William “Bud” Hart, of Haverhill, shares “Success Principles”—ideas for living a greater, better and more accomplished life, and building habits that stick. He also coaches clients to incorporate strategies for boosting their mental and physical performance during everyday living.
We all have ideas, we have dreams about what we want to happen to and for us today and down the road. How much of what will happen to each of us do we actually control?
I was thinking about this when reading a part of Jim Carrey’s 2014 commencement speech at Maharishi University. In his talk he tells the story about the substitute teacher from Ireland that he had in the second grade. She told his class during morning prayer that when she wants something, anything at all, she prays for it, and promises something in return and she always gets it. Carrey wanted a bike so he went home and prayed for it. In exchange he promised to recite the rosary every night, a promise that he soon broke.
Two weeks later, he got home from school to find a brand new mustang bike. His family informed him that he won the bike in a raffle that a friend had entered his name in, without his knowledge. As Carrey characterized this event in his life, that type of thing has been happening ever since. As far as he can tell, it’s just about letting the universe know what you want and working toward it while letting go of how it might come to pass.
Many people believe that it’s their responsibility to have the answer to every question and the solution to every problem. They believe they have to make what they want to happen, happen. In my estimation, it is far more important to have the successful attitude that Carrey espouses, believe that you can do whatever needs to be done to succeed and just keep working at it, no matter what. The rest is up to the universe (as Carrey terms it).
Do I believe there is a power greater than each of us that causes or allows things to happen? Yes, my term for this is God. I also believe that each of us has unique talents, inner inspiration and the choice and power to best utilize our inner guidance and individual gifts to succeed at what we are willing to work hard for. But the special and most important ingredient, as I see it, is how we view and characterize everything that happens as we progress.
I don’t know where I originally read this, but I wrote these sentences on an index card one day to reference often. You create your thoughts. Your thoughts create your intent. Your intent stimulates your inner guidance and causes you to act. Your actions bring about the results you achieve. Plant and nurture your thoughts with great care because the thoughts you hold in your mind now predict your future results (positive or negative).
Franklin Delano Roosevelt summed this up nicely when he said, “Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.”
William “Bud” Hart is a certified “Mindset” Coach, Accountability Partner and Business Consultant. Founder of Hart Group, www.hartgroupma.com.