Today many of us are caught up in the same fearful belief system, which tells us that we live in an unsafe world, there are enemies out there who need punishment, and our path in life is to put ourselves and our families first. Consequently, we worry about the future and try to get as much as we can and hold on to it, all the while believing that there is something external to us that will eventually bring us safety and everlasting happiness.

It’s a belief system:

“Life is what we make it. Always has been. Always will be.”
Grandma Moses

Whether you choose to admit it or not, you are responsible for your life the way it is today. I know that this is a very heavy statement as you may say, “I am not responsible for the car accident I got into,” or “my spouse leaving me,” or a myriad of other things which may have happened to you. I can hear you saying, “It was someone else’s fault!”

After studying the research done in cognitive psychology over the last 25 years, I’ve come to a simple conclusion: The degree to which you feel in control of your life will largely determine your level of mental well-being, your peace of mind, your happiness and the quality of your interactions with people.

Cognitive psychologists call this a “sense of control.” It is the foundation of happiness and high achievement. And the only thing in the world over which you have complete control is the content of your conscious mind. If you decide to exert that control and keep your mind on what you want, even when you are surrounded by difficult circumstances, your future potential will be unlimited.

As children, we called it “make believe.” People encouraged us to be imaginative and creative, to fantasize and enjoy. Then, as we aged, the guidance changed. Grow up! Be realistic! “Making believe” became the more serious game of “making beliefs”: judging, drawing conclusions, deciding what’s good and bad, right and wrong. All our emotions and behaviors then follow from the beliefs we create.

Parents, priests, teachers, corporate executives and politicians compete busily to teach us or sell us beliefs so that they can influence our feelings and behavior. They know, and we soon learn, that winning the games of power, both personal and political, depends on what we choose to believe.

The highest spiritual path is life itself. If you know how to live daily life, it all becomes a liberating experience. But first you have to approach life properly, or it can be very confusing. To begin with, you have to realize that you really only have one choice in this life, and it’s not about your career, whom you want to marry, or whether you want to seek God. People tend to burden themselves with so many choices. But, in the end, you can throw it all away and just make one basic, underlying decision: Do you want to be happy, or do you not want to be happy? It’s really that simple. Once you make that choice, your path through life becomes totally clear.

Success is not single sided; it is a holistic experience taking into account all of life’s experiences. I view success as a Five Part Formula. Our conversation about success starts with business, but ends with the total life experience.

If I asked a group of people to write down everything they needed for success in business and life we could probably fill countless whiteboards, blackboards, flipcharts, computer files and notepads. I have found there are only five basic skills needed in order to be successful:

1. Become an Expert / Have a Great Product and/or Service
2. Develop Sales and Marketing Skills

Happiness will always bring out the best in you. You were born to be happy. Happiness is natural. It suits you completely. You look good and you feel good when you let happiness ooze from within you. Your step is light, your mind is free, and your spirit soars when you let happiness happen. The whole world responds well to you.

When you’re truly happy, you’re radiant and you function fully. Above all, you are loving, for the essence of happiness is love. You’re also naturally kind, generous, open, warm, and friendly. This is because where there’s true happiness, there is no fear, no doubt, and no anxiety. You’re unrestrained and uninhibited. You are fully present, here and now, and not lost in some past or future.

Have you come across a person who is so naturally friendly that when you put him inside a room of strangers, he’ll be friends with almost everyone in no time? We call such a people-person, someone unbelievably nice and charismatic that he can charm anyone into doing anything.

A socially-empowered person achieves so much greatness, basically because of the people that catapult him to success. He earns the trust and all-out support of the people, whom he had helped before. He never runs out of help. He can do anything with the plethora of people behind him. All because he knows he maximizes his social potential!

I once was talking to my friend and mentor Steve Chandler when he said to me, “Have an average day!” Taken aback, I asked him what he meant. Isn’t the idea to have great days, even exceptional ones?

He told me a story about one of his mentors, Lyndon Duke, who studied the linguistics of suicide. After receiving doctorates from two universities, Duke began analyzing suicide notes for linguistic clues that could be used to predict and prevent suicidal behavior in teenagers.

When I was in my thirties, I had a conversation that ignited a hidden power in me and revealed to me my life-path. I tell the story of this profound moment of my life, an experience that set me on a path to having all my dreams come true, in my new book Five Wishes. My hope and intention in sharing this moment with you is that it gives you not only a story you’ll enjoy but also a powerful tool you can use to make all your dreams come true.

As the holiday shopping season kicks into high gear, do consumers ever wonder what happens to their stuff from holidays past? “The Story of Stuff”, a new short film released today online, takes viewers on a provocative tour of our consumer - driven culture - from resource extraction to iPod incineration - exposing the real costs of this use-it and lose-it approach to stuff.

Last year Americans spent $456.2 billion during the holiday season, and this year sales are predicted to rise 4 percent to $474.5 billion. “The Story of Stuff” reveals that holiday consumption is not a seasonal phenomenon, rather an American maxim that has devastating consequences for our environment, third-world nations, working class Americans, personal health and even the general state of happiness in America.

Every year women ranging from professionals to housewives get together as volunteers in Thimphu, Bhutan, to raise funds for a nunnery in a valley far from the city. They collect donations, organize monsoon balls, sell lottery tickets, and write about the life and hardships faced by the nuns who reside there. Thanks to their diligent efforts, conditions in the nunnery have improved in recent years: A new housing facility has been built, and the nuns are provided with warm clothes and proper food.