Last night I went to a talk at YES Group Borders and came across 2 phrases that I have heard of countless of times before. My brain responded with a “I know that” and my interest started to dwindle. ” The Law of Attraction”. ” Your thoughts create your future” . OK if the law was true, show me the proof! AND SHOW DID HE! (all quotes are by Richard Batey)
Richard Batey – Tattoo artist, speaker, inventor, designer, dad
Richard Batey stood in front of the crowd tense at first, sharing the story of his childhood and how he did not do well at school, how he did not conform to the mold of a good student and how he saw the world in his own ways, and lived it through his creative slant. I wondered where this story was going, and I began to wonder how could this child possibly be so fearless and so bold to live his interests, and I remembered how I had once lived mine too.
I could see it was possible.
Richard was obsessed with cars and drawing and the image of fire. He was obsessed with creating objects and eventually creating beautiful images. He would lose hours exploring what he loved. I admired him for continuing to live that way all the way through childhood. He seems to have this deep faith that he was meant to do what he enjoyed, that it is OK to do what he loves despite all the objection around him. I remember a long time ago I lived this way too, free from limitations as I stood in front of audiences to tell stories and recite poems at the age of 6, I earned my first wage at 10 doing a voice over of a cartoon, I spoke to strangers because I wanted to make friends…… and then I learnt the concept of lack, the concept of comparison and the concept of non-deserving.
All the time I knew I would be learning the skills to do the things to achieve this dream.
Richard was no car designer, but he taught himself how to weld and spray paint, and eventually got to the top of his game by competing amongst the nation’s best. He started already KNOWING that he had much to learn. He took action knowing the gap needed closing. HE DID NOT WAIT FOR ALL THE DUCKS TO LINE UP. He set a goal and went for it fearlessly. From this I learnt that success is created along the way, it is earned. Waiting to be ‘skilled enough’ before beginning to pursue a dream is an excuse or a blame. I will never be good enough to start because there is no such thing. There is no qualification required to begin acting on any dream. It is about taking the first step.
It ain’t what you do it is how you do it.
Richard reminded me that we all have our place in this world, we can sell the same thing or service but when we operate out of passion, whatever you do works. I got reminded that when someone is in their flow, they will offer to humanity what is uniquely theirs to offer and people will want a piece of it, because it originates from creative passion and not greed.
Learn the rules of the game. If you are going to play the game you have to know the rules. I failed because I have not learnt the rules of the game.
Our modern world is made up of sets of rules. There are rules governing economy, rules within cultures, rules about human behavior, rules controlling bodily functions and metabolism. If you want to succeed in this game of life, then learn the rules. Start young and keep learning. Accept that you are smart but the more you become aware of information the better at maneuvering life you get.
Everyone is going to hit the bottom. Prepare yourself for the hit and prepare yourself for where you will bounce to. It is the attitude that you hit the bottom that decides how high you are going to bounce and the goal is the direction. If you are a deflated ball, you will roll into the gutter. You HAVE to bounce not roll, and having a goal is going to drive you to bounce.
This has GOT to be my favourite quote of the night. A failure is not a failure unless you say it is one. One thing I noticed about Richard is that he never undermines himself. His reply to a ‘failure’ is : “what did I not know about that? What have I got to learn to succeed next time?” How different is that to our usual : “My life sucks, I always get into these situations, people always do this to me, I have tried and it is too difficult, this is just the way my life is” (ok this is not a quote from Richard)
So my friends, you may be thinking by now…. What has the Law of Attraction got to do with all those?
The Law of Attraction in one sentence basically states that anything you can think of will happen in your life – good or bad. Richard demonstrated how his clear thought of a goal in his head has lead to situations and people that have entered his life to take him closer to his dreams. He showed us that deep faith in your dreams and acting in the direction of your passions will ultimately lead you to a life you enjoy living, and one of abundance. It is possible. What you want is possible. You just need to see it in your minds eye, visualise, believe , feel it in you, ACT when the opportunities present themselves to you, continue to be open to what could be possible and live life boldly. It is ok to have some fear but you must ride the waves, and eventually you will learn how to predict the waves and prepare for them better, or perhaps you will just learn how to bounce back harder, and that is where fear dissolves, and we get to live in freedom.
What a beautiful thought this is.
Freedom Choice Coaching 