The Purpose of Wishful Thinking
I have always seen the glass “Half-Full”. I’ve gone farther in proclaiming that the glass is always full! Positive thoughts have been proven to bring positive results. Just ask Rismond Exantus, he was the Haitian recently pulled from the rubble of a hotel destroyed by the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Rismond had been buried alive under 20 feet of wood and concrete for 11 days. Experts agree that after 72 hours the chances of survival begins to quickly diminish, yet Rismond Exantus told The Associated Press from his hospital bed soon after the rescue. “But every night I thought about the revelation that I would survive.”
Is positive thinking and wishful thinking the same? The answer is no. Positive thinking denotes an optimistic and healthy outlook on whatever life brings your way. This is good to have. Wishful thinking, on the other hand, is the process used by many, including myself; to gently pacify our minds as we wait for “someday” to come and give us our hopes and dreams. THIS IS NOT GOOD.
Wishful thinking robs us of our goals. I know this first hand. Many times I have implored the art of wishful thinking. Using it like a heady drug to sooth my mind while I sit and do nothing to achieve my goals in life. As long as “someday” was coming, there was no need to do anything today. The regrets I have concerning my past always contained one common denominator, the element of wishful thinking.
Many of you have goals. There are things we all want to achieve in life. Motivational speakers are famous for saying that all you have to do is think positive thoughts and your goals will be achieved. They use the words positive thinking, but many of us have been caught in the trap of actually using wishful thinking instead. The fact is, no amount of positive or wishful thinking will achieve your goals. Achievement comes from action.
Action is the antithesis of wishful thinking. The act of writing down a goal and an action plan to achieve that goal is only the first step to success. The second step you take is the most important. That is putting your plan into action! However, most skip the second step altogether, instead they rest on their laurels of having a good plan and goal, thus hoping the universe will deliver their dreams to them. This, by the way, is nothing more than wishful thinking. Action trumps wishful thinking! Taking massive action will give you massive results, but taking no action will give you NO RESULTS. It is one thing to be a dreamer, but an entirely different thing to be a daydreamer.
It is important to have positive thoughts but that alone will not achieve your goals. Rismond Exantus knew to think positive but he also took action. He said he survived initially by diving under a desk when the rubble started to fall around him. Trapped in such a small space, he had to lie on his back the entire time and survived by drinking cola, beer and cookies. “I would eat anything I found.”
The purpose of wishful thinking is to create regrets. The purpose of taking action is to create results. Next time you are sitting there cooing over your goals, ask yourself this question. “What have I done today to get me closer to achieving my goals?” If your answer is nothing… then that’s wishful thinking.
Jeff Compton, The REAL DEAL Speaker™
