Something Good Coming

I'm watching the water

Watching the coast

Suddenly I know

What I want the most

[…]

-- Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers [Something Good Coming]

We all have so much unproductive and unhealthy internal chatter going on that it clouds our true desires and values. We become lost. We lack direction. We don’t know what to do.

We become engrossed by false beliefs such as “things just never work out for me”, “I can’t do it because…”, “my family holds me back” or “I can’t have it all”. These beliefs become self-fulfilling because we believe them and then behave in a way that actualizes it.

And we do this without even realizing. 

Good news though! These beliefs are BS. We made them up. We can change them.

To change our outer world, we first must change our inner world — our beliefs, our emotions, our self-talk and our trust in ourselves that we’re good and deserving. We must believe things such as Intention = Results, there is no failure but only feedback, we get what we focus on and that we have a higher purpose.

For a long time, I’ve fallen into the negative visualization practice that the Stoics talk so often about. As a preparation and survival tool, I do think it’s useful. BUT I found myself only visualizing negative things. I’d get good at defense, and being internally prepared in case something horrific happened…but I’d miss opportunities. And I was living in a constant state of angst and fear.

I thought about how difficult talking to prospective investors about my fund would be, how long it would take to build a strong business, plus all of the fantasy-land (extremely low odds events) images/movies of what could happen — falling down the stairs while holding my son, one of my loved ones getting a terminal illness, a mass-shooting occurring at the concert I’m at, etc. 

When you focus on negative imagery, you tend to attract that. Maybe not exactly, but in shades of grey. 

Recently, I’ve started practicing positive visualization. First, I get clear on what I want then I visualize it as specifically as possible — sights, sounds smells, tastes and feelings. And while doing this, I notice all of those pellets of negative self-talk popping into my head. So, I simply write those down and work on removing them through a number of different methods (guided meditation, Trading Tribe Hot Seat, plus a few other things).

There's somethin' good comin'

Just over the hill

Somethin' good comin'

I know it will

[…]

If you believe it, you can do it.