Motivation: The Secret to Executing the Plan for Your Vision
How Plans Work
Every created thing gets created in the same way… or according to the same process: Two things come together to produce a third thing. “Anything that is ever produced anywhere in the universe is produced by two other things. That is the law of polarity” (Emmet Fox).
In the organic world, we call it parenthood:
Father –> Mother –> Child
But in the “inorganic” world, the same process applies:
Activity –> Material –> Production
Students of New Thought will recognize it this way:
Mind –> Idea –> Expression
Thought –> Feeling –> Manifestation
But each process says the same thing: you start with one thing — the father, some activity or Mind. Then, that one thing connects with a second thing — Mother, some kind of material or Idea. Finally, the combination of those two things creates a third.
You think about your business — that’s the father or Mind or activity. You deploy your resources (based on your thinking) — that’s the mother or material or idea. Out of that combination comes the expression of your business — that’s the child or production or expression.
Every created thing follows the same process to become a living expression.
Why Your Plan Isn’t Working
Your plan isn’t working because one or both of the two elements involved in creation — thinking and feeling — is missing or defective. Either the thinking is off or the feeling is off. Or both.
Let’s start with the feeling because that’s where most plans fall apart. The practitioner wants to demonstrate their divine nature. So, they might affirm, “I am divine Spirit. I am one with God.” But their words have no feeling.
Yet when they speak of what’s not working in their experience, they have so much feeling. It’s dripping off of them. Even though it’s not your experience you can literally feel what’s not working for them. And, that’s why their plan didn’t work. They put the feeling behind the very thing they didn’t want!
Rev. Della taught me this lesson in a very powerful way. Every Wednesday night after class in her home, she had to get out of the chair where she’d been sitting. A few years before she started this class she’d fallen and broken her leg in multiple places. Her muscles had atrophied while in a cast.
So, sitting for long periods meant struggling to get out of any seat, especially after sitting for a long period of time. After 2+ hours of teaching, she’d gather herself to get up. And, I would hear her quietly coaching herself. She wouldn’t let any of the men who’d jumped up to help assist her.
She’d simply and quietly coach herself out of the seat: Come on Dell…Get up Dell…you can do it. Her plan to rise without assistance worked because she put all the feeling behind what she could do rather than what she couldn’t. It would have been very easy for her to take the route of accepting help. After all, she was 80+ years old.
Every plan you make will work when you put all of the feeling behind what you can do versus what you cannot.
The Reason Motivation Fades
Many people bank on excitement to help them move their plan forward. But it never lasts. All excitement wears off. And, if you have to wait until you’re excited to take action, then your plan is doomed to fail.
“What we call ‘feeling’ in connection with thought is really interest. Feeling is not excitement…True ‘feeling’ in thought is interest.” You need to get interested in what you want. Interest keeps you going when motivation wears off.
Mental equivalents get built when you get interested in the thing you want. That’s how you create feeling. So, if you want health, get interested in health. Every day read something on health — maybe a blog post or a magazine article. Watch a short video on ways to improve your nutrition.
Talk health when you speak with friends. Follow your favorite health gurus on social media. None of these things require excitement. But, the steady drip on the mind cultivates your interest in health. And, interest builds the mental equivalent.
How to Keep Motivation From Fading
To keep motivation from fading, it must be sourced from the right place.
Most people source their motivation from external events: a positive video, a powerful performance, etc. They see something powerful happen and they feel motivated. But this type of motivation does not last. The moment the performance ends, the motivation it produced begins to fade.
Motivation that lasts comes from an internal source: your interests. Think about it: You never have to motivate yourself to do what interests you. Your interests drive your actions. Let’s say you have an interest in racing cars. It won’t take much, then, to get you to watch a video about car races. Or, to read a long article about the intricacies of auto racing.
Motivation sourced from external events fades because it has nothing to sustain it. It dwindles because it needs something inside of you to keep it going — namely, your interest. Without an internal interest, motivation cannot live.
Can You Consciously Generate Motivation That Lasts?
Now we know that internal interest is the factor that makes motivation stick. So the question is, can we consciously generate motivation that lasts? The short answer: yes. You can consciously generate motivation that lasts.
You create motivation that lasts by cultivating interest in the thing you want. I think it helps to know that our minds naturally “latch onto” whatever we put in front of it. Advertisers utilize this natural tendency of the mind to sell their products. They know that the more they put a thing in front of you, the more likely your mind is to latch on to it.
I am a big believer in advertising to yourself.
You want to learn to put in front of your mind the kinds of things you want it to latch onto. Let’s say you want to save but you routinely spend everything you have. A very simple thing you can do is read something positive about saving every day. Just that simple act will develop an interest inside of you.
Interest sustained over time turns into action. And, actions produce results.
What If I Can’t Seem to Get Rid of the Wrong Thoughts?
Now that we understand that the mind naturally latches on to whatever is in front of it, the question becomes, “how do I stop latching on to stuff I don’t want?”
Emmet Fox gives an example of how to do this in his seminal talk The Mental Equivalent. This passage changed my life when I read it:
“The only way to expunge a wrong mental equivalent is to supply the opposite. Think the right thing. The right thought automatically expunges the wrong thought.
“If I say to you, ‘Don’t think of the Statue of Liberty in New York,’ you know what you are thinking about. You are not thinking of anything except the Statue of Liberty. There she is, complete with torch in her hand! I said, ‘Don’t think of her,’ but you do.
“Now I am going to say that some time ago I visited, near Springfield, Illinois, a perfect reproduction of the village of New Salem as it was in the days of Abraham Lincoln. Even the log cabin is furnished as it was in his day. The National Park Commission has done it all.
“Now you have forgotten the Statue of Liberty for a few seconds, haven’t you? You have been thinking of New Salem. I gave you a different idea.
“That is the key to the management of your mind, the management of your thinking, and therefore the key to the management of your destiny. Do not dwell on negative things but replace them, supplant them, with the right, constructive things. The law of mind is that you can only get rid of one thought by substituting another.”
Yes, It’s That Simple: Think Only Of What You Want
You kill negative thoughts by replacing them with positive thoughts. Never fight them. Fighting negativity keeps it alive. The fight energizes the thing you want to kill.
Instead, replace the thought. I don’t think for one moment Rev. Della didn’t recognize the limitations of her body. She’d faced an aneurysm, diabetes, walking into a plate glass window and losing several pints of blood, plus she fell and broke her leg when she was 78 years old.
I’m sure the words from her doctor plus the judging eyes of the people who interacted with her were all factors she had to contend with. But, her results prove her success in ignoring those thoughts and demonstrating the mastery, authority and dominion she had over her own body.
She showed me that not only do right thoughts held in mind produce right results but they also get rid of wrong thoughts. She couldn’t get out of that seat as she did every Wednesday night without assistance thinking about what it meant to be 80+ years old.
Get the thought of what you want as clear as you can. Then hold it front of your mind gently until it manifests in physical form for you.
Whatever You Do, Don’t Strain
The world places a lot of stock in physical strength and mental toughness. We value people who seem to be able to throw off negativity and keep going. I would simply caution not to be fooled by external appearances.
True mental toughness is gentle. I know we all want to “go hard in the paint.” But you need to relax. One of the first things we have to do at UP Church when new people come to us is teach them to relax.
Why?
Because your mind shuts down when you tense up. So, relax. When you strain, you create an internal resistance that compromises your desired outcome.
Every extraordinary demonstration requires a relaxed, calm, non-resistant mind. Study your favorite high performer and you will hear them talk about their need to relax before they can deliver their best performance. It does not matter what discipline they work in, sustained high performance demands relaxation.
How to Cultivate a Relaxed Mind
You can cultivate a calm mind through consistently daily deep breathing.
I like to think of relaxation in the same way that I think of working out. I don’t need to work out all day to get the benefits of working out. If I can consistently work out for multiple days per week for a specific amount of time, my body will continue to operate efficiently even when I’m not working out.
Take the same approach with your breathing. If you can consistently practice deep breathing once per day for 5 or 10 minutes, you will find that you continue to breathe deeply even while you’re not actively practicing.
I use a simple breathing practice every day to train myself to breathe deeply.
You have to slow down to go faster. That may seem counterintuitive but when you strain, you shut down the mind’s creative nature. The type of fast activity we associate with someone operating in “the zone” begins with a calm mind.
What Will a Calm Mind Bring You?
A calm mind brings you clarity. So far we have focused on techniques for developing feeling and interest in our dreams and goals. Before I wrap up this blog post, I want to spend a little time discussing how to get clarity for what you want.
First, we need to own the responsibility for choosing what we want. Yes, it would be easier for someone else to choose for us. But, that’s not how it works.
You cannot walk into a restaurant and simply say, “Bring me something good to eat,” and expect a good result all the time. Similarly, you also should not expect to say to the universe, “Bring me something good to experience,” and expect a good results all the time.
You must choose.
Clarity eludes a lot of people. What they don’t know is that a calm mind fosters clarity. It takes time to figure out what you really want. And, you shouldn’t rush the process. But don’t slow down the process by keeping your mind in a state of confusion and tenseness.
The other benefit that a daily breathing practice can bring you is clarity. Rev. Della had this song she’d sing before every meditation. The lyrics went like this:
I need to be still and let God love me. I need to be still and let God love me.
When the people of the world start to push and shove me, I need to be still and let God love me. it.
Give it to God and release it. Give it to God and be free of it. If there’s a need in your life, He’ll take it. Just give it to God and be free.
