Saturday, July 14, 2018

The Power of Vision





A recent Wall Street Journal article reminded me of the power of vision. The article, “Schwarzenegger Recalls the Good and the Bad,” by Chris Kornelis, recounts Arnold Schwarzenger’s careers and how having a vision has been key to his success.

His two terms as governor of California and sci-fi film icon status as “The Terminator” are the best known of his successes. He’s also been a real estate investor and was a millionaire even before his rise as a film star.

The article reports that Schwarzenegger says “his best and worst bets have had less to do with writing checks and more to do with investing his time and effort in getting ahead -- as well as having a clear vision of what he wanted to achieve and preparing for a job.”

As a teenager in Austria, he saw videos of the U.S.. with the Golden Gate Bridge, Empire State building, huge highways, big Cadillacs with the big wings in the back. He decided he wanted to come to America and his ticket was through bodybuilding. He began to train, joined the Austrian army, and continued to train -- always set on moving to America. After winning Mr Universe age 20, he was invited to train in the U.S. by Joe Wieder.

“Coming to America opened up all the doors that I didn’t even think about,” he says. “My movie career happened, and then my political career and the money, the millions I made, it goes on and on. Everything I have accomplished in life is because of America.”

He says he made it to America because he had a vision. As a teenager he visualized  himself on stage winning Mr. Universe and using that as entree to America.

“The No. 1 lesson of being successful is having a vision,” he says. “Because when you have a vision of where you want to go in life and what you want to be, then it is just a matter of doing the work to get there.” 


He noted one of his worst bets was taking the role in the film, “Hercules in America.”

Since he didn’t speak much English, he was instructed not to talk during the meeting with the producer. But in the film, he was in over his head with no acting training and no emotion behind his memorized lines. This set his film career back a few years.

He advises, “You have to find the sweet spot between having courage and being confident but also knowing that you’re deep into it and you’re not ready for something.” But the experience taught him an important lesson.

“We learn not only just from our success, but we learn actually more from our failures. I really learned to never do anything that you’re not really prepped, overly prepped for. Just like in bodybuilding, don’t go in the competition if you haven’t done the reps. The same is with anything else. Don’t do it if you haven’t done the reps or if you didn’t put the mileage behind it.”

I thought, “There’s an example of Science of Mind in action.” Have the vision. Make it happen. Or as in Spiritual Mind Treatment, “Treat and use your feet.” Think it. Say it. Do it. And the Universe supports you.

As Ernest Holmes says, “...our outlook on life must be transformed by the renewing of the mind, and even when the results are not immediately forthcoming, we must still maintain a calm serenity of thought. We must relight the torch of our imagination by ‘fire caught from heaven.’ We must remain faithful to this vision for a realization of the Presence of God is the secret power of our work.”   

And so it is.

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