When police agents are trained to recognise counterfeit money,
they are trained to focus on knowing all the characteristics of the legal
currency. They are trained using real money and work with only the legal
tender, until they know every counterfeiting measure printed on or in the
money. They study the money on both sides, until they know every feature of the
money, which makes it legal tender. By knowing the real money so well, when
they encounter any counterfeit money, they will immediately recognise it as
counterfeit. Their training is very specific and focused on teaching them to
know everything about the legal money. Their minds are therefore not cluttered
with all the possible things, which could be wrong or the mistakes that are
commonly made. They are completely focused, because they are specialists in the
real thing. This way any counterfeit money is glaringly obvious to them.
The same is true for your life. When you focus your energy on the penalties
of failure or you are constantly worried about all the things that could go
wrong. You are far more likely to infuse your performance with those penalties
and potential mistakes. One of the most crucial steps in the process of
ensuring you stay focused on achieving your vision and goals is to concentrate
on what you need to do. Do not allow yourself to focus any attention on the
things you must not do. For example, if you feel you are carrying a little too
much weight. Do not set a goal to lose weight, or if you are a tennis player do
not set a negative goal, not to double fault. Avoid setting negative goals like
not being late all the time or not to speak so fast and loud all the time.
These goals are framed in negative terms and try to get us to move in a
positive direction, by focusing on the negative. No wonder achieving goals
seems so difficult.
We need to steer clear of negative goal setting. It is impossible
for our minds to focus on a reverse idea. For example: when the tennis player
focusses on the negative term, namely the double fault. He is reminding himself
of the very condition he wants to avoid at all costs. The person, who is
constantly late for everything, by setting a negative goal about not being
late, does not offer a solution, but only highlights the challenge they want to
overcome. When we think in terms of all the weight we have to lose, we have a negative
self-image in our minds of someone who is overweight. To succeed in achieving
any goal we set we must create a vivid picture in our mind of what we want to
do, or achieve, not what we do not want to do, or what we do not want to achieve.
In the case of losing weight we need to create a vivid image in our minds of
what we will look like when we reach our perfect weight. Using this image as
our goal we have a positive image and a solution to focus on, rather than a
negative picture of being overweight and the kilograms we need to lose.
Try this little experiment: Get a picture in your mind of a time
you were really angry or upset. Focusing on that picture, try to concentrate on
not being upset or angry. How does it make you feel? Now get a vivid picture in
your mind of a time you felt energised and happy. Focusing on that picture, concentrate
all your energy on feeling elated and happy. How much better do you feel using
the second technique, where you focused on the positive outcome you wanted to
achieve, rather than trying to overcome a negative picture or emotion?
When you understand this really important characteristic about how
your mind works and you understand that your brain can’t focus on an idea in
reverse, you can now appreciate why you must only set positive goals. Try to
never again tell yourself not to make mistakes, rather focus on visualising a picture
of a perfect or flawless performance. When you focus on the positive outcome
you want to achieve, you will perform far better. Can you imagine a tight rope
walker who constantly tells himself, not to fall? How long do you think he will
survive as a tight rope walker?
The best way to improve performance or to set goals is as follows:
- The tennis player, should say things like “First serve in every time”
- The person who wants to lose weight, should say “I am reaching my perfect weight”
- The person, who speaks loudly and too fast, should say “I speak, slowly, clearly and with confidence”.
- The person, who is always late, should say “On time, all the time, every time”.
These are all examples of positive goal statements and they help you
to create positive images of achievement in your mind. These positive images,
then act as a strong pulling force, to pull you in the direction of the desired
new behaviour you need to adopt, to achieve any goal. This small shift in the
way you set goals will have a remarkable positive effect on your ability to
achieve any goals in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment