We Become What We Think
About
We become what
we think about
"Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the
goal"
You have far more control over what happens to you than you
may think. The dawn of the new year is a powerfully symbolic
time to exert some of that control.
Napoleon Hill, who interviewed the most successful people in
the world in the early 1900s, found that all of them were absolutely,
obsessively focused on their vision, not on where they were
to start with, or on the obstacles in the way of their goal.
The vast majority of the population focuses on the obstacles,
and they don’t attain anywhere near the same levels of
success and harmony in their lives as the people Hill interviewed.
As Earle Nightingale said, we become what we think about.
What Hill and Nightingale discovered is that, to a large extent,
we program ourselves, our behaviours and our results by our
thoughts. If we focus on opportunities, and on things we
can influence, that’s what we see. If we focus on problems
and on what we can’t control, then that’s the world
we see. As in marketing, our perception becomes our reality. If
you doubt this, click
hereto try the simple exercise in an
earlier article.
Think about a time you succeeded in a goal. What were
you focused on – the goal or the challenges? Now think of
a time you struggled and perhaps failed. Were you focused on the
goal or the challenges?
Our conscious mind can only focus on about 7 things at a time. For
example, until I mention it, you’re probably not consciously
aware of how your clothes feel on you right now, or on some of the
background sounds around you. The sensory information was going
into your brain, but you weren’t consciously aware of it until
I mentioned it.
Since your conscious mind is so limited, it simply can’t
perform even the most rudimentary behaviours. It takes literally
thousands of muscles to pick up a pen or to walk. With only
7 things to focus on at a time, you couldn’t hope to perform
these simple actions with your conscious mind. What you did,
over time as a child, was learn the most fundamental behaviours
like walking or talking and you trained your unconscious mind
to do it all.
I’m seeing that process with my toddler now, and it’s
amazing to watch. As an adult, all you think is ‘unscrew
the lid on the bottle’, and you do it. As a toddler, he’s
trying it over and over and over again until he gets it and
can do it smoothly. In a similar way, you’ve taught your
unconscious mind how to perform all of your basic functions.
The role of your conscious mind is simply to program your unconscious
mind, by focusing on the actions and/or results you want. The
programming language is pictures, infused with emotion –
basic visualization.
That’s what wins most major athletic events now –
psychology, not physical conditioning. When you watch a skier
just before they go down the hill, you’ll often see them
with their eyes closed, swaying back and forth, imagining that
they are performing the course perfectly. It’s been found
that your mind doesn’t know the difference between what
you imagine and what you actually experience. If you imagine
yourself performing an action perfectly, your body actually
starts to believe that’s the way that it should behave
and your performance improves.
This doesn’t just apply to physical events. It also applies
to all aspects of our lives – business, relationships,
fitness, everything. If you can see how you want to behave and
see the results you want you can realize them. Everyone who
succeeds on a regular basis gets there because they became obsessively
focused on their vision, on their goal. Similarly, those who
have difficulties and are constantly challenged are those who
focus on the challenges. They often go over them again and again
in their heads and share them with others, reliving them, effectively
programming themselves to repeat the cycle over and over again.
Studies have shown that while most of us have tens of thousands
of thoughts each day, the vast majority are exactly the same
as we had yesterday, or in most of the days before. If you want
to find out what you focus on, look around at your world, and
at the people around you, and what’s happening with them.
That’s the mirror for you.
It takes conscious effort to change our thoughts and to focus
on where we want to be, rather than on all the problems in the
way. A lot of us have a vested interest in where we are, and
in our ‘story’ of how we got here. All of that past
forms our identity, and as unpleasant as it may be, it’s
pretty challenging to leave it behind for something we’re
not sure about. It’s all we’re familiar with. And
yet it’s leaving that behind that allows us to focus on
where we want to be. Focusing on the past only keeps recreating
that past in different forms. Our life may get ‘better’
in some ways (more ‘toys’ and ‘bells and whistles’),
and yet the same patterns keep reoccurring.
Bob Proctor speaks of his early days, when he could hardly make
it from paycheck to paycheck. One day he was sitting in a bar,
looking around thinking, "all these guys are losers."
Then a realization hit him: "I must be a loser too!"
At that moment, he vowed to make a change. He walked out of
there and never returned, and within months became an outstanding
business success, making more in a week than he had previously
in a year. It took that stark look at where he was, at his justifications
for being there, and a decision to leave it all behind.
Most of us aren’t surrounded by ‘losers’.
In fact, it’s not necessarily all that bad. But is that
where you really want to be?
The new year is a powerfully symbolic time to focus on where
you want to be. An earlier
article helps you articulate and prioritize your goals.
The challenge, after articulating them, is to stay focused on
them, and not to focus 90% of your thoughts on where you’ve
always been. If you focus on your goal, you’ll have a
better chance of seeing the opportunities that could help you
get there.
There are many ways to do this. Write out your goal. Read it
and visualize it daily. See yourself living it, and feel what
you would be feeling as if you were actually there. Write a
short synopsis of it in a note you can carry with you and read
three times a day. Put reminders of your goal into your daytimer
to help you focus on it again and again throughout the day.
First comes your decision. Where do you want the new year to
take you? Do you want more of the same, or do you want better?
That’s your choice, and only you can make it.
Ravi Tangri
e-mail: Team@TeamCHRYSALIS.com
© 2003 Chrysalis Performance Strategies Inc. All
rights reserved.
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