1. Have gratitude. Gratitude opens door for all that follows. Have gratitude for where you are and how you got there. Give thanks for what you have and those around you.

2. Acceptance Can you accept that you are where you are because of choices you have made? Every choice combined together has created life you now have. You may not have been aware of choice you were making, but it was a choice just same.

Accept that your life is perfect as it is. Not to say it is wonderful, or perfection, but that it is perfect in sense that you created it, and therefore you can change it if you want.

3. Choose Begin to make conscious choices on a consistent basis. Hold every decision to your values and definitions of success as a measuring tool. This will begin to create a life based on what calls to you and what you have defined as success to you.

by Doug C. Grant

"Sailing pretty high today, are we?"

It was another i-mail from Other-Self. An interruption as usual.

I was reading a generously kind e-mail from a reader when i-mail arrived, internally of course. And I knew that to ignore it would only increase frequency and nagging of future i-mails.

So I answered. "If you mean by ‛sailing high' that I'm enjoying these few kind words sent by a reader then you're right. Does that offend you?"

"Not at all. I merely wanted to point out that success is not success in one or two areas of life. That is hardly any success at all."

"You want more success? Well let me remind you that I enjoy a strong marriage, exercise three times a week, have a successful business and go to church...at least sometimes. I believe that even you will have to admit that I'm relatively well-rounded."

From somewhere down below came a snort. "I might agree with you if I wasn't looking at this layer of fat plastered around your waist. You may exercise your body but you certainly don't exercise discretion over your diet. I don't call that success.

"As for your social life, you have a number of acquaintances but no real friends. No success there. And only time you conduct a meaningful discussion with God is when things are on slide. Even then, only reason for doing so is to dump on Him. Hardly a successful spiritual walk."

"Oh come now! I'm not super-human. Maybe a few areas of my life could do with a bit of sprucing up. But all in all I consider myself well-rounded and successful."

"That's absolute foolishness. You will never be more successful than least of your achievements. Allow me to illustrate. Your car has six cylinders and therefore six spark-plugs. If only three spark-plugs were firing, would you say you had a successful engine?"