I’m allergic to wheat gluten, but I’ve found some really cool things about living with it.  Who knows?  I’m thinking someday I’ll be totally free from it.  I really do.

My decision to unplug from the celiac community, i.e. to stay away from forums and lists, may not be your best choice.  I did it because I found it fueled my negative thoughts about the disease, and I know how hard it is for me to keep my mind in a positive state.

I’ve found that celiac affects people differently.  I have yet to found anyone like me. I have dermatitis herpetiformis, and you may have that type of celiac disease, but your reaction to wheat gluten, and the amount you can tolerate is probably different from me.

I find that I can tolerate more when I’m in shape.  That probably makes sense.

Wheat gluten is in a lot of foods but companies are getting much better about listing it on the ingredients that contain it – like modified food starch.  One of the best places I’ve found that lists ingredients well is Whole Foods Market.  Have you been there?

This place is crazy good.  Did you know you can walk to info desk and ask for a person to help you find gluten-free foods.  And not just those obviously marked!  They have lists of foods – just ask for it.

And did you know that the best flour in the world that is totally gluten-free and my “normal” family says tastes better than regular flour – is a brand called Pamelas?  Maybe you knew that, but I stumbled on it at a Wild Oats store a year or so ago.

So check ‘em out.  If you don’t have a Whole Foods Market near you, you can order Pamela’s online.

Every school day I bike with my eight year old down the street to her school.  It bugs me that the parent that drops off their kid at the front of the school will then barrel down the side street at 35 to 40 MPH in a School Zone.  I guess I have a few quirks, but people doing dangerous things (not to them; to the kids) is not high on my list.

OK, so you’re thinking how can I profit from something like that?

Here’s what you do.  I’ve been talking to you about home based businesses for a good while.  What you want to do is take that irritating behavior and ask yourself what would the possible equivalent be in your own business?

Then, find the way to correct them.

For me, it was people that simply rush right through the sign-up process to the street.  They don’t feel they need much training, and they’re dangerous as business builders.  Like there’s a 10 step program and they read about three steps and stop.  Were they not interested, or was it that the training wasn’t cutting edge.

Well, whatever it is, I knew I needed to find a way that people would go from step one all the way through step 10 without bailing.  And the best way to do this is to offer some sort of incentive.  It’s not difficult to create a training website where you have do things in modules.  www.Drupal.com comes to mind.  You can probably get someone for under $100 to do this at www.elance.com.

So see what is irritating in your world and apply it to your business.

Continued success.

I am flabbergasted at the news.  CNN reporting some guy took the lives of his family and then himself because he couldn’t find work.  First, I think where our priorities are nowadays.  And then I think the guy could have possibly been mentally ill from any number of things.  There is enough toxin around us to affect our minds.  That, along with influence from media, friends, global events; it’s enough to give you the creeps that this could have happened.

And yet, I know it’s not the end of it.

Listen, people – life is precious – and even if you’re down to your last penny, know that there is someone somewhere who cares about your life.  My first thought would be to go to a local church – seek help from a pastor.

You can let this external drain on your mind drag you down to despair if you want to.  And you can also not buy into the fact that the world is going to h*ll in a hand basket.  It’s a choice.  Maybe you’re too attached to stuff to make it an easy choice.  I don’t expect you to be like Job in the Bible.  And believe me, this ain’t nothin’ like that was.

Still, at first glace, these are trying times.  My word to you is that you can get through this and it can be better than you think by simply believing you are going to be OK.  It is not as horrible as you may think and certainly, these cyclical things come and go.

Here are five tips that will help you make it:

1. Stay away from negative people.  This includes people who you get bad vibes from.
2. Pray.  Ask God to guide you through this time.  He will.
3. Begin a gratitude and abundance journal.  Each night write down what happened that day that you could either be thankful for, or that was abundance!
4. Become the world’s best money steward.  Be frugal and celebrate at your frugalness.
5. Set goals weekly to where you want to be in 6 months.

Take that and really do it.  Rewrite those items and then do them.  You will be SO surprised when you can actually see how things work.

Talk soon,
Dave

OK, we’re to the point in talking about this Law of Attraction stuff where the next part affects everyone and it was here that really convinced me that this stuff works.  There is science behind the thinking and I understand it, but this thing about “vibes” is something you must accept – because we have all experience it.

I see this happen daily, and always because of people.  What I mean is, whenever we feel a “vibe” from something, it is tied to a human force.  Think about that for a second.  When you’re in a lousy neighborhood, don’t you get “bad” vibes?  And when you’re standing next to one of your heros, don’t you get those “good” vibes?

I am the type of person who reads someone and immediately has an opinion about them.  I know that’s not always idea.  My wife says I should always give people the benefit of a doubt and a chance, but I don’t always.  She gets “vibes”, too.  Just wants to make double-sure she’s right.

You get these feelings, too.  And they equate to a mood or a feeling we get.  The word “vibe” comes from vibration.  If you’ve studied science at all, you know that vibrations are ever present in our world.  But did you know that there are only two types of vibrations?  Positive and negative.

So every mood or feeling we have causes us to emit a positive or negative vibration.  I mean even if we check out a list you come up with for words that describe our moods or feelings, we can immediately tell whether that is a negative or positive vibration.

We all send out these vibrations and that’s why some people make you feel real good just being around them – and others, make you feel creepy.

Well, time to get on with my day.  But take that thought with you and do your best to send out good vibrations!

Talk soon,
Dave 

There is a real cool thing in learning the law of attraction that is called giving yourself permission.  And this is something I really had a challenge with because I was brought up to believe that we weren’t really worthy of much.  I don’t blame my parents.  It was more of a cultural kind of thing.  Just the way people believed in that sphere of influence.

Maybe you don’t know what I’m talking about.  I probably should explain just what giving yourself permission means.

There are a lot of times that we feel we could enjoy life more if we had this or that – mainly more money so we could do grand things – but even non-money related things, such as when someone gives us a gift, or we are chosen as a leader, or an honor is bestowed on us.  And we don’t know how to accept it initially – or sometimes not at all.  We don’t “allow” ourselves to have.

When I was growing up, the part about being humble was taken to the extreme and sometimes we thought we had to act like rugs and let people walk all over and take advantage of us.  I guess this comes from misinterpreting “turn the other cheek.”  I no longer believe this way.

It’s sort of like wanting to take grandma to see your kid’s sports game but they don’t want to go because it will be too much trouble.  And so they miss out on all the joy and happiness of watching their grandchild simply because they thought (mistakenly) that they’d be a burden to someone.

And this doesn’t mean going to the other extreme and taking advantage of people by making yourself a nuisance out of selfishness.  It means accepting when something is sent your way – for you – you take it in and it is yours.  Rejecting it causes these things to no longer come.  When you open yourself up, give yourself permission to have, then these things begin to flow into your life.

You rob joy by not giving yourself permission.  You rob the giver and you rob your blessing.

So what I want you to do today is to let yourself have what is dutifully yours.  It belongs to you and has your name on it.  Think of it as part of what David was talking about in Psalm 23.  The goodness and mercy following you.  Don’t reject that when it appears – just because you feel you don’t deserve.  You DO deserve.

Do you like learning about this?  If so, do me the kindness of leaving me a comment below.  I really get juiced to see what you think of these things and it helps me to better help you.

Talk soon,
Dave