I’ve got a question for you.
Have you ever worried about something?
Okay, dumb question, let me rephrase.
Have you worried about something to excess?
Maybe you heard someone in your department was getting the ax. Then you suddenly realize:
“Uh. Oh. People in the office have been overly nice to me all week! That can’t be good.”
And it kept you punching your pillow all night long.
Can you think of any such worrisome time in life? Take a second and conjure up a goodie. A real doozey.
Got one?
Do you remember what was going through your head at the peak of the worry?
It might be something totally different. For you maybe it was fear of not making a deadline, a relationship challenge, or a lost pet. Maybe it was fear of flunking a class, getting lost in a city with a new guide dog, or maybe it really was that fear of getting fired.
If so, I bet you were visualizing something like a box filled with all your personal stuff sitting on your desk chair one morning.
Were you hearing a very sincere tone in your boss’s voice apologizing for having to let you go?
Maybe you could feel the grip on both your elbows as security escorted you off company property as they do these days.
Did you feel that rush of blood to your face at night when you were alone with your thoughts and the reality of what it all meant flooded in?
Can’t’ make the house payment.
Eating rice and beans instead of your favorite foods.
Credit score plummeting to the depths.
Your spouse’s quivering voice asking, “Honey, what are we going to do? We just got our credit card bill for the month.”
Can you feel your face pulsing with every heartbeat?
Okay, enough pain. Shake it off.
Now, did any of that stuff actually happen?
My guess is no, it never happened. Or if it did, it wasn’t nearly as bad as all those horrible sound bites and images your imagination whipped up in your mind, and you overcame in spite of it all.
If you are in mid-battle now, you will overcome! You really will.
There’s a quote by Shakespeare of all people which I really love.
“Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once.”
Now, before you think I’m calling you a coward, I’m not. Trust me; I’ve learned from worrying to excess in the past, as well reminding myself here. This quote says to me we can allow ourselves to experience our worst fears over and over and over and over and over and over in our minds; when in reality they’ll never come in the first place.
It’s telling me to be courageous, to be valiant. And even if it is going to happen, chest out, chin up, and let it happen just the once. I’ll deal with it once, not a thousand horrible different times in my mind.
If you have teenagers and they’ve ever been two-hours late for curfew, and you can’t reach them on their cell; you know what I’m getting at here.
The real point I want to make here is, as much as visualizing can cause us to live out something terribly worrisome in our mind which never comes true, success shares that technique only in the opposite direction, but with tangible positive results.
It’s pretty awesome really.
What if instead of worrying about getting the axe and picturing all that negative imagery and sound bites, instead you visualize your boss shaking your hand saying…
“Congratulations, I’m so happy for you to get the promotion.”
Maybe a co-worker smiling at you saying, “Yeah, we all thought it was you that would wind up with the promotion, you deserve it. Awesome, congrats!”
Or if you are a business person, how about we hear a phone conversation with a client who is so impressed by your professionalism and work that he or she awards you the contract over the phone.
Maybe you picture yourself standing upright, chest out, breathing deep and confidently saying,
“Tell you what, besides the 4-hour consultation and review of your marketing program, I’ll toss in a 5 piece e-mail campaign to kick off my ideas at half the normal rate, because I really believe in this project.” And in return they say, “Awesome, when can you get started?”
Are you getting the idea? Visualize and hear yourself being successful and getting the contracts, or whatever it is you are going for.
Sounds kind of silly doesn’t it?
Well, mental visualization has proven to have measurable results in sports such as basketball and high jumping for instance. It improved both the form and results of the sportspersons.
It has proven to work. Is it metaphysical or just preparation meeting up with opportunity? Who cares, if it works, it works, that’s all we need to know.
Your body language and mental disposition from doing these exercises is worth the price of admission.
Here, try this little exercise.
Point your nose to the ceiling, and put the biggest, widest, crappiest grin on your face.
Come on, do it. Ah just try it this once, go ahead. Put the biggest ear-to-ear smile on that mug. Hold it there for ten-minutes. Five-minutes? Even two-minutes.
Go ahead, I’ll be here when you get done. Stop reading and come back when you’re finished.
Okay. Are you still smiling now because you just are and not having to force it?
Did you wind up smiling just because the very act caused you to? Do you feel better from just that one simple little exercise?
You might be interested to know this little exercise was successfully used as therapy for patients with depression.
Similar happens with mental visualization techniques to put us in optimum position to succeed at our goals. We’ll feel better and do better, because we visualize it and our physiology lines up with when we do our best, and we’ll get the best results.
Try living your life by daily visualizing success, joy, and peace of mind.
I’ve got a feeling you’ll be just like those sportspersons, you’ll increase your successes markedly.
Hey, we really do have a choice, we have control over our minds, is there any reason why you’d choose to think the worst will happen? Why not imagine the best, and expect positive results?
Until next time…
Live like you’ll never get hurt, dream like nobody is watching, and above all… try-try-try until you succeed!
