Hello everyone! Mike Arend here, founder of Infinite Success Academy, Author of "You're The One - an adventure into truth" and, the Soul Mechanic.
You may have noticed that some of my posts have been rather hap-hazard lately and that's because I just got back from a three week trip to Germany. The purpose of the trip was to visit family and speak at a "Find Your Flow" conference in Basel Switzerland near the end of the trip.
I was excited to have been chosen to speak in Basel because there were many well known, both European and North American, gurus speaking there including one of my mentors Neale Donald Walsch.
However, when I applied to be a speaker there I didn't realize what the process entailed for selection. I had submitted a video, but it turns out the organizers of the event posted them online and had people vote on which one they liked the best - American Idol style.
After much Soul searching, I decided to not participate. You may find this counter productive for me, but I had made a decision about 10 years ago that I no longer wanted to come from a place of competition, but from a place of creativity. Now, lest you think I'm no longer competitive and wonder how I get things done, let me assure you, I am still fiercely competitive, but only with myself.
I believe that competition between others only serves the "little" me, my Ego. This Ego is such a hearty task master and it will quickly overtake your life if you let it. It wants to be in charge, squashing anyone or anything in it's path, including you. The Ego isolates, the True Self unites. When the fulfillment of someone else's desires starts to feel as good as when you are fulfilling your own, you know you are traveling the path of expanded consciousness, not the Ego.
In life, we all know that Egos clash and there is so much energy expended to protect the personalities we have created. But these personalities are not who we are. You see, you can never really succeed at the level of the Ego. Oh sure, you can point to those that have, but their success is fleeting and will never last. Inevitably they will destroy themselves.
The Ego has a limited perspective. We must see ourselves as we really are, someone that can manifest anything they desire when coming from our True Selves. Once we come from this place, a place of creativity, we narrow the gap between ourselves and others. The Ego only widens this gap and encourages us to feel separate from others.
Perhaps you can now see the irony of a spiritual event running a competition to see who will, or will not speak at their event. I just couldn't bring myself to stand on that stage and talk about oneness, and feel I had participated in a competition that did nothing but separate me from someone else. No worries, there will be other events to speak at, although I dearly wanted to meet Neale.
Creativity is where we need to focus, not competition. Don't get me wrong, we need competition, but we need only compete with ourselves, not with others. Forget about useless comparisons with anyone else but yourself. Each one of us is unique and has their own filtered perception on the world. How could you honestly expect to "Be" like anyone else?
Rejoice in you and create your own reality. Drive yourself to succeed at what "you" want. Compete with yourself to constantly improve, because after all you're here to become "your" greatest version, not anyone else's idea of who you are.
You've been listening to the Soul Mechanic and it's been my absolute pleasure to serve you. Sending you Love, Happiness, and Abundance. Now, and always.
Bye for now!

Hello everyone! Mike Arend here, founder of Infinite Success Academy, author of the soon to be released book "You're The One - an adventure into truth" and, the Soul Mechanic.
"Worrying is like a rocking chair - it gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere."
Worry. We all do it to a certain degree, but what is it anyway? Wikipedia defines like this:
"Give way to anxiety or unease; allow one's mind to dwell on difficulty or troubles."
It's really just a form of anxiety, which when left unchecked becomes stress. But stress, the father of both worry and anxiety, doesn't exist in the physical world. If I ask you to go out and get me a bucket of stress, what would you come back with? Now, you may stress out that you couldn't find any stress, but stress is not a physical thing so that means it must be a mental image of something.
OK, so now we're getting somewhere. Our minds spend most of their time trying to protect us from harm, that's it's number one priority. So when we don't suffer from physical danger (thankfully today most of us don't on a regular basis) the mind needs to make some of the far lesser things more important and "seem" like danger. In strides worry, followed by anxiety, and then finally stress.
So what can we do? Worry really starts when we feel that we no longer have control over the outcome of something so since control is at the root of worry, I try to follow this simple plan that usually stems the tide of excessive worry:
I ask myself the following question, "Do I have control over the situation that has arisen?" If the answer is "yes", then there is no need to worry because I have control and can directly affect the outcome.
If the answer is "no," I do not have control, then again there is no need to worry because I have no control over the situation. In both cases worry is useless and can do nothing to solve your problem let alone the problems of others. Now, if I could solve my own or others problems just by worrying, I'd be worrying all the time! But it can't, so it makes no sense for me to worry.
When we allow our minds to be taken over with worry it comes up with all kinds of scenarios, and almost all of them aren't even plausible. Things are very rarely as bad as they seem or that we make them out to be, so all that worry has gotten you no where, just like you were sitting in a rocking chair.
You've been listening to the Soul Mechanic and it's been my absolute pleasure to serve you, sending you Love, Happiness, and Abundance. Now, and always.
Bye for now!

Hello everyone! Mike Arend here, founder of Infinite Success Academy, author of the soon to be released book, "You're The One - an Adventure Into Truth," and the Soul Mechanic.
Today I want to talk about something we all do. Judgement. It's become such a large part of our lives that we just do it automatically. We judge others at work, at home, on the T.V., on the radio, even just in our minds as we think about them. But is all this judging doing us any good?
I believe it's one of the biggest factors that holds us back from our true success. Judgment, simply put, is fear. Being "right" by making everyone else "wrong" perpetuates a negative cycle that blocks our energy and true potential.
As a form of defense many people start to criticize others, while deep down they actually feel harshly critical about themselves, and every time you judge yourself, you're blocking your inner potential. It tears you down and hinders your own success. It depletes you, and everyone around you.
Self judgment is the most limiting factor when people fail to fulfill their dreams. Judgment of yourself and others makes people wary of you and less likely to work with you on your path to success.
This judgment will stop as soon as you no longer feel the need to make others "wrong." Besides, "right" or "wrong" doesn't actually exist, remember. It's just opposite ends of everyone's perceptions of life. Nobody is perfect, and instead of focusing on your flaws and thinking in terms of perfection and imperfection, we need to keep our vision on our unfolding potential.
Once we take a step back and acknowledge that we are all just a single cell in the vast body of the Universe, it comes naturally to cooperate for the benefit of the whole, just as the whole acts for our benefit. For example, heart cells don't judge liver cells and despite their differences, each cell harmonizes and works together to keep the body healthy.
In your own life, difficulty with others doesn't have to translate into an "us" vs "them" or "me" against the "world" attitude. Once you have the intention to drop the habit of judgment, bonds of cooperation can be formed, giving you a support network beyond your ability to do everything yourself.
At the same time, non-judgment relieves you of the constant need to compare yourself to other people. There's no need for negative comparisons because your path is unique, unlike anyone else's. Acceptance is love. It's nurturing, it feeds you. Having compassion for yourself and others without criticism or judgment creates the space for more blessings, abundance and success.
Let your heart feel the connection we were all meant to share. You'll build connections with others and sow the seeds of real meaningful growth. Does that sound like success to you? I certainly think so.
The secret is to be yourself with the intent of presenting your best self in every situation. Your best self, at the deepest level, is timeless and firmly embedded in the infinite field of consciousness.
You've been listening to the Soul Mechanic and it's been my absolute pleasure to serve you. Sending you Love, Happiness, and Abundance. Now, and always.
Bye for now!

Hello everyone! Mike Arend here, founder of Infinite Success Academy, author of the soon to be released book, "You're The One - an Adventure Into Truth," and the Soul Mechanic.
I often get asked, "Am I on the right path?" People want to make a change in their lives or they already have, and feel the need for confirmation that they're on the right path. The answer to that question is really quite simple:
Of course you're on the right path, there's no such thing as the wrong path on this journey. You can never "not get" to where you are going. No matter what you're current circumstances or where you are in your life at this very moment, you are right where you're supposed to be, experiencing exactly what you're supposed to be experiencing.
You see, everyone's spiritual path is perfect. They're all different because we're all different. We all have a different life filter from everyone else meaning we all experience life differently. Even if two people are simultaneously experiencing the same occurrence, they will filter the event separately and differently based on their thoughts and beliefs (filter).
So your path is different than mine and different from your best friends, but it's still perfect because we're all headed to the same place. We're on a return trip back to the realm of the absolute. A return back to Source Energy where we will shed our frail, but lovely, physical bodies and become pure energy again.
We're just here to learn and evolve. Our Souls can't experience all this emotion and feeling in the realm of the absolute so it comes here to the realm of the physical to experience what it's like to be rich, poor, homeless, live in a mansion, atheist, priest, white, black, yellow, the list goes on and on.
Yes, that's right our Souls have already made many trips from the realm of the absolute to the realm of the physical, and will continue to do so into eternity. And as you may have already noticed, as your Soul evolves, your consciousness grows, and as it does, obstacles just seem to disappear.
The point of life on this planet then is not to "get" anywhere, but to notice that you are, and always have been, already there, and to create who and what you are. Then experience that.
The path you're on is already perfect. Stay on your present course or change it if you feel like it, but it will always be perfect.
You've been listening to the Soul Mechanic and it's been my absolute pleasure to serve you. Sending you Love, Happiness, and Abundance. Now, and always.
Bye for now!

Hello everyone and Happy Friday! Mike Arend here, founder of Infinite Success Academy, author of the soon to be released book "You're The One - An Adventure Into Truth" and, the Soul Mechanic.
Are you feeling stuck? Just can't seem to get the traction you need to break through to the next level? Many times we get that feeling because, in truth, we feel we're not worthy. We're not worthy of all the attention or accolades we've received thus far, or of all the challenges and hardships we've had to endure along the way.
The reason for this is because we've based our sense of worthiness on the past. The only place we should base or worthiness on is the future. That's where our life is. That's where our truth is, not the past. What we have done is unimportant compared to what we are about to do and the mistakes of the past are insignificant compared to what we are about to create.
We've all come a long way in the last number of years and the problem is not that we've changed or that our values have changed, the problem arises when so many of us insist on thinking that the values we now have (since we started awakening) are the right and perfect ones, and that everyone else should agree with, or adhere to them. This sometimes makes us feel a bit self-justified or self-righteous.
Don't get me wrong here, it's great to have adopted new beliefs that serve you, in fact, hold on to them, for those ideas about "right" and "wrong" are your definitions of who you are. But don't require that others define themselves according to your terms, and don't stay so "stuck" in your present beliefs and customs that you halt the very process of your own evolution.
For example: If I believed something to be true on Monday but was presented with incontrovertible evidence on Tuesday that my belief was no longer valid, yet I continued to steadfastly believe in my previous belief on Wednesday, then I would become stuck and bring my evolutionary process to a screeching halt.
Actually you could never really do this because life goes on with, or without you. Nothing ever remains the same or stays unchanged. For something to be unchanged it means it has not moved, and to not move is to die.
All life is motion, even rocks are filled with motion at the microscopic level. Everything moves. Everything. There's nothing that's not in motion and therefore, by the very act of motion, nothing is the same from one moment to the next. Nothing.
Remaining the same then, or wanting to, causes "stuckness" and moves against the laws of the Universe, the laws of life itself. And in this struggle, life will always win.
You know what to do, so do it.
You've been listening to the Soul Mechanic and it's been my absolute pleasure to serve you. Sending you Love, Happiness, and Abundance. Now, and always.
Bye for now!

Hello everyone and Happy Friday! Mike Arend here, founder of Infinite Success Academy, author of the soon to be released book "You're The One - An Adventure Into Truth" and, the Soul Mechanic.
Awaken to the power of "You."
Have you ever given thought to just how powerful you really are? How easy you make this whole "living on earth thing" look? First of all you need to make sure you understand this one concept: You are a Soul in a body, not a body with a Soul. You are part of an infinite energy field and can never die because energy can never be destroyed only transformed.
Many things have happened throughout history to bring us to this very moment in time. A moment where the time has come for those of us that are "awake" to awaken the rest. "But what is this awakening thing people talk about and how do I get it?" you may ask. Therein lies the rub, you can't "get" it. It's something that you just start to intuitively feel. A feeling that makes you wonder "What's all the fuss about?"
While others are busily trying to solve problems and figure everything out, you're not. While everyone else is striving to arrive, you're not. While others are running from their life, in this very moment, to try to get there, you're not. You start to move with the flow of life itself instead of trying to resist it or carve your niche into it. You realize, in the truth of your being, that you are the totality of the Universe in human form.
Now this may sound very "out there" to some of you, but the ones who understand this know who they are and it's for them that I write this. It's not that there's a "special club" that you need to join (if you thought that you're still asleep!) it's the exact opposite, you just need to "be." Be you, down to your very core. Not, this fake, false self we have created and identify with in order to satisfy society.
Now the real reason you need to awaken is so you can awaken others. Awakening others will not happen by chance, but as an intended effect of all those who embrace their personal evolution. The way you will do this is by allowing your personal growth and your struggles to be on display, to be modeled publicly.
By allowing your personal evolutionary process to be observed by others, it can become a means by which the evolutionary process of all humanity is advanced. But let's be perfectly clear, this is not about walking around declaring yourself to be the model of perfection or evolutionary excellence. This is about simply not hiding your personal choices, and presenting yourself authentically to the world with regard to both your struggles and your progress as you continually seek to fully awaken.
"Why do we even need to awaken?" you ask. Because the time we have left on this planet is perilously short if we don't start to evolve. I'm not talking about switching to electric cars or using solar power here, I'm talking about the evolution of our species. To become higher evolved beings where we treat everyone with love and compassion and expect nothing in return for doing that.
This will lead to fundamental changes in our society and technological advances that will help, not hinder us. Once we are free to evolve and concentrate on loving others instead of competing, the world will be changed forever. Or not. It's your choice, you see.
Are you ready to join me and awaken others? I hope you are because once one of us is awake, we can awaken another, and then we can awaken our brother. And soon together we can cause such a fuss, we will awaken the rest of us.
You've been listening to the Soul Mechanic and it's been my absolute pleasure to serve you. Sending you Love, Happiness, and Abundance. Now, and always.
Bye for now!

Hello everyone and Happy Friday! Mike Arend here, founder of Infinite Success Academy, author of the soon to be released book "You're The One - An Adventure Into Truth" and, the Soul Mechanic.
The power of positive thinking. I was standing in my driveway yesterday talking with a neighbour when a friend of mine drove by on the way to show the home next door that's for sale. My friend is a Realtor and since I spent numerous years as a Realtor too, it was a pleasure to see him bring clients by to show the home next door. I quickly walked over to warn his clients about their choice of Realtors and we all had a good laugh. You see, it would be extremely hard to find a genuinely nicer, more humble man than my friend James (I'll call him James here). James promised to stop by my home when the showing was over, and so he did.
The last time I had talked with James, over a year ago - man how time flies - he was in the middle of a wonderful relationship. Apparently, things had not gone well since the last time we spoke and his relationship had disintegrated. James, after experiencing terrible lows, was now bursting with joy! He mentioned he was following me on Facebook and loved all the messages I was sending out and had decided to adopt a positive outlook to erase all the doom and gloom he had been feeling. He continued to think positive thoughts and focused on himself to remember who he was, and just when he wasn't paying attention, someone new came into his life.
James went on to tell me about so many coincidences, serendipities, and unexplained phenomena that kept happening in his life. I reminded him that there is no such thing as coincidence and that all that was happening because he had adopted such a Positive Mental Attitude (PMA).
You may not feel positive thinking alone can have that much affect, in fact you may even dismiss some of these folks as Pollyannas and little more. But many things are happening to you when you decide to adopt a Positive Mental Attitude (PMA). In many cases you've stopped watching the nightly news, you have little time for, or give little thought to, the Negative Mental Attitude (NMA) thinking of co-workers, family members, or friends, not that you ignore them - you just don't allow their NMA to affect your PMA.
Once you adopt a PMA and also the belief that good things will happen to you because you have adopted this new attitude, changes begin to appear. Your perception of others and therefore how we perceive the whole world is altered, and if we change our perception, everything else changes. This leads to thoughts of love and harmony, that leads to love and harmony returning to you. Thoughts become things remember.
But its more than that. Its a "feeling." A feeling that rings true inside you that lets you know that you're on the right track. It's all about the feeling folks. We're emotional beings and all our time in physical form is spent trying to attain an acceptable feeling. It's the pleasure vs pain syndrome that cause so much devastation, but also creation in our lives. You see, our brains are wired to detect negativity, since that is an important function for basic survival, so we easily take in and adopt this never ending cycle of negativity that we're exposed to every day. The media, of course, is of no help because it knows this too and continues to bombard us with all the "bad" stuff thats happening around us everyday just to sell advertising. Truth be told, statistics tell us that this is the safest time ever to be a human being on this planet.
The way we think is the way we feel, the way we feel is the way we act, and the way we act gives us the results we get in our lives. So one can plainly see that if we start thinking differently, we will feel differently, which will allow us to act and receive differently. Simple eh? It's not rocket science folks.
This also opens up the idea of service. What happens when we are of service to others from a place of love, is that we are actually serving ourselves as well. Many of us think of service as great feats, sacrifices, or large philanthropic donations, and while it is those things, it can also be much more accessible in our daily lives. Being of service to others is simply realizing what you do best in any given moment and offering that as a gift to someone else. For instance, today it could be as simple as a warm smile to brighten someone's day. Giving can be just that simple. I'm reminded of a wonderful quote from Martin Luther King Jr.:
"Anyone can be great, because anyone can serve."
A life of love, happiness, and abundance then, can be started with something as simple as positive thought that made us "feel" better.
Your mission this weekend, should you decide to accept it, is to displace some of that NMA with a PMA. Do this all weekend and by Monday you'll already start to "feel" the difference.
You've been listening to the Soul Mechanic and it's been my absolute pleasure to serve you. Sending you Love, Happiness, and Abundance. Now, and always.
Bye for now!

Hello everyone and Happy Friday! Mike Arend here, founder of Infinite Success Academy, author of the soon to be released book "You're The One - An Adventure Into Truth" and, the Soul Mechanic.

In last weeks blog post I talked about the Soul's desire and that it's ok to desire earthly items that brings joy as well.
Enter the new love in my life. Her name is Merlot. I purchased her on June 10th and this is the first public pictures of her. She is a 2003 BMW Z4 roadster. She's not perfect, but what is? I love her just the way she is.

You see, I've always been a car guy and have owned everything from Pontiacs to Porsches (I am a Mechanic after all!). But I've never owned a convertible, much less a two seat roadster version. The minute I drove her I knew she and I had a connection.

So why would I spend time and money on a material object when I preach that you have all you need within you and all you need to do is just be? Because I asked myself, asked my soul really, "What do you want?" Of course a two seat convertible sports car was the first thing that popped into my mind. I realized though that was my mind talking, not my Soul so I put my hand over my heart, breathed deeply and asked again, "What do you want?" "To love and serve others. To help them awaken and remember who and what they truly are," came forth from the depths of my Soul. I knew this time it was my Soul talking. "OK, so is it reasonable to want a sports car?" I asked. "What ever brings the joy within you out into the world," is the message I received back.

You may find it strange to have a conversation with your Soul, but you should try it some time. You just need to ask, be still and wait for an answer. You'll know when it rings true to you who's doing the talking. So then I asked my mind why on earth would I want a sports car again, because I've had a few before. The answer that came back to me was "To feel the freedom." But I felt this answer more in my chest so I knew it was my Soul talking again.

To feel the freedom. Of course! That's why I desire this car. To be able to put the top down and drive on a twisty back road, to me, is almost like meditation, and it frees me from all earthly responsibility for and hour or two at a time.
You see, "Desire" exists in the Soul. In fact, a great one word definition of the Soul would be "Desire."

Desire is the creator of "Intention" and Intention is the creator of "Thought," Thought is the creator of "Action," and Action gives us the results we get in our lives. Without "Desire" the very Universe could not exist.

So, if the human part of me "Desires" freedom and I get a sense of that when I drive Merlot, then this will turn into more creative thought patterns that will in turn help me with the creative action I need to help others.

Does this sound like justification for buying Merlot? You bet it is! But I truly do get a profound sense of freedom when I drive her, and the joy within is released, which is definitely a good thing. Now, this is not a prescription to go out and buy a convertible sports car just because I did, but if you do, just make sure it rings true with your Soul.
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You've been listening to the Soul Mechanic and it's been my absolute pleasure to serve you. Sending you Love, Happiness, and Abundance. Now, and always.
Bye for now!

Hello everyone and Happy Friday! Mike Arend here, founder of Infinite Success Academy, author of the soon to be released book "You're The One - An Adventure Into Truth" and, the Soul Mechanic.

Just the other day I was thinking of all the blessings that have come into my life and of all the other things, places and events I still want to manifest into my life. When we talk about manifestation, most of us think about a better car, home, or partner. But when you're able to get in touch with the desires of your Soul, your true Self, they will bring you closer to your spiritual aspirations of greater love, joy, inspiration, and spiritual freedom.

Your Soul is always trying to communicate with you, albeit in very subtle ways. It wants to experience all your human emotions and help guide you to becoming your highest divine Self. But how about all those better cars, homes, and partners. Just because we desire those things in our lives, does that make those manifestations any less worthy of our attention? Many religions would have us believe that we can only be close to God when we have no possessions what so ever. So what gives?

Here's my take on it. Our highest true self, our Soul, is God. Therefore we are a piece of the divine as well. We are a piece of God. In fact we are God. There's no other way to say it. We must be like what we came from, right? There is only one. All races, creeds, colours, earthly life forms, alien life forms - everything in all the Universes is all, "Us." When we kill, we kill ourselves. When we love, we love ourselves.

So how could it be so terribly wrong to desire earthly pleasures while here on this planet? It's not! The secret is to desire that which gives you joy, not happiness, but joy. Happiness is fleeting, and comes and goes depending on our outlook to what is currently happening to us. Joy, on the other hand, comes from the Soul. If that better car gives you joy while driving it and in ownership of it, go for it.

As long as you don't harm anyone else or become judgmental of others in the process (remember, we're all one, right), then what stirs your Soul, and allows the joy already inside you to come forth, in my opinion, is a good thing. Remembering of course that all earthly manifestations are only temporary and we will leave them all behind soon enough. We came into this world with "no-things" and we will leave the same way.

While all those earthly possessions we manifest while here may serve us, remember that when we get closer to our divine selves, our Soul, they will start to mean less and less. You'll discover that perhaps that better car, home, or partner really isn't necessary after all. You are God remember, and there's so much more to experience once we leave this world and return home.

You've been listening to the Soul Mechanic, and it's been my absolute pleasure to serve you. Sending you Love, Happiness, and Abundance. Now, and always.
Bye for now!

Hello everyone! Mike Arend here founder of Infinite Success Academy, author of the soon to be released book, "You're The One - An Adventure Into Truth" and, the Soul Mechanic.
Spirituality. It can mean so many things to so many different people. Not all that long ago it just meant being religious, worshiping God or the Spirit meant you were spiritual. Oh, there were those that preached that spirituality was not "worshiping" anything, and that it meant a union with everything around us, but these folks were usually written off as heretics or lunatics.
Flash forward to today, and I believe we have made leaps and bounds in just the last ten years in terms of the general public moving away from the age old definition of being spiritual, and moving toward what many spiritual teachers and wisdom traditions have taught for thousands of years. You can hardly go anywhere, talk to anyone or watch anything without someone remarking, "That's the way the Universe works. I just have to do my part and let the Universe do the rest." It's becoming more and more common place and I hear it a lot from the younger crowd too, which of course is a very good thing.
Yes, times are changing and we're right on schedule to help save humanity from certain destruction. If I were to try to nail down what spirituality means to me, it would sound something like this:
"Living in constant love and gratitude."
Pretty simple, eh? If we could learn to see others and the world with the vision of gratitude and love, so much in the world would shift for the better. I call this "seeing with the Soul," because when your deepest self recognizes itself in another person, it experiences love. When your true self sees itself in another object, it experiences beauty.
When we see with the eyes of the Soul, we find pure Self everywhere.
Your job this weekend, should you decide to accept it, is to look at others as you are out and about and say to yourself, "That's me!" Say that when looking at the beautiful, the not so good looking, the fat, the thin, the weird ones, the downtrodden, and accept the fact that in essence we are all from the same energy source, we are all one, and in fact there is only one.
You've been listening to the Soul Mechanic and it's been my absolute pleasure to serve you. Sending you Love, Happiness, and Abundance. Now, and always.
Bye for now!