As some of you know I've been out of swimming training for a few months firstly with a disc problem in my back and then with a mystery virus that attacked my liver and kept me feeling sick for some time. Well, after numerous trips to the physio and endless blood tests, I seem to have come out the other side and have been back training for about 3 weeks.
Both of the problems surfaced at the end of a really intensive period of work when I spoke at 22 separate events in a month! During those four weeks I was desperate not to lose my fitness and being away so much meant that anytime I was able to get a session in at my home pool I jumped at the chance. On more that one occasion I can remember thinking how tired I was because of all the work and all the associated travel but I was so focused on holding my fitness that I ignored the signs and went training anyway.
This is a great example of what not to do! The warning signs were there but I ignored them, thinking that I knew best and wham - my subconscious rebelled, took a disliking to the fact that I was ignoring it and ensured that I got sick causing me to have a couple of months of complete rest.
Some of you will know that the subconscious is 30,000 times more powerful than the conscious mind. It's the thing that keeps you breathing at night, the thing that brings out your hand to protect you when you fall, the thing that drives your car for you in the mornings when you're still asleep, the thing that wakes you up when you haven't got an alarm clock! It talks to you about situations that occur in your life, it's the little voice in your head that suggests courses of action. I'm sure you've been in a similar situation to the following:
You are walking down the road one day and see someone approaching you that you know and suddenly you remember that you want to ask them a question. You start to form that question in your mind as you greet your friend and then you begin to ask them but half way through the question the following thought pops into your head: "If I ask that question right now I'll get a negative response." As soon as you realize this you start to have a conversation with your subconscious mind:
Conscious : "How do you know I'll get a negative response?"
Subconscious : "I've been watching their body language and comparing it to all my past experiences with this person and I can tell that right now they are not in a good state of mind to receive my question."
Conscious : "Well that's all very well but I've already started asking the question." Subconscious : "That's OK because I've come up with an alternative question that I could ask that fits in with the words I've already used. I'll try this ..."
And in the time it takes to blink an eye you've changed tack and the new question that your subconscious has suggested comes straight out of your mouth. Sometimes we don't listen to that voice, we ask the question and we stick our foot in our mouth!
My subconscious warned me I was overdoing things a little but I ignored it and carried on training. I can remember thinking that I really should take a break but I overruled those thoughts and decided that more training was the best route. If the subconscious mind is 30,000 times more powerful than the conscious mind then it must be a genius and we really ought to listen to it when it speaks to us.
This is something we should become more aware of in our business life whatever goals we are aspiring to. If you get the feeling that you should call a particular client, if you feel you should check a certain bit of paperwork, if your mind lets you know that you shouldn't trust a certain person, all of these may be your subconscious talking to you. On many occasions, for no particular reason I've thought to myself that a specific meeting may be cancelled. Sometimes I've listened to the voice and called the client asking if they need to rearrange and found I was right. On other occasions I've ignored the voice, gone to the venue and found that the client has completely forgotten about the meeting.
I expect we'll never fully understand how it works but what we do know is that part of the subconscious mind's function is to help us achieve our goals and many of it's messages are designed to do just that. What we have to do is learn to become more tuned into these messages and learn to trust them.
Listen to that little voice!