This simple language hack can help clear obstacles and put your in a more receptive space.
“With our thoughts, we create the world.” – Groucho Marx
I’m not sure if I’ve got that right. But the general thrust of that idea has been said so many times by so many people that I’m sure it probably had a run in one of the Marx Brothers films.
But if it’s one thing I’m sure of it’s this: Our speech shapes and reflects who we are in the world.
Listen to someone talk and you can learn a lot about their mindset.
And it’s a two-way street. If we have a pessimistic nature, then that will be reflected in the way we speak – the phrases we chose and the frameworks we affirm.
But if we simply start using more positive and uplifting language, it will reshape our thoughts and our beliefs. It will change us and it will change the way the world responds to us.
If that’s true (trust me, it is) then it follows that our language (which we can consciously choose) gives us one of the easiest and most direct ways to hack into our thoughts and beliefs (which can otherwise be difficult to access.)
I’m rushing a bit here, but this has been pretty well covered elsewhere, and I’m going to assume you’re with me so far. If not, check out the Marx Bros classic, Duck Soup.
Anyway, one of the more powerful ways we can reshape our language in a positive way is to shift from “I want…” to “I am ready…”
For example, rather than “I want a cash cow with great prospects” say, “I am ready for a cash cow with great prospects.”
This might seem like a subtle difference, but it’s important, for two reasons.
The first is that the state of wanting requires no transformation. Anyone can want anything. You can put the idea of a hover-bike in my mind and I can start wanting it immediately.
Nothing more is required.
But saying I’m ready for a hover-bike is a different thing entirely. The more you talk about your readiness for a hover-bike, and the more you affirm it to yourself, the more you start to embody that state of readiness.
It’s like the more you say it, the more you start thinking, ‘cripes, it must be true!’ I must be ready for a hover-bike.
That then starts becoming our reality. And that means that anything that isn’t consistent with that reality starts to stick out. It starts not to fit.
As a result, we naturally start gearing around moving through any obstacles that are holding us back.
So say, for example, you say you’re ready for a hover-bike and you know that a hover-bike costs you $5,000 dollars. You also know that to get a hover-bike you have to have your motorbike license.
Suddenly “I am ready for a hover-bike” becomes incompatible with “I don’t have $5,000” and “I don’t have a motorbike license.”
(and note that “I want a hover-bike” is not.)
There’s a tension that’s been created. That tension demands a resolution. Either you have to let go of your hover-bike readiness, or let go of not having $5,000 and a motorbike license.
They can’t coexist.
Which one gives first depends, I think, on your will and commitment. If you keep repeating, “I am ready for a hover-bike” over and over to yourself, feeling it more deeply and more strongly each time, then you are forcing the adjustment on to other areas of your life.
You will run out of excuses for not doing your motorbike training. You will find your bank account for personal fun starts filling up a little more quickly.
You may find that you are actively calling in the changes yourself. You may just notice unusual coincidences start lining up to make change possible. You may notice both.
Announce your readiness and make it a reality.
The second reason that a focus on ‘ready’ is useful is that it puts you in a receptive state.
When you are ready for something to come into your life, you’re alive to opportunities. Your reticular activator has kicked into gear. You’re not missing anything.
But a receptive space is also a much more conductive space – you become a super-conductor. You’re not pushing against things, trying to make things happen. You’re not trying to force it.
Rather, you are simply ready to receive, however that hover-bike decides to find its way into your life.
You have your hands open, ready to accept what comes.
(As important as it is, that receptive state is remarkably difficult to hold.)
So that’s why I say shifting from “I want…” to “I’m ready…” is a very simple and easy trick, but a very powerful one.
So watch yourself with it. And watch to see if it helps clear obstacles in your life, and place you in a more receptive space.
And let me know how it goes.
Ever tried to put yourself in a state of readiness?