Orison Marden once said, “Deep within man dwell those slumbering powers; powers that would astonish him, that he never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize his life if aroused and put into action.”
One of the most essential truths to recognize is the fact that the only limits on what we can achieve in life are those we create and place on ourselves. Circumstances are the creation of people and not the other way around. Peak performers, as opposed to the weak performers, have trained themselves to shape the events of their lives rather than being shaped by them. Think of the current limitations in your life, the obstacles preventing you from attaining your dreams and that state of bliss you so much desire. You have interpreted each one of these circumstances to be a roadblock or negative element in your life when this is not the case.
One of the most fundamental of all strategies for success is also one of the most simple: there is no such thing as a negative circumstance, only a circumstance that you may learn from. There are no mistakes in life, only lessons which will allow you to grow and advance higher on the path of self-mastery. Stop being a prisoner of your past – become the architect of your future. Every event happens for a special purpose. Every problem is a special challenge from which we can learn and prosper to new heights of achievement. Every moment is perfect in nature, whether you realize it or not. If you recognize this age-old truth, you will accept every experience with gratitude and you will see the opportunity in every event, no matter how challenging it might appear initially. If you do not understand this principle, you will never realize the wonderful destiny that is yours for the taking.
The human mind and spirit can perform miracles if properly used and conditioned for excellence. And yet most human minds remain uncultivated, unexplored and unchallenged. On an average day, the average person thinks about 60,000 thoughts. Even more startling is the fact that 95% of those thoughts are the same as the ones you thought the day before. Limited thinking patterns must be exploded and you must exert your tremendous mind strength to develop the habit of ‘Limitless Thinking.’ Throw off the shackles of your old thinking patterns. All successful people have come to realize that your thoughts form your world and you truly cannot afford the luxury of even one negative thought. The first step to a life full of wonders is to see that your outside world begins with your inside world and every single thought must be one that will take you farther along the path of a perfect life. Your thoughts can create magic and everything you have ever wanted. Today’s thoughts build tomorrow’s dreams.
Mahatma Gandhi, a frail, weak man roused hundreds of millions of his countrymen and brought down an empire with passive resistance. And yet he started out as a very average lawyer with a small law practice in South Africa. It was the pain of injustice which sparked his determination to improve his world and like all high achievers, Gandhi started to work on himself first. He started building his mental toughness and creating enormous discipline in his life. At an early stage, he realized a cardinal rule for life mastery: success on the outside begins within. Armed with the self-knowledge that his cause was just, this little man in the white loincloth led his country to independence.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was a young man when he entered the gym for the first time. He had skinny legs, a shrunken chest and small shoulders and came from a background where financial resources were always slim. But Schwarzenegger’s inner resources were always abundant. Shortly after his first bodybuilding session he turned to another bodybuilder and promised he would be Mr. Universe in five years. The bodybuilder laughed, but look at Schwarzenegger now. “Here is a man who refuses to accept limitations on what he can do and the success that he will meet as he bounds through the rose garden of life.” As Napoleon Hill wrote in his wonderful book, Think and Grow Rich: “whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe he can achieve.”
So an immediate challenge for you is to weave your new habit of ‘Limitless Thinking’ today. The mind is like a muscle, if it is weak it can be conditioned for strength. Positive thinking is pure habit and is not easy at first if you have allowed weeds to take over the garden of your mind. But the prosperity mindset can be developed as any other habit. Habit is like building a cable: each day the action is taken, the cable becomes stronger until the point is reached where it is unbreakable. As Emerson wrote: “what lies behind us and what lies in front of us pales in comparison to what lies within us.”
Awareness of your limitations is the first stage in banishing them from your mind. Effective people are precisely aware of their weaknesses as these are the weakest links in the chain and must be eliminated. What beliefs have kept you from success, happiness, love and self-mastery? What habitual thoughts are keeping you from the peace of mind, rich relationships and ideal health that you deserve? Note them and make a decision to eradicate them from your mind. It will be hard at first and you will wish to give up but with a little persistence they will be erased.
Once you note the limiting thoughts and consciously remove them from your consciousness, it is important that you replace them with an alternative that energizes you, motivates you and fills your dreams with hope and passion. This age-old principle operates from the fact that at any one instant, your mind can only hold one thought. If the thought on the picture screen of your mind is a disempowering one, quickly replace it with a positive one. With time, the negative thoughts will be few and far between since a great law of nature is that positive always dominates the negative.
Picture yourself in your mind’s eye as you hope to be, having all you ever dreamed of having. Make a “Dream List” of everything you desire in your lifetime. It might seem silly and wasteful to think such positive and powerful thoughts in your current circumstances but there is phenomenal power in believing in positive mental pictures.
WE ALL have the potential for a Perfect Life. We all have the potential to achieve great things and live a life filled with joy, accomplishment and pure bliss. In some of us, this potential is slumbering deep inside, waiting only to be tapped and tested. The most noble of pursuits is to ignite this fire for personal mastery and life excellence. When your every thought and your every action is directed to your ultimate life goals, you become unstoppable and assured of great success and happiness. When you cultivate your mind, body and character, your life takes on powerful dimensions that you never thought possible.
