“People do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.” — As A Man Thinketh

We recently received a very “unusual” email. The subscriber’s question was a simple “What can I do to be successful that doesn’t involve changing anything about who I am or how I think?”

My first response to the question was a hearty chuckle at the seeming naive-ness of the writer. The chuckle turned into sadness as I realized the pain the writer must feel at the thought of changing — wanting success but fearing change.

But the longer I thought about it, I realized that while most of us may never verbalize that question, our actions indicate that we believe that it is possible to achieve the success we desire without going through the necessary changes.

I know so many people who work very hard and diligently and sacrifice greatly in an effort to create wealth. But they haven’t undertaken the personal changes necessary to reach their goal. Until they begin to think and act like wealthy people they’ll never attract the wealth they seek. Wealthy people don’t think and act the way they do because they have wealth. They have wealth because they think and act that way.

The same goes whether the goal is weight loss, physical fitness, quitting smoking, etc. As long as you think and act like a smoker, you’re sure to keep smoking regardless of the patches, hypnosis, drugs or other cures you may seek. I know — I did it for 20+ years.

To put it another way: When you stop working on what it is you’re trying to get, and start working on YOU, only then will you get what it is you want. When you change, your results will change. Simple but true.

It really is very basic when you think about it. Jim Rohn says, “To attract attractive people, you must be attractive. To attract powerful people, you must be powerful. To attract committed people, you must be committed. Instead of going to work on them, you go to work on yourself. If you become, you can attract.”

And that’s worth thinking about.

“Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become.” – As A Man Thinketh

The longer I live the more I realize how important it is that I always have a big dream in my life. Dreams are what cause us to bound out of bed in the morning instead of waking with anxiety or, even worse, apathy for the day ahead. When I don’t have a dream in front of me it’s easy to find fault with everything and self-pity comes easily.

There’s an easy explanation for why we’re not at our best when we don’t have a dream – we were created to dream. The Proverbs writer tells us that “without a vision the people perish.”

I’ve always liked a quote that I’ve heard attributed to both Oscar Hammerstein and Walt Disney, “If you don’t have a dream, how are you going to make a dream come true?”

So why is it so hard for some of us to dream? Or so tough to believe that our dream can come true? Perhaps for some of us it’s because we were programmed to “don’t get your hopes up.” While this was told to “protect” us, it had the opposite effect. For many years I wanted to believe in a dream (because I was created that way) but I was afraid of how I’d feel if I didn’t get my dream. I was afraid to “get my hopes up.”

So how do we start dreaming? Or how do we dream bigger? By changing our thoughts of course. Mark Victor Hansen, who says he’s read As A Man Thinketh more than 25 times, writes in his book Dare To Win, “If you know exactly what you want, you can have it…Look around you. The world is filled with abundance.”

A dream is nothing more than a thought or a series of thoughts. And James Allen tells us that “your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall not long remain so if you but perceive an Ideal (a dream) and strive to reach it. You cannot travel within and stand still without.”

And that’s worth thinking about.