For many of us, the “wheel of fear” (see: http://www.creativeleadercoach.com/2008/05/30/getting-off-your-wheel-fear/ ) is like a hamster wheel. The path is well defined; we put one foot in front of the other and … find ourselves somehow back where we started. So, how do we get off?
As Anthony Robbins observes, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” And we behave in habitual ways because it makes sense and feels natural to us. Therefore, getting off the wheel involves doing something counter-intuitive and learning to see things differently.
The process is more than intellectual; it’s not about learning a new model. It literally involves a shift in perspective and experience, that involves our intellectual, bodily, emotional and spiritual selves.
This process can be mind-bending, but the payoff is big — you experience a new sense of freedom and possibility: playing with perspective brings us to a highly creative space.
To jump off the “wheel of fear” and onto our “wheel of freedom” (Britten 2001), we can begin either with shifting our perspective or shifting our behavior. We can see why this is so, by considering the “wheel of being” below.
Where you might begin depends on your orientation. If you prefer to understand something before experimenting with it, you would likely choose to begin with Perspective. If you are more empirical, you might experiment with a new behavior, and see where that leads…
We’ll continue in my next post!
Britten, Rhonda. (2001). Fearless Living. NY: Penguin.
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