In one of my previous articles, Success is based on your now choices, I stated: “It is our ‘now’ moment choices that dictate who we are. Put another way, who we choose to be in the ‘now’ determines how successful we are.”
Despite the practical example given in the article, some may have found this to be somewhat philosophical. I would therefore like to follow up by looking at three simple factors that drive success.
Dream
All successful people dream – and I am not referring to what happens in your sleep! To dream means to have personal goals about where you want to be in life, the things you want to acquire, the way you want to achieve these goals and the kind of lifestyle you want to live.
All of this comes down to having goals, writing them down and making consistent use of your imagination by visualizing the end product or desired outcome. The key here is that any imaginative focus should be around your end goals, not the intermediary steps. Always visualize the big picture.
Yes, you can plan the intermediary steps to get to the big picture or end goal, but very often, positive dreaming and purposeful action forces the universal energy to support you, and some of these steps may come about by seeming coincidences and synchronicity. You may very well create miraculous results in a seemingly impossible time frame!
If, for example, your goal is to live in a multimillion dollar house and drive an expensive car, and to get there by pursuing what you are passionate about, say coaching other people to be successful, you must make it a habit of visualizing these larger end goals. Some people get pictures and paste them on a wall or in a folder.
The thing about visualization, though, is that it must be done in a manner to influence the subconscious mind. This means practicing it in deep meditative moments when the mind is quiet. This can be just before falling off to sleep or when just waking up. It is okay to keep your goals in your imagination during waking hours and to use affirmations as well; but visualization is most effective in a meditative state, because it forces the subconscious to cooperate with you. That is when positive changes in your personal outlook occur and success is magnetized. You suddenly begin to believe fully in your dream!
Desire
Desire here refers to feelings and emotions. Most people fail in their bid to succeed because even though they visualize, they do not do so with the positive feelings and emotions that an achievement of these goals would generate. For visualization to be effective, it must have alongside it desirable feelings. The mind must not only see the end goal; it must taste, touch, smell and hear the accompanying sensations. This is what we call burning desire! Walking around with positive pictures of what you want in your head will not make you succeed. You must feel them and believe them to be true! Most of all, give thanks for them as you would if you had received them.
Dissatisfaction
This may sound simple, but it is not. It is one of the factors that keeps most people from succeeding. They have a discontent about where in life they are and what they have achieved, but they are not dissatisfied. They are angry, they are frustrated with themselves and their condition, but they remain in their comfort zone. It is not anger and frustration that is needed; these are lower level emotions and will only give you more of what you do not want. You should maintain a stance of gratitude for whatever little you now have, but you must have a desire to move to the next level. True dissatisfaction creates the engine that drives the dream and the desire!
So, you ask, why has he not said much about action? Good question; this was deliberate. The myth that slaving yourself to death at the expense of your health, your children and your family, is just that: a myth. It is not a formula for success. You are trying to create in reverse, through acting without the proper mindset as discussed above.
Here is how the universal energy plays out in its unique design that enables anyone to tap into its creative power. First there is mind or being, then there is thought, then there are words, emotions or drawn images to represent the thought. When all these align there is purposeful action that produces results because it is inspired action. Very often, we fail to succeed because we try to circumvent the first two stages and rush blindly into erratic, sustained action, thinking that it will get us to our goals; but action is the last stage of the creative process.
Go, apply these principles and watch your life improve. Here is to your personal growth and success!