As If!

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For imagination sets the goal picture which our automatic mechanism works on. We act, or fail to act, not because of will as commonly believed, but because of imagination. -Maxwell Maltz (1899-1975), a cosmetic surgeon and author who developed Psycho-Cybernetics, a self image improvement system.

As we have discussed, rationalizing away our potential successes can be absolutely deadly to our happiness and prevents us from ever becoming who we are really capable of being! But it still begs the question as to why we do this on a regular basis…why is this the norm and not the exception? After all, we do realize that this exists, so why can’t we just stop doing it, reverse course and begin to achieve our dreams…and I’m talking about really breaking through and not just doing a little bit better!

This week I was able to tap into some of the deep rooted frustrations of my coaching clients when I posed the question if anybody was really sick and tired of hearing a motivational speech about how they could get what they wanted if they only take this pill, that program, the next greatest technique! In the front row a hand flew in the air accompanied by a pained facial expression that indicated I had hit the bulls eye! But even though many people are diligent in their pursuit of knowledge, it seems that they still find themselves on a slippery slope!

Why!? It’s right there in front of us! Gurus and masters of anything and everything…why not just copy them…but we do you say…and I agree…you try with a martyr’s effort…yet you seem to miss the mark constantly! Well I think that I know why! And the good news is that it’s easy!

See the true masters have a simple understanding of the greatest tool in their arsenal…their subconscious mind! I’m not talking about anything that requires the help of a master coach or guru…just a simple technique that you can access today…right now! Although a discussion of the subconscious mind can conjure up visions of complicated systems of belief and deep rooted psychotherapy…I’m not going in that direction, even though those discussions intrigue me, the “how to” is actually simple!

Let’s consider dreams…amazing when you really think about it. They can be so vivid, colorful and real that they can provoke such a physical reaction that we awake in a sweat or go through the following day feeling like we have actually lived through the event…did you catch that…it feels as though we have actually lived through the event!! We are changed by the dream…emotionally, physically…inspired…or worse, even more deeply rooted in fear over the nightmare experience!

“But how can that be”, you ask yourself…”it’s not real”, you rationalize! But is that really accurate? Why is it not real? Isn’t everything we experience open to the interpretation of the mind? Don’t we store all experiences in pictures…tucked away in millions of psycho-folders in the subconscious…ready to be called upon to make sense of future experiences? By the way…what is “deja vu”…how does that even happen?

Well before we get away from the “how to”…so I don’t perpetuate the problem…I want to hammer home the fact that most experiences begin in the mind…a virtual movie that we construct before the “actual” event takes place…and YES that’s exactly where the problem is! We are simply creating the wrong movie! We are letting Mr. and Mrs. Fear edit the screen play! Mr Failure is the director! So why the heck are we hiring them to be involved at all?! This is our movie!

It’s time to fire them all and hire the right people! Who said we have to play the part of the “goat” in our own movie…I’m not playing the loser! Really think about how absurd the concept even sounds…”I’d like to try out for the local play and I’d prefer to play the loser”…is that cool? So now we’re getting somewhere…if you don’t want the part then simply re-write the script!

So back to the winners and how they do it…do you think any fantastic athlete envisions themself as the loser in the championship? Do you think any great politician has a picture of themselves losing the bid for the presidency? How about Lincoln whose loses and failures are legendary…did he ever give up on the vision of success? How do these winners do it?

Well why does it have to be any more complicated than dreaming…night dreams, day dreams it doesn’t matter at all…it’s the exercise that matters. The consistent writing and rewriting of the personal movie casting them as the winner. Yet like any winner, they too experience disaster, setback, pain and suffering yet they don’t go into the theatre of the mind and scratch a big red “X” across their self -image, fold tent and call it a day…rather they take the negative feedback at it’s face value…then they use it to course correct so they can help the hero of the mind win!

How incredible is that?! It’s like cheating! When’s the last time you went to a movie and wanted to scream at the screen and beg the stumbling fool to not go into that dark room…run away from the trap! Well what about sitting in your own theatre? Look up at your own screen and think about what you see…do you feel the urge to scream at the lead actor…by the way that’s YOU! But rather than scream, just rewrite the script before you stumble…simple isn’t it…because it really is!

Putting it all together you have to first clarify the target and understand what the movie is really about…start with the end result in mind…then start writing the script. Of course like any movie there will be extensive editing…yes mistakes that need to be cleaned up. Yet once this is all in motion remember that you are the lead actor or actress…so you must prepare! But I’ve never done this before you rationalize…”what if” I fail? STOP! Remember we have fired those trouble-making personal assassins! It’s time to practice by dreaming “as-if”  you have already won! Dream strong! Put the pictures together…holding the trophy…winning the race…getting what you want! Then once those pictures of success are implanted on the film in the brain, play them over and over again until you wire the body and mind to believe and the rest will simply play itself out like an Oscar winning thriller!