You hold the power to shape, mold and create an empowered future. Your most consistent choices, decisions and day-to-day attitudes are either creating or hindering your power to succeed and thrive. Are you using your personal power wisely?

Focusing on the positive has the power to change your life for the happier. It sounds simple enough but for many, it takes desire, practice and a certain amount of discipline. What Happy Women Know by Dan Baker and Cathy Greenberg, shares the why’s and how’s for focusing on a happier life.

The human mind thinks in pictures. Everyday we visualize the world as it is and how we perceive it to be. Vision boards direct your mental motion pictures toward the positives in life. Think of a vision board as your personal storyboard of wants and goals for the future.

It’s time to recognize and understand what you may be doing that seems to be keeping you from what you want. How about those goals never achieved, the exercise equipment gathering dust or the credit cards always charged to the limit. Could it be self-sabotage?

Have you ever spent time looking for something only to discover it was right in front of you? If you answered yes, then you’ve experienced what’s known as a mental blind spot. Believe it or not, you experience these mental blind spots everyday. Here’s an experiment to illustrate just how they work.

Self-confidence begins in your mind and works its way out into your life. How you feel about yourself on the inside is mirrored back to you in how you’re living life. Self-confidence is that powerful inner knowing that you are in the right place at the right time and doing the right things.

How about combining good fiction with powerful self-development/self-discovery lessons? Here are my personal top five favorite self-development fiction books of all time. Pour yourself a favorite beverage, curl up in your favorite chair and get ready for some good reading.

I’ve always enjoyed Og Mandino’s self-development books, both his nonfiction and fiction. The Twelfth Angel is trademark Og Mandino - it is a powerful self-development lesson taught through emotion and by example. It’s a story of hope for the future, even when the future appears hopeless.

The Traveler’s Gift is a fascinating combination of self-development principles and captivating fiction. How great is it to be able to learn wisdom from King Solomon and forgiveness from Abraham Lincoln? The author takes us on not only a historical journey but also one of self-discovery.

This best selling little book has been in circulation for a couple of years and is still among the top selling books in the world. Why? The Secret by Rhonda Byrne gives us permission to go for our dreams. Even if you’ve read this book before, it’s time to dust it off and read it again.