How many elements are there in the periodic table? In this article I want to answer that question, and show how that answer can relate to your own goal setting and goal achievement. It’s not a science lesson (well, ok, it is a bit) but it’s more of a life lesson, so let’s jump right in…
The idea for this article came from watching a superb documentary series on the BBC called ‘Wonders of the Universe’. That series screamed goal setting and achievement ideas at me, and this is one of them, so here’s the answer to the question I asked…
118.
That’s how many elements there are in the periodic table. Personally I thought the answer was 92, which probably explains why I didn’t get my chemistry exam!
Originally, way back in the midst of the history of science, it was thought that there were only 4 elements – fire, water, earth and air.
Everything had to be made up of a combination of those 4. Enquiring minds (which I’ll say more about later) slowly but surely disproved that theory, and more and more elements were discovered, with an element being something that cannot be broken down into further components.
So, we now know that everything is *not* only made from 4 elements, but from 118 as of 2011, which is when I write this article.
I say ‘as of 2011’, because it’s a key point. It’s the enquiring minds that have pushed the number of confirmed elements from 92 to the current 118, by questioning just how accurate the original answer was.
When you combine an enquiring mind with the certain fact of everything being made up of elements, you can set a fire under your goal achievement which will take you to unimaginable places, and here’s why…
I’ve written about this elsewhere, but I think it’s a good illustration, so I’ll use the idea again of taking out the rubbish. I doubt your goal setting only goes that far, but let’s say it does.
To take out the rubbish, you had to source and obtain a rubbish bag, and work out where you had to take it to. You then had to take action by filling the rubbish bag and taking it out – let’s face it, there is no rubbish removing fairy to do it for you, right?
It may not seem like it, but that’s a story of goal setting, and then goal achievement.
When you first did it, you needed an enquiring mind to ask the relevant questions. Then, when you acted on the answers, you were moving atoms around to achieve the goal.
Everything is made of elements, elements are made of atoms, so all we ever do is move atoms around.
When you moved the rubbish bag, you didn’t break down any elements, but you did move the atoms around in their structure that made up the elements and therefore the bag. It wasn’t a difficult task either, and it’s usually taken in with no trepidation, no fear of failure.
If only we just used the same idea with *any* goal! Use your mind to enquire and get answers, then just move the relevant atoms around to achieve the goal!
I’ve had people say to me that this is way too simplistic. Yes, it’s a simple idea, and of course the application is often not simple – moving some atoms can hold real fear, and there will be consequences we won’t have expected.
That’s why so many people don’t set far reaching goals for themselves, and compared to the possibilities, they figuratively *are* just settling for moving a few bags around.
In the same way that those early pioneers of science questioned accepted knowledge, you should question your own accepted knowledge of how far you can go with your goal setting.
Then you can move some atoms about, and actually find out for yourself whether your previously believed limits are true or not. I’ll bet they aren’t…
Here’s a final thought to illustrate the point – as you read this, right now, stop for a second, and consider the screen you are reading it on. It may be a desktop, a laptop or a phone, but it will be a screen of some sort.
That screen is made of elements, which have been moved around to create the screen.
Someone worked out how to do that. Now look around you, and think of all the different combinations of elements, everything and everywhere around you.
Wow! All those goals that were set and achieved by moving the atoms around in the form of elements!
Most goals you could set for yourself have already been achieved by others, so which atoms to move, which combination of elements to make, has already been worked out, you just need to do the same.
Hopefully you can see how this idea can be run with, to achieve great things for yourself. So yes, goal achievement is, in its’ basic form, indeed no more than moving elements and atoms around!
I’ve used ideas like this since I was around 18 (a long time ago!) to have myself some great adventures by setting goals and then going about achieving them. You can read all about them in my book ‘Transform Your Life In 21 Days!’ which I wrote in 2003 as a vehicle to pass the ideas on.
I was thrilled to have readers describe it as ‘motivational magic’ and ‘a true gem in the field.’ You can go a take a look right now by clicking the image below:
‘Til Next Time,
Health & Happiness,
Gordon
P.S. Don’t hesitate to email me, address is on the contact page.
