As a Man Does…
By: Robert Mazak
Tags: Action, Dreams, Time, Thoughts, Faith

One of the greatest books, in my opinion, was titled, “As a Man Thinketh”. This book was penned originally in 1903, long before any of the self-help books of today. There are now numerous authors who have written on the power of positive and right thinking, which has been shown to help us to set the stage for our future outcomes. I can attest from personal experience that I have been able to conjure up many situations and outcomes simply with continuous and purposeful visualization activities. However, anything that becomes an outcome in your life, will take some effort to achieve what you desire. I do not believe there are too many circumstances documented which demonstrate great success or awesome achievements that happened simply by brain power alone. My belief is that your thoughts and your visualization are the preview of coming attractions in your life, and that every action or outcome always starts with a thought; but you still must apply action to your thought to be able to realize the outcome you see in your mind.

I would like to propose that a thought, a desire, or a dream is simply the seed that gets generated to grow this outcome in your life. Let us imagine that you go out a purchase some seed for the purpose of growing carrots in your backyard garden. This seed has all the potential it needs to grow into carrots, but if you leave them in the package, or on your leave them in your shed, there will never be any carrots. This seed, or your thoughts, must be supplied with some action so that the potential will be realized, and you can grow some carrots. We all surely know that to grow anything from a seed, you must plant it in some dirt of some sort, and consistently water it. And of course, we should also know that this seed will not grow into a carrot instantly, it must have time to mature from a seed into a fully grown carrot. If the care of this seed, through consistent nurturing, is interrupted and/or forgotten about, then you will never see a carrot grow. This is the same for your thoughts, you must take them out of the package, plant them, and nourish them over time to grow your dreams.

As you can see from this example, a seed, a thought, a dream, or a desire, will require attention all the way until it is finalized. You cannot simply create an outcome by finding a seed, nor can you create an outcome simply by thought. You also cannot create a desired outcome without tending to and caring for your seed, or your thought. Too many of us, including me, have thrown out many seeds, started the process, but have left our dreams to perish in the dirt. And for many of us, this dilemma is prevalent because we sow too many types of seeds, and then fail to have enough time to tend to all of them, thus causing them all to perish. If we just were to pick a single dream, or limit it to a few dreams, then we could concentrate much better on nurturing these desires and have a greater chance at see them bloom and grow into what we have imagined them to be. Focused nurturing always has a better opportunity for growth then a scattered nurturing process.

We have all claimed that we simply do not have enough time to nurture our dreams, even when we are focused on one or two at a time. The funny thing is that every living thing on this earth shares the same amount of time each day; the bum on the street and the billionaire each have 24 hours a day — so why is there such a different outcome? I believe it comes down to excuses and rationalization for why we cannot achieve what is burning within us to become. I am like many others, and have certainly played the blame game, and convinced myself that my failures were because of something external to me, but that is far from the truth. Each one of us owns the outcomes in our lives, and no one can take that from us unless you allow that to happen. I can guarantee that all of us can find time to work on our dreams, no matter how busy you think you are. Us human beings tend to fill much of our day with so many time wasters, that do not add value to the outcomes that we “wish” we could have. A wish will always remain a wish unless you apply goals and actions to achieve this desire in your life.

I decided to look at some of the things that society fills our time with. I think the number one-time stealer in our culture today, is the television, or some other device that streams shows and movies. Second to that is our phones, followed closely by video games. I did some simple math on what I believe is the average amount of television time in the American household. If a person were to watch the television 4 hours every day of the year, that would add up to just shy of 60 days. The avid television watcher than will always be behind the competition curve because they may only be applying their trade 10 months out of every year. I am not suggesting that you give up shows and movies altogether, but I may suggest that shaving off some of that time can create more time for productive activities. Many other activities in our culture also steal our productivity time, so you must really decide what the value of your success is and break down how you are using their time.

Remember that time waits for no one, and unless you use it properly, you may find yourself an old person who has not realized any of your dreams. If you want something, you must chase it down, like there may be no tomorrow. Remember that you do not have to be great to get started, but you must get started to be great!