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Let’s say you are confident that you will one day be financially free.

Let’s say your financial freedom, if you hurry, is going to take 5 years.

On the other hand, if you were to relax a bit, enjoy the journey, and balance your life along the way, let’s say your financial freedom is going to take three years longer.

Would you rather be financially free in 5 years with worry, stress, problems, craziness, sickness, pressure and unhappiness all along the way, or would you rather take a few years longer to be financially free, but you will have enjoyed and loved those 8 years fully?

Which path sounds like a greater success story to you?

Some people will undoubtedly think, “Well, I’m stressed out as it is right now worrying about money, so yeah, even if I have to undergo a little more stress in the short-term, I’d rather get rich quicker than wait a second longer than I have to.”

Hey, lots of people feel like they work better under pressure; fair enough. That’s like the artist who thinks he or she produce masterpieces when they have drama in their life. More power to ya.

I just want to propose an alternative question: if you were not stressed out about anything–even reaching those goals that are most important to you–what would your mind do instead of focus on the drama?

What would your mind do if you weren’t worrisome or pressured every minute in order to reach some goal as quickly as possible?

It wouldn’t have that much to do, would it? The Ego wouldn’t have much of a job at all, as its primary job is to look for fear around every corner.

Without interference from the Ego, your Higher Self can begin to assert your natural, harmonious connection to the universe more and more effortlessly. When you get into the habit of not allowing guilt, anxiety or pressure to control your thoughts, emotions, and actions, you allow another type of energy to work through you as well as with you.

There’s a qualitatively different experience to life when the Higher Self directs our being. To live from the higher self is to live in courage, purpose and joy rather than fear, need and obligation. When you are in your higher self, this is the only time it is possible for you to connect with the higher intelligence of the universe.

Whatever it is you’re striving for in life, don’t attempt it by yourself! Yes, you have to do your part, but you don’t have to figure out every single thing on your own by yourself. There is a kind, supportive essence in this universe that wants to see you and me and everyone be prosperous and successful. That’s its sole purpose: to support whatever it is we create with our thoughts and actions.

So what’s the secret to tapping into this source of unlimited potential? In other words, what’s the secret to being successful?

Practice!

But not just practice getting better at whatever it is you’re trying to be successful at. You also have to practice being happy right now and not wait for “success,” whatever that word means to you!

Practice being appreciative, joyful, light, calm, confident, centered, beautiful, smiling and knowing. These are attributes of the higher self.

And this is “The Simplest Formula for Success”:

1. Learn.
2. Do.
3. Go back to 1.
4. Go back to 2.

You’re going to continuously learn, do, and repeat that equation. You are going to make mistakes. You are going to run into obstacles. It happens to everyone, and it will happen to you.

Just practice this simple formula for success, and operate from a place of practical yet positive belief in what you’re doing.

So …take a nice, deep breath. Do the best you can. Allow the universe to handle the timing of your ultimate success. Be confident that it will work out. Your success, though never guaranteed, is within your grasp when you follow this simple formula for success.

Take your ego out of the way with its insistence on having its way, which usually entails unnecessary strife, anxiety, impatience, and worry.

You are going to be successful because you are going to do two things. You’re going to learn things, and then you’re going to do them. You’re going to put them into practice. You’re going to learn more, and then you’re going to put that more into practice.

And you’re going to enjoy every step along the way, as long as you allow your Higher Self its deserved expression as much as humanly possible in your everyday life.

What’s your opinion? Share your thoughts, we want to hear from you!

There are a lot of people who have doubts that good things in life can come to them fairly easily, or that good things can come to them at all.

But there’s also a lot of confusion when it comes to how the universe responds to our thoughts and actions by manifesting things into our lives.

One of my pet peeves is teachers who do personal development work and tout, “Just visualize and everything is going to work out”. This is the idea of “effortless success.” There’s only one guy I know who preaches effortless success who actually does it, and his name is Deepak Chopra.

But here’s the thing. When he says effortless success, he does not mean effortless as in “You don’t have to do anything, the universe will just do it for you,” because you know what? He has a team of about 100 employees that work for him so yes, effortless success, but effortless for who?

I happen to be of the opinion that if something’s too good to be true, then take a second look at it, for sure, because like the saying goes, it probably actually isn’t true. The idea of effortless success falls squarely into that category.

If you’re not going to put any time and energy into something you want to manifest, and you’re not going to put the “whatever it takes” action part into it; and if you think that just by meditating and/or visualization that everything good is going to come to you, then you are setting yourself up for major disappointment.

I’m not saying that it can’t happen. I’m saying I don’t know anybody who just gets what they want by visualizing without putting in effort.

Let me just bottom-line this for everybody: there is a difference between effort and struggle, and most people struggle. Most people are used to struggling, like that’s normal, but my friends, this is not correct. Things don’t need to be a struggle.

Here’s the definition of struggle: effort laced with negative emotion. You need effort because effort is energy. They’re the same thing. However, struggle is optional. You’re the one who adds the struggle to the effort.

Listen, I hear some people say something like, “I’ve got to do some work tonight.”

I hear other people say, “Oh my God! I have to work tonight, again. @#$! What a drag! I work my ass off as it is. I’m always working. I don’t even know if it’s going to pan out. When do I get a break?”

See the difference? One’s just stating it as it is, the other sounds like a victim. That sounds like struggle. Even if you don’t enjoy it, don’t make it worse than it is.

Can things come easy? I think things can come easy, but only after you’ve put quite a bit of effort to make it come easy.

Let’s say I was going to write another book, for example, and let’s say I want it to be a bestselling book. Would it come easy? No, not a chance. I’d have to be crazy to think I could get a bestselling book without a ton of effort.

Would it be a struggle? No, no struggle because I wouldn’t allow that. I’d allow the process to flow and unfold. I’m going to allow it to be as easy as possible, in my frame, in my world. I’m not going to make things a problem. If problems occur, I’m going to just correct them without the negative emotion.

There’s a big difference between effort and struggle. Just don’t add to the pile. Allow what is to be. Think, “Hey, this thing came easier than I thought. Great!”

Allow it to be, bless it, be grateful for it, and continue whatever you’re doing, but make sure you put the effort and energy into it to keep what you’ve got. That’s called the law of maintenance.

Everything takes energy to either get or keep. It doesn’t have anything to do with negativity whatsoever, just energy. Keep your foot pressed on the accelerator, and go nice and steady.

What’s been a recent struggle for you? What’s the emotion behind the struggle? How have you turned struggle into effort? Share your experiences in the comments below…we want to hear from you!

As someone who has been in the self-development business for over a decade, I’ve just about seen and heard it all.

One common thing that I see again and again–much to my heartbreak–are those people who start either mine or someone else’s program that they told me they had signed up for, but then either didn’t attend, dropped out early, or just simply blew it off. It happens all of time. The sense of urgency that made them want to start in the first place gets lost.

It really is important to finish what you start. Why? It’s a matter of one word: integrity.

One definition of integrity is being honest and having strong moral principles. These are of course important, but the other definition of integrity is being whole and complete.

When you don’t finish what you start, you simply lose pieces of your being; of who you really are in your completion. That doesn’t feel very good and it certainly doesn’t do you any good if you want to succeed at anything.

When you don’t do what you say you’re going to do, you lose confidence. Confidence comes from the Latin word confidere, which means to trust. When you don’t do what you said you were going to do, or you don’t complete what you said you were going to complete, you start losing confidence in yourself. That cuts off your intuition, impedes actions negatively, and gets you stuck in the wrong habit cycle if you ever want to be consistently happy.

When someone else doesn’t do what they say they’re going to do, what happens? You think, “Ugh, how unreliable!” Do you think it’s different for you? When you don’t do what you said you were going to do, pretty soon you start feeling really bad about you.

Conversely, once you start to do whatever it takes to keep your word, you feel good about yourself. That’s going to spill over into every other part of your life. True or true?

The question becomes: what is stopping you from completing what you said you were going to do? Which part of you is not supportive of you keeping your word?

Sometimes it takes a lot of effort and time to uncover our unconscious motives and agendas, but just as patterns build up over time, we can also consciously break them.

We all have these parts of us; the wizard, the nurturer, the lover, and so on. Here we’re dealing with the warrior. The warrior is a simple principle that says you must keep your word. Your word must become law in the universe for you.

From here on out, whatever it is you start: a book, a self-development course, a frickin’ jigsaw puzzle … you finish. You don’t do it for the book, or the program, or for whatever the outcome. That’s a byproduct.

You do it to keep your word.

If you cannot do what you said on the small things, what makes you think you’re going to do what you said on the big things?

“Do you know what? I’m going to make $1 million this year.”

That’s a big thing that you just said. At the same time, you just said that you’re not going to drink Coke for the week, and what did you do? The next day you were drinking Coca-Cola.

The key to life is to discipline the part of you that is trying to take you out of your success. Put yourself into some practice.

Exercise: What’s one habit that is really not supporting you?

Is it looking at your emails on your computer as soon as you get out of bed, before you even brush your teeth and go to the bathroom? That’s a bad habit. That just sucks, okay? I know because I used to have that habit. A lot of people do.

Tame one unsupportive habit for one week to gain confidence and trust in yourself. Start with something doable. Tell us how it goes. We want to hear from you!

You’re probably going to hate me for saying this, but if you’ve got a problem, I’d say most of the time, you let it happen.

“Oh my God, you’re saying I’m responsible for everything that goes wrong in my life? ” Sooner or later, partially or totally, yes, you are.

Remember, I’m not talking about acts of God or nature that are beyond our control. I’m talking about the things that are within our control.

“Harv, you don’t understand. My big problem is that we’re not making enough money to be able to even live and do this and that.”

Whose fault is that, your pet dogs?

It’s actually not even about fault. I’m looking for accountability.

When it comes to business stuff especially–technology, people; when it comes to every part of your business or career and your wealth–yes, you’re responsible for every single part of it.

“I’m not responsible for the fact that the economy went down and all my mutual funds went with it, and I’m just peeking up over the edge again right now, five years later.”

Yes, you are. Who decided to buy mutual funds? I didn’t buy any mutual funds; how come you did?

“My broker told me to.” Who picked the broker, the economy or you?

You are responsible for creating your life. You’re responsible for creating what happens for you. And that’s a good thing! If you weren’t responsible for that, that would mean you have no control. That means we’re at the whim of the wind, floating around with nothing going for us.

You take responsibility for your lot in life. You take responsibility for where you are right now and where you want to be.

You don’t take it as, “I’m not doing so well, I should just give up. I’m a bad person.”

If you’re willing to, right now say out loud, “I’m accountable for my life. I’m accountable for everything that happens in it, and I’m accountable for what I’ve created so far.”

If you can do this with full honesty and integrity, you’re better than 99% of people.

If not, no worries. I want you to try a quick exercise that seems ridiculous, but bear with me:

If you had an intention to be poor, how would you go about doing that? How do you get broke? Write down what you’d have to do.

I do this in some of my seminars. Participants would laugh and say, “I’m not going to do that. That’s crazy!” I would put people in groups and they would come up with stuff like:

“You’d have to spend more money than you have coming in.”

“You’d have to laze around most of the day and be ineffective and unproductive.”

“You’d have to give away all your money to people so that you have nothing left.”

“You’d have to make sure you don’t invest it all and put it all in a mattress so it can never grow.”

They would laugh and laugh. Then we’d read these answers collectively. All of a sudden, they recognized that we were dead serious here, and that 99% of everybody did exactly what was on their sheets of paper!

How did you get to where you are? Take a look at the parts of your life that are not working so well and observe, with detached non-judgment, what you had to have done to create the results you did.

If you can understand your strategy for creating the not-so-great things in your life that are happening now, then you have an opportunity to change it.

I’m going to say right now: for me, I’m about six or seven pounds over the weight I would like to be at. When I look in the mirror, I have a hard time not judging myself just a little bit!

Just keeping it real, folks. But I know exactly how I got here: I ate too much of the wrong things without burning it off fast enough. I know how to turn this around.

What’s going to be your turnaround? Share your stories and victories as well as your challenges…I want to hear from you!

Have you ever noticed that when you’re in nature, near trees, mountains, water or at the ocean, you feel different?

We love nature and feel good in nature because we are nature. But most people live in a very concrete world. They go from their house in the city, town or community that doesn’t necessarily have a lot of nature around, and they get into their car onto some freeway with a bunch of busyness.

They get into an office building made of steel and concrete that often doesn’t have a single piece of wood in it. Then they come home. It’s no wonder that that can take a toll on your psyche, on your sense of peace.

In this environment, it is very hard to allow your higher self to emerge. We’re not concrete and steel. I’m not negating them, but what I am suggesting is that if you are a part of nature, you need to be in nature in order to be yourself.

For a lot of us, it’s going to have to be an absolute commitment, a scheduled appointment to get into a place of nature that’s close or far, wherever that is for you, even if it’s just a park.

Go ahead and hug a tree. Hug a big rock. Take your shoes off and let your toes touch the grass.

For me, being in nature is not just about some vague idea of connectedness to what we think of as the “natural,” but it’s more so getting the answers that I need in my life. Here’s the technique I use.

I try to find big, old, ancient things of nature like trees or boulders, as big as I can find. I put my hands on it and ask, “May I ask you a question?” I’ve never gotten a no. It’s just my way of paying respect.

Then I close my eyes, and I ask whatever question is going on in my life. I wait for an answer. The very first answer that comes into me is the answer that is coming from my higher self.

I can’t tell you how many times I have gotten clarification in my life from using this technique. How does it work? I don’t know!

I just know I never get that same type of clarity if I don’t touch a natural element itself. Just by doing that, I seem to tap into a bigger part of me, the part of me that is all wisdom, all wise, all intelligent; the part of me that is my true nature.

By touching and being part of nature and getting this information, I seem to get the answer that is most beneficial for me every single time.

I’m going to ask you right now if you’re willing to make a commitment that I believe will help you this week. Are you willing to spend at least 15 or 20 minutes in nature wherever you are in the world? If you can do more, then do more, but spend at least 15 or 20 minutes just sitting in nature, looking at it and breathing it in.

But you also have a second part to your commitment. You’re going to find a tree, a rock or something else of nature, like a stick or a branch. You’re going to hold it, touch it, admire it and appreciate it. You’re going to let it know that you admire and appreciate its wisdom, and you’re going to ask it permission to ask a question. You wait for a response.

How do you know if the answer is coming from your genuine, higher self? If you can’t hear the response to, “Yes, you can ask me a question,” then you’re not quiet enough.

If you’re not quiet inside, then take a walk because you’re not going to get the answer that you need. You’re going to have an ego-conditioned response; an old answer that you’ve been grappling with 100 times already.

If it’s the right answer, it will be crisp, clean, simple and obvious. You’re going to know because it’s just going to feel like, “Of course, that’s it!”

Then you write it down as soon as you can, and you just act on it as your normal course of action.

Then tell us how it goes. Share your thoughts, comments or experiences with the community!