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 AROUND
THE time I was learning to use slotralogy in promoting my book, my teenage
son was looking for a job. I was telling him about slotralogy,
and he used it. And instead of just getting the first job he
could find, I suggested he first think about what his ideal job
would be, and aim for that, and then use slotras to give himself
confidence in the interviews.
A short while later, he told me he’d
used slotralogy and landed the perfect job — at Victoria’s
Secret! He was the only male who worked there (he worked in the
stock room), and I don’t think he’s ever enjoyed a
job more.
You can use slotras to give you confidence
or any emotion you think would be helpful. You can also use straightforward
instructions as slotras. Michael Johnson, the gold medal Olympian
and the fastest man in the world at the time I’m writing
this, coaches himself before every race. He uses slotralogy,
saying things like this to himself: “Stay low. Ease up at
the turn.” He practices thinking these things so they come
to mind before and during a race. His slotras are instructions
and reminders, which is good stuff to think at the right time.
He tells himself the best way to run the race, or the particular
things he’s working on.
 If
you’ve ever wondered what’s going through their heads
when great athletes are getting ready for an event, now you know
what one of them does. And you can use the same method.
Do you have a challenging event coming
up soon? Think about what instructions you'd like running through
your head right before and during that event. Write out a list
of ideas. Pick the best one or two, and shorten them into brief
statements.
Now practice thinking those slotras. Practice.
Write them on a card and keep the card with you. Two or three
times a day, pull out your card. Practice saying those statements
to yourself twenty times each while thinking about the upcoming
event. Imagine being at the event and thinking those thoughts.
You're not doing this as some sort of magical
incantation, and you're not doing it to "influence your
subconscious mind." You're simply trying to practice.
You're making those particular thoughts familiar and easy to
think.
So instructions can work well as slotras. Motivational statements work well
too. This work is for people with an important and challenging
purpose, so motivation is an important issue. People with easy,
unchallenging goals don't need much motivation or determination.
But you've got something big to accomplish, don't you? And it's
important to you. So making sure you stay motivated is
vital.
To make a motivational slotra, ask yourself
these questions: What thoughts put the fight in you? What
thoughts make you want to try harder? What thoughts fire
you up?
When I started promoting my first book
and I ran into setbacks and started to feel discouraged, I used
to say to myself, "The world needs this!" It
made me feel determined and motivated.
Use whatever works.
Practicing those thoughts is really the
key. You can have brilliant insights galore, but if those insights
don’t occur to you at the time you actually need them, they
aren’t worth much.
Think about it. How many times have you
gotten a new understanding, but when the time came to put your
insight into action, you thought and acted the same way you always
have? Why do you suppose that happens? It happens because your
new understanding didn’t transfer to where you needed it.
You didn’t remember to think the new thoughts (your
new insights) when you needed to think them.
You have already-existing thought habits,
and that’s what will go through your mind until you create
some new thought habits.
How do you create new thought habits? The
most basic and simple way is to simply practice new thoughts
until they come to mind naturally. In other words, repeat a slotra
again and again, just as you would practice a new phrase in a
foreign language until it is comfortable and familiar, until
it comes to mind easily and naturally.
Another advantage of repeating your slotra
every day is that it keeps the new thought fresh in your mind,
which means it'll be right there when the right situation arises.
Having your new insight freshly in mind makes it much easier
to think that thought at the right time, every time. Do that
a few times and what was once a startling new insight will become
just the way you think naturally.
Read next: How
To Change Your Habits Of Thought
This article is part of a series on Slotralogy.
Read the first section here: Slotralogy
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