Professional Documents
Culture Documents
An uplifting message
from Bob Gregoire
www.bobgregoire.com
All of this is true. You are royalty. Your words have super powers. Your fears are not warranted,
because everything will work out. That’s why I wrote this eBook. I wrote it to remind you of the peace
and love that comes from faith, and help you learn the practices that bring out the best in you.
This is part of my community’s mission to bring peace to the world, by increasing wisdom and knowl-
edge through education. We believe that peace will come when each of us has peace in our own minds
and hearts, and when each of us is living a life of love and compassion within our own family and com-
munity on a daily basis.
Although our unique cultures are good, and provide us with wonderful richness – and provide the
world with the gift of diversity - we sometimes lose track of our commonality as humans. This
happens when we focus on our differences, and not what unifies us.
Peace will come as we spread the message of our spiritual connection to each human in the world. If
each person is truly a spiritual brother or sister, it makes no sense whatsoever to continue practices
that cause us to hate, hurt and kill each other.
Our primary strategy for bringing peace is to embrace one mind at a time, by increasing each person’s
knowledge of the principles of peace, love and compassion. These qualities of life flow from the world
of faith. We believe that it is usually our ignorance on a particular subject that causes us to fear or hate
another person or group of people. Wisdom, which we can gain through education, takes the place in
our minds that has been preoccupied with fear and ignorance.
Our foundation brings the best practices and wisdom from the worlds of faith and psychology into eas-
ily understood and simple practices that may be implemented on a daily basis. Practices include read-
ing, prayer, meditation, community service and recitation of affirmations to fill our minds and souls with
loving and peaceful thoughts. If our thoughts are loving and peaceful, our actions will also be loving and
peaceful.
Please accept this e-book as a small gesture of thanks for the role you’ve played in com-
municating this message so far. We invite you to forward this book to every person in your family,
company, school and network who will benefit from its contents or assist us in spreading the message.
Bob
twitter.com/bobgregoire
facebook.com/bobgregoire
www.bobgregoire.com
or drop me a note at gregoire.today@gmail.com
A Spark to Ignite Your Joy and Faith
For reasons both cultural and spiritual, it is often tough to admit to yourself that you are lov-
able just by being you and you don’t need any material possessions to make you lovable. The
sum total of one’s net worth is consistent throughout our lives because we were born with
tremendous value and potential.
Potential for what? To develop spiritually and to become the loving and compassionate people
that we are capable of being.
You control how you feel about your spiritual maturity, your relationship with God and your
relationship with other humans. When you give yourself high grades in these areas, all of
the disappointment and discouragement is truly external and seems small and insignificant in
comparison.
Realize your true net worth in baby steps
At any or all of these points, it’s exceptionally important to have a very healthy mind, strong
body and unyielding faith in God and yourself. This is possible if you set your foundation prop-
erly. But how?
Ask yourself “if something traumatic happened tomorrow,” can I answer these three questions
today:
Spiritually, this looks like being a part of a faith community. Your friends of faith will be there to
support your faith at a time when you might be more vulnerable than usual to feelings of nega-
tivity or despair. The same type of kinship exists in your daily physical experiences as well: the
gym, the coffee shop, dinner with friends. These relationships exist to be there to listen, call,
visit and pray for you during the entire experience.
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In every aspect of our life, we receive based upon the beliefs and expectations that we hold
in our minds about what we’re worthy or capable of receiving. If we are to become open and
aware of new possibilities, our beliefs must change in order for us to be willing and worthy of
receiving.
Are the beliefs that you have about yourself consistent with your values? Knowing that we get
what we expect, what treatment do you expect from the outside world? Or, closer to home,
how do you expect to treat yourself?
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You get the hope and trust from God always watching over you with a plan
You know that upon leaving Earth, you have a heavenly place to live in peace
You can perform miracles because nothing is too small or impossible to solve
You have 6.7 billion fellow princes and princesses, each sharing in the gifts of love and regular
prayer. I believe this is a requirement to maintain your spot in the royal court.
As a bonus, this newfound status also comes with a trust fund – you are granted the ability to
laugh at all the silly things that used to cause you fear, despair, and insecurity. Concern over bills,
jobs, property, cars, fashion and all other worldly concerns have been replaced with love, faith
and trust by the heavenly Father. All that’s asked of you is that you remain conscious of the fact
that all that is truly important – your spirit – is always in good hands.
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A Spark to Ignite Your Joy and Faith
I once read somewhere to smile in the face of adversity. I know I can because I have God on
my side. As setbacks occur in my daily life, I’ve trained my internal and external response to be
“Thank God that this is my biggest problem!”
The tire did come in a week later, was installed, and I was sent on my way. However, not 30 yards
from the shop, a warning light came on the dashboard that said I had a problem with my brakes.
Because I assumed this was an authorized dealer fix, I drove 30 miles to the dealer to see if they
could fix the problem. One of my many daily affirmations popped into my head during the drive
and I found great strength in it: “I am bigger than any problem that is presented to me.”
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A Spark to Ignite Your Joy and Faith
When the service manager came out to look at the car, it took him a split second to notice the
new tire (on for not 40 minutes) was a truck tire (on my sedan). Having one tire larger than
the other three was causing the warning light. Being told this, I very calmly took a step back,
breathed deep, and repeated, “Thank God for allowing a big tire to be my biggest problem.”
Rather than focus on the reality that was being presented me, I triggered my forethought to
focus on my plans for later that evening: getting dressed up, taking my beautiful wife to dinner
with the president of my daughter’s school, conversation with other parents over cocktails, and
picking my daughter up for the weekend. How fortunate am I?
You can take the spare “donut” tire literally and break life’s events into three categories: the
bad (or your least favorite type of sweet treat), the middle of the road (a sweet you like but
don’t love), and the good (the best indulgence you can think of). For me, it would be a jelly do-
nut, an éclair, and a bear claw.
See, you and I always get the choice of dwelling on the negative or turning our thoughts toward
the positive.
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A Spark to Ignite Your Joy and Faith
Though she agreed, I could feel her hesitation increase as we turned the corner and saw the
dealer’s sign. See, Carolyn, like many people, is very apprehensive around typical sales people:
they are manipulative, insincere, and often appear slimy. After 20-plus years in coaching and
training salesmen, I can share a big secret with you: it’s not just you and Carolyn – most sales-
people are just as uncomfortable calling or approaching prospects or customers out of fear of
rejection.
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A Spark to Ignite Your Joy and Faith
and rescue her from the lion’s den, she chose to take solace in the car, while Kevin The Lion
and I settled on rates and insurance and I was told to pick it up the following Monday.
When I arrived to meet my car a few days later, Kevin The Lion took me to the lot to explain
all the electronic gadgets and somewhere along the line he pulled out what has to be my favor-
ite book not written by me: Og Mandino’s “The Greatest Salesman in the World.” We chatted
for an hour on the ten concepts that had changed both of our worlds and couldn’t believe how
much we had in common.
Although I had been pretty confident in my decision to purchase the car, there was some ap-
prehension in the interim about buying the first car from the first salesman at the first dealer I
visited. But when Kevin The Man pulled that book out of his pocket, I had received a sign from
God that I had absolutely purchased the perfect car at the perfect time at the perfect den from
the perfect lion. I never had to look under the hood.
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A Spark to Ignite Your Joy and Faith
You have the power and ability to isolate any negative thoughts occurring in your mind and to
convert them into how you would like your life to be going. Fixing this is relatively simple: if we
control our thoughts and engage in the actions that we know consistently make us feel good on
a consistent basis, we’re well on the way to a life that is truly blessed.
1. Identify the actions/behaviors in your life that you’re confident will have
you feeling better – physically, mentally or spiritually – and choose at least
one from each area of your life: health, spirituality, education, family, social,
work, financial, etc.
2. Identify how often you would like to engage in this activity that will give you
this good feeling. Is it daily? Is it multiple times per week? Is it monthly?
3. Write a present tense statement (affirmation) that includes the emotion of
your feeling when acting, speaking or living the way that you’re envisioning.
4. Read each of these affirmations every morning upon awakening and every
evening prior to sleeping.
Once these new ways of living become engrained in your new being, replace them with new
goals and affirmations based upon the next vision of your higher self in that area of your life.
You control your thoughts – no one else gets to violate that sacred space without your permis-
sion. You control your actions. The correct actions always positively impact our attitude.
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A Spark to Ignite Your Joy and Faith
When your eggshell is cracking, relieve the pressure
What happens when we determine that the truths upon which we base our life are false? Would
you rather prove yourself correct or improve yourself?
Sometimes we find out that a belief that we hold dearly in our minds is wrong. When this hap-
pens, it can sometimes cause us to question other beliefs that we’ve been using to set the limits
of how much we give and how much we’re able to receive.
The brain is a literal mechanism – it doesn’t argue with us – which is why it’s crucial that we
speak positively about ourselves and others. If I tell myself “there is no way that I can get all of
this done today”, then human nature says I will sub-
consciously waste just enough time so that I don’t
complete everything. We’re always trying to prove
that we’re correct for thinking the way that we do.
“See, I told you that I couldn’t do it!” We have to
stop being proud of ourselves for setting and meet-
ing low expectations.
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A Spark to Ignite Your Joy and Faith
If each of us receives in our life consistent with the beliefs that we hold in our mind – and we
do – consider the drastically different lives that will result from the opposite beliefs above.
Today is a great day to assess each of the beliefs that you’re using to create your reality. Are you
aware that about 80% of the beliefs that we hold in our minds are not actually true? Most of
our beliefs have been cemented into our minds from listening to other people share their be-
liefs with us – friends, co-workers, family, etc. Starting this instant, I’m asking you to install the
“Who Said So?” security system: start questioning the credibility of all original sources of the
information you’re receiving.
Screen each piece of information as if it’s most likely false. Become a skeptical receiver of the
information that is coming into your life from all sources – conversation, the web, books, maga-
zines, the radio and television, etc. Assume that the information is false unless it 100% passes
your security system. Even then, just because the information was true when it entered, it
doesn’t mean that it has to be true forever. The limits that we place in our minds have been set
and created by us or people that we’ve ordained to be credible others. You get to decide when
it’s time for you to improve your performance in every area of your life.
This newfound consciousness that you are developing is connected to the consciousness that
exists in all other humans and with God. When you and I start thinking, believing and acting at
higher levels of consciousness, awareness and truth, we start relating to others at higher levels
of love, compassion, patience, understanding and peace.
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A Spark to Ignite Your Joy and Faith
Always assume complete responsibility for your thoughts. Be certain to reject the negative
thoughts or comments that are coming your way on a daily basis.
If you were brought up in a negative, demeaning environment or have allowed the words of
others to have you feeling lonely, forgotten or unworthy, you can change all of that in an instant.
You are blessed and your life is blessed. You are nature’s greatest miracle. Like all of God’s
creatures, there is and can only be one you: only one person on the whole planet with your
mind, with your smile, with your eyes and with your soul, who has lived through all of the
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A Spark to Ignite Your Joy and Faith
wonderful and not-so-wonderful experiences that have made you uniquely you!
The beautiful thing about thought is that it’s instantaneous. Thought is creation. We’re actively
involved in the process of creation every instant when we accept responsibility for each and
every thought. When I tell you that you’re handsome or beautiful and you believe me, you start
thinking and acting handsomely or beautifully. When I tell you that you’re smart and you give
sanction to my words and think to yourself “Yes, I am smart!” you will start reading and learning
and assimilating information because you know how smart and capable you are.
The key here is not to wait for me or anyone else on the planet to be responsible for building
up your self-esteem and blessed life. Ideally, you will surround yourself with positive people
who are more likely to build you up than belittle you. It’s your responsibility to create the ideal
life for yourself by changing your thoughts about yourself and the world.
Even if you aren’t in the ideal situation where most of the people around you are speaking
constructively, you CAN begin the habit today of speaking positively to yourself. This habit will
transform your life!
Your life is blessed. I know that it may not always seem that way. I think that it’s because many of
us tend to focus on what’s going wrong and ignore all the things around us that are going right.
By intentionally repeating our thoughts of who or what we choose to become in the future,
we create deep mental paths – muscle-memory in the brain. By filling our brains with positive,
deeply emotional thoughts of how we choose to be in the future, we’re effecting our mind, our
body and our spirit. We’re literally talking ourselves into wonderfully healthy and happy days,
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weeks and years – mentally, spiritually and physically.
If we continue thinking the same (sometimes limiting) thoughts that we’ve been thinking for a
long time – even if we’re relatively successful, we’ll continue getting the same results, the same
happiness, the same income, the same health, the same job, the same vacation location, etc.
Without new thoughts, there is little or no hope that you (or tomorrow) will be any different or
better than today.
There is a better way to live and think and act and feel!
When we have hope in the future and faith in ourselves and in God, we get fleeting thoughts
about what might be possible. Thoughts such as:
Did you notice the tense of the thoughts that I mentioned above? Frequently our thoughts are
like New Year’s resolutions – these thoughts are always ideas that we know are possible, so
imagine how excited you’d be once you’ve brought that idea into reality! So what happens to
our great ideas and intentions? Future tense thoughts allow our brains to say “that was a good
idea, why don’t we do that someday – but not today please.” And then the thought is gone – at
least for a while.
Here’s a very simple process to begin assimilating and acting upon all of your genius attacks or
great ideas that you get from others:
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A Spark to Ignite Your Joy and Faith
Writing your thoughts for the future in present tense statements begins the process of talking
yourself into feeling comfortable at your next level of excellence. I put each of these thoughts
of mine onto 3x5 index cards so that I can have them all together and so that I can read them at
any time of day where ever I happen to be – on the couch, in bed, on the plane, in the car, etc.
The more often we read these statements of belief, the deeper the grooves become in our
minds. Reading them two or more times per day to yourself is ideal. Little by little, we’re con-
vincing ourselves that we really can become the type of person that we envision in our minds.
This process allows us to deliberately fill our minds with positive thoughts about what’s possible
as if they were already accomplished. The process enables our minds to become 100% focused
upon what we’re choosing to become as opposed to being stuck in the present without any
new thoughts or ideas.
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A Spark to Ignite Your Joy and Faith
While my son was singing in his high school choir, he’d be up on stage with about 100 other
14-18 year old boys all dressed in white shirts, blue blazers, khaki pants and red ties. The
mostly geeky high school boys of different heights, weights and dispositions would sing beauti-
fully together. At a few points in the performance one of the boys would step to the front and
sing a solo. The soloist usually had a voice that was mediocre at best when singing by himself,
but when he was singing with the rest of the mediocre voices they somehow sounded magical
together.
I frequently use music to set the proper tone and environment for activities – exercise, driving,
relaxation, meditation or background music for a party. Music for many of us has very deep,
strong emotional bonds to memories in our minds that will last forever.
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A Spark to Ignite Your Joy and Faith
Here are some of mine:
• The song that was on the radio when my first girlfriend broke up with me:
Colour My World (Chicago).
• A song that was played at my Dad’s funeral: On Eagle’s Wings (Josh Groban)
• First musical gift given to me by my daughter for Christmas 2008 – The Script CD
• My college band’s signature song – Easy (The Commodores)
• Any James Bond theme song makes me think of my son James, a 007 fanatic!
• Any Michael Buble song reminds me of a wonderful family vacation in Newport, RI
• The Way You Look Tonight by Frank Sinatra will be the song that I dance to with
my daughter at her wedding
I believe that God has plan for me, so I don’t really believe that
my iPod actually has a shuffle feature – I think divine interven-
tion decides whether I need to hear Queen’s “You’re My Best
Friend” or “Shed A Little Light” by James Taylor.
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A Spark to Ignite Your Joy and Faith
Don’t let the events of this season be one of the few times during the year that you will express
your gratitude for the life you experience. Make this one of many times during the year that
you reach out to family and friends to share a meal. Let this book ignite or re-ignite your daily
prayers of thankfulness for the bounty you have been given, and energize you to act kindly with
others and of course, be kind to yourself.