Heather Yelland – Yelland International

Think why, not how

I’ve been doing a lot of traveling lately, which means I’ve also been listening to a lot of music. One of my favourite CDs for driving to at the moment is Susan Boyle’s album, “I Dreamed a Dream”. I love listening to her music because, aside from having a great voice, Susan’s story is totally inspiring.

If you haven’t already seen the video of Susan Boyle’s talent-show audition on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY, I’d encourage you to take a look. It is an extraordinary piece of viewing and it inspires people for many different reasons. I like it because it not only shows the power of destiny in action, it serves to illustrate one of the core principles that I teach at my events.

I have long believed that if you want to achieve something, you should focus your attention on why you want to achieve it, not how you want to achieve it. The minute you start wondering how you are going to do it, you can tie yourself in knots very quickly and become completely demotivated.

At her much-celebrated audition Susan Boyle spoke about her dream of becoming a famous singer. Her story reveals that she had harboured her dream for a very long time. She had spent many years developing her voice by taking lessons and singing in her church choir. She dared to dream of being a professional singer, but she never could have predicted how she might ever achieve this goal. The amazing manner in which her dream eventually came true is now the subject of television history.

Susan’s story is a stark reminder of how powerful it is to hold fast to a clear dream while having the faith to let destiny work its magic. One of the most common mistakes I see people make when they commit to changing their life, is that they go straight to asking the “how” questions.

It might go something like this: “I want to be happier/better/more successful/richer (fill in your goal), so how do I create that?” The problem with “how” questions is that they tend to throw up obstacles and make your dream seem impossible. This is where faith comes in.

We don’t always know how anything in our life will unfold. I encourage you to focus instead on why you dream of a certain thing and what your own version of success will look like and forget about how it will happen. Do what Susan did: hold fast to a vision, do what you can to support it and let the creative powers of the universe do the rest.

As Susan Boyle is often quoted as saying: “People who dare to dream can make their dreams come true.” This belief worked spectacularly well for her, and it also works well for me. Let it work for you too.