Holistic Management International is famous in circles of agriculture and environmental entities alike for its Holistic Goal, a written statement of the management team’s vision for success and sustainability that includes the values behind the code of conduct, the activities that bring joy and prosperity and the vision of land in optimum health.
Our history as a nation and as a species is full of tales of triumph over impossible odds to achieve unbelievable goals. Yet the doers of those great deeds did believe. Henry Ford was one of those doers. He left us with important words of wisdom (as well as awesome pickups),
“Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are probably right,”
and
“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal…“
Your goal is your springboard to success. Whether you picture a universe where God sits in heaven ready to answer your prayers or a universe where your thoughts, words and deeds themselves manifest your reality, it is difficult to ignore the power of the goal.
“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” –Henry David Thoreau
Just the fact that you have thought about your goal enough to put it into words is a big step toward realizing it. Perhaps you have revised it and distilled it until you feel it represents whom you really are and where you want to go precisely. Now add focus and passion.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” – Proverbs 29:18
Develop a strong and specific vision of where you are going and visit it often. Give God and/or the universe a clear picture of your desire. You might have fun giving the words in your goal some visualization by gathering your team at the kitchen table with a stack of old magazines, scissors and glue sticks. Have everyone look quickly through the magazines; tearing out pages with images they intuitively connect to the team goal. Now trim the images with scissors and glue or staple them to poster board or a sheet of newspaper, arranging them in a handsome collage. Post it where your team can use it often to help visualize the goal.
Think about the goal often, as well, and talk about it as a group. Take action deliberately toward the goal. Understand the power of belief and of thought, word and deed. Find the passion behind the words of your goal. What is your purpose in choosing to achieve this quality of life, these forms of production and this future resource base?
Embrace change and be the change you expect. If you do the things you’ve always done, you’ll get the results you’ve always gotten. Find a role model who has been successful at what you want to do and ask questions. The questions we ask determine the thoughts that fuel our actions. If you want positive results, ask positive questions. “How can I work less and earn more?” will set you to thinking drastically different thoughts than, “Why is my life so hard?”
“If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed.” – Thomas Edison
Don’t give up. If one way doesn’t work, try another,
“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.” -Helen Keller
You have attributed the quotation beginning “Whatever you can do or dream you can…..” to Henry David Thoreau. I don’t know why! This quotation is famously attributed to the German philosopher and author of ‘Faust’, Goethe.
However, it seems that it wasn’t by him at all, though he wrote lines with a similar meaning in ‘Faust’. Here is the website discussing the provenance of the quote, to anyone interested :
http://german.about.com/library/blgermyth12.htm