(This blog was originally posted on March 24, 2014)
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| Photo courtesy of Fotolia
My dad
once 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 the film, The Hobbit: The Desolation of
Smaug. He was also shown goofing around with other A-list celebrities at
the 85th Academy
Awards in 2013. 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 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 Mental Bank Concept, 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/.
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