The title from this article came from a short
feature about Simon Woodroffe that I saw on a TV
programme several months ago. In the programme,
Simon admitted that on occasion, he still suffered
from those voices in his head (the old gremlin or
saboteur) telling him he wasn’t good enough or
asking who was he to think that he could achieve his
goal.
Simon’s technique for dealing with such a situation is
to ignore the voices in his head and act ‘as if’ he is
as successful as he aims to be - right now.
This reminds me of when I had just completed my
coach training. Although I had coached other people
(volunteers) throughout my training and had an
obvious aptitude and passion for the role, I still had a
huge problem when it came to asking for people to
pay me to coach them, or even to tell people that I
was a coach.
I found myself telling other people that “I’m trying to
start a coaching practice” rather than acknowledging
that I was a coach because my gremlin was telling
me that I was not a “legitimate” coach, i.e. one who
had proved themselves by charging people and/or
making a living from it.
It was at this point that by accident I discovered
Simon Woodroffe’s ‘Act as if’ approach. To begin with
I started by saying the words “I am a coach” but I
definitely had some doubt behind them. It took a
little while longer, after other people had believed my
words and started to see and treat me as a coach,
before I actually started believing the words myself.
Now, when you look at ‘acting as if’ and also
Muhammad Ali’s words in the quote of the month, at
first glance there appears to be an element of
deception involved. Surely pretence and acting ‘as if’
are conning other people?
But the truth is that the only difference between
acting as if you are successful and actually owning
that you are already a coach, a writer, a singer, a
pianist or whatever, is your own belief or lack of it.
I recently read an article that asked at what point do
you stop learning a musical instrument and when do
you actually start to play it. You must have heard
someone apologising that they don’t actually play
that instrument sitting in their living room, they are
only learning.
So when exactly do you think that Eric
Clapton or Yehudi Menuhin actually stopped learning
to play the guitar or violin respectively? I suggest
that Yehudi probably stopped learning when he died
in 1999 and that Eric is probably still learning.
Hopefully you can see my point. When I first picked
up a guitar in my teens and played my first note, I
was actually playing it, and I was certainly acting as
if I did (oh those hours spent in front of the mirror!).
So what is it that you are still waiting to do but you
can’t yet because your gremlin is telling you that
you’re not good enough yet, or you don’t know
enough yet or you’re not whatever enough quite yet?
My challenge for you this month is to act as if you
have now reached that elusive "enough" point
and anything more than "enough" will be too
much. Right now, act as if you are already
worthy of that promotion, getting that new job,
asking for that sale or asking for someone else’s
commitment.
As I was already a coach but had not let myself
believe it, you are already an entrepreneur, musician,
artist, singer, writer, or whatever it is for you. So go
on pretend, and act as if, so that you can finally
realise that you are already there.
" by Esther and Jerry Hicks. This book
is not for those of you who will struggle to get past
that it is based on the teachings of a non-physical
entity known as Abraham. However if you can get
past this, it is a very thought provoking and simply
laid out text explaining that our thoughts create our
lives, with some interesting ideas on how to make
your thoughts more positive. I am experimenting with
a couple of them at the moment. Will let you know
the outcome. ****
" by Robin S. Sharma. If
you have not read any personal development books
before, you might want to take a look at this one. It
has some useful tips and exercises that I think are
certainly of value although not particularly new or
original. The downside is Robin Sharma's attempt to
dress up his advice in the form of a story, the
problem being that the actual story is rather naff
(poor for those non-UK'ers) and amateurish.
***
". I actually preferred What the
Bleep, even with its quite weird fantasy-type
sequences, but it had a little more explanation of
quantum mechanics in there. ****
" **** and 
by Jack Johnson
****. You probably have to be a dedicated
Jack Johnson fan to go for the Curious George one,
and I seriously am, but I particularly like the first 4
tracks. I am also a big KT Tunstall fan since
discovering her 
CD *****, which is fabulous,
a few months ago.
