In the last paragraph of Stave I, Scrooge is locking up his room after Marley’s ghost left. In this scene we see that change has already begun. We read “Scrooge tried to say “Humbug!” but stopped at the first syllable”. Scrooge, resolute that Christmas was a Humbug, now on the same day as declaring it multiple times to all he encountered, cannot bring himself to say the word.  Clearly, something has started to change. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. (Laozi)

Your assignment last week was to look around you, to see the opportunities that are already out there to be seized. Plus, maybe, take a small action in your journey forward.  Can you look at the you that travelled through last week and see any changes? How did you do on the assignment? What did you see? Did you take at least the smallest of steps to begin being the you that you want to be? If not, what stopped you?

This Week’s Talk

This is not about “learning” what to do. This isn’t an educational or academic process. This blog is about taking charge and doing! One small step at a time.  Before Scrooge meets the first of the three spirits that haunt him, the book talks about his state of mind.  “Scrooge went to bed again, and thought, and thought, and thought it over and over, and could make nothing of it. The more he thought, the more perplexed he was; and the more he endeavored not to think, the more he thought.”   This helps illustrate the power of having a burning image in your mind.  Since we are now in week four of our journey together, have you experienced this yet? Has you taking on this transformation kept you up? Has it invaded your thoughts while at work? Have you talked to a close friend about it?   Keep distilling your vision until it’s burning and you cannot let go.   You should reach the point where you are not making yourself think about where we are going and yet it still is there in your thoughts.  A few sentences later after the above quote we read…”Marley’s ghost bothered him exceedingly. Every time he resolved within himself, after mature inquiry, that it was all a dream, his mind flew back again, like a strong spring released, to its first position, and presented the same problem to be worked all through, “Was it a dream or not?”  That is critical to appreciate. Your mind really cannot differentiate between a well-presented scenario that is fiction vs one that is fact. Tell your mind that you are the you that you aspire to be and it will accept this to be fact. Repeat this, again and again, and you will find yourself becoming the person you want to be.

This Week’s Assignment

Find a picture or scene depicting one of the aspects of that person you aspire to be.  This could be from a TV show, in a movie, in a cartoon… from a POD cast, TED talk… magazine…but get an actual image that instills in you the sense of the you that you want to be. Look at the picture, watch the scene from the movie…  while telling yourself that this is how others see you. Could be confidence, could be humor, could be presence… could be caring, empathy, listening…be clear what it is this person is doing that you want to copy.  Watch it over and over again and eventually it will appear in your thoughts without being prompted. Continue to build the internalization that this is how others see you. Your assignment is to look at the image and play the script in your thoughts as you go to sleep at night. See the image, and feel the emptions and the confidence knowing that you possess these traits.   

For me, it took many iterations to end up with images, movie scenes, characters that I could feel comfortable with that they would be my benchmarks of who I want to be, how I want to act, and what I desire to achieve.   

See you next week…