Do we focus too much on the very thing we don't want?

Don't think about pink elephants!

Have you heard the expression “Don’t think about pink elephants!”

What do we find ourselves doing?

Thinking about pink elephants of course.

In order to make sense of the instruction, we first have to get a picture in our head of a pink elephant. So we have now done exactly what we have been told not to do even though it wasn’t our intention. That’s how negative goals work too. As we focus on what we don’t want, inadvertently we are actually getting it.

 “In order to say no to something, your brain must first make an image of the thing you don’t want and then negate it. The problem is that at this point you’re already heading in the wrong direction.” Richard Bandler

“If you don’t know where you’re going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” Lawrence J Peter

“Believe you can and you’re half way there.” Theodore Roosevelt

“If you can dream it you can do it.” Walt Disney

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” Mark Twain

Thinking about what you don’t want is problem thinking wher…