We are rolling into the last quarter of the year, with a new year closing in on us quickly. A new calendar is a blank slate. All of the missteps of the prior year are erased and nothing but possibility is before us. What will happen in the next year? To a large extent, it’s up to us and how we think. Most of us set goals, make resolutions, about what we want to happen in that vast gulf that is represented in that empty calendar. We tick our desires down in to-do list fashion: “Lose 20 pounds.” or “Find a new job” or “get a new car”
Time will pass and we will make judgments about how well we did with our goals. We will succeed at some and fail at others. Most of us will fight to a draw, the opportunity represented by January’s blank slate missed.
Over the past year we have been surveying ‘success’ literature looking for common patterns. To our surprise, we found them hiding in plain sight. From Napoleon Hill’s epic survey of industrial titans, “Think and Grow Rich” to the ‘scientifically’ based “Psychocybernetics” to “The Master Key” which is the basis for “The Secret”, all of them are saying the same things even though they were written in different times for different audiences. To us, it breaks down to three basic principals:
To succeed, you must become. This moves the idea of success from creating a good goal list to the imagination of a total future state of being. In that state you will embody everything you need to be the recipient of what you desire. Simply wanting the trappings of wealth, its symbols, is not enough. The literature we’ve read tells us that desiring the symbols without changing who and what you are to attract it will lead to fleeting victories that cannot be held.
Second, you must visualize who you will be in the future. Note that I didn’t say that you needed to see your success: the car, the house, the vacations or giant stacks of hundred dollar bills. What will you look and sound like at the success destination? What will you value? How will you act? Who will you be?
These are not trivial questions. They get at the heart of what our lives are about. They are questions that few of us ask ourselves at any point in our lives. Yet, the time spent on clarifying who you are becoming is never wasted, even if inconclusive. If the work only excludes who you don’t want to be, it is a success. Enough work and you will start seeing the positive image, the person you want to become.
Finally, you must persevere. Nothing of value is easily won. One of the messages of all the works we read was that while you visualize the end state of your efforts, none of this should be forced. It’s not about discipline as much as it is about persistence. Time will focus the mind and efforts will become more focused as long as we persist in visualizing our end state of being. As long as we continue imagining our future and learning the changes we must make to attract it, we are succeeding.
That is ultimately the final lesson in this survey of self improvement. Learning how to see yourself in a future state, living the life you want live and knowing you will hang in until you achieve it are processes. In learning these methods, you are learning a way of life, a way of being. This new way of living will call out for the next state, the next goal, the next becoming.
Suddenly, you don’t have to wait until January 1st to see new possibilities for yourself. You have the power to steer your life where you want it to go because any day can be January 1st and every calendar is blank with possibilities.
If you want take those possibilities and turn them into life and/or business goals, join us for:
NOW – NEXT – DONE
The simple, easy, fun way to achieve any goal
In this two-hour seminar, you will learn a skill that will last a lifetime and will help you be better at any job or in running your own business. The next seminar is on Wednesday, 10-03-18 at 6pm at 1800 E. Garry Ave Suite 102, Santa Ana, CA 92705
Peter Mehit is co-founder of Custom Business Planning and Solutions, a business planning and systems company as well as author of “Killer Business Plan”. Mr. Mehit is a speaker and teacher on a number of business subjects. You can reach him at 800-741-8444 or pmehit@custombps.com.
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