I just watched the movie "Bobby," a movie about the assasination of Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) and it's put me in a philosophical mood. The movie was pretty good, but what struck me was the intermingling of actual speeches by RFK. He was truly an idealist and a visionary. The brought hope and a vision of a better future to the people he touched, and is famous for the quote:

"There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?"

This kind of thinking is what success is made of. By envisioning wild success for ourselves and others, we set in motion a stream of events that changes outcomes. By acting on our beliefs and visions, their power increases.

This is why so many "self help" books start with coming up with an aspiration, vision, or mission, and why so many of us are encouraged to repeat positive affirmations to support our visions.

RFK was a visionary when it came to civil rights, and RFK said a lot about this subject. If your vision is big enough and positive enough (and you share it with enough people), it will live on just as RFK's vision did.

Look for the good

Coincidentally, I re-watched my favorite movie ever with my family Friday night: Pollyanna. It's about the positive impact of one person on an entire town, and it is a wonderful movie.

A great quote from the movie is something from Polyanna's locket:

"When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will."

I've heard it put another way by a friend of mine who always says, "Inspect what you expect - you might be getting exactly what you're looking for."

A long time ago, I talked with a car salesman friend of mine and he told me his goal when a new prospect walked onto the lot was to get them to "see themselves driving the car." He explained that once they started to imagine what it would be like to own the car, show it off to friends, sit in it driving to work, etc. his job got a whole lot easier.

Win once to win again

From the "Influence" book I reviewed the other day, I now know this is a scientifically known effect in which people make a mental shift or "declaration" to belong in a certain category then they begin to make choices that reinforce their membership in that category. I read about this effect about a week or so ago and have noticed that others have intuitively incorporated this into their thinking:

• My son's football coach told the team and parents that, though they are a new team, after the boys win one game they will begin to identify themselves as "Winners" and begin to win more often.
  • They won their first game on Friday night (33-12, against a team that was reputed to be better than them) so we'll see how this flavors their confidence in next week's game.
• In a project at work, the project leader said it was important to set a few difficult but definitely achievable goals so the team could experience a win and thereby increase their probability of winning again.
• My wife deliberately gave my daughter a simple challenge in cleaning her room so she could feel the satisfaction of achieving the objective and want to do it again.

Whether they realized it or not, all of these people have tapped into a powerful human response.

How can you tap into the power?

So, the question is: How can you tap into this for your own benefit?

A few ways come to mind:

• Declare your future reality as though it were true today ("See yourself driving the car")
  • Begin "pretending" that you are the way you want to be, and you'll increase the number of choices you make that will bring your into alignment with that future reality. For example, if you begin imagining yourself as an efficient and productive person, you'll tend to behave more efficiently and productively.
  • If you've heard about how athletes play "mental golf" or otherwise imagine themselves doing things well, this is what's going on.
• Talk about yourself in ways that reflect this future reality ("Declare yourself")
  • Positive affirmations are often employed by self help programs, and it's no accident - they are effective. Positive affirmations trigger the principle of "consistency" within us - we want to act consistently with the way we declare ourselves to be.
  • If we consistently declare ourselves as healthy, we'll begin to support these statements with our actions so we don't seem flaky to others.
• Set achievable, yet meaningful goals. ("Achieve the win that brings you back for more.")
  • Once you feel what it's like to win, you'll crave the rush again - and that, in itself, will help you win again. Set milestones along your path (with some public rewards, ideally) to help you feel what it's like to succeed - you'll begin to feel like a winner, and that's a good thing.
• State your goals specifically and publicly. ("Put your reputation at stake")
  • Again, you've probably encountered programs that get you to publicly proclaim your goals. The pressure of responsibility from public goals will help you stay motivated and can often get you to perform the extra actions that are the difference between success and failure.

These are just a few ideas to help you spark your own success. If you haven't read "Influence" yet, I recommend you do - it's awesome and very applicable to your influence on yourself and others.

Remember, success often starts with a vision, a declaration, and decisions to support what you say you're all about.

Related items:

• Jedi Mind Tricks: Influence (9/2/2008)
• [Updated] Breakthroughs - go get some (4/11/2007)
• [Review] Ignited! (6/12/2007)
• [Review] Fired Up or Burned Out (11/28/2007)

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