One summer, my son Michael and I were visiting my Uncle Jack down in Florida. We drove to get something to eat. As I was sitting at the drive-through window, I happened to notice a trail of ants walking up and down the concrete wall. They were busy, marching along in their formation, obviously doing something that was important in their ant world.
As I stared at them, I started to wonder what they “thought” of their world. Did they ever venture off of this wall? Did they know that anyplace else existed beyond this building—that just across the parking lot there were trees and grass, then another building, and so on? I sat there thinking, “If I were one of these ants, and I didn’t know any better, I might think that this wall was the entire world.”
Sometimes, we can have this type of small, nearsighted thinking. As we go through our lives, we have to remember the possibility that there is much more to our world than just that little patch of concrete that we’re on at the time. Our lives can expand only to the degree that we allow our minds to expand. If you’re walking through your life telling yourself, “This is all there is,” I can assure you that will become true for you.
Have you ever heard the story about the two friends who were out fishing? One of the two noticed something very interesting about the way the other one was choosing which fish he would keep, so he asked him about it. “Why is it that every time you catch a really big fish, you throw it back, but when you catch the small ones, you keep them?” His friend answered, “My frying pan is too small for those big fish.” Imagine how many big fish you’re throwing away because you view your life as a small frying pan. How many opportunities are you letting pass by? How many awesome ideas are you telling yourself could never happen? How many exciting journeys are you not taking? How many potentially amazing relationships are you never even attempting to start?
A life full of limited thinking is not a life that’s worth smiling about. Instead, you’ve got to rebel against that automatic response system and throw open the doors to possibility. History has taught us that many people have accomplished things that were first considered out of this world. As a matter of fact, not only were they successfully brought into reality, but they have actually been surpassed by even more “unbelievable” advances. My point here is to illustrate to you just how easily our minds will default to limited thinking. Allowing our minds to dictate the things we believe we can do will always hold us back from our true potential.
Let go of the limited thinking and turn off the “automatic” switch when you see it go on. I love this quote by Christopher Reeve, “At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable.” There’s never been a better time to change things up and make a life worth smiling about. Give it a try. We’re here to help!
Darryl Davis, bestselling author of “How to Become a Power Agent in Real Estate”and owner of Darryl Davis Seminars, has trained and coached over 100,000 real estate professionals around the globe for more than 27 years. He is the founder of the Next Level® real estate training system, The Power Program®, which has helped agents double their production over their previous year. For more information, and the new agent tools that can help take you to your Next Level®, please contact darryl@darrylspeaks.com or visit www.ThePowerProgram.com/NewAgentSuccess
