PUSH: Persevere Until Success Happens Through Prayer (13 page)

Your thoughts determine your destiny. I’ve heard it said, “Your destiny determines your legacy, and when you die your legacy determines your history.” Think about your future, what you truly want to accomplish in life, and what steps you need to take to reach your goal.

That’s exactly what a pharmacist named Dr. John Stith Pemberton did when he took a jug of his cough syrup to a local drug store where carbonated water was added to produce what we now know as Coca-Cola. It was then bottled and marketed around the world. Today there is hardly a person on the planet who is not familiar with the name. Pemberton was able to think outside the box and expand the field of possibility.

Thought
is defined as a “mental picture of something such as a future or possible event… an expectation or hope that something will happen.”
⁵³
I found this next great definition online; pay special attention to what I emphasized:

Thought and thinking are mental forms and processes, respectively (“thought” is both). Thinking allows beings to
model the world
and to deal with it effectively according to their objectives, plans, ends, and desires.… Thinking involves the mental manipulation of information, as when we form concepts, engage in problem solving, reason, and make decisions.
⁵⁴

Thought allows you to model the world according to your objectives and desires. The power tool of your thoughts is the most important tool you have when it comes to framing your world; it is also the most effective weapon you have against the enemy. Learn to focus your thoughts—harness and use them for maximum results. The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your thoughts. You can begin today developing powerful thought habits that will turbo-charge your journey to destiny. Make the thought habits I’ve listed below a daily practice.

The secret to creativity begins with understanding how to mind your success. Create an atmosphere for creativity by uncluttering your environment. Orderly surroundings will help you order your thoughts. Minding your success also means practicing being heavenly-minded. When you think heaven’s thoughts, you are aligning your thoughts with God’s thoughts.

Creator God created us in His image and after His likeness. God created the heavens, the earth, and everything in between. If you and I are created in His image, then we are creators too. Tap into the creative mind of God to see what others don’t make the effort to see and hear what others are not able to hear because they don’t operate on your heavenly frequency. When you do this, you will get a hold of what others have not yet been able to. That’s all creativity is—yielding to the mind of God, allowing God’s creative Spirit to flow through you.

Open wide the spiritual channel of your mind so that divine creative thoughts begin to flow. Ask God to enlarge your capacity to think; ask the Holy Spirit to take the limits off your imagination. Knowing you are the creator of your reality, pray the Lord would give you insight, ideas, and inspiration you’ve never had before; open your mind to all the possibilities available to you in Christ. In the words of wealth creator Robert Allen, “All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts.”

Plan your work and work your plan. Clearly define your goals and review your objectives daily. What are you doing today that will bring you closer to fulfilling your goals? Develop timelines. Goals are time-bound—SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-oriented, and Time sensitive. SMART goals provide focus and define exactly what the “future state” looks like and how it will be measured. Remember that a goal without a deadline is only a dream.

Ask yourself what kind of legacy you want to leave for the next generation? Where do you want to be in twenty or forty years from now? Get a vision for why you are here and what you are called to do that will leave a lasting impact. How will your life influence the next generation? How will you be remembered? James Allen, the author of the revolutionary book
As A Man Thinketh,
wrote, “You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.”

Human begins are procreators. We were created to procreate; and we are pros at creating! Learn to think entrepreneurially, fruitfully, and exponentially. Be an active participant in creating and expanding life.

Whatever you focus on has the power to change your future. Do not focus on things, people, or circumstances you do not expect to see in your future. Your focus will either expose your faith or confirm your fear. Mastering the art of concentration will give you power over your life. Without focus your aspirations will turn into desperation, desperation will turn into deprivation, deprivation into depression, and depression into disillusion.

Take a risk. The biggest risk in life is not to have taken any risks at all. It’s not important that you know how you’re going to do it, just know that you
will
do it. When that happens, the whole universe conspires with heaven to make certain you do.

Think in the present. Think positively. Think as if you are already doing what you’ve purposed in your heart to do. See the thing that you want as already yours. Accomplish it in your mind. Receive it. Take possession of it in your thoughts. Condition your mind to embrace and live in this new reality as if it were already here.

Continually ask yourself these four questions:

• Why?
  
• Why not?
  
• Why not me?
  
• Why not now?
  

Practice IT—“Intentional Thinking”: Live on purpose. Imagination + Intention + Action = Manifestation.

Practice
“taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ”
(2 Corinthians 10:5 NASB). And then
“be transformed by the renewing of your mind”
(Romans 12:2). How do you renew your mind? You practice filling it with God-ordained thoughts as described in Philippians 4:8:
“Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise”
(NLT).

Take personal responsibility for your thoughts, because you are the product of your thoughts. You are what you think. The state of your life is the direct product of every thought you have allowed to access your mind. Even if you don’t think much of anything, that’s what you are producing. People who don’t put any thought into their future will find they have nothing when they get there. But people who think about their future engineer it beforehand so that when it arrives it has shape and substance. See yourself where you want to be next year, in five years, in ten, and in twenty-five years.

For as he thinks within himself, so he is.
—P
ROVERBS
23:7 NASB

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.
—R
ALPH
W
ALDO
E
MERSON

A
s I sat to write this chapter, I pondered the meaning of the word
intention
from a philosophical perspective. I asked myself whether I had ever intended to do some specific thing and experienced a positive outcome as a result, and conversely, how many positive outcomes I have experienced as the result of no specific intention. All of a sudden, this one word took on a profound meaning for me. I could see the correlation between the strength of my intention and the force of my influence.

In my research since then, I have discovered that the Latin
in-tendere
means to “stretch out.” Psychologist and philosopher Elliot Jacques phrased it like this: “We have the vivid picture of the ‘mind’ as an outreaching, stretching, seeking, intention-riddled agency, seeking purposefully what it needs.”
⁵⁵

There are many books and articles written about the act and consequences of intention. This is my theory in a nutshell: When a person actively intends to do something, it is like turning the volume knob up on success while muting failure. Your intention turns up the volume on positive expectations because it turns down doubt and fear; it mutes that part of the limbic system responsible for negative and destructive thoughts and emotions.

The limbic system is the part of your brain that supports the functioning of emotions, memories, attitudes, and senses—it is primarily located in sub-cortex. Intention, on the other hand, has a higher and more potent influence on the brain and emanates from the powerful prefrontal cortex, or “judgment center.” According to the
American Heritage Dictionary
, an
intention
is “an aim that guides action.” It is the guiding compass that leads you to Success Avenue, which runs adjacent to Accomplishment Boulevard. Intentions are the precursors to achievement and success.

In the 1940s Ronald Reagan was a major box office draw in Hollywood and had already appeared in more than two dozen movies. During the late ’50s and early ’60s, he became even more famous when he hosted the number one rated show on television,
General Electric Theater
. He also served as a president of the Screen Actors Guild for seven years. By 1964 Reagan was looking for a new challenge and auditioned for the starring role in an upcoming movie,
The Best Man
. He was not selected for the role because, according to an executive at United Artists, “Reagan doesn’t have that presidential look.” The role went instead to Henry Fonda.

Reagan decided that if he could not play the part of a great political leader in film, he would assume that role in real life as Governor of California. He went on to become the 40
^th
President of the United States of America. He is quoted as saying, “Every new day begins with possibilities. It is up to us to fill it with the things that move us toward progress and peace.”
⁵⁶
One of those things, I believe, is intention.

Dr. Wayne Dyer, in his book
The Power of Intention,
sees intention as an energy created by the subconscious mind that brings thought from the causal realm into physical form. He believes that intention fosters creativity, which is a force that helps expand your awareness of what is possible in your life. Positive intentions can reframe your world, reengineer your life, and redesign your future. Intentions are powerful because they do not carry preconceived notions of how a thing can be accomplished, but only the raw belief that a thing
can
be accomplished. Intention is powerful because it sees only the opportunity unencumbered by obstacles. It opens the mind to the realm of pure potentiality and allows thoughts to flow in a limitless world of creativity. Intention is giving yourself permission to live the life of your dreams.

It is important to develop what I call “Intentional Thinking.” I have nicknamed this concept “IT” and practice it intentionally every day. Without IT in the mix, you won’t achieve all that you are capable of or live the life of your dreams. Coupled with imagination and action, you have the formula for unlimited success. Simply put, “Imagination + Intention + Action = Manifestation.” If you don’t practice IT on a regular basis, you will find that no matter how big you dream or how hard you work, you will never go far. You will find you are only gunning your engine but not going anywhere.

Practice living on purpose and see where it takes you. Every day when you awake, begin the day by setting your intention. Start each day by practicing intentional thinking. Be intentional about your success.

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him.
—L
UKE
14:28-29

Dreams are the seedlings of realities.
—J
AMES
A
LLEN

I
f the mind can be likened to a field and a thought to a seed, then it is the imagination that keeps it all irrigated. Human cognition is based on imagination—a phenomena unique to the human species, allowing us to live in the world of tomorrow today. Imagination is the ability to form a mental image of something that is not perceived through the senses. It is the ability of the mind to build mental scenes, objects, or events that do not exist, are not present, or have not already happened. Imagination makes it possible to experience a whole world inside the mind. It gives human beings the ability to look at any situation from a different point of view, enabling a person to mentally explore the plausible past, the potential present, and the possible future.

A developed and strong imagination is a great tool for re-creating and remodeling your world and life; it is a tremendous gift with amazing implications. Imagination fuels the creativity necessary for inventing, designing, engineering, illustrating, composing, and even researching scientific theory. The creative power of imagination has a vital role in achieving success in any field.

Visualizing an object or a situation and repeating this mental image often attracts the object or situation into our lives. While our imaginations open new and fascinating opportunities, we must be careful what we allow ourselves to imagine. We have to harness our imagination, rein in the silly string of our thoughts to stay positive about our desires. Otherwise we may create and attract into our lives events, situations, and people we don’t really want. This is actually what most of us do because we don’t use the power of imagination correctly. If we do not recognize the power of our imagination and we allow it to run wild, our life experiences may not reflect our truest desires.