Dream Great Dreams

Someone rewrote some lines in Edgar Guest’s poem Equipment. Guest says: “So start for the top and say I can.” The rewrite said: “So dream great dreams and say “God can.” I’ve always liked the rewrite better but I don’t know who to attribute it to. I believe that James Allen would also go with the rewrite. Allen’s words in As A Man Thinketh go like this:

Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your
Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your Ideal is
the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.

The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The
oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg; and in the
highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the
seedlings of realities.

Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall not long
remain so if you but perceive an Ideal and strive to reach it.

Dreams are the seedlings of realities. What an awesome quote. What do you need to do to sustain your dreams so that they grow from seedlings to giant trees? The idea is the same as we see expressed by Napoleon Hill and Wallace Wattles – your thoughts are things. Your thoughts grow from seedlings into a great reality. Like the seedling thoughts need nurturing and the need some work.

A seedling needs suckering – the offshoots that just take away nutrition from it and which would stunt it’s growth need to be removed. Did you have a nice dream that has gotten confused and unclear by following too many offshoots and neglecting the real dream? You need to deal with that.

A seedling needs nourishment. You’ve got to feed your dream or it will die. You’ve got to hold it up in the light of your mind so it can get the nourishment from the light. If it’s just a seedling and blocked from light by all the other stuff that is happening in your life soon it will be crushed and lost forever. Hold that vision, see it, experience it, and be thankful for it.

Life

These dreams the seedlings are actually a microcosm of your life. People are born and endowed with promise and hope as all new babies are. Some grow to be the tall trees while others don’t fully meet their potential. The Edgar Guest poem Equipment mentioned at the beginning talks about that. You and your dreams together are these seedlings. Dreams really are all the equipment that even the great ever have, this is the promise and hope that wraps each of us as we are born. Can you get rid of the suckers in your life, can you hold your dreams and your hopes in the light and give them the appreciation and the care that they need to take you into a great future?

Read what Allen said again:

Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall not long
remain so if you but perceive an Ideal and strive to reach it.

This is what Wattles and Hill are saying. It is yet another statement of the law of attraction. Hold the vision and it will come to pass. Let me say it again in another way:

I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and I will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what shall I answer when I am reproved. And the Lord answered me, and said, “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”

—Habakkuk 2:1-3, King James Bible

I have long loved that scripture. Write the vision – make it plain – because it will surely come, it will not tarry. When we were born a vision was written upon our souls but many of us have not nourished the vision and have allowed suckers to take us off into paths that will not take us to the great heights that we are intended to achieve. But as Allen says those circumstances won’t long remain if we but perceive an ideal and strive to reach for it. Again – it is the law of attraction.

“This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.”

Carpe diem – seize the day. This is your day take a moment and reach for that dream and hold it in the light, hold in the “Thinking Substance” as Wattles calls it. See it, nurture it, and soon live it. But it starts with today, it starts with you, that dream and holding it up to the light, holding it in the thinking substance.

by Michael Griffin

Feburary 2, 2009 Podcast

Visualize The Life You Want

There is an article on this site about Life Mapping. It’s about your goals in life and creating a vision of those things and of the person you want to be. What you bring to the process now and how you can grow those good things in your life by having objectives. And this is an important process to go through – have a look at the article.

The law of attraction suggests the life mapping process will help you move forward because your focus moves to the places you want to go to rather than something that may be sitting in your path in this moment, or something you see in your path a little way down the road. Life mapping is a tool that can help with the law of attraction because it focuses on where you want to be and sets aside limits.

Keep The Vision Fresh

Can you keep this vision fresh everyday when you look to it? Life mapping helps you formulate the outcomes that you use in your visualization and meditation.

From Vision To Inspiration

Allow your life map inspired vision to take on a life of it’s own. This is inspiration as the vision moves from your thoughts to changing on it’s own. Inspiration happens when there is stimulation of the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity. Inspiration is divine guidance or influence exerted directly on the mind and soul of humankind.

Life mapping is an essential part of stimulating the mind in the direction you’d like to go. As you are formulating your mind map you need to let go of limits. Recall at one time no one believed that the four minute mile could be broken and now it’s done not just at the college level but also high school. The false belief has been removed and along with it artificial limitations. Clear yourself of such false limitations in order to allow your vision to take form and be truly inspired.

States of Joy

As you unleash visions based on your life mapping just know it’s a perfect day as you begin. You don’t need to know why, only that it is. If you know why – that’s fine – but that it is a perfect day is all you need.

Joy comes from gratitude and appreciation. Can you maintain a state of gratitude, can you appreciate where you are in life or do you just notice the things that aren’t quite right. Often when people make goals they stop there. If you’ve stopped there you have probably just spent a lot of time reviewing everything you don’t like about your life and want to change. I weigh too much, I don’t make enough money, and any number of other items where you don’t feel you measure up to the person you want to be. The danger is two-fold. You are focusing on your problems, you are making a lot of work for yourself. It is important to change this around a bit.

Instead of setting goals by looking at your short comings look out to that perfect day in the future where everything is right in your life. Look out and be grateful that you are that person – can you appreciate that this accomplished person is you? And that accomplished person is grateful for the good things, that person looks back at you and smiles and you see love and feel a connectedness unlike you have known. Make life mapping work for you – go into the vision and reach back to yourself now and share the joy and gratitude. Pass back the good things that you feel and enjoy them now.

Connecting To The Future

In your heart you get the message coming to you. This great accomplished person is connected with you now and loves you in a profound way and appreciates all that you are doing now because your actions have created this perfect day. And as you look to yourself and you look back you experience that moment now, you share the joy with yourself. It is the gratitude and appreciation flowing both ways on the time line that is your life.

Out of this gratitude faith comes and with faith and belief all things are possible. Don’t make yourself do anything, see the vision, see that person who is you on one of what will be many perfect days and this thing that you are considering doing, how does it connect you to this perfect day, does it have a connection, is it something that will help take you there? The joy of this perfect day and the activity you are considering, aren’t they really one? Can you do the activity with the gratitude of the person you are on that perfect day looking back and giving thanks that you did the things that are necessary to get there? It is you today who has built that life – can you enjoy that now?

And when you need some encouragement can you look out to that person, smile, and reconnect to that bond – that energy between the two of you?

Connecting To Your Past

Your life is a wheel and you sit in the hub, look down any spoke and see yourself past, present, and future. Look back the other direction from that perfect day and see the kid back there. Was he struggling or was it good. Smile back at that little person and communicate the good to him. Let him know that he is valuable and important and thank him for all he is doing – it is important and even if he has made some mistakes you’ve learned from them and he has set the foundation of your success. Go back to him often and help him see those things that he may not be aware of that will move him in the direction he needs to go.

Life mapping can help you connect with your visions in a way that will inspire you. As it does reach back and connect with that part of you in the past that also wanted to achieve and succeed. Pass some of that joy back to him and can you see that he will pass it back forward to you now and increase the joy, and resolution, and drive that is within you? Your bad memories will clear and the joyful memories will take their place, new heights of possibility and achievement will overtake you. Life mapping with the visualization that empowers the law of attraction will take you to new levels of joy, empowerment, gratitude, action and success.

THERE ARE NO LIMITATIONS TO THE MIND EXCEPT THOSE WE ACKNOWLEDGE

BOTH POVERTY AND RICHES ARE THE OFFSPRING OF THOUGHT

Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich stands as the most famous success book of the 20th century. A few weeks back we identified chapters 3 and 4 as pivotal in the book and congruent with “The Science of Getting Rich.” Audio of chapter 3 was published last year and now here is the promised chapter 4.

Napoleon Hill names auto-suggestion as the key-stone of Think And Grow Rich. Auto-suggestion puts instructions from you directly into your subconscious mind and begins a process whereby you will be contacted back by an inspiration from infinite intelligence. An inspiration that will take you to your objective. To the thing which you instructed your subconscious mind to aquire.

Hill recommends reading the chapter every night aloud until you develop faith in the principals it states. Likewise your goal must be repeated and visualized. If you are seeking money you must visualize it until you see, in your mind, the money that you seek. I might add that you can even smell it.

Here is the chapter 4 recording:

If you missed the chapter 3 recordings you can pick it up on the podcast or through the direct links here:

Faith: Visualization of And Belief In Attainment of Desire

On Monday January 5th we will resume the podcast with a series on “As A Man Thinketh” by James Allen another classic success book in the vein of “The Science of Getting Rich”.

Read Think and Grow Rich.

Why are you here, what is the force that brought you to life? There is a great poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, perhaps you know it:

Waste no tears

Waste no tears upon the blotted record of lost years,
But turn the leaf, and smile, oh smile, to see
The fair white pages that remain for thee.
“Prate not of thy repentance. But believe
The spark divine dwells in thee: let it grow.
That which the upreaching spirit can achieve
The grand and all creative forces know;
They will assist and strengthen as the light
Lifts up the acorn to the oak-tree’s height.
Thou hast but to resolve, and lo! God’s whole
Great universe shall fortify thy soul.
-Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

The world may appear shaky right now, do you have your eyes fixed on your future, have you made that vision so compelling that it will lift you from flames and into that future? Do you have some high powered juice to get you going? That poem by Wilcox is something to meditate on, to wrap your mind around and contemplate. Don’t look at the trouble that may be around you, look to where you are going. You know where that is don’t you? You’ve thought of your business goals, your home, your mate, your accomplishments, not where you are now but these things, the way you want them to be, in one-year, five-years, ten-years. Write those things down, write what you want and write, as Dr. Robert Schuller says, “as if you could not fail.” Don’t ask yourself, “Oh God, what am I going to do now.” Ask, “What would I do if I knew I couldn’t fail.”

Dr. Michael Beckwith puts it like this: “don’t tell God how big your problems are, tell your problems how big your God is.” Don’t worry about God though – whatever it is you believe about Him, He believes in you and He has hope and a future for you.

The All Creative Forces

Who put the “divine spark within you? What are the “grand and all creative forces?” Look at where you are going in life and not circumstance. Look at that bright future, envision it, make it real, go there often and go there not concerned with how it will happen, those plans will come, but with how it feels to be there and know that it is yours. This vision my friends is hi-test fuel that you can light up with your “divine spark.”

That poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox says a lot – the “grand and all creative forces” that “lifts the acorn up to the oak-tree’s height” dwell in your soul as well. The acorn doesn’t have the luxury of thinking, it is compelled to become an oak-tree. But you have free will in your mind and you must guide your thoughts to that vision ahead and that divine spark combined with the fuel of your vision will rocket you forward into your blessed future. Believe it, don’t put the brakes on because of what you may think of circumstance around you, rather gather the fuel in your imagination and let it be set off by that divine spark.

Can You Think Truth?

Wallace Wattles in Chapter 4, “The First Principals of the Science of Getting Rich,” talks about looking at things around you but always thinking truth. The truth is that you can create what you want to create but you must look on the truth of your vision regardless of what circumstance may appear to be true. Thought held in faith will take substance. You can listen to “The First Principal” here:

Listening to or reading this chapter over and over will help you build the faith and resolve in your heart that you need to put it’s principals into action. This my friends will Unleash The Law of Attraction.

“Oh, God,” said Leonardo da Vinci, “you sell us everything for the price of an effort.” That effort is holding the vision before God in the face of obstacles. As Wattles wrote in “The Science of Getting Rich”. “Hold the vision in the thinking substance” he said. Make the decision to do this now. You are one quality decision away from any thing that you could ever want. The decision is to see your future and be powered forward by it. If that future is what you are looking for then those “grand and all creative forces” will lift you up higher than even you might think or imagine.

On this blog in 2009 you will continue to find information about “The Science of Getting Rich,” the law of attraction, and related books and materials. On January 5th we’ll start our series on “As A Man Thinketh,” by James Allen and introduce the new – free – audio book of it. We will bring ideas and materials aimed at getting your thinking right, helping to get you, as Wattles says, thinking in “the certain way.” That certain way is a way that will UNLEASH THE LAW OF ATTRACTION in your life.

Here’s to a blessed and mystical 2009.

Guy Kawasaki is one of the huge success stories from the ranks of Apple Computer. In this presentation you will learn some great ideas for marketing. This has everything to do with The Science of Getting Rich, you have to be able to share your vision in order to make it happen. This is part of the ‘Action’ that Wallace Wattles insists on.

A big part of successfully putting a software product in the market is generating a big buzz – in other words evangelism. It’s also called: USP – Unique Selling Proposition – a necessary part of doing business because usually if you ‘build a better mousetrap’ they won’t beat the path to your door. The won’t unless you do what Guy is talking about — evangelize it.

I’d love to be able to sit home and ‘Ohmmmmm’ (replace that with your mantra of choice) my way to success. Make no mistake it’s an important component – getting your head in the game. The visualization – holding the thought in the ‘thinking substance’ it all works together to bring your success. But you need the action part too. Napoleon Hill deals more with it in Think and Grow Rich. Charles Schwab evangelized a group of Eastern bankers and brought US Steel into being (chapter 3). You can listen to the story here:

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The idea was born to Schwab but if he hadn’t evangelized it there may have been no U.S. Steel, perhaps the Carnegie foundation wouldn’t be so well endowed, perhaps there wouldn’t have been so many Carnegie libraries around. This idea not only made Schwab, J.P. Morgan, and the investors a lot of money. It also increased Carnegie’s wealth. Without the libraries and the good works of the foundation, what might not have happened? Would we be missing something that benefited us. Who can measure the far reaching impact of that speech – that evangelization?

Evangelism is not a religious word but rather a word from the Greek meaning bring the good news. This is a video about marketing, about selling a product and providing value in the marketplace.

Think and Grow Rich is probably the most famous, and most read motavational book of all time. Chapter 3 is called ‘Faith: Visualization Of, And Belief In Attainment Of Desire.’ How about that title?  Is that your definition of faith? If not where did your definition come from – better be sure? 

If we check The Bible will we find another definition? How about this one:

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” –Hebrews 11:1

Doesn’t that say the same thing?

We’ve been talking about “The Science of Getting Rich” on these posts, In the chapter 5 “Increasing Life,” Wattles says:

There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe.

A thought, in this substance, produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.

Man can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thng he thinks about to be created.

And Chapter 12, Efficent Action:

By continuous contemplation you will get the picture of what you want, even to the smallest details, so firmly fixed upon your mind, and so completely transferred to the mind of Formless Substance, that in your working hours you need only to mentally refer to the picture to stimulate your faith and purpose, and cause your best effort to be put forth. Contemplate your picture in your leisure hours until your consciousness is so full of it that you can grasp it instantly. You will become so enthused with its bright promises that the mere thought of it will call forth the strongest energies of your whole being.

In our post on the law of attraction we told the story of Conrad Hilton and the old picture of the great hotel he wanted to own that he looked at the picture and visualized even when he was tramping around Texas.

The message is the same, see the thing, be grateful for it already.  How can you be grateful if you don’t keep the thing in mind?

Write your goals down, keep them with you, look at them all the time.

Many of the Masters of Achievement are fond of talking about a study of Harvard graduates who wrote their goals down. Those graduates were the most wildly succuessful of all the ones in the study. That study turns out to be an urgan legend. There is an interesting article about it over at www.SidSavara.com. Sid researched and couldn’t find the study. But! Sid found another study, another researcher who had been frustrated by the search for the Harvard study and unable to find it did do their own goal research and found that written goals work as the mystery study had stated.

Written goals are a way of rekindling your vision when it fades from mind. Whether it is a picture of something you want to own, like Hilton, or a list of things that you have carefully decided on it’s all about holding the vision in the unformed substance.  Written goals help you do this.  Today the concept of a “Vision Board” is popular, it is another and perhaps more powerful way of writing your goals.  Post pictures on the wall of the things you want.  Look at them in faith and with gratitude (Hills chapter 3 will help you and so will his chapter 4 on autosuggestion).

Back to “Think And Grow Rich,” Napoleon Hill is saying the same thing as Wallace Wattles.  Both men use the same truths to present to you a blueprint for your future.  As we have also seen the philosophy is consistant with Biblical scripture.  If I were a scholar of the Koran, the Bagvagita, or other sacred texts I have no doubt that we would find support there for the concepts as well.  The ideas are universal and the practice belongs in your life.

I’ll be starting a podcast on this site to go along with the “Science Of Getting Rich” recordings.  Part of the first podcasts will be recordings of chapters 3 and 4 of “Think And Grow Rich.”  These are powerful chapters to add to your arsenel of success.  To be sure you get them, and the new podcast when it comes, download theRealMikeGriffin.com toolbar or watch for us on ITunes and subscribe.