I love to talk about investments. I love a finding something undervalued and investing in it and then making money. Who doesn’t? Late last year I watched Apple stock go from $190 per share to $80 per share in two months based on health rumors about the CEO, Steve Jobs. I knew, at this price, the stock was a bargain. All I had to do was walk into any Apple store during the holidays and see how packed it was. I bought as much of this stock as I could and it trading at around $200 today.

I love a great investment. Over the years I have figured out the best investment that we can ever make. No investment in any stock, fund, business or real estate comes even close to this investment that I am going to write about. This investment will pay a return more than a thousand times greater than the best stock tip or other physical investment. This investment is the kind of investment that can change people’s lives very quickly on all levels, not just financially. Are you ready for the greatest investment tip that you will ever receive?

The greatest investment tip that you will ever receive that will yield the greatest return that you will ever get is to invest in YOURSELF. Yes, that’s it! YOU are your greatest resource for creating happiness, personal freedom and financial abundance. In order for YOUR investment to pay returns, you have to invest your time and energy into getting clear on your purpose and your vision for your life. You have to create a plan for achieving your vision, and most importantly, you have to get out of your own way so you can achieve it.

Investing in yourself is taking time every day to be in gratitude for what you have, to contemplate where you want to go, and to celebrate the successes in your life. It is taking time every day in self-reflection and getting clear on your goals and action plan. Investing in yourself is making your own personal development your priority every day before you do any kind of work. It is meditating, thinking and writing. It is visualizing and spending some time listening to your Inner Guidance.

Investing in yourself first sends a powerful message to the Universe that you are a deliberate Creator of your life. Investing in yourself is setting the table for your success first with your mind-set and then backing that up later by taking action, not the other way around (which is ways of the masses). When you invest in yourself and your own personal development every day, you will begin to see positive results very quickly and you will be building a strong foundation for consistent joy, bliss and abundance in all areas of your life. You will be living your life on purpose. Are you ready to take control of your life?

Most people go through life Playing Not To Lose rather than Playing To Win. The successful people in life are always Playing to Win. Playing to Win is a choice. Playing to Win is a mind-set. How do we get the mind-set of Playing To Win? We often have to let go of past conditioning. Most of us, from our earliest childhood days, were taught that failing is a really bad thing. Playing Not To Lose is about playing it safe. It is defense rather than offense. Playing To Not Lose is being afraid to fail.

A perfect example of Playing Not To Lose can often be seen in sports. One of the teams has a stellar offensive performance for almost the entire game. However, not wanting to lose, they change their game plan to a defensive one with only a few minutes left in the game. As if it was written in the stars, the team that was down all of sudden garners some offensive life and the next thing you know they make the winning score. It happens over and over again.

Our society is so conditioned that failure is bad. You didn’t get the job, you are a failure. You didn’t win the game, you are a failure. You went out of business, you are a failure. If you look at people who achieved extreme greatness in our world, almost all of them had some major failings in their life. If you ask them where they had the most growth in their life, they will always say it was from their failures. I know this to be very true for me.

The failures in my life have added so much richness to my life. I have learned so much and it makes the Wins that much sweeter. It took me six business attempts to finally succeed in business. All my previous failures taught me some valuable lessons about succeeding in business. For me, failure is taking a step backwards in order to have the momentum to make that giant leap forward.

Whatever you are trying to achieve in your life, it is worth doing a self-assessment to see if you are Playing To Win or Playing Not To Lose. Is there anything holding you back from achieving your big dream? Is there any past conditioning that you need to let go in order to succeed? What beliefs do you hold about winning and losing that might be preventing you to take that big step forward?

When you jump to the side of Playing To Win, life is exhilarating! You feel so good and you are so happy and proud of yourself. You grow and expand and you eventually achieve all those experiences you have been craving to experience. Life becomes fun! You are no longer one who sits on the sidelines. You become the Powerful Creator of your Life!

I flew to Washington, D.C. this past weekend to visit family and attend my wife Nancy’s high school reunion. Before I left, I picked up a copy of Dan Brown’s latest book, The Lost Symbol. This book is over 500 pages and I thought there was no way I would be able to finish while on this trip. I was wrong. What an amazing book!

As most of you may know, Dan Brown wrote The DaVinci Code. The setting for this new book takes place in Washington, D.C. In fact, the main character, Robert Langdon, flies into Dulles Airport which was the same airport I was flying into as I started reading the book. “How cool” I thought as I pondered this synchronicity. I do not want to give anything away here so I will be very careful about what I write.

This book is about the secrets that our Founding Fathers knew and lived by and how they hid certain information that would eventually be revealed and benefit mankind. What I love about Dan Brown’s books is how he keeps you in suspense for the entire book. I never wanted to put this book down once I started reading it. The other cool thing about his books is that, in many instances, you do not know if a certain part is fiction or non-fiction. He really gets you to think which is a really great thing.

I believe this book is going to do a lot for the personal growth of the masses in our country. I never thought that Dan Brown would have a significant impact in the area of spiritualism and personal development. This is now my all-time favorite “fiction/non-fiction” book. If you want to a book that you cannot put down and will open your eyes to some amazing information about our country’s history, run (don’t walk) to your nearest bookstore and get yourself a copy. You will be glad you did!

I am excited to be penning my first post on my blog. It is my intention to inspire you to reach your full potential with your life. Science has now caught up with the spiritual world to acknowledge that we are all part of an infinite quantum potential. You can call it God, Infinite Intelligences, Source Energy, Universe, etc. We are all part of this Greater Power and all of us can shape and mold this energy in creating the life of our dreams.

Have you spent time getting clear on a vision for your life? If we do not know where we are going, we may experience things that we do not want to experience. A great exercise is to get out a piece of paper and write out your perfect day. What would your perfect day be like from the time you wake up until the time you go to sleep? If money were no issue, what you be doing everyday of the week?

If you are unclear about your vision, spend time in quiet reflection. Spend time getting connected to the essence of who you truly are. When you spend time connecting with your Inner Guidance, you will start to get a clear vision as to what is important to you and what you want to create in your life. Most people go through life reacting to their circumstances everyday. Living on purpose means to know where you are going and to know that you are paving the way. It is about being “at cause” over your life rather than at the effect of the world around you.

My priority everyday is my personal development. Before I start my day, I am doing some meditating, affirmations, reading and writing in my journal, contemplating my goals and creating the vision for my greatest life. I know this is where I set the table for my success. The action that I take, although it is very important, is secondary to my mind-set. It is about Be, Do, and then Have. You Be the person you want to Be, then you take the Action, and then you Have the results.

When our vision is clear, we then want to align our thoughts, feelings, beliefs and action with our desired experiences. When we do this, we are Being the person that we want to Be. We are acting as if we already have the results that we wish to create. We are sending a powerful message of expectation to the Universe. Through the Law of Attraction, the Universe delivers.

One of the greatest things that I have learned is that we are in a co-creation with this infinite power. The weight of the world does not have to be on our shoulders. Our job is to get clear on what we want, and then find the place of trust and knowing that the Universe will bring us our desired experiences. When we can really get into that space of trusting and knowing, we can create our world with ease because there is nothing more graceful than the power of the Universe.