I meet a lot of business people when I’m out and about, networking and getting to know my existing connections better. Most are entrepreneurial, positive people, but I meet the occasional Mr or Ms Negative!
When someone starts telling me how difficult they’re finding a particular aspect of their business, I sometimes ask them what a successful outcome would be. The answer is often laced with – BUT [insert reason why not],
They are suffering from the blue elephant syndrome!
If you haven’t heard of this – try this:
Close your eyes and think of a blue elephant.
Yes, I know this animal doesn’t exist, but your imagination should make the transition easily.
Got it? OK. Clear your mind.
Now think of anything EXCEPT a blue elephant.
What happened?
I bet that you immediately thought of the blue elephant and then had to push that out of your mind and try and find something else to think about.
Most people end up thinking about another coloured animal – pink rhinos, red dogs, green armadillos, have all come up when I’ve tried this exercise on other people. If you managed to banish the blue elephant completely you may have come up with a rose or a chair or something unconnected, but it’s hard not to picture it when someone says ‘blue elephant’. It’s where your focus goes.
What’s this got to do with being positive or negative about your business?
If you’re thinking about how hard things are or all the things that can go wrong, you’re pretty much manifesting whatever you’re thinking about. You know the saying ‘Energy flows where attention goes’. In other words, if you’re thinking about something it’s more likely to happen.
Think of your mind like a juice machine. If you put apples in you don’t expect to get orange juice out. With your mind, if you put negative thoughts in, don’t expect to get positive results!
So what are you expecting to get? Does it need changing from ‘I can’t do this’ to ‘I can do this’?
