Why most visioning fails to keep you inspired

Originally posted February 23, 2009

goldfish jumping out of the waterI was just noodling on the web and ran across someone’s slides on how to create your future.  He goes on to tell us the classic way to create your future is to think about life from this perspective… What if there were no limitations?  The problem with this approach is that it does not honor The Drunk Monkey!

The Drunk Monkey’s job is to keep you alive by changing, fixing, avoiding or killing anything that might be potentially threatening.  The very fact that you and I have that machine running in the background insures that we can NOT think or operate from the mindset of no limitation.  Yes, I might be able to come up with a no limit thought.  But actually implementing it is a nightmare.  Why?

The Drunk Monkey’s job is to run in the background of my life and silently steer my body away from danger.  New, different, amazing, mind blowing, out of the box and no limit all represent the unknown which The Drunk Monkey naturally avoids.  So my no limit thinking is overridden by my body’s natural aversion to the unknown.

You must illuminate The Drunk Monkey and it’s motives if you are going to be able to make drastic changes.  After you can spot The Drunk Monkey trying to protect you from your new future, then you can really make radical changes with minimal fear.  If you don’t see The Drunk Monkey running your life, then you are stuck. You are The Drunk Monkey’s puppet.

To learn more about the The Drunk Monkey, Play This Video

9 Conditions of Fear

SadnessTwo months ago I published 10 ways you let fear get a hold of you.  I continue this exploration with 9 Conditions of Fear.

As a Life Coach, my intention is to demonstrate the conditions that make fear more favorable.  In phase III of the Inspired Action Coaching process my coaches and I work with people to shift the conditions of life to support happiness and success.

Consider this idea, “Your environment dictates who you are!”  Most people have allowed the conditions of their life to set themselves up.  Rather than being deliberate, they are accidental.  This list helps you to see 9 more negative conditions that can be turned into positive conditions with the proper discipline and structure.

Bottom Line:  When fear gets a hold of you, life stops working effectively.  Fear makes everything worse.  Here are 9 more ways that fear grabs a hold of you and why you should do the opposite.

1.  Lack of exercise. When you exercise, you fill your body full of happy chemicals.  When you don’t, you run low on endorphins (one of the three happy chemicals).  People who don’t exercise are more susceptible to fear.

2.  Not connected to your vision. If you aren’t clear about your vision, you will be pulled into other people’s visions.  This means you will be haunted with an “I’m not there yet” feeling which is really a fear that you aren’t living your true purpose or that your life is being wasted.

3.  Being in an uninspired state. When you are not inspired, you are most likely present to the mundane in your life or worse, what isn’t working.  Stay in either one of these states long enough and The Drunk Monkey will start to chant “You aren’t good enough!  Your life is meaningless!”  This, of course, is just fear.

4.  Resisting being blocked. There will be times when you are blocked and not moving forward.  These are natural times of rest and reconsideration.  If you panic and resist this state you will be gripped by fear.

5.  Not being conscious. If you are not aware of The Drunk Monkey (your mind) and all of it’s crazy imaginings, then you will naturally get pulled into your thoughts.  All thoughts have some fear at its source.  Not being conscious of your thoughts leads to being gripped by fear.

6.  Being on autopilot. Closely related to not being conscious but with a twist.  When you go on autopilot it is often a form of resignation, “Why bother?” You get it, right?  That’s just fear of taking new action.

7.  Enter into the realm of mind. When you listen to your mind, The Drunk Monkey, you are listening to a machine that uses fear as a tool for action.  Your minds job is to recognize potential danger and avoid it.  Listening to The Drunk Monkey is like watching the news.  The news focuses your attention on what’s wrong to keep you a breast of what might be wrong in the world.  Only problem is, most of it does not have any thing to do with you.  Pay close attention to the mind and you will find the same thing.

8.  Being the victim of my circumstances versus the creator of my experience. Not everything is under your control.  You are not the ruler of the universe.  But you are in charge of your reactions.  If you allow The Drunk Monkey to control your reactions, then you will be afraid.  When something unwanted happens, and it will, step back from the mind and see yourself as the creator of your experience, the controller of your response.  This will bring peace.

9.  Not listening to or reading my mentors. It’s amazing how positive your feelings can get by just reading a few words or listening to a mentor’s voice.

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