I always say if someone from the future travels back in time to tell you that your lifelong dream will fail 100%, and you still go for it anyway, it will work.
…in my experience, taking the same path someone else did results in getting close but never where you want to end up. Ignoring those paths and making up your own route leads you to where you really belong, wherever that may be.
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” | I always say if someone from the future travels back in time to
| tell you that your lifelong dream will fail 100%, and you still go
| for it anyway, it will work. ”
Luckily for many of us, things didn’t work out that way for a painter turned politician during the last century.
Good stuff!
Thanks.
Thought only go so far..Intention only goes so far.
Intentions are a great start but follow through
AHH there’s the juice. Which intentions do you move on?
Which do you put the muscle behind consistently?
We have thoughts, but only when our thoughts become our actions do our actions become our life.
@selina maitreya,
Excellent.
(yet there is still more)
@selina maitreya,
it doesn’t matter which intentions you move on as long as you move. Most people sit around their entire life not knowing whether to go left or right, so they go nowhere. Those who succeed pick a path and follow it, knowing that they can always change course if it proves to be the wrong path. Failure is fine. Not only does it not kill you, its an essential part of your learning process. Just learn to fail fast, and then keep on moving.
Paul :)
@Paul Magee, I would add to that.
There is no “wrong” path. Every outcome is purposeful though not always the “expected” one:)
@selina maitreya, well, you could say that, but personally I think that not only is it good to step into the ring and get a bit bloodied, but its good to focus on the pain sometimes.
Its there for a reason, its our most powerful teacher. But we have to allow it to teach us. When we don’t see failure for what it is, when we allow our ego to protect itself with too much twisting of definitions, we tend to keep making the same mistakes over and over.
Its perfectly OK to accept that failure is part of the game, something to be faced and experienced AND at the same time not like it.
Courage isn’t a lack of fear, its just choosing to make something else more important than fear.
What I am suggesting, and I think you too are saying, is that its better to make “learning” the thing that is more important than the fear of failure.
But failure still sucks. That’s its job.
Paul :)
@Paul Magee, we do agree on some principles Paul but I feel that pain is just a perspective issue. Tough times are a perspective issue. AND that being said when one perceives pain it is indeed and opportunity for growth. My experience is that growth is not only accessed during tough times:)and that life indeed does not even need to contain tough times.. but that’s a topic for another time, Love the volley thanks.
@selina maitreya, so lets forget this meaningless web comment philosophy…
At the end of the day, turning debates about our interviews into real action – stuff that moves real people forward in the physical world – is why we do them in the first place.
Otherwise its just more meaningless fluff consumed and forgotten in the blink of an eye.
When you wrote your original comment, you most likely had a personal situation in mind…
A fork in the road, a number of different paths you might follow…
Are you going to make a decision and act on that situation today? Are you going to choose which intention to move on first – and then make a move?
Or let the opportunity pass?
I will happily risk offending with my pushiness, because its a no lose situation for both of us.
You can call me an ass, say you weren’t talking about yourself and take no action – no harm done :)
Or you can take me up on the challenge, back one of your options and maybe change the course of your entire life, right here today. Wouldn’t that be cool?
Paul
PS. I apologize for hi-jacking your fine blog :)
@Paul Magee, I don’t consider what I was discussing as “meaningless web comment philosophy”. In regards to your “challenge” when I wrote the comment I was simply looking to add my perspective as a teacher and consultant, who has worked with countless pros helping them to turn intentions into actions.There was no one thing in my personal life I was referring to.
@selina maitreya, then I AM an ass, and I hope no harm has been done :)
Although I stand by the point that most web comment philosophy is meaningless when it doesn’t lead to action. I wasn’t referring specifically to your comments :)
As a teacher and consultant myself – don’t we need more help than anyone? That’s why we do it, isn’t it? ;)
Paul.
@Paul Magee, No worries, Paul .Yes we all have work to do:) and yes as teachers we have a wonderful opportunity to be reminded of that work as we do ours for we are in a
position to hear ourselves loudly and clearly. And then to your point, to ACT. Thanks for the insight you have brought to the blog.
Choice words at a time when I’m about to take a leap of faith…
@Tracy B,
For me also.
When I first started, a photo editor said I would make a better “milk man” than a photographer, he was probably right, always been a heavy lifter. I did however manage to raise a family in the last 30 years as a photographer and editor.
I’ve been working on a web version of a product much like David and just received est. for set-up at $200k. But you have to believe in yourself and work out the bumps, take the leap. Milkmen (and women) rule!
Or saying it another way “Whatever you think tends to multiply”.
If your brain is clear your business is clear, if your brain is a muddle…….
db
And on a related note… my most recent blog post discussed the importance of clarifying just WHERE you want your dreams to take you and who you want to see there hiring you.
The perennial wisdom of genius, Lily Tomlin succinctly underscores why it’s important not to ignore the role your mind plays in creating your future:
“I’ve always wanted to be somebody,
but I see now I should have been more specific.”
Related to this thread on specific thinking which might be of value to some of you author Shakti Gwain “Creative Visualization”.
There is a lot of truth conveyed in the interview. I think many fall into the trap of the comfortable money and a life of few risks. I have to admit that’s where I lived for way too long. I’m am thankful for the crappy state of things economically and a layoff.
It may be a difficult time to start something, but even as David struggled, so will many others, it’s a good thing. I makes you stronger and you will forge ahead. David saw the future fruits of his labor a stitch or a pencil line at at time. My life is a step and frame at a time.
Those that can’t handle the struggle will go back to the comfortable low risk life. That’s okay too, it’s their choice. I think that is critical that what ever you do to find the voice that is you and keep growing it.
I didn’t want to jump into the thread between Selina and Paul, but I do agree with Selina that intentions are not the crux of success. Intentions are like good ideas: worthless while implementing a good idea can be priceless.
I have always advised photographers that success in the business starts with a vision based upon your view of what you want to do (be). That vision has to be turned into a plan that is practical and implementable. Then the hard work is carrying out that plan goal by goal and objective by objective. That is where the muscle and grit make all the difference.
I have never encountered a business plan that was not altered after experience dictated a need to change it. I generally don’t like to equate business with war because war is all too serious and awful, and business is a game of wits combined with hard work. However, while in OCS in the Marine Corps I was taught that a battle plan changes right after the first shots are fired. “Why asked one Candidate?” The instructor pointe out in classic Marine Speak: “Because the f…..g enemy is not going to play according to your plan.” Neither do prospects, clients, economic trends, health, finances, support services, technology, etc. Change requires changes. I recall a Ben Franklin quote, something like this: “Plans are worthless but planning is invaluable.”
It is so likely that we will end up as we envisioned at the start, that is a given we won’t. But that does not mean that we are not in control to a great degree of where we end up. As Selina said, it is about putting thoughts into action. And that means constantly.
This is kinda treading on “The Secret” tripe — heck, he even references it in his interview. Newsflash: your thoughts don’t determine reality, reality determines reality. It’s a distinctly (and oddly) American concept that magical thinking leads to magical results. Barbara Ehrenreich wrote a pretty good book describing the phenomenon.
@Ryan,
Too funny.
@Ryan,
Yes and no. Magical thinking leads to an open mind that doesn’t limit your options, while reality provides the back stop, and should show you what is impossible. The problem is that positive thinking, if not balanced by honest self critical analysis, leads to folly. Like the Iraq war.
I
@Ryan, “Magical Thinking” is a cognitive distortion. However there is documented factual evidence that the way one thinks – focus and content can create physical effects.
Monks, meditators, hindu gurus can all create radical changes within their bodies by how they think. In the west we call it bio-feedback.
While “The Secret”, or “The Law of Attraction” (made popular by the Hicks) is a spiritual practice, that does not necessarily mean it does not hold merit. If it is true, your self fulfilling prophecy may never allow it’s realization.
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