The ability to manifest a happy, healthy and successful life is available to any person, at any time, anywhere. It requires discipline, time and a continued transformation of thought within the individual. The four keys below are qualities that can be learned to help in this endeavour.
Willpower
To have free will is a great thing. It helps us decide what it is we want and need. Willpower is the ability to harness the will. The key to having dominion over the will is to develop your ability to direct your attention wherever you want. When you begin to consciously direct the attention where you want, you build trust within the self.
A simple practice to aid in harnessing your will is to say to yourself what you’re about to do before you do it. When you wake up in the morning, say, “I will brush my teeth.” Then go and brush your teeth. “I will take a shower.” Take a shower. It may sound silly at first, but it works. The little stuff leads to the big stuff like a promotion at work, marrying the person of your dreams, or becoming a light-filled and loving person. This practice supports the relationship between your conscious and subconscious minds and aids in the manifestation of your desires.
Imagination
Now that we understand the power behind harnessing the will it’s time to dream! To create the life you desire you must be creative. I do not mean this in the sense of being an artist, musician or actor. Creativity means the ability to create. This applies to anything that can be created.
There are many people in this world who give attention to bettering themselves and the people around them. How do we do this? We use the image-maker inside our minds to see ourselves in better environments as a better person. The key to unlocking a productive imagination is visualization. Stilling your mind for a period of time to concentrate on what it is you want, is like shining the light on a developing photograph. If you never shine the light, the photo never develops! Think about your dreams. Try to hold the dream, the image in your mind for 68 seconds. This plants a seed in the subconscious mind that allows for the creation to come into the physical.
Believing
We have dominion over the will. We have used our imagination to start our creation process. The next step is to believe it will come about. This is why positive thinking has been taught for thousands of years. Think about a person you have met that radiated confidence. Did you believe they could accomplish anything? Probably. This is attractive. People like this become magnets that others gravitate towards.
Positive thinking leads to the belief you’re capable of achieving anything. How do we practice this? Affirmations are a good place to start. One I like to use is I radiate love continually. It helps to develop compassion and love for others and myself. Affirmations should be affirmative, not negative. When someone tells you not to think of a dog, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? A dog. Start imagining the things you want in your life. Use your senses to make it a reality: touch it, taste it, smell it, see it and hear it. Believe in any moment you will have in front of you the thing you most desire.
Knowing
My grandfather used to correct my behaviour when I was young. “I know, Papou,” I said. He would say, “Don’t say that. Otherwise, you’ll never learn anything.” Knowing can only come about when we have an experience and have reached an understanding through the experience. This is what my grandfather attempted to reflect to me.
We can read many books and receive secondhand experience from others’ stories, but the only way to “know” something is true or false is through direct experience. It’s important to receive information so we may solidify our beliefs or rethink them. We believe something is true until we know it to be or not to be. All of us have areas we understand and areas we do not. This is the importance of sharing our experience with others so others may take the information we share and practice it to see if it applies to them or not. (Hint: The universals in life are always true. Look to holy works to see if you can pick them out.)
One way to practice knowing is to conduct science experiments with yourself. No, I don’t mean put on your seventh grade safety goggles and mix a bunch of chemicals together. Create a goal for yourself and tie it in with something you wish to understand better, a quality such as leadership, grace, responsibility, love, etc. Take steps to come closer to achieving your goal all the while perceiving the lesson each experience brings to you. When you reach your goal, you should also have a better understanding of the quality you decided to build within yourself. This should give you a constant or universal you can carry with you into all other experiments.
A recipe for a successful life is said to be Goal + Purpose + Activity = Success. Many people want to be healthier, make more money, raise a family, or contribute to society in a more impactful way yet struggle to bring this into their environment. Through building willpower, developing a productive imagination, believing you can have what you want, and coming to know how to create in any situation at any time, you can have the life you’ve always dreamed of.
Read more on this topic in REDEFINING SUCCESS: Remove the fear of failure to learn what’s important
[su_panel background=”#f2f2f2″ color=”#000000″ border=”0px none #ffffff” shadow=”0px 0px 0px #ffffff”]Michael Peter Dardanes has taught Metaphysics since the end of 2012 and directed the School of Metaphysics in Springfield, MO for two years. He currently teaches at the branch in Fort Worth, TX and is graduating the second cycle of lessons in their four tiered program. Michael portrays Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Linus Pauling in the production, The Invitation. He is a writer and continues to contribute to a spiritual community throughout the Midwest.
