Learn To Harness The Power Of Attention

Remember learning to ride a bike, and how nerve-wracking it was to see a big pothole in the street?  You’d concentrate so hard on that pothole, and keep telling yourself "Don’t run into the pothole.  Don’t run into the pothole."  And lo and behold, you’d run right into the pothole!  Energy flows where attention goes.

Quantum physics is now offering the idea that thoughts are things.  When you think a thought, you are creating something that moves into the field of dynamic energy that is our universe.  And that energy field works to send the same thing back to you.

Our brains move us toward whatever we are thinking about.  Brain neurology is such that we have to process out an idea in order to negate it.  In other words, your brain first has to picture running into the pothole before it can think about avoiding it.  So, by focusing on what you don’t want, you’re "training your brain" to move toward that very thing.

A fascinating study done in Washington, DC in 1993 found that there was a substantial decrease in HRA (homicide, rape and assault) crimes when a large group of TM participants focused their attention on increased harmony and reduced stress in the District.  The statistical probability that this result could reflect chance variation in crime levels was less than 2 in 1 billion.  Now, you’re probably thinking, "That’s all very interesting, Helen. But what does this have to do with me and my business?"  I’ll tell you.  Energy flows where attention goes.

What are you paying attention to in your business?  Lack of money?  Your fear of approaching a prospective client?  The size of your To Do list?  It can feel counter-intuitive to "ignore" these things.  However, when you focus on the lack, the fear or the overwhelm, you are putting your attention squarely on the thing you don’t want. 

We often think that the best way to motivate ourselves is by looking at what’s wrong.  It’s true that pain can be a powerful motivator.  However, as an intellectual exercise, this usually leads to catastrophizing and a sort of behavioral paralysis.  And on an energetic level, it tends to attract more of the very thing you’re trying to avoid.  Energy flows where attention goes.

Instead, practice focusing on what you want more of.  In your mind’s eye, see smiling clients coming in the door, payment checks arriving in the mail, yourself skillfully managing the various tasks of your business.  Even if you think the whole "visualization" thing is silly, I’m willing to bet your mental state will be more positive, if nothing else.  And that’s sure to improve your self confidence and be more attractive to clients, don’t you think?

If you feel it necessary to think about the "negatives" in order to make changes, take the approach of seeing every challenge as a temporary setback, not an insurmountable obstacle.  Break your goal into manageable stages, baby steps you know you can handle successfully.  Monitor your self-talk to keep it positive and encouraging.  Culturally, we have this crazy idea that a good brow-beating is the most effective method for changing someone’s behavior.  In fact, the opposite is true.

A study was done by one of the big shipping companies about this very idea and how it might impact job performance.  Supervising managers were told they could only make positive comments about their employees’ work habits.  If, for example, someone consistently arrived late, the manager could not reprimand that employee, but could say something like, "I appreciate that you were arrived earlier today than yesterday."  Or they could ignore the lateness altogether and comment on some other strength that employee had.

At the conclusion of the study, it was found that both job performance and employee morale had risen significantly, which had a direct positive impact on the company’s earnings.  The irony was that after the study was done, despite the rise in profits, the managers actually stopped using the strategy of encouragement and positive comments; they said it was too hard not to nag and correct!

Experiment with thinking and speaking in terms of what you do want instead of what you don’t want.  When I say, "Don’t think about how hard it is to build a business," what is the picture you have in your head? (effort, frustration and failure, right?)  Instead, if I say, "Just imagine all the ways there are to meet the challenges of starting a business," your brain has a different picture to work with and move toward. 

Now, let me ask again.  What are you paying attention to in your business?

(c) 2008 Helen Graves