Out of Order

Did you know that, in at least one way, you are at your best when your system is out of order?

Now by “Out of Order,” we mean when your mental picture of how things “should be” is very different from how things actually are. Human beings are always striving for order, and when our mental picture of how things should be matches reality, we feel comfortable and in control.

However, what happens when they don’t match? What happens when our mental picture of, say, the car we drive is thrown out of order by an accident? Or our picture of how we make our living is thrown out of order by a sudden layoff?

Well, what happens is that we create inside ourselves a tremendous amount of drive and energy to restore order, to make our inner picture and “outer” reality match once again. We feel highly motivated to get that car repaired, to get a new job, to do whatever is necessary to set things right.

Once order is restored, the drive and energy turn off because they are no longer needed. This is exactly how goal-setting works. When you set a goal and systematically visualize the end-result, you throw your system out of order. That creates the drive and energy to change reality so that it matches the picture you have been visualizing. In this way, being out of order can be a good thing.

This is why it is important to set goals, and then re-set them, so you won’t arrive at your desired end-result, and then go flat because your energy just up and drove away.