“You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.” – Above Life’s Turmoil

This principle was not easy for me to accept and I fought it for a long time. As miserable as my life was at the time I learned this concept, I was certain that there was no way that it was due to the thoughts that I had held. There were too many other reasons why things had gone bad – my ex-spouse, the economy, a client who had wronged me, and on and on and on. Since I wasn’t responsible for my “bad luck” then certainly my thoughts had nothing to do with it.

But I was wrong. Like the biblical Job who said, “the thing I feared most has come upon me,” I, too, had thought myself to where I was.

Dr. Walter Doyle Staples, writing in “Think Like a Winner!” says, “I credit one simple concept with getting me started on my journey into self-discovery. After a great deal of study and contemplation, I came to the conclusion that people have in their lives today exactly what they keep telling their mind they want.”

Like Dr. Staples, it was a moment of great illumination for me! The logical side of me said, “if you and you alone can think yourself into such a mess, then surely you and you alone can think yourself out of it.” And that I did. It wasn’t overnight and it wasn’t easy, but it was a sure thing! And by accepting all of the responsibility for where I was at, and all of the responsibility for where I was going, I experienced a tremendous joy and freedom because I knew in my knower that if I got myself into the predicament, I could get myself out.

Of course, I had some great inspiration along the way. And I will always remember Les Brown’s three steps to take during “hard times:”

1. Have Faith (didn’t Paul say, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for…”)

2. Remind yourself: “No matter how hard it is or how hard it gets, I’m going to make it!”

3. Have patience and engage in consistent action.

And that’s worth thinking about.

“The vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your heart – this you will build your life by; this you will become.” As A Man Thinketh

Whether you liked his politics or not, much can be learned from the life of former President Clinton. Grolier’s “New Book of Knowledge” reports that as a teenager “Clinton thought of becoming a doctor or a reporter or even a musician. But after a fateful meeting with President John F. Kennedy, while still in high school, he made up his mind to enter politics.” At that moment a vision was born that he would hold onto – that he would glorify in his mind over and over – for the next 30 years, until he himself was elected President at the age of 46.

Jay Leno, who succeeded the venerable Johnny Carson as host of “The Tonight Show,” first envisioned that he would be the host when he was just 22-years-old and unknown and unproven as a comedian, much less as host of a show of such regard, For twenty years he enthroned in his heart an ideal that most people would have thought was “foolish”, “outlandish” and “impossible.”

The ancient writer tells us in Proverbs that “Without a vision, the people perish.” And Thoreau told us that “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” No doubt because the masses are without a vision for their lives.

What is your vision for your future, your ideal life? Is it written down? Do you review it and think about it often? Have you “enthroned” it in your heart? Is your life organized around goals and objectives that will ensure your vision is reached?

Wallace D. Wattles, wrote “There is no labor from which most people shrink as they do from that of sustained and consecutive thought; it is the hardest work in the world.” And yet it is the “sustained and consecutive thought” about our vision that is the first and primary labor of achievement.

Thoreau also wrote one of my most favorite passages of all time. And it gives us the best reason there is to stop what you’re doing today and identify the vision for your life. “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

And that’s worth thinking about.

“The person of good and lawful purpose cannot fail. It only needs that he daily renew the fire and energy of his fixed resolve, to consummate his object.” – The Mastery of Destiny

It is the great equalizer for all of those reaching for success.

It overcomes lack of education, money, talent, intelligence, looks and all other seeming advantages. President Calvin Coolidge said nothing could take its place.

“Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

I cannot think of one victory I’ve ever had that I won without persistence. For a while I just thought that I had to work harder and longer than anyone else in order to achieve because nothing has ever come easy for me. Then I really looked around and noticed that everyone else was just like me. Every mentor I’ve ever had and every successful person I’ve ever known has their own story of how persistence was the key to their success.

Here’s what Bob Proctor teaches on one of the Universal Laws called the Law of Gender: “This law decrees that all seeds (ideas are spiritual seeds) have a gestation or incubation period before they manifest. In other words, when you choose a goal or build the image in your mind, a definite period of time must elapse before that image manifests in physical results.”

Coming from a family of six generations of farmers I certainly understand the gestation of a seed. In fact, one of my most favorite inspirational examples about persistence is the story of an Asian Bamboo species that even after five years of watering, weeding and fertilizing is barely visible. Then in a span of about six weeks it grows two and a half feet a day to 90 feet and higher. It grows so fast that you can literally “hear” it growing. The question to ask is did the bamboo grow 90 feet in six weeks or did it grow 90 feet in five years?

Obviously it grew 90 feet in five years, for all the time when growth wasn’t visible it was developing a massive root system that would later support it’s magnificent growth.

Can you see where the current circumstances in your life are developing your massive root system? Can you see where you must continue to “fertilize” and “water” yourself even though maybe you can’t see any visible changes today?

Napoleon Hill thought that persistence was such a key to success that he devoted an entire chapter to it in the classic Think and Grow Rich. He writes, “Persistence is a state of mind, therefore it can be cultivated….Before success comes in any person’s life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and, perhaps, some failure. When defeat overtakes a person, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to QUIT. That is exactly what the majority of people do. More than five hundred of the most successful people this country has ever known, told the author their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them.”

And that’s worth thinking about.