{Series Part 6}–The Ant and the Elephant: Control the Response to Any Situation

Today is the last day of our series on “The Ant and the Elephant”. We’ve talked about CLARIFYING YOUR VISION, COMMITTING TO CULTIVATING POSITIVE DOMINANT THOUGHTS, CONSISTENTLY FOCUSING ON PERFORMANCE, and STRENGTHENING CONFIDENCE. Today we will learn how to CONTROL THE RESPONSE TO ANY SITUATION.

Whenever you are running for a worthwhile goal, you will come up against obstacles. Brio the owl taught his mentee Adir the ant to expect the unexpected and anticipate his response. He suggested that Adir come up with 10 worst-case scenarios and write each on a flashcard. Write down situations or circumstances that, if happened, would cause anxiety or make you feel like you couldn’t achieve your goal. Predict a variety of scenarios that could happen, and then practice how you would act in that situation.

In the book “Power of Habit”, the author Charles Duhigg shares a case study of the success of anticipating responses to situations. I can’t remember the exact details, but hopefully the idea will still come across. In the study, the researchers took two groups of people and gave them a goal to walk every day. The first group they gave no further instruction, but they had the second group brainstorm possible obstacles and possible solutions for each obstacle.
Obstacle: it is raining
Solutions: bring and umbrella, go at a different time, walk on the treadmill, find an indoor track or mall
Obstacle: no desire
Solutions: have an accountability partner that you have to report to, have a walking buddy that is depending on you to show up, know your why, reward yourself
I’m sure you guessed that the second group was more successful in reaching their goal.

As you set a goal ask yourself: What obstacles might I face on my journey? What am I going to do when obstacles arise? Practice daily how you will face the obstacles. And before you know it you will be living the dream you envisioned.

For the past 5 weeks we’ve learned how to align our ant with our elephant. The first step is to create a goal with emotion, and then surround yourself with positive programming. Next create triggers to remind you of your goal and break negative thought patterns. Last practice what you will do when obstacles arise. Until the ant can learn to lead and guide his subconscious, he will not be able to attain his goal. I’d love to hear in the comments what you’ve learned and how you’ve applied it in chasing your dream.

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