Ralph Waldo Emerson | Bigg Success

Tag Archive: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Want to Succeed Bigg? Stop Working!

Written on August 19, 2008 by George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster in Personal Growth

work Fred Gratzon, author of The Lazy Way to Success, had a great post recently called the Definition of Success. He says that you’re a success if you can “give from your abundance”.

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george He’s not just talking about money, but it reminded me of one of the guest speakers for my class. He said that his goal is to give away a million dollars in his lifetime. One of my students asked him why he set a goal for giving instead of a goal for how much he would keep. He said that he felt that, if he could afford to give away a million dollars, he knew he would be doing just fine!

Fred also said that a lot of people think you have to work hard to be a success. He disagrees. In fact, he thinks you have to avoid work to be successful.

The definition of work

This is what we found most interesting – how he defines “work”. He says you are working “if you’d rather be doing something else.”

So if you love what you do, it’s not work! You can spend countless hours at it, because you find joy in it.

marylynn We love what we do here at Bigg Success. Sure, we work hard by most people’s standards … it’s definitely not 9 to 5. But we found a way to work together doing what we love for a fantastic community of people. It’s not always easy, but it is fun … it doesn’t feel like work, at least not most of the time!

Blaze your own trail

A great example of this is a young man we talked with recently – Sean Aiken. His last year of college, Sean’s dad told him to find a career that he was passionate about. Like a lot of young people, Sean didn’t know what that was. So he decided to find out by working 52 jobs in 52 weeks!

Now he’s working on a documentary about the project and he’s writing a book. He found his passion by blazing a new trail.

george My students are usually a pretty money-motivated group. They often go for the jobs that pay the most. The problem is it’s cyclical – the highest paying job now may not be the highest paying job in five years. So I encourage them to think about what they really enjoy doing and find a way to make a career of it. Now they’re set to rise to the top of their profession because it won’t feel like work.

marylynn Don’t accept the terms that the world sets for you. Don’t define yourself by other people’s terms. Use your imagination to create your own world.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “When you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.” So make a decision to do what you love!

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Back To The Future: Visualizing The Life You Want (Part 2)

Written on November 15, 2007 by admin in Life Planning, Vision

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Yesterday, we started this series by visualizing a childhood experience. To get the most out of today’s discussion, we highly recommend that you read this prior blog before you proceed.

Today we’ll jump to the future, to help you visualize the life you want. Before we do that, though, let’s look at three constraints that we all face.

Money

We’re trained to believe that money is limited. And it is —at this point. But this may surprise you. You can get more money! In fact, we bet you plan to get more. So money is limited, but there’s an even bigger constraint. What, you ask, is that?

Time

Yes, we can get more money, but we can never get more time. We can only manage the time we have better. Every day, we’re given 86,400 units of this most precious resource. Every second, one unit of it is gone forever. Do you hear that sound? That’s the sound of time ticking away. However, we still haven’t considered the biggest constraint of all.

Self-imposed limitations

By far, the biggest constraint we face is the limitations we put on ourselves. Think about it. How often do you tell yourself that you can’t do something? We spend so much time focusing on what we can’t do, that we fail to see what we can do. Get your child-like wonder back. Think like a kid again. Imagine the possibilities.

Now that we’ve looked at our constraints, we’re ready to jump to the future. We’re going to ask you a question. To answer it, we want you to suspend reality, for just a little bit. Pretend. Remember pretending? It will serve you well. We’re going to remove all of the constraints that keep you from contemplating what you really want out of your life. So here’s the question:

If neither time nor money were an issue,
how would you spend your time and your money?

Think about it. Dream. Dream like you did when you were a kid. Imagine the possibilities. Use all of your senses. Get a clear picture in your mind. Envision your passions. See the life you want to live.

Write down your dream. Repeat this visualization every day for the next 30 days. Edit your narrative. We’ll come back again in about a month and discuss how to use your talents to get the future you envision.

Our quote today is a paraphrase of Robert Kennedy, paraphrasing Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Some people look at things that are, and ask, ‘Why?’
I see things that never have been, and ask, ‘Why not?’

So we say to you — why not? Why not imagine the life you want?

In our next blog, we’ll discuss the single biggest barrier to your success.

Until then, here’s to your bigg success!