How to Come Out of a Spin
Traffic has slowed to a crawl on the freeway. You can see a tangle of cars ahead on the right.
Eventually you pass the wreckage.
Do you look?
For many, it’s hard not to.
But how about in the other parts of life, when it seems we can’t turn our attention away from the very thing we don’t want?
Like when:
- there aren’t as many clients as you think you need
- or when your sweetie doesn’t say the lovely things you want to hear
- or when the co-workers make your job harder than it already is.
As deliberate creators we know the power of our focus, and why it’s so important to look at what we want.
Tony Robbins shares the secret to life (as taught to him by one of the world’s leading race car drivers):
It doesn’t matter how good you are, you’re going to end up in a spin one day.
You’ve got to know how to come out of a spin.
All you’ve got to remember is this: focus on where you want to go, not what you’re afraid of. You go where you’re focusing.
Why do we focus on what we don’t want, whether it’s the wall, the lack of money, the unhealthy body, or the frustrating people?
At race car school Tony said he was locked into the upcoming brick wall because, “I want to see the death happen.” lol
It seems screwed up, I know, but he’s not alone. It’s really easy to end up staring straight at our “impending doom.”
But it’s a habit we can change.
Not necessarily overnight. Tony says he had the same reaction the second time his instructor initiated the spin.
But with enough practice, eventually we can get it down. So when we start to spin out we can do just what Tony learned to do:
I don’t look. I keep focusing on where I want to go. And after a while, I get confident.
Creators, that’s for us, too.
If you’re looking at an upcoming brick wall in life, you can change focus.
And that changes everything.
The more you practice it, the easier it gets.
We won’t always have a world class race car instructor by our side turning our head in the direction we want to go, but today you have me reminding you to train your attention toward the good stuff. You can find a more positive perspective on whatever’s up.
You know how to come out of a spin: just look where you want to go. And practice, practice, practice. 🙂
PS – the truth is, spins can sometimes be fun, too! Play the video on the page below and you’ll see what I mean:
http://www.autoweek.com/article/20121102/f1/121109959
This is fabulous, Jeannette. The metaphor of the ‘spin’ is so helpful. It give just the perspective to snap out of any fixation on ‘reality’! And, how cool is the changing perspective of the camera in the video?
I love the line:
All you’ve got to remember is this: focus on where you want to go, not what you’re afraid of. You go where you’re focusing.
Thank you so much! Perfect post for all of us in this intense ‘season of the eclipse’!
Wow, I turned into an alien blue xmas tree . . . Now that’s a new perspective!
When spinning dancers, and skaters focus on a set point. When peeps spin, we eye the original object. In martial arts we observe our opponent even when spinning.
Here in Michigan we turn INTO the spin when sliding on ice. Some of us practice donuts for fun!Hoping that’s done until next winter! LOL!
The principal of homeopathy: like cures like. Spin cures spin.
Namaste!!
Xx
Glad you liked it, Kim! Thanks for the link. 🙂
Focus is everything, isn’t it, Kat? Thanks for all the examples of it!
yay! I just spent the last hour in a procedures meeting. I went in with a ‘tude, but kept making myself redirect. Once I dropped out of whiner mode and into a more positive perspective (like, the procedure may actually work and improve the way the job is done…duh!) the meeting became successful 🙂
Look where you want to go is one of the first things you learn when riding a motorbike. Going around a bend ? Look around the bend, not the bend. Oh the times I have focussed on something in the road and thought I had better miss that, but because I have kept my eyes on it, have it hit it when it was easily avoidable! I live by this principle when riding my motorbike – it will spare me stupid mistakes. Yet bring it in to other areas of my life and I don’t learn my lesson.
Here’s looking around the bend to a long term relationship with the man most suited to me.
Yay for putting into practice, Robin! You ROCK!!
And MissyB, you’ve got such a huge advantage in being successful with this in that you’re well-practiced with it on the motorbike. I will SECOND that toast to looking around that bend!
woot! 🙂
Love it, Jeannette! Awesome post. I am a big Tony fan and have been for a very long time. One of the things he really seems to have down is Focus. I just finished reading your GV Update and I wanted to comment on the ‘How’. Especially when we feel like we are ‘spinning out’ or about to do so, Focus can become a really difficult task, our minds are racing, our emotions are all over the place, and well, for all intents and purposes we can feel lost, confused and be full of anxiety and stress. Trying to find the ‘how’ from that state is near impossible. I really find that coming to a significant pause, or even a complete stop is often necessary so we can gather ourselves and all of our faculties, get grounded and get real about remembering who we really are.
Source of course! 🙂
Good point, Matt. Using stillness as a vibrational “regroup” is a great approach!
Thanks for posting on this one. 🙂
This is one of my favorite posts. I must say it helps to know that even Tony Robbins had trouble with this when he got into a race car. You’re right Jeannette, it can be fun to come out of a spin. There is a juiciness in changing your focus and I love having this race car visual as a reminder.