“Action is the foundational key to all success.”–Pablo Picasso
Years ago, I went through a period of several years where I sought to read at least a book a year. The first year, I read something like 119 books (they weren’t all epic novels). The second year, I read in excess of 70 books. In the third year, I think I hit 59. The numbers didn’t drop so because of a lack of will or desire, but for diminishing access. I also got into reading books by James Michener (this was pre-Kindle, so it was a bit a resistance training exercise, as well). During this time, I read everything from fiction to management books to self-help.
A few of the books I read in this time were Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, As a Man Thinketh by James Allen, and The Power of Possibility Thinking by Robert H. Schuller. Somewhere among these was another author who pointed out an inherent flaw in the common approach to “positive thinking.” It is important that we think positively and set ourselves on the course to success. The challenge lies in doing more than just thinking positive. We must act!
Athletes often use visualization to prepare for competition. Successful people visualize attaining their goals. Visualization is absolutely necessary, but, too often, execution is lacking. The athlete can envision success all he or she wants, but ultimately the athlete must step into the arena. The flaw in the notion of “think and grow rich” is that thinking alone does nothing. I can sit for hours thinking about the successes I want in life, but until I put my mind on the task of achieving, I get nowhere.
This brings us to possibility thinking. Robert H. Schuller had some pretty lofty goals in wanting to build his Crystal Cathedral in Southern California, but he knew that wanting something does not make it a reality. So, he broke down his goals into likely possibilities. Doing so makes accomplishing the goal increasingly possible.
Suppose, for your business, you needed to raise $1 million. You could seek one person to invest $1 million or two people to invest $500,000 or three people to invest $333,333.33… or 1 million people to invest $1. It should be fairly easy to see that a business owner has a greater likelihood of raising the million dollars through a large number of small investors than impressing upon one or two persons with deep pockets to invest in his idea. This has been the fundamental success of crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe, Kickstarter, and the like.
The principle applies in many other ways. Have a goal? Break it down into attainable smaller achievements. If you want to lose 20 pounds, losing this amount of weight (in any safe and sustainable fashion) in a week or two weeks is not realistic. Breaking this down into a more safe and maintainable rate of 1-2 pounds per week makes better sense. Still, saying “I will lose a pound a week over the next ten weeks” is only doable if you make an action plan. “I will lose 2 pounds a week by cutting x Calories from my daily diet and increasing my caloric expenditure by y Calories.” Here we have a plan. We envisioned our goals, we have determined the possible paths to attaining this goal, now we have to take action. We have to execute!
“Be your best today; be better tomorrow” and “carpe momento” are calls to action. I tend to think that Rodin’s “The Thinker” never accomplished much. This reminds me of the Night at the Museum when The Thinker just keeps saying: “I’m thinking. I’m thinking….”
We need to take time to pause in our day to think, to meditate, to reflect,…, but, ultimately we need to act. As we journal and examine our goals and desires, we must follow up with action steps. Think and do. Napoleon Hill’s book is called Think and Grow Rich, not Think About Being Rich. So, seize the moment and take action…now!