like the old saw: For the next 30 seconds, do NOT think about monkeys. Only this is not amusing. What we resist persists — and the force of our resistance can grow and tear us apart.
Think about some little something that just gets on your last nerve — say, for example, someone is inexplicably rude to you and you immediately feel humiliated or angry or both.
Now you have — right in that moment — a choice: react, go with that immediate negative thinking and "give as good as you got" or simply let the moment and its feelings pass.
In that choice is your own "giant shock absorber." Do you choose to use it? Or to let the negativity take control and shake you all up?
When we choose the latter we may soon find ourselves in the same condition as the older, unprotected buildings, being pushed and pulled and torn apart by those thoughts and feelings — and before long we've got a great big mess to clean up, not just in our own minds, but perhaps in the outer world, too.
And the same is true with other kinds of thoughts that Mr. Wattles points out may be disastrous to our plans: disappointment, ingratitude, thoughts of failure or of scarcity and lack, "competitive mind" thoughts like jealousy, envy, and so on.
But now that we know about the science of getting rich, and now that we have embarked upon the certain way of thinking and acting, we've got something special that most people also have but just plain don't know about and therefore can't use.
We've got the Ultimate Giant Shock Absorbers.
Use 'em, my friend! And the unique, priceless, glorious edifice that is YOU will stand straight and tall and undisturbed, no matter what's going on all around you.
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Rebecca Fine is the founder of The Science of Getting Rich Network where you can download your free copy of the amazing 1910 forgotten classic, The Science of Getting Rich. http://tinyurl.com/kemdq ©2001 Certain Way Productions.
You may use this article in your own publications or web sites as long as no changes are made to the text and the "Resource Box" above is included in its entirety.
_________________
Chris Stevens You get what you expect, so expect success!
My Blogs
Positive Thoughts and more http://positive1000.blogspot.com/
Positive Thoughts Carnival http://positivethoughtscarnival.blogspot.com/
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