Guess what? Now you're the President!

You are the President. You are also your best friend and worst enemy. You are your spouse and every relative - all at the same time.

How is that so? The way you treat people is how you train them to treat you (Law of Attraction). What you think is what you attract and also how you communicate (or fail to do so) creates your friends, enemies and government representatives.

Have you written the President or e-mailed him about what you think on so-and-so policy he just put out? Then don't complain if he does something you don't like. Same for your senators and representatives, and the clerk as well as senior executives at Wal-Mart. If you communicate, even if they don't respond, at least you've sent something which tells people how you want to be treated.

Now that brings up a very interesting caveat. If you chew them out, or call them bad names, you are essentially wanting them to treat you in this fashion. If you are positive in your comments, you get what you ask for. Now that person might be doing something really stupid - but if you say "hey, you idiot, wise up!", just imagine how you feel when someone says that to you. If you say, "Bud, there's a better way to do that..." you'll get a better response.

You may have seen that anytime you push a negative, you get the opposite response ("The Secret" DVD had extensive data on this subject). So when you tell someone NOT to do something, they'll do it. This was known to NLP practitioners for years. The mind only recognizes a statement when you put it in the positive. Of course, it's common knowledge that only constructive criticism gets results - "you catch more flies with honey than vinegar" is the common sense adage.

And so "The Secret" lays out extensively that when you worry about debt, you'll get more debt. If you constantly anguish over how someone is misbehaving in your life, then that person will continue to misbehave. If you "Prayerize, Visualize, and Actualize" per Norman Vincent Peale, then you will create the way you want them to act. If, when you talk to them, you are constantly positive and constructive instead of being critical, this will further the effect. You may note that one of the first actions you are doing is confronting and then taking responsibility for what you see, beginning with your own actions with the people in your environment. Added to this is that you have to be willing and able to understand what is going on and see what life-purposes are in action around you. This is known as the Ablity formula.

Confront your world and those around you, seek to understand where they are coming from, take responsibility for your own and others' actions, find what purpose you and they are striving to achieve. Note that these four points act together inter-relatedly. When you concentrate on one point, you will bring up the other three. While you could conversely work to be irresponsible and avoid confrontation, you will blunt your own purpose and understand less of what is going on around you, but for most people this is harder than simply working to improve life around one. That is because outside of a criminal few, most of us are working to evolve and achieve growth through our daily actions.

Another point on how to talk to people and get your point across, start the conversation with how you appreciate something they are doing - like keeping the floors clean and the shelves stocked. Then ask them if they could improve on something that you've had your attention on. Or could they see if they could stock a certain item for you. Maybe they can't, or won't - but if you stay positive, they might consider it in the future. (Especially if your friends also want this item and use the same approach - what if 20 people came up and complemented you on what you were doing and then all asked you to change one little thing... of course you'd be persuaded to do that.) This is how grassroot response occurs, this is exactly how Wal-Mart and any retailer stocks their shelves - they look at what has been selling and what prices people are willing to pay for a given item. People vote with their pocket book.

The only problems politicians have is that they are elected for years at a time. Often they don't hear from some constituents except at these polls. (And since most of the time, not even 50 percent of the public actually do vote, they never hear from that person at all.)

Here's your assignment: If you disagree with what the President is doing with the economy or the current war - sent him an e-mail. Be positive in your suggestions. Do the same for your other elected officials. Contact your local store through their corporate office and send them some suggestions on how they could improve their service. You can also buttonhole the local manager and tell him how great a job he is doing. And don't forget to complement your significant other on several things that person is doing that you appreciate.

If you do that once a week, adding your representatives' e-mails to your address book, you'll be able to establish a positive flow in your environment. Government might actually be doing what you want them to do for once. I imagine that if a person sent them e-mails 50 times a year/once a week, then they would be inclined to respond. If all these e-mails were positive, then that person would be positively inclined toward that constituent. If not, at least you've put out a positive flow which will attract some positive return to your life.