Change Your State Change Your Life
Have you ever wondered how to create breakthroughs in your life? Breakthroughs in your work, your schooling, your relationships, anything. Breakthroughs always begin with a change of state.
When you normally want to make a big change in your life what is one of the first things you think to do? I’m betting that one of the first things that came to mind is to make a plan, come up with a strategy. Plans and strategies are vital to success, and we have talked about planning here at CTM before, but it doesn’t matter how good your plan is if you don’t act out that plan. So why is it that we don’t always act out our plans?
When plans fail it is most often because we are telling ourselves the wrong story about ourselves. Our story about ourselves is more powerful than our strategy. Our story is what we tell ourselves, and what we tell ourselves dictates what we see, and even more than that, we will mold what we see to fit our stories.
If you are constantly telling yourself that you can’t do something then it doesn’t matter how good your plan is, you will never achieve it. If you tell yourself that you are an introvert and you can’t meet new people then it doesn’t matter what kind of plan you put in place to interact with new people, you will find a way to remain isolated.
In order to change your life you must change your story, but how do we change our story?
Your state will dictate your story.
Your state is all about the emotions you are feeling and your energy. Think about how you interpret things when you are in a positive state vs a negative state. In a negative state when something doesn’t go according to plan it can feel like your whole world is crashing down, but in a positive state when something doesn’t happen according to plan maybe you see it as a challenge, or at least something that can be overcome.
As people we get into a habit of feeling the same emotions over and over, and too often these emotions are negative. We need to create a habit of feeling positive empowering emotions.
The good news is that not all emotions are made equal. You will have one positive emotion that you feel stronger and/or more often than other positive emotions. When you identify this emotion think of several instances when you felt this emotion most intensely, visualize where you were, what was going on, what were you feeling.
Your focus now needs to be on summoning that emotion whenever you feel yourself sliding into a funk or getting off track. But we all know how difficult it is to just will ourselves into a positive emotion. If it was that simple then everyone would be happy all the time. So what do we do?
Luckily there is a hack for this.
The fastest way to change your mental state is by changing your physical state. The body is the leverage that you will use to change your mental state.
The first step is to associate some physical move to the positive emotion. For me the emotion I like to use is one of intensity that I feel when I hit a new PR lifting, or when I make a big play in a sport, or when I win some competition. The physical move I associate with this emotion is a hard clap, I smack my chest, and a deep breath and it’s like I am right back in one of those moments, and while I am doing this, I am envisioning myself in one of those moments. After these 5-10 seconds I am energized, focused, and ready to get after whatever it is that I need to do.
I know this sounds cheesy and corny, but trust me it works. This is a technique I learned from the master of improving your state, Tony Robins at a class of his I attended. Tony has studied people for decades and how some people are able to improve their life no matter what circumstances they are in.
So don’t take my word for it, take Tony’s.
Change your state, improve your story, execute your strategy, and achieve any and every breakthrough in your life. Know that it won’t be easy, remembering to catch yourself when your state begins to slide and righting the ship will be difficult, but with practice it will become more and more natural. Good luck.