“Just as the tiny acorn contains within it a mighty oak tree, you have within you greatness beyond your wildest imagination.”

J.Sewell Perkins

WHAT YOU DON’T USE – YOU LOSE

This is one of those sayings that have been around for as long as I can remember. It doesn’t really matter where it came from. What’s important is that the point it makes rings true on many levels.

It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about our muscles, our minds or our skills, if we don’t use them, we lose them. By the same token, one who has no real muscles, who has not really developed his mind or lacks basic life skills can begin where he or she is right now and within months change the picture completely.

The problem is that we tend to look at where we are today and decide that that is our future. That’s true only if we don’t change what we’re doing and our thoughts about it.

There’s an old story, THE PAUPER, THE BULL AND THE PRINCESS. It’s about a young man of limited means, a pauper by all standards, who lived in a kingdom in which there ruled a king who had a very beautiful daughter. All the young men of the king’s court dreamed of marrying the princess. Our pauper had that dream as well but his job was cleaning out the king’s stables. He decided that is position in life ruled out the possibility of his even being able to even look upon the beautiful, young princess.

The king had decided what sort of husband he wanted for his daughter and to that end he created a competition for the princess’ hand in marriage. The competition was straight forward. He would observe all the young men of the kingdom and in one year he would choose the strongest, most fit young man to marry his daughter.

All the young men of the king’s court were fit and strong and each believed he would be chosen. Not too long after the beginning of the competition the king announced that he was upping the requirements. The young man who could lift a full grown bull upon his shoulders and walk around the town square ten times with the bull on his back would be declared the winner and would receive his daughter’s hand in marriage.

This announcement caused many of the young men of the court to give up. What the king asked was impossible, they thought. The young pauper who worked in the stables began to think differently about the situation. He went to a nearby farm and presented a proposal to the old farmer. He offered to clean the stables for the farmer free of charge for one year. If at the end of the year he had done a good job the farmer would reward him with a parcel of valuable land on which to build the beautiful home of his dreams. The farmer agreed.

Each day, in addition to his agreed upon chores, the young man would feed and care for the farmer’s newborn bull. He and the bull became great friends and each day the young man would lift the baby bull upon his shoulders and walk a mile or two. The baby bull was heavy at first but as the young man continued to lift and carry the bull, he strengthened his muscles and as the bull grew in size and weight, so grew the strength of the young pauper.

A year passed and the king ordered all the young men of the kingdom come to the square for the competition. One by one each young man attempted to lift the bull upon his shoulders but could not. The young stable hand walked into the square, petted the bull, spoke to it softly and lifted it upon his shoulders. All were astounded and could not believe what they were seeing. The young pauper then walked briskly around the town square ten times with the full-grown bull on his shoulders. While all onlookers found this amazing, none were amazed than the king. His majesty could not believe what he saw for he was sure what he had asked was impossible.

The princess was impressed and told the king that, that was the man she wanted to marry and being a man of his word, the king agreed. The land for which the young pauper had made the deal with the farmer became so much more valuable in the year since he had originally made the deal and many approached him with offers to purchase the land at unimaginable prices.

All on the same day, with just one year of cunning and effort behind him, our young pauper became wealthy beyond his wildest imagination, married the princess and was knighted by the king. Our young pauper, a stable worker and pauper no more, lived happily ever after with the eternal love of the princess and the admiration of the king and all the people of the village.

Whatever it is you want in life, make the decision right now to begin to build toward it. Sure, the going may become tough but not as tough as cleaning the stables and slinging a bull around on your shoulders. Maybe that’s the problem some of us have. We spend too much time slinging the bull and not enough time taking the steps necessary to build the life of our dreams.

When you change your thinking about what you’re capable of,  what you’re capable of with change to match your changed mindset. Make the decision in this moment to pursue your passion and change your life forever.