The above is also a strategy.
The ability to stand back and recognize our strategies is the ability to
transcend limiting states of mind.
Strategies consist of much more than thinking patterns; they
consist of the way we structure our beliefs, our values, our
sense of purpose, our sense of identity, and more. However, if
we start with a simple approach to modeling our thinking
strategies, we can code the elements. For example, we can
have any of the following elements in a strategy:
❏ An image that we see externally—Visual/external—Ve
❏ An image in our mind that we remember—
Visual/internal/remembered—Vir
❏ An image that we create in our mind—
Visual/internal/construct—Vic
❏ A sound that we remember—Auditory/internal/ remembered—
Air
❏ A sound that we construct—Auditory/internal/ construct—
Aic
❏ An inner dialog—Auditory/Inner dialog—Aid
❏ A feeling that we experience physically—Kinaesthetic/
external—Ke
❏ An emotion that we feel—Kinaesthetic/internal—Ki
I have frequently used my cycling as an example of modeling
and one of the significant learnings for me was to learn how to
match my husband’s hill-climbing techniques. To model a skill
we have to want to do it and believe we can do it. I most
certainly wanted to learn this skill as I so frequently got left
behind on the hills—and some of the hills in France are very
long! I also believed that I could do it. I had learned to cycle on
the flat as well as my husband and I firmly believed that at a
minimum I could at least learn to keep up with him.
The strategy I had been using was to see a hill approaching
(Visual external), tell myself “Oh no this is going to be a
problem” (Auditory internal dialog), picture how difficult it was
going to be (Visual internal construct), start to feel frustrated
with myself (Kinaesthetic internal), and go round that loop
until I got off the bike or lagged behind feeling pretty fed up!
So the sequence was:
The ability to transcend
limiting states of mindSTRATEGIES FOR SUCCESSFUL LIVING 177