The inner battles that athletes wage within themselves are numerous. The fear of failure as well as the fear of success, are common. Each person deals with it in his or her own way. Canadian golf sensation Lorie Kane knows as well as anyone what this battle entails. "When I’m confident I move forward and when I’m not, I don’t." Sounds simple enough, but confidence and winning can be illusive in both sports and life. Lorie has first hand experience in this matter and her approach to finally winning her first LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association) tournament has lessons for all of us. In 1997, her first full year on the LPGA tour, her goal was simply to get experience and get better. She stood on the brink of victory four times that season. Two of her four second-place finishes came in agonizing sudden-death playoffs, but still she won U.S. $425,964, eleventh on the money list. A stellar first year. The questions began circulating amongst media and fellow players: When would she win? Did she have the right stuff? Was she tough enough? Did she have the will? After nine second-place finishes, she began to wonder herself. Here is where her caddy Danny Sharp played an integral role in helping her over that final hurdle. "When she started to have all those seconds, it became obvious that she had a fear of success," said Sharp. "Winning was going to put her out in front. Prior to that she could hide in the pack." It might sound odd having a fear of success, but it is more common than you might suspect. Kane had been secretly managing her fear by focusing on lowering her stroke average and never talking about winning. Sharp believed that this strategy had to change. It had put her into contention nearly every tournament but it did not help her win. "You have to think about winning, embrace it, talk about it," said Sharp. "Once she got into a position to win, no one helped her to think about winning." Heading into the Michelob Light Classic in St. Louis last August, she decided to face her fears head on. Early in the tournament, the attention was where she wanted it — on the tour stars. The cameras only shifted to Kane after she followed a first round 68 with a scorching 66, putting her in the lead. "The night before the final round I visualized the whole course," she said. "I have a great memory for golf courses. I played my way through each hole, each shot. Then, driving to the golf course, Danny and I talked strategy to get focused. I wasn’t comfortable through the first nine holes. I was fighting things. I can remember standing on the second green after I bogeyed the hole and I turned to Danny and told him I felt like I was going to throw up." Kane was one over par through the front nine, but when she made [...]

It is an incredible discovery when we realize that fun, joy, happiness and beauty are not simply enjoyable experiences but valuable sources of energy as well. They increase our energy when we activate them. We should increase our intake of these activities as much as possible, many times every day. Learning how to be creative and attentive and making fun, joy and beauty a priority in our life is easy once we realize their importance. There are many ways we can bring fun, joy and beauty into our lives and most of them don’t cost a cent. It’s simply attuning ourselves to what is already happening in our lives and harvesting fun, joy and happiness as a daily practice. In 2002 I wrote a book called The Practice of Happiness. I can’t tell you the number times in media interviews that I had to correct an interviewer when they confused the words pursuit and practice. They would usually start out with a statement like, “In your book the ‘Pursuit of Happiness’…” and I would correct them: “It’s not the pursuit of happiness. It’s the practice of happiness.” This Freudian slip happened time and time again even though they had the title right in front of them. We are so indoctrinated to pursue things in order to achieve them that it is hard, at first, to understand the concept of practice rather than pursuit. But that is the whole point of my book: you don’t pursue happiness, you practice it daily, and discover it many times in your day-to-day activities. When you do this an extraordinary thing happens - you discover your happiness. Fun, joy and beauty have never truly been recognized as energy sources before. Nobody thinks of them this way, and so they have not been utilized as uplifting sources of energy. They have been neglected and misunderstood. Fun increases our flow and intake of energy, and when our energy is at a high level we function better. Think about it. How do you “feel” when you’re having fun? This in itself should teach us an important lesson. Fun, pleasure and having a good time are not frivolous activities, but forgotten sources of energy. When you think about it in these terms you suddenly realize how negligent we are in accessing this energy. In my book The Practice of Happiness, I emphasized the importance of fun and joy: Having fun daily, even if it’s only for a few minutes, is a life-affirming practice. It’s also a powerful symbol to our subconscious. It is saying I am worthy. Life is good. Even small amounts of fun every day can have a profound effect. We must be diligent in taking time to nourish ourselves. If, no matter how busy we are, we still have the wisdom to take time for ourselves, we will be well compensated. Don’t be fooled by pressures and responsibilities; they will wait for you. We set the agenda for our life, and in our agenda there must [...]

January is typically a month of reflection, a time to look back at past choices to see how the year unfolded, and to look ahead. It is a time of new resolutions and commitments, and to choose again. Choice is our ultimate act of creativity. It is the way we express ourselves. It is through choice that we navigate through life. The choices we encounter are incalculable. For example, think of how many choices you've already made just today. You have chosen the clothes you are now wearing. You have chosen what you ate. You have chosen a number of activities today, including the choice to log on to this website and read this month's Topic of the Month. Each day unfolds like this. Countless choices, many of them made without much thought, following the programming and habitual routines we have built for ourselves. When we are unconscious in the act of choosing, or too busy to notice why and what we are choosing, we cease to have free will and give up our powers of choice. Instead we allow our programming to choose for us. This works well if our programming has been carefully selected by us to assist in our unfolding destiny. But if our programming is the result of neglect, fears, worries or destructive habits, then we are apt to simply follow the path of least resistance. In these cases we often make poor choices. Choosing well necessitates knowing ourselves, as well as our objectives. Knowing where we tend to procrastinate, make excuses and fall short is valuable information. Knowing these aspects of ourselves, we can design strategies and choose actions to compensate. Success is not achieved by luck or fate, but by understanding the dynamics of who we are, and then harnessing the power of our thoughts in a creative way. We have complete free will to choose the actions we pursue, the thoughts we entertain, and the beliefs we hold. We are the product of our choices. Knowing this, the Mind Power student works diligently with consciousness to create his life. He creates the thoughts, beliefs and visions that best serve him. And this is done in a very systematic way, understanding the laws of manifestation. We become the artist and creator of our life. What beliefs would you desire to have vibrating within you day and night? Practice Mind Power and you will create them. The subconscious is ever listening. The ways and means of programming and imprinting into the subconscious are well known and tested. We can create beliefs and habits of thought to support us. This website is filled with this knowledge. We can adjust our habits and create ourselves with applied thought. This is why Mind Power is such a valuable practice to master. Each day propels us into unknown and new territory, giving us an opportunity to practice our techniques. Master the daily practice of Mind Power and you will be successful. This practice will become habit and drive us [...]