Market Recap: RISI Crows House Residential Framing Index

A lift in SPF lumber market activity the prior Friday filtered into the beginning of the week, firming prices and pushing the lowest quotes in the market to higher levels.

We visualize more often than we realize. Most of the time we see various pictures and images in our minds that appear one after the other seemingly aimlessly. Our thoughts wander from our past experience to what we expect in future, and to many other fields. We hold pictures of many real and imaginary events in our minds as we think and very often feel the emotions associated with those pictures.

From our earliest childhood we form ideas and opinions about ourselves and about what we deserve to have in our lives. We form a belief system and our own world-view. Those ideas and opinions become fairly well established in our subconscious as we grow older. When we visualize in normal course we tend to pay more attention to those images that tend to reinforce our belief system, our world-view, our opinion about ourselves and our assessment of what we deserve.

We, as adults, have achieved certain positions in our lives and in our societies because at subconscious level we have convinced ourselves that this is what we deserve to have. We inadvertently draw resources around us to maintain us at our existing level. Normally we are not able to come out of our self-imposed traps and make any significant improvements in our lives.

Unless we decide to change.

Just as our normal visualization drags us to our created limitations, the same technique of visualization can help us to move towards unlimited prosperity. Purposeful visualization can make us come out of our imaginary boundaries and reach for the sky.

The human potential is unlimited. Any weaknesses we see in ourselves insecure financial position, problems in dealing with people, health problems, ineffective social interaction, our perceived compulsions to live within certain circumstances they are all results of our thought process.

It may appear difficult to believe but simply by changing your thinking pattern you can achieve anything you desire in your life. As you intentionally attempt to change your thinking one of the most important steps is to match your thoughts with your actions. When it is done properly you discipline yourself to do whatever is required to achieve your goals. Idle day dreaming is not going to help.

How can you use visualization to achieve your goals?

Let us say you wish to have a huge house. Your desire to own this house is intense and you are passionate about it. You must be having a reason why you want this house this why is going to be a powerful motivator. This why need not be anything logical. Just your feeling that you deserve to have this house is good enough. You must be reasonably clear about what type of house you want. If it is still vague then in your imagination try to give it a shape which will fulfill your expectations.

To start the process set a time and a place. You should preferably do it twice every day at about the same time. The place you choose should not make you feel constrained. Choose a place where you feel relatively free and open. Visualization will be more effective if you write down your goals and read them aloud. Write down that you are poised to achieve your goal by certain time frame, read your goals aloud and start visualizing as you read. Dont worry about how you are going to attain your goal, instead concentrate on why you want it.

Try to focus on your house and see it in as much detail as you can. Visualize yourself in the picture, may be going from room to room in your house. Try to put emotions and feelings in your visualization. You may think how happy you are to own this house, how satisfied you are with your achievement. You can imagine the reaction of other people when they come to know about your house and when you invite them there. You can express gratefulness to the universe for providing you with such a wonderful gift.

It is not necessary to close your eyes as if you are meditating. You can visualize with your eyes open. In real life people visualize aimlessly with eyes open. The important part is to follow your schedule religiously even if you dont see any immediate results.

When you start you may not have a road map to reach your dream house. That is not unusual. But you will have some idea about your perceived obstacles and what you can do immediately to try and overcome them to some extent. You will know what small steps you should take to move towards your goal. You must discipline yourself to take those steps, however small they may appear. One of the steps you have to take is to visualize regularly and properly.

As you continue with this practice the universe around you will work to grant you your desire. You will find opportunities to move forward. You will think of and may have insight about the next steps to follow. Maintain your determination to follow those steps. You will see guidance and path ways to reach your goal.

This technique can be used for anything you wish to achieve, I mean really wish to achieve. Your wish could be possession of physical assets or you may like to develop your personality, skill level, health etc. Out of the desires you may have you can select five or six goals at a time and try to achieve them with help of visualization. You can replace your goals as you achieve them. You should be able to complete your visualization in each session in about 10 minutes or so.

Visualization can work wonders in all the areas you wish to improve. Nobody achieved anything great without first visualizing what he or she wanted to achieve.

Sanjay Johari regularly contributes articles to several ezines. Discover how to work the powerful combination of network marketing and a proper mindset to attain financial success in life. Visit his website on Network Marketing.

Mentor
John Adams
Eckhart Tolle
Intention Statement

Goal Setting - How to Achieve Total Laser Focus

One of the most important attributes that you can develop to help you reach your goals is the ability to entirely and completely focus on the task at hand. However, concentrated focus is a skill that many of us seem to lack. We allow ourselves to become easily distracted, drawn from our path by negative thoughts, fear and procrastination.

Here are my top three tips to help you develop total, laser focus.

Tip #1. Declare your current task as the most important thing in the world. Tell yourself that if you do not begin, stick to and complete this task by your required deadline then dire and appalling consequences will ensue.

We are often taught to concentrate on the positive, but I find that this is one time when the negative can be useful too. No, it may not be true that the world will end if you dont achieve your daily goal, but there are plenty of negative consequences for you to think about.

You will certainly be letting yourself down and you may be letting others down. There may be long term financial consequences and difficult times which could be avoided by getting this job done. Whatever the outcome, it is a useful exercise to raise the stakes for yourself as much as possible.

Write down all the bad stuff that might happen if you dont achieve this goal and pin it up where you work as a reminder why you should be getting this done. Pin it up next to all the good stuff that youre aiming for. This is the ultimate carrot and stick method.

Tip #2. Allow no distractions. We are whimsical creatures with butterfly minds and we like nothing better than being distracted from hard work. Our minds are constantly on the look out for anything which is more pleasurable than what were doing right now, so it is important to put up the barriers.

Tell family, friends and work colleagues that under no circumstances are they to interrupt you while you are working on your task. Turn off the phone, dont look at e-mail. Stay away from the TV and newspapers. Work in a quiet place where there is little background noise and where you cant hear other peoples conversations. If that is not possible, use headphones and listen to calming music while you work. Train your brain to tune out extraneous noise and concentrate on what you are doing.

Tip #3. Do it, do it, do it, till it is done. This is the most important rule of all. Once you have raised the stakes and banned all distractions, you must take consistent, concerted and vigorous action. Have everything you need to hand, start when you said you would and keep going with full and complete determination till your task is complete.

Think of yourself as a highly efficient, well maintained machine which was designed to carry out precisely this task. Tell yourself that no other machine has ever existed that was so well suited to this job. Revel in your skills, enjoy your mastery of the task and take pride in your determination.

If you follow these three guiding principles, whatever you set out to do will become easier, be completed faster and will give you more pleasure. Try them next time you need to achieve anything important.

Hi, my name is Andrew Grant. I hope you enjoyed this article. If you would like to read more great articles on self improvement and making money online, I'd like to invite you to subscribe to my free newsletter, which you'll find at : http://www.money-and-mind.com

Eastern Buddhism

The Law of Attraction - What Is It Really?

There has been all of this talk about The Secret on Oprah and Larry King. There have been both sides of the coin shownthe optimistic side and the pessimistic side. Where most people fall is somewhere in the middle, having cracked the tip of the iceberg for a waking aha moment that seems to in an instant, explain some of lifes most pressing questions.

However, when these aha moments occur, thats just the beginning of a new realm of possibility, information, wonderment, new scenarios as well as confusion, disbelief, frustration, and fear. With all of this attention to this Law of Attraction, it would be imperative to take a simple look at what the Law states:

The Law of Attraction simply states that what you think and feel about most, you will attract. Where you focus most of your attention is what is going to show up in your life whether you like it or not. This can be both a wonderful realization and a painful one. It can be empowering or frightening realizing that your life is actually in your hands too and not solely the hands of anything external as many of us believe. Having to take ownership for your life is most often referred to as free will. This Law suggests that the external you see, even if you cant figure out how, is a reflection of your thoughts and emotions that come from your free will, which is governed by both the conscious mind and primarily the subconscious mind.

So going back to the initial question, lets ask again, what is the Law of Attraction? It is simply a Universal Law that can not be avoided, circumvented or proved to be false. Laws of the Universe govern our existence, and when we begin to learn about them and purposely work with them to our advantage, we can start to see more of what it is we like and less of what we dont like.

This is a breaking-the ice article, which will continue to uncover more insights the deeper you decide to go. Like in the popular movie, What The Bleep Do We Know, how far down the rabbit hole do you want to go?

For most people, discovering the Law of Attraction is an awakening to self; self-realization, self-empowerment, self-actualization and so on. It puts a person in a place, even if its just for a moment, where they can take ownership for the events that take place in their lives and the people that they come in contact with either directly or indirectly. Learning about the Law of Attraction helps to begin demystifying the beliefs that most people hold so closely to themselves as absolute truth. It does so by providing an answer to the how that many people wonder regarding why certain things happen to them. For instance, if you wonder why me or why them and not me, the Universal Law of Attraction helps to give a reason.

If you want to look more into reasons why and the way the Law of Attraction works, visit the post The Law of Attraction: How It Works.

Megan Jenifer operates the blog http://www.TheLawofAttractionStation.com which is all about The Law of Attraction. She loves giving away free stuff and is now giving away a free copy of her special report, The Top 10 Ways Most People Repel Money. In addition to this free report, youll also have a free membership to her newsletter. Youre not going to believe what you get when you sign-up and its all free.

J Oswald Sanders
Mohandas Gandhi
Bill Gates

Law of Attraction - Ethics and Long Term Disability

Just on CNN.com to day was an article on "The Secret," the book that has taken the world (literally) by storm outlining what has commonly become known as The Law of Attraction. While there is nothing new about this "Law" - it's been written about for decades - what is new is the presentation and the popularity in our culture.

So what's really at issue? Let's look an example. Not long ago I heard a lady expressing how "The Secret" had changed her perspective - how she was going to use the law of attraction to change her health and wealth. She was pumped and full of enthusiasm. Seems she had been ill for some time and felt that through using "The Secret," she could attract the funds she needed to seek some desperately needed medical help. On the surface everything seemed reasonable. You attract to you what you seek or what you hold in consciousness. Therefore ask and you will receive, a fundamental tenant of "The Secret" or "the Law of Attraction," should yield the results that you seek.

"Should" - but here's there's more to the story. Seems the person seeking funding for medical care is on long-term disability. There is no doubt that the individual is ill and needs medical attention. But as Paul Harvey would say - here's the rest of the story. The person in question contracted her illness 20+ years ago. That was not revealed to the company through whom she has long-term disability. In her words, "has they known when I got sick, it would have been considered a pre-existing condition and I would not have received my disability benefit. So I never talk about those early days."

Wow...my first thought was here was someone who knew that perhaps they wouldn't qualify for a benefit, but was willing to play the system for personal gain. Would they willing to be honest and accept the consequences? Again, let me make it clear - I don't doubt the illness - I'm concerned about the ethics of taking what may not be rightly theirs. But the story goes deeper.

While on long-term disability the individual in question found out that the insurance company had her under investigation. It seems that insurance companies are quick to investigate in order to avoid fraudulent claims or payouts. Do insurance companies use ethical tactics in order to find out the truth? Probably not - however, there have been many documented claims of disability when, in fact, it was not 100% true. Does this justify unethical investigational tactics? No, but one could see how that could apply when the rest of the story is revealed.

Let's take it a bit further. A person who has 100% disability prepares for a trip to a large city in anticipation of a major performance at a world renowned venue. Wait - this is confusing, I thought folks with disabilities - especially 100% were, well let's say, challenged with strenuous effort. I agree. But let's look at the facts - packing suit cases, traveling to the airport, boarding a plane, going to the hotel, practicing for hours (in anticipation of the performance), standing for hours (before and during the performance) and then attending a celebration meeting following. Doesn't sound like someone who is totally disabled.

But there's more. How did this go undetected by the insurance company? Good question. One suitcase was wrapped up like a gift so that it would not appear suspicious as it was taken out of the dwelling. And, upon return, the disabled individual exited (not at her dwelling), but a ways away - so that she could move behind the building - jump a fence - and sneak in the back door so that anyone watching would not know that she returned. And what about the suitcases. She had them taken to another location so that she could unpack them a little at a time - carrying the contents in grocery bags - again to fool any insurance investigator who might be looking.

"I don't want them to know I've been away. Otherwise, they would follow me and use the trip against me in their attempt to deny my claim," stated the individual. It appears that the insurance company would contend that she could do some work - and while that might be true - she sure didn't want to let them know that.

While I will say, yet again, that I don't doubt her illness - I am amazed at the lack of ethics and integrity involved in trying to dupe the insurance company - thereby, enabling the ability to gain financial benefit.

But what does this have to do with the "Law of Attraction?" There are many "laws" that we live under and through which govern our world as it operates daily. There's the "law of gravity." We can't deny that. Likewise, there is another law - some know it as "You reap what you sow," or the "law of cause and effect." Either way, as a motivation speaker, I find that I am called up to speak to groups about the application of this law - as I have lived through both the consequences and benefits of it's application. I speak first hand on Choices: Negative Consequences - Positive Results a keynote speech that outlines the power we have as individuals based on the choices we make. Further, the presentation, Make It Happen is a keynote presentation outlining the practical application of the "Law of Attraction."

What seems true is that the laws we speak of work only if they are congruent with other universal laws. For example, the "law of attraction" will not reward someone financially if they rob a bank, as that is in congruent with the "law of cause and effect," which will generate a negative consequence for the robbery - prison. Similarly, one will not be rewarded with positive results long term through lying.

We do reap what we sow and, generally, on a universal level we have in our lives what we attract to us. In this case (I may be proved wrong - but I don't think so), I doubt that the universe, through the "Law of Attraction" will provide the necessary funding for the medical care this person seeks - since such attraction would be in congruent with other universal laws. Dishonesty, unethical behavior, or lack of integrity, all combined will produce an outcome that is less than this persons best.

As a motivational speaker who speaks on the "Law of Attraction" as well as the "Law of Cause and Effect," I feel compelled to share with this individual the truth about the application of these laws. Yet, after several conversations - I'm quite convinced the message won't be heard. So often we get so caught up in our web of deceit that we can't see the truth - even when it's in front of us. More importantly, we may not be willing to accept the consequences of changing our behavior - and at that point, the consequences - when they appear - will be more dramatic than we might ever anticipate. Insurance fraud is punishable by prison - which is not the outcome being sought.

Chuck Gallagher is an international speaker and author who shares his life experience in a way that is meaningful for his audiences. For information on Chucks presentations or how to subscribe to his free ezine...visit http://www.chuckgallagher.com

Isaac Asimov
Noble Eightfold Path