Change Tense and Stop Self-limiting
Tell me I'm lazy enough times and I'll believe I'm lazy.
Tell me I'm shy enough times and I'll believe I'm shy.
Tell me I can't sing enough times and I'll stop singing.
Tell me I'm a procrastinator enough times and I'll procrastinate.
It takes courage to start the process of changing the self-limiting cycle of our beliefs. Often we start that process by telling ourselves another story: "I'm getting organized." "I'm stopping smoking." "I'm working at following through." Those are good, "present tense" stories. They tell that I am "in the process of" doing something. Realize that, as long as we are "in the process of" doing something, we have not yet done it. The action that I am working on is yet to be accomplished. Those "in the process of" statements work to remind ourselves of the battle we are fighting to change and help us get past our self-limiting habits but "present tense" (I'm in the process of) statements can only take us so far because, lurking just under the surface of our "working on" statement is the temptation to become demotivated and quit.
To get over the hump, we have to change the tense of our story and put our self imposed limits in the past.
"I AM organized." "I HAVE QUIT smoking." "I AM tenacious in following-up." When we change the tense to past tense the battle with our self-limitations is over, done, fini, accomplished. The weight of self-imposed, self-limiting habits is lifted. The world is a such a brighter place just by changing the tense.
Related Tags: change, development, improvement, transform, semantics, framework
Larry Galler coaches and consults with high-performance executives, professionals, and small businesses since 1993. He is the writer of the long-running (every Sunday since November 2001) business column, "Front Lines with Larry Galler" For a free coaching session, email Larry for an appointment - Larry@larrygaller.com. Sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.larrygaller.com
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