A Pleasure – Pain Principle

Most everything I do effects what I am trying to accomplish in one of three ways.  I will move towards manifesting my intention, move away from manifesting my intention, or have no effect at all.  The tricky part, however, is being aware of and understanding what my intention truly is.

For the past eight months our focus has been on what we desire to create in our lives.  Unknowingly this was translated into focusing on what business we desire to create.  Countless of ideas later (and some good ones if I say so myself) we are still no further ahead.  Major flag the time has come (again) to sit back and take a good look at what is really going on.

As I sat down to write about pain and pleasure as hidden motivators a light bulb flickered inside my head.  All our efforts towards creating a business were being sourced by moving away from pain.  We have been trying to create our grandest dream from a place of fear.  One aspect of fear is its ability to freeze the moment and cause great immobility.  No wonder we weren’t getting anywhere!

Looking at this deeper I saw a related mindset we had been using.  In our attempts to create a business (and our lives) we were unconsciously playing not to lose.  In doing so we were virtually ensuring we were not playing to win.  Just as moving away from pain does not guarantee moving towards pleasure, playing not to lose does not guarantee winning either.  I can recount watching game upon game where a team protects their lead or plays for a tie.  The outcome in many of those games is actually a loss for the team instead.  The strategy in order to win is distinctly different from the strategy taken not to lose.

see also “Back on Track”