Click HERE to view Rev. Jimmie Scott’s guided meditation during the service.
So how many people would like to experience greater levels of love, happiness and success? Anybody like to do that? So here are a little deeper questions. So why do you think some people achieve great success and why some other people struggle; get stuck; and can’t get out of their own way? And why is it that you think — or what do you think — separates someone who is consistently inspired and driven as compared to someone who gets excited for a week or a month or a season and then fizzles, fades, and then gives up? Why do you think there is a difference?
Because if the words of the Declaration of Independence are true — that all men are created equal; that we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — why is there such a difference? if the words of the Bible are true — that we’re all created in the image and likeness of God; that we are the temple of the Living God; that the kingdom of God is within us; that we are the light of the world; that we shall do the things that Jesus has done and even greater — what is the thing that holds us back from experiencing and creating and attracting the better life that we are seeking?
I would say that that thing, in a word, is ourselves … but let’s expand on that a little bit. I think it’s important for us to look at our beliefs and our mindsets around what we think success is. Because the way that we see success and how we approach it plays a huge influence in how we experience it. And so I think sometimes in our culture we develop mindsets and ideas about things that are just not either helpful, but are even harmful to us in terms of our own self-worth and self-esteem as it relates to levels of success. That it can affect — these myths and ideas and negative beliefs — can really impact our ability to achieve, succeed and rise and overcome things.
According to Tommy Baker, he said that there are four myths and four falsehoods about success that we but into that actually make success harder for ourselves. And so the first myth about success, he says, is that we believe that success is like a “highlight reel film.” That we just see all the great stuff: We see the Hollywood award shows; we see all these pictures of people on Instagram and Facebook on their yachts traveling all over, doing amazing and stunning things. We see sports shows where people are hitting home runs in the bottom of the 9th. And we think that success is all that big stuff — that “highlight reel” stuff. And we look at all that and think, “Man, my life stinks!” And we think that, for success for ourselves, we have to make a million dollars; we have to do big and great things. Because that’s what success is; success is really, really, big, big stuff. “Highlight reel” stuff.
The second myth, he says, that isn’t helpful is believing that we become overnight successes. Believing that we can turn around and change our lives — go from rags to riches; from zero to 60. That our lives can change instantaneously, like a genie granting our wish. So many successful people — like Steve Jobs; like Tom Clancy, the author, Ray Kroc of McDonald’s fame … So many people say that this whole idea of overnight success is not healthy, and it’s absolutely not true. My favorite quote by actor Eddie Cantor, he said, “It took me 20 years to become an overnight success.” [Congregation laughs]
That all this stuff we think is overnight really is not. But we buy into that and we believe it. We want a quick, fast, overnight success!
The third thing, he says, is waiting for the right time. You know, “I’ll start when the summer comes.” Or, “I’ll start at the beginning for New Year’s.” Or, “I’ll start when all my ducks are in a row.” Or, “I’ll start when this happens” or when I do that, or when I achieve this, or have that. And he said what it leads to — this waiting for the “right” time, waiting for the perfect time — it just leads to procrastination and, often, never getting started. Or sometimes never completing.
And the final myth about success, he says, is that we expect everything that we want to succeed to go as smoothly and as easily as we planned. How many people ever had something go not as you planned it? [Congregation laughs] Anybody? Okay! But the funny thing is: We start with these high expectations that we’re going to do all these great things. And it’s great to a certain extent. But when things don’t go the way we planned, sometimes we just think something’s wrong; it’s bad; this isn’t going to work. “I’ve messed up!” We’re ready to jump ship just because the results — or the initial results — didn’t measure up to the expectation that we had.
And so, he said, these four myths and ideas about what success is, and how to achieve it, actually makes it harder for us. And we develop certain patterns of starting; getting excited. Then kind of waning; giving up. And then six months later, reigniting the same thing; promising ourselves we’re going to follow through this time. And it just kind of keeps that cycle. And we can’t understand why we’re not succeeding. And we tend to feel bad about ourselves. We don’t feel good about ourselves.
And so, to move and to experience greater levels of success, we need to reframe our mindset about what we think success is, and what success looks like, and how we approach success. Because the truth is: Success is a journey; it’s not a one-time thing. It is a process that takes time. It takes energy and effort. It takes patience and learning and adapting and facing the challenges — the inevitable adversity that is just a part of the process. And especially, we measure success not by comparing ourselves to others, but what brings us joy.
So an important thing for achieving our goals is really to look at some of the core beliefs and myths that we tell ourselves about success and what it means.
And so, what would you say right now … Think about a goal that you want to achieve in your life. What would you say is holding you back the most in achieving or attracting or creating that goal? And really look at it and ask yourself: Is there something about an unhealthy belief I might be holding about success and what it means that might be holding me back?
Because sometimes we say believe things, but we really don’t believe it. We’d like to believe it, but we really — at the core level — don’t believe it. Let me give you an example. We all say we believe that money can’t buy happiness. We all agree, right? We say: “Does money buy happiness?” And we would all say, “No!” Arnold Schwarzenegger put it this way. He said, “Money doesn’t make you happier. Right now I have $50 million; but I was just as happy when I had $48 million.” [Congregation laughs]
We say money can’t buy happiness, but every one of us wants to say, “Hmmm. Give me a shot! I’d like to prove that it can!” [Congregation laughs]
So what I’m saying is that we hold on to myths about success, and we still want that. We want the big success. We want it overnight. We want it easy and without adversity. We want it to go just the way we planned. And can you see how holding that mindset and living it would not bring us discouragement, disappointment and sometimes feeling like failures? And it’s just not a healthy way. It’s not a healthy foundation or mindset to live our lives and to try and progress and achieve the things that we desire.
So today, we’re starting a series on a book called The 1% Rule by Tommy Baker. And I think it’s a fabulous, simple system and strategy for success! And it’s got three things: Do daily work towards the goal you want; celebrate the progress that you experience; and then just enjoy the journey. Love the experience!
So doing it daily; being focused on what you’re doing; and doing it over time … over a period of time. Because it takes time to have levels of success.
And so it isn’t about trying to hit the grand slam home run. It is about: What are you doing every day? What are the simple steps that you are willing to take? And measuring success by the enjoyment of the process and not by what the end result is.
There’s another book called The Slight Edge. And it says small, incremental steps are the thing that will get you further than trying to have a quantum leap in your life. It’s just a smarter thing. It just doesn’t sound … We don’t take it seriously, because it doesn’t sound as exciting. It doesn’t sound as great as we all dream up what we think success should look like and be like.
And so the first step is to let go of some idea or belief that we have about success that we’re holding on to that might be holding us back. And in its place, begin to reconfigure and rewire our minds to create a system that’s healthier, that’s more effective, and creates a happier process of us enjoying whatever level of achievement that we want to experience.
Now Tommy Baker was inspired by two things. The first one was a Harvard Business Review article on a study about motivation. What does it take to motivate? And it was in the workplace. And so they found that the greatest things of all the motivations — like watching a YouTube video or a TED talk or all the different ways we can get motivated. You know what it said the number one thing to motivate in the workplace is? Progress. To see some improvement; to see some change; to see something getter better — even if it’s tiny! — creates a greater motivation to want to keep going. And the more frequently we recognize progress and improvement, we are more likely to get excited and engaged and get more creative, and keep going in the long run and the long-term.
And no matter how small it is, if you learn what not to do, or if you have a better understanding or you get closer to closing the deal … Any of those bits of progress is what should be focused on. Because sometimes we have a day — we have a little progress — and all we think is, “Awww. I’m not at my goal yet.” Where the flip could be, “Hey! Look at the little bit of progress I made!” And celebrate that! Because that increases our energy; our focus; and our enthusiasm about the path of work that we’re doing.
Let me give you the best example. Do you remember when Thomas Edison, they said, “Thomas Edison! You’ve failed 10,000 times before discovering the filament for the electric light bulb.” And his answer was this. He said: “I’ve not failed 10,000 times. I have successfully found 10,000 ways that do not work.” [Congregation laughs]
And I want you to hear how deep and profound this is! Because what he is saying is: In his head, even though he’s doing his experiments and failing, they were bringing him closer to the answer. That even though it didn’t work, he eliminated something that helped him get a little further. That’s the mindset I’m talking about here! Is that when we have that mindset of looking of progress and enjoying the steps, and taking them, and not just keep looking down the road. Yes! It’s out there, but keep enjoying and seeing the progress here. That’s what gave him the energy to keep going for 10,000 failures! No; it was 10,000 successful discoveries.
And so the thing about this is … Oh, and the second thing that inspired him was the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen. Anybody know what Kaizen is? It means continuous improvement. The Japanese have a belief that the greatest success is about continually improving. Continually looking and trying and discovering and bringing about new changes. Because, again, success isn’t just the highlight reel film; it’s just the grand slam home run. it is the incremental, consistent things that we do in life that brings around changes.
And in our own spiritual life — in our own prayer and meditation life — it is that consistency. In our relationship, it’s the consistency. In business, it’s consistency. If you want to learn a new language; if you want to learn a new skill, it’s the consistency over time that brings success. And it’s amazing that we human beings fight against it, and not want to work with a simple, yet important natural process.
The 1% Rule is not a “quick fix” method; it is a simple, powerful, systematic, progressive way to achieve anything we want to achieve in any area of our lives. And the most important thing is that we need to learn integration. We need to integrate. And there are three things in any process of learning. And that is knowing; and it is doing; and it is being. And so integration is moving from the knowing to the doing to the being. To the mastering.
And so, of course, we know “knowing” is knowledge. It is the stuff that we research; it’s stuff we study. It is the content. It is all the information we observe and understand, and the way we reason. We have a lot of knowing; we all know a lot! We know how to do a lot of things: to start businesses, to do all kinds of things. We know it! We have that knowledge!
But the important thing then — the next step if we want to move forward and not be stuck — is the “doing.” It’s the applying. It’s the practicing. It’s the putting it into action. It’s demonstrating it.
How many people have at least one thing in your life that you know is good and important to do, but you’re not doing? Anybody have something or know it’s good that you’re not doing? And the thing is: Sometimes we’ll just not do it because it’s hard, or not do it because we dislike it. But it is only through the living and the practicing. It’s only “being in the arena” and daring greatly; and facing things; and failing; and missing; and trying and working that we bring things to life. To learn and discover and have greater breakthroughs. It’s making the calls. It’s doing the exercise. It’s sitting and meditating. It’s going to the AA meetings. It is doing the work that is needed.
Einstein says, “Nothing happens until something moves.”
In the Book of James it says, “Be doers of the word, not just hearers, and you’ll be blessed in your doing.” James also said, “Faith without works is dead.”
Paul said, “Put it into practice and the peace of God will be with you.”
So the important thing to bring things to life — to get things moving and flowing and increasing — is by taking action. By doing it. And this process about doing something daily towards what you want to achieve.
And the last one is where the magic happens. And that’s the “being.” Where we do something so often that we become one with it. That we unify the activity and our spirit and our energy.
I’ve mentioned this before. I’m a big Eagles fan. And Don Henley, in an interview a few years back, said that they were playing their songs better 30 years later after they were hits. Thirty years later they were playing them better! Why? Because after all that time of playing, there’s an understanding and a feeling and an energy of infusing their spirits of what they did. They did it at a level of mastery. And you could feel their mastery in the songs and the quality of their songs.
Something happens magically of moving from the doing to the being. Because it is a unification of the inner and the outer: of our physical and our spirit becoming one. And there’s power there!
How many people have heard of the “10,000-Hour Rule” by Erickson? And the idea is that it takes 10,000 hours of doing something to get to the masterful level – the genius level. And I know it sounds like a lot, but the principle behind it is: If you keep going that the action won’t just be an action; it’ll be an expression of yourself. It’ll be a oneness of yourself. And something magical and transformational happens when we’re willing to invest ourselves in an activity to the point that we become one with it.
Baker says that these three phases can exist simultaneously and will repeat themselves as you expand to new levels. Mastery requires repeating the cycles of knowing; doing; and being as you deepen your skill.
The interesting thing about this is: It’s not new! This idea of a process and taking small steps regularly is really a principle of life! When you look at all areas of life, it’s all about a process: a process of growth; a process of becoming; a process of change; a process of transformation. For a caterpillar to become a butterfly is a process. To learn a skill or a language is a process. Art is a process. To grow tomatoes is a process. To have a baby is a process. All these things! I mean, it is a part of life! And sometimes we challenge it and want to cut corners, and yet this is way success works.
You know, the Bible has so many examples and stories about the whole idea of planting and growing and harvesting and bearing fruit. In the Book of Mark, Chapter 4, it says, “For the earth brings forth fruit of herself: first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.” It’s describing a process of growth; of growth; of growth.
So many times the Bible shares about farmers spreading their seed. “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed.” You know why they picked the mustard seed and what that’s about? Most of us think it means, “Oh, you just need a little faith, nothing else.” No! The reason is: The mustard seeds is one of the tiniest seeds, but it grows into one of the largest bushes. So the idea about it is that little seed, through a process, will grow into something greater. And that’s what the whole idea is: When you do daily work towards something — when you engage in that process of growth and becoming — it will grow into something great. It will grow into something amazing.
And farmers — they know and trust the process! And they work with the process. You never see a farmer standing over the crops shouting, “Grow! Grow! Hurry!” [Congregation laughs] “Come on! You’re slow; pick up the pace!” I know how silly that sounds, but it’s silly that we do the things we do in rushing and forcing ourselves and believing success to be something other than a process.
And it’s a systematic simple way — this 1%: Get 1% better every day, and amazing things will happen. But it does take work. It takes discipline. And we all have that power. We all have that ability. The question is: Do we really want what we want? And are we willing to work towards it? Am I willing to invest myself in the daily systematic process of putting some effort and intention into what I want? Am I willing to do that? Am I willing to celebrate and rejoice in the process and enjoy success all along the way? We all have what it takes! The question is: Are we willing to do it? Are we willing to put it into action?
2 Timothy says, “God has not given you a spirit of fear and timidity, but a spirit of power, love and self-discipline.” God has not given you a spirit of fear and timidity, but a spirit of power, love and self-discipline!
“I have a spirit of power, love and self-discipline.”
Let’s say that together: [with congregation] “I have a spirit of power, love and self-discipline.”
Take a deep breath and breathe that truth into yourself.
Now half-voice: [with congregation] “I have a spirit of power, love and self-discipline.”
Take a deep breath. And now just even softer: [with congregation] “I have a spirit of power, love and self-discipline.”
Deep breath. And now full voice again: [with congregation] “I have a spirit of power, love and self-discipline.”
We have the power! We have the ability! The question is: Are we willing?
Hey, have you ever gone to a seminar, and it was really fabulous? And you were buzzing on another level – you’re walking on cloud nine? The energy was so fabulous and wonderful? And that energy lasted for a couple of weeks and you were on such a high; you wanted to transform every area of your life! You were just so happy! And then three months later, you realize nothing’s really changed in your life. And it’s a pattern that we sometimes do. We get excited, but we don’t get the traction by engaging and fully, actively doing the steps that can make it.
And the fact is: We can all move the needle. We can all have growth and transformation in our lives. The question is: Are we willing to do the work?
So here are the four things for this first week. We’re going to go deeper in the next weeks to come.
But the first one is — number one is: Acknowledge and let go of the one belief that you might be having about success that you’re holding on to that you know isn’t good. And just a willingness to let it go and give it to God.
Second is: Trust the process by doing some daily activity towards a goal you already have. So it’s: What goal do you have that isn’t fully fulfilled yet that you’re willing now to consciously do some daily work and activity for it?
The third thing is: Celebrate your progress every day. That, however far you’ve moved along — even if it’s to learn how not to do something — celebrate, acknowledge the progress that you’re making.
And number four is: Fall in love with the process. Just love and get excited about being able to do this and investing yourself fully in it.
And I guarantee you, things will begin to change. They’ll begin to open up and transform. And first it will be your own joy and your own engagement and excitement, which is the most important thing. And out of that, those little actions will actually have greater and greater impact, and there’ll be a compounding benefit to that 1% increase a day.
So think of that goal; you’ve got a goal right now that you haven’t fulfilled yet. Think about what it would be like if, every day for the next 30 days, you increased by 1% of improvement. That you invested, for the next 30 days, a conscious activity and focus on the thing you want to do. And that you celebrated your progress every day. And you loved and were engaged in the process. Could you imagine how much further you would be in 30 days of doing that?
Let’s all make a commitment to put this into practice for the next 30 days. Let us use the power — and the process — of incremental action and the power of acknowledging our progress to enjoy this journey and this ride to success by using the principles and the practice of The 1% Rule.
God bless you all!
Copyright 2023 Unity of Phoenix Spiritual Center/Rev. Richard Maraj