How to – Living With MS

Thanksgiving Message

Rick Simon — Fri, 29 Nov 2013 03:48:13 +0000

An interesting thing happened last week that is related to the Have A Positive Focus strategy I described previously.

If you are interested in more information about Rick’s “9 Strategies to Break Through Obstacles and Live Your Dreams” fill in your email address on the right side of this page, and he will send you a free report!

I live in Canada, and in Winter we get some snow. Someone posted a picture of their back yard covered in snow on Facebook. One headlight of her car was showing. The Message said “My car is out there somewhere…Richard Simon? Please, please write something positive…I have to shovel this$@&)(!@&$”. In a later comment she said she wasn’t going to shovel till tomorrow.

My reply “Positive thinking on demand! You can be grateful that: 1. You can shovel snow. Many aren’t healthy enough. 2. You can wait till tomorrow to shovel it. 3. You have a warm place to wait till tomorrow. 4. You have food so you won’t go hungry while you wait. 5. You have entertainment while you wait aka the internet and Facebook. And finally, you have a car to be covered in snow. Those are the first positive thoughts that come to mind… ”

She replied with “Did all that…still shoveling tho…but thanks for all that. As my boots fill with snow tomorrow…I’ll think of you!”

And someone else responded “Another positive…you have boots!!”

I found positive things to think about while acknowledging the negative – that the snow had to be shoveled. I was especially happy to be of service given that I didn’t have to shovel the snow…

The names have been excluded to protect the guilty.

What is Your MS – Step 1b

Rick Simon — Sun, 13 Oct 2013 22:28:46 +0000

In my last blog, I had you make a list of the challenges, obstacles, and barriers in your life and match them up with the things they were preventing you from doing, having, or becoming. Sometimes that is all you need to do, and your Major Struggle (MS) becomes obvious. It might just jump out at you, and if it does you will know which challenge you should focus on for part 2 of this strategy.

If you have the lists, but nothing is jumping out at you, look at the things your barriers are blocking you from, and put a check mark next to the most important one(s). If you can pick one, that is your MS.

If you end up with a few, look at just those few and put another check mark next to the most urgent one(s). Pick the one that needs to be dealt with first, or quickest. If you can pick one, that is your MS.

If you still don’t have it down to one, then look just at the ones that have two check mariks next to them, and put another check mark next to the easiest one(s) to overcome. Picking the easiest will lead to the fastest results. You will see the process work, and can come back to the others once your MS is solved. If you can pick one, that is your MS.

If after all this, you still can’t get down to one, then just pick one, any one, that has three check marks next to it. These are the things that are most important, most urgent, and easiest, so it doesn’t really matter which one you choose. Just pick one to focus on right now and come back to the others once that one is solved or under control.

Now that you know what your MS is, you can move to step 2, and focus on getting past that challenge. With your focus on that one thing, you will get past it, and be able to come back to solve the others, one at a time, as they bubble to the top and become your Major Struggle.

My Major Struggle (MS) was Multiple Sclerosis (MS). I have MS, but MS doesn’t have me.

What is Your MS – Step 1a

Rick Simon — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 02:48:15 +0000

Do you think it would be easier to overcome barriers if you could focus on one at a time?

My Major Struggle (MS) was Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Yours probably isn’t! I have MS, but MS doesn’t have me. Maybe you know what your Major Struggle is, but maybe you don’t. But which barrier, challenge, or obstacle should you focus on first? Let’s start to figure it out. If you know what it is, then I suggest you write it down and make sure you know what it is blocking you from doing, having, or becoming.

If you have a bunch of challenges, then you need to figure out what your MS is, so you can focus on that one till it is solved, or under control, and then move on to the next. So if that is your situation, I suggest you take a piece of paper and make a big T on it, like a balance sheet. Down the left side list all of the obstacles, barriers, and challenges you have in your life. These are candidates for your MS. Having done this, one may pop out to you as being the biggest one. If that happens, just write down what it is preventing you from doing, having, or becoming, and you are done with step one.

If you still don’t know, then I suggest you list on the right side of your T, next to each challenge, the thing or things that it is preventing you from doing, having or becoming. As you do that, you might come across more challenges. If that happens, feel free to add them. When you are done you will have a list of barriers, on the left, matched up with things they are blocking you from, on the right. Maybe your MS will jump out at you at this stage.

In my next blog, I will describe a method to filter your lists down till you finally know what your MS is.

Have a Positive Focus

Rick Simon — Sun, 29 Sep 2013 02:31:30 +0000

Do you have any negative thinkers in your life? Do you know anyone who, no matter what you are planning, always has all the reasons why it won’t work? Do you know someone who is always complaining about something? They seem to drag you down, don’t they?

Have you ever been guilty of behaving this way? I have, but my fiance said something that helped turn things around for me. You see, I found out that I have Multiple Sclerosis (MS) two days after my (now) wife agreed to marry me. When I found out I went to her to ‘let her off the hook’, but she said something like “I will marry you in spite of your MS if you will agree to do everything you can do for yourself.”

How did this help to keep me positively focused? Well, first of all, I took it seriously. I mean I really liked this girl! I wanted her to stay around. I believed she was serious about what she had said, so I took it seriously. I started thinking about the things I could do so as to keep my part of the agreement. By thinking about, focusing on, and seeking out the things that I could do, I wasn’t paying attention to the things I couldn’t do. As a result:

I found lots of things I could do, so, in my mind, things weren’t so bad after all.
Doing the things I could do led me to succeed in various areas of my life.
Thinking about what I could do, made me happier with my life and therefore more likely to succeed. After all, happiness is all in your head, isn’t it?
Not spending so much time focusing on what I couldn’t do, helped me stay away from depression.

Don’t get me wrong, over the years there were lots of things that I couldn’t do anymore, and when they happened it was depressing. Giving up dancing was probably the hardest, closely followed by camping and skiing. Those were hard times, but knowing that there were all these things that I was able to do, helped me recover from these ‘setbacks’ more quickly, and get on with living my life in spite of my MS.

I guess that is why I am talking about positive focus, as opposed to positive thinking. When I tried positive thinking in the past it always felt like a lie. Positive focus, however, as T. Harv Eker, an author, businessman and motivational speaker known for his theories on wealth and motivation and the author of the book “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind” teaches it, acknowledges that not everything is positive in life, but that it makes sense to focus on the positive, because it works!

Do you feel better when you are focusing on something positive in your life?
If you feel better, are you more likely to do more to improve your situation?
If you do more, are you more likely to be successful, to improve your situation and to make that affirmation come true?

So if it works, improves your life, and doesn’t hurt anyone, why wouldn’t you do it? But like Eker, I’m not going to ask you to take my word for it. I just ask that you give it a try. It works for me, so it might work for you! If it does, keep doing it. If it doesn’t, stop!