The McIntosh Newsletter - March 2009

I hope you are well and had a nice February. I am so excited - Spring is right around the corner!

In the Headlines..

Newscasts report daily that our economy is on a downward trend. People are losing their homes, highly-paid executives are losing their positions and having to settle for lower-paying jobs, food and energy costs continue to increase, and the list goes on. Just in the last week, local headlines have included the following:

- Greenfield supplier reducing work force by 180
- C.P. Morgan Shutting down
- New-home sales tumble to 1963 levels
- Jobless claims rise more than expected

How we choose to react to and think about these negative conditions is completely up to us and will ultimately impact our success.

I recently read an article written by a leadership guru, which talks about the importance of our attitudes and thought behaviors and the impact they have on our success. He states that "Technical knowledge and ability contributes only about ten percent to your success. About fifteen percent of your success is based on work habits, about twenty five percent is based on strategy, and a full fifty percent of your success is based on how you think. That includes your self esteem, your self confidence, your beliefs, your perspective on solving problems, resilience, and your attitude and outlook." The good news is that we can control how and what we think about.

In this month's newsletter, I have included an inspirational quote, an article about the correlation between attitude and success, and a list of some of our current openings. Please let me know if you have questions. Also, please feel free to share this newsletter with your friends and others in your network.

Winston Churchill Quote:
"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”

Attitude is the Key to Success
By Joe Love

We all want success in life. We want success in our home life, business life, and in our relationships with others. The most important single factor that guarantees our success in every aspect of our lives is having a positive attitude. Without a positive attitude success is not possible.

You will never attract positive things into your life if all of your thoughts are negative. Just as a magnet attracts anything metal our minds attract the things we think about most. Your mind will always seek to turn the things you think about most into physical reality. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "A man becomes what he thinks about, most of the time."
Everyone of us has two different minds, the conscious and the subconscious. The conscious mind is our thinking, which uses logic, deduction, reason, and sound judgement to make its decisions. Your choices in life are made by the conscious mind.

The subconscious mind lies outside your conscious mind. It has access to data, information, and ideas outside your own experience. Your subconscious mind works 24 hours a day and it is the source of all examples of pure creativity, problem solving, and goal achievement. It is a magical part of your mind. The part of your mind where genius lies.

Our subconscious mind is not able to distinguish between postive and negative thoughts. So, if you tell yourself something often enough your subconscious will eventually come to believe it. If you repeat something often enough whether it be positive or negative it will become your reality. This is because your subconscious mind constantly strives to attract the material equivalent of your most frequent and prominent thoughts.

It is impossible for a negative mind to attract positive things. If you're thinking about problems constantly you will find them. Is it possible to overcome negative and pessimistic thinking with postive thoughts? You bet it is! And it's someting which can be easily learned.

It's all a matter of conditioning. You can train your mind to think positive thoughts the same way you can learn anything else. The way to do this, is to remove any negative thoughts one at a time until there are none left. And for each negative thought that you remove, you then plant a new and positive thought in its place. You then nurture those positive thoughts until there is no room for any negative thoughts to grow. Then, make a habit of stopping a negative thought any time it appears and replacing it with a postive thought. For example, replace, "I can't do it" with "I can do it" and you'll find your attitude and your life will greatly improve.

Positive thoughts will lead you to financial success and it will help you find the true riches of life for yourself and your family. So whatever it is in life that you want, you must begin today to become a "positive thinker." Once you do this your future success will be unlimited.