Brutha,
I am not assuming that everyone has the same dreams. That is your presumption about my point of view. If you read my message again and assume that I am arguing from the basis that people have different dreams and different criteria for their achievement, you may understand my point as I intended to make it. In other words, this is a case where changing your mindset may help.
The difference between people is more than their mindset. Their bodies are different. One portion of food may satisfy one where it leaves the other longing for more. One kind of food is just the ticket where the same food is found disgusting by another. Biology and factors other than mindset come into the mix.
If you are talking about the notion that you can make a hell of heaven or a heaven of hell because thinking makes it so, then, sure, I agree. The mind can make one thing seem like another, for a time... until reality comes a-knocking. I repeat, reality is what continues to persist despite your mindset.
If you push your standards low enough, you can feel satisfied by anything. But this is changing your dreams to meet the situation, not keeping your dream constant and changing your mindset to acquire what you envision in that dream.
My beef is with the notion that if you just fiddle with your ideology, your dreams will magically manifest. That's just plain BS.
It's the argument made by many people selling their religions. I had Buddhists argue that once they had become Buddhist that so many good things came their way. Magickal thinking. It's the same BS as the mindset argument. Just believe this way, and you'll have abundance for your entire life.
No magical mindset will rid you of the necessity of going out and trying, learning, making mistakes, and generally doing what it takes to make your dream, whatever that is, a reality.
The downside of the whole "just change your mindset" thing is that people may buy into it, do it, fail to achieve, and then blame themselves, when they were just acting on bad information. Or, worse, someone who is just wanting to be told they can get something for nothing has the erroneous belief behind that want reinforced (at the profit of another individual or company), and that person still ends up with nothing.
Hmm, must be because the mindset isn't good enough yet. Gotta buy more books and CDs and get that mindset really, really buff.
The fact is that when it comes to most reasonable aspirations, we have everything we need to achieve. We have brains that can learn and bodies that can move around and manipulate objects. We have voices that can communicate information, make requests, and persuade. We have wills that can help us keep going when things get rough and the path ahead looks barren, dangerous, or difficult. We have creativity to come up with new approaches.
Mindset schmindset. Leave your mindset alone. It'll take care of itself. Research, plan, make preparations, and then just go out there and do it (read: try, success is not guaranteed). Look at your results, repeat if necessary. If you're a healthy, intelligent individual, you will learn and your mindset will adapt on its own.
On a side note, here is where the "mindset" argument can become deadly. An individual on a show on the National Geographic channel was of the mindset that he could not be injured by cobra venom. He wished to show his power to some girls, so he allowed a cobra to bite him. They watched. He developed increasingly dramatic symptoms caused by the cobra venom. The people around him began to beg him to get help, but he refused. He replied, "My blood is snake's blood." He believed, a la Henry Ford, that he could and the snake venom could not.
When man was nearly unconscious, his loved ones decided to bring him to a hospital. Too late. He died for his beliefs. Perhaps some believers in belief can make him a saint?
What caused this man's death was the belief in belief. The belief in mindset.
On the same show, another individual handled a cobra poorly and was bitten. He knew the dangers. He was clear about the reality of the situation and threat. He stayed calm. He had a friend drive him to a hospital.
His mindset wasn't that his mindset made him better or worse, but rather that reality is real, and it's best to be informed by the facts and act according to what you know. Antivenom was what he needed, not belief, and he knew it. His mindset helped him stay calm and act reasonable, yes, but it's the antivenom that saved him. He's alive because of it. Compare it to the other guy.
In my mindset, it can't get any clearer than that.
