"Mr. White, what about luck? How much does luck play into someone being successful."

One of the students at the John D. O'Bryant Institute at Northeastern University posed this question during my talk today.

It's a great question. The answer is very simple, I explained: if someone denies himself or herself the right to enjoy good luck, that person will not enjoy good luck.
Whenever you feel like you're having a streak of bad luck or whenever you feel like you don't have good luck, you're denying yourself the right to live happily and successfully.

When you feel that you're undeserving, you deny hundreds of "lucky coincidences." Why would anyone feel undeserving? Well, remember the 60,000 NO's that I so often refer to -- the NO's that assaulted you during childrearing?

It's not only your right, but your duty, to expect good luck to follow you wherever you go. How do you do this? Dare to exaggerate! That's right. You heard me. Dare to exaggerate; learn to stretch your mind to accept a better life for yourself. Dare to exaggerate upwardly.

Sure, the universe does throw us curve balls and bad things do happen to good people. But unlucky people are often unlucky because they point outward instead of inward. They mistakenly point to forces outside them, forces beyond their control, as the reason for their situation. In fact, if they were to point inward, they'd see that they've neglected their right to exaggerate upwardly. They fail to see themselves achieving much more than they did the day before. They fail to envision their future filled with incredibly enriching experiences.

When I speak of exaggerating, I do not mean lying, manipulating others, or trying to impress someone with tall tales and wild yarns. I'm talking about exaggerating to yourself about your talents and potential, and then going out into the world and acting as though it is so until it feels real for you. The exaggeration then ceases to be an exaggeration -- it becomes reality.

When you exaggerate in a positive manner:
1. you think in amplified terms...
2. you force the mind to expand its visions...
3. you replace any woeful reactions with a gargantuan WOW (Wonderful Obsession with Winning) ...
4. you stop running on two cylinders and crank it up to all eight.
5. you activate the Power of Self-Reliance.
In short, positive exaggeration becomes the driver for profound transformation, the kind you need to go from woe to WOW.
So who comes to mind when I think of positive exaggerators?
* Great leaders, like John F. Kennedy, who said we'd walk on the moon within a decade and Martin Luther King Jr., who had a dream that everyone is created equal.
* Entertainment giants, like Elvis Presley, who dared to move his hips while singing and ushered in a new era of music and Oprah Winfrey who exaggerated herself out of an extremely harsh environment to the very tip top of the entertainment chart.
* Unsung heroes, like Dr. Elsa Guzman (my dentist), who came from a small island nation where she was born into the humblest of conditions yet dared to exaggerate and say, "I'm going to become a dentist and move to America."
* Everyday people, like yours truly, who dared to quit teaching after 17 years by exaggerating to himself and imagining growing a multi-million real estate development business, and JK Allen, a friend of mine who was raised in very difficult family circumstances and is now a successful businessman with a supportive and loving wife and four enthusiastic and happy children (his wonderful family is the pride of his life).

I hope to add another name to the list: YOU! You have the key to unlock the door to any self-imposed prison. Dare to break out and begin your life anew. Dare to exaggerate about who you are, what you're capable of achieving, and how you're going to create your own future, rather than hoping and wishing and just taking whatever comes your way.

Please get out there and prove it is true. All sorts of things will occur to help you -- there's that so-called luck! Please tell us how the Power of Positive Exaggeration works for you?

Thank you and blessings.


About the Author:
From humble beginnings, Rob White became a millionaire in the real estate and restaurant industries. Reflecting back on life-lessons and insights that were crucial to his success, Rob teaches a practical method that you can use to achieve any ambition. Rob is the SelfGrowth.com Official Guide to Success Principles and the founder of Mind Adventure, Inc., a company that offers seminars, workshops, blogs and books that help you realize your incredible potential.
http://www.selfgrowth.com/solos/robwhite.html