You have to believe it to see it

A co-worker of mine has this as his tag line on his IM client. He's had it there for a couple of months now. I remember then I first saw it I thought he had mistyped the more popular quote "You have to see it to believe it." After seeing it a couple of times, it clicked and I thought it was a cool quote.

I didn't give it more thought until tonight. Last time Radio Disney held one of their D-Tours, my daughter, as is the norm of late, won a bunch of Disney stuff -- a DVD, CD, folder, long sleeved T-shirt -- and tickets to see Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. We took the kids to see it tonight in a preview showing before tomorrow's release. I thought it was pretty good. The kids liked it too. My youngest son said it was "really, really, really funny Dad."

The movie is about a magical toy store that is passed down from Mr. Magorium (Dustin Hoffman) to his Store Manager. Without giving too much away, the Store Manager (played by Natalie Portman of Star Wars fame and more) isn't sure that she's ready to handle the magical store all by herself. Somewhere in the middle of her soul searching, I saw that phrase flashed again..."You have to believe it to see it." When I saw it this time, in the context of the movie, it really hit home more quickly.

You have to believe it to see it. It reminds me of a lot of other success-building phrases like "Picture what you want and then grab it," and all of the "other visualize success" sayings. "If you think you're a winner you will be." "If you think that you can't, then you can't."

In this movie, the magic was right there all the time, but the Store Manager didn't believe that she had the magic too. She thought that the magic was all Mr. Magorium's. It wasn't until a block of wood (with a little help from a friend) showed her that she really did believe and suddenly she could see the magic herself -- from herself!

So often we forget that we're in charge of our destiny. We see someone else succeeding, in business, in life, in love, and just stare. I'll never be like that. I'm not capable of attaining that level of success. They're so lucky. But, by believing, by visualizing, by acting like we are in charge, we will be in charge. You have to believe it to see it.

What are you waiting to believe in?