Barry was on the phone in his office, speaking with confidence, energy and passion.

In his office were a number of removal men working quickly moving furniture out the door to the van parked outside. Before long the office was bare except for some old files, a cracked picture frame and a parched plant.

Just then a tall man in a dark suit entered the building with a swagger. He found Barry still on the phone, standing in a corner of the empty office. His voice echoed around the empty room as he finished his conversation and hung up and placed the phone back on the floor.

Barry reached into his pocket to find his keyring, he selected the car key and reluctantly handed it over. The man in the suit grabed it before walking outside and driving off at high speed in the car.

John walked in to see Barry just as all of this was happening. He was surprised at how relaxed and confident Barry was given the circumstances. You see, Barry had just lost his business and the removal men had arrived to repossess his furniture while the car leasing company had taken back the Rolls Royce because the payments had fallen into arrears.

John was here for the same reason - to collect an unpaid debt. Although it was clear now that there was little chance of getting any money. So John and Barry did a deal. If Barry would teach him how he could be so cool in the face of pressure than the debt would be regarded as paid.

This is what Barry said to him:

**The big secret in life is to train your mind to think only about what you want to happen and to keep your thoughts off of what you do not want. Despite the fact that I have just lost my business, my car, and my office I just got off the phone, before it gets disconnected, after negotiating what could be one of my biggest deals ever.

Always keep your mind picturing what you really want and THINK ABOUT WHERE YOU WANT TO BE and not where you are. Stress is what happens when you put your attention on the wrong things.**

And now over to you. Most people live life in a trance without noticing the thoughts that are flying around inside their heads all day long. Spend more time each day spotting what you think about, you will likely find that you often run through all the things that could go wrong as well as seeing situations working out as being only o.k.

Next, review a recent event where the pressure was on and you froze. How did you manage to put yourself in such an unresourceful state. What thoughts were going through your mind.

More than likely you created big pictures in your mind of things going wrong.

Get into the habit of expecting things to work out and you will find yourself picturing life running more smoothly. You will then feel more confident, people will respond to you differently and you will get better results. Before long you will see that it is a self fulfilling prophecy.

Peter Murphy
Peter1510@hotmail.com
Publisher of the Abolish Shyness newsletter