What percentage of your day do you spend noticing the lack of something you’d like to be, do or have in your life or business?
Are you aware that every time you notice the lack of that something, you separate yourself further from the possibility of having it?
In yesterday’s Meeting of the Titans, the Member in focus shared that during his day, he was frequently aware of the lack of the new Acquisitions Manager that he really wanted to hire, and that he wasn’t sure why he hadn’t yet pulled the trigger.
If you understand that where attention goes, energy flows, and the idea that thoughts become things, you will also understand that repeatedly putting our attention on the lack of something, will perpetuate our experience of that lack, and therefore make it harder to attain that which we want.
Focusing on what we don’t want instead of what we do want can be an easy habit to slide into though. In fact, as an evolutionary trait, it has served us well to be able to see problems in order to solve them.
Especially for us, as successful business leaders, our ability to ‘see the gap’ between our current reality and where we are heading is part of what allows us to keep growing and expanding in our endeavours.
The opportunity now, however, is to spend more time focusing on ‘the having’ of what we do want, in order to harness the power of our attention and focus, and increase our ability to have the experience we truly desire.
The reality is that the only relevant place that any (and all) possibilities exist is NOW and the secret to bringing our desired future into being, is to experience it as our current reality and to be grateful for the experience as if it’s already here.
A great article in Psychology Today, Seeing is Believing: The Power of Visualisation, by A.J. Adams (MAPP), has the following to say on this phenomena:
‘Brain studies now reveal that thoughts produce the same mental instructions as actions. Mental imagery impacts many cognitive processes in the brain: motor control, attention, perception, planning, and memory. So the brain is getting trained for actual performance during visualization. It’s been found that mental practices can enhance motivation, increase confidence and self-efficacy, improve motor performance, prime your brain for success, and increase states of flow—all relevant to achieving your best life!’
One way to build neural pathways to tune into the NOW of your desired experience and bring yourself closer to that reality, is to practice the following for a few minutes each day:
Close your eyes and imagine the experience you’ll have when you be, do, or have what you desire. Feel the feelings, see the sights, hear the sounds and imagine the conversations of that experience. Flesh it out in detail so that you are truly living all aspects of the experience right now.
Then let your imagination work for you throughout the day as you reinforce experiencing that experience until it is embodied.
The litmus test for this process is to ask yourself, have the people you are inspired by embodied the outcome or vision prior to achieving it? You will also realise from this consideration that the greatest visionaries and leaders are followed and supported by many because of the same.
