By Sid E. Williams, B.S., D.C.
[Editor’s Note: This column originated from a Dynamic Essentials of
Lasting Peak Performance Seminar address, delivered July 21, 2001]
There’s an old story that was turned into a song many years ago about an
auction where an old fiddle was put on the block. Bidding was slow, and it looked
like the weathered instrument would not even bring $10. Then an elderly gentleman
from the audience came up, took the violin, made a couple of quick tuning adjustments
and began to play a tune that sounded like it was coming straight from heaven.
When he finished, the crowd was silent for a moment, and then the bidding began
again: Who will bid $100, $200, $500, $1,000? An old fiddle, with a little tune-up
and the touch of the master’s hand, had become treasured.
In the DELPP leadership training program, we focus on the fact that each person
is a treasure. You’re unique. You’re talented. Your possibilities
are unlimited. You have the power to bring joy to the world in many ways. All
you need is a little tune-up and the “touch of the master’s hand.”
With this program, you can find the master within yourself who can transform
your life, because he is very, very near. In fact, this wisdom is in you now
— in your mind, in your spirit, in the essence of your being. Your own
innate subconscious self is in touch with Universal Intelligence that is always
there, ready and willing to provide that magic touch that will introduce you
to your higher self, your achieving self, your most peaceful self and your happiest
self.
With this magic touch, your own joy and sense of achievement has no bounds—except
those you choose with your conscious mind to set for yourself. Your conscious
mind is timid. It is bound by all of the negative programming that has been
fed into it over the years by people who thought they were doing you a favor
by telling you not to try things that are too challenging. As long as you keep
tapping into that negative programming, you will be handicapped. Dump it and
start listening to the voice of your innate subconscious mind inside your own
head and, like butter in the churn, your true self will rise to the top, if
you let it.
If you could interview all of the great achievers in the world, I venture to
say you would find very few of them who were not told as children or young adults
that their dream was impossible and that they should give it up. I’ve heard
that when Elvis Presley auditioned for the Grand Ole Opry, he was told that
he ought to go back home and return to his old truck-driving job. He pitched
a fit and smashed his guitar on the wall. But once he pushed past his anger,
he listened to that wee small voice inside that rose up like a mighty river
and, thus touched by the master’s hand, he made all of his detractors eat
their words.
As someone once said, success is the sweetest revenge. It’s sweet because
it’s positive. You don’t hurt anybody with it. But you experience
the joy that comes when you redeem yourself and prove your worth to yourself
and others. When you reach that moment when you know that you know that you
know, how sweet it is! I’ve been there and done that. And you can be there
and do that, too!
As you learn in the program, the total package that makes up that entity you
call your self comprises many parts. There is the physical you that is a very
complicated mechanical, chemical, electrical machine which, to function at its
peak, requires constant maintenance and fine-tuning. You have to give it the
right fuel, plenty of water, adequate oxygen, proper exercise, relaxation and
solitude to get the best performance from it.
Then there is your brain and the rest of your nervous system that also depend
upon precise electro-chemical processes to function at their peak. We chiropractors
know about the importance of the nervous system, and we’re doing our best
to let the rest of the world know about it.
And, finally, there is this entity that nobody can see but, as with electricity,
we know it’s there. It’s that true self within, that life within life,
that life beyond this life. Some call it spirit. Some call it the innate mind.
Some call it innate. Whatever you call it, it requires constant nourishment.
No matter how great a body you might develop or how well your physical brain
works, if you do not also have a strong, healthy innate mind, you will not win
many of life’s races.
The DELPP program introduces you to a unique, integrative perspective on achieving
peak performance in all that you do. If you take these principles and apply
them to every aspect of your daily life, then you may achieve Olympic-quality
performance in everything that you do.
What It Takes To Win
Let me explain a few factors that make the difference between winners and losers:
First of all, you need to remember that you are what you think. If you think
you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you can’t. You need to throw
out the garbage in your mind and find the treasure there that tells you that
you can do anything you want to do, period. As you visualize your completed
goal, tell yourself time and again, I CAN, I WILL, I MUST hundreds and hundreds
of times.
Search your inner being, your subconscious mind and your deepest desires and
find out what you really want to be. This is the hardest part—finding out
what will drive you and make you willing to work, work, work. Don’t waste
your energy on goals that other people have told you that you ought to achieve.
Nobody knows your heart but you. Find out what you really want and turn that
ember of desire into a roaring blaze. Be on fire for whatever you want to achieve.
Don’t be half-hearted about it. Go whole hog. Believe you can do it. Then
take it to the mountaintop. Up! Up! Up! And over the top!
When you figure out what you want to do—what’s right for you—then
do it! And do it now! Believe you can do it and begin taking it forward one
step at a time. Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. If you don’t
get to work on it, you’ll never achieve your dream. More often than not,
the project you think you’ll start tomorrow never gets started.
Once you get into a habit of procrastination, you start thinking there’s
always another tomorrow where you can store your good intentions. But one day,
my friends, all of your tomorrows will be used up, and all you’ll have
left is regret. That’s a very, very sad and unnecessary outcome. And the
only way you’ll have such an outcome is if that’s your choice. Choose
to pay the price by moving into positive, dynamic action and you’ll move
ever closer to success until one day it’s yours.
Believe in yourself and believe you can achieve your dream. Aim high—way
over the mark! And believe you can hit the mark. It’s impossible to overemphasize
how important this element of peak performance is. If you believe something
is impossible for you, you might as well not even try. But see in your mind’s
eye what you desire with all of your heart, believe without reservation that
you can have it, work incessantly on the process and keep on keeping on—and
one day, as though by magic, your dreams will become realities.
Work incessantly, and always be open to the promptings of your innate subconscious
mind. Wait for that wee small voice to come at an off moment to give direction
to your progress. Do it again and again and again and keep on keeping on. Submit
your desire to your inner self and then listen inwardly as you work toward your
goal, and you may recognize the wee small voice within. Take advantage of this
wisdom within that is in touch with omniscient, omnipresent Infinite Wisdom.
Everything you need to know is in your own innate subconscious mind. Every bit
of knowledge and every resource required to achieve your goal—once you
have identified that goal—is inside you somewhere, waiting to be awakened
and brought into focus. And when you work in concert with your innate subconscious
mind, everything that you need will come to you. The knowledge will come. The
money will come. The friendly people will come. The opportunities will come.
All it takes from you is a burning desire, a Lasting Purpose mindset, focus,
unyielding discipline, selfless sacrifice and persistency. That formula will
buy you anything you desire.
Once you have identified what you truly want in life, a key ingredient to moving
forward with your desires, of course, is a master plan. When you have it, commit
to your goal’s achievement. Burn your bridges. Don’t look back. Don’t
look left or right. Don’t consider compromises. Don’t settle for half
a victory when you are not all the way there yet. Aim high. Shoot for the stars,
and if you land on the moon, be thankful that you’re halfway there. But
then get up and shoot for the stars again. Work, work, work! Then work, work
and work some more!
Fuzzy plans and halfway commitments don’t get the job done. I’ve seen
students come to Life University to begin their studies and start off like rockets,
but then, after a few months, they look more like wet firecrackers. They take
their eye off the vision of the far. Their minds become muddled. They quit seeing
that big picture of themselves as a successful doctor of chiropractic. All they
can see are long days and sleepless nights, pain, fear and frustration. And
they give up.
The ones who don’t give up and, instead, push on to succeed are the ones
who are able to keep their eye on the target. They take the process a step at
a time, making the necessary sacrifices, paying the demanded price and knowing
that the prize of achievement will be theirs at the end of the journey.
Pursuing Your Dreams
All successful people employ a strategy that you’ve heard me emphasize
many times: persistency. Persistency alone is omnipotent. Be persistent! Keep
on keeping on. Never give up. Never, never, never give up. When you give up,
you let go of your goal. You cut the telephone line to Infinite Intelligence.
Your innate subconscious mind is left with no commands. You have to put in the
order, and then wait for your innate subconscious mind to give you the ideas
that lead to your buried treasure. But you have to listen carefully for the
wee small voice so you’ll know where your treasure is and not go off on
a false, time-wasting trail.
These directions and new ideas often come in the form of thought flashes. Watch
for them. Listen to your heart. Trust innate, even when it contradicts your
conscious, educated mind. In fact, it is often wise to trust innate especially
when your thought flashes contradict your educated mind. Most of the great achievers
know this secret. They are the ones who produced the automobile, the airplane,
the light bulb, the telephone, the computer, television, the Internet, rockets
to the moon, satellites, cell phones, chiropractic—and the list goes on.
Every time somebody comes up with a bright new idea, they have dozens of people
with no vision, no faith and no imagination to tell them it will never work.
When a young Royal Air Force pilot, Frank Whittle, tried to get help in 1929
in developing his idea for a jet engine, all of his superiors told him that
it would never work. But he believed in himself and in his idea, he persistently
pursued his goal, and eventually, in 1941, he saw his dream come true when a
plane powered by one of his jet engines was successfully tested.
Later, just as Orville Wright in his later years had the pleasure of taking
the controls of a Lockheed Constellation, a retired Sir Frank Whittle had the
pleasure of flying in the same kind of advanced jet aircraft he had envisioned.
His fellow passengers applauded him when the captain introduced him as the inventor
of the jet engine that was making their comfortable ride possible. Imagine what
a great moment that was for him!
Whittle knew the secret. Aim high! Tell yourself, “I CAN, I WILL, I MUST!”
Capture the magic of believing in yourself and in your goal. Be willing to make
painstaking preparation and then put in the long days and sleepless nights it
takes to make your dream a reality. Focus on the task at hand. Be persistent.
And you will succeed.
Finally, let me remind you that the greatest obstacle you ever have to overcome
is in your own mind. Fear is your biggest enemy. Fear can defeat you before
you ever get started. Many young chiropractors settle for a third-rate location
and poor equipment because they are afraid to go into debt to get their business
started. Then they wonder why they don’t succeed.
If you have the basic native endowment and you truly believe in yourself and
your chiropractic idea, then have faith that the money will come to pay the
bills, knowing all you have to do is believe and work, work, work. Take the
plunge! To hell with fear! Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead! Take the money
from those checks you can see in your mind’s eye. Burn your bridges. Make
it impossible to turn back and fail. And you will succeed. In fact, with that
attitude, you’re already successful. You have put innate in charge, furnishing
the desire and ambition so you will not fail. The ideas will come when needed.
The resources will come. Then success will come.
Say this: “I AM SUCCESSFUL! I AM SUCCESSFUL NOW! RIGHT NOW! THIS MINUTE!
I CAN! I WILL! I MUST!”
Don’t worry about going broke. So what if you lose all your money? Just
start over! That’s what I did—many times! Don’t worry about getting
sick. Don’t worry about dying. Don’t worry about getting old. Don’t
worry about being embarrassed. Concentrate on the things you have the power
to control: your mind, your body, your goals, your desire, your belief, your
faith, your commitment and your persistency.
As the Bible tells us, “Perfect love casteth out fear.” When you learn
what Lasting Purpose love really is, and you practice loving, serving and giving
out of your own abundance every day of your life, then fear will have no power
over you.
You cannot love and fear at the same time. If you see a tiger running at you
or a big tractor-trailer bearing down on you at 90 miles per hour, fear will
serve your needs in those temporary situations. But, when you’re working
on building a practice, building a career, building any kind of business, excelling
in a sport or achieving any kind of worthy, positive goal, then fear is a condition
that can block the best functioning of your mind. Get rid of it. Don’t
think about it. Leave it alone. Give it the old heave-ho. Replace it with Lasting
Purpose love and move on toward certain achievement and success.
Lasting Purpose love energizes you, helps focus your vision and tunes you in
with your personal innate. It gives you total confidence and leaves no room
for fear or doubt.
The DELPP training program will be a system that will help millions of people
to be their best, most-achieving and happiest self. It will help people get
tuned in to life and success, and we’ll continue to perfect it and develop
it so the program will be helpful to people of all ages and in all walks of
life. Whether you’re a teenager trying to figure out what to do with your
life, an 80-year-old trying to get some more out of life, or anywhere inbetween,
DELPP principles will help you on your way.
The world environment is becoming more challenging by the minute. Just as a
hostile environment imposed a “survival-of-the-fittest” syndrome in
the beginning of humankind’s history on this earth, we’ll be seeing
the same kind of phenomenon — with a 21st century twist. The easy times
of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, when all you needed to succeed was a pinch of
education and a handful of ambition, are gone. Nowadays, unless you are physically,
mentally, spiritually and technologically prepared to meet the competition and
win, you’ll be swallowed up in a tar pit of complexities and feeble excuses.
You must be sharp, and DELPP training shows you how to be sharp. The future
will demand that survivors have DELPP skills and abilities to cope with new
challenges.
You have a chance now to be whatever you want to be. This is the first day of
the rest of your life. You will be what you choose to be. Choose wisely. Be
a champion. Be a persistent achiever of the goals you have set. Be the best
of the best.
About the author: Sid E. Williams, B.S., D.C., is founder and president of
Life University.
© Copyright 2002 Today's Chiropractic