If You Pray For Rain, Shouldn’t You Be Bringing an Open Umbrella?
In a small farm community, crops were dying because the summer turned into an inferno. The farmland turned from green to brown, and leaves dried and crumbled.
When the wind blows, the place turned into a dust bowl. Patio’s are covered with dust and so are the trucks that once hauled produce.
So the local pastor asked his congregation to pray for rain. The week after, the church was full of people ready to pray. In front of church was a little girl with an open umbrella next to her.
“What’s this for?”
“We are praying for rain, so I brought an umbrella,” the little girl said.
When my kid was 9 years old (BTW, his birthday is tomorrow and Koji will be 13), I took a picture of him talking to his former coach.
Next to Koji was my husband. Koji’s former coach was the referee of the game that just finished. After the game Koji and my husband talked to the former coach.
When I showed my little Koji the picture, he asked me if I can send her the picture.
I airdropped the picture to his phone.
We looked at the picture again and I asked “what’s so special about the picture?”
Koji said, “coach Shay looked like a college basketball scout and is offering me a scholarship to Duke”.
For starters, Duke is one of the powerhouses of college basketball (Michael Jordan went to University of North Carolina, just a few miles away from Duke).
Koji’s imagination have taken me aback.
He wanted to play basketball to the next level, but I never thought of Koji imagining scouts asking him to play basketball at the college level.
The little girl in the church and my son looking forward to be approached by basketball scouts tells me one thing — kids are imaginative and they believe what they prayed for will happen.
I hated to use the word believe or certainty or mindset here cause it’s getting to be the beat up word in self improvement, but here’s the thing: let’s learn from a child’s certainty and believe.
This is not woohory.
You and I lost this feeling of certainty and believe sometime in our lives.
Somewhere in our journey to adulthood and we became older, we became analytical. To damn analytical we forgot our childlike imagination and believe.
So I went to an spiritual journey of how increase my certainty.
I started with basketball.
Watching one of the documentaries of LeBron James showed methat James’ room when he was growing up were full of Allen Iverson’s and Michael Jordan’s poster.
James wanted to be like Mike.
After digging deep into the topic, I learned that every prominent athlete have one form or another, have posters in their bedroom of people they want to imitate.
What’s the posters for?
It reminded them of their goals, of the basketball scout approaching them.
The posters served as umbrellas that remind them that when they are in the NBA, they can hit that buzzer beaters too, like Iverson or Jordan.
I once heard a story of a guy working in a video store who always bring an Auto Trader magazine and Entrepreneur magazine.
Every time the guy takes his 15-minute breaks, he will read the magazines and then circle the Ferrari car he wanted to buy.
Looks like woohory, but it’s not.
He left his $7.50/hour job and started a business (that’s the Entrepreneur magazine was for, looking for business ideas people are doing), then the car rolled into his garage.
So here’s a piece of advice: IF YOU PRAY FOR RAIN, BRING AN OPEN UMBRELLA.
Here’s another powerful story of ‘bringing an umbrella if you pray for rain’:
Arnold Schwarzenegger always imagined he was lifting the Mr. Universe Trophy every time he lift the dumbbells.
It’s not woohory.
He lifted the Mr. Universe trophy 9 consecutive years.
I love Ahnold’s story. I listen to his speech on YouTube and his life’s story (Total Recall) on Audible. He has an unshakeable conviction. Once, he broke into the gym at 12 years old so he can work out. Before 15, he escape the required army training to compete in Jr. Mr. Europe.
He prayed for rain, expected for rain and work on it.
I realized this is my problem (and most likely yours too), I prayed for rain, but never opened the umbrella expecting for rain.
I lost my childlike imagination. So, I practiced to get it back.
Here’s what I did.
Get Ready:
I always imagine myself having a nice car because my business will grow, so I told my wife, I am going to the dealership and test drive BMW. As a side note, after the pandemic, brand new cars are almost the same price with used cars.
My wife told me, she wanted to be there when I test drive, so we did.
Also in getting ready, I write this blog once a week, and imagine that people will be following me and a publisher will ask if I can publish the blog into a book.
I opened another business bank account, preparing for the money to come in.
I clean up my desk in my home office so I can work properly. It’s an invitation to work in my office alone and happy.
Visualize:
This is the hardest part for me, but I now practice it everyday. I visualize the BMW, I visualize holding the steering wheel. I feel the leather seats.
I’m a kid again.
Put Joy and Love
I want to go back to Arnold’s story again. When he was lifting weights before he became the Arnold that we know, his friends in the gym was always asking, why are you smiling when you are working out.
“Because I love what I do” He said.
His gym buddies smirked, “You are going to lift weights for 6 hours and you love what you do?”
Yap, he did.
I remember one advice from a book that says there’s a difference between “I have to work on my business” and “I got to work on my business.”
The second one put you into gratitude of working, and not complaining.
I always try to put that spin of loving what I do (my affiliate business) in my life. I walk tall and confident when I work on my business. Working on my business means opening the laptop.
Whenever I open my laptop, I smile knowing that money is rolling in.
WATCH YOUR WIFE’S LANGUAGE ON MONEY
Water sips at the same soil
I like the girl’s story in a sense that they are not analytical.
