Having a successful life is naturally going to mean different things to different people. For some, a successful life will be described by their financial situation.
It’s common for folks to measure success by the amount of money they make. However, a successful life can be measured in many other ways.
Using Imagination to Build a Successful Life
What does the words, build a successful life, signify to you?
Construction of a successful life begins with knowing the answer to this question.
The foundation of all success is to begin at the end. This important concept is clarified in Steven R. Covey’s best-selling book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” Habit 2 is “Begin with the End in Mind.” Covey says, “To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.”
Use Imagination to Form an Image of a Successful Life
Imagination is the most powerful tool we have for building the foundation of a successful life. Using this tool effectively requires practice.
Forming mental pictures in the imaginative faculty of mind necessitates the ability to subdue the limitations of the senses.
Proper use of the imagination demands that you believe the images that you form to be real. For instance, success to you may mean that you have $20,000 in a bank account. Use imagination to form this mental picture. Mentally, you get your bank statement, and it shows a $20,000 balance.
You mentally create a moving picture of you using the statement to reconcile your accounts. You feel how your successful life feels now that you have it. You need to view your successful life from the position of having it.
So, you see that when you begin at the end, imagination is the key to forming the mental picture of the end result. You forget about reality for the moment and refuse to allow your five senses to destroy the mental image. Let the image play out the way you want it to. Never mind that you don’t actually have the money in reality. Play it out in your imagination as if you already have it.
Do this exercise several days until you have painted a clear mental picture of your successful life. Mentally live in that world.
At this point don’t worry about trying to figure out how you will get the money. If you do that, you are still picturing yourself in your life from the place where you are right now instead of from the place that you created in imagination.
The proper use of imagination allows you to have the feeling of your desire already fulfilled. So, at this point don’t try to figure out how your desire will be fulfilled, just see it as already done. Enjoy that feeling for as long as you can and for as many times as you can. Don’t worry about how, just have patience and give it some time.
Earl Nightingale, a famous author and motivational speaker published “The Strangest Secret.” I was fortunate enough to come across the audio version about 30 years ago.
It’s a very compelling argument for why some people are very successful and others are not. In summary, it goes on to say that about 95% of the population do not accumulate much wealth in life while 5% accumulate a considerable amount of wealth. He boils it all down to one reason. He says, “You Become What You Think About.”
I have found this statement to be very true. If you think a lot about being successful and achieving your desires, it will happen. If you think a lot about being a failure and not achieving your desires, it will also happen.
Napoleon Hill, author of “Think and Grow Rich” speaks of a man that had an idea that he wanted to bring about into reality. Here is what he said the man did. “Every night he took that thought to bed with him. He got up with it in the morning. He took it with him everywhere he went. He turned it over and over in his mind until it became a consuming obsession with him.” Eventually a plan developed, and the man achieved his desire and built his successful life.
How Patience Helps Build A Successful Life
When you have a consuming desire, it’s hard to be patient.
Sometimes the desire may be big and seem so far away. It’s best to get in the habit of imagining your desire already been fulfilled and be patient.
I can tell you many experiences that I have had where I carried a thought around several years before it manifested. Sometimes you just don’t know what to do to speed up the process. After years of experience, I say you can’t speed it up. It comes when you are ready for it. It won’t come any sooner than that.
Forming a mental image of a desire already fulfilled is like planting a seed. Once the seed is planted, you must wait and let mother nature do her part. You can’t do much to rush the time it takes for that seed to mature. No one knows how long it will take. It could take a day, two weeks, many months, or years. It will mature and bear fruit in its allotted time. Meanwhile, you go about your business and work to prepare yourself to receive it.
Learning to exercise patience is a key ingredient to building a successful life. In my experience, I have found that if I am able to maintain my desire over a period of time, an opportunity will arise unexpectedly at the perfect time for me to take advantage of it.
It’s important to know what it is that you want so that when it appears you will recognize it and take action.
