Leslie Householder – Your Invisible Mentor
Leslie Householder is the best-selling author of the Jackrabbit Factor. Listen to her talk about how she integrates her personal and professional life. How does she define success? To find out the answers to these questions and much more, listen to, or read the transcript of her audio interview. Click here now to listen to Leslie's interview. After you have listened to her interview, what are five takeaways? What are five things that you will now do differently? What ideas can you implement? What do you have in common with Leslie? When you have some time, answer the questions and then compare your answers to Leslie's. How do they differ?
How do you integrate your personal and professional life?
I consider myself to be spiritually oriented. I was raised that way, and really the same principles that bring me peace of mind and happiness in my personal life, are the same principles that guide my decisions in my business life. To me there is no separation. I am who I am no matter what hat I’m wearing at the moment.
What’s a major regret that you’ve had in life?
I struggle with this question because I don’t have regrets. I’ve made mistakes but I have learned from them, and I just pick myself up and move forward again. Every mistake, every choice does for you what you want it to do, or it brings you lessons that help you get it better the next time. And so I’m just grateful for life all the way around. I don’t have regrets, I have no time for regrets.
What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?
- Patience
- To calm down, and that doesn’t mean to slow down, it means to calm down. I have seven children so life is plenty crazy, their ages range from one to 15, and it’s very easy to get overwhelmed
- There is plenty of time to do every thing that needs doing. If I’m out of time it means that that one thing didn’t need to be done after all
- Trust my instincts, trust my gut, trust my intuition
- To love people, and to do things to build relationship with others, and not use people to have relationship with things
When you have some down time, how do you spend it?
I read, I can’t get enough of reading. I love to read.
What process do you use to generate great ideas?
I have found my process to be dependable. The first few times I was, “wow that was really amazing,” but I learned it was the same process every time. If I want to generate good ideas I go to a quiet place, I calm down, I clear my mind of all the excess clutter and then I imagine the outcome that I’m seeking. For example, when I was writing The Jackrabbit Factor, my intention, and that was a very key point, was to create an experience for the readers so they would come away from it moved, where it might bring tears to their eyes, where it might give them hope, where it might give them a newfound level of self-esteem. And as I was writing it, I could feel it, as though I was them, and knowing that that was the feeling I was trying to create, the ideas began to flow naturally.
And I think that’s how we do it. If we want great ideas then we have to put ourselves in a mindset of enjoying the ultimate outcome. If you’re into Quantum Physics, or some of these law of attraction principles, then what you are essentially doing is literally changing your vibration to be in tuned with frequencies like a radio station, to pick up on ideas and thoughts, and amazing things that were hidden from your view prior. If you think about a radio, if I had a radio in this room, and I turned it on and listened to a station, that radio didn’t pull the music into the room, the music was already there, it just made it audible. So I think all of the greatest, grandest and amazing ideas that the world could ever see, are already in existence on a frequency, and we tune into that frequency by seeing the end result and it absolutely works every time.
How do you define success?
I heard this and I don’t know where I heard it, but “Success is the progression of a worthy ideal.” I think that as long as we are pursuing something worthy we are already successful. It’s not a destination.
(Note from Avil: The above definition for success mentioned was coined by Earl Nightingale)
In your opinion what’s the formula for success?
The formula for success is to see an ideal in your mind and don’t give up until it’s realized.
Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?
There are so many of them, but the one that comes to mind is James Allen’s classic from about 150 years ago, As a Man Thinketh. It’s an essay – and it isn’t very long – written on how our thoughts affect our circumstances, and it is so profoundly written and so poetic. I started reading it, and if you have a highlighter you start marking the sentences that have great impact, there are very few sentences that wouldn’t be highlighted. I love that book.
If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why? Summarize the book in two sentences.
- As a Man Thinketh, James Allen
- The Science of Getting Rich, Wallace Wattles. I am not real fond of the title but the material in that book would give me reminders, and help me to create whatever life I was after, even if I was alone on a deserted island
- Of course the Bible is important to me
- The Book of Mormon is important to me
- My last book would be a journal, a place to put my own thoughts
If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for? Or, if I gave you a magic wand, what would you use it for?
Unlimited free time with my family to explore the world first class.
Complete the following, I am happy when…..
I can feel myself growing! There is nothing that brings me greater joy than when I’m expanding in some way.
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About Leslie Householder: Leslie is an international best selling, award winning author of Hidden Treasures and The Jackrabbit Factor. Wife to Trevan and mother of seven, she is also the president and co-founder of Thoughts Alive International and School of Life Mastery – helping people everywhere reach their highest potential. She is a contributing author to multiple Chicken Soup for the Soul books, and her articles online and in print publications have reached hundreds of thousands of people across the globe. She will help you enjoy peace of mind in ANY economy and discover how to tap into a hidden source of genius, for overcoming obstacles and thriving in spite of life's most difficult challenges.
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