This simple Mind Hack could help you make the shifts in thinking and the way you feel that move you FROM lousy TO great.
Whether you’re a young adult still early in your career or a seasoned professional feeling the pressures and demands on you, it’s easy to get hijacked by doubtful emotions or tough situations and get into a mental fight to try and overcome them.
You second-guess your thinking, your direction, your decisions, your actions and emotions can get in your way but you don’t have to fight them… just learn to go with them to another place, a better place, instantly!
I first came across an idea called FROM-TO many years ago when I was a young adult myself studying psychology.
I purchased an audio program based on a best selling book called Psycho-Cybernetics, which has now sold in excess of 30 million copies globally.
It was written by a famous plastic surgeon that made the physical adjustments people wanted, only to find that despite the cosmetic changes, his clients still had the same psychological problems after surgery.
This raised the question of how to move people from the negatively conditioned feelings they had about themselves and their situations to the positive ones they desired, hence the FROM-TO methodology.
As a society, we’ve set up a world of contrast, good or bad, high or low, wealthy or poor, right or wrong, success or failure… in essence a life of either this or that, so it’s not surprising then, that our brains are wired to think this way.
However, we can use these exact same contrasts to move us from where we are now to where we want to be, by applying logic and emotions together for combined power.
Most people consider emotions as part of who they are rather than as feelings that we can control, providing of course that we understand ‘how’ to divert unwanted emotions and feelings.
By doing so, we can begin to harness their power and control them rather than them controlling us!
“To change a habit, make a conscious decision, then act out the new behaviour” Maxwell Maltz — Psycho-Cybernetics
We come to understand that emotions are not real except in our own minds and if we decide to change our minds, we can change our emotions, we just need a process for doing this effectively.
For most of my working life, I’ve viewed emotions as energy in motion (E-Motion) namely, that which moves us and the way we feel.
I’ve used this understanding to sell millions of pounds worth of advertising to brand name buyers and their agencies every year and lead teams that have sold tens of millions to the same kind of buyers every year. Believe me when I say that these are tough people to influence.
An emotion is therefore mental energy that not only influences our own behavior but also influences those we communicate with daily, emotions that drive us and others, lifting us up or pulling us down, propelling us forward or pushing us back, getting a yes or getting a no.
The biggest resistance to changing our emotions and improving our states of mind so they serve us rather than us serving them is that we try to use will power alone to overcome the negative emotional habits.
We try to do this in our heads and this often creates frustrations because of conflicting thoughts and values whirling around.
I found early on in my career that the best way to change them is not to resist them or fight them in our minds but to take them out of our heads and apply the contrasting emotions in a logical way.
This is where the FROM-TO formula can work for your benefit.
It’s a quick and simple way to divert your focus away from one emotion you don’t like or which doesn’t serve you well to one that does, i.e. simplicity itself because it’s a practical exercise that only takes minutes or even seconds to use depending on your own unique circumstances.
You don’t have to dream big or try to change the world, just decide to change ‘your’ world as it is right now, one emotion at a time and improve your situation, then improve some more and then some more and before you know it, you’ll be flying high and fast.
Just take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle or create a word doc or PowerPoint if you wish (example below and access to more examples provided later).
- On the left hand side write FROM at the top and on the right hand side, write TO at the top.
- Then write the negative emotions in the left column and counter these with the opposite, productive emotions in the right column.
- Whenever you feel one or a combination of the emotions in the left hand column, refer to the FROM-TO sheet, read, recognise and accept the emotion on the left but then read the counter-emotion in the right hand column so you focus on the desired emotional habit you want to create.
- Add power to this by closing your eyes for a few seconds to picture in your minds-eye, a situation where you’re applying and behaving in the desired way based on the right hand emotion.
“Imagination is everything, it is the preview of life’s coming attractions” Albert Einstein
We all have our own ways of working so test different times and places to refer to the sheet, e.g. first thing in the morning to start the day off well, midday by way of reminder, early evening or last thing at night before you go to sleep to tap into your subconscious.
Use what works best for you but whatever you choose, persist because persistence will beat resistance!!!
“We are what we repeatedly do (or think). Excellence (success) then is not an act, but a habit we must acquire”. Aristotle
Therefore, don’t expect to change your ways in one reading or two or three, it takes a little time and conscious effort to make the changes but when you do, they become part of a better you. Maxwell Maltz found that it takes an average of 21 days to form and embed a new habit so stick with it and good luck.
Start eliminating the OLD and replacing with the NEW today!
The power of changing just one emotion or one set of linked emotions can change your situation (maybe even your life or part of it, like work maybe) for the better and help you make the progress you want.
You can get more FREE templates I’ve created to help people like you by reaching out to me HERE, just ask and I’ll send some over.
Best,
Reece
Author of Strong Minds E-Playbook, Online Program & Podcast on Mind Hacking
Originally published at medium.com