If the goal is to avoid eternal damnation, and going to church every Sunday is the tool for doing that, then those are 2 entirely different things, aren't they?

If the Big Messiah comes strolling into town and convinces the Mayor that all citizens can avoid the pits of eternal suffering by attending a 2-hour church session every Sunday, and the Mayor makes it a law that everyone has to do so, there are two very distinct things going on. One of them is the mission itself - avoiding eternal suffering - while the other is the tool with which that avoidance is realized - going to church every Sunday.

When it comes to self improvement, whether that be on a personal level, a business level, or a relationship level - this same separation of church and state clearly needs to exist. However, most people blur the lines between the mission they are on and the tools that they use, and the end result is often a state of anarchy where neither the accomplishment of the mission nor the effective use of the tools ever seems to happen.

Business

If you are in the business of selling fishing poles, is it your mission to make the best fishing pole ever so that you become wildly successful? Most people would say, "Yes, that is a good idea".

Survey Says: NO

Your mission is for your customers to have the best fishing experience possible by using your products and services.

By always keeping in mind that your goal is for your customers to have the best fishing experience ever, you will constantly be thinking of or discovering ways to make that happen, and your customers will keep coming back to you over and over again. Your loyalty to what your customers want - the best fishing experience ever - will cause them to have that same loyalty to you whenever they are looking for that experience.

On the other hand, if you just try to make the best fishing pole ever, you will be instantly unseated as the reigning leader in your industry by the simple act of someone else coming up with a better fishing pole. Yikes.

Relationships

If your goal is to find your "soul mate," then having as many resources available for doing so would seem to be in order. Online dating sites, singles bars or clubs, your gym, even your work place are all tools that you could use to find your Mr. or Mrs. Right. Nothing wrong with using all or some of those tools, to be sure, but is access to those tools going to ensure your success?

Survey Says: NO

Your mission is not to have the option of using dating or social situations in order to find that soul mate. Dating and social situations are tools. Your job is to become the kind of person who is worthy of the soul mate that you seek, and you will very likely find that soul mate without even using any of the tools listed earlier.

By allowing yourself to consistently exhibit the personality traits that will attract that man or woman of your dreams, then you will reserve the right to act surprised when that person simply lands in your lap. Remember the golden rule (look up!) - Success is Something you Attract by the Person you Become.

Health

Oh, we are all familiar with the tools of the trade when it comes to health and fitness, aren't we? Let's find out if gym memberships, diets, workout DVD's, yoga classes, and extreme nutritional lifestyles are going to guarantee success:

Survey Says: NO

Why? Because all of those things are tools. If you are not honestly interested in living a healthy lifestyle, and if you are not honestly healthy in your head, then your shiny new gym membership card, your vegetable juicer, and your library of "The Last Diet Book You'll Ever Need" books are nothing more than false advertising.

Focus on your goal, not the tools that may or may not take you to that goal. Remember, your mission is to lead a healthy lifestyle that you actually ENJOY, not to feel like a slave to health whose eating and exercise habits are so extreme that you're in great shape, but you have forgotten how to have fun in the process.

As always, the examples that I have given are just that - examples. You can look at your own life right now and decide if you have blurred the lines between church and state by simply looking at your results.

Whether it is your own success that you are after, or the happiness and success of your friends, family, or customers, if you are not getting the job done, maybe it's time to refocus on the end result, and stop worrying so much about the tricks of the trade.

By the way, I follow these guidelines myself, and it is very apparent when I am asked, "What do you do for a living?":

I am in the business of teaching people to lead happier and more fulfilling lives.

That is the mission, and things such as this blog, Personal Development Partners, and the Wealth Creation for Superior Living podcast are the tools that I use for accomplishing that mission.

See the difference? 

This post inspired by a discussion of the book Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin:

Welcome to the 15th edition of the Doing it Differently Blog Carnival!

This carnival is dedicated to the concept of stepping outside of the box and living our lives in ways beyond the "norm"!

Whether you want to learn unique ways to think or act differently, or if you want to share your own unique ideas, this carnival is for you!

There will be a new edition of the carnival posted every month, on or around the 15th. You can click here to learn more, or click here to submit a post for the next edition, which will be posted on February 15, 2008.

If you like this carnival or if you are one of the authors featured in this edition, be sure to add this post to Stumbleupon, Digg, or your favorite social bookmarking site!

Money/Success

Gratitude Magic - How to Get Rich and Happy

Bull Returns - Stock Investing vs. Stock Trading 

Me, My Kid and Life - Finding Your Special Talent

Marcus Hochstadt - Pay Business Expenses Wisely And Travel For Free 

Cyberca$hology - How to Avoid a Brutal Beating

Brip Blap - Follow the white rabbit to financial freedom

Carol Bentley - I hereby give you permission to. . .

Create a Thriving Business - Is it wrong to be abundant AND spiritual?

Personal Growth 

Juggling Frogs -In Praise of Parallax 

7P Productions - Something Different, Something Real

Slow Down FAST - Don't be a Puppet, Make Your Own Choices 

The Dark Grin - Why You Choose to Get Angry

Potential 2 Success - Hunter, Scavenger, or Prey: Which life are you living? 

Dr Martin W. Russell - Reverse Your But

Stephen Martile - Change 

Health

Tupelo Kenyon - Is Food Your Medicine or Poison? 

Total Wellbeing - Cycling and Your Wellbeing

Goal Setting/Achievement

Never the Same River Twice - Having Goals Will Make You Blind! 

Relationships

INTJ Personal Development - How To Find A Wife/Husband 

The Environment

Life, the Universe, and Everything - Atlas Will Shrug

Marketing

Big Selling Website Design - The Law of Necessity 

That wraps up the 15th edition of the Doing it Differently Blog Carnival! Many thanks to all of our authors, and don't forget to add this post to your favorite social bookmarking website!

The next edition will be posted on February 15, 2008, and the closing of this edition is also the official call for submissions for the next one! Get the inside scoop on what this carnival is all about and access the submission form as well by clicking right here.
Related Content:

Welcome to the 14th edition of the Doing it Differently Blog Carnival!

This carnival is dedicated to the concept of stepping outside of the box and living our lives in ways beyond the "norm"!

Whether you want to learn unique ways to think or act differently, or if you want to share your own unique ideas, this carnival is for you!

There will be a new edition of the carnival posted every month, on or around the 15th . You can click here to learn more, or click here to submit a post for the next edition, which will be posted on January 15, 2008.

If you like this carnival or if you are one of the authors featured in this edition, be sure to add this post to Stumbleupon, Digg, or your favorite social bookmarking site!

Money/Success

Cyberca$hology - Costanza Success Principles

Copywriting Tips for Your Business - Your wow! introduction

BlainePower - Why should I learn to program?

Marketing & Fundraising Ideas - Why You Need to Ask

Steve Pavlina - Career Transitions

Richard Lee - Everything You Will Ever Need To Know About Business

The Business Ideas-Making Money Blog - Virtual Boyfriends

Less Than a Shoestring - Comparing Foreign Websites for Deals

Ask the Career Counselor - How to Win Friends at the Office

Self Improvement/Personal Growth

We the Change -  The Greatest Self Improvement Tool You Know Nothing About

Slow Down Fast - Six Days for a Fifteen Hour Trip?

The Human Imprint - A post on patience

Personal Development by an INTJ - Conversation Skills / Tips: How To Have A Good Conversation

Rule of 5 - Capturing Creativity - Part 3

Tupelo Kenyon - How to Live the Life of Your Dreams Through Intuition

Real World Spiritual and Personal Development - Who are you listening to?

Miscellaneous

Brighter Days for you and me! - I love the Think Different Challenge.

Fun Spirit - 10 unusual ways to have fun cleaning

Principled Discovery - Some geographical reasoning

Goal Setting

Potential 2 Success - 7 Reasons Why You Haven’t Reached Your Goals Yet

Intensive Care for the Nurturer's Soul - The 212 Degrees Attitude

Health & Fitness

Raw Food Diet, Bodyweight Fitness and Peak Performance Living - Having Trouble Staying Raw, It May Not Be Your Fault

FitBuff - Circuit Training Exercises

Law of Attraction

Applying the Law of Attraction - Integrating the Law of Attraction into Your Busy Schedule

That wraps up the 14th edition of the Doing it Differently Blog Carnival! Many thanks to all of our authors, and don't forget to add this post to your favorite social bookmarking website!

The next edition will be posted on January 15, 2008, and the closing of this edition is also the official call for submissions for the next one! Get the inside scoop on what this carnival is all about and access the submission form as well by clicking right here.

Related Content:

Today is that Day is very proud to be taking part in what is probably the largest combined effort ever in blogging history - Blog Action Day!

In a nutshell, Blog Action Day is a collective effort by more than 14,000 blogs to write about one topic in order to get this important issue in front of as many people as possible, all at the same time. The topic for Blog Action Day is the environment.

Trying to save the world that we live on is far from a new concept, although this is the first time in history that the massive reach of the blogosphere has been so successfully tapped in an effort raise the collective awareness of environmental issues.

One of the other topics that is near and dear to my own heart is our individual responsibility to  ourselves and our health, so my contribution for Blog Action Day is the following list of 3 simple ways to get healthy while saving the environment!

1) Leave your car in the garage!

I am not one of those people who thinks that cars are "bad" or that we shouldn't take advantage of the convenient as well as the fun aspects of having motorized vehicles. However, not to put too fine a point on it, but people have simply gotten lazy!

Do you need to take your car somewhere that is more than a few miles away? Usually, yes. However, do you need to take your car to the store that is just a few blocks or even a mile from your house? No.

Save money, lessen pollution, and get some exercise all at the same time by simply walking or taking a bicycle. What are you afraid of? That you'll work up a sweat? Good! Sweating is very healthy and all recent health studies point to the fact that elevating your heart rate for at least 20 to 30 minutes every day is not just a good idea, but that it could actually save your life.

So, even if you don't care about the environment, why don't you put the car keys down, strap on some walking shoes, or just go grab your bike and work up a sweat. Do it every day, and before you know it, you will be losing weight, having a higher level of energy, saving money, and {GASP} - you might even enjoy it!

2) Stop buying bottled water!

This is one of the biggest "end around" health issues that I have ever seen. Many years ago, someone decided (rightfully so) that we all needed to be drinking more water. However, the need for us all to drink more water does NOT mean that we need to keep buying bottled water in plastic bottles!

Pop Quiz: What is the one solitary substance that is physically impossible for the environment to break down?

PLASTIC!

All of the plastic that there ever was is still here on earth, and every time you buy a plastic water bottle and then throw it in your trash can, you are contributing to the problem. I don't have the facts and figures about how many of these plastic water bottles are sold every day, but I'm sure it is a staggering amount.

Yes, you should drink water - and a lot of it. However, just buy one or two plastic drinking bottles that can be washed and refilled every day. If you need to buy three or four so that you always have plenty of water available, then do that. However, stop buying disposable plastic water bottles! 

Does the term "reduce, reuse, recycle" mean anything to you?

3) Eat fresh food instead of frozen food

There is no real discussion needed about the fact that fresh food is more healthy for you than the packaged frozen food that people buy at the grocery store. There are innumerable health benefits associated with eating fresh food - especially fruits and vegetables.

However, in addition to the instant and obvious health benefits, let's look once again at the issue that was just mentioned - plastic. What do those Lean Cuisine and Weight Watchers frozen meals come packaged in? Plastic.

How are those types of meals heated up? In the microwave. Ah yes, the microwave - you know, that massively power draining box that sits on top of your counter, using as much electricity as a television set, if not even more?  

And what are the ingredients in all of those frozen foods? Chemicals. Those chemicals - other than being nothing less than poison for your body - are manufactured in a factory somewhere. That factory is using massive amounts of energy and it is also polluting the environment on many different levels.

By switching exclusively to fresh foods, you would:

• Instantly increase your level of health 
• Live longer
• Stop putting more plastic into the environment
• Help to put companies out of business that are polluting both our bodies and our planet

Given the 3 simple ways to get healthy and save the environment that I just listed, what are your thoughts? Do they sound something like this?

• I'm only one person, what can I do?
• Saving only a few miles per day on my car won't make much of a difference
• I don't have time to wash and reuse water bottles
• My schedule doesn't allow me time to eat fresh foods

If those are some of the responses that you have, then consider the following:

Yes, you are only one person, but this is a collective effort. Imagine if a few BILLION people started making these efforts on a daily basis.

If you save 2 miles per day on your car every day, that is over 700 miles every year. Even if your car gets 30 miles to the gallon, that is almost 25 gallons of gas pollution that you did not put into the environment - and that is only YOUR efforts over one year. Again, what if billions of people did that?

You DO have time to wash and reuse bottles and other eating and drinking utensils. It is just inconvenient, so you don't want to do it.

Everyone can find a way to fit fresh foods into their dietary lifestyle. Again, it may not be convenient to do so, but there is a way. You just have to ask yourself if your health and the health of the very planet that you live on is worthy of your efforts…

Now that you have reached the end of this information about saving yourself and saving the environment at the same time, are you going to let it go in one ear and out the other, or are you going to take both personal and global responsibility and start making some changes?

As you consider that, let me leave you with one more quote:

"We are either part of the problem, or part of the solution." 

Welcome to the 12th edition of the Doing it Differently Blog Carnival!

This carnival is dedicated to the concept of stepping outside of the box and living our lives in ways beyond the "norm"!

Whether you want to learn unique ways to think or act differently, or if you want to share your own unique ideas, this carnival is for you!

There will be a new edition of the carnival posted every two weeks, on the 1st and the 15th of every month. You can click here to learn more, or click here to submit a post for the next edition, which will be posted on November 1, 2007.

If you like this carnival or if you are one of the authors featured in this edition and you want to help your post to be seen by as many people as possible, be sure to add this post to Stumbleupon, Digg, or your favorite social bookmarking site!

I did not have time to do my customary summaries of the posts that are included in this edition, so I apologize to the authors for not being able to make that extra effort on their behalf. However, I did read each of these stories, and there is some very useful and interesting content, so please have at it and enjoy!

Fred Black presents Why Does it Feel Wrong to Feel Right? posted at Fred Black: Internet Business Blog

Marina Martin presents How to Leave for Paris in 56 Minutes posted at Sufficient Thrust

Viv King presents Making creative use of old paintings posted at Cape Art

Alvaro Fernandez presents Judith Beck: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person posted at SharpBrains

Tupelo Kenyon presents Make Assumptions Obsolete by Communicating posted at Tupelo Kenyon

John Hill presents Build Muscle Fast posted at Universe Of Success

John presents Turn Fat Into Muscle posted at Muscular-Fitness

Mike Lazear presents How to Call in Sick to Work posted at The Great Office Escape

Edward Mills presents A Positive Personal Growth Application For The F-World posted at Evolving Times

Sara Goldstein presents A beautiful (budget) bride! posted at The Bargain Queen on Fashion and Beauty

Jake Danger presents The Art of Seduction: Audacious Teasing posted at The Art of Seduction

Edithyeung presents What are You Waiting for posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act.

Alex Marchand presents End Hiccups Forever: A Fast and Easy Hiccup Cure posted at The Universe As: Living Better in a Better World

Chris Wondra presents Music: A Metaphor for Forgiveness posted at Chris Wondra . com

Stephen Martile presents 10 Tips To Get Into The Groove Of Gratitude posted at Stephen Martile

That wraps up the 12th edition of the Doing it Differently Blog Carnival! Many thanks to all of our authors, and don't forget to add this post to your favorite social bookmarking website!

The next edition will be posted on November 1, 2007, and the closing of this edition is also the official call for submissions for the next one! Get the inside scoop on what this carnival is all about and access the submission form as well by clicking right here.
Related Content: