216 Part III: Opening the Toolkit
so long that he felt panicky, he felt comfortable because he knew he would be
able to plan and meet his objectives.
Simon had the opposite problem to John: he felt that he could never meet his
deadlines. On examining his time line, Simon discovered that his future was
so far out in front of him that he was unable to generate enough of a sense of
urgency about his goals. Simon compressed his time line and imagined it as
a conveyor belt. He placed goals at specific distances along the belt. When
Simon made his ‘to do’ list for the next day, he moved the conveyor belt one
notch closer. (We talk more about making ‘to do’ lists in Chapter 4.) This
method had a real impact on Simon meeting his commitments.
Travelling Along Your Time Line to a Happier You
Your time line consists of a sequence of structured memories; pictures are
in colour, sounds can be loud or soft, and feelings can make you feel light or
weigh you down. (For more information on memory and the senses, turn to
Chapter 6.) Your mind creates these memories in its own individual way: for
example, if you experience the same event as other people – perhaps you wit-
ness an accident – each of you remembers that event differently.
As you travel your time line, examining your memories and understanding
the lessons that need to be learned can release the hold that memories have
on the present, which allows you to change their structure, making them
smaller, softer, or lighter as necessary. Therefore, your past need no longer
cast a shadow on your present – or more importantly, on your future.
Releasing negative emotions and limiting decisions.....................
Anger, fear, shame, grief, sadness, guilt, regret, and anxiety are just a few
examples of negative emotions. These feelings have value in that they make
you human – and you wouldn’t want to be free of the ability to experience
these emotions – but at times they have a powerful, undesired impact. They
can cause physical illness and have a devastating effect on the way you con-
duct your life.
A limiting decision is one that you made in the past when, for some reason,
you decided that you were unable to do something, because you were too
stupid, unfit, poor, or any number of other reasons. For example, you may
have said: ‘I can never be slim’ or ‘I’m bad at adding numbers.’ The limiting
decision limits your potential, interfering with your success.
