I have practiced and applied this principle in my own personal life. The more I understand and apply this principle, the more I accomplish greater things with great rewards. Author and writer, John C. Mason, opined visualize success and you will succeed, visualize failure and you will fail.
The fact is that whatever you see in our world today was once a picture in someone’s heart, but the distinguishing factor was that they had the courage to venture into those pictures in their heart to be able to make them to what we’ll call inventions today—the cars, computers, airplanes etc.—that we are all enjoying today. We’re all at one point a mere pictures or ideas in the inventor’s mind. Here is my point, we must begin to develop the required courage needed to turn our ideas and dreams into reality. We all want to achieve greater things in life, we all have some ideas or pictures of what we want to accomplish in life. But the challenge for most people has always been clarity and the ability to focus on one thing until it is accomplished. The fact is that there is nothing you cannot accomplish if you decide to.
A writer once said that nothing can stop a human will which will stake even its existence for what he wants in life. Where do you see yourself in two years from now, five years from now, ten years from now? Many of us cannot give satisfactory answers to this question. In other words, the picture in your heart is like a road map to your preferred destination in life. The Bible teaches us that God has promised to give us the desires of our heart.
The problem with many of us believers today is that we don’t even have clear desires or some specific set goals of what we want to achieve. We are just living every day wishing and experimenting our lives on different things. This, therefore, becomes a challenge to our Creator because he cannot even figure out any clear cut, specific desire in our heart to work with. There is power in picture; the fact is that whatever you see in our world today was once a picture at one point in someone’s mind.
It is of utmost important, therefore, that you begin to develop a beautiful picture for your future because if you can see it in your spirit, you can bring it to material reality. Best-selling author and speaker, Les Brown, said in one of his numerous quotes that the worst thing that can happen to an individual is not being able to achieve his goals, but the worse thing is not having any goal to pursue. Imagine a soccer team playing a competition without a goalpost.
They will just be running around in a vicious circle without anything to show for their effort. Author Anthon St. Maarten made a powerful statement when he said, and I quote, “Dare to dream! If you did not have the capability to make your wildest wishes come true, your mind would not have the capacity to conjure such ideas in the first place.”
There is no limitation on what you can potentially achieve, except for the limitations you choose to impose on your own imagination. My point, therefore, in PVC simply means that you should visualize a picture of your preferable future, capture it with precision, focus on it and make it specific enough to be able to interpret it to someone else, then develop the courage to venture into it. And consistently act on it until it is accomplished.
One of my favorite verse in the Bible that has changed my mind-set over the years is Philippians 4.13. It says, “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me.” I want to submit to you that you have the skills, potentials, ideas, and the ability to turn your dreams into reality; all you need is to venture in to whatever you want with courage because where there is a will there is way.
If you can see yourself becoming that engineer, doctor, actor, musician, lawyer, etc., you can be it. The three basic steps is to picture it, venture in to it, and capture it with courage. The Book of Proverbs 23:7 says that as a man thinketh in his heart so is he. In other words, if you can think it, you can be it.
Hence I understand that many of us has not been able to act on our dreams because of what I call the “what-if factor.” Oftentimes we are faced with the negative questions like what if it doesn’t work out, what if no one support me, what if my friends laugh at me. But the fact is that you can never know what you can do until you try. Author and writer Robert M. Pirsig confirmed this when he said, and I quote, “It’s so hard when contemplated in advance, and so easy when you do it.” The fact to note here is that beginning is half done; the moment you develop the courage to take the first step, all other things will begin to fall in place to support its realization. Act on that idea, work on that skill, venture into that project. There is no limit to want what you can achieve if only you can see beyond your limitation. You can leave beyond your limitation.
Author and motivational speaker Les Brown made a powerful statement when he said, “If you can look up you can stand up.” I challenge you today to take a bold step toward that goal or task that you have set for yourself because you have been equipped with the ideas, skills, and ability to accomplish it even before you conceptualize the dream. You have what it takes to go for it. You have to realize that no one else is going to sing your own music, no one is going to make your own invention that was given to you, or write your own book. It was given to you by God, and only you can bring it to reality.
The moment you take the first bold step toward it, the resources, materials, personnel, and all other connections that will support its realization will begin to show up. It was Albert Einstein, one of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century that said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” What this means, therefore, is that while your knowledge can take you from point A to point B, imagination can take you to wherever you want to go in life. In fact the determining factor between your now and your next two years, five years, ten years, etc. is largely depended on the imagination and pictures in your heart. The Bible in the Book of Proverbs 23:7 says, “As he thinketh his heart so is he.” In other words, if you can imagine it, you can bring it in to reality. There is no limit.
Key Important Points to Note from the Foregoing Chapter
1 All worthwhile accomplishments begin with a positive, clear mental picture.
2 You can have, do, and become anything you want to be by venturing into your dreams without fear, doubt, or hesitancy
3 You have all the skills, power, and ability to turn your dreams into reality if only you can believe in yourself.
4 Whatever idea you can conceptualize in your mind and consistently act and believe in it, with the help of the supreme being, God, you will eventually bring it to materialization.
Principle Two
Overcoming the Fear Syndrome
You will never know what you can do until you try.
—Kennedy King
Have you noticed that there are people you know who are literally at the same place today as they were five years ago? Hence they are gifted, healthy, and very intelligent, but they have been stagnated in life due to fear and lack of confidence to act on their God-given potentials and ideas. They are just standing still in life.
And oftentimes these things are caused by their presupposition and self-limiting beliefs that have been contracted from past experiences, peer groups, and fear of the unknown. Over the years, I have come to this one conclusion that our life depends on many things but mostly on our ability to believe in ourselves. There is literally nothing the human mind cannot accomplish if it takes its capability and focus on it. Ralf Waldo Emerson said, “It is impossible for a man to be cheated by anyone but himself.” Here is my point, gain control over your mind or it will gain control over you; your imagination is the creator of your future.
There is no limitation to the heart except the ones we acknowledge. In other words, visualize failure and you will fail, visualize success and you will succeed; it all boils down to what you focus on. The term fear has been defined by some
