Look at This Photograph!

The clocks have “sprung” forward and Spring is in the air. Our minds now turn to all of the “possibilities” summer will eventually bring. The taste of warm weather we had a week ago got me fired up and full of energy, like a bear waking from its winter slumber.

I just wrapped up moderating a study group of the book You Were Born Rich by Bob Proctor (let me know if you would like a complimentary pdf copy and I can send you one) and with the change in time and shortly the season, the possibilities I’m thinking about remind me of Bob’s Polaroid Camera Analogy:

I have often likened the human mind and the material world to a polaroid camera and a photograph. For once you have “snapped” a picture, the course for that photograph has been incontrovertibly set. There is a short gestation period which must elapse, but then the photograph must begin to appear; and it will do so, exactly as it had originally been “shot.”

To carry our analogy one step further, I would suggest that the shutter of the camera is quite like the conscious mind, in that it is responsible for “snapping” the picture. Similarly, the camera itself may be likened to the subconscious mind, because it is responsible for “doing the work.” Finally, the photograph is analogous to your results, as it merely shows the world the physical replica of the picture which you have already taken, “with your mind.”

Clearly, if you were to take a picture of the same object - over and over again - you would do nothing more than reproduce the same photograph, over and over again. Yet this is precisely the course which many people set for their own lives. Therefore, you must constantly be reminding yourself, that if you persist in “thinking in reverse,” you will only reproduce the same results in your life, over and over again. If you wish to change this pattern, on the other hand, you must look bravely into the bright future, which lies ahead, and see yourself already doing what you now only dream about doing, “someday.”

Powerful. And when you truly think about it, this is the process we use every minute of every day to run our lives!

From another “perspective” (see what I did there), our senses (sight, sound, taste, touch, smell) are an “always on” motion detector causing our mind to snap pictures.

To improve the picture, we apply filters to the lenses we are using. If we don’t apply a filter to the lens (conscious mind) or don’t realize the filter we are using needs an upgrade (remember the recency bias I wrote about last week), we lose control of the development process.

“Seeing” the picture cause us to take action, or not, depending on how we feel (subconscious mind, or the heart)

We can consciously control but, more often than not, unconsciously LET these thought and idea pictures develop into whatever. So what lenses and filters are you using? Is it time for some good maintenance or maybe an upgrade? Spring signifies new life, new energy, new possibilities. What kind of pictures do you want to develop? Travel? A new home? A new car? A new business? Mark my words, all of it is possible if you have the right camera, lenses, and filters. How do I know? Because I’m doing it! And if I can do it, so can you!

#onyourmark #personalgrowth #listentoyourgut #getinspired

Mark Sampson is a business owner, accountability mentor, and has over 25 years experience serving in the financial planning field. Turning 50 during Covid gave Mark the spark he needed to reboot life on his terms, and revisit the journey to happiness, health and wealth from a different perspective.