In the last couple of months I have been paring down to the essentials. I have cleaned out my inbox, and my files. This has helped declutter my mind in remarkable ways and I can now say that those things that I have written in my catchall mental inventory are all meaningful and valuable to me as I live my mission of helping professionals accelerate their impact from obscurity to authority and significance.
One of the emails I didn’t unsubscribe from was Medium – an online publishing forum where words matter. Medium taps into the brains of the world’s most insightful writers, thinkers, and storytellers and one of those that I love to read is Benjamin Hardy – PhD candidate in Organizational Psychology. Bestselling author of Willpower Doesn’t Work, and father of 5 kids!
Benjamin is definitely a thought leader so when I saw his December 18 entry – This 12-Word Quote Entirely Explains How to Be Successful – I was beyond curious. I devoured that article in the 4 minutes that Medium suggested it would take to read.
Instantly I knew that this information needed to be in my next column and was a good place to start.
The quote is by Florence Scovel Shinn who was an American artist and book illustrator who became a New Thought spiritual teacher and metaphysical writer in her middle years.
“Hope looks forward. Faith knows it has already received and acts accordingly.” — Florence Shinn
Ben shares “Getting yourself into the right mindset is your #1 job. You need to 1) know what you want and 2) know that what you want is already yours. Both parts are essential. You have to know that what you want is not only attainable but inevitable. You have to really know.”
Unless you believe that the goals you’ve set for yourself are possible, you will settle for less.
Ben goes on to say: “According to Dan Sullivan, founder of Strategic Coach, when you set a goal — one in which you truly want and believe you can achieve — then immediately your mind will begin conjuring-up all of the obstacles to achieving the goal. When thinking about what you want, if no obstacles arise in your mind, then you likely don’t want the thing or don’t actually believe it’s possible. The obstacles directly point to what needs to be done or altered in order to have the goal. As Ryan Holiday puts it – “The obstacle quite literally “is the way.””
One of the primary obstacles is truly making the decision that you will absolutely have whatever it is you seek. Unless you’ve truly made the decision, then you will not act accordingly. And because you will not act accordingly, you will not have whatever it is you claim to want. I say claim because if you really wanted it, you’d make the decision to have it. Instead, you’re opting for something either lesser or easier. As Robert Brault has said, “We are kept from our goals, not by obstacles, but by a clearer path to a lesser goal.”
Here’s what I need you to take note of as we start this new year: Unless you’ve truly made the decision you WILL NOT ACT ACCORDINGLY which will result in you not having whatever it is you claim you want.
Sure the path to your goal may not always be clear but your clarity needs to be around what you desire.
This information is not new but there’s something about making a decision that changes everything.
Rob Falvey who leads coaching at Legacy, a company that helps financial advisors trying to help wealth holders, talks about the word decision:
The Latin of the word decision literally means, “To cut off.” Making a decision is about “cutting off” choices – cutting you off from some other course of action. Making a decision frees you from the shackles of endless choices so that you can get to where you want to go.
In the Science of Getting Rich, Wallace Wattles outlines the steps to whatever it is you desire and it ties in nicely with Florence’s quote which I suggest you write on a 3 x 5 card and review often:
- Know what you want
- Be clear and precise
- Hold your image, think of it regularly
- Have a real intention to realize your desire
- Have faith that what you desire is already yours
- Be thankful and grateful for ALL that you hold in your imagination and express your gratitude daily
- Receive what you ask for – live in the house, ride in the car, imagine your finances as you want it and live FROM there.
If procrastination has EVER held you back then click here to find out more about a method to stop procrastinating once and for all.
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