Part 2 — What is the prerequisite for you to get what you want?

So what is the prerequisite to getting what you want?

Here was my hint from yesterday. The prerequisite is a “bad news — good news” sort of thing. First it may seem like bad news, but when you think about it, it is really actually good news.

About ten years ago, I was about to leave my house to go to my martial arts class. At the time, I had only been training about a year.

I gathered my gear and went out into the garage and pressed the button to open the garage door.

Nothing happened. I pressed it again. Still nothing.

So what did I do? 

Not one of my finer moments. I was pissed because I was now going to be late to my class. I went back inside the house and snapped at my wife “what did you do to the garage door?”

She didn’t understand where my anger was coming from, and politely and quietly said, “I have no idea.”

To which I replied, “Well, you must have done something to it.”  My young daughters looked up at me with some confusion and fear as they watched this exchange.

I stormed back to the garage and tried again to get the door to open, to no avail. I checked the safety sensors and saw no problem. I even tried to open it manually but the door would not budge. So there was no way to get the car out of the garage. I missed class that night.

The next day I called a garage door repair company to come out to the house. The technician found the culprit in about two seconds.

“Your torsion spring is cracked. Right in the middle. No way that door is going to move unless we replace it.”

I didn’t know what a torsion spring was. In case you are wondering also, here’s a photo:

After the technician left, I thought back on what had occurred the previous evening.

The spring had simply failed in accordance with the expected life of the part.

Yet rather than understanding the true nature of the issue, I had lashed out in anger at my family over something that was no one’s fault. I realized that the way I responded to that circumstance was almost the exact pattern of how my father responded to those types of circumstances.

I made a decision in that moment that I wanted to change how I operated.

Not that I needed to change – based on some one else’s desires.

Not that I had to change — to avoid some future consequence.

No, at that moment, I actually wanted to change.

Now when I look back on that episode, it is kind of funny.

I told my wife about it the other day and she didn’t even remember it.

But for me it is crystal clear. The point where I developed a desire to change myself.

Here is the key:

Before you can change your outer world, you must change your inner world. And to change your inner world, “you must want to be different before you can begin to change yourself.” (from The Power of Awareness by Neville Goddard.)

Whatever it is you desire — more sales, more clients, more impact, more love — that desire must be in agreement with your subconscious belief about that desire for you to succeed.

But if it is not in agreement — then you will need to change yourself.

And until you actually want to change yourself, then your efforts will be immensely frustrating.

Seems like bad news — do I really have to do that?

Yes.

But the good news is that now you are empowered to change your life.

And you are actually the only one who can do it.