Mastermind for Success – Week #3
(These are notes from a 12-week Mastermind Course I am taking at Christ Universal Temple based off of the 64 success principles in Jack Canfields book, “The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You are to Where You Want to Be”. The course is being taught by Associate Pastor, Rev. Gaylon McDowell.)
The chapters from this weeks course, Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, focus on two very important things: Knowing what you want, and believing you can have it. I think the mental challenge of conditioning yourself to believe you have something long before you ever get close to it is the biggest challenge you will ever face. It takes a great deal of mental fortitude to stay motivated and on course when it seems that your world is falling apart, and the journey is never one that is absent of pitfalls and setbacks. Struggle and failure is a given in anything you do. This is why vision and knowing what you want, and knowing WHO YOU ARE before the outset of any endeavor is so important. The actual physical acts of doing anything isn’t the biggest challenge you face, it’s staying committed to the cause even at times when you don’t feel like continuing on.
In the book Jack Canfield makes reference to why the book is entitled, “How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be” by getting you to understand that it’s necessary for you to know where you are before you can know where you are going. We always understand where we are. We know how much money we are making now, in the present, but do we know how much money we want to make in the future? We know how much we weigh now, but are we clear on what we want our bodies to look like in the future?
“The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of your life is this: decide what you want.”
-Ben Stein, actor and author
Chapter 3 starts off by reminding us of how social conditioning and childhood programming has caused us to forget who we truly were at one point in time. If you think about it, when we were children we were never conflicted in our thinking. If we wanted something we went for it. Whatever we desired to do, or have, we consciously moved towards that choice. As we’ve progressed into adulthood the notion of who we truly are has escaped us. Today, most adults are concerned with fitting it, or the status quo. We listen to our parents, we listen to our spouses, and we listen to our friends. We’ve gotten away from independently thinking for ourselves.
This is where we need to begin, in conscious thought, with getting clear about what we truly want. This may require your having to sit with yourself for several weeks or months, quietly contemplating what the “real” you genuinely desires. The task will be short of easy because you will be required to pour over years of conditioned thinking that has literally buried all of your true desires. So much to the point where you may not even be able to remember what truly awakens your spirit, or those things that truly excite you!
Here are some key points to consider:
1. Don’t Live Someone Else’s Dreams
2. Stop Settling for Less Than You Want
3. Make An “I Want” List
4. Clarify Your Vision of Your Ideal Life
5. High Achievers Have Bigger Visions
6. Don’t Let Anyone Talk You out Of Your Vision
“If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise.”
-Robert Fritz, Author of “The Path of Least Resistance”
There is an unsurpassed value in your understanding how powerful you are as an individual. Rev. Gaylon McDowell points out, “You are a unique and unrepeatable expression of God. If you don’t know who you are it’s difficult to express it.”
So where does Power come from? It comes from you.
Power is innate within each and every one of us. When you are aligned with who you are, you are capable of expressing power and love based on how you think of self, but in order to do this you have to work against the resistance of your own habitual thinking. The thought patterns and habits that have formed your current reality. Difficult? You think? I would say yes, and this is probably your greatest challenge next to working towards the legacy that you leave for your family. This actually will aid in helping you leave that legacy if you think clearly on this point.
Michael Jordan is quoted as saying “The game is my wife.”
This obviously speaks to the level of commitment that Mike embodied as he became the greatest basketball player in the world. He was unapologetically himself with his craft and he made sure everyone knew it. An unwavering commitment to self in pursuit of what he loved. This is difficult for most people to comprehend, let alone take action steps toward. It requires that you put yourself first, and other’s last without compromise if you want to succeed and find true purpose and happiness. This, in turn, is the result of your finding yourself and being authentically you.
Can you truly be happy being inauthentic? Of course not!
Your purpose in life is to live your dream and not someone else dream. You have the power to exercise choice and when you begin to master your ability to choose, you begin to master your destiny. It does not benefit you to be nonchalant about choice. Be intentional and explicit in even the smallest decisions, whether it’s choosing an appetizer at a restaurant, or deciding where you want to live. KNOW exactly what you want and how you want it. You deserve to have everything in your life, just the way you want it.
A very challenging prospect to digest, but something you just have to accept no matter how hard it seems.
Your experiences in life are important, and you should be adamant about choosing those experiences when it comes to other people. If you think about a bad situation that you had with someone, ask yourself, “Who was I being in that experience?” If you can truly understand who you are in any situation that doesn’t align with the authentic you, you can understand why things are happening in your life.
Why should you have a negative experience for someone else to have a positive one? This is compromise. People are never your true problem, but who you are being in an experience with people IS the problem. There is a solution for every problem and challenge you go through in life, but this comes from understanding your connection to the source. God. The assumption is, if you are connected to the source than all of your problems have a possibility for resolution.
It doesn’t matter WHERE the solution comes from, God is you, you are God, so than it follows that the answer is with you. All of your solutions are with you, all of your supply is with you, and Love is with you but in order for all of this to work for your good you need a belief system that supports this idea.
Consider this last point….
Whatever you are conscious to in your reality, this is what will manifest as your reality. This is why you do what you love because if you do what you love, what you love will manifest greater rewards in your life as a consequence.
Every area of your life can work but you have to believe it.
“The number one problem that keeps people from winning in the United States today is lack of belief in themselves.”
-Arthur L. Williams, Founder of A.L. Williams Insurance Company, which was sold to Primerica for $90 million in 1989
Stay in Love, and Peace.
