Use Your Imagination...See What Success Looks Like To YouImagination: the ability to create a mental imageYour imagination allows you to visualize what you desire...the results that you would like to achieve...and what success looks like for you.Organized planning will help you bring about these results. Childhood Games & PastimesAs a child, what were your favorite games? Were you the eager mother...or reluctant father...playing house? Perhaps you saw yourself as a sports hero...famous entertainer...brilliant scientist...or something else. It doesn't matter what you pretended you were. What does matter is that you used your imagination to create mental images of situations that did not exist at the time. As children we were encouraged to use our imaginations. Unfortunately, as we were socialized into the worlds around us, we were increasingly discouraged from using our imaginations. That's probably because too many parents and teachers confused imagination...which was seen as a good thing...with daydreaming...which was not always seen as positive or constructive behavior. Top More Than Simple DaydreamingAlthough similar in nature, imagination is more than simple daydreaming.Regardless of whether or not we are aware of it, whenever we plan anything we are using our imaginations. When we plan a special event, we visualize what the event...or desired results... will be like. Similarly when we plan a trip, we visualize making preparations, traveling and arriving at our ultimate. The creative power of imagination helps us achieve our goals....regardless of whether it's a successful special event...or success in business. What we imagine...and take action to realize or make real...becomes real. Top The Workshop Of The MindNapoleon Hill is a strong believer in imagining desired outcomes.In his classic book, Think and Grow Rich, he calls it the workshop of the mind: “[It] is literally the workshop
wherein are fashioned all plans created by people. The...desire is
given shape form and desire through the imaginative faculty of the
mind.”
After endorsing the belief that we can create anything we can imagine, he concludes: “Our only limitation, within
reason,
lies in the development and use of of our imagination.
"We have not yet reached the apex of development in the use of our imaginative faculty. We have merely discovered that we have an imagination and have commenced to use it in a very elementary way.” Although published in 1937, this conclusion is equally true today. Top What Does Success Look Like To You?If as a child you played house, you knew what success looked like...it looked like your family...either as it was or as you wanted it to be.Similarly, if you saw a yourself a sports hero, success looked like your own sports hero. If you saw yourself as a famous entertainer or brilliant scientist, success looked a lot like the person you respected. Determining what success as an adult looks like is a similar but much more complicated process. The similarity is modeling your own success on the achievements of other people, regardless of whether or not they work in real estate. There are plenty of successful people from whom we can learn. But that's where the process becomes complicated. Not everyone is created with equal skills and abilities...nor does everyone have the same resources to help them achieve the results they desire. In fact, not everyone even desires the same results. For you, me and everyone else who wants to be successful, the critical question becomes...what does success look like? When you think of success, what do you imagine? How does your success look and feel for you, your significant other, colleagues, community and so on? Top Organized PlanningFrom a practical perspective, visualizing and defining the results you want to achieve is the first step in developing a plan to achieve these results.It makes sense that Napoleon Hill lists Organized Planning as The Sixth Step to Riches, immediately after imagination...his fifth step to riches. Regardless of what stage you are at in your career or in life, you will have experienced some successes along the way. From these successes, you probably understand that there is a relationship between visualizing the results you'd like to achieve and actually achieving these results. You probably also know that planning helps you achieve these once visualized results. Unfortunately while most people recognize the importance of organized planning, few actually practice it. Perhaps this is because there is no plan to follow...or if there is a plan, maybe it's too complex and cumbersome. Planning Tools for Your Marketing Plan offers experienced and new agents alike a fresh user-friendly approach to planning. These tools provide a simple plan to follow...a path or road map for your business. Once the planning is done, everything else becomes simple follow up and execution. Defining or imagining your desired results is the first step in achieving them. Organized planning takes you the rest of the way to your success.
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