In today's rugged world, every person, every organization and every corporation faces setbacks that hold them back from fulfilling their highest potential. You have often tried to break through these barriers, but they seem impossible at times. You have had some success here and there, but you have longed for the day when you breakout and see wild success beyond your dreams.

Are you facing impossible challenges in your life? Are your setbacks keeping you from who you believe you are destined to become? Does your organization seem to keep bouncing up against invisible walls that block you from moving forward?

This book will teach you how to achieve the impossible and conquer your barriers. How to become the most proficient and competent person you can be. How to live up to all of the rich potential that has been gifted deep within you. Look over this list of dramatic breakthroughs experience by Rick. These are some of Rick's accomplishments and the setbacks he overcame. He will teach you the secrets for using obstacles you face in tough times to propel you forward for amazing breakthroughs like these:

* From fear of heights to over 180+ parachute jumps at 13,500 feet (2.5 miles up!) from a variety of aircraft and helicopters (and a few daring jumps even at night!)

* From failing high school gym class to ranking #12 among 80 other U.S. Marines in boot camp at Parris Island

* From being homeless to earning over $100,000 per year working as the Manager of Technology Education at an international mutual funds firm

* From failing in college-level speaking class (three times!) to award winning presenter earning a living daily speaking in front of audiences

* From low B and C high school student to straight A student (3.94 GPA) at age 45 with a proven system he developed

* From flunking remedial writing in college to writing numerous articles, training manuals and books

* From being told by a leading rheumatologist that Rick was dying of Lupus to daily sprint biathlons (running/cycling) for 2+ hours each and every day

* From bullied, beaten and abused for 15+ years as a highly introverted and painfully timid child to becoming an adult that is outgoing, confident, loving and caring

* From 50 pounds overweight to proper BMI weight in just eight months

What would it mean for you, your business or your people to experience these types of tremendous and unquestionably dramatic breakthroughs? How would it change your life? How would it impact your bottom line?

Let Rick show you the secrets for accomplishing the impossible in your life, your loved ones and your place of business.

How to Become an Encourager

Learn More About The Incredible Benefits To Be Enjoyed When You Regularly Invest In The Lives Of Others

by Rick Saldan

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When doing volunteer work, I often felt like I was being rewarded on the inside much more than the person who was receiving the help I was giving. This seems to be truer when you are volunteering with people whose lives are in chaos and you are doing some level of crisis intervention work. I would leave feeling like I was on cloud nine. It was a rush. Literally. My spirit was soaring on the inside. I could see I was making a huge difference in this man's life.

But the more rewarding and fulfilling volunteer work seems to be when you are interacting direct with hurting people that are in crisis. The crisis is more intense, so the reward is more intense. If I can use the term "spiritual compensation," it seems that when you seek to help people in crisis, the spiritual compensation you gain is much higher. Meaning the inner growth and sense of fulfillment is much more intense.
 

I have repeatedly encountered this potent principle while assisting individuals in crisis situations. Terminally ill people. Shut ins. Homeless people. Youth in prison.

I love the motto of Rotary International, which is "Service Above Self." To me, getting involved with serving others seems to be what life is all about and why we are here. If our 70 some years on this planet is a type of school, I would say that the biggest thing we are to learn in this school is be compassionate and caring towards our fellow human being. If our purpose in this world is indeed to learn these great life lessons, such as Service Above Self, then why not synch up with that purpose and reap the rewards of doing so?

You build up self-confidence, self-esteem and a sense of well-being. You are working "with the grain", aspiring to the higher things of life, and no longer working "against the grain." You get a fresh spark. If you are feeling burned out, that fresh spark can revive you. I believe that I have often experienced much more as the "vehicle" than the "recipient" did. When you set aside some time each month to invest in helping others, you blossom on the inside.

You feel balanced, strong and healthy. You are working in cooperation with that which Life intends for us to be aspiring to become. When people make their priorities in life to pursue and reinforce materialism, greed, and selfish ambitions, it seems like they constantly struggle. They eventually reach a point where life seems empty and meaningless to them. We have all heard the stories coming out of Hollywood of those who are wealthy and successful beyond belief, yet completely miserable and unhappy.

We read how they have the mansions, the exotic sports cars, and all the money they could want, and yet they are struggling with drug addiction, alcoholism, domestic violence, DUIs and so forth. Their lives implode. Undeniable evidence that they feel empty and meaningless. My theory is that they are going against the grain of why we are here. Meaning it is most likely because they have been leading an egocentric life of "Self Above Others" instead of "Service Above Self." Imagine if one day there was an entire society built on a foundation of narcissistic obsession with self.

But don't limit yourself to only working within an organization. Sometimes it can be highly beneficial and rewarding to just help a random stranger that looks like they are in a crisis. You can practice random acts of kindness. You can pay the toll for the car behind you on the turnpike. You can pick up the tab for a stranger eating lunch in a diner. One of the greatest things a corporation or small business owner can do is set up a philanthropic outreach of any kind into the community. There are so many countless benefits to be reach when doing this.

How To Go From Timid Speaker To Award Winning Speaker

by Rick Saldan

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How I went from timid speaker to award winning speaker and you can too!

Was I a timid speaker? More like terrified speaker!  I was so absolutely frightened in that I dropped my public speaking courses at Temple University. Not once, but twice. Later I paid $800 to attend another public speaking course. That one was a little better but terror struck my heart once again and I dropped out in the third week. The anguish was absolutely unbearable.

My Big Breakthroughs

Fast forward a few more years, I got heavily involved with Dale Carnegie and Toastmasters. I enrolled in the Carnegie Sales Course and loved it. The instructors were absolutely wonderful. In fact, I loved it so much that I volunteered as a graduate assistant more than 45 times. I joined Toastmasters and created a public speaking club from scratch in the building I was living in.

I Will Give You The Short-Cuts

It still was an uphill struggle and along the way I learned a number of strategies to help me gain more confidence in public speaking. With this book, I show you the short cuts so that you can get there much faster than me.

How I Started Winning Awards

Later I enrolled in coures for nursing school and had to take public speaking. Not only did I get an A, but also won second place among over 120 students that competed in the public speaking contests. I have also won 9 trophies in contests within Toastmasters and dozens of ribbons. This past year I gave 33 speeches towards the Distinguished Toastmaster award ("DTM").

I did it, and so can you! 

I will share with you step by step how I accomplished all of this! 

This book will teach you:

• How to employ visualization techniques to improve your public speaking engagements.
• How to get a handle on your nervous tension and use it to your advantage.
• How to implement a regular program of positive self talk to counter balance the negative thoughts.
• How to begin to reinforce and build up your self-esteem so you can rise up and excel.
• How to start memorizing your speeches with much greater ease than ever before so that you don't have to read off of index cards.
• How to pick topics that audiences love hearing about.
• How to connect with a good mentor that can help you grow faster.
• How to continually draw your audiences in so they are right with you.
• How to structure your speeches for the highest impact.
• How to persuade and motivate your audiences to take action.
• How to continually keep yourself sharp as a speaker.
• How to be a proficient story teller that audiences look forward to
• How to rise in the ranks of the Toastmasters organization in rapid fashion.
• How to start making money as a professional speaker.

How To Get Straight A's

by Rick Saldan

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How I achieved straight A's in college and you can too!

I had not taken a college class probably in some 20 years. The world of nursing had changed dramatically in the past several years. Because the economy was in such a tailspin, thousands of people were abandoning their lifelong careers and jumping into nursing as a means to sustain some level of dependable income. Now instead of nursing schools out there aggressively recruiting students to fill their seats, they had to instead fight them off with a stick. Instead of classrooms being half empty, now many nursing programs often had 1200 applicants trying to compete for the 40 to 60 seats that were available. As a result, they dramatically changed the nursing school enrollment process had raised the standards for enrollment.

The core science courses included:  Biology, Microbiology, Chemistry, and then Anatomy & Physiology 1 & 2. In addition to these difficult core science courses, you also had to enroll in:  Psychology 1 & 2, Sociology, Public Speaking, English Composition 1 & 2, Ethics and Morality, and Algebra.

The guidance counselor I was assigned to went over all of this with me. My head was spinning. It just seemed so hard to believe that you had to put out all of this incredible amount of work and then you can go on and apply for a program where you were competing against 1200 other applicants in hopes of getting one of the 40 to 60 empty seats. The counselor said the recruiters were looking for students with straight A's in all of these courses. Absolutely incredible! It fried my mind!
 

These expectations all seemed totally surreal. Like some kind of spin-off of the "Mission: Impossible" series. I had a number of things already stacked against me. First was the fact that I had not been a full-time college student for over 20 years. The brain gets a little rusty compared to the 18-year-olds who had been out of school for just two months or so. Secondly, another big hurdle was the fact that I couldn't remember getting A's in too many of the courses I had taken some 20 years earlier. I was always a B and C student. Never an A student.
 

Over the next several weeks, I worked hard and fast to develop a system that would enable me to absorb huge amounts of information in a very short amount of time. With tweaks, trial and error work, my system actually worked and I became a straight A student that first semester. I tested the system from time to time and was able to do things like learn 300 facts in one night and score a 93 the next day on the exam. This book gives a good solid overview of that system I developed. If you take the time to follow the system, you will have a reliable methodology for learning a large volume of information in a short amount of time just as I did. I went from being a low B and C student to straight A's. I did it, and so can you!

This book will teach you:

• The studying strategy 100 times more powerful than simply reading the text book over and over.
• How to scan in a college text book and convert the text to questions.
• How to hack into your own brain to dramatically increase retention.
• Overview of various memory systems that will help you.
• Strategies that the winners of the World Memory Championships use to memorize a few hundred items in minutes.
• Proven approaches to help you stand out to your college professor and why you need to implement these.
• Factors which increase retention and factors which dilute retention.
• Memory triggers that glue facts to the layers of your brain.
• How Rick learned 300 facts in one night and scored a 92% in the exam the next day.
• How Rick carried 20 credits and still achieved Straight A's. 

How To Become A Bounce Back Person

by Rick Saldan

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You might face daunting setbacks that can seem absolutely impossible to overcome. If you really want to accomplish your goals, you absolutely must teach yourself to become a bounce back person. You must teach yourself how to shrug things off and keep moving forward no matter what hoops you have to jump through. When they keep throwing more and more obstacles at you, determine that you will jump through those hoops and keep bouncing back. Visualize yourself being a pit bull that locks its jaws on your leg and won't let go no matter what you do to it. Lock onto your goals. Visualize yourself punching through your barriers and successfully completing the mission at hand. Energize yourself each and every day, every hour of the day, with the reasons you began this undertaking and the fruit you expect to enjoy when you successfully complete the obstacle course. Realize it is only a game and you will win this game at any cost. Becoming a bounce back person is probably one of the most important mindsets that you can adopt. Burn it into your mind that you will become a bounce back person. Let it sink down to your DNA that you will not quit, you will not let go, and you will keep bouncing back and rising up to each and every challenge because the end goal is well worth it.

We want to be more of a bounce back person. Walt Disney once said, "All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you." Our lives often are cluttered with one setback after another. Throughout our lives, we will constantly face challenges, obstacles and problems. If you truly want to be known as a person that Achieves the Impossible, then you need to learn new ways of thinking so that you can turn misery into mastery. Someone that uses setbacks as stepping stones to greater things. 

I love the story of David and Goliath. It is a classic story that is 3,000 years old. Do you realize that if it were not for that giant, David probably would have remained a shepherd his entire life? That the giant in his life was a stepping stone for David to become the next king?

How would our lives change if we started to view ALL of our problems and obstacles in a similar manner? We would become people that are not just surviving in tough times, but people that are thriving in tough times. When countless others all around us are just barely getting by, we would become people that are known for our energy, known for our enthusiasm, known for loving a challenge. 

We would see the doors of opportunity open up before us. Positions that might have seemed out of reach for us a year or two ago now will suddenly open up for us. We start to get a reputation as a mover and a shaker, someone that comes in, sorts out the clutter, straightens things up and makes good things happen out there in the world. We have seen again and again through the lives of countless people that the most brilliant breakthroughs and the most incredible success often show up after a series of endless failures. Why is that? Because the person is so determined, so laser focused, that they have made an internal commitment that they will get back up, review what happened, and see how many lessons that they can learn from that failure. 

History is full of many such driven, passionate people with great vision that experienced extensive failures before their great successes that they eventually became famous for. The road to stellar success is exclusively paved with colossal failures.

Sen. Robert F. Kennedy said, "Only those who dare to fail greatly can achieve greatly." 

Thomas Watson Sr., the CEO and Chairman of IBM for 42 years, once wrote, "The fastest way to succeed is to double your failure rate." 

How To Gain Freedom From Fear Forever

Proven Strategies That Will Release You From The Chains Of Fear

by Rick Saldan

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Rick Saldan grew up in a world of fears, phobias anxieties of every kind. He had a phobia of open spaces. He had a phobia of crowds. He had a phobia of heights. At age 34, Rick decided he would tackle his fear of heights by taking skydiving lessons!

Rick shares the intimate details of learning how to jump out of airplanes at heights of 13,500 feet with nothing but a parachute on his back. He describes what it is like those first few jumps, how the fear totally paralyzed his mind and he was unable to think. Gradually he chipped away at that fear by totally immersing himself in confronting that fear.

Eventually things began to turn around. By his 25th parachute jump, Rick delightfully discovered he no longer had a fear of heights! In fact, he realized he loved it and thrived on it. The pendulum had finally swung the other way.

Encouraged by this incredible breakthrough, Rick sought to confront other fears, such as his fear of public speaking. He had failed public speaking courses three times. It seemed absolutely impossible. Rick gradually chipped away at that fear of public speaking, just as he did with his fear of heights.

Sure enough, just as before, one day Rick discovered he no longer had the fear of public speaking. He was thrilled to realize he now loved public speaking and thrived on it. At age 45, Rick went back to school and enrolled in his fourth public speaking class. This time around, he did not crumble when it was his time to speak. In fact he began to excel in the class. At the end of the course, his class and four other classes competed in a college-wide public speaking contest. Rick did so well that he came in second place.

Rick shares with you the secrets for overcoming your fears and having dramatic breakthroughs just like he did. You, too, can chisel away at those chains of fear and set yourself free from fear forever!

Focus

Proven Strategies To Become Laser Focused On Your Goals And Objectives

by Rick Saldan

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Being homeless for several months did do some wonderful things for me that have stayed with me for years. When you reach bottom like that and everything around you collapses, you tend to go one way or the other. You collapse as a human being and fall prey to some addictive behavior to medicate yourself from the pain, or you become super laser focused and hyper diligent in pursuing your goals. Fortunately for me, the latter occurred. I became more driven to achieve. More laser focused on my goals. Hyper diligent to wanting to achieve, accomplish and make an impact in the world around me. I grew super determined that I would never hit rock bottom ever again and that I would always be a climber. I would always be someone who loved to grow and who locked in on my goals. Being a goal setter dedicated to personal growth and development became permanently etched in my brain, my spirit and my DNA.

The harsh adversities and brutal experiences changed me for the better. I was a better person as a result of being homeless for several months. When obstacles and setbacks came my way, I seemed to now have greater tenacity to endure and shrug off the setbacks. I was now a person that was constantly on the hunt for experiences that would help me to grow, broaden my horizons and gain new skills. I fell totally in love with the concept of continually growing and stretching myself. Continual self-improvement. When I discovered that I had a knack and a talent for something, I would push the throttle forward and see how far I could stretch that new talent or skill. It became a pursuit that I thrived on and got incredibly enthusiastic about.

The one harsh experience of being homeless for several months was a seed that bore much fruit for many years to come. It also gave me the knowledge that no matter what risks I took in life, things would never again be so bad to the point where I would lose everything and be sleeping on the beaches again. If I had to summarize in one word what I gained from those difficult months of living on the streets, it would be "focus." It gave me more focus in life than I had ever had before that.

Be someone who is laser focused on your goals. Make the art of goal setting one of your top concerns in day to day living. Set goals on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and long-term basis. Write down our goals for the next 5 to 10 years and keep them with you in your wallet or purse. If I were to see you on the street somewhere, I want to be able to say "Can you please show me your written goals?" and see you pull them out. Many people have written about the power of having your goals written and kept with you. It's almost like real magic!

These harsh experiences will either weigh us down and drive us lower towards disintegration and destruction or they will build us up, giving us greater drive, dedication and focus. The main criteria in determining which way we go is in our outlook and attitude that we attach to it. Will we look at life like a school where we are given the task of growing and developing? Or will we look at it with sullenness, bitterness, anger and self-pity and allow the experience to pulverize us into a hundred miserable pieces. We get to decide! It is truly up to us!

Maybe you, too, have had extensive trials and setbacks, but feel that a hyperjump never took place for you. You look at those harsh times you went through and you see nothing but pain, anguish and misery. If that's the case, a strong possibility is that this might be because you accepted negative interpretations of the experience and you donned bad attitudes towards life for the cards you were dealt. Those are all common reactions, yes, of course. Become a person that yearns for personal growth and seeks out experiences that invite challenge and expansion. Become an individual that is driven to achieve and overcome setbacks. Become a person that is laser focused!

Self-Esteem Determines Our Destiny

How To Nurture Your Self-Esteem So That You Can Achieve All Of Your Dreams And Ambitions

by Rick Saldan

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After her first visit to the United States, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, India remarked that never in her life had she seen a nation so rich in material wealth, but so poverty stricken in self worth. She accurately perceived us to be an entire country comprised of people that wrestle with poor, unhealthy, damaged self esteem.

She said, "We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of loneliness, feeling unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the most terrible poverty. Even the rich are hungry for love, for being cared for, and needing to feel wanted."

Psychologist Dr. Alexandra Delis-Abrams states, "Low self-esteem has been linked to violent behavior, school dropout rates, teenage pregnancy, suicide, and low academic achievement."

The World Health Organization states that more deaths are caused by suicide tied to low self-esteem than homicide, murder or war. Average totals are 800,000 per year. That is absolutely heart breaking.

It is a fact that we rarely rise above the self-image we have of ourselves. People with broken or damaged self-esteem gravitate towards negative friendships, abusive relationships and various forms of abuse such as cutting, bullying, domestic violence, alcoholism, drug addiction, promiscuity, teen pregnancy, eating disorders, anxiety, and depression. People with strong and resilient self-esteem gravitate towards positive goal oriented friends, relationships that are healthy and fulfilling, and past times that are rewarding and beneficial to the body, spirit and mind. Truly, our self-esteem and self-image are the rudders that determine where we go in life. We rarely rise above the self-image that we carry deep within. It can be address and remedied.

Many people are lacking the self-confidence they so strongly desire and covet, but they are hampered by a never ending stream of negative thoughts about themselves that continually flows through their minds. Often times we carry with us scars of an abusive childhood that damaged our self esteem on into our adult years. I have met many people in their 40s and 50s who are still carrying with them the damaged self-image thrust upon them as children by an emotionally abusive mother or father, or by bullies in their neighborhood or school who cruelly taunted and tormented them without mercy.
In looking to capture the perfect metaphor to visualize the tremendous impact that self-esteem has in determining our destiny, consider a big oil supertanker with an overall length of 1500 feet (five football fields). The Empire State Building could fit inside. These huge vessels can carry 260,000 tons of oil and travel all over the world. The rudder for these massive ships is generally only 2% of the overall length of the vessel.

A supertanker of this size might have a rudder that is only 30 feet wide (1/3 of a football field). Yet that relatively small rudder controls the direction of that massive ship.

The same with our self-esteem. Often ignored, overlooked, and neglected by schools, churches, athletic teams, families and society as a whole, and much more frequently the target of attack by bullies and thugs who zero in one the damaged and deflated self-esteem of their victim and pulverize whatever self-esteem they are managing to get by with.

While malnourished and ignored, the self-esteem of the individual is the key component to everything they do for the entire lives. The self-esteem literally determines performance level, investment of energy, the setting and achieving of worthy goals. It determines how you choose to invest your time, what you prioritize and who you spend your time with. It determines if you quit too early or if you stick it out and fight through obstacles over the long haul.

Find A Mentor, Be A Mentor

Proven Strategies To For Building Mentor Relationships That Empower You

by Rick Saldan

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One of the greatest hyperjumps you can experience is being with such a mentor, and also for being such a mentor to others in your "downline" that you can provide a similar wholesome inspirational experience to. That term downline is one that I am borrowing from the world of network marketing, but in the context of mentoring it simply means someone that is newer and less experienced than you are. For example, if you are skillful at public speaking and join organizations like Toastmasters or Dale Carnegie, there are plenty of beginning neophytes in your downline who would be delighted to be mentored by you. Similarly, your "upline" are the people further along the journey than you are, who can provide you with individualized mentoring or coaching that can catapult you ahead in your field. Your upline are the experts above you that can help you.

If you have skills or services you could offer to connect with someone much more experienced in your field than you are, it can truly be a wonderful symbiotic relationship whereby you both immensely benefit. Reciprocation on both sides of the fence will keep the relationship mutually beneficial to you both.

Do you have a role model that you admire in your field or industry? Or perhaps a specialty for something that is a hobby or a passion of yours? Someone's work that you look up to, admire and deeply respect? If you ever have the opportunity to spend time with such a person, it can totally impact your life in many powerful ways. Being in the presence of a mentor or coach that you look up to and respect can refire your passions for weeks and months. You become eager to dive into the things you once dreamed about and revive those dreams that have slipped to the back burner. You etch a beautiful memory into your soul that you can reflect on many times in the years following when you feel that you need your fuel tanks to be refilled and you need a fresh spark so that you can surge ahead in your undertakings.

When you simultaneously engage in the dual process of both having a mentor and also being a mentor for someone else, a truly magical transformation takes place within you. You feel totally lit up on the inside. The old lifestyle of day to day doldrums evaporates and instead becomes one where things happen faster and quicker. You create dreams and plans and the quickly come to fruition and become a reality. When you set about to accomplish things, they have a greater tendency to fall into place for you with much less of the typical resistance and pushback that you might be more accustomed to.

Your passion and your enthusiasm for the art or specialty is transferred both to your upline and your downline. Both parties feed off of your enthusiasm and it gives them both a renewed level of energy. Your enthusiasm can be contagious for others, and it can be their lifeblood that invigorates them. Yes, your own upline, your own coach or mentor, can be energized by your sincere enthusiasm for the art and for your tasks and goals you have set before you. They are nourished by helping you and watching you grow and develop. They enjoy playing a role in your future success. It is rewarding for them.

There are many benefits to be enjoyed when out there serving others altruistically, such as the role of mentoring someone in your downline. When I use the terms downline and upline in this context, I am referring to either someone you are mentoring and helping to grow (your mentoree), or someone above you that is mentoring you and helping you to grow (your mentor).

When you are being mentored by someone with more experience and skill than you have, your own personal growth quickly accelerates. Your mentor helps you to grow faster than you could grow on your own. It's like you fall in sync with your environment.

Get Plugged In & Powered Up!

Strategies To Gain More Strength And Impact By Building Your Supportive Community

by Rick Saldan

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What if I told you I could wave a magic wand and take whatever strengths you have right now, and multiply them several fold. As a result, you would become more passionate, have greater zeal, have more drive, and more focus. What if you could accomplish more with less effort on your part? That whatever efforts you put out became multiplied and magnified and reached much further than usual. What if you listed all of your gifts, strengths and talents? Talents such as writing, speaking, project management, graphic design, leadership, and marketing. Gift and talents like that. And this little red pill would take all of that and enhance everything on your list. Let's say we are talking about enhancements of 20% to 40%, maybe even as high as 70%. Wouldn't that be of interest to you?

For thirty years, I had the mindset of going about making big achievements all on my own strength. It has only been later in life that I had an epiphany and grew to realize I could easily accomplish ten times more by growing a team of like minded people and orchestrating the efforts as a group. Life became so much easier and as a group we accomplished so much more. This book will teach you the ropes for building up your own supportive community. Your tribe. Your support team.

This is exactly what happens when we get involved with an organization of like minded people that are actively serving others the community. There are many good service organizations out there. A few of the more well known national organizations include Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions and a number of others. These are general service groups. Another option would be to look for a group that serves a specific element of the community, such as feeding the homeless, visiting shut-ins, mentoring prison inmates, assisting the terminally ill, working with disabled veterans, or teaching illiterate adults how to read and write.

Rarely do any of us achieve great success when we fly solo. Yes, it can be done, but it generally takes ten times more effort from us when we are functioning out there on our own as an individual. Even when we do see an individual achieve incredible success in their field, rarely are they operating in a vacuum. Often there is a team of people working hard behind the scenes that we do not even see. A highly efficient support system is in place, invisible to the outside world. If that well oiled machine were to crumble, the person at the forefront, the individual in the limelight, would most likely crumble along with their support mechanism. That's just how we are.

The enthusiasm of such a supportive team, or tribe, is highly contagious and it will help to energize you when you fall into a slump. If something happens to you, they are your pit stop team that quickly helps to restore you and get you back on your feet again.

What you do within these organizations can be multiplied several times over for greater results than you can achieve flying solo by yourself. Not only that, but when people see our gifts and talents, they come along side us and invest in us.

You may have seen the 1990 film with Tom Cruise called, "Days of Thunder." When you build up your tribe of like minded people, you are like that race car pulling into the pit stop. People come along side of you and help to tweak you. They invest their time in you helping you to grow. They assist you in taking the skills, gifts and talents you already have, and guide you in getting to the next level. They make good people even better. That high performance car leaves the pit much better off than when it first entered the pit. It becomes tuned up and more efficient at everything it is supposed to do.

This book will teach you the ropes of working more effectively with teams of people around you. Stop being the lone ranger and accomplish more through teams you recruit and train.

Conquering Stress

How To Stop Stress From Destroying Your Career, Your Health and Your Life

by Rick Saldan

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Six of the top causes of death among Americans are directly tied to stress. Those six are heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver and suicide. When people go to visit their family doctor, researchers believe that 75 percent of the ailments they are visiting their doctor for are also stress related. My friends, all of that is the very definition of stress. My goodness, no wonder we are nation being ravaged by stress.
 

We ourselves often don't realize how much stress we are carrying around inside of us, but the people around us can generally see the changes in our personality, our energy level, our spontaneity, our outlook, our ability to focus and our disposition.

If we live a fairly balanced life style, we generally have enough stress releasers each week where we can let go of some of the build up of negative emotions. If we have children, sometimes those pressure valves are found when we go out to their extra curricular events, such as soccer, drama or baseball.
In our modern society, that's becoming less and less. Frequently one spouse is out working 60 hours a week or more, just to keep the household afloat. There isn't that balance, and so the build up grows and grows, without relief. Back in the 1950s, it was commonplace for one spouse to be out working and the other remaining home to raise the children. Now, however, the typical American household requires both spouses to be working full-time to keep the household afloat and pay the bills. Even with that, reports on CBS News and CNN revealed that 76% of all Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck. This literally means they are one paycheck away from financial disaster, with little or no financial cushion set aside for that inevitable rainy day when calamity suddenly strikes.

Make a list of the things you experience every month that cause you stress. Make a list of the things you enjoy that help you to eliminate and relieve some of that stress in a healthy way. Any kind of aerobic or cardiovascular exercise is a huge plus in combating and eliminating day to day stress. Sadly, prolonged stress not only starts affecting us psychologically, but in time will begin to impact the body. When you are stressed, your blood vessels constrict, your bloodstream is flooded with hormones such as cortisol, and your blood pressure and heart rate rises. Over time, these physiological changes in the body can lead to disease.

The Physicians' Desk Reference lists quite a number of diseases of the body that are directly tied to prolonged stress, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, asthma, diabetes, gastrointestinal diseases, obesity, Alzheimer's and premature death. Other health related ailments tied to prolonged stress include insomnia, backaches, chronic headaches, depression, colds, stomach ulcers, chronic fatigue, fertility problems and menstrual cycle disorders. Learning to develop stress management skills really can have a genuine impact on your health and your quality of life.

One study of heart attack survivors found that learning stress management techniques decreased their risk of having a second heart attack by 74%. While we cannot always remove the stress triggers in our lives, we can change how we respond to stress. So what are some things that you can do to strengthen and reinforce that natural shield of armor around yourself, and bring yourself to the point where stress does not stir you up and create additional turbulence for you? Is it conceivable to inoculate yourself in such a way that you cannot be knocked off balance when major setbacks hit you?

The first step of stress management is to teach ourselves to being aware of our stress level. Just like in the carbon monoxide metaphor mentioned earlier, often we do not realize the intense level of stress we might be experiencing. One way of developing an awareness of the stress in our lives is to periodically assess and evaluate our stress level on a scale of 1 to 10.

The Healing Power of Laughter

Proven Strategies To Tap Into The Healing Power Of Laughter to Strengthen Your Immune System

by Rick Saldan

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We have multiple systems built into the body that operate automatically to filter our toxins and impurities. Two of those systems require some action on our part, the others are all automatic. One of those is our lymphatic system. The lymphatic system removes toxins from our bodies, but that system is only activated when are physically active. The more physically active you are, the more effectively your lymphatic system is cleansing your body of impurities, toxins and poisons. Immune cells moving through the body use blood vessels and the lymphatic system. If you live a quiet sedate lifestyle where we are sitting much of the day, that lymphatic system is not being given the chance to function efficiently. The motion of our muscles as we move around is what causes the lymphatic system to get rid of cellular wastes.

Another extremely effective procedure pre-built into our bodies is the simple act of laughter! The simple act of laughing triggers a cleansing response in our bodies. It's a remarkable thing.

The first person to recognize the link between laughter and healing of the body is found in written records dating back 3,000 years ago. I find that to be amazing. Do you know who that was? One hint is that he was one of the richest men in the history of the world. In today's economy, records indicate that he was paid an annual salary of $760 million dollars per year. He held his job 40 years, which comes out to being paid $30 billion dollars. Would you guess who he was? The man was King of Israel and his name was Solomon. He reigned from 970 B.C. to 931 B.C. King Solomon wrote, "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones."

So not only does he make a connection between laughter and its medicinal value, but it is my theory that he gives us an insight into one of the root causes of autoimmune disease. Why do I say that? We have various elements of our immune system. Some of the most important components that fight off disease are lymphocytes such as T cells, B cells and Natural Killer cells. These special cells in our immune system are known for fighting off cancer cells and other diseases. It has been proven that laughter can help to increase the production of these special cells in fighting off disease.

A medical research group called Bennett & Associates conducted a study in 2003 showing that the more a patient laughed, the greater the percentage of Natural Killer cells that were produced by the body. Along with red blood cells, most white blood cells and platelets, these 3 lymphocytes are all produced where? In our bone marrow. White blood cells are created to attack infection. Platelets are created when the skin is cut and we begin bleeding and are used for clotting the blood. Bone marrow is the origin of all types of immune cells.

When we are under stress, our body releases stress hormones, such as cortisol and adrenalin. The presence of these hormones in the blood reduces the production of cells that make up the immune system, such as T cells and Natural Killer cells. When you slip into fight or flight mode because of stress, your body slows down your immune system. Adrenaline increases your heart rate, elevates your blood pressure and boosts energy supplies. Cortisol increases glucose sugars in the bloodstream, and enhances your brain's use of glucose.

A number of alternative therapies for cancer patients have included support groups centered on the simple act of laughing. YouTube has a number of former cancer patients that have reported their tumors vanished because they would watch funny movies or cartoons every day that would make them laugh, triggering these cleansing responses built into the body.

Breaking Free of the Matrix

by Rick Saldan

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While it has been years since it first hit the big screen, the life lessons in The Matrix seem much more pertinent today than they did a decade ago. Just as Neo learned everything he always trusted in had crumbled, so we see the fabric of society crumbling around us. Job security is a thing of the past with "at will employment laws" enacted in almost every state. Many large American corporations now have more employees overseas than here in the USA. The middle class is quickly evaporating. More than 50% of American households live from one paycheck to the next. Many college graduates can only find menial jobs while being straddled with huge school loans. All of these trends will continue escalating. How do we cope? We must learn the same lessons as Neo and dig deep within to uncover gifts and talents than can help us to thrive in this challenging new world. We must learn how to set ourselves free from fears, doubts and inhibitions that are holding us back. We must learn the skills that help us to rise to excellence in our fields. We must become master innovators.

Lupus

How to Survive and Thrive After Doctors Say You Have Five Years Left To Live

by Rick Saldan

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I Was Healed Of Horrible Lupus Symptoms In Just Two Hours. A True Genuine Medical Miracle.

We heard about a 4-day seminar being held for people with incurable diseases and drove 12 hours straight to attend the conference taught by an attorney out in Traverse City, Michigan. He was teaching about hidden factors tied to lupus and other autoimmune diseases. His teachings had helped other patients with autoimmune diseases such as Lupus, Addison's Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Sjogren Syndrome, and Graves' Disease. As a student studying for nursing school, his whole concept completely intrigued me. We hopped in the car and drove all night long some 760 miles to attend this training session and learn more. Nothing else worked, so why not give this approach a try?

I Believe This Will Work For 1 Out Of 3 People With Lupus and Related Autoimmune Diseases

This book describes the journey I had in learning about possible root causes and cure of Lupus and related auto-immune diseases. It details my ongoing journey of unraveling the disease and the progression of walking my way out to freedom. I share the stories of my joy in seeing how a two-hour session completely healed me and eliminated five years of hellish physical torment and mental anguish with these horrible symptoms. I was completely set free and had no symptoms for the next eleven months. Obviously I cannot guarantee that what I did will work for you, but I truly hope that it does.  If nothing else is working for you, perhaps this new information will help you as it did for me.

Lupus Gave Me Five Unbearable Years of Physical Torture and Mental Anguish

The sun sensitivity symptoms grew worse. At times the pain was absolutely maddening with nothing available to lessen the pain and mental torment. My skin burned like you poured gasoline on me and lit it up. My muscles hurt. Fatigue and exhaustion crippled me. Various flu-like symptoms. You cannot imagine how hellish this is to live this way. Nothing to look forward to but pain and hopelessness. The pain grew so intense we boarded up the windows of our home to block the sunlight. That added to my heartbreaking sense of feeling ostracized and cut off. I became a prisoner in my own home, falling deeper into the abyss of dread and hopelessness. The resulting problems began snowballing and escalating. Family problems. Financial problems. Problems with neighbors. Lupus wrecked into every area of my life and completely intensified the sense of misery and despair.

Lupus Can Be Viewed As A Modern-Day Form Of Leprosy Forcing Victims Into Hiding

Lupus is often a debilitating disease that silently destroys the lives of its victims, dismantling every aspect of their lives. Lupus often forces it's sun sensitive and fluorescent sensitive patients to hide in darkness because the sunlight causes such extensive pain and other problems. They never known when the Lupus flare-ups will strike.
 

Top Rheumatologist Told Me I Had About Five Years Left To Live
Most doctors know next to nothing about Lupus and related autoimmune diseases. Over the course of some 20 years, I saw at least a dozen doctors who all had no idea what my symptoms could be. Then one day while watching late night television, they had a panel of Lupus experts talking about it. One doctor described my symptoms exactly. I met with him and he told me the Lupus case I had was so advanced that I had about five years left to live.

This simple method has worked for many people (not all people) suffering with autoimmune disease and it may help you like it did for me!

Excelling With Excel Formulas

How I Used Nested If-Then Loops and Vlookups to Accomplish The Impossible

by Rick Saldan

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I love Excel formulas. I love the complexity and intricacy. The more difficult and mind bending the scenario, the more I love to sink my teeth into it to figure out some way to solve it. 

Such was the case with this problem. I was asked by a fund manager if it could be solved. Two partners in the bonds department of this financial firm told me they had worked on it off and on for 3 years and it was impossible to do this work with Excel. Impossible? That perked my ears.

I spent the next six weeks working after hours, toiling away late into the midnight hours trying to crack the code and then finally solved it. It had become an obsession to figure this problem out. Even during the day, when I was not allowed to work on it, my mind was still trying different approaches to make it work. Kind of like a Rubik's Cube. You try one combination after another. When that fails, you trying a different set of steps and see if that works. You get closer and closer. A few sides of the Rubik's Cube have been unified and are all one color. That now gives you extra momentum to push harder and keep on pushing.

If you love Excel formulas, this book walks you through step by step explaining the thought process in detail. So let's jump in with Excel and do the impossible!

Using Theatrical Stage Magic to Assess Cognitive Development

Exploring Fundamental Building Blocks in Childhood Development with Conjuring, Comedy and Sleight of Hand

by Rick Saldan

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Join us on a whimsical journey using magic and mayhem to as a psychological evaluation tool. A satirical look at the world of assessment and evaluation of the inner workings of the mind through the use of stage magic.

In working our way towards setting up the evaluation, I found myself in a most difficult position of trying to explain to my family of this appraisal of the mind that I wanted to conduct. I could sense by the questions they were asking my wife, that they were growing more and more concerned as the conversation wore on. What kind of results was I looking for? Would there be any discomfort involved? What was the outcome I was looking for? Are there any costs involved? 

I could see my wife growing tired of playing the role of middle man in trying to sell the idea to her brother on the telephone. Suddenly, the perfect answer seemed to present itself on the spur of the moment. 

Like a delicious steak suddenly appearing to the stranded tourist lost in a sea of desert sand, the perfect solution to our spiraling conundrum instantly flashed before my eyes. I asked my wife to hand me the telephone, and I blurted out that we are offering to come over to their home and conduct a small magic show for them. Just like real magic, these ten words suddenly transformed the energy of the conversation quite noticeably. 

Sure enough, he agreed. As one subterfuge seemed to lead to another, I continued the thinly veiled ruse by further stating that it would be an educational format and that I was looking to try out some new ideas for teaching some concepts such as sharing is caring, nurturing self-esteem and helpful concepts along those lines.

Once again, the visual cortex loaned me yet another helping hand, and the brain flashed on the screen a video clip of me teaching the children how to perform a magic trick, so that I might prod here and there in hopes of uncovering some deep psychological nuggets of truth. Indeed, the subterfuge seemed to be taking on a life of its own, as I found that my own excitement level was intensifying as I was growing in admiration of the sheer cleverness of implementing the covert cover of using a magic show as a diversionary tool for conducting psychological research among O.P.C. (hereinafter a reference for "Other People's Children"). 

Sure enough, my Kreskin-like ability for sensing that this deal would be closed within a few minutes had truly come to pass. (I quickly thought to myself, now if I only I could enhance my Kreskin abilities by duplicating his world famous stage illusion of being able to find a paycheck that might be hidden anywhere among the audience members.) 

The tide had turned and they seemed excited that Mr. Magic would be coming over to the house to entertain them. Now I found that I also was growing in enthusiasm for the undertaking as I now had the challenging mission of reviewing and hunting for those assessment techniques which might correspond with some magic trick that I had collecting dust among the countless magic effects scattered all throughout my ever shrinking domicile. 

I smiled to myself, as comical visions danced through my mind of psychologists all over the world one day employing a similar subterfuge of magical mayhem serving to disguise a psychological intrusion and exploration into the minds of both adult and child audience members, without any of them ever knowing that their inner processes had been probed and duly mapped without ever a wary parent raising a single solitary suspect concern. That is surely one of the great features and benefits of possessing the skill set of being a modern day conjuror and prestidigitator. 
 

Spiritual Influences on Classic Literature

by Rick Saldan

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Activism can be described as any action that is designed to create change in society. Some activists use tools such as public protests, street marches, public rallies, signed petitions and publicity stunts to get their message out into the minds of the public masses. A skillful writer is an activist of another sort who conjures up a Trojan horse of significantly greater stealth and resilience, because his political or religious platform might outlast his lifetime and be passed from one generation to the next. The writers examined in this book are indeed activists who have launched their message in a rocket-propelled vehicle that will go on and on through hundreds of years. 
 
In this book, we examine six such activists throughout world history that sought to sway, influence and persuade the masses through their stories, poems and plays. Many such writings have become classics of literature. Their works have survived the years and continue to inspire readers everywhere.

Correcting Corrections

by Rick Saldan

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Have you or your loved ones ever been the victim of a violent crime? Chances are very high that the perpetrators were already in and out of the corrections system several times. Here in America, the recidivism rate is as high as 77%. If you look at the corrections system in Europe, their recidivism rate is at 15%. That's proof that it can be done. So why aren't we? Why do we allow such a broken and failed concept to continue on and on?

What our prisons do excel at is producing graduates who are more intensely violent and better skilled at committing more crimes. Rehabilitation is practically non-existent. This book takes a look into the ongoing problems of our corrections system that nobody seems to want to fix. If the Europeans can fix their corrections system, why can't we? Why not rehabilitate these men and women and help them to integrate as productive members of society?

Cold War Essays on Societal Breakdown

by Rick Saldan

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Kennedy Death Squads

Evidence Showing Sirhan and Oswald Did Not Mastermind the RFK & JFK Assassinations

by Rick Saldan

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Did Lee Harvey Oswald assassinate President John F. Kennedy? Did Sirhan Sirhan assassinate Senator Robert F. Kennedy?

No, they could not possibly do it alone! The purpose of this book is to examine bodies of evidence that undeniably show these two being patsies sucked into a much larger machinery of powerful conspirators. When you examine the facts, you will see that it is absolutely impossible for these two to have operated alone.

Magic Bullet Theory

Explanations such as the "magic bullet" theory cooked up by the late Senator Arlen Specter to explain how the bullets where able to fly and reverse themselves in mid-air. Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, forensic pathologist who examined JFK's body, wrote a book and said Specter's theory was an "asinine, pseudoscientific sham at best" and the conclusions of the Warren Commission were "absolute nonsense."
 

Oswald's Rifle

When I served as a reservist in the Marines, I was a clerk in charge of maintaining the records of all the Marines in our unit (MOS 0121). All DD-214s and all Service Record Books have the rifle scores of the serviceman. When Oswald served in the Marines, Oswald barely qualified on the rifle range with just one point above passing. Not an expert sniper as they claim. His commander said Oswald was one of the worst shooters in their unit. There was absolutely no gun residue found on Oswald's hands, face or clothing after the shooting. Oswald's rifle was a junk mail order Carcano weapon with a 4x power telescopic gun sight that even the FBI couldn't zero in with. The photo of Oswald holding the rifle was faked.

The World's Greatest Snipers Couldn't Make the Shots

USMC Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock, one of the most decorated combat snipers in US military history, earned 93 confirmed kills in Vietnam. He was the senior instructor for the USMC Sniper School. His team constructed a full scale duplicate model of Dealey Plaza in Quantico. Not one single expert class sniper in the world was able to come close to the astounding high accuracy shots on a moving target and masterful timing credited to Oswald. The question is not "can a shooter fire 3 shots in 5.6 seconds." The real question is can a shooter fire the first 2 shots in 1.6 seconds? No, absolutely impossible.
 

Forensic Investigators Prove 13 Shots Fired at Bobby Kennedy

In the RFK assassination, forensic investigators were able to use modern computer technology that can separate sounds by milliseconds. What sounded like a few shots to human ears was actually proven to be 13 different gun shots that killed Bobby Kennedy.
 

Nearly 100 Material Witnesses to the JFK Assassination All Mysteriously Killed

Police officers, attorneys, congressmen, reporters, and even mob figures were all killed mysteriously before they were called to bring forth various pieces of evidence of one form or another. Some died of mysterious accidents, others died of poorly staged suicides, and many simply died of gunshots to the head.

Gain a bird's eye summary overview that clearly shows Oswald and Sirhan could not have possibly been the assassins of President John F. Kennedy and his brother Senator Bobby Kennedy. This book provides the reader with evidence that completely proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Oswald and Sirhan were indeed patsies that could not have possibly been the lone gunman they have been portrayed to be.

Confronting Racial Hatred with Classic Literature

by Rick Saldan

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Just when we think that racial tensions have eased, the head of racial hatred rears its ugly head yet again. At times it seems like an endless game of whack-a-mole with no end in sight. We know that racial hatred is passed down through one generation to the next. We must find ways of addressing the issues of racial hatred within our schools. If we stay focused on this objective, it is conceivable that one day we might be able to eradicate racial hatred in a single generation. Just as we did with polio, smallpox, malaria, hookworm and other dreadful diseases.

One method of doing this in the schools is by examining classic literature that addresses the topic of racial hatred and prejudice. By creating a classroom environment where young people can safely air their views within the context of discussing literature, we can at least begin an intelligent dialogue. We can eventually train up a new generation of youth that no longer carries the seed of racial hatred. The short stories in this book are two such examples.

The two short stories are, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings", by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; and, "Battle Royal" by Ralph Ellison. Both of these stories examined in a classroom setting provide opportunity for each student to openly talk about racial hatred and what can be done to eventually rid ourselves from it.