I sing with the 120-voiced Lions Gate Chorus from Vancouver, BC. For 2 years we prepare for our onstage competition performance time which lasts for a total of 21 minutes! And hoping, of course, to deliver our peak performance onstage at exactly the right moment. To do this, we very intentionally remind ourselves that if we attach ourselves to a possible result, we will interfere with the possibility that our "result" will be the one we want.
We usually think of someone who is "detached" as being rather anti-social, perhaps even aloof. Surely, considering our society's obsession with staying "connected", "detaching" from something cannot possibly be a good thing? Or can it?
You can bet that a successful Olympic athlete does not spend their mental energy pre-competition thinking and worrying about whether they will win or not. They know that the only thing they have control over is their own performance. They cannot control how everyone else does on race day. They will have spent time visualizing the perfect race run, the perfect shot hit, the perfect run skied in advance and they may even have visualized themselves on the podium with the gold medal - but they will have separated their actual performance from that end result. Setting a stretch goal and having a clear vision is a good thing. It is when we get attached to a result we have no control over that we add a layer of interference that gets in the way of our actually achieving that goal.
My recipe for success in any situation that you really care about the final outcome but ultimately have no control over it, are 2 key phrases:
HIGH INTENTION, LOW ATTACHMENT.
You can apply this High Intention/Low Attachment concept to any part of your life ;
when going out on a date with someone you really are interested in, or going for a job interview for a job that would be absolutely perfect, or when you are having a meeting with a potential big investor for your business. Go into that important situation with high "intention", that is, a clear and focused purpose and a low "attachment" to the outcome.
3 REASONS TO HAVE HIGH INTENTION/LOW ATTACHMENT
1/ Reduces mental interference by focusing your mind and energy solely on your purpose (your intention)
2/ Opens possibilities for outcomes you may not even have considered. By not prescribing the outcome you want, there could be an even more wonderful possibility that presents itself that is even more closely connected with your intention.
3/ Allows you to stay in the present moment which is where the magic lies. When we focus our energies on what might happen in the future we reduce the potential effectiveness of where we are now and we create interference that does not allow us to be in the moment. "The point of power is in the present moment." - Louise Hay
Experiment with this concept. I guarantee you will be amazed at the positive mental "shift" that having "high intention/low attachment" brings!
Jan Carley
www.creativecoachinggroup.com
