Brian Willis, Founder of Winning Mind Training, is a mentor of mine. Over the years, I have had the good fortune to attend several of Brian’s presentations and seminars. One such seminar was entitled, In Pursuit of Personal Excellence, and Brian’s key message was about the importance of changing our thoughts. For when we change what and how we think, and then tweak our behavior, the effects can be significant.
“Change your thoughts and you change your world.”
– Norman Vincent Peale
But first, we have to pull our head out of the sand.
What is Head-in-Sand Syndrome?
I think a good definition is found in this quote by Henry Miller:
Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful and evil can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength.
In other words, Head-in-Sand Syndrome is denial.
Five symptoms that indicate you may be suffering from Head-in-Sand Syndrome:
- You hear yourself continuously talking about doing things supposedly important to you but never get around to actually doing them.
- You hear yourself telling whoever will listen the many reasons why you aren’t doing what you really want to be doing with your life.
- You find yourself tackling the tasks that squeak the loudest but aren’t necessarily the most important to get done.
- You catch yourself blaming anyone and anything (your boss, spouse, mother, the government, society, circumstances, etc) to explain why what could have been/should have been?/is not.
- The five people in your life you spend the most time with tend to be negative i.e. energy vampires.
The greatest risk of Head-in-Sand Syndrome is living an unfilled life
Here’s a quick exercise: picture yourself at your own funeral…walk up to your open casket (or urn of ashes) and look in. Now that it’s all over, ask yourself: did you accomplish what you wanted to during your life? If you don’t like the answer, it may be time to change a few things.
20 Cures for Head-in-Sand Syndrome:
- Commit to being better today than you were yesterday.
- Ask yourself 35 to 40 times a day: What’s Important Now?(and be honest with the answer). This will help you continually prioritize tasks. Our days are filled with dozens of choices, so it’s easy to quickly get off track from doing what is reallythe most important.
- Shift victim-thinking to victor-thinking.
- Adopt a warrior spirit/winning mind attitude about your abilities.
- If you tell yourself you can achieve your goals—you will. If you tell yourself you can’t, you won’t.
- Take your head out of the sand—yes, it’s that easy!
- Focus on the positive and what is working in your life/community/organization.
- Praise the good; fix the bad.
- Celebrate your successes.
- Develop or contribute to a cause beyond yourself.
- Create healthy daily habits that get you moving in the direction you want to go…not just where the current of daily busyness takes you.
- Stop making excuses. They only serve to create or reinforce barriers—real or perceived.
- Just say no to procrastination. Putting off till tomorrow what needs to be done today is robbing you of the present and the future.
- Take time to imagine what you can do with your life or what your organization can achieve. Sit back and dream about what excellence looks and feels like to you. Ask yourself: what is the possibility?
- Be aware of your surroundings. Choose wisely who you spend the majority of your time with. Energy Vampires will rub their negativity off on you and sap your energy.
- Set goals and then break them down into manageable tasks with timelines.
- Embrace the suck! Horrible things happen to wonderful people…the key is to accept what is and then change what needs changing. Build a bridge to get yourself/your organization from where you are to where you want to be.
- Stop complaining about the same old things all the time. It may seem therapeutic to vent but there is a real danger in not dealing directly with the issue/s at hand.
- Let go of the past…learn from it and move on.
- Get over it—whatever “it” is.
Warning: If one’s head is in the sand, one’s tail is exposed
A final word of caution on the perils of Head-in-Sand Syndrome: if one’s noggin is stuck in the sand, this tends to leave one’s bottom rather exposed. As such, the greatest danger of ignoring the world around you, and the role you play in that world, is that it leaves you extremely vulnerable.
At the end of the day, a successful life depends on you and the quality of your thoughts, habits and actions—not your circumstances or excuses.
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Originally Published on pinkgazelle.com
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