Blog post by Emma Lowman, Practice Manager, London
When I was in my first year of school I clearly remember my dad asking me what I wanted to be when I grew up, now as a young slightly idiotic child with not much direction and an extremely bad haircut (thanks mum) I remember telling him that I wanted to be rich, live in a massive house, drive a nice car (I STILL haven’t passed my driving test..) and be a popstar. Besides the last point (I quickly I discovered I can’t sing) I pretty much stuck to that mantra throughout school, although that’s where it ended. With no means as to how, where or why. I knew that I wanted to be successful and that I wanted to have security.
This year I purchased my first home, as a 26-year-old who spends far too much money on avocados, Zara and Pret this was a massive achievement and one that I’m super proud of. Although, in hindsight, my two bedroom flat based in the bright lights of Woking (OK… the lights are far from bright) kitted out head to toe with badly built IKEA furniture is a far cry from the 5-bedroom detached, white-picket fenced, West facing property I envisioned as a 6-year-old as my first home.
Regardless of this slight difference in expectation versus reality, it got me thinking about visualising success and the power of positivity. There are hundreds, if not thousands of books written on PMA, which is a concept originally developed in the 1930’s by a guy named Napoleon Hill. He wrote a book called Think and Grow Rich (if you haven’t heard of it, it’s worth a read) It doesn’t mention PMA but instead discusses how positive thinking is a principal to success in life.
Many celebrities and well-known billionaires have also championed this methodology. Jim Carey said that he wrote himself a cheque for $1mil dollars and that he gave himself 5 years to get there or he would quit acting for good. Later that year he signed a contract for Dumb and Dumber, where he was cast for the reasonable amount for $10mil. He made a point of saying that although he visualised this cheque on a daily basis, it didn’t come without days, hours, weeks, months, years of hard work he put into it, combined with hundreds of rejections and knock backs.
I don’t know if the fact that I’ve had a very clear vision growing up has impacted where I am today, and I’m not 100% convinced that if you wrote yourself a cheque, or drew a picture of a car, a house, or a boyfriend that one day you would miraculously wake up and said item would be sat outside your door. But I am a strong believer of giving yourself purpose on a day to day basis and having a series of goals, whether they are materialistic, family orientated, or completely personal to you. If you combine it with hard work and determination the world is your oyster and great things can HOPEFULLY happen
