Setting Your Gaze
I was working out at the gym and a member working out on the platform across from me was doing deadlifts. If you don’t know what those are it’s when you are bent forward holding a weighted barbell and you lift it off the floor until you are standing straight up. As you can imagine, it’s very important that you have good form because the nature of this exercise leaves you vulnerable to injury. This guy was new to deadlifts and was making a common mistake of looking straight down at his toes, which caused him to hunch his shoulders and round his thoracic spine as he was lifting heavy weight off the floor. I offered a quick correction and that was to set his gaze more forward, to where the floor met the wall instead of at his toes. Just by changing where he focused his eyes it caused his back to flatten, his chest to face forward, his traps to pull away from his ears, and to have an overall stronger and safer body position. Which means more benefit gained from the exercise and no injuries.
This had me thinking about where people choose to set their gaze and the results that choice brings to their lives. If you set your gaze or thoughts in a certain direction, your results will end up in that direction. For example, if you’re thinking life is a constant uphill battle then you’re likely to feel exhausted all the time. So you take little or no action and you end up with a negative life result or no result (i.e. still battling). If you adjusted your thoughts about life from “a constant uphill battle” to instead being “a challenge”, even that slight shift in gaze or thought creates a different feeling because challenges are different than battles. Challenges are more of a test and you almost always walk away with a benefit or lesson. Challenges can also be fun. Battles require a loser and all parties walk away wounded.
If you don’t set your gaze to any direction at all, you’ll end up confused and lost or just wandering around aimlessly. You wait for life to happen and then you react. Instead of letting life happen TO you wouldn’t you rather let life happen FOR you? Set your gaze and the rest will follow.
Need some help setting your gaze toward the new year and beyond? Life Coaching for Self-Employed Clinicians is open. To discuss how I can help you schedule your 20-min Introductory Chat.