Belief, Visualisation, and Manifestation

Sir Anthony Hopkins's tweet inspires this blog entry. Mr. Hopkins is, in my opinion, one of the most successful actors. His postings are an inspiration, and it is a reflection of a man who can be a role model for many people who strive to reach their goals.

This video reminded me again that I had learned all these ideas once. In summary: "Think Big, Visualise what you want to achieve, ignore all the background noise, and fulfill your dreams."

In my youth, I explored shamanism as one way to change reality. I learned about ways to explore my mind and that I can perceive reality in multiple ways. Later other thought systems introduced me to the idea that emotions and willpower have energy. People who have a True Will will succeed if they fulfill their vision.

There is a saying: Energy goes where attention flows, and some thought systems even created a formula to describe how one can influence reality with rituals. Factors of this formula were your inner state, your connection with your goals, your conscious awareness, and your subconscious resistance (for the latter two, the less, the better) affect your outcome.

I realized the realization of that idea came in various flavors, and they can be hugely different. Tony Robbins' seminars can be summarised as a repeated mantra to believe in yourself, to think big, and to be passionate about to fulfill your dreams. Tony emphasis action a lot; he separates himself from the just positive thinking movement.

Richard Bandler summed it up in one talk. He said that in his audience, sit people where he sees a big sign labeled problem on their forehead. They attend training to become fixed. They all have big dreams, but in a way, something within them is screwed and prevents them from achieving their goals. They hope that a seminar can fix them (or they come to a workshop to learn to fix other people. Those who visit these events to be fixed and to study at the same time how to fix other people are not uncommon as well).

Critics claim that all these seminars (call them NLP or any other form of self-help or self-motivation) stir up emotions and do not address the real problems. Academic in psychology claim that NLP has only a show effect, but to improve your life, you need a more prolonged treatment by someone who has mastered an academic education).

NLP people claim that the "psycho the rapists" only talk about problems, not about solutions. NLP and all system derived work strongly with unconsciousness, and these strong emotions can change our brains. And of course, both parties claim that the other party is only interested in making money.

Demand for Big Dreams

In the 80ties or 90ties, many people advocated that it is better to play a role and stay where you are and fulfill a duty.

Times have changed since them. We are now in a time of self-fulfillment, mainly backed by social media where everyone can promote him- or herself. Think Big is also part of a business, founders name companies after this phrase and Amazon added Think Big to their leadership principles.

No wonder that the market is full of coaches you try to tell you to visualize. Many people come up with a step by step guide to be successful. They all have one thing in common: The more you believe, the more energy you put in, the more you will manifest. And if you have self-doubt, some people help you to detect what blocks you.

Dunning Kruger Effect + Mirror Neurons as Proof of Concept?

Every one of us knows people we would classify as not so smart, but who are hugely successful. They seem to have one thing in common. They are tremendously convinced about themselves and their abilities. And this seems to make also others confident (Mirror Neurons). The Dunning Kruger effect makes them not to question their skills.

This experience can be frustrating for people who see themselves smarter than those "idiots." They often think about this one person - male or female does not matter - who simply talked a lot. They kept on talking and till they got what they need. In tests at the university, they might have been terrible, and often they do not get things done without the help of others, but still, they are successful. They talked their way up in the hierarchy. Envy can be horrible, sometimes.

The Vicious or Virtuous Cycles

If some of us know have thought about an imposter, some of us might know have thought that there must be something around visualization and manifestation. How else would have made some less intelligent individual career?

This thought can be dangerous. If we believe that our thoughts trigger a self-fulfilling prophecy, we can either enter a vicious or virtuous cycle. In a positive feedback loop, we attract good things, and in a negative one, we will make our worries come true. And each event will confirm our belief and will make our thought pattern stronger. In the next step, you start analyzing everything around you, and you look for cues that trigger success or failure. Some might then end up even say that my introduction with the part of "can be dangerous" already is a manifestation and implies that we will think that these ideas are dangerous. I would not wonder if some esoteric would now claim that I endangered his right for spiritual fulfillment by hinting at the danger of thoughts.

Skepticism

If we look at other views, such as Stoicism and Buddhism, we see a different approach. In a way, these ideas expect that things go wrong, and it is good to adjust. In Stoicism, we have even a concept of negative visualization so that we prevent Hedonic Adaption and stay happy as we are. Dharma is the Buddhist concept of the endless circle of human craving that makes us unhappy.

Their guide is to break out by finding happiness and tranquility in yourself. With that, we are not craving anymore, and we are happy because of ourselves. We gain the ability to enjoy the moment, and we do not need external stimuli for happiness anymore. From that point of view, energy-driven people like Tony Robbins a highly overturned being on steroids.

Business Context

I was up to 2013 very much interested in all this kind of energizing your vision. Up to 2013, my focus was not so much on IT-Entrepreneurship, so I cannot say if I was successful.

With kids, many things changed. Kids in a way bring you down to earth, and then there are those moments, where you see an ad of a 20-year-old NLP Trainer or some Yoga teacher. They all tell you: I lead a life of happiness and fulfillment. Give me some money, and I share my blessed life with you. Then you smirk and say: "Wait until you have kids, and then we see if you are still so happy to travel from one Ashram to the next."

But then again: What if there is something real about it? What if, if startup ideas win or fail because of attitude. Do you have to be obsessed with your vision to be successful? Many say yes. This thought is then the moment where a stoic mind might argue that maybe it all is not worth it, and it would be better just to pick an income that is high enough to have some financial security. A stoic mindset prepares you also to stay resilient if things do not work out expected.

Final Thought

Some people may think, if they think about something, it is like an order from the universe. Others might say that vision+ hard work equals success. A third person says it is what you believe it is, and with you have a full explanation for religions as a side effect.

I am convinced that being convinced has an impact. I have seen it in uncountable talks. An engineer with a bit lower explains a situation, and in every sentence, you feel the doubt. This person knows what all can go wrong, and while he talks about a solution, he still wonders if he forgot something. If there is next to him a manager, who is convinced that all is good, the manager is more convincing.

I need a mindset to create some larger projects that I plan to do; if I start doubting myself from the start, I most likely will not be able to finish a prototype of what I do. So I decided to accept Mr. Hopkins's advice and to start thinking bigger again.