Destined For Greatness

Day 221

“That which we manifest is before us; we are the creators of our own destiny. Be it through intention or ignorance, our successes and our failures have been brought on by none other than ourselves.”

– Garth Stein

There’s no shortage of greatness on display everywhere you look at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. As a matter of fact, every athlete there is a shining star or they wouldn’t be there in the first place. I’d love to write about each of the ten-thousand some delegates participating in the games, but, well, it would take too long, so I’m going to mention a few, whose names are no doubt familiar to you by now.

You may also be aware that athletes use visualization to help them train to achieve their goals. What you may not know is that the mental preparation starts long before they are even consciously aware of it.

Remember all those posts where I talked about writing down your desires – like the one about Prince writing Baby I’m a Star before he achieved superstardom, or the note Michael Jackson wrote to himself before he became a legend? How about the fictional novel about a ship eerily similar to the Titanic written fourteen years before the Titanic was even built?

I’m reminding you about these posts today because they have a few things in common with the athletes of the 31st Olympiad. I think it’s safe to say that Olympic athletes are conscious creators of their desires, but they are often unconscious creators as well. That is, they naturally perform all of the steps of the law of attraction to manifest their desires without knowing that they are setting invisible forces in motion to realize their dreams.

Setting your intention, and creating a mental picture with feeling and belief that you have already received your desire is the key to kicking the Universe into action. Ryan Murphy and Kohei Uchimura set their destinies in motion when they wrote down their dreams as kids.

“DESTINY is a feeling you have that you know something about yourself nobody else does. The picture you have in your own mind of what you’re about WILL COME TRUE. It’s a kind of a thing you kind of have to keep to your own self, because it’s a fragile feeling, and you put it out there, then someone will kill it. It’s best to keep that all inside.”

– Bob Dylan

At 8-years old, Ryan Murphy wrote a story about his swimming life, and his desires for the future. This week, the USA’s 21-year old swimmer manifested the dream that he set in motion 13 years earlier, not only by becoming an Olympian, but by being the best swimmer in men’s 100 meter backstroke in Rio, winning the gold medal, and setting a new Olympic record. Take a look at his whole booklet in this short video.

Update: A few days later, on Aug 11, Ryan won his second gold in the 200 meter backstroke – sweeping backstroke in Rio. With two gold medals, and one Olympic record under his belt, the only dream Ryan had yet to manifest was to break world records. On Aug 13, Ryan led the U.S. in an historic final 4×100 medley relay to close out the pool swimming of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, and Michael Phelps’ Olympic finale. Murphy set a new world record of 51.85 – the fastest swim in history, manifesting his desire to be the best swimmer in the world. Just to make it even more epic, the team took gold in a new Olympic record…all set in motion by an 8-year old writing down a dream.

Japan’s gymnast, Kohei Uchimura wasn’t aware of the magic in his sketches when he drew the acrobatic feats he only dreamed of as a child. He later found a place to let his imagination come to life with a comic book about a young gymnast who goes on to win Olympic gold. When asked what the comic book taught him? “Nothing is impossible”, he responds. Kohei did win Olympic gold with an amazing performance in men’s individual all-around this week. Take a look at some footage of him playing around in his parent’s gym as a child, where his dreams took flight.

I don’t know if the likes of Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky, Lilly King, Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Kerri Walsh Jennings or Joseph Schooling wrote down their dreams when they were kids, but these Olympians are living proof of the greatness we all have within us. It’s clear that they set their intentions, and believed in their dreams, which the world is witnessing manifest in Rio.

Do you remember the stories you wrote, and what you imagined doing as a child? If not, start writing your story now, it’s never too late to let your greatness shine – you were destined to!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!