"All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: Act as if it were impossible to fail. That is the talisman, the formula, the command of right-about-face which turns us from failure towards success." -Dorthea Bragg

Picking up from last weeks' discussion about no longer living in your past, we'll turn this week to the power of "faking" it.

I must warn you that "faking" it can be a double edged sword. Case in point, the "keep up with the Jones' syndrome" is a classic case of faking it with a detrimental effect. Trying to look better off than you are can land you in some serious debt!

With that point established, we can now turn to the positive side of faking it. You can quite often turn the tables of fate for yourself by simply denying reality a bit. If you're feeling down, try forcing yourself to smile. I mean it, really force yourself to hold a smile for several minutes and take note of the fact that it actually does make you feel a bit better.

I didn't really believe that success was such a mental equation until very recently. I've studied goal setting and affirmations along with a ton of other "new age" and inspirational techniques for years, but secretly I always felt like a lot of it was really fluff!

Wow, I was so wrong about that. You see, if you really start paying attention to your internal thoughts, you'll notice quite rapidly that much of what we think tends to be negative. You'll be shocked to see how many times you tell yourself you can't do something or you can't stand something. You'll have internal arguments with your spouse, your coworker, your boss. You'll justify everything you do or don't do and most of these thoughts are happening completely under your fully conscious radar.

Once you start reigning the thoughts in and controlling what you think more directly you will begin to see rapid changes in your life.

You will think like a successful person before you actually become one. You will think like a happily fulfilled person before you are in the "perfect" relationship. You will think like a millionaire before you actually are a millionaire. It's funny to me how obvious this has become to me now, and yet how determined I was that it wasn't for so long.

Start looking at people who have the things in life you want and begin to model them. Try to think like them, act like them, talk like them. As you begin living with a successful mindset the whole world will begin to get just a little brighter!