"I Can Do That"
watch for the instant of self-realization that reveals your aim
Experience has taught me that no single factor under fitful human control proves of greater consequence than one passionately felt and clearly formed aim.
Here is a powerful, simple exercise which may make all the difference in helping you identify your true and practical purpose.
I hear from many people who say they have difficulty finding one overarching aim.
Some write that they feel divided among several aims, or they worry that their aim is not financially feasible, or they lack the training.
These are valid concerns. But: an aim, in nascence, must not be bound to resourcesβor nothing would ever get pursued.
Training, while limited by myriad factors, can often be cultivated and drilled at. I did not publish my first book until age forty-three. I did not appear on television until forty-one. I did not deliver my first public talk until forty. I already had kids and a demanding corporate publishing job with zero parental money. I am not exceptionalβjust goddamn hungry.
I urge: begin from the idea. The idea must be focused. Diffusion depletes energyβthat is a natural law as much as a psychical one.
Answers can be a long time coming. When they come, they are usually simple. So much so that they can slip past us. Do not let them.
Watch for emotionally pitched and focused moments when you see someone doing something remarkable, at the peak of his or her abilitiesβand from a place deep within you think: βI can do that.β
Such a moment is usually a unifying instant of physical, mental, and emotional awareness and stillness. All other stimuli fleetingly fade as soft background noise.
Many artists, speakers, writers, and exemplary people mark their start from when they witnessed someone performing or expressing with prowess or production, and they seriously and maturely told themselves: βI can do that.β
Like a conversion experience or moment of clarity, the episode brought purposeβand objectively altered their life.
To illustrate this, I offer four portraits. They may surprise you. In them, you may discover yourself.
