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The unseen power of NOT

The unseen power of NOT

organisational coaching melbourne

The unseen power of NOT

Tell a 2-year-old “Don’t look at the sun” and the FIRST thing they do is turn their head to…you guessed it, stare at the sun! Luckily, as we grow up, we evolve.  So as adults, at worst, we’ll only peek!  Because our conscious brain learns to quickly processes the concept of NOT doing something.

It takes effort, though.  The conscious brain is quite advanced in its ability to process information.  It uses comparison to understand the “not” in “don’t”.  So when we hear, “Don’t go right” our conscious brain imagines going right and then understands it needs to NOT do that so we then choose to go left, straight ahead or backwards… just not right.

download (12)But what’s less obvious is the turmoil caused in our unconscious brain, where 97% of our real power sits.  This brain is nowhere near as skilled as the conscious brain.  in fact it can’t deal with the word “not” – it ignores it!  So it hears only the primary focus of the sentence, ie. “go right”.  And that’s why if you’re told “not to go right” you’ll sometimes find your body unconsciously heading right as you consciouslythink you should be going left!

And this is why it’s so very important to be careful about how we speak to ourselves.   Keep the focus on what we DO want so both your conscious and your unconscious mind can effortlessly work together allowing you to reap the rewards of their combined power.