23It sounded ridiculously simple. Too simple to mean
anything. But I wrote it down. And I never forgot it.
I’ll never forget the moment when some entertain-
ment TV show was saying that box office receipts from
his second Terminatormovie had made him the most
popular box office draw in the world. Was he psychic?
Or was there something to his formula?
Over the years I’ve used Arnold’s idea of creating a
vision as a motivational tool. I’ve also elaborated on it
in my corporate training seminars. I invite people to
notice that Arnold said that you create a vision. He did
not say that you wait until you receive a vision. You
create one. In other words, you make it up.
A major part of living a life of self-motivation is hav-
ing something to wake up for in the morning—some-
thing that you are “up to” in life so that you will stay
hungry.
The vision can be created right now—better now
than later. You can always change it if you want, but
don’t live a moment longer without one. Watch what
being hungry to live that vision does to your ability to
motivate yourself.
3. Tell yourself a true lie
I remember when my then-12-year-old daughter
Margery participated in a school poetry reading in
which all her classmates had to write a “lie poem” about
how great they were.
They were supposed to make up untruths about
themselves that made them sound unbelievably won-
derful. I realized as I listened to the poems that the
children were doing an unintended version of what
Arnold did to clarify the picture of his future. By
Tell yourself a true lie