i-manifest
REAL STORIES
Jim Carrey
In the early 1990s, Carrey was an unknown actor struggling to get by.
To stay motivated, he decided to write himself a check for $10 million for “acting services rendered,” dated it for 1994, and carried it in his wallet for daily inspiration. In 1994, Carrey learned he would reap exactly $10 million for his role in Dumb and Dumber.
Today, Carrey is one of America’s top movie stars — and he credits his constant visualization with helping him get there.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
As a young athlete, Schwarzenegger swore by the power of visualization to reach his bodybuilding goals.
"I had this fixed idea of growing a body like Reg Park’s. The model was there in my mind; I only had to grow enough to fill it,” he explained. "The more I focused in on this image and worked and grew, the more I saw it was real and possible for me to be like him.”
Later, when he transitioned to careers in acting and politics, Schwarzenegger said he employed similar mental tricks: "It’s the same process I used in bodybuilding: What you do is create a vision of who you want to be — and then live that picture as if it were already true.”
Will Smith
A big advocate of the law of attraction, the award-winning actor says his positive thinking has helped him achieve happiness. “In my mind, I've always been an A-list Hollywood superstar. Y'all just didn't know yet,” Smith has said of the visualizing techniques that helped him along the way.
He's also fond of quoting Confucius's motivating motto, as way of explaining his blockbuster success: "He who who says he can and he who says he can’t are both usually right."
"Your mind is a garden; your thoughts are the seeds. You can grow flowers, or you can grow weeds." - Unknown Zen Saying