There was a businessman who lived in the suburb of a great city. He was an honest hard worker who had achieved a modest measure of success. Every day on his way to his office he would pass this large building. On the front of the building was a large sign. The sign proclaimed in big bold letters the name of a man who owned that building (or at least rented it) and the name of his company.



Is Your Vision Big Enough?

One day his wife was riding along with him as he passed that building. He commented to his wife, "I can't even imagine having a business like that." Just as he said that, the thought popped into his mind that said, "Don't worry. You won't. You'll never have a great business like that."

This thought startled him. He wondered what it meant. Then he realized that as long as you can't imagine it, as long as you can't see it, there's no chance you will achieve it. Suddenly he realized that his own thoughts and beliefs were condemning him to mediocrity. Right then he made a decision to start believing better of himself. Just like that man, we have to conceive it internally before we can ever hope to accomplish it externally. Our self-concept rules us. It is impossible for us to think or act differently than the picture we have of ourselves.

If you don't think you can achieve great things, then you never will. The block is in your own mind. It's not your lack of knowledge or talent that keeps you from prospering. It's your own wrong thinking.

Your own wrong thinking can keep you from achieving ultimate happiness and success.

If you ever hope to have your dreams come true, you must first conceive it. Believe that is possible for you. That's called having a vision. Make yours positive. Make it BIG! You have all kinds of visions. You are always running movies in your mind. Some of these movies you label as fiction, like imagining that you are Superman rescuing Lois Lane. we are not talking about those kinds of visions. You label other movies as true. It's what you believe in. These movies are made and directed by your self-concept. They have a huge impact on your life. These are the movies that rule. They give rise to your positive or negative thoughts. If you hear yourself thinking this is as good as I can do. "I'll never do something really meaningful. I'll never enjoy the good things in life. I'll never do anything significant, achieve great things, nor enjoy the good life that I have seen others enjoy." Unfortunately, you're right -- as long as your movies are negative.

The First Step

That's why the first step to achieving ultimate happiness and success is to dare to think big. Have a big vision. To live your best life now, you must believe in yourself and see yourself rising to new levels. See your business exploding. See your marriage fulfilling. See your family prosperous and happy. See your dreams coming true.

You must replace these negative thoughts and images with positive thoughts and images.

How do you do this? One of the most powerful ways is using your imagination. Use mental imagery. Run positive detailed movies in your mind. Gold-medal winning athletes use it all the time.

Scientific Proof

Imagination power has been proven to stimulate peak performance. Some researchers took three groups of basketball players to test out if practicing shooting baskets in imagination -- mental rehearsal -- could improve their ability to do that skill in real life. Most scientists doubted imaginary practice would make any difference, but others thought it might help a little. They were astounded that those who practiced only in their imagination improved almost as much as those that practiced in real life.

The group who practiced shooting baskets only in their imagination imagined doing this in vivid technicolor and stereophonic sound. Not only that, their movies were better than the limited movies we see in the theater. They had smell-o-vision and feel-o-vision. They smelled the smells associated with the gymnasium and all the feelings of shooting and scoring baskets. In other words, they used as many of the five senses as they could. (This is called multi-channel thinking and I describe it in detail in my book, Triggers.)

Think of it. Mentally rehearsing or practicing can be as powerful as doing it in real life.

What to Do

Imagine your business being just the way you want it to be. Imagine it bigger, better, and more profitable than you ever thought possible. See what that looks like. Hear what that sounds like. Feel what that feels like. This is your goal, this is your target; this is where you are telling your conscious and unconscious mind to go. If you think it, ink it. As powerful as imagination and movies of the mind are, there's one serious flaw. They are in ephemeral. They may be forgotten in whole or in part. That's why you need to put them in writing.

Having a big clear vision in writing is the first step. Review it daily. Imagine in vivid detail achieving your goals. This is an essential and vital requirement to live the life of your dreams.

I know you can do this. It will help you immeasurably. I want to see you have a rich and rewarding life.

P.S. Always remember, you were born to win.