I’ve got a super awesome trick for creating way more positive experiences in your life, better outcomes and more success! AND, you can practice with a toddler! Are you ready for it?

Okay, so what happens when you tell a three year-old: “Don’t go in the pool!”? The three year old hears “Pool” and “Go in”! Rather than hearing the “don’t”. That pool becomes so compelling, they can't stand it! They have the image of the pool in their precious little brains and they are oriented toward the action, so they.... “go in!”

Here's a scenario for the grown-ups! You give your golfing buddy, just before she swings the club, the following advice: “See those trees on the right? Be really careful not to hit your ball into those trees!” Well, what do you think is likely to happen? You guessed it! The ball goes into those exact trees!

Or how about this: You are on your way to meet someone that always makes you feel very good about yourself, someone with whom you find yourself laughing with all the time, conversations are vulnerable and open and real! What do you think will happen? More of the same!

What’s happening here is the image-action connection. You have an image in your mind of what the outcome will be like based on your past experiences. A positive image is more likely to generate positive results! A negative image just messes things up!

It’s natural for our brains to connect images with action. A positive experience is more likely to happen when you connect a positive image with a positive action (and not a negative one).

For the toddler that that you are trying to keep safe, saying “don’t go in the pool” is well intended and you are setting a rule with the child, but it becomes the forbidden fruit quite quickly and then suddenly the pool is like a MAGNET for the toddler!