Our left brain seeks to make meaning out of the world around us including our personal experiences of it. Many times it weighs these experiences the same as physical laws such as gravity, so if something has always happened to you in the past, just like objects always having to fall to earth, this something will always happen to you in the future. But unlike the laws of gravitational force or electro-magnetism the meaning your mind has made out of your experiences may not truly be the case. You aren’t fated to always get the worst projects at work, you aren’t always going to be alone, to meet the exact wrong person, to have to struggle in every situation you are in, to always be taken advantage of. If nothing else, the law of averages won’t allow it. You have to catch a break sometime. And just because you never have before doesn’t mean you won’t now even if your logical left brain says you will. The Mentor is here to help you remember that the meaning of the world around you is what you make of it. If you don’t like the conclusions you’ve come to and the results you are getting, take action to change them.
The first thing to do in making a change in your life, big or small, is to change your mind about the situation. Well, one ½ of your mind, the left half. One way to do this is to reach out to the right brain for inspiration while befuddling and distracting the left by thinking in opposites. When you have a thought about something, say a deadline or a bill or a project and you think a declarative statement about that, immediately think about its opposite. For example, “I have so much to do to meet that deadline on Friday! My week is screwed.” The opposite could be, “I have almost nothing to do to meet that deadline on Friday! My week is great.” Both statements are equally valid, both have the same weight, and both could become the truth in your life depending on your choices and actions. But to make the second one true you need to let go of the first and start thinking creatively. How can you meet the deadline without having to work so hard? Are there technologies to help? Are there resources in other departments that could share the load? Is there a temp who could do basic grunt work for you? Does someone owe you a favor you can call in? Can you delegate some of the work to people on your team? Think outside the box. Live in opposite land where the right brain reigns supreme in thinking up possibilities and let your left brain do what it’s best at, problem solve and figure out the details for making those possibilities happen.
You can use the same technique on just about anything. Need to meet a requirement for a promotion but hate your job and feel stuck? Why not throw out the job and get a new one? Why not look into a career that better meets your needs and makes you happy and supports you financially? See, problem solved. No more arbitrary hoops to jump through and a whole new vista of opportunities to explore. Relationship not working? Feel that the person would be perfect and we could live happily ever after if they would just__________? Well, turn it all around by thinking “I could live happily ever after even if this person never__________.” Immediately whole new opportunities open up for you. Either you open your life to meeting someone perfect who does __________ because you no longer need the first person to do it or you see that __________wasn’t an impediment to a healthy relationship with the person at all. And letting go of all that worry that is probably stressing you out and making you crazy might cause others to relax around you and make things better all around. Let your right brain break down the barriers to success.
