332 Part V: Integrating Your Learning
- Turn and look back to now and allow your unconscious mind to fill
in any gaps you hadn’t thought of for your road map and add these to
the sheet you’ve created.
- Allow all the events along your time line to align so that they support
your goal, noting any actions you may have to take along the way.
- When you’re ready, float back to your present and back down into the
room.
Taking One Step Forward
The decision to make a change takes just a moment, but the change itself
can take anywhere from a few minutes to a lifetime. What’s important to
recognise is that in order to incorporate change you have to do something
actively. This section looks at the importance of the first and last steps in a
change project.
Making that initial move
The first step is the most important because it starts the momentum that
takes you to the second and subsequent steps of your journey. Often,
breaking down a goal into smaller, manageable chunks keeps you motivated
on the path to success.
Susan, a drug addict for 24 years, was walking home from a nightclub very
early one morning, when an encounter with an acquaintance turned her life
around. When she tried to talk to him, all he said to her was, ‘Go home, look
in the mirror, and make some different choices.’ Susan went home and looked
in the mirror and saw that she looked terrible. Her skin was grey, she had
dark shadows under her eyes, she was bedraggled and emaciated, and she
acknowledged that she looked and felt dreadful.
She decided then and there, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want
to look like this anymore.’ This decision, although all stated in the negative
(check out Chapter 4 on how to create well-formed outcomes) was the first
step Susan took in taking back control of her life. She had a strong ‘away-
from’ motivation pattern, recognising what she didn’t want. (See Chapter 8
for more on the ‘away-from’ motivation pattern.)
The next thing she did was to change her environment. She stopped seeing
her drug-taking friends and got a job. During her clean-up phase, a neighbour
suggested that Susan attend teacher-training college. This suggestion started
Susan on her path to learning to become an excellent coach and get her MA
degree in humanistic psychology.
