No, Jim isn’t on the podcast today. I wish he was, but he died in 1953, and I, frankly, am not a medium.

Jim grew up on the Sac and Fox Nation in Oklahoma in the late 19th century.

Orphaned as a teenager, Jim spent his teen years as a ward of the state in government Indian schools, including the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania where his natural athletic ability caught some attention.

In 1907, while walking across campus, Jim saw some upperclassmen practising the high jump. Jim gave it a try (in overalls, no less) and cleared the 5’9″ bar, breaking the school record. That moment set him on the path to become one of the truly great athletes of the 20th century.

In 1912, Jim qualified for the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm as a way to prove his worthiness to his love, Iva Miller, whose parents disapproved of the match.

While on the ocean liner to the Stockholm games, reporter Francis Alberanti saw Jim relaxing on a deck chair and asked, “What are you doing, Jim, thinking of your Uncle Sitting Bull?”

“No,” Jim replied. “I’m practicing the long jump. I’ve just jumped 23 feet eight inches. I think that will win it.”

Jim used a technique that was unusual for athletes of the time: visualisation. Jim would imitate the other athletes’ movements both in reality and in his mind, and he would visualise his success in doing so. And he would do so over, and over, and over again until he saw himself achieving his goal.

In Stockholm, Jim crushed the competition in the pentathlon, placing first in four of the five events.

A week later, Jim participated in the decathlon, a three-day event.

On the second day, Jim’s shoes were stolen. A pair of mismatched shoes were found in the garbage just in time for the high jump, one even a size too big. Jim donned the shoes and won the high jump.

Later that afternoon he did the 110-meter hurdles in a lightning fast 15.6 seconds — a record that was almost but not quite broken in 1948 — and he set the record in his mismatched shoes.

On the final day of the competition, Jim had to compete in the 1500-meter run. He did the run in 4 minutes 40.1 seconds, a record that wouldn’t be broken until 1972.

And set that record too…in those same mismatched shoes.

Jim had something that his competition didn’t:

He had mastered his mind.

Jim had the power to visualise himself succeeding.

Jim’s story goes to illustrate that it doesn’t matter what your circumstances are…you can still succeed regardless of the circumstances where you are starting.

It doesn’t matter if you have all the right stuff. It doesn’t matter if you’re the richest, smartest, prettiest…

It doesn’t matter if you do your hair or makeup. It doesn’t even matter if your shoes match.

If you can master your mindset, if you can visualise your success and your abundant future, you will naturally take the right actions to get there…no matter what the circumstance is where you’re starting out.

In today’s meditation, I guide you through a powerful visualisation exercise to help you see your positive, abundant future.

For easy access, I’ve also released this meditation as a bonus episode on the show so you can bookmark it and come back to it over and over again.