Bring Your Success Back to this Side of Your Cognitive Horizon

When you come to BodyChance you will notice an odd thing – after every lesson, the students clap.

Yes, everyone gets applause!

Consider this: how would you feel in a game of soccer when every time your team scored, a bunch of little people ran out and squeezed the sides of the net closer - so it was harder for a ball to get in! 

Instead of applause and celebration at your team scoring a goal, you would feel shock and anxiety about how to get future goals…

It’s called “moving the goal posts”!

Unhappy people do this to themselves all the time.

And it can happen in any learning situation.

It used to depress me as a teacher until I realized what was going on. Then I laughed and laughed. The first time I woke up to this happened along these lines…

***

Bee complained about severe neck and arm pain while working at her desk.

Together we analyzed her needs and came up with a new movement plan. Using my hands, I guided her movement, and she implemented what we had agreed. I expected confirmation from her sensory mechanism…

Me: “How was it this time?”

Bee: “My legs feel so much tighter now!”

And this is when I would get a little depressed. 

I’d say to my Self: ‘What happened Jerry? I thought we did a good job just then.’ 

Then - out of a misguided wish to serve my student - I asked more questions about her legs and tried to figure out why her senses were giving her that feedback. (All the while feeling that I had somehow missed something significant.)

Then this particular day, after carrying on this way as usual, suddenly a new idea popped into my head. So I experimented. 

Instead of continuing with our leg conversation - I took a different track:

“So Bee – what about your neck and arm pain? Has that changed?”

“Oh, that!” 

she uttered in complete surprise, then turned to look at me as though I was a complete idiot:

“That was gone ages ago!”

All my worry was for nothing. Bee was doing what a lot of people do – pushing success over their cognitive horizon to focus a different problem, a new challenge.

When you make a breakthrough – and immediately “move the goal posts” to seek out the next breakthrough – instead of joy, you continue in anxiety.

While this is admirable, it robs the brain of a chemical hit. 

Dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins all have a role in adjusting our behaviour towards that which benefits us, and those chemicals are better than anything you can get on the open market. And all free.

Next time, give your Self the chemical bath you deserve - celebrate your learning success.

Celebration is more than just feeling good; celebration is chemical.

What are you goals right now?

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