(This blog was originally posted on March 24,
2014)
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| Photo courtesy of Fotolia |
A few months ago, my dad
commented how much he admired actor Benedict Cumberbatch’s success
in the film industry. He thought the Sherlock star had
suddenly hit the big-time since he went from starring in a British television
series about Sherlock Holmes to a lead role in the film about Julian Assange;
had a role in August: Osage County, a
major film starring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts; and even voiced the dragon
in a recent Lord of the Rings movie.
Earlier this month, he was also shown goofing around with the A-list
celebrities at the 2013 Academy Awards. Of course, this was not an example of Mr.
Cumberbatch being an overnight success, at all. He had certainly been paying
his dues as an actor for many years—mostly on stage in Britain and some roles
in television movies and series in Britain and in America. Do you remember his
very minor role as a cavalry officer in Steven Spielberg’s (2011) film, War Horse? Now that he has landed roles
in bigger projects, more people are starting to notice him.
One
of my favorite examples of what it takes to be successful is from an interview
that Clinton Anderson, a
very popular horseman, horse trainer and founder of Downunder Horsemanship, did
many years ago. The trainer explained that it took years for him to build his
company and reputation as a horseman when he immigrated to the United States
from Australia. Apparently, he spent just about every cent he had traveling
around the country to do riding and horsemanship clinics, and he usually only
had one woman in his classes. Mr. Anderson said he was willing to continue
traveling, teaching and “treating [his students] like queens” that way as often
as he could and as long as he had the money to do so because, hopefully, the
next year that student would come back and bring a friend or two. They did, and
the rest is history, but his career did not take off into the stratosphere for
about 20 years of very hard work.
My
point is this: Success doesn’t just happen; it is the product of a lot of time,
effort, hard work and the intention and desire to succeed. This topic has been
on my mind for a few weeks, and I did address it in my March 23, 2014 blog titled “Are You
Ready?” I did not intend to write a sequel to that essay. However, I figured I must have had more to say about it since this topic
was not only addressed on a radio talk show this afternoon but I also came upon
a related quote from Vidal Sassoon in a Twitter feed: “The only place where
success comes before work is a dictionary.”
In
John Kappas, Ph.D.’s book, Success Is Not
an Accident, the Hypnosis
Motivation Institute founder explains how a person’s mental script and
subconscious messages influence how and where the individual will direct energy
and effort to realize a goal. Everyone has the power to achieve a goal, Dr.
Kappas says, if the “correct” mental script for that success—like a road map or
a recipe—is available and in place for the person to follow.
The
thing is we often have to live life and accumulate a lot of different
experiences, good and bad, to know what we really want or don’t want to do or
have in our lives. Some people are very lucky in that they know very early on
where they want to be in 10, 20 or 30 years, and they just work hard and
steadily to achieve that goal. Other people experiment for a while: they switch
majors in college, change jobs over and over and even switch careers in the
search for a seemingly unattainable success.
In a way, I followed both of
those paths: By age 11, I had decided that I wanted to be a therapist. I
majored in psychology at college and then did a research Master’s degree in
psychology, in England. When I returned to the United States, I did a complete
180, career-wise, and worked for seven years at a prestigious martial arts
publishing company. I started as a proofreader and, eventually earned a
promotion to be one of the editors and a staff writer. By the time I found my
way back to my intended path as a therapist, I had done another year of
training in hypnotherapy and started
my own company, Calminsense Hypnotherapy®. Did I mention that I also worked as
a barista for a time to help make ends meet? (I make a wicked caramel
macchiato.)
The point I’m
trying to make is this: it has taken me almost 35 years of hard work and
experiencing life, trying my hand at different jobs/careers to appreciate what
I really wanted to do in order to be
where I am right now. It turned out that my ultimate career as a hypnotherapist
turned out to be not exactly what I had originally imagined myself doing when I
declared that I wanted to be a therapist. But life didn’t stop when I made my
“dream job,” so to maintain my company’s success I have assiduously been
marketing, advertising and networking my practice through social media.
Meanwhile, I continue to earning certifications in additional therapeutic
techniques that can help my hypnotherapy clients achieve their avocational and
vocational self-improvement goals. In addition to my background in psychology,
I can draw on the historical, philosophical and self-defense information I
learned and the social experiences I had working at the magazine to help build
rapport with and create metaphors and hypnotic scripts for my clients.
Sometimes
when I look back on everything I have done and experienced to get where I am,
doing what I love to do, I pinch myself and wonder how I got so
lucky. And then I remember: luck had nothing to do with my success. Yes, I
am still in the process of becoming the person I always
wanted/meant/planned to be, but I am that person because I have put in the time
and hard work to get where I am.
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in
Southern California. She graduated with honors from the
Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about
Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2014
