By Ron Baron
Presented to ELP Sandy 9/09/2011
Do You Live in A Prison?
Has anyone been to a prison? (A few raised their hands) What’s a prison like? “Scary, gray, bleak, sad, confined, sterile, intimidating, depressive…” A lot of us live in prisons—prisons of our own making. We react to external stimuli. “Woe is me!” My back is killing me. I’m so tired. That’s too hard. I can’t expand my business… or start a business because… the economy is too soft …there are too many regulations … the political rhetoric is anti-business… people are too afraid to buy… .” These are all excuses—limitations that we create… artificial limitations that are patently false. There are always two stories—our real limitations (a nice large “room to grow” box) and our own imposed limitations, which is a much smaller box inside the real limitations box. You might be the one who has a physical limitation that confines you to a wheelchair. You have choices. You can stay confined to a standard wheelchair or you can become a wheelchair athlete and get out and develop the talents you still have. You could learn to play tennis or basketball, or paint with your foot or mouth, or write using a special tool on a computer keyboard. The choice to limit yourself or test your supposed limits is yours.
The responsibility to do is yours. You are in control of you at all times. You can choose to be your own person, making your own decisions and choices or you can become an “un” person. “If I rely on others to be… (fill in the blank) ie: happy, I will always be UN-(fill in the same word)ie: happy.” That feeling has to come from your heart, not from outside yourself. Therefore, this statement, called “The most unpleasant principle of success,” tells you where your heart and mind are right now, “Financially, right now, you are where you want to be!”
You were programmed to accept where you are. Most input thrown at you tells you, “You don’t want to succeed!” You must fight the negative programming. You need to believe that you can succeed and deserve to obtain what you really want.
Where The Action Is…
Why do action movies make more money than any other genre of movies? It’s because we are willing to pay from $9 to $15 per ticket to immerse ourselves in the action as if we were the hero or heroine. For 90 minutes we get to live large, to be large. How sad a commentary on our lives. If we got up each day, chose to live large in our real world, we would find such movies lame in comparison. We go to amusement parks to experience the thrill of riding a scary and exciting ride for five minutes or less. If we lived life fully, risking our best effort and money to make something great, something worthwhile, not knowing before hand whether we would succeed, then, when we did succeed or did fail, we would know we did all we could do. We went to the top of the mountain with that business. We risked it all. The scariest roller coaster would look tame in comparison to what we’d just done in real life.
What does your life look like?
In-order-to live life to the fullest, to risk it all, we need to ask ourselves, “What do I need my life to look like so I can live big? As the answers come to you (those big ideas), list 8-12 affirmations using emotions. Write them in a positive affirmation style. Remember, these are not material things; these are not money. It’s never about money; it’s never about stuff. It’s really about the emotions. For example:
- I, (your name), am thrilled to travel three months a year, because I love learning about the history and cultures of the nations of the world.
- I, (your name), love the wife of my dreams, who is slim, athletic, petite, caring, tolerant, loving, etc.
- I, (your name), like owning my own home with wood floors, tile entry, and tiled kitchens and bathrooms, etc
Make your affirmations emotional and fully detailed. Whatever you desire… is what you will get, so don’t leave out that which you really want. Write them all down. You should have 8 or more, but not more than 12. If you have more than 12, combine them and add detail.
This is your own lovely fairy tale. Make them seem more than what you think you can do. Make them buckets of grandeur. You see, the ocean doesn’t care whether you pour a thimble full of water in it or a large bucket. So be selfish, use the large bucket and get what you really want. Make it grand. By doing so, you are telling your inner psyche who you really want to be and where you really want to go. And you’re also telling the universe, through thought transfer, that you really want to live big.
How Are You Going to Travel?
You know where you want to go, what you want to be. You know you are going to get there. The only question is how you are going to travel. Are you developing a “ticket” that will take you in a Kia or in a Rolls Royce; in a turbo prop plane or a Lear jet? If you haven’t defined the best transportation for you, then you will end up taking whatever the world casts off in your direction. And in the long run, will that tricycle’s destination really satisfy you. You get to decide, by either defaulting, or by taking firm action and writing down your affirmations telling who you will be, where you will go and how you will get there.
Learn to Celebrate
And if you’re discouraged, find someone (a trusted mentor) who can kick you in the butt to get you going again, to do what you said you would do. Recognize your present abundance. Make a list of what you have already successfully done in your life. Review it whenever you feel discouraged. And celebrate every day that you can add another success to that list that’s taking you on the journey of who you really are.