Jan
26
Manifesting Change
Filed Under Entrepreneurism, Leadership, Management, Miscellaneous, Sales
Manifesting change is a topic highlighted in the book The Secret, also something very NLP oriented (i.e. Tony Robbins). In truth, I am a believer in this…not because the universe listens (as the author of The Secret says), but because I think it has to do with reprogramming the mind for opportunities that may have previously been ignored by one’s own conscious /subconscious mind. I believe we can change our brains thinking patterns by, functionally, being more optimistic and/or believing in the opportunities that exist but may not yet be seen.
This kind of leads to a blog offshoot on how people think about ‘the future:’
1) The optimist / believer / faithful – those who believe in the possibility of the unknown. Maybe they don’t know the specific answers to a question (such as how am I going to become successful, how will I become ceo someday, how will I meet the man/woman of my dreams and have relationship bliss, etc?), but they believe the answers are ‘out there.’ And that those answers will, in fact, come to them eventually. These people grasp opportunities, and look for chances to be lucky. They usually work hard at creating their ‘luck.’ These people live for the future; the past is simply a learning opportunity.
2) The pessimist / non-believer / unfaithful – those who do not have any faith in what the future holds. They feel a lack of control of the future, and over-compensate by seeking proof of everything before they act on anything. These people are genuinely confronted with a problem in their lives; because they do not grasp opportunities, even when the opportunity is clearly within their grasp. Instead, they find excuses not to act and reasons to delay. Until eventually someone else takes advantage of the opportunity or time degrades, ravishes, or simply terminates the opportunity. They are always ‘unlucky,’ and typically find themselves in administrative or non-decision-making oriented roles. These people live for the past; they live in fear of the future.
3) The agnostics - those who simply don’t care. Not that that they do or do not believe…they truly do not want to worry about it. They choose not to choose. They live for today. Yesterday is a memory, and tomorrow is soon to be a memory as well. Thus, they live for the moment. Usually a lot of fun, very charismatic, and often lucky through overt risk taking. If there is no past and no future, why not push the envelope today? This sometimes pays off, but inconsistently and without regard to plans or intentions.
I was recently asked for examples of when I made myself change my thinking, and therefore change the outcome. In reality, I think I have only ‘changed’ my thinking one time. I made a choice a long time ago to start seeing things differently, to choose to be optimistic and believe in a positive outcome. In reality, I probably made that change around the time I was a sophomore in high school. Prior to that I was kinda the fat nerdy kid. Class clown. Never played sports, never took too many risks, never asked a girl out. I simply made the decision that if I didn’t change something, my life would be more of the ho-hum same ‘ol thing. And the same ‘ol thing was making me unhappy.
So, I decided to create a bolder me. I changed my thinking about myself. About my possibilities. About my capabilities. Like the old saying, I faked it til I made it. And when did I become the person I had pretended to be at that moment: a bold, confident, optimistic, success oriented person?
Great question…what came first, the chicken or the egg? I don’t know.
But I do know that by the time I graduated high school, I was voted most likely to succeed, I had a hot girlfriend, I had slimmed down considerably, been accepted to private college, and within another few years I had started my first successful company.
So, how do you manifest change? You simply make a decision. Then commit to that decision. Burn the ships. Tell the world.
Because indecision kills manifest destiny.
I truly love the movie Contact, with Jodie Foster. In particular, I love the end of the movie. A child asks her if she believes in aliens, and she smiles ironically (we the viewer know that she doesn’t really know). She looks at the child and says: “I’ll tell you one thing about the universe. The universe is a pretty big place. It’s bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it’s just us… seems like an awful waste of space. “
After a two hour festival of deep exploration of truth, we are left with a simple CHOICE on what we want to believe.
Another great quote from Jodie Foster’s character: “Funny, I’ve always believed that the world is what we make of it.”
So, I suppose the answer to the question I was asked about manifesting change is simply: sometimes you just choose to believe. In yourself.
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Faith. I spent 34 years questioning everything and then one day just woke up and stopped questioning why things are the way they are. It was just a decision – no proof, no demonstration, no road to Damascus conversion, no set philosophy…
A danger of Optimism: I am naturally an optimist so have a tendency to see future better than present – this can be dangerous. As my natural inclination is to see a positive future, I can avoid action now. Optimism is sometimes a barrier to me really taking action.
Thanks for a thought provoking post
.