Synchronistically Speaking Ezine

Harnessing the Power of Thought

Article # 24, Synchronistically Speaking series, March 2010

"There are powers inside of you which, if you could discover and use, would make of you everything you ever dreamed or imagined you could become."

~Orison Marden Swett

The above quote is one of many I have seen over the years that references our ability to create that which we most desire. In his beautiful book "As a Man Thinketh", first published in 1901, James Allen writes "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." Henry David Thoreau wrote "If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours." And Napoleon Hill affirmed, "What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve."

This power is not the result of a magic pill or some kind of sorcery. Rather than being something we must rely on others for, it is a gift we are all born with that we gradually learn to utilize as we become more and more aligned with what is most true within us. This gift is quite simply the strength of the feeling we generate when we identify with something so specifically that we take it to be real. With sustained and unwavering belief, whatever we hold in our minds and our hearts in this way becomes our reality.

As a teenager I began to read a lot about the power of positive thinking and visualization. I was enthralled by stories of athletes who would spend time imagining themselves sinking those critical shots to go on at game time and perform exactly as they rehearsed in their minds. I utilized affirmations of positive intent around the person I was becoming and the wonderful things that were coming into my life. I played with creating vision boards for myself, made from large poster paper with various pictures of things I wanted to have or symbols that represented experiences I longed for glued onto it. I created movies in my head that featured me performing anything from sports to public speaking powerfully and passionately with great success. Many of these visions and dreams have come true over the years. And some have not.

I have reflected at length on what it might be that differentiated the dreams and visions that came to fruition from those that didn't. And I have come to the conclusion that there are three significant factors. One is quite simply that some of the things my mind (and ego) believed I needed to have were not in the best interests of my spirit, aligned with my true purpose, or in service to something greater than myself. Believe me, I have had many occasions to thank God for unanswered prayers that I initially believed would have been the best thing I could have imagined for myself.

The second factor that was often present when things didn't quite play out the way I had envisioned was my fervent attachment to having something happen in just the way (or at just the time) I thought it should - or attachment to anything in particular. While it is true that we need to be passionate about our visions and dreams, we must also remain somewhat willing to let go of the details and trust in something bigger than ourselves to step in and collaborate with us. This higher intelligence, to which to which I believe we are all innately connected, is capable of orchestrating things far more magnificently than we could ever attempt to do. Though it is important that we are willing, when we step over the line and become too willful our thoughts and actions have a way of throwing a monkey wrench in things.

The urgency with which we desire things can have us acting not out of trust but desperation. As a result, instead of identifying with that which we most want, we embody the state of not having it and trying fervently to do whatever we can to change things. Taking our current state to be more real than what we truly desire, the power of thought works perfectly to deliver to us that which our minds have been fixated on - leaving us in a state of want, working madly to make everything happen the way we think it should. We must learn to give ourselves to our visions and dreams while allowing for divine timing, unforeseen incidents and the hand of providence, which often enables things to happen in ways that exceed our wildest expectations. I like to call this state passionate detachment.

The third dynamic that can keep our manifestations at bay is that visioning or imagining something in and of itself is not enough. I can dream great dreams, but if they are devoid of feeling and passion, they fall as flat as the set of a five act play after the audience has left the final performance. We have to go beyond simply watching the movies we create in our minds that have us sinking that shot, mesmerizing that audience, or jumping for joy at our victories. Rather than seeing ourselves up there on the screen of our minds, we must see from the eyes of the person in the movie.

We must experience in our minds and our bodies the feelings associated with that which we desire most - the exhilaration of victory, the soothing relief of having completed something we were unsure or afraid of, and the sweet satisfaction and joy that accompanies success. Similarly, it is not enough to create a visual wish list or a series of affirmations or declarations about the things we would like to have, achieve or experience. We must look upon these things as that which we have already been gifted with, and feel the gratitude welling up in our hearts for having received them.

The state of grateful certainty we need to give ourselves to is not unlike the way you may feel after ordering something from the internet. After clicking the purchase button and entering your shipping address and credit card information, you can have reasonable certainty that what you ordered is on its way. With this assurance, you identify with the state of already having owned that which you just bought - even though you do not yet physically possess it. It is this same state of graceful anticipation, gratitude, and faith that those who seem to magically attract exactly what they want into their lives have learned to enter into time and time again.

It may be somewhat difficult to get your head around the notion of experiencing and acting as if something you long for has already happened. But our children do it every day using the gift of imagination we were all born with. If you are out of touch with it, treat yourself to a quality children's movie and allow yourself to become enthralled with images and stories that suggest that if you can believe in something long and hard enough, it will come to be.

It is only as adults who have been hardened by "reality" that these notions begin to seem strange to us. The reality we sometimes buy into that seems to dampen our dreams is often more a product of our own doubts than anything else. The sooner we realize and understand that through our thoughts we have a hand in creating the reality we experience, the more we harness our true power to work its magic in ways that bring us our hearts' desires.

Do you have some secret dream of becoming more than you currently are? Of tapping into the vast field of potential that lies waiting for you to discover it? See if you can see through the eyes of someone who has already realized that dream, and enjoy each moment as though you are reliving the memory of its beautiful unfolding. Allow your vision to inform your action, and trust that as you give yourself fully to living your dream, you simply cannot fail.

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Diane Bolden is passionate about working with leaders to unleash human potential. An executive coach and organization development professional with over 18 years of experience in leadership development, coaching and consulting, Diane has worked with managers, directors and vice presidents/officers in Fortune 500 companies and non profit organizations to achieve higher levels of performance and success by helping them to bring out the best in themselves and everyone around them. To receive her free special report on Ten Traps Leaders Unwittingly Create for Themselves ~ and How to Avoid Them, visit www.UnleashTheExtraordinary.com.

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