Why Your Unrealistic Expectations May Actually Make You More Successful

Back in August, I started telling everyone I was moving to New York on October 15.

This was a lie.

At that time, I was working overseas on board a cruise ship, and my life was back in Los Angeles.

No flights had been booked. I had a car and an entire storage unit of furniture to sell.

I had no job and no place to live.

I knew a total of five acquaintances in the Big Apple.

But October 15 was the date I held steadfastly to.

A week prior to the departure, I was back in LA, and 92 percent of the aforementioned loose ends had yet to be resolved.

People kept asking me, “Are you still leaving next week?”

I told them, "Yes."

They thought I was crazy.

But the very next day, it all came together.

I found an amazingly affordable apartment with Russian roommates on Craigslist and somebody willing to purchase my entire bedroom set.

I sold the car for more than the original estimate.

I booked a flight for my projected date.

On October 15, thrilled with the possibilities and terrified at the uncertainty of it all, I flew.

I jumped, and the net appeared.

Now, I'm living the life of my dreams in New York City.

I've turned acquaintances into friendships, I'm actively pursuing my career goals and I started dating someone who has the same name as me.

This is real life, and a real, clear example of the power of the law of attraction when it's combined with action.

This is the very blueprint that can be applied to any dream or goal you have.

It all begins with a thought.

Then, it continues with a vision.

Stephen Covey discusses the concept of beginning with the end in mind in "7 Habits Of Highly Effective People":

[A]ll things are created twice. There is a mental (first) creation, and a physical (second) creation. The physical creation follows the mental, just as a building follows a blueprint. If you don’t make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, you empower other people and circumstances to shape you and your life by default. It’s about connecting again with your own uniqueness, and then defining the personal, moral and ethical guidelines within which you can most happily express and fulfill yourself. [Beginning with the end in mind] means to begin each day, task or project with a clear vision of your desired direction and destination, and then continue by flexing your proactive muscles to make things happen.

It’s important to understand the law of attraction and how energy is everything.

Everything is energy. Thoughts are energy, and thoughts become things.

(If you’re unfamiliar with this idea, you have to read "The Secret." It's the gateway drug for personal development junkies.)

But as powerful as the law of attraction is, you need to realize it’s a tool.

It’s the mindset you need throughout the process, but it's not the process itself.

Oprah once did a show about it.

Afterward, a viewer wrote in, saying she was considering ending her cancer treatment to try to cure herself with her thoughts instead.

Oprah was like, “No way.”

Understanding and utilizing the power of your thoughts is half of the battle.

Where we end up in life is not a coincidence.

It’s a combination of our mindset and our effort. It's faith plus action.

You can’t just lie in bed and think your way to an amazing life.

Opportunities and connections happen out in the world.

If you’re wishing for a better life, but wake up, go to school or work and go straight home, you’re missing out.

You aren’t making yourself available to receive the gifts that are waiting for you.

You have to change your mindset and habits in order to change your life.

Doing something differently will yield different results.

You are a brilliant being, capable of creating the life you want. This is your birthright as a human.

This is what other animals cannot do. Alan Watts said it so beautifully:

The real you is not a puppet, which life pushes around. The real, deep down you is the whole universe. You are something the whole universe is doing in the same way a wave is something the whole ocean is doing.

You are energy.

You are the very energy of everything else in existence.

You’re the most powerful magnet on Earth.

You deserve to reap the benefits you are attracting, but you have to meet them halfway.

Henry David Thoreau said,

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined.

The first step is to have a dream.

Have a big one. Have a bold one.

Next, you have to believe you can do it.

Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.

And then? Go.

Even if your confidence is shaky, as long as you make moves — infant steps — toward that dream, something will come of it.

Nothing is without meaning. There is something to learn from every experience.

Maybe a different opportunity will arise.

You’ll follow that path and realize it’s where you were meant to be all along.

Like Alice Sebold wrote,

Sometimes the dreams that come true are the dreams you never even knew you had.

Now, turn off your computer and go out into the world.

Just don’t forget how powerful you are, and how infinite possibilities exist just within your reach.