Can Adults Use Childlike Methods to Achieve Their Goals?

Remember when you were a child and you wanted something special? Can you think back to that time when there was actually something that you did not have but you wanted it so badly that you were consumed with thinking of how you would get it? Did you put pictures of that object on your wall or some other place where you could see it often? Did you live nearby where the item was on display? Did you find yourself visiting that location so you could see it? Perhaps it was something a friend had and you also wanted one. Childhood wants often turned into presents or purchases made just to please the child.

How did that happen? Not many children work for what they get, yet most children in the USA have many extra things that somehow they manage to get. Are their parents as fortunate? Do they have everything they want? Perhaps it is it the parents' goal to furnish their children with anything they desire as long as the children are relentless in their own way of making their desires known.

Try to remember the steps you took as a child to get what you wanted to have in your life. As a child you were able to somehow get things you wanted without a job or any real means of paying it. What did you do to get that bike you wanted? Did you have to buy your first car, or was it a gift? How many times did your parents listen to your suggestions before they made a major purchase? Did they pick the colors you wanted?

What do you think the reasons were that allowed you to get the things you wanted as a child? Do you think you could use the same child-like thinking to achieve even greater results as an adult? Several of the most successful people in the world use similar child-like behaviors on a more adult scale to reach their goals and to get what they want out of life.

Can this be summed up as Positive Thinking? I believe it can be easily summed up as positive thinking with a definite use of visualization techniques.
Well before you discount this as some sort of new age mumbo jumbo hocus pocus and click the" X button" maybe you should really think about this for a moment. Why was life so much easier as a child? For most of us in the USA we have never known starvation, or what it is to lack many of the necessities people in other nations lack daily. Yes, I believe we are definitely blessed when we are born in the USA. Why is that?

Did our founding fathers have a dream that has been passed down from generation to generation? Did our parents have a work ethic that drove them in pursuit of their dreams and goals no matter what they had to endure? Maybe that work ethic did not make them rich. Many died in their pursuit of the American Dream of Freedom. The founding fathers of the USA were successful in their combined goal, and they beat the odds in their relentless never give up drive to have a nation where people could live freely.

It is not my intention to make this a political essay. However I am just considering why the USA has a lifestyle where even our poorer citizens can rise above it if they choose to. Maybe it is more than choice though. I feel that people have to be taught or shown how to change their thinking to really break away from the future that they feel they somehow deserve and move on to getting the life they would want. Too many people settle for things and give up on their dreams.
They drown their dreams in other pursuits. Why do some people have it all and others have nothing?

Visualization strategies are not new. They have been around forever. More and more people are writing articles that state that "Imagination is the Key". Even Jimi Hendricks used those words and then expanded on it to explain some of his creativity. Imagination and Visualization go hand in hand. Think back to your childhood memories. Remember when you wrote out your Christmas wish list? When you made that list you wrote down what you wanted. Did you include your wish for World Peace (humor here)? When you wrote down what you wanted were you specific?

If you wanted a Red Bike, did you ask for just a Bike? I bet you put down the details or described them so that Santa would know exactly what you wanted. Either that or Santa's helpers knew exactly what make and model and color of bike you wanted. Think of the television commercials that children memorize when watching their favorite shows. Do they know the difference between the sugar coated fruity oats and plain Cheerios? Which to they want, the colorful fruity cereal or the plain yellow box?

Once a child makes up his or her mind that they want something, they have a fierce determination to get it. They will point it out to their parents when they see it. They will have their parents and friends look at the pictures in the magazine, or the ad on television or the person they see with it as you go for a walk or a ride in your car with them. When they shut their eyes they can see what they want and imagine what it is like to own it.

It is too bad that when most of us reach adulthood and settle into a routine of making a living, we forget what we did as a child to get what we wanted in a timely manner. Is it ever too late to change to strive for something better if we really want it? Does Imagination and Visualization work for adults too? Who is going to get us what we imagine and visualize? Do you ask yourself; how does this happen for the other guy and not for me?

Have you asked yourself questions like the ones in the preceding paragraph? There are answers for those questions and more. The first thing that we must work on is our choices. There is work involved in gaining back that childhood belief system. We must forget all the times we were told "no" and begin to dream and imagine again. Limiting thoughts give limiting results. It is true.

The first step to regaining that childhood belief system where you believe that anything is possible might take a bit of reprogramming. When the child is little we think that anything is possible for them to achieve. We tell them that they might be the next President of the USA, or the person who will find the cure for cancer, or the next greatest athlete. The sky is the limit for the child, there is nothing that they can not accomplish for this is the land of opportunity where dreams do come true. It seems that once the child enters school and the competition with others starts that all of a sudden limiting thoughts are imposed upon the child's dreams. The grading, and the limiting words, and the negative comments where one child is measured against the other in a cut and dry manner tend clip the wings of freedom of imagination. All of a sudden there is doubt that the child can do and become anything that they can imagine. Society plants seeds of doubt into all of us.

Several adults have survived public schooling and gone on to do great things in spite of the fact that they might have been told that they were stupid and would never amount to anything. Several people are able to rise up against any negativity that has been thrown at them. However others do not. They carry the scars with them long into adulthood. The wounds that they were not smart enough to reach their dreams. Some parents pass this on to their children at early ages. This is so damaging. However I hear these words all too often. I hear parents tell me that they could never do something so their child probably can not. This grates on me like fingernails on sand paper. Now the child has a reason and a belief that they can not succeed because their parents did not. Since their parent fell into the same belief system probably by an adult when they were young, they pass it on to their children. Maybe it is time to end this limiting behavior.

If you are not happy with the limits that life has set upon you. If you have given up on dreams, but somehow you are here reading this article, then maybe you are looking for a way to get back your beliefs that you can have something better. It is never too late to change. It is never too late to reawaken the Imagination and Visualization techniques you knew as a child. There is enough of everything to go around. There is enough happiness, enough money, enough food, and enough of whatever you desire in life. However if you have not been getting what you want, you have to realize that it is up to you to make some changes.

Nothing will change in your life unless you take the steps to make it happen. You can make a list of your goals. You can read books or visit websites that will help you to get started. Expect to succeed and find the tools to help you get there. Start small and think Big. There are several resources on this subject and I will list a few at the end of this article to help you get started. Be grateful for what you have because it has led you here. The longest journey starts with the first step. Do something everyday to take you towards your goal, and change limiting thoughts to the fierce determination that the child in you once had and can have again.