If you read any self help book, listen to a motivational tape or attend an inspirational speakers seminar they willusually tell you the same thing: That you can achieve anything you want to achieve if you focus on it enough. I’m always telling people that we get what we focus on and I’ve got hundreds of examples of how that works in my own life. So you think that I’d know how it works wouldn’t you?
When my eldest son was a baby I picked him up from the floor in what must have been an awkward position and put my back out. All the doctors and physios I saw said the same thing – that it was a serious disc problem and it needed a lot of work to put it right. The problem got better and then worsened on a number of occasions and I finally finished it off completely when I moved house and spent a couple of weeks lifting heavy boxes of books etc. My new physio in Pukekohe (who used to work for the All Blacks and had a great reputation) did a good job giving me loads of small exercise and stretches which were improving things and then I had a busy week focusing on work, letting the exercises slide and WHAM – the problem flared up again.
While lying on his couch waiting for the heat pad to do its soothing stuff I suddenly came to a realisation. For the last 9 months I had been focusing on the problem. Commenting both out loud, and in my head, about how bad it was and how slowly it was healing. My mental approach regarding my back had been centred on the problem, not on what I wanted to achieve. Obviously I wanted to be pain free and to be able to touch my toes again but the words I’d been using and the mental images I’d been focusing on had all been negative and problem orientated.
The following day I was running a goal setting session with a group of Real Estate sales people on Auckland’s North Shore and said I would join in their 10-week goal programme. A goal had popped into my mind on the motorway that morning – one that would help me focus on what I wanted to achieve rather than on the bad back problem. I decided that in the 10-week period I would achieve a 30-minute non- stop run. Now, for the runners out there, that doesn’t seem much but as a swimmer who hated running it would be a huge achievement. If you coupled that with the fact that I’d been having trouble standing, or even sitting for 10 minutes in one position you can see that a 30-minute run would be quite an achievement.
Well, what an amazing turnaround! I started to focus on how I could achieve my run rather than how bad the back problem was. I decided I should get some information on my current position and test myself to see how long I could run for right now. 5 minutes non-stop running, especially up hills, was impossible but alternating walking and running seemed possible so I decided to start there. As soon as I started to focus on the goal the problem seemed to reduce in size, the bad back seemed to have less of a hold on me and I was able to clearly see the future I wanted to achieve.
Within a couple of days I was running and I’m proud to report that after 2 weeks I managed my 30 minutes and decided to change my goal – I was going for the hour by Christmas. My sub-conscious had understood what my goal was, what I wanted to achieve and was fixing things so that I could achieve it. Previously it had looked at what I was focusing on (the badback) and trying to achieve that – without any problem! The sub-conscious doesn’t make any decisions as to whether something is right or wrong, good or bad; its job is to help you achieve what you focus on.
It seems such a simple idea, something that is so easy to apply that you couldn’t get it wrong and I’ve know this “truth” for many years but I was still unaware of the damage I was doing to myself. I’ve applied the concept to achievements in sport and business on many occasions and it’s always worked. I talk about it from stage just about every time I speak and yet I’d fallen into the trap myself – focusing on the problem and not on the solution.
How many of you have a goal – losing weight, getting paperwork up to date, helping pupils learn new concepts – and find that your mental focus is predominantly on the problem you have rather on the goal you are looking for? Earl Nightingale, one of the forefathers of personal development in his tape, The Greatest Secret in the World, says, “You become what you think about the most”.
What are you thinking about the most? How tough it is to lose weight or how great it will be being thin? How behind you are with paperwork or how good it will be to have it all finished and handed in? How many problems your class is having with long division or how good you and they feel when they get another question right? How much your bad back hurts or feeling wonderful because you are able to run for 1 hour non-stop?
Take a few moments to think about your goals and ensure that the messages you give to your subconscious are the right ones to ensure you achieve them. Don’t be the one who holds you back!