Hacking the Outcome

Hacking the Outcome

I’ve been seeing a phrase recently, floating around on the Internet; life hacks. Life hacks are tips and tricks for making life easier.

One of my favorites that I use a lot is imagining how I want something to go. How I want the phone call to go, how I want the meeting to go, how I want the lunch to go.

I used to do something like that in the yore days, but then I tended to imagining bad stuff. Not really worst case, because I have a huge imagination, but stinky case for sure.

Now, when I imaging a phone call going badly as I’m dialing the number, a bunch of stuff happens, and most of it happens in our unconscious mind.

First, when the person answers the phone, I am listening for something bad in their tone of voice; snide, exasperated, snarky, bored, angry; something like that. I was amazed in my NLP (Neurolinguistic Psychology) training at what we can hear in each other’s voices. Mostly that is processed unconsciously. Oh, we are amazing.

Next, I start seeking negative stuff in what they are saying, and respond negatively, and I can blow up a conversation in no time at all.

Why am I competent? What makes me capable? How am I effective? How do I feel when I am light? Why could things go my way?

Since we are grownups, we have grown out of imagining terrible things, and now practice imagining good things. We know things will happen as they do, good or bad, but we can sort for the wonderful rather than the dreadful.

Since we are grownups, we have grown out of saying, “I don’t know what I want,” and actually take the time to notice what we do want. So, when I am anticipating an important call, I can spend some time imaging what the best outcome for me would be.

Since we are grownups, we have grown out of fighting life, and relax into the flow. We know that life includes ups and downs, events will happen that break our hearts, and make our hearts soar. We trust that when the challenging ones happen, we will find all the strength are resources we need, and that those events will bring us, at the very least, more of ourselves, often in ways that may surprise us.

Since we are grownups, we have grown out of thinking we have to fix our lives, and know that we can trust to let our lives unfold. We can use the energy we saved by letting go to enjoy being fulling in the moment, feeling strong and soft, feeling competent, being aware of our experience, being present.

How do I know the outcome? What makes me trust? How do I choose to feel safe?

When I feel safe, I hold myself differently. When I feel happy, I hold myself differently. When I own my power, I hold myself differently. I can change how I feel by holding myself differently. I can change how I feel by biting a pencil longways, not letting my lips touch it, and doing that for a full minutes. It physically mimics a smile, and that releases feel-good neurochemicals into my system.

We may not have a lot of control over what happens in our lives, but we have a lot of control over how we respond to it.

How have let go of expecting rotten to imagining the best outcome?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2014 all rights reserved 04092014

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