Sarah Tan – Personal Development

Have you ever wondered whether you can be a successful businessman, or a Nobel Prize winner? There is actually a way to help you reach your goal quickly. That is to hold a party where people dress up as what they envision themselves as in five years time.

If I want to be a successful author, what I can do is to design a book cover, with my face on it, of a best selling title and put it over another book, and bring it around. If I want to be a Singapore Olympic swimmer, I could put on my swimming costume and wear my track suit, complete with goggles and swimming cap, and walk around with gold medals hanging from my neck. For those who want to be superstars, they could go and get a makeover, and walk down the red carpet. What the host could do is to hire people to pretend they are reporters, or people from the paparazzi to make the party come alive.

When the guests arrive at the party, they should be in character, and talk to each other like how they would if they are in that position. For example, if I aim to be a successful San Diego plastic surgeon, I would be discussing the latest technology in liposuction or other reconstructive surgery, and gently pointing out how people could improve their looks through removal of eyebags. If I were a successful lawyer, I could give tips to the author on how to protect his copyrights, and get the author to interview the swimmer so that he could write the biography.

It may seem a little ridiculous, but when you are able to visualise yourself as a real person in your dream occupation, and get others to agree, it helps to reframe your mind that it is possible to do so.

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In The Next Internet Millionaire episode 5, I was struck by a point that was made. Let me paraphrase it: Why is a bush with so many thorns and just a few roses known as a rose bush and not a thorn bush? I am amazed by this simple question about positive thinking. People should look at the beauty of things and apply that technique to their lives instead of constantly dwelling on the hurt and ugliness of things around us.

There are many events that may make us feel demoralised, but our response to that should be to see the beauty that event brings. There may be new opportunities that spring up when we think something bad has happened. There is a saying that misery loves company, but I think that the opposite is true too. People may bond over setbacks, but after a certain point, it gets too much to bear. Conversely, happy people become happier when they are together and the self-confidence they have will just rub off other people.

We can choose to see what we want: a half-filled glass of water, or a half-empty glass of water. I have never really understood the power of positive thinking, until in recent years when I started to spend more time reading about motivation and positive thinking.

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