Mindset Tips – You MUST Have High Expectations When Pursuing Your Dreams!

If you’ve read articles of mine, you’ll understand that it is critically important to determine ‘what’ you want before even considering ‘how’ to achieve it. Once you’ve done that and you’ve committed to achieving your ‘what,’ then you must learn how to ‘allow!’

What really got me thinking about this topic was a few weeks ago when I was attending a Jack Canfield seminar. I was speaking to a lady I met named Aurora who was telling me that she’s got some lofty goals, some of which include working with thought leaders, but she doesn’t ‘expect’ to necessarily get them on board. 

‘WHAT?! Aurora!’

The passion within me about the topic exploded like a volcano when she told me she wasn’t expecting!

Suddenly I got into a somewhat passionate preachy mode about having high expectations even when the dream seems impossible! As I was speaking to her, a specific sentence seemed to flow out of me which made me think, “Whoa! Sean! Where’d THAT come from?! Write that down NOW and share it with your friends at The Mindset Apprentice dot com!!”

I was pretty excited about it, especially since Aurora was so receptive and basically told me, “Wow…I just got so much out of what you just said…You gave me a huge a-ha!”

I must admit, I sort of gave myself a friendly pat on the back for it.

Your thoughts: “Sean! What’d you say what’d you say!!?! The suspense is killing me!!”

I know, I know, I’m turning into Ryan Seacrest on American Idol when he’s about to announce the winners and…

“We’ll let you know after this commercial break!”

Fine, I won’t go to a commercial. Here’s what I said:

Allow yourself to have the highest of expections while allowing the Universe to provide in the way it sees best…

BAM!!!!! Look at that! Boo ya!

Seriously though, read that bold sentence again and think about it for a moment before reading on…

…

…Did you read it again? If not I will hunt you down. Don’t test me.

Okay, I’m going to write it again just to make sure you read it twice:

Allow yourself to have the highest of expectations while allowing the Universe to provide in the way it sees best…

It is SO critically important to have extremely high expectations in achieving what you want! But it’s also critically important to be flexible!

Whenever setting an intention, you must be specific and non-specific at the same time. 

“Sean, you’re a fool. That doesn’t make sense bro…”

Ahh, duality! It’s a lovely thing isn’t it? I’ve studied eastern philosophy very mildly through my experience in personal growth/spirituality and it is immersed in the concepts of duality! Something that our Western culture has a hard time understanding.

But that is an entirely different topic…

Living in Duality: Being specific and non-specific at the same time…

If you want to earn a specific amount of income, than decide on the exact amount you want and give yourself a specific date to achieve it! You can even declare that you will achieve it through your work in the ‘entertainment industry,’ if that’s what you wish…but be careful about being so specific that you are not able to ‘allow’ the Universe to provide in the way it sees best.

For example, an overly specific intention would be this:

“I am going to earn a million dollars by 2012 by starring in a blockbuster hit action movie that is directed by Steven Spielberg and has Christian Bale, Johnny Depp, and Larry King as my co-stars.”

Whoa Nelly! Calm down for a moment. That’s a little too specific!

When you say specific people such as Steven Spielberg, Christian Bale, Johnny Depp and Larry King, the goal is no longer in your power. See, a goal that can realistically be accomplished is one that must be both initiated and maintained by you. You can definitely initiate the goal of becoming a movie star. You would do that by taking acting lessons, going to auditions, and networking with people in the entertainment industry…

But the goal with SPECIFIC people can’t be maintained by you. Heck! Larry King? What are you thinking? He’s an interviewer, he doesn’t do movies!

See, Steven Spielberg has his own goals. Christian Bale has his own goals as well. They may be COMPLETELY out of line with YOUR goals, so relying on them to achieve your dream of earning a million dollars by starring in a movie would be ludicrous.

A better intention would be:

“I am going to earn a million dollars by 2012 by starring in a blockbuster hit movie.”

Do you see how in that scenario you have the ability to both initiate and maintain the goal?

Let’s say you want to be mentored by someone who’s achieved a lot of success as I did…If that’s your deal, then set the intention that you will be mentored by someone successful in the field of your choice…but don’t set your desires on ONE specific person. You can’t control another human being!

I
may have had “The Apprentice of John Assaraf” on the vision board I created to be very specific… but I also put “My friends and fellow empowerers” on my board surrounded by faces of other transformational leaders. I was aware that there might be a chance that John wouldn’t be interested in having an apprentice. And you know what? That’s okay!..

I had an expectation, but I was allowing the Universe to provide in the way it saw best.

Let’s take one more example…one that I’ve had a lot of experience in NOT doing (I just smuggled in a lesson here by the way: be willing to be transparent with your own fallacies. When you’re transparent with others, you’re transparent with yourself. Awareness is the first step to self-growth)

The final example is in the area of relationships.

I think everyone reading this can probably remember a time when they ‘fell’ for someone they were just so convinced was ‘the one.’ Or in the least I’m sure you’ve had an intense ‘crush,’ on someone and couldn’t stop thinking about them.

Well as soon as you’re making the goal of being with that ONE specific person, you’re not making use of the points I made earlier about being able to both initiate AND maintain the goal.

That person may not have any interest in you! You may not be their type! So if you initiate it, and they’re not interested, how do you maintain it?

That’s why in the area of relationships it’s important to set the intention of having a partner who has specific qualities and characteristics, but not a specific person! Sure, set the intention of developing a relationship with the person you’re interested in, but understand that A. The friendship could work out but not the attraction. B. Both the friendship and attraction could work out. Or C. You two could be TOTALLY out of alignment with eachother and that relationship is doomed to hell period. Get over it.

So we come full swing one more time back to:

Allow yourself too have the highest of expectations while allowing the Universe to provide in the way it sees fit.

Meaning: have specific goals. Have specific intentions. But be open for variation! Be open to the possibility that your goal will be achieved in a way that isn’t exactly what you expected, but is just as great, if not better! When you do this, you’ll be amazed at the different ideas that come to your mind of how to achieve your goals! You’ll be amazed at the various opportunities that begin to arise.

You’ll be amazed at the success you begin to achieve!

P.S. The concepts of initiating and maintaing a goal is something I learned from my mentor Jeffrey Gignac from New Life Pathways (great guy! You should check out his Super Mind Academy after you respond to this post).