Treat Yourself How You Wish to Be (WD)

The greatest gift that any of us are granted is the gift of our imagination. Every single thing that now exists was once imagined, and the corollary of this assertion is that everything that is ever going to exist in the future must first be imagined. In my role as a father and a teacher, I felt it was incumbent upon me to help my children understand and apply the phenomenal implications of this basic notion. “If you want to accomplish anything,” I would tell them, “you must first be able to expect it of yourself. If you can’t imagine it, you can’t create it.” 

What I have noticed in my life is that most people do not have even an inkling of the power that exists within them if they learn to apply the extraordinary capacity of their own minds. I have had many long conversations with Serena about this very thing. It was the inspiration behind her story of her vision board, as well as her own decision to reprogram herself to believe that when she said “just my luck,” she meant her good luck, rather than the opposite idea that most people have adopted. Whenever my children and I would be driving and looking for a parking place, they frequently heard me say, “I have a spot to park—be on the lookout for it.” They never once heard me say, “With my luck, we’ll never find a place to park.” 

From being able to produce a parking place to creating a one-on-one meeting with Oprah Winfrey to manifesting a perfect relationship, it all boils down to how one uses this Divine gift of their imagination. There simply are no limits. 

I told my children repeatedly and incessantly that when they place something into their imaginations, and hold on to it as an inner vision as if it were affixed with superglue, that is how they align with their source of being. It is a way of being a co-creator with God, who is responsible for all of creation. This is how they connect with their senior partner, and this is how the whole process of manifestation unfolds. 

I learned a long time ago from one of my mentors, Dr. Abraham Maslow, that self-actualized people never, but never, place anything into their imaginations that they don’t want to harden into an objective fact. They use this great gift of their imagination to keep it always centered on what they intend to have manifest into their lives. 

I often told my children a story I made up about a person who was given a million dollars to go out and purchase anything they wanted. When that person went to the mall, they spent their money on everything they didn’t like, and asked to have it sent to their house. Then when they arrived home, they asked, “Why is my house filled with so many things that I despise?” And the answer I would shout is, “Because they’re crazy! They were given currency to purchase whatever they wanted, and they spent all of their money on what they didn’t want.” Then I would tell them that their thoughts are their currency for purchasing what they want—so if they kept their thoughts on what they didn’t want, or what used to be, or what somebody else wanted for them, then they were crazy, too. 

— Dr. Wayne W. Dyer