Backing Into What You Want
Years ago I was into horses, and during one period when I was temporarily horseless, a friend invited me to go trail riding with her.
I eagerly jumped at the chance and was at her barn within minutes.
The horses were out in pasture so we grabbed halters with which to catch them.
Having worked with horses for a few years, I learned that it's much easier to catch them if you have a "horse magnet".
So I packed both of my jacket pockets full of grain and went with my friend to the pasture to catch our horses.
I walked up to the horse I was to ride (I was appointed the one most difficult to catch, of course) with sweet grain in my outstretched hand.
The horse stretched his neck out as far as he could and lapped up the grain.
"This is going to be easy," I thought.
As I moved to his side to throw the halter rope around his neck he swiftly swung around, presenting me with a panoramic view of his rump.
"Hmmm.
Guess I better be a little quicker," I thought.
I tried again with the same result.
There I was looking at the wrong end of the horse once more.
We did this dance a couple of more times with the same result.
Then inspiration struck me.
I turned around with my back to him and began walking backwards in his direction.
The horse just stood there.
You see, horse logic says that when a person's feet are moving, that person is going in the same direction that their nose is pointed.
Since my nose was pointed away from him, he figured I must be moving away from him.
He was one surprised horse when I got next to him, spun around, and threw the halter rope around his neck! I could almost hear him thinking, "Now, how the heck did she do that?" Humans are a lot like that horse.
Often we have to take a backwards approach to those things in life that we want in order to grab them.
You see, most of us have been programmed to identify only what we don't want.
When we were children and told our parents that we wanted something, most typically we were told that no, we didn't want it because it wasn't good for us or some other reason that made sense to the adults.
Now that you're an adult you have a lifelong habit of identifying what you don't want.
You identify more easily with what you don't want than what you do want.
Ask anyone what they truly want in life, and most likely you'll find they hesitate, stumble, falter, and aren't able to easily answer that question.
However, just ask them what they don't want and they turn into motor mouths! So, in order to find out what you truly want, you may just have to back into it by first defining what you don't want.
It's easy to do.
Simply make a list of everything you don't want.
Then just turn each item into its opposite and you'll have backed into identifying exactly what you do want.
I eagerly jumped at the chance and was at her barn within minutes.
The horses were out in pasture so we grabbed halters with which to catch them.
Having worked with horses for a few years, I learned that it's much easier to catch them if you have a "horse magnet".
So I packed both of my jacket pockets full of grain and went with my friend to the pasture to catch our horses.
I walked up to the horse I was to ride (I was appointed the one most difficult to catch, of course) with sweet grain in my outstretched hand.
The horse stretched his neck out as far as he could and lapped up the grain.
"This is going to be easy," I thought.
As I moved to his side to throw the halter rope around his neck he swiftly swung around, presenting me with a panoramic view of his rump.
"Hmmm.
Guess I better be a little quicker," I thought.
I tried again with the same result.
There I was looking at the wrong end of the horse once more.
We did this dance a couple of more times with the same result.
Then inspiration struck me.
I turned around with my back to him and began walking backwards in his direction.
The horse just stood there.
You see, horse logic says that when a person's feet are moving, that person is going in the same direction that their nose is pointed.
Since my nose was pointed away from him, he figured I must be moving away from him.
He was one surprised horse when I got next to him, spun around, and threw the halter rope around his neck! I could almost hear him thinking, "Now, how the heck did she do that?" Humans are a lot like that horse.
Often we have to take a backwards approach to those things in life that we want in order to grab them.
You see, most of us have been programmed to identify only what we don't want.
When we were children and told our parents that we wanted something, most typically we were told that no, we didn't want it because it wasn't good for us or some other reason that made sense to the adults.
Now that you're an adult you have a lifelong habit of identifying what you don't want.
You identify more easily with what you don't want than what you do want.
Ask anyone what they truly want in life, and most likely you'll find they hesitate, stumble, falter, and aren't able to easily answer that question.
However, just ask them what they don't want and they turn into motor mouths! So, in order to find out what you truly want, you may just have to back into it by first defining what you don't want.
It's easy to do.
Simply make a list of everything you don't want.
Then just turn each item into its opposite and you'll have backed into identifying exactly what you do want.
