When you are trying to achieve a goal, like becoming a solo entrepreneur, or a solo traveler, or if you are trying to lose weight, or overcome a fear, etc., your brain can sometimes become a bit obsessive – unfortunately not always in a supportive way. Sometimes our brains become obsessive about the very thing we are trying to avoid doing. This phenomenon is referred to as the “ironic monitoring process”, also affectionately known by its acronym “IMP“.  If we are trying to, for example lose weight – we ironically become obsessed with thoughts of the very foods we are trying to avoid. If we are trying to, for example overcome a fear we have associated with becoming a solo traveler, we can become obsessed by the very fear that we are trying to overcome.

In her book, The Four-Day Win, Martha Beck describes this phenomena as “The Polar Bear Effect”. I’ve also seen it described as the “Don’t Think of a Pink Elephant” phenomenon. Basically, to experience how strong the IMP effect is, try this little experiment:

Are you trying not to think of a Polar Bear? source: Allie Caulfield, Flickr Creative Commons

For the next 10 seconds, don’t think of a Polar Bear (if you don’t like Polar Bears, try not thinking of a Pink Elephant). Think of anything else you want to think of, but do not think of a Polar Bear or anything associated with Polar Bears for 10 seconds – no fluffy white fur, no coal black nose, no sparkling white ice, or frigid blue waters – for 10 seconds. Ready? 1 steamboat ….. 2 steamboats ….. 3 steamboats ….. 4 steamboats ….. 5 steamboats ….. 6 steamboats ….. 7 steamboats ….. 8 steamboats …. 9 steamboats ….. 10 steamboats.

Could you do it?? Could you think of anything except Polar Bears?? Or did you think of Polar Bears?

The ironic thing about the IMP is, that the harder you try to avoid thinking of a specific thing, like the Polar Bear, or your fear of flying, or food, the more stressed and anxious you become, and the more you think about the very thing you are trying to avoid.

Martha Beck has this to say about the IMP: “Trying to suppress something tends to cause anxiety, which makes the self-suppression more desperate, which makes the ironic effect much worse, which makes us even more upset…” The result is that the “more desperate and pressured you feel, the more intensively you’ll brood about (and potentially do) the very things you’ve sworn off. The higher the stakes, the worse the ironic effects.” (The Four-Day Win, pages 34-35).

So, how do we tame the IMP??
There are a couple of things that we can do to try to tame the IMP.

For starters, we need to become aware of how we are thinking about the behaviors we are trying to change.

Changing Habits

If you are trying to change a habit think of the outcome, not the habit. For example, if you are trying to lose weight, stop thinking about losing weight and begin thinking about all of the benefits you will gain by losing weight. The increased self-esteem, the higher level of energy, the more fun it is to shop, the more self-confidence you will have meeting new clients, etc. Letting your brain obsess about the positive outcomes is a good thing. Quoting the Law of Attraction: What you think about, you bring about.

Achieving Goals

If you are trying to achieve a different type of goal, for example, increasing the number of clients you have, or becoming a solo entrepreneur, then let you brain obsess about the benefits you experience by having achieved that goal – the fun you will have meeting new clients, the new lifestyle you will have achieved, the wonderful people you now know, etc. You can choose to obsess about how difficult it will be to achieve your goal, or you can obsess about how wonderful it is to have achieved your goal.

Overcoming Fears

If you are trying to overcome a fear, then there is another trick you can use, again thanks to Martha Beck. In her latest column for O Magazine (September, 2009) Martha Beck writes about the debilitating, powerless feelings we get from our fears.  The more we think about our fears, the more powerless we become, thanks mostly to the IMP phenomenon. However, if we switch those thoughts of fear to thoughts of love, we become powerful.

For example, suppose that you want to become a location independent professional but the more you think about it the more you start becoming aware of your fears. You can embrace those fears, acknowledge those fears and then work to overcome them. Which works for some people. However, every time you think about one of your fears, even if you are working to overcome it, you are still think about “fear” and all of the negative connotations and debilitating feelings that fears bring.

Try instead to think about what you love about the situation that is associated with your fear. Love is an empowering emotion that will help you overcome your fear. For example, if one of the fears that is preventing you from becoming a location independent nomad is the fear of being lonely and you find yourself obsessing over finding ways to overcome that fear, try this:

• rather than thinking about your fear of loneliness, think instead of all the things you love about the idea of being a location independent nomad – the people you will meet, the communities you can be part of, the stories you will be able to tell friends and family back home. Think of how much you enjoy emailing friends and family, of the video emails and photos you could send. These are powerful thoughts that get the IMP working for you, instead of having the IMP working against you by escalating your fear.

Do you have any little tricks that you use to help you overcome the IMP and negate the “Polar Bear Effect”??

TTFN

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