Yesterday I had the opportunity to hear a successful working actor speak for 45-minutes about his work, life, and the state of mind he had to achieve in order to find success. Ron Jackson, whom you may not have heard of (as of course, I hadn't either), has worked alongside Michael Landon, Oliver Stone, and Doris Roberts.

Now this is the part that interested me the most, because whenever I meet a successful person, or get to hear them speak, they will always, or at least more often than not, share the secrets to their success and attribute them to their “state of mind”.

One piece of advice he told us was that it is not things that happen to us that define our life, but it is our reaction to these things that determine our life.

This was an enormous comment, despite the limited word structure that supports this sentence. It had such a profound effect on me, and on many of the people around me. You could just hear the room grow silent over that comment, and if you listened closely, you might have even heard a couple of light bulbs go on in people's brains.

It's not what happens to you, it's your reaction to what happens to you.

It makes sense, as long as you read again. Perhaps aloud.

This is what I do in hypnosis to help people overcome their fears and worries, to help people abandon and destroy images of them as being victims, and to bring people to the success that they deserve.

If you are continuously reacting negatively toward situations, and seeing things as happening to you rather than with you, you develop a sense of self victimization, and you fall into the trap that you are powerless, and that there is nothing you can do in your life.

However, you have the power to change your thinking! You have the power to change your thoughts and reactions toward events in your life!

No one else can change the way you react to situations in your life, and life is not going to change unless you change your perceived ideas of it.

When people perceive situations in a negative way, they feel powerless and victimized. When people see a situation in a different, positive way, they feel motivated to change something, to do something different, and to do everything they can to make their lives better.

When using hypnosis to change one's attitude toward life, and their reactions toward life's events, I sometimes find it just too darn easy. But, it is really quite simple. When you find a problem in your life, you must find that problem within your mind. By doing hypnosis, you can see that problem, release that problem, and then change the way your mind reacts to future situations and events.

Whew. Just thinking about that speech Ron gave yesterday still fires me up. I'm going to have to go and do some more changin'. Mind-changing, that is (but then again, that could lead to life changin').