My Dreams
As a kid I always wanted to be a farmer.
When growing up I had a framed picture of a farm on my bedroom wall and I would look and think about it everyday for years. It featured a big wooden barn sitting on a grassy hill with duck ponds, sheep, a dog, tractor and kids running around.
Our Farm in summer.
The funny thing was that twenty years later Cathy and I found and bought a little farm and it was just about identical to the picture from my bedroom wall. The little farm house sat on a green grassy hill (which is rare in Western Australia with its semi arid countryside), it had a big wooden barn, sheep, ducks, a dog and a tractor. To top it off we raised most of our kids there during their early years. I had no idea until later that the very farm we owned was what I used to dream and think about as a kid.
When the movie, “The Secret” came out, I was fascinated by the featured stories of people visualizing in their minds what they wanted and then over time, having those same things arrive for them in their physical world. I guess that is exactly what happened to me… though it did take twenty years!
Kit camping on the Cocos Islands... a dream come true!
Our Cocos experience!
This unique “law of the universe” came to play many times in our lives over the years. Our experience living on the Cocos Islands was a visual thought ten years before it became a reality, and traveling Canada and the US in our motor home with the family was another example of a visualization becoming a reality.
Vision Boards
Making a Vision Board is one way to build a visual picture of what you want. Cath and I have created Dream Boards and stowed them away, only to pull them out again some years later to see that several of the dream pictures can be ticked off as having been achieved… kite surfing, large aquarium, more kids, fishing boat… to note a few more examples.
Kite Surfing
My Vision Board from 2005. All these images, bar one, have become a reality.
We believe that Vision Boards help with visualizing what you want and because of that, we encourage our kids to make and display dream boards too. They think it’s all great fun!
The Problem with The Secret!
See, believe and you will conceive is the universal law that The Secret portrayed. It is amazing how your subconscious mind has so much power as to bring about reality from thoughts. The funny thing is that when I read forums with discussions about the laws of the universe I see many people being very frustrated about not being able to bring about in their physical world all the things they are visualizing and believing. They meditate, focus, make vision boards and think about what things they want in their lives, but despite all their efforts they are unable to conceive it to reality.
The Solution…
Our Money Mastery mentor says that there was an important ingredient that “The Secret” left out. He explained that whilst you need to visualize what you want, then emote it into existence, if you don’t have a persistent focus (or clear intention), then it is unlikely that what you want will easily come about in your reality.
He said, “The problem is that people have their focus elsewhere”. Like in our situation… we’re busy all week at work and when we’re home our whole attention is taken up with sorting the kids, doing the household chores and keeping up with our social life.
Our focus is drawn away from the things that we want to achieve, even though we may visualize them.
Often when people hit a rock bottom point in life, it is only then that their minds pinpoint their focus. This may be a near death experience, serious illness, break up with a partner or suddenly becoming financially bankrupt. It is only then that your conscious and subconscious minds align with an inner drive for change.
Our Subconscious Limits
The other thing that Paul (our Money Mindset mentor) explains is the “Belt” concept.
Our subconscious mind has an upper and lower limit to every aspect of our lives, including wealth, happiness, relationships, health etc. This is what we call our Comfort Zone.
Using money as an example, let’s say my subconscious is only comfortable earning $100,000 a year. That is my upper limit and if I ever exceed that by 10%, I will do something to self sabotage and bring that amount of money back to what I am comfortable receiving. Self sabotage may include spending it, losing it on the stock market, giving it away, gambling it away and so on.
So even though consciously I think I would like a million dollars, that will never happen until I have changed the upper limit of my subconscious around money. Subconscious mind is far more powerful than my conscious mind and that is why mentors such as Paul are so valuable because he helps us develop strategies to push our upper limit higher to allow more of what we want into our lives.
The same principle holds true for all areas of our lives. We may have a limit on how much happiness we are allowed to feel, so if a relationship is going along brilliantly, but we don’t think we deserve that much happiness (on a subconscious level), then we will do something to sabotage that happiness – more often than not, it involves picking a fight, creating a drama in our lives or doing something to hurt the other partner.
The same can be applied to health, relationships, weight loss, finances, anything really
The trick to mastering this law of the universe is to gradually work up to the bigger dreams by visualizing and intending for smaller dreams that will lead to the ultimate one. In other words, take smaller steps, then celebrate them once they are reality. The idea is that over time your subconscious mind will raise its upper limit to meet that of your conscious mind. When the two are aligned the physical reality will, in time, materialize.
Vision Boards for Kids
Ambers Vision Board
It took up to twenty years for dreams of mine to come about, so don’t allow a moment more to pass you or your kids by. Encourage your kids to make vision boards, teach them how to visualize and emote what they want. Establish a plan and then, most importantly, help them make it their absolute focus! If you need some help, then have a look at this book written by John Assaraf. He is an expert on the topic as he himself was a major feature in the DVD “The Secret”.
