“Grandmom, I will find the golden egg at the Easter egg hunt today,” Noah announced with passion. It was 5 a.m.
I roused my sleeping body, moaned, “Good luck,” and rolled over on my side.
He persisted. “I don’t need luck, I know. Aren’t you going to ask me how I know? Grandmom? Grandmom?”
I sat up and asked, “Okay, Noah, how do you know you will be the one to find the golden egg and win the big prize?"
He smiled and said excitedly, “My friend, God, telled me, Grandmom.”
“Oh,” I said, trying to match his enthusiasm.
Later I overheard Noah talking to Malia, “I don’t want you to be sad or mad, Malia, because we are in the same age group this year, but even though I am younger, I will win the golden egg.”
She shrugged her shoulders, rolled her brown eyes, and said, “Whatever.”
Twelve o’clock arrived. About one hundred kids scrambled to claim the hundreds of plastic colored eggs. Everyone except Noah. He stood still, arched his head upward and toward the sky, nodded and walked straight ahead about five feet. He never looked down or reached for an egg.
I began to worry about how he would feel if he did not find the golden egg. Malia returned for another basket and asked, “Why isn’t Noah picking up any eggs?” I shrugged. “Does he really think he will find the golden egg with all these kids?”
“I guess he does,” I replied.
Together we watched as he cocked his head to the left one more time and listened with the focus of an animal tracker. Then he ran to a big rock, smiled, and struggled to lift the boulder. Then I heard him scream, “Yes!” Kids surrounded him with shouts and high fives.
When he presented the treasured golden egg to me, he said, “See, Grandmom, God said I would find it. And I listened.”
Noah exemplified the over-belief principle. He was convinced of a successful egg hunt in which he would win the prize egg. He declared his intention out loud and reinforced his will by repeating his intention. He stayed focused and attuned to his stated goal.
Excerpted from Awaken by Rosalie Deer Heart
