The key to unlocking your future potential lies within you. If you want to get to the next level, you can’t be a part of the “coulda woulda shoulda” crowd. Larry The Cable Guy likes to say “Giterdone” but you need to be able to say “Goterdone”.
As you navigate your path to the future you desire, keep an open mind. In times of change, there are many opportunities to move forward. Now is a great time for renewal and a time for new plans and dreams. It’s time for a new action plan. Albert Einstein once said “You can’t solve today’s problems at the same level of thinking that created them”. You need to elevate your level of thinking beyond your current paradigm in order to move forward.
Harry Houdini was a world famous magician and escape artist. He thrilled audiences around the world with his death defying escapes from vaults, chains and even a straight jacket hanging upside down. In one of his most famous and spectacular feats, he broke out of Scotland Yard, even though one of the conditions of the challenge was that he be allowed NO clothing whatsoever — in order to keep him from concealing tools or keys.
Houdini’s exploits brought him fame and fortune. A bank in England wanted to tout their new bank vault by challenging Houdini himself to break out. Houdini was never one to shy away from a challenge so he accepted.
Now everyone was suspicious of Houdini’s methods. They wondered how he could pull off such miraculous escapes. They would search him carefully before each escape attempt looking for concealed tools he might use. None could ever be found.
Houdini was always accompanied by his wife and right before the escape attempt was to begin, she would give him a loving kiss for good luck. What the officials and the audience didn’t know was that she was secretly passing a small piece of wire from her mouth to his, unnoticed by all. Once hidden from the view of the audience, Houdini would slip the piece of wire from his mouth and pick the lock to escape!
So the day of the great bank vault escape challenge arrived. A large crowd had gathered to watch the event. The officials searched Houdini from head to toe but found nothing that could be used to pick the lock. As the escape attempt was about to begin, Houdini received his customary kiss from his wife and she passed him a small piece of wire to pick the lock.
Houdini was put in the vault and the door was closed behind him.
Immediately, he took the piece of wire from his mouth and set about to unlock the vault door in another triumphant escape. But after a few minutes of working on the lock, Houdini could get it opened. Houdini started to worry. Nothing seemed familiar with this lock. It didn’t respond to the usual techniques. As the time wore on Houdini worried that he might just fail to escape and his career would be ruined. He would be disgraced.
As the time wore on Houdini worked so feverishly on the lock he began to sweat profusely. He quickly become exhausted and even more fearful that he wasn’t going to be able to escape. The exhaustion became so great that Houdini collapsed against the door and it easily opened.
The door just opened because the bank officials had never locked it! The door was never locked but because Houdini thought it was locked, it might have well been locked. It was locked and couldn’t be opened because Houdini thought it so. But his career was accidentally saved as he gave up in exhaustion.
The only locked doors we’re dealing with today are the locked doors within our own minds. When we let go of our dreams we let go of the keys that unlock our future potential.
Take the steps to realize your dreams. Stay away from negaholics, people that thrive on negativity. Get back to the basics. Remember the old saying “Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”? It is truer today than ever before.
Turn off the TV and read a book. Get up and exercise. Zig Ziglar asks if you owned a championship race horse, would you let it stay out late and drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes? Of course you wouldn’t so why do you treat a billion dollar body that way?
It’s common for people to set some New Year resolutions about now. Are you going to let your New Year resolutions wither away again this year like so many years before? Or is this the year you’re going to unlock the doors in your mind and make the commitment to figure out the answers on a new level of thinking?
Most of all, stay away from that stinkin thinkin.
Good Luck. Talk to you soon.
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