Day 8 - VISION

Visions are composed of hopes and dreams; they create reality.

“Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal.” - E. Joseph Cossman

Creating a vision, a goal to achieve is common to all these works; they sometimes differ in their terminology for them. Napoleon Hill mentions in the first paragraph of his book:

“TRULY, 'thoughts are things,' and powerful things at that, when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a BURNING DESIRE for their translation into riches, or other material objects.”

You have now been working for 7 days at the various exercises and ideas of this book – and perhaps have picked up and started reading some of the others I've referenced along the way. By now you have some idea of what you want to accomplish, how to change your thoughts and attitudes to positive ones in order to start achieving what you want out of life. As well, we have seen that an ethical basis will enable you to keep going on this route of self-improvement.

Let's now look at where you are going. Taking that one thing you want to achieve, you might be satisfied with this one improvement in your life. On the other hand, this might be the tip of a whole iceberg which is hidden unseen beneath the surface of the deep ocean of your mind.

Practically, the only limits in your mind are those you've accepted. Most consider that imagination can be boundless, capable of inventing or bringing anything into existence. So one can imagine boundaries and barriers which are impossible to overcome. By the same mental creativity, one could create the universal solvent, which nothing can hold as it dissolves everything it touches.

We've covered that as the mind is set, so the universe tends to respond. The difference with how well the universe responds is due to a few factors. Today we will cover vision – or lack of it – as a key factor.

Vision is simply more mental creation. But the scope of it is what we are discussing here. One can imagine simply receiving a hundred dollar bill. Now let's take this further: what are you going to do to receive that? (You can't get without giving.) What are the conditions of this? Do you get a check and cash it? Does this show up as a bonus in your pay check? Does one of your creditors simply show up with a payment? Or is this simply a gift from being nice to a loved one?

The vision is the most complete view of the whole scenario you are trying to achieve. It becomes a complete creation by building as you go. If you consider that you'd like to get your house refurbished, then work out all the details of exactly what type of carpet, paint, furniture, etc. you'd like to acquire. Work out the budget in your mind, considering all the tools and other hardware which will be necessary to install it with. Will you do it all yourself? Then you will have to consider having time to do it on weekends or other odd times. If you are going to get these professionally installed, then expand the budget to accommodate this. As you work over this vision, more and more details will be added as you go. The thing to do is to not hold back, but envision it as completely as possible.

Once you have it pretty much the way you want it, then consider it done. That is the key point. If you consider that you are going to get a hundred dollars, it will be true – you are always going to be “getting a hundred dollars,” but that cash won't show up in front of you. The trick is to consider it already accomplished and in your possession. The more you creatively envision it, the more the environment will begin to comply.

You may think this is off-the-deep-end thinking. But carefully review the above: you have to give in order to get; you can't get something for nothing. How you consider you will be getting this also has to be part of the creative vision. Do you need to get a better-paying job? Do you need to work more efficiently at the one you have? Does this mean you will have to adopt an efficient, productive personality?

You could win it at the lottery. This will require buying tickets (at least one) and being very lucky. What are the personality attitudes and attributes of a lucky person? What do you plan to do with the money? Are you prepared for the taxes and other responsibilities? Do you consider that a lot of people will want to “hit you up” for contributions and donations to their cause (or pocket)? Think the thought through. Once you do, you can win all the money you want at any game you want. But the vision has to be there and has to be complete.

Once you start building your vision, simply keep at it, refining it, expanding its scope, working out how and who it will benefit, how to take care and maintain it, etc. Create away! Remember – there are no real limits except those you have accepted for yourself.

You're already well on your way to achieving anything you want in life with what we've already covered. Today's exercise will bring you closer, giving you some experience with creating a complete vision of what you want to achieve, acquire or have.

Day 8 Exercise:

Try this –

This is again from Haanel's book. While he uses a battleship as an example, you could repeat the exercise with various other articles, such as a skyscraper, space rocket, video game or any thing that meets your fancy:

1. “Take the same position as heretofore and visualize a Battleship; see the grim monster floating on the surface of the water; there appears to be no life anywhere about; all is silence; you know that by far the largest part of the vessel is under water; out of sight; you know that the ship is as large and as heavy as a twenty-story skyscraper; you know that there are hundreds of men ready to spring to their appointed task instantly; you know that every department is in charge of able, trained, skilled officials who have proven themselves competent to take charge of this marvelous piece of mechanism; you know that although it lies apparently oblivious to everything else, it has eyes which see everything for miles around, and nothing is permitted to escape its watchful vision; you know that while it appears quiet, submissive and innocent, it is prepared to hurl a steel projectile weighing thousands of pounds at an enemy many miles away; this and much more you can bring to mind with comparatively no effort whatever. But how did the battleship come to be where it is; how did it come into existence in the first place? All of this you want to know if you are a careful observer.

2. “Follow the great steel plates back through the foundries, see the thousands of men employed in their production; go still further back, and see the ore as it comes from the mine, see it loaded on barges or cars, see it melted and properly treated; go back still further and see the architect and engineers who planned the vessel; let the thought carry you back still further in order to determine why they planned the vessel; you will see that you are now so far back that the vessel is something intangible, it no longer exists, it is now only a thought existing in the brain of the architect; but from where did the order come to plan the vessel? Probably from the Secretary of Defense; but probably this vessel was planned long before the ware was thought of, and that Congress had to pass a bill appropriating the money; possibly there was opposition, and the speeches for or against the bill. Whom do these Congressmen represent? They represent you and me, so that our line of thought begins with the Battleship and ends with ourselves, and we find in the last analysis that our own thought is responsible for this and many other things, of which we seldom think, and a little further reflection will develop the most important fact of all and that is, if someone had not discovered the law by which this tremendous mass of steel and iron could be made to float upon the water, instead of immediately going to the bottom, the battleship could not have come into existence at all.

3. “The law is that, 'the specific gravity of any substance is the weight of any volume of it, compared with an equal volume of water.' The discovery of this law revolutionized every kind of ocean travel, commerce and warfare, and made the existence of the battleship, aircraft carriers, and cruise ships possible.”