Black Diamond Self-Talk

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Procrastination - Excuses File Containing Reasons And Scapegoats

Decision: The Mastery of Procrastination

      Okay. We made our organized plan. Now we have to execute it. But, decision plays a part in this.

      I have had many struggles with this one. Procrastination - this one is very insideous - it camouflages itself and hides in the shadows, pretending to be other things during my thought process on the way to a decision to act. Most of the decisions I make are automatic. I've purposefully, or even unconciously made a decision and implanted it internally. When I do slow down the chatter and focus on the act of the decision, only then can I again influence it. Some of the arguments my mind has thrown up as obstacles, when I haven't said my self-talk enough follow, but I've written counter-statements right afterwards, so I can keep my awareness high of these forks in the road in my thoughts.

      The Perfect Plan needs more time to simmer some more. I've learned to counter this with the thought that it's good enough, just start moving.

      The timing isn't right, another time would be better. NOW is better than NEVER!

      I don't feel well enough. Catch your breath, take steps to care for yourself as quickly as possible and get moving again.

      It's raining out. Wear a rain coat, or find an umbrella.

      It's too cold. Put on warmer clothes.

      It's too hot. Put on cooler clothes.

      I don't have control and have to wait for things to change in my favor. The conditions could get worse, so again, just start moving.

      I have to examine my motives for the decision. Am I using a positive emotion to support my thought process, or a negative one? This is a huge struggle for me. I have to address this multiple times, in my autosuggestion. It begins with "I am happy." Certainly your self-talk is for you, so you may find different words to use. "I am happy" seems to be high enough of a focus for me, since I tend towards frustration and feeling overwhelmed through sadness, depression and even anger. I cap off my autosuggestion with "Anger and Fear are useless. Love and Gratitude are everything". I don't put my self-talk on my list or plan, since it is already a habit. I perform this automatically.

      The bottom line, analysis has been done, I now just act. I decided when I focused on my foundational desires, built my plan and committed to being all in. Just act on the to-do list!

with gratitude and in service,

Tony, Lisa, Michael and Amanda Koker

Image credit: CanStockPhoto.com

Sunday, October 07, 2012

Organizing and Planning - The Steps and Challenges

Organized Planning in Action

      It can be easy to build a high-level plan, but the devil is in the details. I ask myself if the things that I value most, my desires, are being advanced with every step. Then I have to break down the big pieces of the plan, each in turn, into the smallest piece necessary, or possible. My thoughts tell me this is all I need to do; Make the list, then Work the list.

      The day-to-day experience is not always simple, however. I couldn't sleep, two nights ago, and tossed and turned all night as my mind raced with excitement. I did finally manage to fall asleep, but the rude, body-quaking shock of the alarm clock came much too soon. I am not normally a morning person, but having a restless night's sleep only makes it worse. I have to really, really focus. I have to summon all of my energy to get my song bouncing off the inner walls, and every nook and cranny of my internal head. My self-talk, or auto-suggestion, is this song and the key for this challenge too. A few hundred times, while I mindlessly and quickly go through my routine wake-up tasks, should do it. OK, now, where is that written down organized plan I have?

      The minute-to-minute events. Things don't always just have a priority of importance, when ranked against each other and my desires, but they also may have a timing component. There is a time and a place when something must happen. My plan has to have these targets built into it too. Then I can work backwards from the target, and fill in the prerequisite steps needed along the way. Once I think I've established my day into a heads-down, concentrating mode, taking action on the current task, this is when decision comes into play. We have to decide how to react to the phone ringing. Or, an unexpected visitor may arrive.

      What opportunities for turning from our progress towards something else totally unrelated, and, disconnecting from our plan present themselves? Are we disciplined enough to decide if we can afford this distraction now, postpone it to later, or simply decline to participate altogether. How do we find our place again, when we return to continue from where we were? These, often split-second decisions, can put us way off course, if we make a mistake. We have to be comfortable, and positive about even this, though. We are human, after all. We need to know that we are back on track quickly.

      I often find myself far off course, and don't recall even having made a decision to do it. It's as though I suddenly realize I'm not focused on that task, anymore, and I doing something else. Like waking up, or snapping out of a daydream. How did I get here? What triggered this diversion? Was it something I saw, heard, smelled, tasted, touched or felt? My mind just seems to automatically drift into thought upon various stimuli shortly after they are experienced without raising any flag or warning. This must be some kind of rest, or subconscious processing time. It seems to be like a roller-coaster, a repeating cycle of periods of high vibration focus followed by periods of low vibration coasting. The less sleep or feeling of wellbeing and energy I have, the more often it seems my mind cycles. As long as I can keep myself thoughtfully stimulated and focused enough, when my mind coasts, at least I will be pointed in the right direction and either remain on course, or find myself not too far astray.

      Then I make myself, periodically step back and review, again, at a high-level. A balance has to be found between managing the details, and simply working the plan. Each one of us has a different, base realm, where we are comfortable. We need to be able to push ourselves out of our easy, areas of comfort, and just focus on the next, important task, with as much positivity as we can. At least I have to remain neutral and avoid distraction or other negativity.

      Organized Planning has to account for my desires, goals, tasks, processes, timing and interruptions or delays. In the end, I have to be able to review my processes from a thoughtfull perspective, but I have to be sure that I'm taking into account the emotional perspectives as well. How did I manage interruptions? Was I able to successfully overcome the impulse to get irritated, confused, frustrated or even angry? Could I hear the music in my head? Was the rhythm, melody and lyrics of my auto-suggestion, or self-talk able to withstand these challenges? When it isn't, I'll have to re-visit it's formulation, perhaps, a small tweak to that, so my armor will be thicker for the next time. While it remains strong and allows me to keep focused on my desires as I work my organized plan, I am able to process the interruptions and other distractions and accomplish giant leaps towards my heart's desires.

      Thank you to everyone in the MFF Mastermind for helping me obtain focus, remain focused and for the encouragement and support to initiate and continue to take action.

with gratitude and in service,

Tony, Lisa, Michael and Amanda Koker

Image credit: CanStockPhoto.com

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

What is Creative in Network Marketing - Creative Imagination

Imagination at work

      I use imagination all the time, when I am trying to solve challenges, issues and problems. The synthetic imagination is the easiest, since it is the use of known ideas and facts, recombined and processed into new constructs. The creative imagination comes from the subconscious, and arrives as responses from the desires we have planted there. Just this week, as I further develop task lists and actions to solve my challenges, issues and problems, I believe I have made significant progress when the creative imagination provides missing pieces to the puzzles. There are three specific areas where this can be illustrated from my experiences this week.

      The first area involves my mind set when interacting with other people, an external focus. Having begun to develop a skill to understand whether a person is direct or indirect is part of the synthetic imagination. Being grounded as an indirect myself, I have to rely on my imagination to envision the thought process of someone who is direct. I have to rely upon the creative imagination to provide insight into this process. Although I believe I can operate in the process of a direct, it takes a lot of energy and focus, and even then, I have to have faith that my creative imagination provides the answer as it is needed. I may have to tweak my self-talk, or auto-suggestion a little, if I find that my creative imagination needs to work overtime to another solution, if, as often happens, I come up with the answer in hindsight, after the interaction is well concluded.

      The second area involves my mind set too, but with an internal focus. This is the easiest for me, being indirect, as it is easy for me to think through tasks and form action plans. The challenge, here, for me, is that it is much more difficult to let go of the planning and consider it good enough. I can easily get stuck trying to make it perfect. Realizing this seems to make this piece less daunting, but if not for my creative imagination I'm sentenced to a prison cell, in my mind, where I regurgitate the known ideas and facts over and over again ad nauseam.

      The third area also involves an internal focus and addresses my mood, or how I am feeling. I can be at peace, silencing the annoyances to the point of ignoring that stimulus for action. Although pleasant, I certainly won't be able to move forward without some stimulus. If I am totally engaged in turmoil, like that experienced on Mondays, when the big change occurs from being in a rhythm of self-motiviation, to that where I have to embrace the desires and goals of others and the demands this places on me, this can result in overload or crisis. A balance has to be maintained, where there is sufficient tension and stress to motivate and drive forward, but managed in a spirit of positive emotions. I constantly call upon my creative imagination to resolve this challenge.

      For all of these areas, my self-talk provides the underlying focus which is fed to my subconscious. My subconscious, in turn, provides responses from the creative imagination in tune with my desires. Otherwise the ideas brought forward may be off the melody, so I have to keep focused on fueling my mind with the rhythm of thought, the vibration of harmony upon which _I_ choose to devote my energy and efforts.

with gratitude and in service,

Tony, Lisa, Michael and Amanda Koker

Image credit: CanStockPhoto.com