Open to Possibility
Feroshia R.J. Knight, MA, PCC
My friend Sharon sat next to me under a hairdryer at the salon, reading Vanity Fair about the Top 100 most influential people of the Information Age. She scowled at me under the dryer hood and bellowed.
"Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in the world, and he's not even 30! I mean, he invented Facebook! Things like that don't happen to me. And I ask you, why not?"
"That's like asking why a tornado wipes out the barn and not the house," I said over the whirring of the dryers. "It's a matter of what conditions spawned the tornado, the strength of its rotation, and what lies in its path."
Sharon blinked a few times. "Is that some kind of meteorological coaching code?"
I chuckled and slurped from my glass of cheap wine. "What that means is, you need to be the tornado. Cultivate the environment you want, be committed to your goal, and don't let anything get in your way. Young Zuckerberg put his imagination to work and kept moving forward. You can, too."
"Whatever. I wasn't born so lucky, and my imagination could fit into a Dixie cup." Sharon tossed the magazine and picked up the newspaper. "Wow, DWI is having a sale."
You know people like this, right? Lacking in self-confidence and optimism? Effortlessly sidetracked? Perhaps that's you. It's easy to convince yourself you couldn't possibly accomplish the same things others have. You attribute their success to dumb luck or being in the right place at the right time—or being born with a silver spoon in your mouth.
What that line of thinking does is discount the personal efforts that successful people put into reaching their goals; and in so doing, you discount your own potential. Worse, you encourage your own laziness. Tornadoes are self-directed, powerful, and energetic. They have one job, and they do it well. If conditions were optimal, tornadoes could spin indefinitely.
We all share that capacity. Sure, some of us have better resources than others. Zuckerberg's father hired a software developer to be his son's tutor when he was just eleven. But Zuckerberg enjoyed computers. He channeled his energy, imagination, and resources into blazing his own path of personal bliss to become the billionaire we recognize today. He was a tornado.
When you're stuck, pick your head up and look around. Open your mind. Imagine the possibilities. See yourself doing the thing you want. Touch, taste, smell, and feel your success as if it's already happening. Enlist those in the know for ideas and ask for help and support from those you trust. Not only do you frequently get what you ask for, those who give it to you feel good that they were able to help.
Listen, it's a universal fact. What you pay attention to most is what actually manifests in your life. Negativity begets negativity. If you believe you're not lucky enough, smart enough, "fill in the blank" enough, you won't be. If you believe that what you want out of life is impossible, it surely is. If you think good things only happen to other people, you'll miss the opportunities right in front of you.
Be the tornado.
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