How to Get What You Want in Life Really Fast

If you want to change your life for the better, and are having difficulty, perhaps you need to change your map–your way of viewing the world which determines how you react to it, and how you make decisions in order to move in one direction or another.

(Originally, this article was posted at http://www.abundance-101.com. So, if you like these kind of articles, click here.)

Blaming the territory
Often, when we’re not getting what we want in life, we blame it on the territory–the place, the circumstances, the situation, the people around us, the job we go to, the state we live in, the town or state in which we live.

Although minor changes might be brought about from changing the territory, until the map is changed, you’re likely to find yourself in a similar situation sometime later on, with similar complaints.

Why is that?

Make changes fast
Because in order to make changes that last, you need to change the map, not the territory.

Let’s talk about the difference.

The territory is the situation that is outside of yourself. This may include your friends, job, social gathering events, financial state, home environment, and more.

The map is how you arrived at that territory, which essentially is through your own choices.

Perhaps you might be thinking that you have not made certain choices to get to your current position. Did you have a 10% option not to get to your current position? If so, despite the size of the option, it existed for you to expand upon, however you decided to ignore it.

Get what you really want, fast
In order to get what you really want, you’ve got to change the map. If you’re not happy where you are at, don’t ask yourself how you got there, because obviously at the time, you made certain decisions that seemed beneficial to you. Whatever those decisions were, however, they are not worth reflecting on or giving more energy to, and they’re in the past. Instead, ask yourself this: How do I view the world? Answer yourself honestly. Because how you answer that question is determining where you are, what you’re getting, what you’re accepting, and what you’re allowing into your life.

How you view the world is your map. This is your paradigm. This is your worldview. If you don’t like where you’re at, change your worldview.

Change your world view
If you change your world view, your view of the world will change. Once your view of the world changes, your thoughts of the world will change. Once your thoughts of the wold change, your actions will change. Once your actions change, your results will change. This can happen as fast as you want.

Richard Bandler, the co-creator of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) talks about change in his book Richard Bander’s Guide to Tranceformation”. He mentions a conversation he had with Virginia Satir, the family therapist, who told him something that made a significant impact on him.

“You know, Richard, most people think the will to survive is the strongest instinct in human beings, but it isn’t. The strongest instinct is to keep things familiar.”
Virgina Satir, family therapist

The pros and cons of familiarity
In order to function in this world, we need familiarity. When we learn how to drive, we become familiar with the tasks so that at some later point, we can drive while thinking about other things. That process becomes automated.

Familiarity requires generalization, which is how we automate tasks. Although generalization saves times and speeds up the decision making process, it can also limit the ability to make the best choices.

Finding patterns that bring results: modeling
In order to make the best choices fast, you need to change your world view. One way to do this is by modeling. Find ten people in life who are in a place that you would like to be in. Find out exactly what each of these 10 people have done, and do what they did. Due to different circumstances, including, but not limited to financial situations and even moral, ethical ones, you can select 10 different aspects from these 10 different people, take them, and do what they did, in order to get the same, or similar place. Simply model them. Mimic their actions.

In a rudimentary fashion, this is modeling, wherein you pattern yourself after someone else who’s gotten to a place you want to be.

If you want change in life, change the map, by changing your view of the world. Get rid of generalizations that are not working for you. If your generalizations are not getting you to where you want to be, make new ones. This can happen as fast as you snapping your fingers.

Trust the process. Accept your new position in life and the benefits that accompany it. You can do this when you change the map, your world view, your perspective, your generalizations.

If your really want change, fast, change the map.

If you want to know more about NLP, visit Amazon by clicking this link to see Richard Bandler’s book “Frogs into Princesses”. Years ago, friend and family therapist Terri Gamble gave this book to me and I read it more than once. I took it with me when traveling, and the book got ruined. Thinking this book would be a few dollars to replace, I was surprised to find used copies selling at Amazon for $20-something dollars. I ordered one anyway.

Ever since college, I’ve been somewhat fascinated by the study of human behavior and wondering why-people-do-what-they-do. Thankfully, there are a plethora of books on this topic that you can order online, or check out, free, from the library, as well as plenty of articles and videos online.

If you enjoyed this article, share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the link below. If you want to know more about NLP, just click the book links above and read the reviews of his books. Thank you.

- kris kemp