Principle
The term "jackrabbit factor" refers to the importance of being fixed on one's objective. According to the book, a person must be able to visualize the success they seek, and feel the success as though they have already achieved it before beginning the chase. Doing what someone else has done in order to duplicate their success is said to be as futile as is jumping and barking to produce a rabbit. The claim is that if the goal is in clear view, the actions needed to capture the prize will actually become instinctive.
If a person sees a dog chasing a rabbit, but could not see the rabbit, they would see the dog darting, barking and leaping around. To the bystander, the dog would seem crazy. This first part of the analogy compares the dog to a person with a dream for success. The person may seem to do erratic, crazy, irrational things in pursuit of the dream. If a bystander cannot "see" that person's dream, the person's behavior will appear crazed as well.
Taking the analogy further, if a man wanted a rabbit too, and decided to simply mimic the same steps as the dog without "seeing" a rabbit himself, he would actually repel all rabbits as he jumped and barked erratically (hoping that doing so would somehow produce a rabbit). This compares directly to people who try to do precisely what another person has done in an effort to achieve the same success. It is claimed that this strategy will tend to repel the very success they seek.
Read more about this topic: The Jackrabbit Factor: Why You Can (book)
Famous quotes containing the word principle:
“The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum.”
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965)
“Well, you Yankees and your holy principle about savin’ the Union. You’re plunderin’ pirates that’s what. Well, you think there’s no Confederate army where you’re goin’. You think our boys are asleep down here. Well, they’ll catch up to you and they’ll cut you to pieces you, you nameless, fatherless scum. I wish I could be there to see it.”
—John Lee Mahin (1902–1984)
“Antagonistic cooperation is the principle of all markets and many marriages.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)