something you cannot out-think or out-run

What will happen when you encounter something in your life that you cannot out-think and you cannot out-run? Many of you are facing something like this now - something that keeps you awake at night, your brain racing like a rat in a maze. Something that scares or discourages you. Something that makes you feel stuck.

It seems a strange thought for a time when we are all supposed to be bravely trumpeting the wonders of the coming year, the triumph of possibility and the return of the light. It is a time of year that is custom-designed for the self-help gurus (for individuals and for businesses) who offer such mesmerizing visions of control that we forget, for a few moments, that life does not permit control. There is always something waiting around a corner - something that we cannot out-think and we cannot out-run.

If you are reading other people this week, ask yourself: How will this be helpful to me when I most need the help? How will this be useful to me when none of my other tools are useful? What will this give me when brain power and speed are not enough?

There are answers. People turn stuck into amazing things. People between a rock and a hard place find out that there is no such thing as a solid surface. They learn that they can cope, that they can manage, that they can smile. They learn that will - as in free will or will power or the will to live - will endures and will creates and will gets people past the moments they can neither out-think nor out-run.

Will is more than instinct, although it draws on immense unconscious resources. Will is more than thought, although it pulls thoughts into being (where there's a will, there's a way). Take a moment today. Focus on what you will.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The hypnotic contract

Under what conditions would you allow someone else to tell you what to think?   If you have watched a stage hypnotist, you have seen what looks like one person exercising remarkable control over the thoughts and actions of another. It is fascinating, in part, because we have all seen it happen in real life. Suddenly someone we know seems to be relying on someone else to do the thinking.  Even if the influence is good, it is a little frightening. The secret is that there are no magic words.  In order to lead someone into hypnosis, that person has to be willing to go there. Often the people you see on stage are more than willing. For whatever reasons, they are enthusiastic about giving up self control and allowing someone else to take charge. They know that there are limits to what can happen on stage and they are only agreeing to give up control within those limits. What you see in hypnosis is an agreement between two people. Like all agreements between human beings, it stretches as far...
Read more

Good with people

What do you think of when you hear the phrase "good with people?" When a wine is good with steak, it means that both the steak and the wine taste better when enjoyed together. If you are 'good with people' that could mean that both you and they perform better when you work together. "Good with people" should not be confused with charm or grace. Many famous leaders have, in the absence of any obvious charm or eloquence, managed to get people to produce at high levels. Some introverts fail to be influential; some extraverts fail to be effective. The most useful criteria for "good with people" is the performance that results when an individual is working with others: does the sum exceed the total of the parts? Or would they all have been better working from separate cubicles? We are entering the season of networking: it's a perfect time to observe the difference between the people who are working the room and the people who are making the room w...
Read more

The fine line between observations, suggestions and commands

I have been watching Tony Robbins this week in the documentary called " I Am Not Your Guru ." You can read a nicely ambivalent review in the Financial Times here.   I think the ambivalence is built into the process, which might be surprising given the loud celebration that characterizes the Date with Destiny in the film. For those of us whose work has evolved from NLP, there are lessons to be learned from modelling the most famous and successful practitioner of NLP (Robbins has far surpassed all the founders by all measures of success). Because he does so much so well, Robbins lets us see how fine the line is between observing and suggesting. Let me explain. Robbins frames his "interventions" both with the exercises and performances we do not see in the film and with his invitations. The film opens with an intervention with a young man who says he is suicidal; it is only later that we see Robbins say he is looking for someone who is suicidal to work with. Since...
Read more