Don’t Fade to Grey

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Lindsey Agness talks about the limitations of ‘away from’ motivation. 

What keeps people in the Grey Zone?  Mostly of course it’s fear of the unknown.  We are scared of moving into the unknown, of doing something different.  Fear comes from limiting beliefs that we have about ourselves and our abilities.  In fact, the consequences of us making a change are often built up in our minds to mean something far worse than the actual reality of the situation.  Here’s a great acronym for fear that I use on my trainings:

F alse

E vidence

A ppearing

R eal

Our minds are brilliant at creating the worse case scenario in our heads. And guess what, our beliefs are generalisations passed onto us by those who influenced us in our early years.  They are NOT REAL.  The reality is very different if we are prepared to find out and start the journey! 

 It takes one of two things to move people out of The Grey Zone.  Either you have a goal that is so compelling you will take the risk of going for it.  That was the case with my goal of setting up ‘The Change Corporation’. Or in contrast, the pain becomes so big that you are finally tipped over the edge of change. 

 Which one influences us often depends upon the way we are motivated.  In NLP we talk about people being ‘towards’ or ‘away from’ motivated. Are you a ‘stick’ or a ‘carrot’ person?  When I used to work as a business consultant there were so many rules with varying degrees of punishment.  It was an ‘away from’ culture in terms of the way the company attempted to motivate its staff into towing the line. For example, we had to enter information onto many different databases that nobody ever looked at.  Did that motivate me to get the result?  No, not at all!

One of the limitations of ‘away from’ motivation is that it often dwindles once short-term improvements are gained.  From example, a lot of peoples’ New Year’s Resolutions are about getting out of the Grey Zone. They start off well but as they begin to notice improvements in their life they become comfortable again.  If you’re still reluctant to move out of the Grey Zone, imagine turning the clock forward 10 years and you still haven’t got what you really want.How frustrating would that be?  Take the first step now and start to and enjoy the ride.

Are you stuck in an ‘away from’ culture? Any comments welcome.

Lindsey Agness is a  wowdewow motivational expert.

Related posts:

1. Moving out of the Grey Zone into the Brilliant Zone
2. Lindsey Agness on questions to answer

Tags: away, fear, grey zone, NLP, towards