Look Where You Want To Go

The Leadership Coach | Paul Andrew, Innovation Coaching

Snowboarding is one sport that I picked up easily, though not without a few bruises along the way. I’m not a natural sportsman but one piece of advice from a friend on my first day snowboarding made a huge difference. As I twisted my body around and tried hard to force the board to go where I wanted my friend said to me “Look where you want to go, and the rest will follow”. Now there was still much to learn, but that simple advice – to look where I wanted to go – helped me learn a more natural flow than the tense, contrived, controlling style that designated me a novice.

As 2008 winds up and you prepare for a new year are you looking where you WANT to go? With new drama on the news about the world economy every other day, it’s all too easy to have your eyes on what you DON’T want, instead of what you do want. The trouble is that your unconscious mind doesn’t deal with negatives. For instance if I say to you “don’t think of a blue car”, your mind immediately thinks of a blue car. We so easily clutter up our minds with all the images of things we don’t want… unemployment, relationship breakdowns, disappointment, and failure, whatever it is for you. But what would it be like if your mind was full to the brim instead with what you DO want?

I didn’t always end up in the right place snowboarding but things definitely went badly anytime I got fearful and tense, as I told myself “don’t hit the tree, don’t hit the tree!”. I was coaching a client recently who mentioned a strategy to me for managing one of her team. On the surface she was just being conservative and hedging her bets a little, but what was really driving her at that moment was fear and a focus on what could go wrong. Suddenly she realised that she wasn’t playing to win, she was playing to “not lose”. And there’s a world of difference.

This is about more than just “thinking happy thoughts” or ignoring the real challenges we face. It’s about choosing our focus. It’s about framing our future in positive terms. It’s about being proactive rather than reactive.

So before the year is done…

Are your goals for 09 defined by avoiding what you don’t want, or by gaining what you do want?
Which of your plans fall into the “playing to not lose” category?
And how much focused time have you given to drawing the blueprint for the year you truly want?

Read other articles from our archives here

Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements

- Napoleon Hill -