Introductions & Gratitude
Hi. My name is Anil and I am a practicing dentist with a specialty of prosthodontics in Chicago. The Essence of Life is the journey that you are going to take with me. I want to share with you how it started.
One day a friend called me and asked me how I had become so successful in my practice and in my life. He said he knew a lot of dentists and I was something different. When I started explaining to him some of the basic, simple, universal principles that I had applied in my life, he said, “Wow, that is the essence of living.” As a result of that program, The Essence of Life was created.
Are you satisfied with your personal and professional life right now? I know I wasn’t. Do you have all you desire? I am sure you don’t. Or, are you stuck somewhere and you do not know how to get out of it? Are you looking for a more satisfying life, a better relationship? Then come and join me on this journey.
It is always great to feel a sense of purpose and then see the actual outcome in life. But this is not about life. It is about the lifestyle that you want to have. In this journey, I am going to share with you my personal experiences, which have brought quantum leap growth in every aspect of my life. And if it can make a 5% difference in your life, the time you are going to spend with me is going to be worth it. Not only will it be worth it, you are going to have fun on the way.
When you decide a purpose of life and when you choose the track to use for that journey, it will be an exhilarating experience for you. I can tell you that when you start this journey full of purpose, you are going to find that you are going to attract awesome people to your life – people you never thought existed before – and these people are going to help you pave the path for your successful journey.
I must share this: One day in Toronto, as I was having lunch, a young man walked in to the restaurant. Do you know, by the grace of God, the only seat available was where I was sitting, so he joined me. His name is Gerry Roberts, and he is now my publisher, my mentor, and my editor for my book Extreme Dental Practice Makeover. This is exactly what I want to share with you: Once you decide this purposeful journey, this is how people are going to show up in your life. People will show up as out of the clear blue sky!
Once you decide the purpose and once you take that journey, people are going to come from everywhere. You do not have to know how and from where, but they will be there because that is how this universe works. Once you make this commitment, the universe conspires in your favor.
When we were small, we used to dream. We need to start dreaming those dreams again. Do you know that those big dreams came to a halt long ago because somebody convinced you to buckle down and get serious about life? Believe me, we are talking about serious stuff here; but you don’t have to get serious to have serious results in life and that is what my program, The Essence of Life, is all about.
The Essence of Life will show you how to dream again. Not only dream, but to dream big so you can have a totally accomplished, happy and satisfied life. So let’s go and get started on that journey!
When I made that commitment to go on that journey, I had to find my true purpose of life. Once I found the true purpose in life, that purpose empowered me to make integrity-based decisions. That same purpose also helped me achieve excellence in every aspect of my life.
Just three weeks ago, I was in Los Angeles and I happened to meet Rev. Michael Beckwith, who is running a big organization by the name of Agape Church. He explained to me that he used to be a drug addict, but then he found the purpose in life. That day, he talked to me about excellence. Once you find purpose in life, you are going to find the excellence in everything that you do in your personal life, in your professional life, in your financial life, in your relationships. That is just an awesome journey!
Once I started this journey, the most amazing thing occurred. My negative emotions of fear, anxiety, worry and doubt that used to hold me back, were gone. This fact alone was worth a lot to me.
These principles, which I am going to share with you in The Essence of Life program, have also taught me humor and calm in the frantic life that we live nowadays. We are always in a rush. We always have a project to do. We are always stuck in traffic; we always have bills due; we have so much that clouds our minds. So, by applying these principles, by applying humor and calm, and by really finding gratitude toward the people and the circumstances in my life, it has become an awesome experience.
Brendan Gill, a well-known columnist with The New Yorker, could not have said it better when he commented that; “Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.” That means you don’t have to be serious about it. I am talking about serious success, but without being serious about it. In fact, I am going to share something with you. I use humor, relaxation and calmness to really help my nervous patients. This humor which I share with them, (of course at a proper time) has really blossomed my practice because they become very comfortable with me. So serious results do not require seriousness in life.
You need to enjoy your life and you want to experience happiness and contentment in every facet of your life. This is a very normal desire given by God because your spirit is always looking for expansion and fuller expression. So when you have the desire to have more, there is nothing wrong with that, because that is how a spirit was designed.
When I was growing up, I had desires and dreams. Everytime I expressed my desires I was told, “Who do you think you are?” “Nobody was a dentist in our family.” “Why do you think you are going to become a dentist?” But once you have that desire inside and once you know that it is what your soul wants you to do, you have the capabilities to become anyone you wish.
This program, The Essence of Life, was designed to improve every aspect of your life: your relationship with your spouse, loved ones, family friends, team partners and coworkers. It will improve your finances and how you look at money and your work ethics, your business and your management practices.
Not too long ago, I was almost at the brink of bankruptcy. But by applying these principles, I was able to turn my life around. This is the reason I have decided to share this with you. It doesn't matter where you are – where you are financially, where you are in a relationship – you have that power to turn it around.
I will also be talking about how to increase your awareness; find a true worthy purpose in life; how to not only set your goal, but how to accomplish them. I will tell you how to create a team that is willing to help you with all the desire and enthusiasm; how to identify and create winners image; and how to bring honesty
and integrity into your life without losing anything. You will learn how to be thankful for everything you have and enjoy it; how to create a focus so you have that big picture, which becomes the reality; how to organize your life, how to organize your business, and how to take complete charge and responsibility in your life.
Something else I am going to talk about that is really amazing is what I call the TDA Effect. It stands for Thought and Attitude. I will also talk with you about the value of repetition, and the amazing healing quality of relaxation because relaxation creates a calmer mind. Calmer minds make better decisions.
When I was introduced to these principles, I had trouble accepting them. As a scientist and researcher, I could not analyze how they would work. But because I was not going anywhere anyway, I started applying these principles whether I could analyze them or not. What did I have to lose? As I applied these principles patiently and calmly, I began noticing amazing results in my life as they all worked out in an organized and precise way. This is because the universe works in a very precise and organized way.
I call them invisible concepts. An invisible concept is really the key of our success because they play an enormous role in our life. Whether we see them, whether we believe them, it is of no value. As our famous American President, Abraham Lincoln said, “To believe in the things you can see and touch is no belief at all, but to believe in the unseen is a triumph and a blessing.”
Once you decide to apply these invisible concepts, which I’ll be sharing with you in the program, things will start flowing your way automatically, and every circumstance and decision will begin coming your way. You don’t have to buy any tools. You don’t have to buy a new computer. You don’t have to buy any expensive products because all the basic ingredients you need to be successful are already installed in you. So, your hard drive is ready to go. All the software program is there. You do not have to help make Bill Gates any richer than he is.
And the best part of it is that successful people are not any smarter than anyone else is. They don’t have better English, grammar or writing skills. They don’t have any bigger or better car than anybody else. They are like all of us because God gave that talent equally to all of us.
I have achieved a quantum leap. So can you. It is up to you to find the talent, make it sharp, and I am very hopeful that this program, The Essence of Life, is going to get you started on that journey.
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Are you excited? Can you see the dream again? Can you see that awesome business and relationship in front of you? If you can, then let’s begin our journey now!
In this session, we will be learning the most important first principle of gratitude ... gratitude for where you are now; where you are going and where you will end up once you get there. It is very imperative that the gratitude should be included in every aspect of your life. Many times you will hear people around you say that life is about attitude. I agree with them, but there is more to attitude. One of the primary components of attitude is 'thankfulness', expressing my gratitude for what I have.
Mark Victor Hansen, the author of the best selling Chicken Soup for the Soul series says that we must practice an 'attitude of gratitude.' Now, that is nailing it on the head. I was a live example of lack of gratitude for years. As a scientist, I was focused more on finding what is not there. The interesting thing about this was that the way I felt professionally by having lack of gratitude carried over to my personal life. It became part of me.
Too many times we hijack our own journey of success by not expressing our thankfulness for what we already have. Unfortunately, we go in the opposite direction. Instead of being thankful for what we have, we focus more on what we don't have. Once you live your life with the 'attitude of gratitude,' not only will the universe favor you and reward you, but you are going to be joyful and happy when you are on this journey of life.
As an example, how many times you have seen people around you or at work, complain that they are not paid enough or they don't get enough benefits? What happens? Their life becomes even less enjoyable. Now, what happens if they bring gratitude in to their lives by saying it this way: "Hey listen, whatever services I am providing, I am getting paid for it and I am getting compensated for it. So, I am going to increase the excellence in my service and I am going to find a newer way to make my service more effective," Then the issue of low pay (even if that is correct) or the issue of lack of benefits (even if that is correct) will become secondary because gratitude will create that mindset where proper actions to take in life will just show up.
Once these actions show up, your employer, your boss, or ways and means within your own employment will have no choice but to provide you with growth. Even if you work for yourself, there will be no other option, because you have become creative. When you become creative, creativeness shows you the proper actions; and when you become grateful, you become happy. They are both interconnected and you are in a different frame of mind. Then you are in an energy level where you attract everything and anything in your life.
So, can you see how this one single principle, the 'power of gratitude' can transform your life? When you start focusing on this principle of gratitude, you will discover that no matter what the situation; you have quite a bit to be thankful for.
I have a family member who, for several years now has walked each morning. He calls it his Gratitude Walk. No matter what his circumstance is or situation is, no matter how he is feeling that day about certain aspects of his life, he focuses completely in all the things that he is grateful for. Not surprisingly, people around him say that he is lucky or he is blessed or God favors him. Can you imagine that?
By the way, this person is my father-in-law and upon his departure from this planet, the University of Iowa named their medical building in his honor. It is no coincidence that people we think they are lucky or that God favors them have followed these principles — they are grateful for everything they have.
When you begin expressing thankfulness and exhibiting gratitude, you will start to see that the conflict, confusion, and disagreements in your life start disappearing. People will react to you differently because your feeling of gratitude has created that energy within you, and you transfer that energy to the people around you. You have heard about an infectious smile? That's what the gratitude does to you in every day of your life.
Now, we need to clarify one thing here: Gratitude does not mean lack of action. But what gratitude does is bring you positive energy. Positive energy gives you strength and courage and shows you how to take certain actions that will bring the results in your life.
When I began consciously expressing gratitude, I found that I began to enjoy and appreciate what I already had. I began to enjoy more what I knew would be coming my way. I found that I was a lot less competitive and more creative, because the creativity is why God put us on this earth. God did not design us to play only golf, but to be creative, to make a difference in people's lives.
So gratitude is like the first step of driving the car, and that is you have to find the key. If you don't have a key, the car is going nowhere. So put the gratitude in your life. It is like finding the key for the car and filling the gas tank with the gas because that is the basis. It is the essence of enjoying life and having a good time not only for you, but the people around you.
Have you ever met someone who is always grumpy, always unhappy? Think about it! Would you like to be around that person? Probably not. I don't because that person gives me negative energy. So if that person can learn the 'attitude of gratitude,' happiness will just come because you cannot have the 'attitude of gratitude' and unhappiness. They just don’t work together. It is like trying to mix oil and water. It is not going to happen.
I want to share a story with you about a banker friend of mine in Chicago. Many years ago he was about to go bankrupt and lose everything he had. Every time I met him, though, he had this joy and happiness as though he had just won some big lottery or heard some big successful news, when I knew in reality where he was going. So, he gave me a true life example of gratitude; he was always thankful to God; and he always would thank me for being his friend. Do you know that today he is the President and CEO and the majority shareholder of 13 banks in Chicago? That is the power of gratitude!
When I was growing up, I had an uncle, now deceased, who was the CEO of a very big insurance company, and due to takeover, he lost his job. He could not find a job for years. In fact, he became so poor that his five children came to live with us for a year. Yet I never saw him unhappy. I never saw him complaining. I never saw him talking about his job. He always talked about the dream and what he wanted to do and he would thank God. I used to think he was nuts! I used to think something was wrong with him because he kept thanking God that he lost his job. He said, “I know something better is coming. That’s why the company was closed.” Do you know, when he died a few years ago, he was the owner of the largest nuclear plant contractor company in the county? That is the power of gratitude!
When I became thankful to my team members; when I became thankful to every patient who came to my practice; when I became thankful to every person who came in to my life; when I became thankful for every good or bad situation in my life, the results were the same. And even if nothing was happening around me physically that I could see, I knew one thing – I wasn’t unhappy and that alone is a blessing of gratitude. So, if I can be happy, who cares what else is going on around me? That is what the gratitude will provide you.
As Plato said, “We are twice armed when we move forward with faith.” Now you will say, “Where does faith come into gratitude?” Once you become grateful and once you become thankful, your faith will increase. You don’t have a choice. It’s not negotiable. That is just how the system works. And when faith comes into your life, you cannot even imagine the possibilities.
So what I would like to do here with you is to take this same faith and gratitude and put them together. Let us make a summary list of what gratitude is and what you can do with it. We need to bring ourselves into a perfect unity with the universal energy, superpower or God ... whatever you believe in ... because this is the starting point of gratitude.
Once I become more sincere, once I am deeper and profound in my gratitude, I will connect a lot easier to the Source that provides me the abundance in life. Once I go into a lack of gratitude, it can easily rob me of all the joy and happiness. It can also stop the future blessings that are about to come my way. So do not fall into that game of lack of gratitude.
And you know what people do? Once they have a small reward, once they have a little happiness, once they have a little joy in their lives, the first thing they do is that they start enjoying that and forget the gratitude. So no matter how small the reward comes your way, always keep the ‘attitude of gratitude’ in front of you.
Also, remember that your soul, which is thankful, will always be closer to God or the universe or whatever your faith or belief system you have. Gratitude, once combined with faith and action is an awesome recipe for receiving the desired results and more in your life.
Once I adopted the life of gratitude, once I started being thankful to my wife, believe me, my love life is a lot better than it ever was. When I started thanking my children, my relationship with them has become just awesome. So gratitude will start this cycle or chain of events, which will lead you toward prosperity.
Gratitude also gives us two very powerful paths for awareness. Please listen to me carefully here because these two paths for awareness along with gratitude can make a greater difference in your life. They really have made a difference in my life. Once I became aware of just these two principles, my life has not been the same since. I am enjoying a quantum leap in my practice. My kid’s are awesome! My relationship with the wife is just at a new high and more to come!
So, let me share this awareness with you. Awareness of Creativity vs. Competitiveness alone blocked so much in my life because when I lacked gratitude, I had a competitive mind. The competitive mind leads only to the path of disintegration. Creative thoughts are the only thoughts that will enrich your life. Soul expresses itself only with creativity, only with the desire to have more. That is natural.
All our purposeful desires can be fulfilled with creativity, which starts with the mind of gratitude. Utilize this knowledge, this awareness and you will not only enhance your life, but you are going to make a big difference with the people around you. Then, they in turn will be very thankful to you. So, it’s not just your gratitude, but the gratitude of everybody else around you, combining and making your growth possible. Learn to be thankful for everything that you have now.
This brings me to the other area of happiness and appreciation. Believe me, I have lots of people around me; lots of friends who are doing very well. What I have noticed with them is that many times their happiness is tied down to something physical. It is not uncommon to hear someone say, “Once I have that, I will be happy”; or, “Once I get a new job, I’m going to thank God”.
Let me assure you, if you are not thankful for what you have now, that new physical thing which comes to your life is not going to make you happy either. You might be happy for an hour, a day or two, but you are going to go back to the same track. Learn the ‘attitude of gratitude’ now by being thankful for what you have now, so when the new things come to your life, your happiness is going to only increase, and you will not have the unhappiness crawling into your life.
Does that make sense to you? Have you gone through this cycle of “Hey, once I get the new car, once I get the new ring, once I find a new girlfriend or boyfriend my life is going to be better?” No, no, no! Your life is better now! You should be thankful now for what you have. This is the power of gratitude I wanted to share with you.
The key is to have a life of thankfulness. In our Western society, we say “thank you” every day and we thank everyone for everything. You know what my feeling on that is? That word “thank you” has lost its meaning and let me share with you why: because that ‘thank you’ does not have thankfulness in it. The ‘thank you’ has become so robotic that the intention, the energy and real gratitude is not in it. So when you say ‘thanks’ to someone, say it with thankfulness, not just “thank you.”
The message in the gratitude is that when you say “Thank you” to someone, say it like you really mean it. Really have gratitude towards that one and pour a little bit of intention, a little thankfulness into that word “thank you” and it will bring its meaning back in to our society. The changes in my life started by first learning to BE thankful for what I have and then everything that came after only added to my happiness.
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In closing, simple gratitude brings you the power to be creative and happy. Now let us go through some of the exercises that we have created for you for this lesson on gratitude.
Exercise number one: Make a habit of sincerely thanking a least three people per day. Also make sure you let them know the particular reason why you are thankful to them and then also make a habit of asking if there is anything you can do to help them in any way.
Exercise number two: I would like you to make a list. We will call it the gratitude list. Take the name of people who have influenced you or affected you or done something for you in one way or the other in your personal or professional life. Then write in front of each name why you thought about their name and what impacted you. Then I would like you to pick up the phone and personally call them and thank them for whatever reason you put their name on the list. Before you end your phone call, make sure you ask them if there is anything you can do for them.
Once you are done with this exercise, you are going to feel like you are in a different universe or in a totally different vibration, because that is how I started implementing this "attitude of gratitude" in my life, by these simple acts. I had to force myself sometimes. I used to find excuses such as "I’m going to call them tomorrow and tomorrow...". But then, I made it a habit to pick up at least as many names as I could and call them and thank them. Then the universe opened its door for me and my feelings, my inner joy, went to such a high degree that it is something you just have to experience yourself.
Now I want to share my gratitude with you for being with me in this session and spending your valuable time. This is Dr. A and, “Thank You”.