Being an End-Result Thinker

 

To overcome blind spots and achieve extraordinary goals, you must become an End-Result Thinker. Once you set a Goal, then your Reticular Activating System (RAS) lets through the information you need to achieve your goal. Let me give you an example of that last principle. The RAS only lets through what you value or see as a threat. When you set a goal, you tell your RAS that you now value anything associated with achieving that goal.

This is why you: Do not wait for the resources first before setting out to achieve a goal.

Sorry for yelling, but this point is crucial.

If you think in terms of having to have the money or resources first, you are doing it backward.

You set the goal first, then look for resources to achieve it.

Let your RAS do the work. Because once you set a goal, once you value it, everything that supports your goal will get through your filters.

I once was asked to conduct a choir in front of thousands of people. I had never conducted a choir before. I had six months to get a choir together and somehow get them ready for a performance.

Even though I had no experience, I agreed. I set the goal trusting that my RAS and AU would help me somehow.

A few days later, I walked through a used book store looking for a mystery novel. As I walked through the Music section, something caught my eye; something that I would have missed at any other time.

A book title jumped out at me: How to Conduct a Choir. I swear this is true. That book helped me greatly.

But I was not content to stop there. I told everyone I knew that I was going to conduct a choir for the first time and that I needed any help I could get. I opened up the RAS of my friends, so that if any of them came upon something, they’d let me know. (The power of networking.)

And someone did. A friend heard about a mutual friend who had once been a vocal coach. I contacted that person and got personal tutoring. She joined the choir, which also helped.

Don’t wait until you have the resources before setting a goal. Stretch yourself. Set a stretch goal, even one that seems unrealistic, and see how life supports you. Here’s an extreme example.

I play piano. In my college days, I didn’t have one. I couldn’t afford to buy or rent one. For the longest time that stopped me from getting a piano. Why? Because I thought (held the picture) that I could only have a piano if I bought or rented one. I thought I needed the money first.

Wrong!

Once I was presented with the picture of being an End-Result Thinker, not thinking I needed the resources first, I gave it a shot.

I began picturing having a piano and looking for a way of getting one that I didn’t have to buy or rent. Once I set the goal, I soon had this thought:

Hey, you know there are probably people out there who have a piano and find it a burden. I could offer to store it for them.

Actually, I thought, there are probably people with two pianos who would love to have me take one off their hands. That way, they would probably let me keep it for years, since they already had one piano.

So at my job as a 7-11 manager (putting myself through college), I began asking all my regular customers who had known me for some time whether they had an extra piano that they would like to have someone store for them.

It took only two weeks. An older gentleman who lived nearby said his wife had two pianos and they had been thinking what to do with them since they needed only one.

I arrived that weekend with a friend and a truck. We walked into a very nice home. One piano was an older black upright Baldwin piano. The other was an even older, beautifully crafted Chickering spinet piano with a top that folded down turning it into a table. It was lovely.

We started heading toward the upright piano, and the man said, No, my wife likes the touch of that piano, please take the Chickering.

It was incredible! Beautiful appearance. Wonderful touch. Bell-like tone. I had that piano in my home for almost five years.

Later, we had a piano in our home for almost 20 years that belonged to someone who had no room for it.

Then we moved and returned the piano. I realized in our new, larger home, we had a lot more space, space that would accommodate a grand piano. I just THOUGHT that, nothing more. Within a month, I received a text from a friend offering to GIVE me her mother’s grand piano if I wanted it. I did. And it sits in my home to this day.

So you see, it wasn’t a matter of Positive Thinking. It was more a matter of End-Result Thinking and applying imaginative exercises.

Thinking differently, not harder.

It required no extra effort. Just a willingness to suspend disbelief and recognize that the possibilities of achieving a particular goal are much wider than we often believe. We just have to think from the End, As If.

I knew there was a way to get a piano without buying or renting one.

I set the goal. I saw it, I felt it, I acted as if it were a done deal.

I got the piano within a couple of weeks.

Try it. Pick any instrument you’ve always wanted, for you or your child. You will be amazed.

Published in Education
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  1. Mark Alexander Inactive
    Mark Alexander
    @MarkAlexander

    This post assumes some knowledge from three previous posts:

    The RAS: https://ricochet.com/924194/blind-sports-and-the-secret-of-the-reticular-activating-system/

    The Subconscious Repository: https://ricochet.com/934433/the-subconscious-repository/

    The Adaptive Unconscious: https://ricochet.com/938339/the-adaptive-unconscious/

    • #1
  2. Nohaaj Coolidge
    Nohaaj
    @Nohaaj

    I really love this series!  Thank you for the continued posting.  I also share with my wife whose passion is learning more about development, brain functions and behaviors. 

    • #2
  3. Gossamer Cat Coolidge
    Gossamer Cat
    @GossamerCat

    Mark Alexander:

    This is why you: DO NOT WAIT FOR THE RESOURCES FIRST BEFORE SETTING OUT TO ACHIEVE A GOAL.

    Sorry for yelling, but this point is crucial.

    If you think in terms of having to have the money or resources first, you are doing it backwards.

    You set the goal first,
    then look for resources to achieve it.

    That is very valuable advice.  I will pass it on.  Chance favors the prepared mind. 

    • #3
  4. David Foster Member
    David Foster
    @DavidFoster

    Sort of like the quote sometimes attributed to Goethe:

    Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back– Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.

    ….which Goethe did not actually ever say; however, the passage was apparently based on this genuine Goethe quote:

    Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
    Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!

    I think men and women of action implicitly understand the idea that “A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way”…whereas those who are not people of action can imagine only the unforeseen problems (as well as the foreseen ones) that would issue from the decision.

    OTOH, it is also necessary to decide that some goals cannot be achieved, or achieved only at the price of unacceptable risk, and should not be attempted. For example, in the Hudson River airline accident, if Captain Sullenberger had set a goal of landing at the airport on the other side of the river, instead of in the river, it is likely that most of the people on the plane, and some on the ground, would have been killed.

    • #4
  5. navyjag Coolidge
    navyjag
    @navyjag

    Way too deep for this accounting major and lawyer. Did bring me back to painful memories of being a 10 year old having to take piano lessons when I would rather be playing baseball.  Never learned the piano. And only slightly better at baseball. I could shoot a basketball. 

    • #5
  6. She Member
    She
    @She

    Gosh, this reminds me of my granddaughters favorite movie.  I know, if I just think hard enough, I’ll remember the name.  Great post.

    • #6
  7. Gary Robbins Member
    Gary Robbins
    @GaryRobbins

    David Foster (View Comment):

    Sort of like the quote sometimes attributed to Goethe:

    Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back– Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.

    ….which Goethe did not actually ever say; however, the passage was apparently based on this genuine Goethe quote:

    Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
    Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!

    I think men and women of action implicitly understand the idea that “A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way”…whereas those who are not people of action can imagine only the unforeseen problems (as well as the foreseen ones) that would issue from the decision.

    OTOH, it is also necessary to decide that some goals cannot be achieved, or achieved only at the price of unacceptable risk, and should not be attempted. For example, in the Hudson River airline accident, if Captain Sullenberger had set a goal of landing at the airport on the other side of the river, instead of in the river, it is likely that most of the people on the plane, and some on the ground, would have been killed.

    You beat me to it.  The quote is from W.H. Murray in “The Scottish Himalayan Expedition.”  I was first exposed to this quote by Werner Erhard.  You are also right, the quote from Murray does not include the extraneous “Begin it it.”  

    https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/722289-until-one-is-committed-there-is-hesitancy-the-chance-to

     

    • #7
  8. Gary Robbins Member
    Gary Robbins
    @GaryRobbins

    Mark Alexander (View Comment):

    This post assumes some knowledge from three previous posts:

    The RAS: https://ricochet.com/924194/blind-sports-and-the-secret-of-the-reticular-activating-system/

    The Subconscious Repository: https://ricochet.com/934433/the-subconscious-repository/

    The Adaptive Unconscious: https://ricochet.com/938339/the-adaptive-unconscious/

    Thank you so much for the references.  This post is an example of why I prize my Ricochet membership.  I hope that this is named as the Ricochet Member Post of the week!

    • #8
  9. iWe Coolidge
    iWe
    @iWe

    Fantastic post. Thank you!

    • #9
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