Worrying while waiting at a red light and not worrying about traffic. Money and deadlines worry. Would I be able to pull off a challenging project, etc. "I'll worry about that later" is what I remember saying fFor each thing I was worrying about.
The red light stopped me cold
Cold winter day,
2001: Waiting at a red light, worrying. Not worrying about the traffic. Worrying about money. And deadlines. And whether I’d be able to pull off a challenging project. And and and . . .
And then I realized. For each thing I was worrying about, I remembered saying at some point, “I’ll worry about that later.”
“I guess this must be later,” I thought with sort of grim humor.
And then I got it.
“I’ll worry about that later.”
It stopped me cold. What a terrible affirmation!
That day, I changed my affirmation. It became, “I’ll figure that out later.”
And then, “I’ll solve that later.”
And then a whole different approach.
A different approach
Here’s what I’ve learned over the years.
Here’s what’s been in my face – delightfully! – in the past few months.
Shifting my affirmations so they are conscious and serve me well is a good thing to do. I highly recommend it.
There’s something even better.
It’s called “imagine things working.”
Now when I have a concern about something, or notice that I am “expecting the worst,” I ask a different question: “What would it be like if it worked?”
That is such an empowering question. It takes my mind to completely different places. It shifts my emotions from dread or resentment or envy to happiness, optimism and fun. Sometimes even laughter, at how delightful it would be if it worked perfectly.
And, amazingly, it often does work out perfectly, in ways I could never have predicted.
A real life example
Recently a coaching client described amazing experiences she’d been having. Her coaching assignment was to “remember the times when (her particular issue) worked out well” and “remember how happy you were at those times.” As she began to put this into practice, she became more aware that she often she had negative expectations.
She thought of herself as basically positive person, so was surprised to notice that often she had rather negative expectations, especially in areas of her life where she had experienced challenges in the past. Some expectations were about “big” things. But others were about small things. For example, she would catch herself thinking, “Oh, the dog won’t want to go that way during our walk and I’ll have to struggle with her.”
When she noticed her thoughts heading in an undesirable direction, she very consciously started imagining things working. For example, she would imagine coming to the place in her walk where the dog often wanted to go in a place that was not appropriate. And she would imagine her dog just sniffing in that direction, and contentedly carrying on the pathway was appropriate. Amazingly, that’s almost always how things worked out.
The same was true of other situations in her life too – including those where she had experienced struggle in the past.
Her “homework” assignment became, “Just keep imagining it working.” The “it” could be absolutely anything in her life.
Can it really be this easy?
The Law of Attraction tells us that our lives are a perfect mirror of our vibration. Whatever our frequency, that is what shows up in our lives. If we are focused on or imagining things we don’t want, we will get more of what we don’t want. If we imagine things working out perfectly, our imaginings will change our vibration to resonate with “things working out perfectly” – though “perfectly” may show up in a form we did not predict.
Can it really be this simple?
Let’s hold the possibility that it can.
Your Coaching Challenge
In your business or personal life, when you find yourself feeling concerned or worried, or notice that you are expecting something undesirable, imagine “What would it be like if it were working?” Focus your attention and concentration on that. Notice the results over a period of days or weeks.
Going Global
When you find yourself feeling concerned or worried about something in the world, or notice that you are expecting undesirable outcomes, ask yourself “What would it be like if it were working?” Focus your attention and concentration on what it would be like if it worked out perfectly. Notice the results over a period of days, weeks or months.
