The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, by Joseph Murphy, is a classic self-development book not to be missed.  First published in 1963, there are many newer revisions available. It’s a small paperback book that retails for about $11 or you can get a Kindle copy for less than $2. I came across this book years ago and my paperback copy is full of notes and highlights. I have been re-reading in Kindle format, which is wonderful because it’s easy to find the passages you have marked and go back to them.  And you can also take a look at the most popular notes and highlights from other Kindle readers. If you haven’t read this one yet, I highly recommend picking up a copy this weekend.  Take a peek at some of the reviews on Amazon.com as well.

What I love about this book is that it’s not only affirmations about changing your thoughts and changing your life, but Murphy also shares many success stories with each of his techniques.  And many of the techniques are very simple, so that you can apply them immediately.  He writes about changing your impoverished mind-set simply by repeating the word “wealth” over and over again before falling asleep.  And during the day, when you have negative thoughts about money or finances, to do the same.  Simple, yet surprisingly effective.  Most of his techniques are used right before going to sleep, when your subconscious mind is awakening and your conscious mind is settling.

There are many chapters in the book, dealing with all of the different parts of our lives, including health, wealth, career and relationships. I have written about finding your passion before, and I found this passage from the book really resonated with me:

“Do not believe the story that the only way you can become wealthy is by the sweat of your brow and hard labour. It is not so; the effortless way of life is the best. Do the thing you love to do, and do it for the joy and thrill of it.” pg 52.

It’s all about being in The Zone! When you are in that place and life flows easily, and good things just seem to fall into your lap, you know you’re doing the right thing.  Life is not a struggle, and it doesn’t have to be hard!  It’s meant to be enjoyed to the fullest every single day.

This is a very spiritual book, and Murphy (being a minister) uses the term God fairly often. This may make some people uncomfortable, so my suggestion is that if that doesn’t resonate with you, substitute a term that does – such as the Universe or Life Force. I found it interesting that it resonates better with me now that I am exploring my faith and attending church regularly (more so than the first few times I read it).

How do you feel about these types of book? Do you feel that they can be effective in helping us to change our ways of thinking? What has worked best for you?

It’s time to admit it. I’ve fallen off the wagon. Which wagon would that be, you ask? The daily self-development wagon. Yes, the author of Motivation For Your Life, has fallen off the wagon.  I thought it would be best to admit it publicly and then ask for your help to get back on!

Anyone else ever had this happen? You are fully committed to daily self-development, and one day you forget. One day turns into a week and then a month goes by and you’ve forgotten one of the most important parts of the day! We all know that 30 min of self-development to start your day is invaluable, right? So why don’t we just do it? In my case, the biggest “distraction” has been that I’m pregnant and getting ready for the baby to arrive in October. I have been filling up on birthing books, parenting books, websites, DVDs, pre-natal classes, pre-natal yoga and of course taking care of financial matters too, since school ended a few weeks ago.  As most of you know, I am so happy and grateful to be pregnant, but I am also certain that keeping up my self-development – especially now before the baby is born – is essential.

What I aim to do is to read 30 min per day of a relevant book and keep a great audio book going in the car. Lately I haven’t done either. Here’s where I could use your help.  I’m looking for book suggestions (I get my books from the local libraries) and audio books/programs as well (that I might be able to get from the library or the web easily) to help me get back on board! And for those of you, who like me, may have fallen off the wagon too – feel free to take the suggestions and get back on too!

So, to my faithful readers please include the following in your comments below:

• A book or two that falls into the self-development, inspiration or empowering category
• An audio book or audio program that would be in the same category
• A biography suggestion (i.e. Michael J. Fox’s Lucky Man)

I will be including the suggestions in my next post, so please include a link to your blog if you’ve got one!

Thanks everyone and Happy Canada Day tomorrow to my fellow Canadians!

Ever since I started blogging about four months ago, I’ve been wondering how important it is to have a theme for my blog. One thing that I noticed is that when I met with a group of more experienced bloggers at a brunch arranged by Angela of OhSheGlows is that the first question fellow bloggers asked is what is the name of my blog. Seems like everyone has a theme or a cool name of some sort.  Now granted, a number of them had food blogs, which might make a theme a bit more natural. Here are a few of the things I considered when choosing a theme for my blog:

• Did I want to create a niche blog, that would appeal only to a small portion of people? A potential here, but a challenge since I seem to a know a lot about many different things and wouldn’t necessarily consider myself an expert in any one field.
• How about a food blog – would I be interested in writing about what I eat everyday? This idea was quick squashed – you may remember me admitting that I don’t like to cook, so it wouldn’t be that interesting.
• Or a blog that serves as a journal? Noted, some of my blog posts have had a journal-like feel to them, but I think I use this tool more as a way to open up to followers every once in a while, rather than something I am doing everyday.
• What about a travel blog? I have certainly traveled quite a bit and usually take 4-5 trips per year, and have a passion for Switzerland and Europe. Again, there are already many great travel blogs and since it’s not my career or something I do that regularly, it probably isn’t the best theme.

I finally settled on one idea that I kept coming back to after looking back at old posts and really thinking about the message that I wanted to share.  Over 7 years ago, I started my first “business” called Motivation4Life! – it was meant to be a speaking business where I would present a seminar on achieving your goals, based on the principles I learned when I overcame a few difficult physical challenges in order to complete Ironman Canada in 2003. The business never really got off the ground, I did a few seminars but didn’t invest the time, effort or marketing dollars into the business. I do still have the website, www.motivation4life.ca – but it has now disappeared as I had created it using Google Apps for your domain, back when they were free. The hosting no longer exists (it wasn’t that great either, but it served a purpose).

Here’s what I came up with: I have been told before that I am really good at inspiring people to make changes in their lives, or to take on new challenges. I am a positive and enthusiastic person, for the most part, and am striving everyday to live a life of greatness. A good news story is always welcome in a world where what we mostly hear is negative and brings us down.

Motivation For Your Life (www.motivationforyourlife.com coming soon!)

Your Daily Dose of Motivation, Inspiration and Good News.

This also fits with my personal philosophy, which is the banner at the top of my blog: To lead a life full of passion and purpose, to rise above mediocrity, to achieve greatness and to personally inspire others to find greatness in themselves.

There are a few technical issues that I still have to workout, and I don’t plan on removing what has been built here at julieboyer.com so stay tuned to see what comes of these new changes! I am open to your feedback or input, if you’ve got some ideas.

For those who have your own blog, how did you come up with your theme?

Have a wonderful spring day everyone!

Earlier this week, I posted the story of Ironman #3, IM Arizona, which I completed on April 13, 2008.  One of the questions people often ask me when they find out I’ve completed not one, but three Ironman distance triathlons is WHY? Completing one seems to be self-explanatory – one of those lifelong goals, something on the bucket-list, being only one of a handful of people in the world who have done it – something along those lines. For me, the story is a little bit different.

When I was younger, I was competitive gymnast until I was 12.  I developed some fairly challenging knee injuries and was forced to stop.  My doctor at the time told me I had the knees of a 35 year old and that I would never run again.  I had been fairly active until that point, outside of gymnastics, including track & field, cross-country and baseball. I believe that doctor and gave up running.  I took up swimming and that was my form of exercise for many years.

Years later, when I was about 17 or 18, I saw the Ironman on tv.  It was one of those highlight reels – where they show Julie Moss crawling over the finish line.  For some unknown reason, I said to my mom, “I’d like to do that one day”.  Keep in mind that I hadn’t run in over 5 years at this point.

My undergraduate degree is in Kinesiology, from McMaster.  Back in those days we had to do activity practicums in order to graduate. I was able to get a doctor’s note (because of my knees) and be exempt from these activities.  Truth is, my knees did hurt – all of the time.  In fact, for many years I couldn’t remember a day where I hadn’t woken up with knee pain. I had tried many different treatments over the years, but to no avail. It was definitely frustrating for me – I had grown up so active and enjoyed so many sports – and now, I was exempt from even participating.  One of the lowest points for me was when I worked at the McMaster sports camp, and wasn’t able to participate in the daily runs. Some of the staff found this to be quite hilarious and made fun of me, which I didn’t handle very well. I started to realize that there had to be some way for this to change.

My first REAL job after university was working at a physiotherapy clinic in Oakville.  I was leading easy exercise classes for women ages 60 – 80 who had osteoporosis. The clinic had two floors, so there were lots of stairs everyday. It got to the point where I was being treated daily in order to work.  After 3 months, I quit.  One of the most important relationships of my life came out of that experience though.  I met Wendy, who was a therapist there at the time, and she treated me for the pain. She also helped me to start on a very easy exercise program to help correct some of the muscle imbalances I had. I started walking on the treadmill, then I would walk for 10 min and run for 1 min.  I was so ecstatic! Although I was still in pain, it was manageable and I figured as long as it didn’t get worse, I’d rather be running. I slowly made my way up to running longer and completed my first 5 k race.  I was hooked. And as soon as I realized I could run, I knew that I would compete in triathlon and eventually, do my first Ironman.

That summer, 1999, I competed in my first triathlon.  It was awesome and I competed in several other races. It took me 5 seasons of training and racing to make it to the start line of Ironman Canada in 2003.  My best friend Lee-Anne Chase did the race as well, and we ended up crossing the finish line together. What an incredible journey it was – from not being able to run for 10 years, to an Ironman 5 years later.

Next time, I’ll share with you the lessons I learned on the way to becoming an Ironman. And if you know someone who, like me, struggled with a physical challenge (or still struggles), you are welcome to pass on this story.  If I can do it – anyone can!

Julie oxox