MIND OVER MATERS. FOCUS ON WHAT YOU WANT

When we travel, no matter what challenges, obstacles and major problems occur we always find a way to get to where we are going. Whether simply travelling to work or going overseas we always find a way to get to our final destination. If our car breaks down, we get a taxi, bus or train. If the plane is cancelled or delayed and we reschedule on the next plane ever closer to our final destination. It may not be a direct route, however ever closer to our final destination.

The only difference between travel and life is that when we travel we start with a clear outcome of where we want to go. In life, we start out with our daily 'to do' list. This list rarely has a clear specific outcome of what we want to achieve, so we end up off course most of the time.

It seems that in life we forget our ability to focus on an outcome, the complete opposite to our mind set when travelling. In life, when a problem occurs we go straight into a conditioned practiced behaviour of stress and panic (obviously we feel this must help as we all seem to do this as our first reaction to any challenge). When asked how this helps, the response is always the same. It doesn't help. Interesting, in life, we get what we focus on, either good or bad.

You may be able to relate to this. You have been driving down a freeway and there in the distance on the two lane road is something that has fallen off a truck. You then start to say to yourselves, "I don't want to hit that", "I don't want to run over it", repeating it over and over. Then to your surprise you run straight over it. Shocked, you then asked yourself "How did I hit that?" or "I knew that would happen". We get in life what we focus on, either good or bad.

This same situation may have happened when you were a child, when riding a bike and you saw a hole or a groove in the ground. Yet once again you focused on what you did not want and the result was that you hit it and crashed.

The funny thing is that with both the car and the bike incidents you had greater range of safe options available, yet you focused and achieved what you didn't want to happen, not what you actually wanted to happen.

I recently had the pleasure of talking to a group who were about to embark on a situation which was to put them at great personal risk that was beyond their total control. If their objectives were not obtained they may not be coming home. A high percentage were focusing on what they feared, the worst outcome from this situation.

Interesting research shows that in similar situation such as a war, soldiers who were athletics, musicians or specialists of some nature requiring a specific body part all focused on trying to protect a part of the body. They were saying consciously or unconsciously that I don't care what happens to me but I do not want anything to happen to that part of my body.

In military hospitals it was noted that soldiers on waking up after surgery had to some degree a sense of relief saying they were happy to be alive as all day they just knew that they were going to be shot today. Again, we get what we focus on.

The one thing they all had in common was they were all focusing with massive intent on what they did not want to lose or have happen to them, and unfortunately most got what they focused on. With this group I shifted their thinking away from, "I am going to be shot", to creating certainty. Focusing on their training and discipline has given them all they need, and more, to get the control of the objective successfully, and focus on coming home, the way they left.

Another great example of this protective behaviour is when you think back to a time that you had hurt your hand or some other part of your body. Because you did not want to bump or hurt it, you started paying special attention to it. How many times did you bump and hit it accidentally? Unfortunately it was no accident, as you get what we focus on.

Last year in The United States I was asked to work with a gridiron team who were inconsistent in the yardage obtained. On discussion with players, and asking specific questions, I discovered a pattern of behaviour to which was not supportive to the true outcome. Simply, I showed them the size of the field and the size of both teams. They could see there was far more ground to focus on than the opposition. As soon as they shifted their focus to the gaps and not the players, they were amazed at how much ground they covered on a consistent basis. In conditioning them to focus on the outcome required they increased their yardage by 70 percent to 110 percent. They got what they focused on, increased - yardage and touchdowns.

The way we use our mind is just like any other part of the body. Through conditioning, by focusing on what you want, you will train your mind to see what you want and get what you want.

A great conditioning exercise is to start asking the question "Is my focus on what I want or what I don't want". This should be questioned in all areas of life, Business, Relationships, Leisure and Heath. If you focus on what you want, you get what you want.

If bad things are happening you may find that you keep saying to yourself out loud, "I cannot believe this keeps happening". Your outcome and results are a direct reflection of your focus, both conscious and unconscious. How great would it be to start having great things happen all the time? You will then be saying, "I keep focusing on great things and they are happening to me in all areas on my life".