Stop Blaming Your Tools

Everyone has heard reference to sayings relating to the importance of not blaming one’s tools for jobs that don’t turn out quite as one planned. It is inevitably more often the fault of the workman rather than his tools. There are many variations of this phrase such as, "It"s not the arrows, it"s the India
". Nevertheless, the meaning remains the same.

The first step in learning, progress and change is to hold your hands up and say "OK, perhaps I did something wrong". In taking this step you actually take control of whatever situation you find yourself in. If you do not take this step you are left in limbo; you cannot progress because the problem or blockage is not within your control. It is the fault of the tools, the weather, the competition or whatever else you can think up.

So, OK, your tools might not be perfect. Perhaps they are old or worn and there are more appropriate tools that you would prefer to lay your hands upon. But you have what you have. You have to make do with what you have got. Better still, you want to make the most of the resources that you have available to you.

To put this in context, lets think about golf. Many golfers become addicted to buying new clubs. They want the newest driver than promises extra distance off the tee, the newest balls that promise to reduce spin, the putter that guarantees you holing more putts. But are new clubs really going to make that much difference? I bet you have seen your teaching pro pick up any amount of different clubs and still produce a great shot. Do you think that you would produce a significantly better shot if you picked up his or her "super-duper professional" clubs? Probably not. It is the person who swings the club that makes the real difference.

Let's take another example. Weight loss and dieting comes to mind as an appropriate subject. You tend to find that people who try to lose weight loosely fall into one of three categories. There are those people who are really very half-hearted about weight loss and don’t really try to lose weight and acknowledge this fact. There are people who are grittily determined to lose weight, lose the excess pounds and keep them off. Then there are those who bounce from one super-duper new diet to the next, perhaps losing a few pounds and then piling them straight back on again.

If you fall into the latter category, it is important to ask yourself a couple of questions. First, is there any physical reason why you aren't losing weight? If this possibility is eliminated, then the second question to ask yourself what in your own psyche is stopping you from losing weight? If you eliminate the possibility that the arrow is to blame then all that is left to examine is the Indian.

Roseanna Leaton, specialist in mind training mp3 downloads for health, happiness, well-being and sport.

P.S. Grab a free mind training mp3 from my website and find out how you can take control of your life.