Posture for Success



    In today’s world, there is a lot going on to which you can have all sorts of responses. Ideally, we will live our lives from a place of confidence, trust, and commitment to create our own path and destiny. However, sometimes each of us can “forget” what we are truly capable of accomplishing and give our power up to circumstances around us which can be totally outside our control.

    In my work, I often hear people describe their responses or strategies in physical terms. It is common to hear someone say “I’m hunkered down”. Now, that in itself brings up all sorts of images, but I’m interested in how we posture ourselves, both in the literal and figurative sense of the word, and how that impacts our success.

    As humans, we cannot control what happens in the world, but we can control how we respond. Each of us has a default strategy for being ready to face the world. Now, let’s put that in physical terms. If the world is changing rapidly, what do you want to be able to do? What are the times when you really want to “hunker down” and let the world pass over you? Is this one of them?

    Or, is this a time when you want to be agile, responsive, and ready to move? If that’s the case, you need an appropriate posture. The question to ask yourself today is how you want to respond to the world. If you want to be able to move, think about how you physically prepare yourself. In sports they often talk of an athletic stance, which is, of course, different for each sport, but one in which your body is ready to spring to action in response to what is coming towards you. In martial arts, each discipline has a stance, which prepares your body and your mind for action.

    Just in this way, you can imagine your stance to the world. The act of imagining your stance, then physically moving into it will change the way you think about yourself, and consequently, will begin to create new outcomes. The idea is to get a stance, choose it, then practice it! Whatever it is, decide what best suits you, then live it. It will make a big difference for you and everyone around you.

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