Are you willing to try it?

I thought I’d do a blog post on the hardest exercise of them all. I’m a bit reluctant to tell you what it is right away, in case I put you off trying it (sometimes even hearing about it scares people off!) The thing is, most people shy away from it totally, even when they know very well what it is, so that gives you some idea how difficult it is. But I just can’t help thinking I might muddy the waters by telling you what it is right away, when I could just as easily tell you a little bit about it first.

First off, let me say this: you don’t need to do this for an extended period of time. I mean, it’s not like some marathon effort, more in the line of high intensity work really. If you devote just a few minutes a day to this exercise it’s almost guaranteed to produce fantastic results. And the bonus is you can do it every day, unlike most exercises. As a matter of fact, the more often you do it, the more you’ll benefit. Even doing it twice a day is good. But that’s assuming you can take the pace. Like I said, it’s a tough exercise.

Am I fit enough?

Good question! Do you have to be in good shape to do it? Well, you have to be in fairly good shape to attempt any advanced exercise, if you don’t want to cop an injury, but again this one’s a bit different. Even if you haven’t done anything strenuous in years, you can take a shot at this. And if you follow my instructions carefully and do it properly, you’ll benefit almost immediately. And no, there’s almost no chance of injury, so you can stop worrying about that.

So what is it then?

Glad you asked. It’s time I stopped faffing about and laid it bare for you. I mean, I can’t really expect you to try it if you don’t even know what it is.

Oh, before I get to that, here’s what a few others have said about it.

“——– is the hardest work there is,
which is probably the reason why so few engage in it” (Henry Ford).

“——– is the hardest and most exhausting of all labor;
and hence many people shrink from it” (Wallace D Wattles).

“You have to work hard to get your ——– clean to make it simple.
But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains” (Steve Jobs)

“——– is easy, acting is difficult,
and to put one’s ——– into action is the most difficult thing in the world.”
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

Okay, time for the big reveal. What is it that is so hard and so exhausting? What is it that is so hard that hardly anyone engages in it, ever? What is it that, if you really ‘get it’, you can move mountains?

The answer is thinking!

But I think … I think all the time!

People like to imagine that they’re thinking all the time, specially these days, with all the benefits of modern technology to assist them. But they’re confusing thinking with mere mental activity. You can be mentally busy sitting on the couch watching Jerry Springer, but Jerry Springer himself would be the first to admit that his show does not encourage thinking (in fact, his show sometime starts with onscreen slogans such as “Another wasted hour of your life that you’ll never get back”, and “Modern technology … completely wasted!”).

Real thinking involves perceiving things clearly and using your brain to make decisions. It involves making comparisons and judgements. It demands that you actively examine things in detail and come to conclusions as the truth of the situation. It involves using your imagination to conjure up images of the way things might turn out, rather than slavishly accepting the way they are.

And that last one, imagining things as they might turn out, that’s the one that’s particularly important. If you can conjure up images of how things will be, when they’re turning out successfully, then you’re well on your way to determining your success. In fact, that work you’ve just been engaged in, visualising your future success, in detail, puts into train the very forces that will virtually guarantee your success.

What’s so difficult about it then?

If you haven’t tried it, a logical question. If you have, you’ll be aware that it’s not at all easy to visualise a successful outcome when the reality you can see all around you is indicating very strongly the exact opposite.

If you’re in financial difficulties and having a hard time putting food on the table for the family, it can be almost impossible to imagine that things will change drastically, and for the better. If someone tried to convince you to do just that you’d probably lose patience with them. How dare they ask you to trust that things will work out okay when you’re out of work, broke, and deep in debt? I know, it can be a tough thing to expect someone to accept. You’re literally surrounded by the ‘truth’ of the situation, that you haven’t any money or any realistic chance of earning any, and someone’s trying to tell you to just imagine things will work out just fine? Ridiculous! Preposterous! Just plain unacceptable!

But that’s where the magic lies, right there. If you can do exactly that, which can seem like the hardest work in the world, you will indeed bring into action powerful unseen forces that will bend the world in your favour. You will be moulding your world and shaping it into a successful outcome, and forging it right out of the horrible mess that surrounds you.

You could be in hospital and suffering the effects of terrible injuries, with the doctors’ words ringing in your ears, telling you you’ll never walk again. And with this monumental work, this imagining that you’re healed, and imagining it in great detail, and experiencing the outcome at an emotional level, you can indeed be on your way to a remarkable upturn in your health.

Are you up for it? Can you cut it?

Time to ask yourself the question … are you up for it? If you had to do this work, every single day, could you handle it? Well you don’t have to. No … you don’t have to undertake this work … you get the chance to undertake it! Quite a difference. This change of perspective can make approaching this tough work seem almost bearable.

You have the option, the opportunity, to do this work. It is difficult. It’s possibly the hardest work you’ll ever do. Many times I’ve intended to do it and shuddered to a stop after a short while, put off by how difficult it’s proved to be. So don’t underestimate the challenge. This isn’t some high intensity physical training that you can take a stab at after taking a few deep breaths. This is infinitely harder. This is tough, the kind of tough that separates the winners from the rest.

Can you do it? I don’t know … do you?

Are you willing to try? Will you take on the challenge?

It might mean at least five minutes concerted effort every single day. And not just flexing and tensing your muscles as hard as you can possibly manage (hard though that can be). No, this is harder, infinitely harder. This entails straining your brain and your imagination. It means you have to reach into your future, your successful future, and see exactly how things are turning out, and how they’re entirely in your favour. And experiencing it all, in advance. And in detail.

If you think it’s not going to be tough, you’re probably not too familiar with this business of thinking. I know I’ve said it again and again, but at the risk of endless repetition I’ll say it once more: thinking the truth, in spite of the ‘reality’ that surrounds you, is possibly the hardest work you can ever undertake.

But if you feel you can handle it, by all means take up the challenge. Start imagining your successful outcomes each and every day. See things working out really, really well, in spite of all the very convincing ‘evidence’ to the contrary. Build up an unshakeable faith in this successful future to such a degree that you can see and feel it, and practically taste it, and not just for those few minutes each day but all the time. That’s what happens … when you invest those few immensely valuable minutes in this practice, sooner or later the effects of it almost inevitably spread out into the rest of the day.

When you achieve this you will be harnessing the superhuman powers we all have access to,
but so few of us ever use.