Demons or Angels?

This evening I spoke with a friend and colleague who is struggling with an up and down, feast and famine cycle of selling behavior. Without getting into any confidential details I can reveal that there were times in this person's past when he was very motivated and performed well but the source of the motivation seemed to come from fear. There were situations in his life that were so awful that he was always on the edge with heightened awareness, always watchful and always proactive to keep things in control.

Those awful situations have been mostly removed but now it seems that whenever he starts to exhibit the champion behavior that he had before there ensues a self-sabotaging pattern. There seems to be a mental association with the past; when he has that same clarity of perception, that winning behavior, the specter of that horrifying past comes rushing back.

This isn't necessary. All we have to do is to replace old pattern with new ones. An excellent strategy for doing this is the Swish Pattern, something I learned in NLP classes. You'll find a good description of the system in Tony Robbins' book Unlimited Power (see the bookstore). I believe it's on page 113.

The important point is that we can be motivated by fear or love. Both will get us into action. But love will grow us and we can move toward it. Fear only diminishes us and we tend to move away from it - it rules us.