Personal Improvement

I once heard someone say W. Clement Stone was an “inverse paranoid”, who thought the universe conspired to work in his favor. Think about that for a moment.

It’s fairly common for people to assume the world, life, god, etc. is “out to get them”. In fact most of us at some point, before we stopped playing the victim, insisted life had a way of thwarting us.

The truth, of course, is that we limit, defeat, and thwart ourselves. I believe life is conspiring to give every one of us exactly what we most desire, or something even better!

In fact I think creative intelligence wants us to be fulfilled and happy even more than we want this for ourselves. Even if you disagree consider this:

How much more productive would you be, how much happier, and how much more energetic, if you moved forward under the assumption that all of life is working to manifest your dreams for you?

Imagine the power one could derive from a set of affirmations built around this concept! This is a worthy experiment, in my opinion.

What can you do to cultivate the belief that universal forces are working in each moment to fulfill your every want and need? First adopt the belief that absolutely anything is possible, and then write five or six positive affirmations to the tune of…

“The entire universe conspires to manifest my desires and fulfill my every want and need”

“Every new day contains infinite possibility and I invite the greatest possible good into my awareness here and now.”

“I completely trust life to love and care for me in every way.”

Work this simple program for one month, with the sincere intention of developing the belief that life is on your side, and that nature is working to take great care of you. Give this a shot and see where it takes you.

Thought is the basis of life experience. What we think about drives how we feel emotionally, the way we act physically, and the perspective from which we view everything that happens in the world around us.

When you think about it, whether or not you can move the molecules of matter with mere thought is not relevant. Since your feelings and points of view are completely determined by your thought patterns, you are quite literally what you think about.

By the same token, you attract what you think about. Again, whether by manipulating reality through focused intention or subtly altering the direction of your actions and reactions through sustained thinking, the end result is the same.

Everything in your life begins with how you think and what you think about. You have complete control over the thoughts you accept, the thoughts you replay in your mind, and the visual imagery you hold.

Therefore you can certainly change the entire course of your life with right thinking alone. People want to argue that such a suggestion is “too simple”, but that appears to be nothing more than assertive self-defeatism.

Have you ever met a wildly successful person who is bitter and depressed all the time? It’s rare at best.

Happiness and fulfillment are the fruits of sustained positive thinking and focused high intentions.

Many entrepreneurs have an aversion to committing themselves to definite action. This is understandable for a variety of reasons.

First of all, getting started on a concrete objective tends to diminish some of the excitement. When we sit and daydream about what we hope to achieve with a given venture, we are able to tap into a wonderfully abstract sense of unlimited potential. But a goal that has been put to paper, or a project that has been started represents a more grounded, and often not-so-sexy reality that somehow has less appeal than the fantasy version. Such is life.

I usually have a really good time in the first concept stages of a new e-book, for example. I often find myself in the car, cruising and daydreaming, thinking about how great it’s going to be to help thousands of people with the message I will relay through the digital product. It’s always a nice feeling to just imagine the kind of success I will achieve with a new project. How many copies might I sell, and how many emails will I get from people who just loved the book and really benefited from reading it?

Then suddenly, the time comes to sit down at my desk and draw up an outline for the actual structure of the project. (Awwww shoot.)

It’s almost always more fun to think about all the “what-ifs” than it is to actually roll up our sleeves and get to work. But the choice is simple:

We can drift through la-la land with no tangible direction and lose money until we go broke. Or we can buckle down, make some plans, then take action on those plans and realize a profit.

Another reason many people avoid the process of taking direct action is the simple fact that it can be scary business. It takes a lot of nerve to commit to a course of action and keep working toward your objective come hell or high water.

But the thing to remember is your plans can always be changed down the road. A goal simply represents the focusing of your intention on a specific objective, and is not some rigid, unforgiving contract that is chiseled in stone.

Mike Filsaime, one of the great Internet marketers of my time, once told me that successful people are able to follow their intuition and make decisions quickly. The direction of these decisions can then be changed appropriately as the need arises.

Unsuccessful people, on the other hand, have the habit of taking forever to commit to decisive action, but are then likely to change their direction very quickly. In essence, these folks are afraid to act, and then when they finally work up the nerve to make a decision, they bail out if things don’t work out for them in the first ten minutes.

Decide right now to trust your intuition and plot a course for your future without fear or hesitation. Have confidence in your ability to choose your own destiny, and great things will be in store for you.