| SNAP QUIZ: GO! 1. Name 2 things you could do to improve your health. 2. Identify 2 actions, habits or attitudes you could adopt to improve your business and bring more money. If you’re over 14 and can cross the street by yourself, chances are that you have pretty quick answers for both. Did the answers you just considered seem outrageously un-doable? Probably not. Have those answers popped up for you before? Probably so. Would you like changes made easier? Getting answers is easy. LIVING the answers is where CHARACTER and SUCCESS call home. Why do most who’ll swear they want more out of life continue to do what’s easy rather than what’s right? The reasons are no mystery. Some reasons have to do with comfort. Making changes easier is about making small shifts. 1. It’s a common belief that it takes 2-4 weeks to change a habit or attitude. For many, this is a quick fact, yet something which is held as information-only, rather than used as a tool to inspire the shifting of personally limiting habits. We need to say “It’s true for me, not just “It’s true” or “It’s true for that other guy.” 2. Staying with an old habit or taking the path of least resistance creates that comfort zone we can endlessly and brilliantly justify. Remaining on this path is a coping devise or defense mechanism. “Defending us from what?” you ask. A simple answer: Avoiding change supports our ego’s desire to promote the status quo. Remaining safe in old habits is our way of protecting ourselves from the discomfort of stretching, growing, failure and perhaps, success. Our ego wants us to stay just where we are, to continue to feel smart without pushing limits. |
PERCEPTION and MAKING CHANGE COMFORTABLE
| Remember the principle of the ‘carrot and the stick.’ Our basic motivations are hope of reward and the fear of pain or loss. Sometimes, even when the possibility of gain may be huge; the requirements of learning, change, and action push the ego to move to complacency in order to hold on to its comfort. That battle is fought relentlessly by so many who know their valuable opportunities not taken have been far outnumbered by the opportunities presented. Besides, not having goals well-defined, stagnation results from perception that what needs to be done is overwhelming, too hard or uncomfortable. For example: * If a salesperson feels that making a lot of prospect calls on a consistent basis is just too much to endure or that a “no” is an indication, a “sign,” that the entire experience is unproductive, then distractions can easily deflect that person from this task which may be critical to a desired outcome. Squirrel! * If choices necessary to achieving a healthy body are perceived as burdensome or sacrifices, as cost rather than wonderful investment, it’s likely that caving to old food and exercise habits will be the comfort zone chosen. * If reading slowly is a burden and it’s perceived as a fixed reality, the reader will probably not pick up too many books. All these perceptions are just that, personal perspectives chosen, not some fixed reality or real limit. In order to get out of the states of stagnation and personal disappointment for action not taken, either the disappointment needs to hit some bottom or the WHY must be polished to what’s called a Burning Desire. Add BURNING DESIRE to bring our best, powerful game, and change is made easier. * When a salesperson discovers a buyer’s “WHY” or purpose, the transaction moves along with more ease and clarity to reach that purpose. * Find out what moves you in business. Money itself is rarely the motivator. Whether you are inspired to not lose the lifestyle you have or to elevate lifestyle, for recognition, or to serve others and the world, your focus becomes sharper and distractions are replaced by the tasks at hand that propel you on the journey to the goal. * When the motivation to lose weight has only led to more empty promises or more weight, add to the mix a serious motivator like a high school reunion, vacation or prize, then acting on decisions in line with the goal becomes easy. Suddenly the empty personal promise has become a sacred commitment. Short Course: The CHEMISTRY of FEELINGS and Taking Control in making changes easier. When you look forward to doing anything with joy, happiness or positive expectancy, you feel goooood. When someone gives you a compliment, the deal goes through, you win the poker hand, anticipating sex or a great round of golf, you feel goooood. This is not just a psychological feeling. Your fantasy of positive expectation or result creates a very real biochemical reaction. You feel goooood because your perception of a goooood experience triggers the neurotransmitter dopamine in the mid-central or limbic section of the brain. This neurotransmitter spreads through the brain in an instant and sets other positive forces into action. In other words, your positive thought changes your chemistry and your feelings and make changes easier. Interestingly, your negative expectations or fantasy of negative results, create no dopamine response and things don’t look as welcoming. Neuroscientists are now teaching what the mystics have taught for millenia: Create and hold positive thoughts and you change your world. Since we now understand how to activate dopamine and this natural chemical process for feeling good, we have the ability to, on demand, create, activate and control our feeling goooooood. So, you’ll see, with positive visualizaton, we can add joy to the goals we consider. We can add a Burning Desire to make business, weight control, relationships… literally to any habit or attitude. How to ACTIVATE a BURNING DESIRE and Create Internal Excitement. Up your dopamine cocktail to change your life and make changes easier. Stimulating the subconscious with positive visualization, we can trigger dopamine and cause endorphins to go about their healing work. We can do this all through visualization and we learn fastest in focused relaxation. Many today do some form of personal development in the direction of self-hypnosis, meditation, and visualization. Whether you are among those who’ve been consistent or not, just bring your focus to these simple steps I’m about to share, and you will increase your positive response dramatically. The STEPS using your natural DOPAMINE COCKTAIL After you have gone through the relaxation of your choice, typically you would start with the first suggestion/goal on your list. The process is simple: Straight from Neurolinguistic Programming. 1) auditory: hear it – Repeat the positive suggestion silently 2) visual: see or imagine it – Visualize/picture/imagine the positive end result of the goal or desire. 3) kinesthetic: feel it – Create the positive feeling you will have when this goal is already accomplished and the action has been taken. Spend a few moments on this element. Even, if in the beginning, you have to force the expression of joy, do it anyway. It is then that dopamine gets released and your positive feeling is attached to your suggestion or goal. The reason you will make changes faster and easier than ever is not because you want the change or need to change, but because attaining the goal or action FEELS good, feels better than what presently exists. Changing a habit is about making a different/positive choice again, again and again until the new behavior is the default or automatic behavior (new neural pathways in the brain). This dopamine cocktail is the supercharger for making changes more efficiently. So, starting today, make the time for a session and remember to slow down and savor the process. (Positive side effects can be better sleep, faster mental processing, improved memory and lower blood pressure.) |