Mind Alchemy Day 5

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Before we start

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Today is going to be a great day as we look at all our outcomes for 2011 and beyond.

Outcomes are the things we want to achieve in our life. I use the word outcomes rather than goals as the word "˜goals' implies something far off and not as close as we want it to be. An outcome is something we set our minds on, see it more clearly and has more of an urgency about it.

We are shifting our thinking when we look at outcomes and using more of our imagination, and what NLPers (Neuro Linguistic Programmers) call sub-modalities. When we think of something we want to achieve we've got to be able to see it in our mind, see it up close, colourful, vibrant, full of life, hear clearly the sounds associated with the outcome, feel the excitement. When we can do this, our thoughts about the outcome will have more of an urgency about it, more excitement surrounding it and will therefore increase our chances of achieving that outcome. A simple change of the word from goals to outcomes makes a big difference in our thinking.

Setting your outcomes

When you come to set your outcomes it's important to realise that setting specific outcomes is great, but I would like you to try a different way from what you might have tried before.

Setting outcomes usually involves getting really specific and saying something like:

"˜I now drive a top of the range, dark blue, brand new, Audi Q5'

What I'd like you to do is set your outcomes a little less specific and to let go of the outcome and focus on the underlying value and emotion that your outcome will bring once it has been realised..

So, for the above example we could say something like:

I now drive a top of the range, family car of my dreams. The underlying value here might be: "˜Too feel wealthy', "˜To keep family comfortable', "˜To keep family safe'.

The cocktail effect

When you set your sights on an outcome your mind will start to work it's alchemy and get to work on how to bring about your outcome. If you've ever been on a night out at a club or a bar, the music is playing, lots of noise from people talking, laughing and generally having a good time. Then someone calls out your name, you immediately turn in the direction of the person calling your name. The explanation that psychologists give to this is called "˜the cocktail effect' and speaks about the auditory system and how it is able to filter out background noise but still recognise familiar sounds.

I believe this is how outcome focussed thinking works. If we set our minds on particular outcomes in our lives, the other non essential, daily routines in our lives will be filtered out. In other words we will no longer focus on the day to day dramas in our lives, which are only dramas because our minds are bored and want something to do. For example have you ever been going about your day to day routine and you receive a piece of news, good or bad, that rocks a part of your world. Suddenly all of the day to day things that you do seem unimportant and you don't give them a second thought, television becomes a nonsense, gossip seems trivial, people that previously upset you became unimportant and you no longer cared what they said or thought, you wanted your family around you, and appreciated them more, your thoughts were focused on that one piece of news, at least for a short period of time.

When you consciously inject outcome focused thoughts into your mind a lot of the other, unimportant things in your life will be filtered out, leaving room for your mind to be on the lookout for opportunities, for people to meet, for books to read that will all help you reach your outcome. This is what a lot of "˜LOA' practitioners call "˜your thoughts become things'. Obviously your thoughts don't become things literally but your outcome focused thoughts will help you realise your outcomes, by helping you take action, help you be on the lookout for opportunities, help you meet and talk to the right people.

Today's exercise "“ daily routine

With that said, I'd like to offer you todays worksheet to download.

Download PDF Mind Alchemy Day 5 Your outcomes for 2011

Download Word Document Mind Alchemy Day 5 Your outcomes for 2011

Here is an EXAMPLE COMPLETED SHEET

When you download the outcomes PDF file you'll see 8 components to it, which I will explain:

Category"“ This is the categories we used in our wheel of life yesterday. So there are eight categories to choose from: health, money, family, career, Personal Development, recreation, spirituality and [ ]. Work your way through each category and think about all the outcomes you'd like to achieve in that category. Some categories might have more outcomes than others.

Outcome"“ This is the end outcome written in the present tense. E.G. I now spend at least three, quality, hours per day with my family.

Values "“What is the underlying life value that this outcome will fulfil? Using the example above the underlying value might be "˜Family'

Outcome picture "“start collecting images from Google, from magazines, newspapers, and catalogues and paste them into the box provided. Or you can even draw the images of your outcomes. This is an important step so please don't skip over it. Use specific images, but also use images that will portray your feelings of having achieved the outcome and your underlying life principle.

Vision Statement –Think about a vision statement, we worked on this on day 4 of the course. Incorporate emotions, feelings, and senses if you can.

Date to be completed "“This is the date you will work toward completing your outcome.

Date completed –This is the date you actually completed your outcome.

Signature "“Sign the sheet once you have completed all the sections (not including your affirmation). This gives you accountability, so think carefully about your outcome and know that you will commit to it.

Daily Routine 1

Once you have completed your outcome sheets, which can take a few hours if you are focused on them, they are going to be used everyday from now on. This forms part of your "˜Daily Routine'.

Every day, until you complete each outcome, you will be looking over each outcome in turn and giving them your attention for around one minute each. When you give them your attention, clearly see the outcome as being achieved and feeling the emotions, seeing the pictures clearly, hearing the sounds as clearly as possible and really immerse yourself into the scene.

If the images are far away in your mind, bring them closer to you, same with the sounds, the smells, the feelings. Bring them all as close as possible, make the sounds as loud as possible, feel the emotions as intensely as possible. The more your images fade in your mind the less chance you will have of achieving your outcome (this is important).

Also important is not to treat this daily routine as a boring task that has to be done, treat it as something that is going to change your life, even if you don't believe it just now, it will happen.

Change requires change"¦

This will mean changing your daily routine. I know, I know you've not got enough time as it is, but do you truly want to change your life or truly just daydream about it?

I have made time by getting up at 5am every day, I work full time as an addiction worker, I have a gorgeous wife and two boys who I spend a lot of time with, I am fairly actively socially, do housework, cook meals, and I still find time to write for the blogs, email, use the social media sites, coach clients etc. If you truly want to change, something in your life has to be deleted or something has to be slotted in, in this case you maybe shave an hour off your sleep time if you feel you don't have a lot of time.

I am not joking when I say that adding this into your daily routine, preferably in the morning, can turn your life around. If you didn't do anything else in this course and just worked on your wheel of life and your outcomes you would start to see changes within a few months. BUT, I know you want to continue with the course to get the life you truly want a lot quicker 🙂

There are a few reasons this works so well in bringing about change:

you are infusing your mind with thoughts of the things you want to see in your life. You can't think two thoughts at the same time so the more outcome focused thoughts you have, the more your actions will change, the more your actions change the quicker your life changes.
Being outcome focused has a network effect on your other thoughts. If you have one thought that is focused on something you want, that would lead to another thought in the same direction, which leads to another thought. Then the negative thoughts start to creep in again: I can't do that, I'm too old for that, what's the point it's never going to happen etc. But then you do it all over again, every day and pretty soon your outcome focused thoughts will outnumber your negative thoughts and soon you'll realise you have changed as a person.
Because you are going to be letting go of the specific outcome and focusing on the underlying values and feelings, you will reach your outcomes a lot quicker.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow we will be working on an exercise which will look at how you want to live your life. Until tomorrow my fellow Mind Alchemists"¦"¦..

Action follows a thought"¦

This course is about taking action, and to become pro active in changing your life. Take time to do this exercise and really think about it throughout the day. You don't need to wait until tomorrow to take steps to improve your "˜Wheel of Life', but with the support and encouragement from all the members we can help each other and support each other, but ultimately "˜you have to bring something to the table!'

Your thoughts

As always it's good to talk about your experiences and share it with the rest of the members of the course, so let us know how this exercise went for you and if you gained any insights or had any revelations about yourself or your life.

Mind Alchemy Day 5 – Outcomes for life

Before we start