An Exercise in Resourcefulness

Posted on by Sandi Amorim 12 Conversations

 

“You want what you want, whether or not you think you can get it.” – Robert Fritz

How do you need to be thinking to go after your dreams and produce results?

All human behaviour is the result of state, so the first requirement is to be in a resourceful state, ie: a positive mood.

And when you’re not, you need to consciously choose it.

Because the truth is most of the time you have a choice.

Staying in a negative spin and doing nothing is a choice. You know it doesn’t feel good, but in the moment of choosing you’re doing the best you can.

How do I know? When you have better options you make better choices. I’m saying that not to let you off the hook for being responsible in your life, but rather to encourage you to have compassion for yourself when hindsight reminds you of a less than stellar choice you’ve made.

And it’s not about never having negative feelings. That’s ridiculous; everybody goes there sometimes. The key is not to stay there.

So the power then lies in choosing a resourceful state.

Here’s one way to do so:

1. Think of someone who loves or appreciates you, and imagine them standing in front of you.

2. See yourself through their eyes. What do they say about you? Notice in detail what they love and appreciate about you.

3. Really feel those positive feelings. Know that you are loved and appreciated exactly as you are.

From this place of feeling good, think of your dream or a specific result you’re after.

Now take one action to move that dream forward.

Repeat often until the desired dream or result is produced.

We all need this reminder that it’s not rocket science.

When I recently said yes to confronting my fear of deep water I made a new choice.

After years of letting myself be stopped by the fear (it left me feeling helpless and completely unresourceful when it came to being in water) I chose to take one action to breakthrough this fear. That one action lead to another, and then another until before I knew it I was in the deep end of the pool with scuba gear breathing calmly under water and having the time of my life.

My dream was to scuba dive; the specific result was to experience feeling calm under water. I already know the next action for me is to dive in tropical waters and take the full open water training.

Does that scare me? Hell yeah! Is it going to stop me? Not a chance.

All I have to do is close my eyes and remember my diving coach’s encouragement and acknowledgement to know that I can do it.

Want what you want => Get resourceful => Take one new action.

You and I are the same in our humanity. We don’t have to be stopped by fear and limiting beliefs.

We can, with the right support and a resourceful state, do anything. . .so why not take on one of your someday dreams?

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr.

 

 

12 conversations started on “An Exercise in Resourcefulness”

  1. My one day dream: make a living by writing novels.
    Action right now: begin to write one novel
    It’s so simple when you stop overthinking everything…

    1. anabellebf I’d break that action down even further Annabelle! What action could you take today to start the novel? 
      And yes, overthinking is the death of many dreams.

    2. anabellebf I agree with Sandi that the trick is to chunk these actions down even further. A challenge in and of itself! In the case of a novel , it could be writing 500 words, or brainstorming your plot outline with some notes. And then each day, another small chunk. otherwise, if you’re like me you fall into overwhelm fast!

      1. saraho anabellebf Oh yeah, it’s a slippery slope to overwhelm! I tend to chunk it down until it seems almost ridiculous and then I get so much done it’s shocking 😉

  2. One day dream:  to balance writing a book and keeping up with a blog
    Action right now:  put most of effort into blog until the overwhelm abates
    Thank you for the thoughtful post, Sandi!

    1. tammyrenzi I totally get the blog/book challenge Tammy as it’s one I’m facing myself! It really works when I chunk things right down to the smallest action and it’s amazingly satisfying when you realize what you can accomplish one small action at a time!

      1. Sandi Amorim Thank you, Sandi!  It is good to know I’m not in this alone ;).  And it looks like you are doing GREAT!  Congratulations!

  3. Sandi, I love how you chunk it down – for yourself and for ALL of us – to start simply, but simply start. I’m in the exciting website overhaul mode, and the one simple step I’m working on this week is going through my old blog posts to mine for goodies and lovingly let go of the ones that no longer resonate! A little cleaning house on my home on the web to make it even more welcoming to my people :).

    1. Sabrina at MyMiBoSo I think it’s the nature of human beings to complicate everything and I”m often surprised by how simple things really are when I get out of the way!

  4. Diving can be wonderful. I have been privileged to go scuba diving off of Maui and snorkeling in the Red Sea among other places and boy, it is simply stunning.
    Our attitudes about what we do and how we do it make a significant difference in our enjoyment of life.

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