I have been working recently with a client helping him discover his purpose and define a set of goals that will create the sort of life he has longed for but has not had the process, clarity or courage to make happen. Within the first few seconds of our initial session the client shuffled from side to side before announcing "I hope you’re not going to talk about that ‘Secret’ nonsense or the rubbish people spout on about The Law of Attraction”. Quite a start I thought. I had no intention of doing either, not in those words anyway, but my interest was now piqued and so asked what was troubling him. My client explained, like so many do, that the whole notion of positive thinking and its value seemed alien, worthless and fanciful. It felt so uncomfortable to him and his way of viewing the world - a view made more pronounced by his training as a geo-physicist and his liking for all things ‘logical’.
I explained to him that we were going to be following a tried and tested structure that would allow him to create real-world goals but I would also like him to adopt a meditation routine for 21 days. This routine would demand that he focus on his goals for 5 minutes each day, visualizing each one of them in exquisite detail as if they had been achieved already and saying “thank you” out loud to whatever or whomever he believed in for making these things so. I knew before I’d even finished making this request that he was likely to protest so immediately offered him a deal. The deal was this: as a logical man I will offer you a list of universal facts and theories which the received wisdom of our scientific community hold true and if these don’t seem crazy, weird or unbelievable then you don’t have to commit to the meditation. He agreed and so I revealed:
- matter and light have properties of both waves and particles simultaneously
- if you squeezed all the empty space out of all the atoms in all the people in the world, you could fit the entire human race in the volume of a sugar cube
- right now there are an infinite number of copies of you having conversation about goals
As soon as I’d delivered the last point I knew I’d won the bet as my client, whilst not theoretical physicist, had enough of a grasp and recall of quantum mechanics to know that the very theory which makes the above facts 'true' allows us to create everyday innovations and marvels such as CD players, GPS systems and computers. He gave me a knowing look, agreed to the meditation and has already made huge strides in his personal and work life. Some of what my client has achieved in such a short space of time is hard to explain and I don’t know - actually make that I don’t care - whether it’s been because his meditation has created some sort of positive ‘conspiracy’ in the universe [as Emerson might have put it] or if it was simply a case of sweat and toil made good by his healthy attitude towards himself and the world around him.
Whatever you think: state clearly what it is you want in life; rehearse in your mind today your success of tomorrow; open your mind to possibilities and get ready for the ride of your life!
