In the assignment you just finished, you had the experience of creating a Metastory. However, a Metastory must be polished and refined before it can serve as a Target. That’s what you’ll learn to do now.
Let’s assume that you have already figured out what you want, meaning you have defined your
BA Objective. You then create a Metastory that gets all four parts of your mind in harmony
with your BA Objective.
Here’s an example from my life, one that arose from the BA Objective that I described earlier: I’d like to have my biggest sales month ever.
Go ahead and write down a BA Objective of your own right now, so you can follow along with me.
1. As you think about your BA Objective, notice what comes to mind and write it down.
For example, as I thought about my BA Objective, I remembered sitting at my desk, reflecting on my biggest income month to date. So I wrote:
I’m sitting at my desk, reflecting on my biggest income month to date.
When you focus on what you want, a similar thing will happen.
As you continue focusing on your BA Objective, your memories will expand. Keep writing down the additional feelings, thoughts, and memories that come to you.
For example, what came up when I thought of “I’d like to have my biggest sales month
ever” was partly the memory I just described and partly my thoughts about it:
I’m sitting at my desk in Santa Barbara, enjoying the cool breeze and warm sun and looking at the wire transfer report from my bank that shows I have received a $170,000 payment.
I’m reflecting on the fact that I only worked five days to earn that amount. But I also had three days of hard travel, during one of which my back started hurting terribly. Despite the pain, I was able to perform five days of training with outstanding results. However, it was a triumph of will. Frankly, at the time, I would have traded the money for alleviation of the pain.
2. Rate the perfection of your "perfect" memory, using the “1 to 10” Desirability scale, where “10” means "so great, I wouldn't change it for a million dollars" and "1" means "so awful I don't even want to think about it."
For example, I said to myself: I like the money I earned, but I don’t like remembering
the pain. So I’ll rate that a “2.” The pain was so intense, I shudder when I remember it. 3. If you rated your Metastory less than “10” for Desirability, put your imagination to work and produce an imaginary "perfect 10" version of the same scene.
To do this, first home in on what’s really bothering you in the memory. Then change it! Start by circling or underlining the words or phrases that describe negative things about the
experience, that trigger Blockers.
For example, I have underlined what really bothers me about the memory I described above. I’m sitting at my desk in Santa Barbara, enjoying the cool
breeze and warm sun and looking at the wire transfer report from my bank that shows I have received a $170,000 payment.
I’m reflecting on the fact that I only worked five days to earn that amount. But I also had three days of hard travel, during one of which my back started hurting terribly. Despite the pain, I was able to perform five days of training with outstanding results. However, it was a triumph of will. Frankly, at the time, I would have traded the money for alleviation of the pain.
Now, change each of the marked words or phrases until the negative feelings disappear (these feelings are examples of what I call “Blockers” – we’ll go into these in more detail later on). Use the skill popularly known as "hindsight." (Everyone is an expert at that!) In short, rewrite your past.
For example, I’m editing the underlined parts until I really like the result. I’m adding and subtracting parts. The new words are in boldface and what I’ve subtracted is crossed out.
I’m sitting at my desk in Santa Barbara, enjoying the cool breeze and warm sun and looking at the wire transfer report from my bank that shows I have received a $170,000 payment.
I’m reflecting on the fact that I only worked five days to earn that amount and that I really enjoyed the snowy
weather in Sweden while doing that. But I also had
three days of hard travel, during one of which my back started hurting terribly.
I’m really pleased with myself as I reflect on the fact that Despite the pain, I was able to perform five days of
training with outstanding results. However, it was a triumph of will. Frankly, at the time, I would have traded the money for alleviation of the pain.
I’m looking forward to the seven days of training that I have scheduled next month and the $225,000 I’ll earn from that.
4. Repeat the circling/underlining and rewriting as many times as it takes for you to hit a “10” on the Desirability scale for your entire Target.
For example, while what I came up with above seems pretty good, it felt like something was missing so I rated that version as only “8” on the desirability scale.
Now I’ll modify things again and come up with a “10” version. (Again, the new words are in boldface – this time I didn’t subtract anything.)
I’m sitting at my desk in Santa Barbara, enjoying the cool breeze and warm sun and looking at the wire transfer report from my bank that shows I have received a $170,000 payment.
I’m reflecting on the fact that I only worked five days to earn that amount and that I really enjoyed the snowy weather in Sweden while doing that.
I’m really pleased with myself as I reflect on the fact that I was able to perform five days of training with
outstanding results.
I’m also very pleased that I achieved the BA Objective that I set for myself of working no more than ten days a month, leaving lots of time to be with my kids. Now I’ll have another three weeks with them, and I’m filled with joy and happiness at the thought.
And, with that in mind, I’m looking forward to the
seven days of training that I have scheduled next month and the $225,000 I’ll earn from that.
I’m very pleased with that. In fact, it’s definitely a “10” for me. So that becomes my Target.
How did you do? (You did do this exercise, didn’t you?)