The Power of Being Different
A Success Formula
by
John Paul Carinci
Edited by Donald MacLaren
© Copyright 2004 John Paul Carinci
Dedication
To my father - one of the greatest inspirations in my life, the person I strive to emulate. He was what we all should be - loving and unselfish to the very end.
To my mother – who taught me that I was capable of much more than an average effort.
To my wife, Vera – the love of my life, who tamed a wild bull.
Contents
Chapter 1 Uniqueness Leads to Great Success
Chapter 2 Time is a Precious Gift
Chapter 3 The Little Things That Make All The Difference
Chapter 4 A Positive Attitude
Chapter 5 The Miracle of Life
Chapter 6 It’s a Great Day to Be Alive
Chapter 7 The Mind Over the Body
Chapter 8 The Subconscious Mind
Chapter 9 Positive Reaffirming
Chapter 10 Perseverance: A Trait To Learn
Chapter 11 Positive Visualization
Chapter 12 Your Mind As a Filter
Chapter 13 Happiness – It’s All Around You
Chapter 14 The Magic of Believing
Chapter 15 Preventing Success
Chapter 16 Understanding Negative Habits
Chapter 17 The Magic In Selling
Chapter 18 Getting Enthusiasm Back Into Your Life
Chapter 19 Faith In Yourself
Chapter 20 Burning Desire
Chapter 21 Remembering Where You Came From
Chapter 22 Don’t Be Nonchalant About Life
Chapter 23 The Power of Belief
Chapter 24 Dissatisfaction Accomplishes More
Chapter 25 Death Can Be A Motivating Force
Chapter 26 I Must Be More Now!
Self-Suggestion Statements
Suggested Reading
Nothing in the world can take the
place of persistence. Talent will not;
nothing is more common than unsuccessful
men with talent. Genius will not;
unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of
educated derelicts. Persistence and
determination alone are omnipotent.
--Calvin Coolidge
30th President of the United States
(1923-1929)
Uniqueness Leads To Great Success
Some men see things as they are and say ‘why?’
I dream things that never were, and say, ‘why not?’
--George Bernard Shaw
English Dramatist
(1856-1950)
Time Moves Faster Than Us
The older one gets, the faster time seems to move. It is my observation that life goes by too fast. Most young people feel it is taking an eternity to become 18 and then 21, so strong is the urge to be considered an adult man or woman. The young man of 21 will soon discover that time seems to move at a faster speed than he realized when he becomes a 35-year-old man. That childhood urge to speed up time will now change into a wish to slow it down when the man reaches 45 and 50. Where are you in your life’s journey? Is time speeding up or slowing down for you? At what stage are you?
Do your days seem crammed full of obligations, tasks, deadlines, with a lot less spare time? Are there days when you are so stressed that you would like to drop out of society? Dropping out of society, and disappearing from all the stresses is basically a fantasy, one we all experience at one time or another.
You cannot control the speed of time, but you can control what you accomplish within your limited time. The proper use of work in a time period creates greater success.
Turning A Small Amount of Time Into A Lot of Time
To accomplish more of your personal goals, whether writing, reading, painting, participating in sports, or exercising, you can start by thinking of giving yourself more time in small amounts and forgetting about trying to give the world all your time.
Consider the importance of a 15-minute block of time a day to do something meaningful for yourself. Those “extra” 15 minutes a day would amount to 105 minutes, or 1 3/4 hours a week. If you continue squeezing out those 15 minutes a day, they would equal more than 7 hours a month and more than 91 hours a year. What could you accomplish with your “extra” 91 hours per year?
You could have jogged approximately 350 miles in that year, read approximately 10 new books, or taken a course. You could have prepared for an entirely new field of work or a great new
hobby.
It's a lot easier than you think to capture these valuable 15 minutes a day. How you use your time determines what you accomplish in life.
If you allow eight hours sleeping, you are left with 16 hours for working and thinking. And of these 16 hours, you have to allow time for travel, eating, and socializing. If budgeted properly, you can squeeze out that extra 15 minutes a day that you can call “your time.”
Suppose you have been given a $10,000.00 fee as a “time consultant” whose job it is to find those extra 15 minutes every day that can be your time. For the $10,000.00, you can start to write down the wasted minutes. Where are the wasted minutes every day?
Here are some ideas: Can you take a more direct route to work that would give you extra time? Can you take 15 minutes less for lunch? Can you get up 15 minutes earlier to accomplish something? Can you have a lighter dinner that would free up those 15 extra minutes at night?
Once you figure out how to capture that little block of time, you can write the findings down and make 10 copies of how you will always give yourself an extra 15 minutes per day. You can be persistent in finding those extra 15 minutes, so you can keep reminding yourself that these are your “new” minutes for you to accomplish something new.
The second step requires that you write down what you want to accomplish in those 15 minutes.
A good habit will take approximately 20 days to form. Your new block of time will change your life, if you accomplish something greater in those 15 minutes!
If a man does not keep pace with his companions,
perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Let him step to the music which he hears, however
measured or far away.
--Henry David Thoreau
Author/Naturalist
(1817-1862)
Be Different
Be unique. Be different. Stop following the crowd. Listen for the sound of that distant drum. The successful person and the average person approach life differently. The average person, it
seems to me, likes to take the easy way out. It's almost as if the average person wants to get through work just to rush home to do very little, or nothing at all.
Television is often a thief of your time and can easily be the source of your losing 15 minutes a day that could be used to accomplish more worthwhile goals. Perhaps watching one less television show will create better opportunities for yourself. Why watch other people become successful when you can apply yourself to those extra 15 minutes every day?
People can too often fail because they do not “stay focused.” Remember that staying focused on the small goals is the way you accomplish the final goal. Think for a moment about a movie
camera. Until the lens focuses on a particular object, everything is blurry. Although you may want to accomplish many different things in unrelated fields, you may be dabbling in many fields at
the same time and not putting enough energy into one goal.
Instead, remain focused, as if you are trying to line up a photo of a rose, capturing it in sharp detail. The camera lens has to stay focused or everything becomes blurry.
You must stay focused and not try to do everything at once. To hit a home run in baseball, you must have the bat make contact with the baseball at precisely the right part of the bat, hitting
the right part of the ball exactly with the right force of the swing. Any deviation from these elements can result in a complete miss or a pop-up. It takes minute differences to hit the ball just
right for a home run.
Focus. You may find it hard to stay focused at first. Remember this rule: a new habit takes about three weeks to form.
In a 1985 monthly publication of Insight, there is an article about Andrew Carnegie, the great steel maker, who was asked by a reporter, “How is it possible to have 43 millionaires working for you at the same time?”
Mr. Carnegie answered, “They weren't millionaires when they started working for me.” The reporter asked, “Well, what happened?” Mr. Carnegie replied, “We believe in rewarding
excellence in performance, and these men have developed themselves to the degree that they have become millionaires.”
The reporter asked, “How do you develop so many people?”
Andrew Carnegie replied this way: “I develop men exactly the same way you mine gold. In order to get an ounce of gold, you move tons and tons of dirt. But you don't go looking for the dirt; you go looking for the gold.”
When interviewed by Success Magazine in 1898 Thomas Edison was asked, “What's the first requisite for success?” And Edison answered this way: “The ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem incessantly without growing weary. You do something all day long, don't you? Everyone does. If you get up at 7 A.M. and go to bed at 11 P.M., you have put in 16 good hours, and it is certain with most men that they have been doing something all the time. The only trouble is that they do it about a great many things and I do it about one. If they took the time in question and applied it in one direction, to one object they would succeed.”
Leadership
Why are very few people leaders? Many people are followers in general and in most all aspects of life. Many seem to follow others, much like all the mice that fall in line to follow behind the Pied Piper.
I believe many people are too shy to lead, in whatever situation they are in. The average person, when entering a department store, will follow the person who previously entered the store. People will follow other people through the same exact door, no matter that other doors are more accessible. People tend to follow the path of a predecessor. People do the same thing because it's easier that way. It takes more commitment, work, and determination to find and to independently accomplish something new and better.
In a casino, if there is an empty roulette or blackjack table, people will usually walk right by it. But as soon as one person sits down at the table, it's amazing how the table fills up with new people following the lead of the person who first sat down. Why? Maybe people think that they would miss out on something good, so they join the lone player.
It has been known that in the former Soviet Union, people were so used to standing on line that, once a line formed, other people automatically joined on the long line. They didn't want to miss out on whatever was for sale.
Who can be the leader of the pack? Anyone. With just a little imagination and determination, anyone can come up with new ideas to lead the way.
Remember, many people we know will be the followers, and will expect us to follow the followers also. I'm in no way saying this to degrade or make fun of people, but merely to bring out a point of truth. The average person is often not aware of the strong urge to “follow the crowd.”
Being Different In Order To Accomplish Greater Goals
Being different means standing up, standing out, and leading. Too many people are content to be followers. Do you dare to be different?
One must plan to be different. You can start to love being different so that “being different” will become a good habit. You can make a plan and practice being different. You do not have to
be like everyone else. You can mentally note each and every time that you are different. You can go out of your way to do something that makes you stand out from the crowd.
Be different – be better! You can't miss with that attitude. With a new modified success attitude, you will become successful.
John Quincy Adams said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
The inventor of the disposable Gillette razor blade, King Camp Gillette, was a traveling salesman who sold bottle stoppers. He got the razor idea one morning in 1895 while shaving with a dull razor. It took 8 years of pure struggle and frustration to market the first double edge disposable shaving blade to the public. He had to find the right combination of metal alloy and tempering.
He also had to find the financial backing needed. In the process, he experienced tremendous ridicule and failure. It was almost too much to bear.
In 1903 the first Gillette blade and razor were sold to the public, and since then more than 100 billion Gillette blades have been sold.
“I didn't know enough to quit,” the inventor once said. “I was a dreamer who believed in the gold at the foot of the rainbow. I dared to go where wise ones feared to tread.”
Gillette had absolutely no experience in inventing, in engineering, or in working different forms of metals and alloys.
He had not the slightest idea of what he would encounter. But he had an idea, a dream, an inspiration and a belief that it could be done and, despite all the obstacles, he achieved his goal.
Don't you think there were more experienced and knowledgeable experts, engineers, and inventors than Mr. Gillette who could have invented this fantastic razor? No doubt there were thousands of people who had the potential to invent a new and better razor. What held them back? Apparently no one else had the foresight, imagination, or the burning desire to replace the antiquated shaving instrument that everyone accepted as sufficient. Others couldn't visualize a piece of metal as thin as paper, yet strong enough to slice through tough whiskers.
At times, your common sense will interfere with your creative imagination. Your common sense will tell you all the reasons you cannot do something and all those reasons are likely true. But then you have to stop to realize your brain has something greater than common sense.
We are each born with creative imagination. Successful people are the ones who have learned how to apply their creative imagination in order to achieve greater goals. Being successful can mean being more imaginative, not necessarily being smarter than someone else.
If your common sense says no, that’s the time to test your options. It’s your creative imagination that has the ability to overcome every it-can’t-be-done attitude and common sense worry.
Consider how much any inventor has had to endure ridicule during the development stage of the invention. The criticism and the negativity from others could easily have defeated all the major inventors. Imagine the world without all the major inventions if the inventors had given up. Too many people give up on their ideas, telling themselves, “I can’t do it.” That amounts to accepting defeat before they have even tried.
Thomas Edison was laughed at when he tried to sell the idea of the light bulb. People did not understand the concept; they were happy using their gaslights. His skeptics kept asking, “How does Edison expect to light anything without using a flame or a fire of some kind?”
Skeptics have a difficult time in accepting change.
Thomas Edison is a great example of someone who did not give up. From his creative imagination and hard work, we have his legacy of the electric light bulb, motion pictures, the telephone transmitter, the stock ticker, the phonograph and the electric pen for the mimeograph.
Thank God, Thomas Alva Edison did not let his skeptics, his common sense, and all his failed experiments defeat him. I wonder how many times his common sense started telling him, “It can’t be done.” Success means you have to be willing to risk not listening to your common sense.
Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, had a difficult time convincing others the telephone invention would work. People accepted the telegraph as the means of communication because that already worked and people follow what works. Bell used his creative imagination to go to the next step: imagining that people could speak into a piece of metal and their voices would travel across the country over a wire in a split second.
To use your creative imagination will require research and hard work.
You can succeed in your ultimate goal if you have the conviction to persevere through all the negative attitudes and through your failed attempts.
Your goal may not come easily, but success usually comes to those who persist, those who choose to be different.
The spirit, the will to win,
and the will to excel are the
things that endure. These qualities
are so much more important than
the events that occur.
--Vince Lombardi
Football Coach
(1913-1970)
Time Is A Precious Gift
When it's all over, all said and
done, What impact will your life
have had on the world?
--John Paul Carinci
Insurance Executive
The Question of a Lifetime
Your life is such a great asset. As you grow, you learn to protect your life, to take care of your health, and to nurture your mind. But, do you really put the right effort in making the most of this gift called life? You don't have to discover a new invention or be the president of the country, but you do have the responsibility to ask yourself, Do you consciously try to make the world better?
How have you made it a better place in which to live? In what ways have you had positive, lasting effects on others? What special innovation will you be remembered for? Will people think of you as a doer, a visionary, a leader who accomplished something better? Or, will people remember you for having wasted your abilities?
These are tough questions. Most people may not want to think about these questions. The average person tends to ask, “How can I get as much as possible for me?” and seldom asks, “How can I give to the world?”
Be honest with yourself. Are you content with what you've done thus far? Have you done enough for others? What will you ultimately be remembered for? If you truly would like to change your future, you can. You simply have to be willing to modify the way you think.
My premise is this: You have the capacity to do great things by the use of your creative imagination.
The secret to change is, first, to tell yourself that you want to change. Tell yourself every day you want to improve something in your life. Work on small goals that lead to your greater goals.
Those who have benefited from attending Alcoholics Anonymous have had to start with an admission: “I have a problem.” The admission of a problem creates the mental attitude that brings about a new result.
The first step in bringing about positive change is to admit that you want to change. Be specific about what you want to change. Will power is a tremendous tool. Once a person becomes determined to do something, and blocks out all external negative thoughts, that person usually succeeds in his or her desired goal.
The more you tell yourself that you want to improve, the more your subconscious will begin thinking of ways to achieve that goal. You can train your mind to think positively.
Your Mortality
Most of us come to admit that life is short. Once you reach the age of forty the fact that life is short sticks in your mind. You can use your own mortality as a way of staying focused.
The awareness of your mortality can even motivate you to quicken your pace of accomplishments.
You have 24 hours in every day, 168 hours in a week, and about 16 waking hours every day. That's 112 waking hours every week.
If you are a 40-year-old man with a normal life expectancy, you have approximately 16,425 more days to live, assuming you live to age 85. Women live three years longer on average. If you decided to find 20 minutes a day over a five-year period, you would accumulate about 609 hours of “extra time” to do what you wanted. Those 609 hours could change your life.
If I were to invest my 609 hours into learning to paint, don't you think after 609 hours I would be pretty knowledgeable about painting? Imagine what new things you could accomplish if you improved your life twenty minutes at a time every day.
Leo Tolstoy, the famous Russian writer, said, “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
In the entertainment field, an actor with as few as five years acting experience can become a director because of what he has learned about directing on-the-job.
In Working Smarter, a cassette program by Michael LeBoeuf, Ph.D., published by Nightingale Conant Corp., the following story appeared: “Charles Schwab, when he was President of Bethlehem Steel many years ago, called in Ivy Lee, a consultant, and said to him, ‘Show me a way to get more things done with my time, and I'll pay you any fee within reason.' Lee replied, 'Fine. I'll give you something in 20 minutes that will step up your output at least 50%.'
With that, Lee handed Schwab a blank piece of paper and said, 'Write down the six most important things you have to do tomorrow and number them in order of importance. Now put this piece of paper in your pocket. First thing tomorrow morning look at item one and start working on it until you finish it; then do item two, and so on; do this until quitting time and don't be concerned if you've only finished one or two. You'll be working on the most important ones anyway. If you can't finish them all by this method, you couldn't have done it by any other method either, and
without some system you'd probably not even have decided which was the most important.'
Then Lee said, 'Try this system every working day. After you’ve convinced yourself of the value of this system, have your men try it. Try it as long as you wish, then send me a check for
what you think it's worth.'
Several weeks later Schwab sent Lee a check for $25,000, with a note, proclaiming the advice, ‘the most profitable he'd ever followed.’ The concept helped Charles Schwab earn 100 million
dollars and turned Bethlehem Steel into the biggest independent steel producer in the world.”
Charles Schwab thought enough of this idea to pay $25,000 for it, but only after he and his workers used it and proved it worthwhile.
Since early on in my career, I have used a similar “To Do List.” I’ve found that the list helps me accomplish more and accomplish it faster. The to-do list keeps me focused and I avoid wasting time on the less important things.
I’ve presented you with a system worth $25,000, a gift for organizing your time. Try this system for four weeks. Then, look back and see how much you have accomplished. How much would you pay for such a system? I’ve found the system worth thousands of dollars to me over my twenty-plus years in sales.
Anyone who stops learning is old
whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone
who keeps learning stays young. The
greatest thing in life is to keep your
mind young.
--Henry Ford
Inventor/Automobile Manufacturer
(1863-1947)
One Sunday morning I felt shocked to see in the local newspaper an obituary of a 24-year-old man who had died in an automobile accident. He was to be married in less than a month to my cousin’s daughter. I felt shock, sadness, and utter desperation in searching for a reason why we had lost the young man in a freak, arbitrary accident. I thought of my cousin's daughter, who had celebrated her wedding shower a few weeks earlier and had received beautiful gifts.
I wondered about this young man’s sudden death and it finally sank in: there are no tomorrows guaranteed to any of us.
You know what you expect and what you want to happen tomorrow, but you don’t know what other events will change your life, change your future, or whether you will even be alive.
Today is the only day to live, to dream, and to act.
The present time is all you have as your “guaranteed time.” You need to say to yourself, “I cannot allow my dreams and goals to lie dormant inside me. From this day forward, I will write down all the things I want to accomplish. I must plan and set into motion the actions that will accomplish my great goals.”
Writing Leads to Accomplishing Your Goals
Begin by writing down what you specifically want to accomplish.
No matter how complicated a project, desire, or want, write it down. Although you may be writing a rough draft, you will have begun to formulate your end goal. The act of writing your goals places the desire to accomplish this goal into your subconscious mind.
Step one: write out what you want in life. You can organize your ideas as short-term goals and long-term goals. This may be the first time you seriously set down goals. If you have already done this exercise at one point in your life, do it again. It may have been a long time since you last did this and you need to focus on your new goals.
The writing helps you to identify goals and, in turn, your creative imagination will be stimulated to find new ways to accomplish these goals.
Writing your goals is a necessary step to accomplishing them.
God gave every single human being
a certain amount of talent, and unless
you utilize that talent to the utmost
of your ability 24 hours of every day
your life, you deceive your God, your
family, and above all yourself. This is
what life is all about, this is my religion.
--George Allen
Football Coach
(1918-1990)
The Little That Make All The Difference
Do your work - not just your work and
no more, but a little more for the
lavishing's sake; that little more
which is worth all the rest. And if
you suffer, as you must, do your work.
Put your heart into it, and the sky
will clear. Then out of your very doubt
and suffering will be born the supreme
joy of life.
--Dean Briggs
Spiritual Writer
No More Just An Average Person
If you look at the average worker, you will see that too many people do only what is expected of them and no more. How many people do you know who are enthusiastic about their work? Do most of the people you know only dream about getting off work in order to be free to have their “fun time?”
Since the average person will only do the minimum amount of work, you can distinguish yourself and achieve greater opportunities by investing your “extra effort.” Your extra effort will develop new opportunities for you, provide you with financial rewards, and help you to excel. To excel in your field should be one of your goals.
Remember the old cartoon Yogi Bear? His motto was, “Smarter than the average bear.” That’s a good motto for all of us. Being average does not guarantee success. Being average is boring. Be different by being above average, and you will excel.
The real challenge is in being different.
Excel Beyond the Average
The annual New York City Marathon draws at least 20,000 runners. The race is a little over 26 miles long. After running 26 miles, the first runner may be ahead of the second runner only by 30 seconds and 50 yards. Such a small window of time over 26 miles may make the difference between winning and losing the race. The first-place runner did a little bit extra that made all the difference in winning the race.
It's said that if the average baseball player were to get only one more hit out of every 10-15 times that he comes to bat, that player then would be guaranteed a spot in baseball’s Hall Of Fame. In addition, that player would have earned millions of dollars extra over the average player. Average? Anyone can be average. Ted Williams, an outstanding player who qualified for baseball’s Hall of Fame, showed what it meant not to be average. There may seem to be small differences in players, but the results are profound.
You can excel at anything, but you must be willing to make the tough choices, and put forth the extra effort.
I remember starting out as a young salesman for a major company when the vice president of the company came to our office for a sales meeting. After the meeting, I walked up to him and shook his hand. Before letting go of our handshake, I said, “Mr. Posa, I'm going to be one of your district managers one day. I don't know exactly when, but you are going to promote me to that position one day.” Two years later I fulfilled that prophecy I had made to him and the promise I made to myself to advance quickly in the company. At age 27, I became the company’s youngest manager.
I knew I would be promoted in the company because I was totally consumed by the desire to be a district manager. Every day I thought about it. I pictured myself as the manager of the agency and acted as if I’d already had the position. I knew in my heart I would be promoted; I just didn’t know when.
When you have a burning desire to accomplish something, nothing can stop you. You accept the hardships and disappointments. You separate yourself from the average workers by your consuming desire to reach your goal.
Small Efforts Can Pay Off In Big Ways
Assuming you get eight hours of sleep, imagine if you could get by with 7 1/2 hours of sleep from age 35. Over a lifetime you would end up with an extra 7,720 hours of waking time. Can you imagine how much more you could achieve in your lifetime with all that time?
A little extra effort can result in greater rewards.
You may have to start by sleeping five minutes less every day, until you are comfortable with that goal. After that goal is achieved, you can get up another five minutes earlier. Gradually, you will be giving yourself anywhere from ten minutes to thirty minutes of “extra time” that will help you reach a greater goal.
If you heat water to 211 degrees Fahrenheit, you simply have hot water. By heating the water to 212 degrees Fahrenheit, you have boiling water. That one degree makes the difference that can move locomotives, and steamships, while also even melting certain compounds.
Are you operating at the 211 degree level? Are you willing to give that extra one-degree effort? With just a little bit extra effort and creative imagination, you could improve yourself and the world around you.
Horse races, sometimes, are won “by a nose.” In a photo finish, that may mean that the first place horse was a hundredth or one-thousandth of a second faster than another horse.
Roger Maris, a former New York Yankees ballplayer and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, became famous when he broke Babe Ruth's home run record. In 1961, Maris hit 61 home runs, breaking Ruth’s home run record of 60 home runs held since 1927.
In 1982, Rickey Henderson guaranteed himself a spot in Baseball’s Hall of Fame by setting a new record for stolen bases. He stole 130 bases in one season, breaking Lou Brock's old record of 118, set in 1974.
Since the first Olympic games many centuries ago in Athens, Greece, records have been shattered and new ones made. The brain often wills the body to accomplish the record-breaking feat.
The Mental Attitude To Doing More
Sports records have been broken by those willing to make the extra effort.
In Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude, a self-help book by Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone, a story about Roger Bannister appeared: “In 1954 Roger Bannister set a new world record by running the one-mile race in less than 4 minutes. It had never been done in the history of track and field competition. How did he do it when no one else in history could do it? Here's how: his trainer Dr. Cureton came up with a training plan of action: 'Number one, Train the whole body. Number two, push yourself to the limit of endurance, extending the limit with each workout.' Dr. Cureton said, 'The art of record-breaking is the ability to take more out of yourself than you've got.'
“Roger Bannister trained in the following manner: Since the quarter of the mile can be run faster per quarter than the full mile, he trained so that each quarter of the mile was a race in itself, and if he ran them at quarter mile paces, he could put four of them together and run the mile faster than he normally could.
“Bannister would run all out a quarter of a mile at a time to the point of collapse, and each time he would push the point of collapse a little further along the way. Well, on May 6, 1954 Roger Bannister ran the mile in 3 minutes 59.6 seconds, the fastest time in the world.”
After Bannister broke the four-minute mile, many other runners started breaking the four-minute mile barrier. They had learned that they had to develop the power of positive thinking in order to produce greater results. Once they learned to set their minds to accomplish a new goal, more and more runners began learning that their minds could be used to help them break the old records.
Your mind is capable of many more things. All you have to do is break through your own mental limitations.
It was William James who said, “The first and most important factor at the beginning of any project is belief.”
The Power Deep Inside
I believe your subconscious mind stores information you can use to be successful. Use that information by following Dr. Cureton’s advice and take yourself “to the limit of endurance.” With a little bit of extra time and effort invested in yourself, you will surprise yourself at what you will achieve.
Did you ever notice in sports, such as baseball, the American pastime, that many times, if a team scores two quick runs on another team, the opposing team coincidentally catches up by scoring back those two runs themselves? In basketball, one team will seem to score 10 points quickly. Amazingly, the other team rebounds with a surge of 8-10 points quickly. Have you seen in hockey where both teams will go scoreless most of the game? When one team scores, the opposing team will rebound with a goal to tie the score. Why is this so common?
Your subconscious mind is a great powerhouse to help you do whatever you have to do. The subconscious mind is constantly sending thoughts to your conscious mind. I believe your subconscious mind can force you to accomplish greater results.
I am convinced that if we were to take a baseball team into a room midway through a game, even if that team was winning the game, we could convince them through hypnosis that they were losing by 5 runs. At that point, the subconscious mind of each player would start sending signals to his conscious mind that he had to play harder in order to win the game. There is an amazing power going on in the subconscious that can force the conscious mind and eventually the body to perform either aggressively or lackadaisically.
Since you know this power exists, be very careful what you feed your mind. I believe that your subconscious mind is like a sponge, absorbing information, only to reappear later as positive or negative impulses.
Don't let your subconscious draw in negative thoughts. Someone once said, “We are what we think about.”
What are you feeding your mind lately? Remember the computer user’s phrase, “Garbage in, garbage out” can hold true for your mind. The better phrase to live by every day is “Positive in, positive outcome.”
Never forget: A successful person never lives a nonchalant life!
Do more than exist, live.
Do more than touch, feel.
Do more than look, observe.
Do more than read, absorb.
Do more than hear, listen.
Do more than think, ponder.
Do more than talk, say something.
--John H. Rhoades
Poet/Philosopher
A Positive Attitude
Nothing can stop the man with the right
mental attitude from achieving his goal;
nothing on earth can help the man with
the wrong mental attitude.
--Thomas Jefferson
3rd United States President
(1743-1826)
The Creative Fire In You
Don't let anyone stomp on your dreams, kill your inspirations, or put out your fire of aggressive creativity with gratuitous negativity.
Inspiration is the creative fire of phenomenal ideas.
Thankfully, the great inventors through the ages were not quitters. They did not let negative public opinion sway them from accomplishing their endeavors.
You are capable of great ideas. What is your great idea? Could one of your ideas become a useful invention? Could one of your ideas be turned into a great book? Could one of your ideas help save the lives of millions of people? You have such great potential. Just dream it, be consumed by it, and it will be yours.
You may have decided you would rather forget your idea than subject yourself to others laughing at you and embarrassing you. Ridicule from others is not easy to accept and something you don’t want to hear. You become scared about your ideas when others tell you “you’re wasting your time.”
Do you remember the Dick Tracy detective comics in the newspapers years ago? Remember how Dick Tracy would talk into his wristwatch telephone? It sounded crazy then, but the idea became a reality once an inventor developed the microchips needed for such a telephone. To the average person, the idea seemed too big and too difficult to comprehend. How could a big telephone be reduced to the size of a wristwatch? For the person who uses his creative imagination, the questions became, ‘How can I miniaturize the telephone circuitry and make it work?’ and ‘How can I make the telephone work over the airwaves without a connecting wire?’
“Dream it; believe in it; be consumed with it; and it will come to fruition.”
Thanks to a lot of inventions in technology and satellite communications by many people and companies, you can now talk to people around the world from a small portable phone just like Dick Tracy.
Conceive, Believe, and Achieve
Notice how the airplane looks like a bird. Man observed, conceived, believed, and then achieved flying according to the same principles by which birds fly.
The first television set came out in the 1940's. If I told people in 1940 that I was going to invent a one-inch by one-inch color television, they would have laughed behind my back by calling me the biggest fool on earth. That miniature color television set now exists. And not only that, you can now have your color video telephone to go along with your miniature color television.
I’ve become aware how miniaturized everything has become. Our western culture has become a culture of miniaturized, technological devices. Inventors, scientists, and researchers have used their creative imagination to find ways to put volumes of books on a CD, to scan billions of bits of information in less than a second, and to incorporate whole libraries of books into small memory boards. Researchers, applying their creative imagination, are trying to develop future computers that use atoms for storing information, not just chips. These new inventions will lead to further miniaturizing computers, cameras, telephones, and all kinds of electronic and communication products.
You can certainly see that technology keeps changing and improving. If you don’t start working on your creative ideas now, someone else may have the persistence to accomplish what you wanted to accomplish.
Thank God there are individuals who have the vision, determination, and drive to forge ahead through failure after failure. You may only have the mental picture of a given idea or invention, but that mental picture can be enough to keep you working on your idea. Thousands of new inventions are being patented every day. When will people see the completion of your idea?
Imagine somewhere that there should be a monument to lost ideas. It’s not a junk heap. It’s the should-have-been heap. It’s a pile of the best ideas that were never tried or fulfilled. It’s the unfulfilled patents or never-written books or never-created ideas because somebody was afraid to try or somebody ridiculed the idea to death. Is that where you want your ideas to end up?
Look at Henry Ford, who in his early years began working on inventing a gas-driven engine. Ford had a study done by a leading college to see if the gas engine could be invented. After extensive study, the college’s technical department determined that the idea could not be done. A piston could not be made to move by gasoline-ignited power.
Henry Ford still believed he could build such an engine. He purchased his own parts and with help from his wife, he got the first makeshift piston powered by droplets of gasoline ignited by a spark. The rest is history. The horses and the steam engines of the day were gradually replaced with the internal combustion engine in the early 1900s. Henry Ford then developed the first successful automobile assembly line, building cars faster than anyone had imagined. A man with vision, determination, and fortitude, Henry Ford proved himself a true visionary who would not let his ideas be extinguished by the negativity and ridicule of others.
Steps To Securing Your Vision
First, don't stop yourself from dreaming; dreaming is the starting point.
Second, don't let others stifle your creative imagination. Your ideas are greatest when you feel free to use your imagination.
Third, don’t let your problems stop you. It’s been said that going to sleep with a problem can be a good thing. During your sleep, your brain can quietly think about the problem. You can actually wake up with a new solution to your problem. Allow your
subconscious mind to work on the problem.
Your mind is a tremendous tool when given the opportunity to prove itself.
Researchers believe people use only about 5% of the brain’s capacity. That leaves 95% room for your creative imagination. You can use that extra part of your brain to keep telling yourself, “I’m going to do it! I’m going to do it! I’m going to be successful!” Let yourself be different and think! Use your brain and think! There is so much more you can be doing with your brain capacity than you imagined!
Wilber and Orville Wright first flew a heavier-than-air machine in 1903. But they were successful only after repeated failures. The average person around them dismissed the idea that any human could fly. Once the Wright brothers proved flight in machines to be possible, the world quickly picked up the pace and improved the design. Today, we’ve gone from flying a few feet off the ground to flying into space.
It amazes me how it takes a major breakthrough before all the rest of the people in the world believe what is possible.
It’s always easier to say, with the average person, that something is impossible than to use your creative imagination, work hard, and let your subconscious bring about a breakthrough, a new invention, or to turn a new idea into reality.
What the mind of man can conceive
and believe it can achieve, through
a positive mental Attitude.
--Napoleon Hill
Motivational Author
(1883-1970)
There are some race horses who can not run a good race because they're distracted by the commotion at the starting gate. The trainers usually try to fix the problem by putting blinders on a horse’s eyes to block out the distractions and keep the horse focused directly in front. The blinders in some horses can make a difference between winning and losing a race.
All of us occasionally need to put on mental blinders to block out too much negativity and skepticism. You don’t need bad comments, bad thoughts, and people emphasizing your failures at a time when you are very close to succeeding.
You have to keep focused, stay positive, and eliminate dwelling on any comments from others that are not helping you to find solutions you need to succeed.
Anyone criticizing you should also try to help you find success. The last thing you need is to have one or more people telling you what a failure you are. You can always find someone who will want to kill your idea, inspiration, perseverance, and drive. Remember, success is not easy to achieve. It’s a long road that many refuse to walk.
As for the negative people around you, you will have to work around them or avoid them. You don’t want their negativity to register inside and overpower your subconscious.
I believe most of the great inventors and achievers have had to use mental blinders and have had to get past a lot of negative comments. Just as a bodybuilder works hard to build up his or her muscles, so too, you have to build up your mind to learn to sidestep all the negative influences and stay focused on your goal of success.
Remember:
1- Determine clearly what it is you want to accomplish.
2- Write it down in detail.
3- Write down why you wish to accomplish this goal.
4- Write down how long it will take to accomplish the goal. Write down exactly the time needed and how you will invest yourself daily and weekly to reach your goal.
5- Write out a complete statement to the effect that under no circumstances will you allow anyone to alter your attitude toward the accomplishment of the desired goal.
Success seems to be connected with
action. Successful people keep moving.
They make mistakes, but they don't quit.
--Conrad Hilton
Hotel Owner
(1887-1979)
I read an inspirational story that I will never forgot. It came from the aforementioned Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude by Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone. They told a story about a farmer named Milo C. Jones, who for most of his life had owned a small farm in Wisconsin. He had been barely able to provide enough for his family and himself year after year, never making a great living.
One year Jones was struck down with paralysis that left him bedridden and incapacitated. Though paralyzed, he had a very sharp mind. He believed in being responsible and strengthened his determination not to quit or give up on life. Jones knew he had to do something to help his family. He called his family together around his bed for a meeting at which time he told them his new plan of action.
“I am no longer able to work with my hands, so I have decided to work with my mind. Everyone of you can, if you will, take the place of my hands, feet, and physical body. Let's plant every tillable acre of our farm in corn. Then let's raise pigs and feed them the corn. Let's slaughter the pigs while they are young and tender and convert them into sausages. Then we can package and sell the sausages under our own brand name. We’ll sell them in retail stores around the country. They'll sell like hot cakes,” Jones told his family enthusiastically.
This was the founding idea that began Jones’ Little Pig Sausages. The family members followed the plan and the sausages sold in stores and the business thrived. That was in 1889 and the recipe is still used today.
Milo C. Jones could have given up on life very easily and nobody would have blamed him because of his disability. But Jones was a man who did not want to lie in bed doing nothing. He took what he had left, his mind, and used it to the very best of his ability. He used his creative imagination. I'm convinced that his mind actually got sharper after he became paralyzed.
A blind person learns to hear differently than a person who has the ability to see. People have learned to work through their physical limitations without being defeated by the limitations. We may call it compensating for the limitation, but it’s more than plain compensation. There’s a new way of thinking. The limitation forces some people to think differently in spite of the limitation.
All of us have limitations of some type – physical or financial. Your goal is to achieve your dreams in spite of your limitations. Limitations are no longer limitations; they are no longer an excuse for failure. Limitations are simply a set of problems that you have to solve in order to go forward to find success. Your creative imagination is the spark, and hard work is the piston driving you forward. You can achieve your goals in spite of your problems.
Imagine what you could do if you went from using the five percent of your brain to using ten percent of your brain. Every percentage point that you increase in using your brain could yield incredible results in your life.
It's our attitude at the beginning
of a difficult task, that will more
than anything else determine it's
outcome.
-- William James
Psychologist
(1842-1910)
The Miracle of Life
Thank God every morning when you get up
that you have something to do which must
be done, whether you like it or not, being
forced to work, and forced to do your best,
will breed in you a hundred virtues which
the idle never know.
--Charles Kingsley
Author/Clergy
(1819-1875)
Your Uniqueness Creates Your Success
As you get older, you most likely learn to appreciate life more - the miracle of life, the latent powers within the mind, and the meaning of your own distinctive personality.
While sitting in the car waiting for my wife, I noticed a flying insect on the window next to me. It appeared to be no bigger than the eye of a large sewing needle. I watched it walk slowly up the window. As I studied it, I thought, All the different varieties of life on this planet are amazing.
I noticed this miniscule insect had half of its body covered by wings. I was always intrigued how insects and birds could fly and defy gravity. This insect had lightweight wings, which were strong enough to carry the insect away quickly.
I had an epiphany about the miracle of life. Although this insect was not the smallest form of life on earth, I had been mesmerized thinking about this creature with its own heart, brain, nervous system, lungs, stomach, arteries, and, oh yes, six legs. That insect impressed me.
I’ve read that the human body has approximately 70,000 miles of blood vessels. When the heart beats, it circulates the blood through the entire system of vessels once every minute. Another amazing fact is that the human brain weighs only about three pounds, yet it holds an estimated eighty trillion electrical cells.
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