Naked Truth v Wishful Thinking

Do you ever find yourself letting wishful thinking distort your perceptions?

Some people will tell you that you should focus on how you want things to be and act as if you are already there. Indeed that is the essence of many goal setting processes. There’s certainly power in that kind of thinking, but there’s more to it than that…

The problem is, as with any journey, you need to know where you are in relation to the destination to accurately plot your course and navigate your way.

Here’s an example that pushes this to the extreme: Imagine you live in Birmingham and planning a move to Bath. You decide you want to travel to Bristol. You wouldn’t dream about basing your travel plans on the wishful thinking that you lived in Bath. If you did then you’d head off in a westerly direction (from Birmingham) and before long be up to your knees in mud on the banks of the Severn with a swim ahead to the other side. As blatantly ridiculous as it is, that’s entirely analogous to what many of us do when we set out to achieve something.

We are all guilty of living in a fantasy in which things are different to how they really are. We constantly distort our perceptions about ourselves, the world around us and our relationship to the world around us. The result can be confusing and difficult to navigate. How sure are you of where you want to get to, where are you really now, what are you really capable of and what are the specific actions needed to get you from A to B?

Only by seeing through these distortions can you accurately plot your course, prepare appropriately and take effective action. And that means seeing the truth for what it is – something many people fail to do at the critical moments.

To learn more about gaining clarity follow this link.

By Paul Burden – Performance Coach & Director at PerformWell