Your self-image: A review of what’s out there!

A few years ago, a certain book started a lot of discussion.  The book was title ‘The Secret’ and it was written by first time author, by Rhonda Byrne.

If you haven’t read it, I’d highly recommend it, if for no other reason than it brings together thousands of years of belief, teachings and writings from some of the greatest thinkers throughout history.

Paul Hanna wrote a very similar book titled, ‘Believe and Achieve’, a very down to earth book which suggests that we are what we focus our thoughts and belief on.  If you want to be motivated by any book on life, business and self-improvement, this is another great example.

It's funny, but once you've read a couple of these kinds of books, you start to pick up some very common threads.  It's interesting to see how the same thing can be written in a number of different ways! 

In his book titled ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’, Stephen Covey also promotes self-centred leadership and becoming ‘your own first creator’. 

What Stephen suggests is that our basic human nature is to act, not be acted upon and what’s more, even under the harshest conditions, we have the choice on how and what we think about.  We have a ‘response-ability’ and can choose to take the initiative.

Another excellent author in the power of belief is Napoleon Hill.  Napoleon Hill spent 20 years of his life researching the topic of success and how the most successful people in his era had made their fortunes.  He interview and analysed people such as Henry Ford, Theodore Roosevelt, John D. Rockefeller, Woodrow Wilson and Thomas Edison. 

Hills best selling book ‘Think and Grow Rich’ sold 20 million copies when the author died in 1970 and his chapter on ‘Faith: Visualising and Believing in the Attainment of Desire’ is well worth a read, especially for any new entrepreneurs starting your long road to success.

For me, I like believing in goals that are achievable, realistic, attainable.  Discussions I’ve had with friends / colleagues on the writings of Ronda Byrne and others go along the line of, “So if I think I’ll get a Ferrari, tomorrow morning I’ll wake up to find one in my front yard?”  And how can you argue with that? 

But what is the alternative, believe that you’ll never have a Ferrari and I can guarantee you one thing, you’ll be right!

As T Harv Eker states in his very interesting book ‘Secrets of the Millionaire Mind’:

“If you’re goal is to be comfortable, chances are you’ll never get rich.  But if your goal is to be rich, chances are you’ll end up mighty comfortable.” 

I guess what I’m trying to say is to take Harv’s point, you don’t have to think you’ll be the greatest designer who ever lived, or the most prolific architect in history, but if you aim to be great and define that greatness, even if it is a big ask, you’ll get a lot closer to achieving it than if you don’t.

And I think Ronda would agree:  The law of attraction is one thing and yes, it can be argued both ways, but in business, you have two choices:

You either set a belief (call it a business mission statement, call it a business vision, call it a bottom line you need to make, whatever);

Or...

You can aim for nothing and play it by ear…I know what I’d rather do!

And just to show that it’s not just old fashioned authors who write poignant statements about aiming high and believing in yourself, here’s one from Kanye West in his song ‘Homecoming’:

“Reach for the stars so if you fall you land on a cloud.”  Corny?  Absolutely!  But like most clichés, more than a hint of truth.

So don’t be limited by your imagination, think big!  Just ensure you set a few small milestones along the way. 

After all, success breeds success, so make your dreams big, but allow yourself some reasons to celebrate along the way.

I wish you happy thinking…!