Thought into Action – 8 steps to success (by Chuck DesJardins)

Have you ever had a great thought or idea that could not make it any further than a thought and you were never able to get it into your body? I am not talking about a goal – by now most of us are aware, at least in print how to set goals and keep them. But I have found that few still are they who can take a great idea or belief that they have and move that into their bodies so they live it out.

You may have a belief that says I really need to save money or I will not have a good retirement. I really need to call my mom or dad more. I really think as a good dad I should spend more time with my kids. These are ideas or thoughts or beliefs that we have. And many times, even though we know them and feel them, we just don’t get those beliefs into our legs or into our hands so we pick up that phone, or spend time with those kids etc.

So how do we do that? There has to be a way to move those beliefs that seem so important into our bodies so we embody our beliefs, and then that will make your life better, will it not? So, let’s see what we need to do to take these great ideas and start fixing them into our bodies and thus be on the outside that we are on the inside.

The first thing you want to do before you move this thought or belief into your body, is make sure you do an ecology check. Is it a real good belief? Could it backfire if you did it? Could it have negative consequences on you if you were to really take that belief and live it? So, do that ecology check, then get ready to move that belief into your very neurology and watch the transformation.

1. Start of by identifying the principle or belief that you want to incorporate into your life. You will want to write it down, and say it out loud. You start by writing and saying, “I understand that“ …… – let me you an example throughout so you better understand. Lets say the belief or principle is that you want to spend more time with you family. You would write down and state out loud. – “I know that I should spend more time with my family, or I understand that I should spend more time with my family.“

2. Once you say that you understand or conceptualize that you should spend more time with your family, the next thing to do is state that as a belief. You say, “I believe I should spend more time with my family. “ Now what we have done is move a conception or idea and made it a belief. You need to really feel this belief. Remember or imagine a time you really believed in something and get into that state and apply that state to this belief. When you do that you have taken an idea or knowledge (semantic thought) and slowly, in your neurology and are building a network that is moving a thought from the semantic part of your brain to the part that processes episodes.

3. Once you really feel this belief, once it is clear and powerful and you know that it is a real belief and not just a concept or idea, then you need to take this belief and make it a decision in your life. Now that you have this strong belief you now say.. “I will spend more time with my family“, or “from here forward I will spend more time with my family“, or “I am going to spend more time with my family. “ As you do this you are starting to connect areas of your brain that are abstract and faithful, into the muscle portion of your brain – you are now, one step at a time, affecting different parts of your brain and building up a system for change.

4. Now that you have stated it as a belief and then as a decision to act, now you want to move it to the emotional system of the brain and say, “I feel great that I am going to spend more time with my family, or “I am experiencing great joy that I am going to spend time with my family. “ Again you need to do all this with emotion and meaning – each of these steps are not just words, they are to be states.

5. Now that you FEEL this decision, you state the next action you will take. At this point you have taken this thought from the frontal cortex, to a belief touching on various other parts of the brain, then the decision which now builds a stronger neural network into the muscle portion of the brain, and then the great feeling in the body and emotions integrates the limbic system with the motor system – you have engaged the various parts of the brain and body and emotions that are an important part of your experiencing this movement of an idea or concept into your actions. So here you would say, “tomorrow I will spend 30 minutes with my children playing ball“, or “today I will spend 15 minutes with each of my kids.“

6. The next step is to take all this and create a real state that you can step into – you have all these resources now at your command and a new neural network that you now are setting up as a state. This is where you see what you will be doing, what step you will be taking and give a big YES to it. Feel the state, see the action. What will you see, what will you hear, what will you feel, when you spend this 15 minutes with your family, what joy, what excitement that will come from that – get into state and ground the state.

7. Now if you really want to ground this even better for the rest of your life (that is why I asked you to check that it is ecological) then take this state that you created and associate it with your identity – make it part of who you are. Again, only do this if you want it to be part of your identity, this is a big step. But if you do, then spending time with your family is no longer what you want to do, it is who you are – see it as part of who you are, experience how that it will be a part of YOU, how that will feel as part of YOU.

8. DO an ecology check – Imagine this being a part of you – how will your life be? What will you be doing? How will this affect other areas of your life –

Well that is one way to move a great idea into your muscle – so if you have had an idea or concept of what you wanted to do or be but could never seem to get it from this great idea to an action, run this pattern, and do so with the understanding that you are re-wiring your brain and moving from one system of the brain to the next. And the areas that are affected by this pattern are not first this system, then that one, then that one, but they blend into one system, so now you have a system of systems and so you have eight times the neurons working toward your success – how can you not succeed??
 
Dr Chuck DesJardins