A Change Is Gonna Come

We've got a dog named Merlin. We got him from an
animal shelter a couple of years ago, and he's a
middle-aged Lhasa Apso. Looks like a small
sheepdog. Very smart. They were originally bred
by monks and noblemen in Tibet and for 2000
years were watchdogs for the monasteries.

When we first got him Merlin liked to run out any
open door. One day we couldn't find him in the
house, but we did find the door to the garage
cracked open. Somebody hadn't shut it all the way
and wily Merlin had taken advantage.

I went looking in the neighborhood and as I
rounded one block I heard dogs fighting and
started running. Poor Merlin was cornered by
a huge mastif in a neighbor's yard, and a small
frail woman was holding on to the big dog's leash
like her life depended on it. And it looked to me
like it did.

We got the dogs untangled, and Merlin's little
heart was beating 90 miles an hour. I took him
home, and you know what? Since that day he's
been a different dog. No longer will he bolt out
of any open door.

There are two ways change happens. One you're
familiar with. It involves consistency and
repetition, and since personal change involves
discomfort much of the time, it's hard to change
that way. That's why habits are hard to break
and hard to establish.

But Merlin didn't have to use a bit of
willpower to change his behavior, did he?. Fear
took care of that in an instant.

I smoked cigarettes when I was in high school
and college. I'm not proud of it, but in Kentucky
those days almost everybody did. It wasn't even
that expensive. I know I smoked two packs a
day.

I had a girlfriend in college later though who I
really loved, and we were always together.
One day she looked at me with those tender,
gentle eyes and said, "If you care for me like
I know you do, why would you want to shorten
our life together?" Not spoken judgementally.
That wasn't her way, but believe me, I was
pierced to the core.

Do you know what happened next?

I quit cold turkey right then and there, and
had no cravings, no withdrawal, no temptation
to smoke at all. I haven't smoked once since,
and that's been 36 years.

Again too, notice. Not an ounce of willpower
involved. Instant change.

The key in both cases to effortless change was
the very same thing - a HIGHLY emotional
event.

Fear, maybe even terror, in Merlin's case, and
love in mine.

If you are trying to be a better shooter, better
coach, or better anything, you probably have
changes you want to make. But maybe you
don't happen to have a high-intensity emotional
event handy.

Not to fear. You do have your imagination, and
you can create motivating events. If you've tried
using your imagination to effect change before,
and gotten lackluster results it's probably because
you didn't understand the the emotional factor.

Remember the stronger emotion you let yourself
feel in your visualizations the more powerful result
you can achieve.

Now, if you'll excuse me I need to go play with
Merlin.

Shoot for The Stars,

Dean - The Dean of Shooting Hoops

P.S. The ultimate guide to generating high-voltage,
emotionally-charged, life-changing images is the
"Zero Resistance Living" course put out by the
Psycho-Cybernetics Foundation.

You can do it the hard way, or the easy way.
Forget about willpower and jump on the gravy
train today at:

http://www.deandelker.com/zero_resistance.html

It's Your Life - Make Every Shot Count.