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Food for Thought from Mike Schwarzer’s Pearls of Wisdom, October 2013
Energy Flows
where Attention Goes as Directed by Intention!
Think of an undertaking or a task that
you have worked on, one that came very easily to you? Something that you were
totally focussed on and fully immersed in while following through from the
beginning to the end? It might have been planning a trip, writing a report,
solving a problem, delivering a presentation, renovating your house, mowing the
lawn, writing an article or a book, etc. With clarity and the end goal in mind,
all the steps and activities required to accomplish the task fell into place. And
just like magic before you knew it, the task was completed, seemingly without
much effort! In addition to this you probably felt fully alive with energy to
burn. In this scenario you are fully present to what you are doing and the task
at hand, in a state of flow or in the zone as athletes would call it.
Now think of an undertaking that
hasn’t come easily to you? One that is important to you or unimportant. But one
that needs to be done. Perhaps one that you haven’t finished yet or not even
started? One that seemed to take forever or one that you kept avoiding? Your
focus and attention was anywhere but on the task ahead of you. Taking your eyes
of the main goal, you were thinking of all the things you needed to do to
accomplish the task. And in your mind you saw these things as major events that
were in the way and that were clouding your view. Or perhaps you couldn’t think
of the things you needed to do. As a result you probably found all sorts of
excuses and unrelated activities to do such as making another cup of coffee,
ringing a friend, watching an ‘important’ TV program, spending time on a
project of lesser importance but one that was easier to deal with, etc. You
probably ended up feeling stressed, drained and even burned out. In this
scenario you were not present to what you were doing but in your head over-thinking
with your thoughts going all over the place.
Reflecting on these two scenarios,
which one did you enjoy more? Which one came more easily to you? Which one felt
more fulfilling? In which one did you feel more accomplished? Which one added
to your quality of life?
Is that
something you want?
If you could achieve your daily and
major tasks with greater clarity, ease and energy, especially the ones that are
not coming easy to you … is that something you want? If you could have that
more often, how would that impact on your life, your work and the people around
you? Is that something you want?
So what makes
the difference between the first and the second scenario?
The difference is in your INTENTION,
that what is of your highest importance! As the quote above says “Energy Flows
where Attention Goes as Directed by Intention”! The actions that you take and
the things you pay attention to in anything that you do are always aligned to
your highest intention or purpose! Now I am not talking about something flaky
or meta-physical here but something much more tangible although something that
is not necessarily running in your consciousness awareness. It’s a higher level
thought or thoughts of meaning about the events in your life that run in the
back of your mind.
Thought
leveraged with Meaningfulness and Importance
If those thoughts are leveraged with
meaningfulness and importance and that are supportive to the events that you
are engaged in than all the steps and activities that you take, the things that
you pay ATTENTION to, seem to magically align themselves in a way that they move
you ‘effortlessly’ towards your goal.
For example, say your goal is to lose
weight. Why would that be important to someone you may ask? Good question! At
the surface the person might like to feel and look better. Now would you agree
that a lot of people would like that, not just the overweight ones? However, is
that thought alone enough for most people to do what it takes? Probably not! So
what would cause a person to make a strong commitment to lose weight, cut out
all the yummy fattening foods that they love to indulge in, stop drinking
alcohol, exercise rigorously and regularly, count and limit their calorie intake,
etc? What would be a stronger WHY for a person to commit and follow through? What
else might be in the back of their mind that would be an even stronger motive than
to just feel and look good? The answer might be to have more energy, to feel
more alive, feel healthier and fitter. And what would be even more important
than that? To be able to sustain physical activities with their children, be
more attractive to the opposite sex. To be more valued by other people such as
colleagues, friends and clients and to achieve more in life! And how might
achieving more in life be meaningful to them? The answer might be that by achieving more
they can make a bigger difference to their loved ones, their friends and their
community! And how might they be feeling about that? By making a bigger
difference they feel a stronger sense of self and worthiness.
Now this way of thinking, what the
person holds to be true about their life, might be going on in a movie form in
the back of the person’s mind with images, sounds and feelings. And whatever is
going on in that movie acts as an attractor through which we filter what we pay
attention to and what not. What we discount and what we count. With the above
intention the person is very likely to be drawn towards steps and activities
that are aligned and supportive of losing weight such as exercising even when
they don’t feel like it. Pick healthy foods and limit or eliminate unhealthy
ones. Etc.
On the flip side, if those thoughts
are leveraged with lesser meaningfulness and importance and that are not
supportive of the events that we are engaged in than all the steps and
activities that we take tend to move us away from achieving our goal.
Using the example of losing weight
again, what would a person’s highest intention be that is not following
through? What do they might hold to be true? Feeling and looking good involves
effort! What does effort mean to them? Effort is hard and requires will power!
What do they think about will power? Will power rarely works! So why even
bother? It’s just too hard and painful! And what do they think about things
that are painful? They need to be
avoided! … Do I need to go on?
Again, these are thoughts and meanings
going on in a movie form. Imagine in the back of your mind the image of things
that are too hard and painful and the steps you take to avoid them?
So with that kind of a movie running
in the back of a person’s mind that wants to lose weight, what kind of
activities would they might be drawn too? And would that help them to move
towards or away from their goal?
The Path of
Least Resistance
We are creatures of habit. We walk the
path of least resistance in accordance to our map of the world because it feels
real and natural as it is embodied in our neurology and outside of our
conscious awareness. Within that map is always a highest intention that we
serve with our attention, our actions and our behaviours. What we have embodied
is our default, our path of least resistance. We cannot not go there unless we
are aware of it and unless we are changing it.
The question is do you like the
results that you are getting from your highest intention? Does it serve you in
the way that you want it to? And these questions apply to individuals as well
as organisations!
Where do you
want your energy to flow and how do you make the change stick?
To make change stick, be clear on what
you want and your highest intention that supports it. Intention is about
meaning and that resides in your mind. To realise those meanings into
performance, your ability to do, you have to transfer them into your body, your
neurology. Once you have it in your neurology it becomes your normal way of
operating.
If you want to learn more about how
you and your business operate with greater clarity, ease and energy and turning
meaning into performance then contact Mike at mike@mikeschwarzer.com
or check out the details for our Self-Leadership – Accessing Personal Genius /
Coaching Genius training at www.thoughtleadingpeople.com.au/.
to your highest intention, learning and growth
Mike
About Mike Schwarzer
Mike is a Performance
Strategist & Modeler and an Internationally Certified Trainer in
Neuro-Semantic NLP with the International Society of Neuro-Sematics ISNS. The
ISNS is a global NLP community, operating in over 40
countries, dedicated to
helping people actualise excellence by transforming Meaning into Performance. He is also
a leadership team member of the Institute of Neuro-Semantics Australia the
Australian branch of ISNS.
An
experienced facilitator and coach, with an ability to connect and align people
and organisations, he helps them to fine tune their performance wizardry to
bridge the gap between where they are and where they want to go!
For more
information about Mike visit www.mikeschwarzer.com
and
www.thoughtleadingpeople.com.au.
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