Guest Post: Find the Feeling Place of Success

Manifestation lessons show up in the most interesting places – this week it was on a sunny golf course.I’m on the wait list for a one-year trial membership at a golf club where my parents have been members for years (the lovely Royal Colwood course here in Victoria, British Columbia). I could tell a funny story about one of the sand traps on a Friday night in high school … but I’ll restrain myself .

While I make my way up the wait list, I’m taking group lessons with Mac and Carl, the fun teaching duo from Nucleus Golf. This week we were on the putting green – getting instruction on our short game. I’m the rookie in the group as all the others are seasoned golfers. So I’m in the weird position (but invaluable because it stretches me) of having to be a beginner at something again … those of you who have been trained in Interactive-Graphics by me can take heart that I’m having to ‘suck it up’ and go through the newness stage in something too!

“I’m Gonna Do It”:
One of the putting practices that they had us do made me very excited — in an ahha/eureka kind of way. The object of the exercise was to feel and slowly stretch our “I’m gonna do it” zone. To make positive associations (and therefore a positive neural pathway in our brain/psyche) about putting (for those of you who aren’t golfers … putting is hopefully skillfully hitting the golf ball a shorter distance on a green (a groomed piece of grass) to get a decent score in the game of golf … a practice that drives millions of people around the world a little batty).

What they had us do (and I’ll connect this in a sec to issues beyond golf) is to only putt from a distance that we knew we could make (for me this is about a foot from the hole!). That when we hit it, we had confidence that we would have that glorious sound of the ball going into the cup. That we focused on the feeling of success and accomplishment, not the distance.And, when we had that distance down pat, we were instructed to stretch (just slightly) a smidge further (like a ball length or two) and hit from that expanded distance. If we missed, we were instructed to return to our confidence zone and build up again. This practice is done as a warm up to a golf game … basically to implant the feeling of successful putting before we commence with a game.

Finding the Feeling Place:
What made me so excited was this exercise is very aligned with Law of Attraction principles (Carl did drop the phrase ‘Law of Attraction’ so I’m guessing he knows that). My favorite Law of Attraction teachers, Jerry and Esther Hicks and the Teachings of Abraham) call this “finding the feeling place”. The golf guys were getting us to ‘find the feeling place’ of putting success. To associate putting with the ball going in the hole easily … with a ‘but of course’ attitude. This seemingly simple golf lesson contains HUGE Law of Attraction wisdom applicable to everything you want to create.

In order to manifest something we first need to find the feeling place of achieving it – or, on the flip side … have no ‘resistance’ to having it. The Abraham-Hicks material also tells us that we can also manifest if our desire is really strong — as that desire will counter or trump the resistance we have. Might be a bit bumpy or prolonged process, but with strong desire we’ll get there too.

So, in this article I’m talking about golf. But the same premise goes for anything you to want to create. First, you need to develop the ‘feeling place’ of having it. One way to do that is to start with and affirm the success of what you can do and believe (what is already a reality for you) and then stretch yourself bit by bit until you expand to a greater range.

Appreciation of the Success We Do Have:
Another Law of Attraction principle that is at work here is the power of appreciation and positive framing. As I mentioned, my confidence zone currently with putting isn’t that long – it’s about 12-16 inches from the hole. However, instead of getting down on myself that it’s ‘only a foot from the hole’ … I reframe and appreciate that spot because it holds wonderful feelings of success, confidence and ‘I can do it’ for me. Instead of being down about it, I celebrate it. Like it. Appreciate it. This my friends is one of the prime KEYS to manifesting. Liking where you are and what you can do and gently reaching for more.

So many of my clients don’t appreciate what they already have and what they have already accomplished (I’m guilty of slipping into this too). We denigrate where we are instead of celebrating it. And negatively compare it to where we want to be. The trick is to appreciate where we are. That we are manifestors and creators already. And that we are on an incremental, step-by-step journey of extending our ‘I’m gonna get it’ reach.

When I started my career I obviously wasn’t where I am today. It has been a step-by-step journey. Just like my golf skills will be a development over time too (I’ve taken up both golf and painting recently as things I can do for the rest of my life – taking a long-term approach). Both will be a step-by-step, incremental journey. And that is totally normal, natural and ok. Gentle, steady, and soft change is good. It sneaks up on you (just as the greater distances sneak up on you in putting too, when you aren’t so focused on how far you are hitting by on the joy and contact of the hit).

Visualize It:

Mac also told a story of how he uses visualization to improve his mental/emotional game – which many athletes do nowadays (it’s not so woo woo as it used to be).

Going to sleep at night he would do the same putting exercise in his mind, stretching himself to go, in his mind, beyond his natural ‘I’m gonna get it’ line. The funny thing was that even though he was imagining he at first imagined that he missed! He was so programmed to think/feel that way. He gave his head a shake (if one can do that when they are visualizing) and focused in his mind so he made the shot from the longer distance. Making himself get used to that new identity. Acclimatizing to it. Making it ‘but of course I sink it from this distance, that is just me’.

Can you see how this applies to anything that you want? We all have natural comfort or familiarity zones, where beyond that zone our doubt and uncertainty kick in – because it’s not natural for ourselves yet. Frankly, that is what my SHIFT-IT coaching work is all about – is acclimatizing people to their new selves.

Our self-identity is comfortable only with certain things – the things we know we can do or have. In order to move beyond we need to stretch our comfort and familiarity zones. Sure … to begin with it, what we are stretching into feels weird and foreign, even strange. But the more we stretch into it our self-concept changes. We feel what it feels like to have more and for that to just be normal to us.

Integration Activity:
Soooooo, I invite you to start thinking about yourself and your life along these principles that I’ve outlined. Here are a few integration questions to connect the principles I’ve been writing about back to your own unique situation:

1. What can you appreciate about what you already have? What you have already accomplished? What can you appreciate that you have already manifested or created?

1. What do you next want to create? What area(s) do you want to expand?

1. Notice, what is your current comfort or confidence line in an area that you want to expand? Where do you start to get uncomfy? That’s the line you need to work with.

1. What would a next little increase in this area be (the next logical, incremental step)?

1. Work on visualizing having/being that next little increase.  Find the ‘but of course’ place. That place of confidence.  That it is good, normal, right and natural for you to be, do or have what you next desire.

I look forward to hearing of your experiences with this. My thanks to Carl and Mac for their fun and effective golf instruction … and for the creative inspiration for today’s article. Hopefully this has been helpful to you on your manifestation path, even if you aren’t a golfer!