IS YOUR FUTURE PLANNED OR UNPLANNED?

Clumsy Best Man

I saw a YouTube video the other day on someone’s Facebook wall and it really got me thinking. It showed a beautiful wedding taking place outdoors next to some water feature. The sun shown, the breeze blew, all was right with the world. The best man was called upon to step forward, bring forth the ring and … you guessed it. He tripped headlong into the bride shoving both her and the rather sober-looking minister into the drink.

An unplanned event.

While I’m intrigued at the thought of what happened after the video camera shut off, I’m also wondering what happened before. I’d like to know what was going on in the mind of the best man. Was he thinking, “Oh no, it’s almost time. Everybody’s looking at me. All I have to do is walk from here to there. No biggie, right? But the ground is uneven, what if I trip? Wouldn’t that be awful? No, I won’t trip. I’ll just walk forward, hand them the rings … but wait, what if I do trip?”

We’ve all experienced internal conversations like this haven’t we?

Our internalization of what we see happening in the future runs in our heads like our own personal movie. Our “between the ears movie theater” can play movies of events that have actually happened, and ones that have not. Our bodies don’t care if it’s real or imagined. We experience our thoughts in every cell of our being.

When we vividly imagine an experience, our bodies live the experience.

There’s no better illustration of this fact than an Olympic diver. The intricate twists and turns taken after the diver leaves the board have all been envisioned by the athlete over and over in excruciating detail. Athletes vividly imagine their success by running their internal movies before they perform. Everything about their training is planned in minute detail.

Is your life planned in minute detail? Do your internal movies see you as successful or struggling? In frustration or meeting the challenges of the day?

Getting back to the idea of life as an unplanned event. Your internal movie IS your plan. It represents not only what you see, but what you want to see. Get the difference? Keep your internal thoughts on track by noticing the subtle difference in how you think.

For example, rather than imagining yourself late for your meeting because of red lights and delays, imagine green lights and you arriving, calm and early with time to spare.

We get to choose which movies we run. So … what’s playing in your “between the ears theater” today? Let your thoughts help you PLAN for your successful future!