Inspiration for Success
About inspiration, motivation and success
Well, today the e-mail of Marc and Angel brought me to this page: 12 Rules for Being Beatifully Human.
And often this self help stuff, these self help sites trying to sell books or other stuff are too much for me, but today I’ll just share the link and would recommend to open it.
Tonight I told my sister in law about the six steps Napoleon Hill describes to achieve success, to achieve goals, or maybe just to achieve financial goals, although I believe the six steps basically apply to any goal, although the more I think about it, Think and Grow Rich is very much focused on reaching financial, capitalistic goals.
And one of my favorite ‘exercises’ to show to people how easy it is to achieve a goal is to put an object a few meters away from me, define that as the goal and then just walk slowly but determined towards it and just pick up the object, which indeed also makes me feel how easy it is to achieve a goal, any goal. But part of the exercise is also to start roaming around, looking at all kinds of other things and walking towards them, showing how NOT to achieve goals. Because if you let yourself distract from the goal by other things, which I guess we all do, it is much more difficult, even virtually impossible, to reach the goal. But if you just walk towards the goal it is very easy to achieve. You don’t even have to walk fast or do a lot of effort. And even if there are smaller or larger hurdles in between you and your goal the goal is still very easy to reach, by just walking around the obstacles or climbing over them or something like that. As long as you just walk slowly but determined to your goal it is very easy to reach, at least in this exercise, but I think the exercise represent real life goals very well.
And the above sounds very much like what Abraham HIcks says about NOT doing effort, at least NOT when you don’t feel like it, meaning something like NOT doing action if you’re not sure it’s the right action, if it’s the right direction. And indeed, behind that I feel something like how easy it is to achieve a goal, how easy it is to move, when you know what you want and just get it, similar to the story of buying something in the supermarket: you just go and get it and don’t worry about not getting it, as you know it is there and if you brought the money you just get it. And even the last may not be required, I am thinking while writing it. You just ‘go and get it’, indeed similar to breathing or your heart beating all your life.
And tonight, this conversation, this act made me realize how for I have left my goals behind, how little effort I recently do do achieve my goals, how they somehow seem to have disappeared in my daily worries. And how little effort and attention I have recently given to my desire document, the document I made a bit more than a year ago describing my definite purpose. And the same feeling I had yesterday related to the project, this project, the project Inspiration for Success. Similar to the team members I have just let it go, have just left it behind, basically doing what the team members have been doing and for which I kind of detested them.
So yes, this is a good time to review my goals and get back on track. No, not by ‘push and shove’, but just with some more determination and yes, finding inspiration again.
I was just watching the movie Inception, that I still like, so I saw it many times before and sometimes just like watching again. And one of the scenes I like most is when the girl, the new to be designer of the dreams, starts messing with reality, with the physics of things, turning a part of Paris on top of another part of Paris. And she does it with so much imagination, like closing mirror like doors near or on a bridge over the river Seine. And twisting more things around in a way that is kind of believable, but in the end is not. A bit like in the old cartoons, where cartoon characters walk off a cliff in a straight line and only fall when they see they’re not on stable ground anymore.
And yes, also this movie is a good sample of real success, a whole team of people creating something virtually perfect, at least I never really saw mistakes in movies, although I know there are. And yes, I know how much effort is put in such a result, how much practice by the actors, how much directing by the directors, how much editing by the editors. And you just watch it and don’t realize what an enormous amount of effort (and money) it takes to create a movie like this.
Ah, and I forgot the writer and/or the person or group of people who came up with the idea, the basic idea for this movie. And again, everything starts with an idea, like the idea of dream within a dream that makes this movie, the concept of inception, of planting an idea in someones mind without him knowing it, so interesting, so unique, so worth of watching.
And yes, as in most or all movies, it is also always about people, about reality, about humans, about humanity, like in this case a father doing everything to be back with his children, as any father in real life would do.
And yes, still something else in my mind, as I have always been wondering how the movies Inception and Shutter Island are related. As part of the plot is so similar, a father wanting to return to his children. And they ware made around the same time and the main character in both movies is played by Leonardo DiCaprio, so that cannot be coincidence. And both are dealing with some kind of virtual reality, something playing with the mind, with minds.
And I’m not sure how to continue with this post, how to make something really inspiring out of it. Or maybe just that both movies, like all ‘Hollywood’ movies are made being perfect, meaning are made successfully, are made by successful people, by successful teams. And that both movies are full of ideas like ‘idea’ and ‘mind’ and maybe even something like Infinite Intelligence.
I know I often put my (bad) moods here. And somehow I know I “shouldn’t” do that as basically Inspiration for Success is business. And business is business and should serve customers, regardless of, yes, of what? And yes, I want to inspire people, inspire you. For success or something. Or maybe happiness. But should I fake my moods? I’m not sure, as to me that would feel like being dishonest. And while writing this I remember my promise that I want to achieve my success in the open. And be open about what’s happening to me. But yes, it’s not very inspiring sometimes, or even often, my daily posts. Even though I normally try to make something inspiring or good out of it at the end, give some kind advice or thought or so.
So yesterday I was watching America’s next top model and was watching the feedback, the criticism of the jury to the candidates, especially one candidate. And it seemed that this candidate just had had a bad day or something. So here performance had not been that good. And the advice was that in that kind of situation she should just fake it. And it kind of hit me, as the jury had a point, especially related to success, success in business. As I notice more and more that if you want to reach the top in business, you really need to be good, no not good, perfect.
And it can be done. As every (Hollywood type) movie appears perfect to me. As are high quality dance shows, where everybody is in sync. And I realize more and more that that is just about practice and being good. And there are no second chances. It just has to be good, even though of course I know many things are edited. But yes, being a dancer, you wouldn’t want to hold up the whole group by not performing ‘perfect’. And if course it’s OK things go wrong every now and then and that you make mistakes. But in the end, the result needs to be perfect. As it can be perfect as many performers, magazines, movies and products show.
But there is a weird paradox here, as in the same America’s next top model we always here about some people, some photo’s there is no emotion. And that is NOT considered good. So could you fake emotion? I don’t think so. And somehow you shouldn’t. But maybe that’s where teamwork comes in, like show you emotion to the team and the team will help you create the perfect result no matter what. Or could you really fake it? I’m a bit confused now.
And somehow I know the answer, as a performance or product could and should indeed be perfect. Something like you really want it, desire it. And on the other hand it should be mixed with emotion, your real emotion, your real state of being, whether happy or sad. And yes, I know that can be done, as no matter my emotional state, if I’m in flow I can still do nice work, produce something, produce something nice, forget about everything.
And I’m sure you can also, so again, it’s all about state of mind, finding the right state of mind.
The last few days of course I also couldn’t get around ‘Mandela’ as all news channels put a lot of time to (the death of) Nelson Mandela. So this morning I was watching the news or one of the documentaries about Nelson Mandela and it reminded me of some character site putting me in the same category as Nelson Mandela and some other famous leaders like Mother Teresa. Something like the ‘craftsman’ personality type or something. And me being me of course I thought about the fame those people have, like I guess most people in the world know their names. And somehow I also still want that. Egoistic? Maybe. But I didn’t want to write about myself now, I wanted to write about how everything is connected. As I felt like writing about Nelson Mandela, about how Apartheid came to be. And about power, as I understood Mandela used power, even in the form of violence, which I am so much against. But I also remember the phrase “Great achievements as for Power” or something like that that Napoleon Hill refers to.
And I was thinking indeed on how everything is connected, because it felt quite natural to write about Nelson Mandela and/or his story or everything his name is connected with. But of course it’s not, as ‘everything’ on TV is somehow connected to or showing ‘something Mandela’. And it influences everybody;s thoughts, including mine. And it’s not really the power of television or newspapers or something, it is more. It is indeed the Energy Abraham Hicks is writing so much about, it is the Infinite Intelligence that Napoleon Hill mentions, it is maybe The Secret that other people refer to.
And what I heard in this documentary about Nelson Mandela, about what he did to achieve what he wanted to achieve, it really sounded like he applied the Principles of Success. And yes, I don’t know what was or were his heartbreaking struggles, but something like twenty seven(?!) years in prison is not nothing, especially if your communication is limited to the absolute minimum. And I was struck by the statement that he said that he was willing to die to achieve what he wanted to achieve: democracy in his home country.
And of course I was thinking about myself again, looking at myself. And about the word, the term charisma I have been thinking about a lot lately. As it seems that’s what I don’t have, at least not towards other people, that’s the main thing missing in my struggle to fame, to achievement.
But after some quick research about charisma I just found there is a second meaning to charisma, a meaning not related to inspiring people, and that is using some personal talent. And that’s something I have, something everybody have: talents. So there is hope and it seems somehow I also stopped learning somehow have closed my mind. And that is what I encountered lately also a lot: open your mind, have an open mind. And I didn’t know what the people meant, what people were trying to tell me, but I think I’m starting to get it. Because mostly I seem to be stuck in my own opinion, in my own ‘being right’ and forget to listen and look around, meaning I will miss opportunities, miss other solutions, miss the contribution of other people (which may be more valuable than I always thought).
And this is becoming a bit chaotic post I guess, but maybe that’s also just who I am, maybe that’s also just my style. And probably, over time, people will find me, the people who like my style, who like what I write. And yes, somehow I’m writing all of this for you, not for me, even though I often get feedback, often tell myself even ‘that it’s all about me’. But it’s not, as if it were all about me I wouldn’t be writing here, I wouldn’t push myself to write here every day. And believe me, that’s not always easy as I sometimes can’t find the time or the inspiration. But no matter what, I wrote, I posted virtually every day. And somehow I know my persistence will pay off.
And don’t forget, it’s all a weird combination of doing things yourself, of ‘action’ and just waiting for the world come around, waiting for things to fall into place.
So there is hope, for you, for me, for everybody. As everything is connected.