With
the ending of one year and the beginning of another,
I am certain
that
you've
noticed the avalanche of the year's "best" and "worst"
lists. They are everywhere, from newspapers and magazines to
television shows - even the financial pages. While it's fun to look
back and reminisce, I'd like to talk a little bit about a more
productive way of looking at where we are.
In
these daily thoughts, I've talked about the need for purposefully
setting goals for ourselves, in order to unlock the energy and
creativity inside each of us. When we set a goal, we cause a "gap"
for ourselves - between the way things are and the way we want them
to be. It is in our nature to want to close that gap. A primary job
of our subconscious mind is to keep us like we know we are. Setting a
goal changes how we "know we are." We must close the gap..
In
order to close that gap, to make the outside picture match the inside
picture of who we know we are, our creative subconscious turns on
enough energy and creativity to make it happen. We either get drive
and ideas to move toward what we want in the future, or ideas and
drive to stay where we are. Herein lies the danger of spending too
much time looking back at the past.
You
see, we move toward the strongest picture, and our natural tendency
is to maintain our current idea (picture) of who we are. In order to
change, we need to. make that future picture (goal) stronger and more
attractive than staying put. By constantly reminding ourselves of our
past, we lose the drive to move forward. Give
a little thought to this today and this evening, and I'll take you
another step in my thinking tomorrow.
