Taking My Own Medicine Mondays

Welcome to the new “Taking My Own Medicine Mondays”.  I decided to make Monday’s theme here about using some of the tools that use with my clients.  Sometimes I get so caught up with giving the medicine that I forget to take the medicine.

Today’s Medicine:  “Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.”

Outcome: Shift gears from overwhelmed and powerless to relaxed and competent.

Last week was nothing but me getting deeper and deeper in the drowning pool until I completely exploded on Sunday night.  Big overwhelm, losing my center, and just feeling lost and scared shitless.  I started five different blog posts and they’re all still unfinished. I left one of the applications for a course in continuing ed that I’ve been asked to teach unfinished for the 3rd week in a row.
I still haven’t made the phone calls to find out about my vision plan so that I can get new glasses.  My closets are a mess and I can’t face pulling everything out and doing the much needed organizing so I’m just leaving the warehouse pack of toilet paper and paper towels on the floor of the living room and feeling like a total loser every time I have to walk past it.

I can’t even see the top of my bedroom dresser.
There’s nothing to eat in the house because I haven’t gone food shopping.

For all of the domestic neglect, I have nothing (work wise or creatively) to show for it.  NOTHING!!!!!!!

Now that just pisses me off.

I know it’s very dangerous for me to go down this road.

Growing up, when I had an idea to do something, I was taught to first look at the obstacles and all the reasons why it can’t be done.  That’s the way to protect yourself from inevitable failure and the ensuing disappointment because there’s definitely someone already doing what you want to do only they’re doing it it faster, better, and being more original than you.  And what makes you think you can get anywhere in this life?  So in order to avoid those painful feelings, rather than going after what I wanted, I spent much of my mental energy focused on what I didn’t want (most of my circumstances at the time) and how far I was from what I did want that I completely paralyzed myself in the process.

I spent a lot of time feeling envious of people who went for what they wanted.  Their ideas weren’t nearly as good as mine but because they pursued them and didn’t talk themselves out of it, they got somewhere. That used to make me really mad.
Not mad that they got somewhere, mad that I didn’t.

I didn’t get anywhere with my stuff because I was busy telling myself painful stories about the situation.
This isn’t going to work
No one will care
I’ll look stupid
No one will pay for this
and on and on.
Painful stories that hardened into resistance.  Resistance that made doing the stuff I wanted to do much harder than it actually was.  Most of the time the fear and the resistance beat me down before life had a chance to. And so, I gave up on things that I wanted to achieve.

So much of what I am going to tell you is startlingly simple.

It’s not the circumstances in life that cause us pain, it’s our thoughts about them – Eckhart Tolle

I finally learned that they way that you think about things before you do them has a tremendous amount of impact on how they turn out.  There is tons of research regarding the plasticity of the brain and any professional athlete will tell you that they mentally rehearse their game over and over again, seeing themselves make the shot, hit the ball, sink the basket each time.  This mental practice is a big part of their training.

Setting intentions or getting “intentional” as we call it is a very powerful way to create what you want in your life.  What we put our attention on increases.  There’s no magic in this and here’s why–when your focusing on what’s not working you don’t have the mental energy to go after what you want. When you’re filled with negativity there’s no room for creativity or possibility.

The only way I see myself getting through this overwhelm is to get intentional.
I’m taking the medicine.
You can take it also if you need to.

Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.

Inhabit that fully for one day.

See how it changes things.

Not just medicine, but magic.