Consider this scenario. You’ve just realized a significant goal that you’ve worked hard to achieve. You had a major issue that you converted into a stunning masterpiece. You overcame a huge challenge and turned it into personal success, and now you look at your cherished item and think, “Ain’t that simply the cat’s pajamas?”
There’s Only One Issue!
That isn’t how most people picture it. Yes, most people picture the whole thing collapsing. They invert their “imaginer” and see all kinds of nonsense falling on them. Why do people behave in this manner? Here’s one thing to consider.
They’ve never been instructed or told themselves to do anything else. Now pause for a moment before grabbing the remote. Consider the following scenario. In the first paragraph, what did you do? Did you picture all kinds of nonsense raining down on your head? NO! Why? Because I told you to picture something.
If you did what I asked, you envisioned a beautiful event in your life and how it would play out if all of those amazing things happened. It also made you feel great. So it comes to reason that imagining all kinds of amazing things happening at the start of an opportunity would produce comparable consequences.
Things tend to play out in real life the same way they do in our heads. The particular details of any circumstance may not seem exactly as they did in our imagination, but the overall outcome is always the same.
For instance, I recall being a young adolescent lad. I had a crush on a girl with whom I really desired a date. I assumed there was no possibility for me because she was so… stunning. If I even looked like I intended to ask her out on a date, I believed she’d laugh at me.
A fair maiden was never won by a faint heart!
I finally worked up the courage to ask her out on a date the following Friday night. Mind you, I was picturing her informing me in one of our lectures that she had to cancel all week. So I made every effort to avoid her for the entire week. She did not, however, cancel.
What did she do, do you know? Learn to forgive yourself. Yes, she cheated on me. I was reluctant to call her during the week to confirm the date since I didn’t want her to cancel. So I go up to her house on time, and her father informs me that she went out with her girlfriends.
So, dumb me, do you know when she’ll be back? I asked. No, he answered, laughing. The point is this: The specifics didn’t go precisely as planned, but the final result was exactly what I had hoped for: no date with Miss Beautiful.
As fortunate as being the only man in a women’s prison with a fistful of pardons!
She stood me up, as it turned out, since I avoided her over the week, and she mistook me for forgetting or changing my mind because I didn’t remind her.
Our imaginations may make us experience the rush of victory or the humiliation of being caught red-handed. Here’s another scenario for you to consider. When I launched my second internet business, I conducted extensive studies to understand what obstacles I would face and how much competition I would have.
When I went to the search engines to look for the highly competitive keywords I wanted, I was astounded to see almost 5 million competing sites. As a result, I was positive and determined that this would have to be a highly precise project that would need the correct mindset to stay motivated enough to complete.
I imagined the level of creativity that would be required to achieve. With one term, I wanted to be in the top 10 of at least two big search engines. As a consequence, whenever I envisioned my site on a search results page, it appeared in the top 10 results.
Full to Overflowing!
After almost 4 months of hard work and holding my desire in my imagination, I’ve arrived. But not with just one keyword; I’m in the top 10 with four keywords and four big engines. “Are you telling me you simply imagined yourself into the top ten?” someone said.
Both yes and no. I would not have survived the amount of effort necessary if I hadn’t kept my focus on the intended image. The imaginative portion was the simplest. The most difficult thing was pounding it out day by day. However, if you focus on the incorrect thing, your imagination will drain your power and leave you in a nice pot of fish.
There’s No Way Around It!
Without sweat, imagination is about as helpful as a submarine’s screen door. Our imagination was designed to perform a certain function, and it excels at it. It wasn’t intended to be a dump for “life sucks, my goose is cooked, up the dirty river, dead as a dodo” type of people.
If you use it that way, it will take that attitude and turn your dream into a living color sewage dump as you scratch your head, trying to find out what went wrong.
However, if you tell your imagination about the amazing things you want to see happen, your imagination will have the fuel it needs to keep you motivated. And you’ll feel the fire in your desire the next time you need some oomph.
Do this the next time you’re in a scenario when you truly need to succeed. Make a list of the most favorable outcomes you can think of that may occur. Make a list of 4-6 potential possibilities. Then, until the job is finished, read them every day.
Have High Expectations!
Will this ensure your success? You should know better. Here’s your assurance. If you do that, your chances of success are a hundred times more than if you don’t since your imagination will be assisting you and giving you a sense of signed, being sealed, and delivered. That’s when life becomes enjoyable.
