1. Embrace that success is NOT security:
Success can mean different things to different people but by far the best definition of success is the progressive realization of predetermined, worthwhile goals, stabilized with balance and purified by belief. Notice that nowhere in this definition does it say that success comes from seeking security, taking the easy road or playing it safe. The reality is risk does equal reward. If we are going to achieve our dreams we must choose to leave the comfort zone and choose to reside in the fear zone. The fear zone is where dreams happen. The funny thing about the fear zone is that once you get there, you realize its not that scary! I can remember when I was a kid and my first trip to Six Flags Over Texas. The ride at the time was called the Shockwave and boy was it big to my 8 year old eyes! I wanted to ride it so bad but I was scared. Finally I mustered up enough courage and as we climbed to the first peak of the roller coaster I wanted to jump out and run for home! However, as we flew down the first peak and started climbing again I realized something…this was fun! All of the sudden my whole attitude had changed. Now I couldn’t wait for the next ascent, and I wanted to go higher, faster. Life is like this. Fear is an illusion. My acronym for fear is False Evidence Appearing Real. Just as I was fearful of the roller coaster, we many times feel the same about stepping out to pursue a goal or a dream. Our mind comes up with all the reasons why we can’t do it. You’re to young, you’re to old, you’re not smart enough, who are you to think you could be rich, rich people are bad, that would be irresponsible, play it safe, etc etc etc. If we are ever to come into the true nature of our real self, we must be willing to risk and break through these false barriers. This is the only way we’ll ever achieve anything significant.
2. Feed yourself big thoughts from big thinkers daily: this is what the prosperity diet is all about. Our minds are like soil. What we plant is what grows. If a farmer plants corn, he can expect to reap a harvest of corn. How foolish would it be for a farmer to plant corn then midway through the growing period change his mind and want wheat instead? That would be absolutely ludicrous, right? Well, guess what: your mind is no different. What you plant WILL reap a harvest. For many of us, all we plant is the radio, CNN and our friends or co-workers opinions. The good book says that, “as iron sharpens iron, so does one man sharpen another.” The number one thing you can do to achieve MASSIVE prosperity in your life, more prosperity and good fortune than you’ve ever dreamed possible is to guard your mental soil. I could write all day on this one! This is crucial.
One of the questions I’m often asked by individuals at my seminars is, “how do I do this when noone I know is a big thinker?” My answer is always the same. You can mentor under the greatest minds, the most powerful, the wealthiest men and women of all time. You see, successful people take the time to record their thoughts on paper and in audio form thru books, CDs, blogs, etc. I can remember driving around in my Chevy S-10 pickup truck and cleaning other people’s pools while for hours at a time I had my walkman and headphones going. I was listening to people like Brad Hager, Robert Kiyosaki, Napoleon Hill & John Maxwell. For hours on end I pumped the good stuff in. Before long, I saw myself as a millionaire. I didn’t know where or how, but that was irrelevant. I began to see it in my minds eye and before my 30th birthday, it was reality. Ask yourself this, who is my feeder? You MUST choose who you let feed you. You can’t leave it up to Madison Ave or CNN. The average person does but you are not average. I heard it said this way, “observe the masses and do the opposite!” If you don’t know where else to get it from, stay plugged into the prosperity diet and I can promise….you will get fed.
Fake it until you make it: I can hear your minds talking already. I am not suggesting one should lie about their situation or status. That’s not what I mean at all. You see, so often you hear that seeing is believing. That could not be more wrong.
Believing is seeing
This one point alone will drastically change your life. The reason I went from a pool cleaner to a worldwide entrepreneur running a multi-million dollar business is because I saw it in my minds eye FIRST. I had faith. What is faith? It is absolute belief before the physical manifestation. Jesus taught that faith can literally move mountains. What mountain do you have in your life? Debt? A bad marriage? Sickness? Occupational boredom? The bottom line, regardless of what it is, you can change the situation, but you have to see it in the minds eye FIRST. This is what faking until you make it is all about. Maybe you are in a deteriorating marriage that you want to repair and rebuild. Maybe your partner isn’t trying to help. Perhaps they are as cold as ice. You can still get the love back but it starts with you believing and acting accordingly today, even in the face of terrible situation. The movie Fireproof is a classic example of this as well as The Secret. Although the situation isn’t going to change overnight, the reality is if you will act as if long enough, you will achieve the desired result, everytime. This is why point #2 is so vitally important. You have to be fed if you are going to keep putting out what can be such an exhaustive amount of energy fighting negative momentum. This is true for our relationships as well as our business.
4. Burn The Bridges
This one point alone will drastically change your life. The reason I went from a pool cleaner to a worldwide entrepreneur running a multi-million dollar business is because I saw it in my minds eye FIRST. I had faith. What is faith? It is absolute belief before the physical manifestation. Jesus taught that faith can literally move mountains. What mountain do you have in your life? Debt? A bad marriage? Sickness? Occupational boredom? The bottom line, regardless of what it is, you can change the situation, but you have to see it in the minds eye FIRST. This is what faking until you make it is all about. Maybe you are in a deteriorating marriage that you want to repair and rebuild. Maybe your partner isn’t trying to help. Perhaps they are as cold as ice. You can still get the love back but it starts with you believing and acting accordingly today, even in the face of terrible situation. The movie Fireproof is a classic example of this as well as The Secret. Although the situation isn’t going to change overnight, the reality is if you will act as if long enough, you will achieve the desired result, everytime. This is why point #2 is so vitally important. You have to be fed if you are going to keep putting out what can be such an exhaustive amount of energy fighting negative momentum. This is true for our relationships as well as our business.
4. Burn The Bridges
Everyone that has read the book Think and Grow Rich knows the story of the general who sailed his army to a foreign land. As his men landed on the beach of the enemy the general gathered them around. He described what they were facing, an army 3X as large, with superior weapons and training. At that point, he gave the order for all the ships that had carried them to be burned, starting with his own. He then looked at his men and said, “men you see the ships burning in the sea, we have but one choice, we win or we die”. They won.
This same principle applies to you and I today as it did to this leader hundreds of years ago. It is not until we burn the bridges of retreat that we will ever reach our full potential. As long as the option of retreat is there, we will never accomplish what we dream of. What bridges do you need to burn? What escape route are you leaving open? Once you seek wise counsel, burn it! This will prevent you from quitting later. You see, the will is not strong enough to sustain you in the darkest hour of doubt. I’m reminded of the story of my good friend, Mike Rooney from Phoenix, AZ. Mike attended the University of Notre Dame and loved baseball more than anything else in life. Although a good ball player, Mike wasn’t as gifted and talented as many of the players on the Notre Dame team, yet nothing would stop him from pursuing his dream as he walked onto the Fighting Irish team. After a few days of practice, coach Pat Murphy, who has gone onto win national titles at Arizona State and is regarded as one of the best coaches in baseball, actually called my friend into his office and asked him to quit. Can you imagine! He told Mike there was no chance he would play. It was at this point, Mike had a choice to make. Would he listen to what the coach had to say and give up on his dream, or would he choose to put his dream first, disregard the naysayer(his own coach) and go for it anyway?
Mike chose not to quit, rather to stick it out. Although not a superstar, Mike went onto play four years for the Fighting Irish. The irony is that upon graduation, Coach Murphy invited Mike to join his staff at Arizona State University where Mike enjoyed a successful coaching career and is now the announcer for ASU baseball
Isn’t that amazing. If Mike had listened, he would have missed out on an amazing experience and likely would have lived with regret for life. We are no different than Mike. In order to maximize the potential that we all have inside, we must make our decision and no matter what, refuse to quit.
I love people like Mike Rooney. I can’t get enough of them. I just want to be around them as much as I can and let them rub that attitude all over me.
As you can probably tell already, the prosperity diet is going to challenge you. I am not hear to tell you what you want to hear, because what you want to hear is not going to help propel you to living the realization that I see of you. I see you as an absolute PERFECT TEN. You were made that way. The challenge is that 5 inches between our ears gets in the way and sometimes we truly do need a brainwashing. I’ll leave you with this thought and if the prosperity diet is beneficial to you, share it with your friends. I’d love to connect with you on Facebook or Twitter as well: www.facebook.com/stevendthompson www.twitter.com/mrsteviewonder
"I bargained with life for a penny,
And life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store.
For life is just an employer—
He gives you what you ask;
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.
I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of life,
Life would have willingly paid."
Jessie Bell Rittenhouse
“The greatest tragedy in life, is not so much what men suffer, but rather, what they miss”
Thomas Carlyle
This same principle applies to you and I today as it did to this leader hundreds of years ago. It is not until we burn the bridges of retreat that we will ever reach our full potential. As long as the option of retreat is there, we will never accomplish what we dream of. What bridges do you need to burn? What escape route are you leaving open? Once you seek wise counsel, burn it! This will prevent you from quitting later. You see, the will is not strong enough to sustain you in the darkest hour of doubt. I’m reminded of the story of my good friend, Mike Rooney from Phoenix, AZ. Mike attended the University of Notre Dame and loved baseball more than anything else in life. Although a good ball player, Mike wasn’t as gifted and talented as many of the players on the Notre Dame team, yet nothing would stop him from pursuing his dream as he walked onto the Fighting Irish team. After a few days of practice, coach Pat Murphy, who has gone onto win national titles at Arizona State and is regarded as one of the best coaches in baseball, actually called my friend into his office and asked him to quit. Can you imagine! He told Mike there was no chance he would play. It was at this point, Mike had a choice to make. Would he listen to what the coach had to say and give up on his dream, or would he choose to put his dream first, disregard the naysayer(his own coach) and go for it anyway?
Mike chose not to quit, rather to stick it out. Although not a superstar, Mike went onto play four years for the Fighting Irish. The irony is that upon graduation, Coach Murphy invited Mike to join his staff at Arizona State University where Mike enjoyed a successful coaching career and is now the announcer for ASU baseball
Isn’t that amazing. If Mike had listened, he would have missed out on an amazing experience and likely would have lived with regret for life. We are no different than Mike. In order to maximize the potential that we all have inside, we must make our decision and no matter what, refuse to quit.
I love people like Mike Rooney. I can’t get enough of them. I just want to be around them as much as I can and let them rub that attitude all over me.
As you can probably tell already, the prosperity diet is going to challenge you. I am not hear to tell you what you want to hear, because what you want to hear is not going to help propel you to living the realization that I see of you. I see you as an absolute PERFECT TEN. You were made that way. The challenge is that 5 inches between our ears gets in the way and sometimes we truly do need a brainwashing. I’ll leave you with this thought and if the prosperity diet is beneficial to you, share it with your friends. I’d love to connect with you on Facebook or Twitter as well: www.facebook.com/stevendthompson www.twitter.com/mrsteviewonder
"I bargained with life for a penny,
And life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store.
For life is just an employer—
He gives you what you ask;
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.
I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of life,
Life would have willingly paid."
Jessie Bell Rittenhouse
“The greatest tragedy in life, is not so much what men suffer, but rather, what they miss”
Thomas Carlyle
Steven,
ReplyDeleteI am so thrilled to follow this blog, because learning HOW to think has been and IS the biggest key to success and fulfillment. You have helped teach me that and I am excited to be able to read your further thoughts on the subject!
Misha