Sometimes You Just Need To Think It Through

Over a year ago I was really into a philosophy and personal
growth method called Option.

It's basic premise is that our beliefs often cause us to be
unhappy--that circumstances NEVER actually cause our feelings.

In fact we often believe that it is normal or even necessary to
be unhappy at certain times.

This insight has just saved me from losing my practice of Psycho-
Cybernetics and sliding into an oblivion of sloth.

For the past couple of weeks I've had a bug problem at home and
because of this I couldn't sleep.

For the first week I could energize myself with my Psycho-
Cybernetics practices.

After doing my visualizations, reading positive statements
written by Dr. Maltz and other practices I would feel like I was
a rubber band pulled back and ready to snap forward.

But after this weekend in which I was traveling out of town, got
no sleep on Friday and had to sleep in each day for two days just
to feel normal, then on Monday wake up after a few hours to catch
a plane that was late--I was exhausted and it seemed that over
the past two days I couldn't get much done.

I knew that although I was tired that there had to be more to
this.

If I were working at a 9-5 job and I was tired I would usually be
able to get myself to do everything I needed then crash when I
got home.

And since I'm left to my own devices these days, working at my
computer with no one looking over my shoulder I can get away with
doing litter or nothing.

And that's what I've been doing the last few days--little or
nothing.

Of course this is not how I want to be.

Plus I've got a workshop this week and I still have some
preparations that need to be completed by tomorrow.

If I can't get myself into high gear and get these things done
before I leave on another plane I'm going to have a rough time
getting things together when I get there.

So how can I motivate myself?

It seemed that I'd visualize myself getting into action on some
little things, do my other exercises and get a little positive
charge but the motivation would bleed way too quickly.

So what could I do?

First I did a mental experiment.

How would I feel if I got a new course in the mail today?

Would I feel excited?

Yes.

Would I feel energized and get started on it right away?

Yes.

After answering these questions I knew that at least part of my
fatigue was mental.

OK. So what's happening in my mind that's getting in the way?

After reflecting and remembering the Option ideas that sometimes
people believe they've got to feel bad to help themselves, I
realized that I believed I should not feel to happy or energized
when I knew my body was tired.

It seemed to me that if I were to allow myself to feel too good
and do too much that I might actually harm my body.

I believed that I should feel and act tired.

That's why it was so hard to get going and my visualizations
didn't have their usual power.

Once I realized this I decided to discard this faulty belief.

My energy came back and I started preparing for my trip tomorrow.

Now I can't wait to get started with a new day in which I can
accomplish so much.

An important lesson to take from this is that it's useful to have
a method of dealing with beliefs to help you through rough spots.

Dr. Maltz loved Prescott Lechy's approach to helping people with
beliefs but unfortunately Lechy died before actually boiling his
philosophy down to a step-by-step method that others could
follow.

In fact the book about his work titled "Self-Consistency: A
Theory Of Personality" was published after his death.

He never completed the book himself.

Luckily there are practices such as the Option Method that are
just as good.

To find out more visit www.option.org or www.optionmethod.com.