I just read this line in Esther and Jerry Hicks latest book, Money and the Law of Attraction:
Do not write your story like a factual documentary, weighing all the pros and cons of your experience, but instead tell the uplifting, fanciful, magical story of the wonder of your own life and watch what happens. It will feel like magic as your life begins to transform right before your eyes, but it is not by magic. It is by the power of the Laws of the Universe and your deliberate alignment with those Laws.
Now, I believe in this optimistic approach to life. I’ve found over and over again how much easier and powerfully effective it is to focus on what you want (the motivation of desire) than on what “is” that you don’t want and how to get around it (realism?). For the past couple of years I have chosen my daily activities by doing what feels good in the moment, rather than what I think I “should” be doing in order to get where I want to go.
From a Realism perspective, this Optimistic approach to life seems silly, ineffective, and ignorant. From a Realism perspective, you must look at your obstacles and your weaknesses and find a way around them in order to get where you want to go in life. From a Realism perspective, you must do what’s hard, and even struggle, in order to achieve the level of success you desire.
Many of us are brought up with a Realism perspective. As employees, as entrepreneurs, as kids and adults in our society, we’re all taught the motto “no pain, no gain”. And many of us live long lives of struggle with the hope that it will result in yummy results that we can enjoy sometime before we must struggle towards the next goal.
From an Optimism perspective (like this Abraham quote suggests), you don’t need to focus on your obstacles or weaknesses or what you think should be done in order to achieve what you want. You just need to focus on all the good feelings of your desire and let yourself be inspired to take action from that desire and trust it will end in good results. When you use this approach, there is never any struggle and you are enjoying life while you are moving towards your goal, not just for the brief moments after you’ve achieved it and before you set out for the next goal.
So, does this Optimistic approach really work?
Here’s an example from my own life that I feel proves it:
For the past year I’ve done only a few public speaking engagements, even though I knew that more public speaking had been proven by others to increase business. I didn’t want to do lots of public speaking because I didn’t fully enjoy it then. Essentially, I had some mental and emotional blocks that kept me from desiring that action.
From a Realism perspective, I had a weakness to overcome in order to achieve my goal
From an Optimism perspective, I wasn’t led by my desires in that direction (yet).
After a year of “knowing that public speaking would help, but not wanting to do it” I attended Chris Howard’s Presentation and Platform Skills Training. I had the option of attending this course the year before, but it didn’t feel good then – it felt like it would be a distraction from the other business-building activities I wanted to be doing.
So, when I did finally take the course, I was completely in the right state of mind to receive the valuable information and to apply it in such a way that I easily and effortlessly overcame my mental and emotional blocks to public speaking. Now, by acting on what feels good, I’m actually wanting to do more public speaking … and my business is structured to support it.
Could I have achieved all of this sooner if I had taken the Realism approach and focused in on fixing my weaknesses and “just doing it” anyway? Maybe, but it wouldn’t be a fun journey and that struggle might have lead me to drop my business vision altogether since it wasn’t enlivening anymore.
Did I get good results in good timing using the Optimism approach? You’re darn tootin’!
So, if you’ve been using more of a Realism approach, or you’re still surrounded by people who are touting the “no pain, no gain” theory, try your own test. Pick an area of your life to experiment in and just do what feels good, only focusing on what’s working well that you like and what you desire more of. And let me know your results!
