The First Step:
Imagine Your Ideal SceneBy Marc Allen
Author of The Millionaire Course
This Is The Essential First Step
This step is simple - all it involves is writing down a few pages of ideas - and yet it proved to be vitally important, fundamental to the rapid growth I experienced after I did it. It opened the door to every other discovery in my life, and has brought me to a level of success and fulfillment that had been completely unimaginable to me before I did this simple process.
A Powerful Exercise
The first step is called the “ideal scene process.” It is another way way to look at the second habit Stephen Covey gives us in his book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. This habit alone is a great key to success: “Begin with the end in mind.”
This is a simple, powerful key: Begin with the end in mind, and keep the end in mind, always. Then you’ll discover that the opportunities that lead you there have always been right in front of you - you just haven’t seen them until now.
Dream Freely And Define Success
The important thing is to allow yourself to freely dream, and then to clearly define what success if for you.
The “ideal scene” exercise that follows is wonderful for giving you an easy, playful way to clearly imagine what success is for you as the unique individual you are.
Imagine Your Ideal Scene
It all starts with a dream. The essential first step is to dream and to imagine: Imagine five years have passed, and you are living your ideal life: doing what you want to do, being who you want to be, having what you want to have.
Some of us don’t even allow ourselves to dream - and yet it is the essential first step. Without the dream, achievement is impossible.
Take a bit of time to quietly relax, and then allow your imagination to wander. Allow yourself to dream. Encourage yourself, the way you would encourage a child, to play with different possibilities that could await you in life - if you but dare to dream.Imagine you’ve been so inspired by the words and exercises in this course - and by many other things you’ve encountered along the way - that you have created the life of your dreams. You have become a success in every way you wish.
If money were no object, and you could do, be, and have exactly what you wanted, what would it be?
Describe your ideal. Let it be as far-fetched as you want - we’ll deal with reality later. For now, let your imagination soar. Don’t restrict yourself, and don’t edit it a you write it - no one else has to see it, and you can always change it later.
List And Affirm Your Goals
When you take this next step you will see powerful results. Within your ideal scene are bound to be several different goals. Take a clean sheet of paper, write “Goals” at the top, and list your major goals, however many there are, on the page. I had ten or twelve goals when I first did my list; now I have just six - my life has gotten simpler over the years.
First we simply list our goals, in any way that comes to mind. Then we go back and rewrite each goal as an affirmation: words that affirm those goals are now in the process of being realized. The trick is to state your goals in the present, and yet put them in a way that is believable to you at present, so your subconscious mind can get to work on them.
The most effective affirmations are stated in the present tense, and yet are entirely believable to you. They are worded so your goal is now in the process of happening - not that it has already been achieved, which is not believable. “I am now a millionaire” is stated in the present, yet it is something your conscious and subconscious mind will have difficulty believing if, in reality, you are scrounging to pay the rent every month. Here is the affirmation that worked for me:
“I am now creating total financial success, in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way.”As I repeated these words, something magical happened, in due time: All kinds of opportunities appeared, all kinds of possible ways to achieve the lofty goal of financial freedom started to become obvious to me, and then plans just naturally began to form in my mind. That led instinctively to the next step: making a simple, written plan for each major goal.
Once I started affirming my list of goals, I naturally over time developed clearer and clearer pictures of each of these goals - and those pictures started to include some very specific steps to take.
The Power Of Imprinting
The process works. My theory is that the repetition of your goals and dreams imprints them on your subconscious mind, the deep, vast part of your mind that is intimately connected with, and - in some mysterious way - united with the whole universe. By simply repeating your goals, you are aligning yourself with the creative power of the universe.
When we affirm we’re going to create our dream, in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way, our subconscious mind gets immediately to work on it.
Two Powerful, All-inclusive Affirmations
There are two great affirmations to include in your affirmation sessions, or to say at any time during the day if you find yourself thinking or saying anything limited or destructive. The power of these words becomes obvious when you affirm them to yourself.
The first is from a famous French pharmacist, Emile Coue, who saw healing after healing in his customers after he began giving them this affirmation instead of drugs: “Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.”
And when you’re affirming a particular goal, it’s very good to add the words that follow as a kind of “cosmic insurance policy,” ensuring it will be for your highest good as well as that of others: “This, or something better, is now manifesting in totally satisfying and harmonious ways, for the highest good of all.”
Affirm it to be, and it will be. Discover for yourself the power of affirmation.
Write your list of goals, word them in the form of affirmations, and read them over repeatedly. You are creating the foundation of your success.
You will be what you will to be.
Excerpted from the book “The Millionaire Course,” by Marc Allen.
Copyright 2003. Published by New World Library.
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