You’ve heard Lester’s advice, “Hold in mind only what you want and that’s all you would get.”
But realistically, how do you do that?
Here’s an example (from Sports Illustrated, February 8, 2010 by Tim Layden):
Lindsey Vonn, America’s best woman skier ever, skis the Olympic downhill race in her mind…” balanced with each foot on a nylon slack line suspended three feet off the pebbled orange rubber floor. She is crouched in an aerodynamic tuck, her hands thrust out in front of her chin. She closes her eyes imagining she is on the downhill course at Whistler.
She begins shifting her weight rhythmically from one foot to the other as if executing high speed turns on a Canadian mountainside more than 5,000 miles away.
She exhales and inhales forcefully, mimicking the aerobic demands of high-speed racing alternately gliding and turning. Close your eyes with her and you can almost hear the chattering of snow beneath skis.”
She finishes and says, “ I love that exercise. Once I visualize a course, I never forget… exactly the run I want to have. I control my emotions and just make it routine.”
That’s how you hold in mind what you want.
You work up the picture in your mind, with as much detail as possible of your goal already accomplished. See it, feel it, touch it, as if it’s yours now.
A key ingredient, not always paid enough attention to, is to hold in mind the feeling of what you want. Holding in mind the feeling is a crucial element.
You can see why. Think of a goal. Now check your feeling about it.
Often our feeling is one of lack. I don’t have it. So, no matter how wonderful the picture you have, if your feeling is lack, you will not get your goal. This is the place some people resist and say something like, “I can act like I have it, but I don’t really mean it.”
Here’s an example. I allow myself to have a have cash flow of at least $XXXXX a month or more with ease by releasing. No matter how much visualizing you do, if your feeling of having $XXXXX is, “I don’t have it,” you will not materialize it.
If you’re holding on to a lacking feeling, you’re sure to continue not to have it. So, what do you do?
Fake it ‘til you make it.
What does that mean? That means working up the picture and feeling that you have it. Remember Lindsey’s story. She’s feeling the racecourse, as well as seeing it.
At first, when you begin your goal, you could feel the lacking feeling, “I do not have it.” That’s where you start releasing. You release whatever you’re feeling in that moment. You bring it to wanting approval, wanting control or wanting to be safe, and you release.
Surely Lindsey, the first time she started seeing and feeling that mountain, had some uncertainty. So what? She kept going.
Maybe when you first start out on a goal, it’s 95% lacking and 5% having. You keep picturing, working up the feeling of having, and you keep releasing the lacking feelings. As you release, the percentage changes. Keep releasing and your percentage of having will become higher than the lacking feeling.
You persist with determination, holding the feeling you have it, until you have your goal accomplished.
Fake it ‘til you make it, is the process of holding the feeling of having and releasing feelings to the contrary.
And you keep at it throughout your day, or as long as it takes. When lacking feelings come to mind, you simply release, and replace those feelings with having feelings. Hold in mind the feeling of having your goal.
And keep on it until you win your race—until you achieve your goal.
A word on hootlessness about your goals: Hootlessness means releasing the wanting feelings until you’re ok if you have the goal, and you’re ok if you don’t have the goal. You’ve let go of all wanting.
The wanting blocks you from having. When you feel hootless—you’ve let go of all wanting—it’s important to continue to hold in mind that you have the goal, “I have it. I can do it!”
When you feel hootless, check where you are on the Scale of Emotions. Hootless means you’re in CAP. You see it, feel it, touch it, as if it’s yours now. CAP, while more and more subtle as you move to Acceptance and Peace, is an active feeling.
I have it. I can do it!
Hootless doesn’t mean you’re in apathy. Apathy is a passive, do nothing feeling. When you’re hootless and in CAP, action may or may not be required.
Lindsey continued practicing her ski runs. You may need to continue to practice. Intuition will tell you what if anything you need to do.
If you feel the goal is complete and nothing needs to be done, check to see where you are on the Scale of Emotions. If you’re in CAP with the feeling of you have accomplished the goal, you have it. You are right where you want to be for the goal to materialize. Just like Lindsey, you have control of your emotions, no wanting and a feeling of having.
Remember, Lindsey still needed to go up on that mountain at Whistler and do the race to accomplish her goal. Keep going until your goal is accomplished.
You can spend 30 days practicing the art of having your goals in the Financial Freedom & Life Mastery Telecourse, July 28 – August 28.
Just like Lindsey, who hired the best coaches to help her reach her goal of becoming a world champion, you will be coached by seven highly-trained instructors, committed to one thing only – doing whatever it takes for you to achieve your highest goals.
You’ll discover how quickly and easily it is to live life in CAP, knowing you can accomplish any goal, live any lifestyle, you decide to have – from here-on-out.
