Remember that you are a Scanner!

This post is for scanners, of course. If you're not a scanner, you don't need to remember that you are one (nor to read this). But if you are a scanner, don't you ever forget that you are one.

Especially in conventional personal development, we are told over and over again that we should focus on only one or at most two projects or goals at a time. This way of thinking has infected us so much that we keep trying to do that, even though it is totally not helpful to us.

Scanners are just wired differently. We need to juggle. That is what makes us productive. Scanners often procrastinate and are ineffective, that is true. But the point is: scanners don't procrastinate because they work on several projects at the same time. Scanners procrastinate because they try to focus on one project at a time and don't allow themselves to juggle as it would be natural to them.

We struggle when we try to fit into conventional models that are not made for us. This is just not who we are. Trying to be something that we are not creates separation. And struggle.

Sometimes I feel really overwhelmed by all the goals and ideas I am pursuing simultaneously. I feel scattered, unfocused, I don't know what to begin with, what to do next, what to focus on... And that is exactly the mistake! This wanting to "figure it out" and focus on one thing.

What creates my stress in such a situation is not that I have many things to work on. It's that I am trying to behave in ways that don't match what I really am at my very core. Then I die inside. I suffer, I suffocate, and my productivity drops. When on the contrary I remember that I am a scanner, when I allow myself to juggle playfully with everything I am doing, now that unleashes the power within!

In a way I think all this has a lot to do with control. Our logical mind always tries to be in control, to make plans, to set priorities, to decide, and to know where we are going. That is fear. Letting go of control and just spontaneously following our intuition, which is what we do when we juggle around, is scary.

It is perfectly fine not to know what to begin with and what to do next! Inspired action flows out of us freely when we allow ourselves to be in a state of uncertainty. Yes, sometimes this means suddenly interrupting what we are doing, and going for something else. So what?

Today, I was ordering some books on Amazon for my mother. After adding two of the three books she wants to my cart, I suddenly got bored and went to reply to two emails. Some people can sit down and reply to twenty emails in one session - I cannot. I replied to two emails, then I felt inspired to working on this book about business and marketing, one of several books that I am studying at the moment. I took the book to the kitchen, sat down at my kitchen table and did some reading and written exercises. Why the kitchen table and not my desk? Dunno. I just felt like being in the kitchen for a change. After a couple pages of the book, I had enough, jumped up and started writing this blog post. After 362 words I got bored, went back to Amazon and finished ordering the stuff for my mother. Then I went through my French books, sorting out those I don't want anymore. I am decluttering at the moment, and getting rid of most of my books. And now I am back here writing.

Maybe a psychologist would diagnose me with ADD or ADHD or whatever. Who cares? As long as I get my stuff done and have fun getting it done.

Juggling is not multitasking. If I were preparing a reading for a client while listening to music, thinking about my new eBook, and checking for new emails every two minutes, that would be multitasking. That's not what I do. I am fully focused on what I do when I do it. I just switch activities quicker than other people. But if in the end I get everything done, where's the problem?

They keep repeating that it is more effective to focus on one thing until it's done. Maybe for specialists. Not for scanners. Our brains just aren't very linear. I usually get my best ideas about something after a while of doing something else. I am quick at switching my focus and remembering everything I had done previously. I'm good at drawing parallels. What I learn in one area helps me in other areas. I can apply literature to computer programming and mathematics to relationships. That makes me effective. Maybe not in logically obvious ways, but effective nonetheless, in interesting ways.

Just because someone writes in a book that we should work on our most important task for four hours straight first thing in the morning, or focus on only one goal at a time, doesn't make them right. In my experience, this only leads to stress, boredom, frustration, and ultimately procrastination. It makes me feel stuck and awfully off-track.

Accepting ourselves as scanners isn't easy. We don't really have role models, we often struggle to get things done. We might feel lost, or think something is wrong with us. But being a scanner is a strength, provided we see it this way and act accordingly.

We need to embrace our scanner nature and honor it. Everything else brings us farther away from ourselves. Being ourselves, that's also accepting and remembering what we are, and building on that.

Are You Taking Energetically Strategic Action?

When we have a goal that we want to reach, we can take different kinds of third-dimensional action towards our goal. One of them is energetically strategic action. I have learned about it from my teacher Andrea Hess and have been using it since then. I totally love it!

How does it work?

When we take "normal" action, aka linear action, we do things that make logical sense and will probably bring us closer to our goal. For example if you want a great relationship, some linear action could be to ask someone out.

Energetically strategic action on the other hand makes no logical sense. Our rational mind usually doesn't see how taking this action would bring us any closer to our goal. That's because the link between our action and our goal is not a causal one. It's an energetic one.

Our goal has a certain energy to it. This energy is not fully expressed in our life yet (or else we would already have reached this goal). So in order to bring this energy into our life, we take actions that carry the same energy. These actions don't need to make logical sense or to have anything to do with our goal. What's important is that they have the same energy as our goal. By taking these actions, we align with the energy we wish to create in our life. Then it's only natural that our goal manifests, as an expression of this energy, that is now already in our life.

One explanation is the law of resonance, also called law of attraction: like attracts like. Put yourself into a state that is energetically aligned with what you want, and you will attract it. I don't really like the word "attract", though. It suggests that I don't have it yet. I prefer to think that I already have it, it's just a facet of me that isn't revealed yet. I am the one who's broke, and the one who has lots of money. I am the one who's single, and the one who is in a great relationship. By taking energetically strategic action, I just reveal a new facet of what I already am. I shine light on some previously hidden aspect of myself. I sculpt myself.

How to do it?

Step 1: identify your destination energy.

The same goal can mean completely different things to different people. Being in a great relationship can be about love, it can be about connection, about fun, about sensuality, passion, intensity, partnership, adventure, etc. It can be about many things. Making more money can be about freedom, about power, expansion, security, happiness... Whatever.

Identify what energy your goal is about. What does it represent in your eyes? What energetic characteristics does your desired outcome have? When you close your eyes and imagine having reached your goal, how do you feel? What quality would be present in your life that you perceive to not be there yet?

Give your destination energy a name, or a color.

Step 2: take appropriate actions

Take actions that energetically align with your goal. Can you think of small actions that would express your destination energy? It doesn't need to be big things. Small actions have the same powerful effect as long as they carry the right energy.

For example, if your destination energy is love, you could write a friend of yours a letter to tell them how wonderful they are and how happy you are that they are in your life. Or send flowers to your mom. Or pay someone a compliment. Or hug someone. If it's about expansion, you could buy some food that you have never eaten before, go sit for an hour in a café you never were in, learn a new foreign language, befriend one new person a day on facebook or take classes in something you had never tried out before. If it's about adventure, you could take a new way home and get lost in a neighborhood you don't know. Or go to the station and just jump on the first train that leaves for an improvised trip to a random place. Or go on a blind date, or wear a disguise in public for one evening.

You get the idea. Finding appropriate actions is what I think is the most difficult part of the process. When my destination energy is quite far away from where I am now, I find it extremely difficult to even think of appropriate actions. What I find helpful then is to observe other people who already embody this energy in my eyes. I check how they express it and get inspired.

Why do it?

Because it works. I have found it to be highly effective. Not only does it work, it's a lot of fun. You get to wear wigs, go rock climbing, dance, eat exotic foods, buy beautiful skirts and such. And it makes things so much easier than when you only take linear, logical actions.

I personally love it that it makes no sense. It's so awesome to do crazy things that make no sense at all and whoops, everything flows! It makes life a wondrous, magical adventure instead of a boring, predictable project based on hard work. Eew

For me, energetically strategic action is the real action. Linear action is just like opening a door. When we want something, it's easier for us to allow it to happen when our rational mind sees some ways how we could logically get it. We are more ready to believe in finding a partner if we go out, socialize, ask people out, join dating websites or interact with others professionally. We are more ready to believe in making money if we start a business or apply for jobs.

It's awesome and important to open these doors. However, what really gets us where we want to be is the energetic state we are in. Taking energetically strategic action is one of the ways we can shift this energetic state, especially combined with choosing our beliefs wisely.

If you want to learn more about taking action in an energetically meaningful way, I highly recommend Andrea, who is a master at that. What I just wrote about is only a tiny part of her wisdom. Lately she has been focusing on teaching specifically how to create financial abundance. However, I have found her methods to be applicable more generally to pretty much every goal I have.

So, what's your destination energy and how will you bring it into your life right now? :-)