Change Your Stance, Change Your Life

Change Your Stance

Yes, that’s me – the entire Leeds High School Wrestling Team, but that’s a story for another day. 

As a scholastic athlete one of the most important fundamentals we were coached on was the proper stance. Even subtle shifts could generate much more power, stability, quickness and balance.

In golf, surfing, baseball, tennis, football, weightlifting and many other sports, a proper stance is the starting point of optimal performance. 

The golfer’s “stance” is the foundation or base for which to swing the golf club. A good solid stance will provide balance throughout the swing. Depending on different lies and hills and terrain the stance needs to be modified to provide the stability and balance for the current shot at hand.  Being out of balance from a poor foundation can cause bad swings and result in errant shots. –Brett Gorney, PGA Professional

In life our stance significantly impacts how we feel, think, operate and produce. Change your stance, change how you feel, think, operate, and produce…

A stance is a position. Your stance in life has much to do with how we experience the world. Our results are affected significantly by this experience. If we’re staring at a wall we see one view, if we’re looking through window we see something quite different. Change your stance, change your experience. Change your experience, change your results.

Here are some examples of ineffective stances and potential positional shifts:

• I’m too old →  The best is yet to come
• I’ve failed too many times →   It ain’t over till it’s over
• I’ll never be successful →   As long as there is breath in me I have the ability to succeed
• My job sucks →   This job is preparing me for what’s next and providing income for my family
• I don’t have enough →  I have much to be grateful for
• I’m overwhelmed →   I can focus on the next best step
• This is the worst time in my life →   Now is an opportunity to learn, grow, and become stronger

THREE STEPS TO CHANGE YOUR STANCE

I. CHECK your stance. Think about an area in your life where you were struggling. Become acutely aware of your stance. Reflect on these questions in your journal:

1. What’s your current stance?
2. What are the underlying assumptions driving it?
3. What are you looking at in your mind’s eye?
4. What’s the position of your body? The tension or lack thereof?
5. What are you saying to yourself?
6. How do you feel?

II. CHALLENGE your stance. 

1. What is your experience of life from this stance?
2. What is the basis for this?
3. Is it consistent with the experience of life you want?
4. Is it based on truth or your own made up proclivity of small-mindedness, cynicism and fear?

III. CHANGE your stance. As you intellectualize what it would be like to have a more empowering position in life, physically move your body in a way that is consistent with this position. Personally I tend to turn to the right and look slightly up. Feel the difference in your mind, body and spirit.

1. 1. What’s different about this stance?
   2. How can you access this more frequently?
   3. How could you adjust it in such a way that you have even more power in this experience?
   4. What has to happen to consistently maintain this stance?

Take a stand for a abundance.

Take a stand for love.

Take a stand for growth.

Take a stand for greatness.

Stand powerfully.