On October 21, 1961, a man by the name of Raymond Stanford sat down with me. He put an ‘R’ on a sheet of paper with two ‘H’’s and a ‘W’ beside it.
Ray said, “Bob, let this ‘R’ represents results. The two ‘H’’s represent happiness and health. The ‘W’ represents wealth. Do you think I’m a happy person?”
I said, “Yes, I think so.”
Ray asked, “Have you ever seen me sick?”
I had to admit that I hadn’t.
Then, Ray asked, “Have you ever seen me without any money?”
“No, I haven’t.”
Then, Ray proceeded to tell me that he thought I was one of the most miserable people he had ever met.
He said, “You’re never healthy, you always have a backache, or a cold or something. And you’re always broke. Why don’t you change this?”
I didn’t really believe I could. I was making $4,000 a year and I owed $6,000.
Ray said, “You can have anything you want. But you’re going to have to change the way you’re looking at your life.”
“What do you mean?”
Ray responded, “You’re looking at the fact that you never went to school, and you don’t have any business experience. You’re putting yourself down, and figuring out all the reasons you can’t change.
“Your problem isn’t a lack of education. Your problem isn’t a lack of experience or money. You’ve got a perception problem. You’re looking at yourself the wrong way. If you would change your point of view of YOU, your whole world would begin to change.”
Today, the company that I own does millions of dollars in business. It operates in 47 different countries, and it’s growing every day. And here I am 55 years later with a healthy body and very cheery disposition.
All I really did was change my point of view.
I want you to think about this story for a few moments, and relate it to your own life.
If you’re not as happy, healthy and wealthy as you’d like to be, I urge you to step back and look at your situation from a different perspective.
But don’t just look at it in a general or superficial way; go further than you ever have before. Look beyond the reasons you’ve come up with for why you can’t change or get what you want until you “see” a way to improve your current circumstances.
Do it now, and prepare to rewrite your story.