The M.A.P. Maker

Reinvent your story. Reinvent your world.

We are by our very nature pattern-seeking creatures. The patterns we find, whether through experience or education, form the framework for our experience of the world.

Our minds tend to make the leap from, "This is a pattern I see" to, "This is true." And when we make that leap, we start to look for more evidence to support that truth. That in turn can create a filter that no longer lets evidence counter to that truth through. The pattern goes from seemingly true to rigidly true.

Our patterns = Our stories = Our reality

One of the ways those patterns show up in our lives is through our stories about ourselves. We all have them. "I can do anything I set my mind to." "I can't do anything right." "I'm selfish." "I live to give." "I'm misunderstood." "I'm lazy." "I'm hard-working and industrious." And on and on.

Whatever story we have about ourselves sets the stage for how we experience life.

A few years back, I interviewed a guy who had been very successful in pursuing a passion-filled career while thriving financially. I asked him what was behind his success.

He said that it was at least in part due to being lucky enough to have had some early successes in his career. He took some risks and ultimately they paid off. That started creating the story that he has the ability to make things happen, and that risk is OK. That even failure is OK, as long as it doesn't stop you for good.

He contrasted that to his brother's experience. His brother had the same upbringing and had similar talents and gifts. They weren't all that different. But the brother had a series of failures early on that set the pattern for how he perceived the world. His story was defined by that early failure. He engaged the world with more fear, more timidly, and as a result he continues to struggle.

Truth is relative

Neither of those stories were strictly true, of course. They were both based on personal experience and the patterns that were set by how each brother interpreted that experience.

And that's the good news. Truth is relative. Much of it is based on what you believe to be true. And that truth can be sculpted and formed to give you a more positive view of what's possible. If you reinvent your story, you can reinvent your world.

In tomorrow's post, I will offer a simple exercise to help you start sculpting your stories, reinforcing the positive ones, and reinventing the negative.
 
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What do you want to prove about the world?

I'm fascinated by the degree to which the world we experience is dictated by what we believe about the world. So I loved this quote from a traveling free spirit who is profiled in a post in Ode magazine's Readers Blog. Talking about his footloose lifestyle, he says...

“I trust. I trust people. I trust jobs will come. I like to put myself into situations of risk. But I trust I will come out OK. Friends always ask me, ‘Aren’t you afraid?’ And I reply, ‘I never let fear get the best of me. I want to trust people are good. So, I go out into life to prove it.’”

I love that last bit. "I want to trust people are good. So, I go out into life to prove it."  It's goes beyond a passive hope that the world is the way he wants it to be. He jumps in with both feet and goes out of his way to prove it. In the process, that creates his experience of the world.

Want an easy way to try it yourself? Next time you're at the grocery store, smile at people. When I go, I often notice people who seem unfriendly and disinterested, unhappy even. But then I flash a quick smile and something magic happens...they smile back! Suddenly their whole persona (as I perceive it) has changed, and with one little smile, my world has become a friendlier, happier place. But if I simply scowl back without ever smiling...well, you can see the world that that creates for me.

How about you? What do you want to prove about the world? It's an important question, because it gets down to the fundamental notion of what world we want to create and, more to the point, what world we want to actually live in.

Spend a little time with that question. Do you want to prove that people are waiting and willing to help you achieve your dreams? That people are basically good and trustworthy? That abundance is there, just waiting for you? That it's possible to make a difference that inspires you and thrive in the process? Something else?

You may come up with one important idea, or multiple things. Once you have them,  ask yourself, "How would I act if this were really true? What can I do to help this be true? What action do I need to take to bring this truth to life?"

The more you consciously go out and act as if what you believe is true, the more potential there is for it to actually be true in your experience of the world.

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

5 steps to train yourself to visualize

Numerous studies have shown the power of visualization, but it's something that has always been difficult for me. Even though I tend to be a fairly visual learner, I have a hard time visualizing in the abstract. As a result, visualization is a tool I have never taken full advantage of.

It's funny that, as big a fan as I am of breaking things into manageable pieces, it never occurred to me to take that approach to visualization. Fortunately, it did occur to Urban Monk's Albert Foong, who wrote a guest post on Litemind outlining five progressive exercises to train your visualization skills.

It starts out simple and small, and gets progressively robust and complex.

The visualization advice I've always read before has been, "Make it as real as possible. Incorporate the details. Feel it. Use all the senses."  I realize now that that's a little bit like strapping some figure skates on me and telling me to do a triple axel. Theoretically possible, but realistically outside the range of my skill. This approach makes a lot more sense. 

Maybe 2008 will be the year of visualization for me. Who knows? Stranger things have happened.

Check out The Occupational Adventure Guide

Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

Skewing the bell curve of potential results

Often in my work with clients I find people falling prey to a pessimism that has them anticipating the absolute worst possible result. In the course of discussion about it, I often jump up to the white board and draw a bell curve for the normal range of possible outcomes from the excruciatingly worst outcome to the mind-bogglingly best outcome.

The probability of both the absolute worst and absolute best outcomes is low, with the more likely outcomes coming somewhere in between (the graph that represents that looks like a bell - hence the name). My point is always, "As long as you're going to obsess on an unlikely outcome, why not focus on best case scenario?" Because statistically speaking there's no difference between the probability that each of them will happen. 

In a discussion with a client last week about this bell curve idea, we started talking about the fact that a focus on one extreme or the other actually would actually skew the bell curve in one direction or the other.

Focusing on the extreme negative as the most likely outcome would skew the results in that direction. Focusing on the extreme positive would skew the results in the other direction. It's like that Henry Ford quote, "Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right."

The black bell curve in this picture is the normal distribution of possible outcomes and their likelihood. The red one is the distribution if you focus on the worst, and the blue one is the distribution if you focus on the best. The X's are the average likely result.

So even if you only get an average result out of your efforts, what you focus on has the potential to shift that average result - possibly significantly - in one direction or the other.

(OK. I admit it. I'm a whiteboard junkie. The first step is admitting you have a problem, right? ;-) So now you know.)

Check out The Occupational Adventure Guide

Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM