Positive Imaging Real Life Story #3

Finally, we come to a slightly humorous example of positive imaging. At the state long course swimming championships a number of years ago, one of my swimmers was disqualified in a backstroke race for executing a turn incorrectly. The backstroke has very specific rules about how the turn must be made. Failure to do so results in a disqualification from the race. After that race I spoke a few minutes with that swimmer about why the turn was illegal and what would she could do to make the turn legal in future races.

She answered, “I’m not going to flip on my stomach so soon.”

“Ah,” I chided, “but watch your words. You reveal to me that you are thinking about flipping over too soon and not about the way to make that turn legal.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

I explained that the key words we use are picked up by our subconscious and processed as truth. Very crucial words, however, like not and no are often skipped over. Our brains do not process those words (sense a little irony in that last sentence) on a subconscious level.

“So, when you repeat to yourself, ‘I am not going to turn over too soon,’ your subconscious mind picks up on ‘turn over too soon’ and starts to go to work on that. And when you are in the race where things are moving too quickly for you to think and your subconscious mind does the work for you, low and behold, it gets you to turn over too soon and you find yourself talking to a judge at the end of your race again.”

“So, what should I say?” she asked.

I told her to pronounce exactly what she is going to do. “I’m going to take three strokes after I see the flag and then turn over.” That way your mind gets to work on the correct task.

“I don’t believe you,” someone else challenged.

“You don’t, huh?” Well, let me demonstrate on something a little funny but less critical than getting disqualified at the state champs. You see this water faucet?” Our team set up camp right near an irrigation faucet for the poolside lawn.

“Yeah.”

“What would happen if someone said to you, ‘Don’t trip over that faucet’?”

“I don’t know. I’d stay away from it I guess.”

“Really?” I challenged back.

“Yeah.”

“OK. Stay away from this faucet,” I began to warn. “Don’t trip over this faucet.” I repeated those words probably 30 times in a row. Everyone sat there looking at me like I was crazy, some even laughed slightly. My goal was to say it so many times that sometime throughout the meet that week one of them would stub their toe or trip over that faucet. Finally, one of the younger swimmers came over to see what all the fun was about, he was about six years old. I began to transfer the image onto him. I told him, “Don’t trip over that faucet. Don’t trip. No, stay away. Don’t trip over that faucet.” He had no idea what we were doing. I said it probably a hundred times in just a few minutes.

At last, it was time for me to go watch another of our swimmers compete in a race. I stood up and began to walk to the side of the pool where I could get a better view. I was left our area, I kept repeating to the young swimmer, “Don’t trip over that faucet. Don’t trip over that faucet.” And just before I turned around to complete my journey to the side of the pool, he went over to the faucet and tripped right over it. All the older swimmers had a good laugh, and my point was proved. Fortunately, he was not injured in the mishap and he was later able to laugh along with the situation.

OK. seriously though, consider this. We tell our children all the time not to do things. And sure enough, almost like a magnet, they go straight to what we said NOT to do and do it. Don’t touch that hot stove. BURN! Don’t run in the street. We have to chase after them before the cars smash them flat. Don’t drink! Don’t do drugs. And what? Underage drinking and drug use by our youth is one of the greatest challenges they face in their naive lives. Their brains don’t even process the don’t part. Their brains only process the “do drugs” or “drink alcohol” or “trip over that faucet.” It’s time to take positive imaging seriously. It is a powerful tool that we seldom recognize. It’s in the words we use, the images we conjur up to our friends, the outlook on our lives, and in the instructions we give to our kids. Our minds are powerful things and we need to think seriously how we use them.