What am I doing to create systems that can function without me?

With the right fans in place you'll get the energy and motivation you need to change your life. Now that you have a circle of support in place this shouldn't be a problem. Take Action! Get the Facts Finally, you may recall that one of Victoria's action steps was to contact two travel/food writers to conduct an informational interview. This is an extremely useful step when considering any kind of life change. Traditionally used for changing jobs or exploring new career options, this type of interview will help you to get the facts behind the fear, and find the path of least resistance so you can avoid the common mistakes others have made. By gathering information from those who have already done what you'd like to do, whether it's move to another part of the country, redecorate your home, or change your job, informational interviews will help you to move forward with ease. They were kept an average of 19 days, and during that time, they behaved completely normally and never again reported having any symptoms diagnostic of schizophrenia. Even so, their normal behavior was sometimes interpreted through the lens of their diagnosis. For example, writing in a journal was noted as evidence of obsessive writing behavior by one psychiatrist. None of the pseudopatients were ever judged as fakes by the psychiatrists, and on their release, the seven originally diagnosed as schizophrenic were released as schizophrenic in remission. No amount of positive, normal, sane behavior was enough to wipe away the original label they had received. This study caused an uproar, partly because of qualms about whether it was ethical but mainly because it illustrated that mental-health diagnostic labels become schemas that, once attached to a person, are very hard to disconfirm! As a topper, Rosenhan informed another hospital in the area that over the next three months, he would send in one or more pseudopatients and challenged the staff to detect these imposters. Now armed with such an expectation, members of the staff suspected 41 of the 193 new patients who were admitted during that period of being Rosenhan's pseudopatients. Once again, expectations led mental health professionals astray; Most of the time, people's tendencies to use schemas to categorize and understand other people are helpful, but in cases such as these, labels can become perceptual prisons. Undertaking the 30-Day Challenge: To strengthen your commitment, dedicate at least thirty days to your morning ritual. If you want to learn more about how to create an exciting morning ritual, check out my article, Wake Up Call: How to Take Control of Your Morning and Transform Your Life.

Exercise: create a morning ritual Using your action guide, create your own customized morning ritual and commit to a 30-Day Challenge (for more on this refer to the upcoming section, Commit to 30-Day Challenges). Live with intent Why acting with intent is so important Most people react to life instead of taking control of their destiny. It starts in the morning when they hit the snooze button. Then, it continues throughout the day. These individuals allow other people to interrupt them because they have no specific intent. When you're well prepared and respectful of people's time, you'll find that most people will agree to speak with you. To be prepared I recommend that you have questions in writing before you interview someone. Here are some questions to choose from: If I were to think of this change as a three-stage process, what would the three stages be? What kinds of skills will I need to make this change? Where should I invest my time and money first? Where should I not invest my time and money? If you had it all to do over again, what would you do differently? What mistakes might I avoid making? What have been your major ups and downs? Beyond Schemas: Metaphor's Influence on Social Thought So far we've discussed how people use schemas to make meaningful sense of the world.

This is an intuitive perspective, as we would expect people to think about something using their knowledge about that type of thing. Still, there are likely to be other cognitive tools besides schemas that guide our thinking. Consider this: If people rely solely on schemas, then why do they commonly talk about social concepts in terms of things that, on the surface at least, are totally unrelated? For example, why do people say I can't get out of this commitment when they know full well that a commitment is not a physical container that one can enter and exit? Why do we say The president's speech threw the crowd into a frenzy when the president didn't pick up any crowd members? Or why do we say Those days are behind me when there are no days piled up like bricks behind you? These expressions--and thousands more--seem perfectly natural and normal, at least to native English speakers, and yet each is nonsensical when taken literally. These are metaphors, and your grade school teacher was wrong to say that metaphor is a fancy figure of speech used only by poets. They fail to make progress on important tasks or projects because they don't set clear goals for the year, the month, the week or the day. They can't say no to other people because their own values and priorities are unclear and are not taken seriously enough. In short, they keep wandering through their day. And while they may help other people achieve their goals, they neglect their own goals and dreams. As a result, these individuals perform far below their true capabilities. In short, these people live without intent. Intent is awareness in action. It is deciding to channel the infinite possibilities life offers in the direction that excites you the most. The less intent you have, the less power you have to change your life. Conversely, the more intent you have, the more powerful you will become. How might I prepare for them? Is there anyone else you recommend I speak with before embarking on this journey?

When my client Sam met with someone to discuss moving cross-country he was told to be sure and visit the place at least three times before making a commitment. This information proved to be invaluable. On the first two visits he checked out the real estate market, the school system, and other practicalities, and everything fit his plan. On the third visit, however, he realized that the community he was considering had very few newcomers and therefore it would be difficult to make inroads into an established social scene. When my client Martha interviewed an interior decorator to discuss her plans to redo her kitchen she discovered that she could save money in the long run by hiring a professional to make a preliminary plan. An informational interview I recently conducted saved me several thousand dollars when I discovered that an action I was about to take to support my business was unnecessary. Once you've completed your informational interviews you now have a wealth of information to consider. Using your journal, sit down and ask yourself a few questions. Even we non-poets utter about six metaphors per minute of talking. A cognitive tool that allows people to understand an abstract concept in terms of a dissimilar, concrete concept. Given that metaphors pervade the way we talk about social things, the big question becomes, Does that tell us anything about the way people ordinarily think? According to conceptual metaphor theory, it does. Metaphor is a cognitive tool that people can use to understand and experience abstract social ideas in terms of other types of ideas that are more concrete and better understood (Kovecses, 2010; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). For example, when Lisa says, Christmas is fast approaching, she may be using her knowledge about moving objects to conceptualize time. Because Lisa may find it difficult to get a clear image of time in her mind (not surprising, since physicists aren't sure what time is! She has a concrete schema for physical objects moving around, and this schema tells her that objects tend to be more relevant as they draw closer. By using her objects schema to think about time, Lisa can make sense of what an approaching event means for her (time to buy gifts! Therefore, to generate motivation, you must leverage the power of intent. You must decide how you want to feel in the morning, what you want to accomplish during the day, what states you want to be in when you're with your family (joy, gratitude, playfulness, et cetera) and so on.

The more specific your intent, the better your chances of success. Exercise: set daily intents To set intent, you must first identify the key segments of your day. Remember, whether or not you're aware of it, your day consists of many different segments. For most people, these segments include: Leaving home to go to work, Arriving at work, Taking a lunch break, Questions like: How do I feel about the information I received? Do I still want to move forward or do I have any reservations? How do I need to prepare emotionally? Physically? Based on what I've learned so far, is there a different area or direction I might want to consider? Do I need to speak with someone else? If so, whom? As you conduct your informational interviews, be sure to have a separate sheet of paper dedicated to further actions you may need to take. You'll be adding these steps to your action plan. How does this perspective enhance what we know about social cognition? It suggests that whereas schemas organize knowledge about a given idea, metaphors connect an idea to knowledge of a different type of thing.