Don't Hit It into the Lake

When we say to someone, “Don’t think of a monkey,” the image that comes to mind is a monkey. That’s because the word “monkey” refers to something we can perceive, but the word “don’t” is purely conceptual. On the golf course, when we say to ourselves, “Don’t hit it into the lake,” the image that appears in our mind is our golf ball flying toward and splashing into the lake. Golfers tend to have a negative attitude about themselves after hitting the ball in the place they hoped to avoid. They feel incompetent. I turn the tables on them by telling them how incredibly skilled they must be to be able to mis-hit a shot so precisely that it goes exactly where they pictured it.

©2002 Dr. Joseph Parent (P)2016 Audible, Inc.