The Choice Point by Joanna Grover

Author:Joanna Grover [Joanna Grover, LCSW, and Jonathan Rhodes, PhD]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2023-06-20T00:00:00+00:00

Phase 4: Get a Cue!

Working hard and working smart should be synonymous. However, working hard with the right intentions does not always lead to the desired outcome. You’ve got to act, and you’ve got to stay in action. Therefore, creating cues—triggers that remind you to think or act in a certain way—is the final step in the setup phase. Cues get you moving (and help you keep moving) toward your true north, and they minimize the possibility of getting diverted by external factors like a busy schedule or simply forgetting.

At this point, the aim is to find a cue that reminds you to practice multisensory imagery every day. Practicing multisensory imagery on a daily basis is essential because it is the foundational structure that you’ll rely on to get you past those moments when you feel like you want to quit.

Jacqueline, a teacher and a master rower, was trying to break the habit of tensing her shoulders when rowing. It was a sign that she was overusing her shoulders and not engaging her core, which forced her to use excess energy. Her coach pointed out that she was doing it during “power strokes,” when she was trying too hard, or when her mind wandered during a long training set. The coach would call out, “Relax, Jackie!” in an objectively unrelaxed tone. For a few strokes she’d try to relax by repeating, “Don’t tense shoulders” in her head. It worked for a few strokes, and then her shoulders would creep up again. After imagery coaching, Jacqueline developed a plan. She linked that plan to her values—feeling connected to her teammates—and she found a cue.

Her cue was tightening the oarlock just before she got in the boat. When she tightened the screw, she imagined loosening her shoulders. She felt the strength of her legs pushing against the boat, heard the sound of the water beneath the gliding boat, heard the rise and fall of her breath, and felt the reassuring hand of her teammate on her shoulder. The cue and the imagery allowed her to prepare in advance and tap into her core values and strengths. Instead of simply thinking in the heat of training “Don’t tense up,” she set her intention on what she wanted and made it happen.

Thoughts, as you know, are spontaneous. They come and go. While some thoughts seem involuntary and random, a great deal of your thoughts are voluntary—you see something that activates a thought. The reason cues are so very important is because they can be used for good. They can be used to trigger a desired thought that snowballs, picking up speed and magnitude.

For your thought to snowball and pick up speed, elaboration is key, and for it to pick up magnitude, the frequency with which you observe your cue is key. If you frequently activate goal-centered thoughts, which are created through cues, it actually changes how your synapses connect to one another in your brain. This is called Hebbian plasticity, a process where similar synapses that are stimulated at a parallel time build connections.

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