At any given moment, do you know what is going to happen 5 minutes from now? How about a week? Month? Year? 5? 10? Now, you may have a pretty good guess at what is coming your way, but can you say with certainty what is going to happen?
Probably not. There are an infinite number of things that can happen between now and 15 minutes from now. You are never able to know exactly what will happen from moment to moment.
“Must… catch… future… before… it’s… too… late… that’s a long swim!”
Ask yourself, if you can’t really know what’s next, why do you sometimes expect the worst? You always have the choice between expecting or thinking about any choice and sometimes you pick the negative outcome. Sure, positive expectations are a part of life, but wouldn’t you like more? Wouldn’t you like to expect more in your favor?
Go ahead and do it. You don’t know what’s coming – you can’t know what’s coming. No amount of magic, psychic power, star-alignment, or lottery luck will make you 100% sure what is coming in your life. Expect the best. Expect something that is, at a minimum, favorable to you.
You Can Pick the Positive Path
Headed to an interview and you’re a little nervous? Do you tell yourself you’ll bomb it because you don’t know what to say or what the interviewer is like? Or do you have confidence in you research on the company and your qualifications? Do you remember to be calm, friendly, professional, and genuinely interested in trying to help this company see why you are the perfect fit?
Does the positive version of the interview example seem unreasonable? Seems unreasonable – maybe: do you know for sure it is unreasonable – no. What specifically makes it more unreasonable that the negative interview example?
I know you’ve heard it before, but a self-fulfilling prophecy is what you’re working with here. It’s a prophecy that makes sure you will always get what you expect. Not what you want – what you expect. So what’s the secret?
Start expecting in your favor. Anything else is making guesses of the future against yourself.
What Holds You Back Today is Tomorrow’s Goal
Think back with me for a minute. Think back to the time you first tried to do something you didn’t think you could ever do. Was it ride a bike? Dance? Ask someone out on a date? Drive a car? Or maybe climb a mountain? Think about one example of something that stopped you dead in your tracks.
One thing I’ve overcome is being shy talking to women. I just didn’t get it. I was either too nice, too much like their brother, or too nerdy. I never seemed to mesh with those I tried to talk to. Looking back, I can see many things I did wrong. The main thing I didn’t do was take a chance.
I was too afraid to step out on a limb and just see if it could hold my weight? What’s the worst that would happen? Disaster as I fall and break my heart into a billion-and-a-half pieces. No, no, no. I wasn’t that fragile, but sometimes that’s what it felt like. Until I took a chance.
I took a chance, over a decade ago, to ask for a shot with the most wonderful woman I’ve ever met. And she said no. I wash almost crushed. No, I was crushed. This was the one big time I finally got out there and BAAM I came crashing down. What would you do now?
Give Yourself Permission to Go for Gold
I never really crossed paths with her again for a few months. But, after that short span of time, she gave me another chance. This time I stepped out, stuck the landing, and was determined to see how this tree of life would grow. We’re now married, with two lovely kids, and life is great.
At the beginning of my ‘trial,’ it seemed impossible to win over her heart. But I finally decided to not give up. I realized that she was worth the chance. Heck, I realized that I would be worth the chance. I’m not saying I was a reward for her, but that I owed it to myself to see what I had in me. To really express what I had to offer and what I could do for her.
If you have something that you want to achieve, then there is something you can be doing today to make it come true. You can take at least one step toward your goal that will move you in that direction. No one says you have to get there in a straight line or that you won’t need help along the way. But you have to do something to start down that path.
What seems impossible today, may be obtainable tomorrow. Effort and expectation. Will and Work.
| Photo by: ~ I P O X s t u d i o s ~ |