NLP: What you focus upon grows

a life beyond limits book

Excerpt from Life Beyond Limits by Rik Schnabel

Infinity Belief® – Focus upon the life that you choose to grow.

While living in Perth, I recall a conversation with my neighbour. He said he had never succeeded at growing corn. I couldn’t understand why such a simple task befuddled him, soon I learned why. He always planted his seeds in the heat of summer, instead of spring and forgot to water them as he was often distracted. He failed to focus upon them, so they never grew. Success requires focus because what you focus upon grows.

What grows in your life is per-determined by your thoughts – your focus. Not a single thought, but how often you have these thoughts and how deeply you feel about them. In fact, you have already created everything that features in your life right now. The moment you stop to become conscious of your repetitive thoughts and emotions you will realize that they are in fact congruent with the life you have experienced thus far. Think about a body builder – what do you think their predominant focus would be? Their body shape and muscle tone provide the answer.Read More They focus upon their body of course; it is what is important to them. A successful businessperson will focus upon their business, while an artist will focus upon using their imagination or expressing themselves. Equally a person who cannot seem to succeed is likely to be focusing upon their failings and becomes better at failing than succeeding. And someone who is depressed will be focusing upon the source of their depression. Should they shift their focus and begin to recall some of the wonderful things that have occurred in their life and focus upon duplicating these thoughts, their depression will then begin to fade. A person who is depressed is likely to be focusing upon what they don’t want (their depression) and therefore getting more of it. If someone tells you that every time they ask someone out on a date they get tongue-tied and muck up, they are telling you that they are focusing upon mucking up and not success. They are being inflexible in the context of dating and their associated behaviour is not conducive to success. Another insight worth noting is that the financially disadvantaged focus upon what they don’t want and get it anyway – debt. This is called ‘Away From Motivation’ and usually provides short term results. Wealthy people however, focus upon what they do want – a desirable life or wealth. This is called ‘Toward Motivation’ and provides longer lasting results. ‘Away From Motivation’ is like moving only one-step away from the problem and not fully moving toward what you do want. Similar to denial, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the problem will go away, just like running away from debt does not ensure wealth. So it is best to focus upon what you do want rather than attempting to move away from what you don’t want, a subtle change, but a significant difference.

Can you see that what you think about most is what you are being? If you choose to become wealthy, don’t focus upon avoiding debt. How do you become wealthy? Become a millionaire in your mind and millions will come. You must be the person you choose in the future now, create your future in the present! You cannot create your future in the future; you can only create your future in the present! Let me be clear here. This does not mean that if you decide to become a millionaire in your mind today that tomorrow your millions shall be delivered. To become a millionaire is a decision to change your mindset from this point forward and trust that it is inevitable and shall manifest at the perfect time. And the perfect time is when your thoughts, your feelings, your vibrations and actions are that of a millionaire.

“A man becomes what he thinks about most.”– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whatever you focus your attention upon automatically determines your predominant thoughts. And as thoughts are composed of energy, thinking about something constantly, will add more energy to that thought. Let’s see how this works in action. Can you remember back to when you were learning to ride a bicycle? Once you worked out how to balance upon the bicycle and increased your confidence, you moved much quicker and took more risks, until the inevitable happened. While racing along a path you somehow lost your balance and all of a sudden the bicycle flailed from side to side as you struggled to keep it upright. On one side was a blanket of soft green grass and on the other a solid fence loomed ever closer! In panic you heard yourself say, I’m going to hit the fence, I’m going to hit the fence, I’M GOING TO HIT THE FENCE! And guess what? You hit the fence. By focusing on the fence and not the grass, the fence became larger in your mind, the grass smaller and of course you attracted what you focused upon most. For this reason, racing car drivers are taught to look away from the direction of skid and instead look to where they choose to direct their car. They know that the moment they focus upon the obstacle, they hit it. For the same reason, footballers focus upon where they choose to kick the ball.

So in an energetic sense, what you focus upon expands (you attract) and what you do not focus upon contracts (you repel); the more attention you give to something, the more it expands. Therefore what is not in focus is not present in your life. For example; if you choose to lose weight, stop focusing upon your weight and focus on the new you. Imagine yourself thinner. Stop focusing upon the foods that put on weight and instead focus upon healthy foods and exercise.

Your focus can also derive from your beliefs. If you believe your children are naughty, they will become highly visible when they are naughty and invisible when they are good, they are both good and naughty, but you are more likely to see their misbehaviour. Equally overcome procrastination by focusing upon the task at hand and the outcome and how great you will feel when you complete it, rather than focusing all the work you have to do. If you choose to get motivated, find a great motive to move you forward – ‘Toward Motivation’. If you can’t find a reason to enjoy your job, find an aspect of it that you can enjoy or learn a skill to make it easier to enjoy the job or focus on getting that dream job. If you’re not looking forward to visiting your parents or in-laws, find a conversation subject that you would enjoy discussing with them and swing it around. You truly can change your focus on anything and just by changing your focus you will change your life. Okay, I hear you ask – Anything? Yes, anything! Remember more is possible, unless you choose to invest in limited thinking. Even cleaning the toilet can have a better focus by thinking about how much better it will look with a sparkle!

So, you can focus upon what you choose to expand into your life and what you do not focus upon contracts. As a lack of focus reduces your awareness of something’s existence, it is true that something can almost disappear. In Lawrence Blair’s Rhythms of Vision, he describes Magellan’s first landing at Tierra del Fuego. As Magellan and his crew stood on the beach, they were met by the Fuegans, who for centuries were isolated by their canoe culture. The Fuegans had no concept of large ships; they had never seen one prior to Magellan’s landing. They had never seen a ship nor had they ever imagined one. The Fuegans greeted Magellan and his crew and while Magellan’s ships were clearly visible from the beach, anchored not far from shore, the Fuegans could not see them. The ships were invisible to their eyes because they did not exist in their reality; there was no frame of reference. The Fuegan Shaman was naturally curious. He wondered how the newcomers had arrived on their island. Seeing the large contingent of Magellan’s crew, the Shaman deduced that they must have arrived on the island using many canoes. However there was not a single canoe in sight. He squinted out to sea and after some time Magellan’s grand galleons materialized. Excited, the Shaman pointed out the ships, but his fellow Fuegans could not see them. Frustrated, he began drawing the shape of the ships in the sand and soon, one by one, the Fuegans saw the ships. Their reality expanded to see the huge hulking vessels.

It is this understanding that begs the question. What can’t we see because we do not believe it exists? Whatever you can see at this very point in time is what you believe exists, nothing more. But it certainly doesn’t mean that what you can’t see doesn’t exist. I trust you now realize that beliefs are not necessarily true, just productive or unproductive.

The example of the Fuegans’ experience is similar to what we see when focusing upon a singular subject, such as a car we desire. If we decide to purchase a red sports car, suddenly, we see more of them appear. Miraculously, red sports cars seem to be everywhere. The desire for a red sports car is expanded in our mind and it seems that every other car on the road is almost invisible; we have sensitized ourselves to see red sports cars.

Imagine your favourite song. If you don’t have a favourite song, just choose one that you like and begin singing it or humming the tune in your head. Choose the chorus and repeat it over and over again. Now imagine the artist playing the tune or see the film-clip and see the picture in your mind or see the film clip and hear the tune. Now stop thinking about the tune. Forget everything you just remembered and don’t allow yourself to think about the song at all – think of anything and everything except the song. How did you go? It can be hard to push something away while you are focusing upon what you are pushing away. This is like trying to move from fear by focusing on the fear. This is also like trying to move from a position of lack while still picturing your lack. You just bring it closer. So, don’t focus upon what you don’t choose to have in your life. Focus upon what you do choose to bring into your life.

When you believe you are disadvantaged you demonstrate your disadvantage in your actions. You will manifest the outcome you envision in your mind. You may walk around staring down at the ground, shoulders slumped, feeling and seeing sadness. Your beliefs will have you expecting second best, receiving poor treatment, thinking you are worth less than others. If you are using this book to improve your wealth, be mindful of this next point. Once you improve your wealth it is important to feel worthy of your new-found gains or you will fritter away your new acquisitions and manifest your lack of worth. Does it now make sense to you why the financially disadvantaged often put up with poor service and bad behaviour, and Third World countries settle for much worse? In contrast, the wealthy seldom tolerate ill-treatment and demand respect. Those who are angry, needy and hateful glue themselves to their discontent. What we focus upon becomes larger in our lives. Make your life bigger.

Infinity Belief® – Tips and Truths

1. You attract things into your life by choosing to keep them in your predominant thoughts.

2. To get motivated, find a great motive to move you forward.

3. Focus only upon what you choose to attract.

4. What you focus upon becomes larger in your life.

 

Rik

Rik is The Brain Untrainer with over 38,000 brain untraining hours. He is a master of helping his clients create a life beyond limits and is a multiple best-selling author, a world-class Master NLP Trainer, a leading Life Coach and Life Coach trainer, a radio host and a passionate and articulate force for good in the world. R!k’s books include: “A Life Beyond Limits,” “7 Beliefs That Will Change Your Life,” “ROAR! Courage – From Fear To Fearless,” “The Life Coach Millionaires,” “A Richer Way to Think” and “5x5 To Thrive.”

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