| Making things possible | 2003-08-21 06:23 8 comments |
 by Flemming FunchA little technique for becoming more able to imagine something being possible ... You know, if you can imagine yourself in a certain state, or you can imagine a certain reality for yourself, it is much more likely to happen, of course. If you want to be a model or a great speaker or a pool player, it helps greatly if you can imagine in great detail and clarity in your mind how that would be. I.e. you can see yourself in that position. And preferably feel, hear and taste it too, and you'll be even closer. But sometimes the hangup is to even be able to consider it possible. You say "Oh, I could never be a model because I have a mole on my chin" or something. Or you just can't imagine it being possible at all. There would be many ways of improving that situation, but one of them is to sort of gradually move the possibility from the very general and far away to the very personal and close. So, first, can you imagine that what you're asking for is generally possible? I.e. do you consider it within the laws of nature, and the realm of things that could happen? Not for anybody in particular, but just as a general phenomenon. Like, is it theoretically possible to be a model? If you don't think so, you're not getting any further. But if you do realize it is possible, in general, you're already one step closer. Then, can you imagine some people you don't know that it is happening for. Either some imaginary people, or, even better, some specific people far away. Cindy Crawford is a super model, even though she has a mole on her cheek. You might even study their stories a bit and find out that maybe they were ordinary people and somehow they discovered it was possible for them to be super models or great pool players. Next you can think of people you personally know that have something like what you're asking for. Or personal experiences of observing that which you're focusing on. I.e. you know somebody who's a model. You might study how they are, how the act, how they carry themselves, how they speak. Just get a sense of how those people seem to do what they're doing, and how it is to observe that. If you succeed in doing that, the jump to the next step is much less. Which is that you imagine yourself being what you want to be. Or doing it, or having it, whatever the case may be. And you can expand on that, and begin to feel it becoming more real. The thing is that we seem to have a need for our re-imaginings of ourselves to have firm backing. It is so much easier if we can refer to a history of similar things happening to others, if we can draw evidence from people we know, or, even better, from ourselves. We can feel more free in imagining something new if we can convince ourselves that it isn't really all that new, but it is perfectly normal and has been done before by other people, and you've seen other people do it, and it is quite clear how it is done, so ... no problem. This is deceptively simple. But it greatly reduces the threshold towards embracing something new for ourselves. Start with the very general, because that is really safe and easy. Gradually become a little less general and a little more specific. Each step builds on the one before. The first steps act as beliefs that lay the foundation for the more specific personal steps. If you want a job, then it makes sense to start with the general. There are millions, or rather billions of jobs in the world. Lots of people have jobs. It is possible to have a job. The more you can accept that, the easier it would be for you as well. For that matter, you might get magical results just by embracing a more freeing general truth. Some people have a basic belief that certain things are easy or abundant. That's on the general level. They haven't necessarily bothered about figuing out HOW one does it. They just believe that "There's always money enough", or "It is easy to talk to people", and it is reflected in their daily experience. And then, personal direct experience is a powerful driver towards making something happen. Big changes don't normally jump from a vague generality to a manifested reality. You need to fill in some blanks. And you can do that better if you examine how other people do it, and maybe how you yourself have done it in the past. So, what I'm talking about is a sequence of imagining, which could be sketched out like this: Abstract -> General -> Third Person -> Second Person -> First Person And the point is to imagine and gather evidence to support a certain something which you'd like to be available for yourself. |