"Nothing happens until something moves."-Albert Einstein

You must take action to be successful in your life and especially in your business, that is if you want to see results. What kind of action should you take and when?

First: You need a clear vision of what you want to achieve and affirm it in your thoughts as a belief -knowledge that you can have it. This sets off a process which inevitably brings your intention into the physical world. This process is beyond our control, and is all to do with the way we, and the universe we inhabit, are set up. It might seem, on the surface, that we are all individuals, isolated from each other and standing alone in a huge, complex and hostile universe. But the reality is that we are not separate - all the great teachers throughout history have said this -. There is only one intelligence - we can call it the Universal Mind - and we are manifestations of that intelligence. Our minds are to the Universal Mind as a drop of water is to the ocean - they are made of the same stuff. Our subconscious mind is where everything happens.

In The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, Joseph Murphy explores how everything is possible to us through this part of our mind, and this is so because our subconscious mind is open at both ends. On one side, it is open to the conscious, thinking, directing mind; on the other side, it is open to the Universal Mind. Our conscious mind's job is to think, and our subconscious mind's job is to actualize those thoughts - to bring them into reality. It does this by accessing the Universal Mind. Our thoughts and our beliefs, then, are the key to creating our experience of life.

Second: You need let go and to realize that we cannot control the process. We can work hard to achieve results, but we cannot engineer things the way the Universal Mind can - all the coincidences, the synchronicities, the people turning up in your life at just the right moment, all the luck and the serendipities, all that is the work of the Universal Mind. So we need to stop managing the process - we will only get in the way.
Our business is to affirm our intentions in our thought. That's all. Once we have affirmed our intention, we need to let it go, let it fly away into the Universal Mind. When you plant a seed in the ground, you don't keep digging it up to see its progress: you know that, so long as you tend the soil, it will grow and eventually bear fruit. So it is with our intentions - keep tending them with positive thoughts and leave the process to the Universal Mind, working through your subconscious.

Third: We need to be open to the opportunities which the Universal Mind presents to us. When we relax and let go, events will line themselves up to bring us what we want. We also need an open mind about what is possible. So many of us have a fixed idea about what is possible, whether we acknowledge it or not. We might, for example, simply refuse to believe that we could possibly have $1,000,000 sitting in the bank within a few days. But in truth, as soon as we believe we have something, then it is ours, and the only reason we don't see it immediately is because we erect barriers between ourselves and the thing we desire. In a sense, our most important work is to remove these barriers, and we do this by being open-minded. Always come with an open mind, not a set of expectations. Doing these things isn't really a way to get me fit and healthy, but they are just what fit, healthy people do. If I don't do these things, it just shows that my intention to be healthy isn't real. People who end up being successful see themselves as successful before they appear to be - in reality, they are successful as soon as they affirm it, and then they start to act like successful people. This removes and belief barriers that might remain. Sitting on the couch watching TV all day just isn't what successful people do, so what makes us think that sitting around dreaming about being rich and successful is going to get us there? If we aren't acting like it already, then we obviously don't really want it.

Fourth: We need to act on the opportunities which are presented to us. I once read a little story which illustrates the point. A man prayed every week that he would win the lottery, but weeks, months, years went by, and he never won. Eventually he cried out to God, 'Why won't you let me win, just once?!' God replied, 'Give me a chance - at least buy a ticket!' So many of us get the first part right - we visualize, set goals, do affirmations - but then we don't take action! Getting what you desire isn't hard work - you don't need to go out and try very hard, you don't need to 'make your own breaks.' But you do need to be sensitive to the opportunities being provided to you and take action when necessary. Is money going to fall from the sky into your lap? Is it just going to appear at your feet? Possibly, and I have heard stories about this happening, but this doesn't seem to be the way things usually work. Take action!

Finally, we need to keep going. Keep believing, keep taking action, keep acting in the right way, and keep working with the natural flow of things. In the end, it isn't the number of goals that you set for yourself that will determine your success; it is only your actions that will decide your destiny. "A real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken a new action. If there's no action, you haven't truly decided," "You see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action. When we choose to be successful in business and life the moment we decide not to settle for mediocrity, the moment we are prepared to step out of our comfort zone to do whatever it takes to reach our goals.