Transform "Traps" To Possibilities

Picture a Chinese Finger Trap where you put a finger in each end of the woven tube. If you try to pull your fingers out, they get caught tighter. The only way out of the finger trap is to push in.

When you think of the puzzle as a "trap" your worldview is already geared toward escape. Logic says you must move away from the stuck place. But if logic prevailed, none of us would have any more problems: "OK, now that I know my pattern, I'll just quit doing it." Not!

When you approach the puzzle as a weaving that has certain characteristics, you're more likely to notice, calmly and objectively, how it works, to see how it pulls tighter in one direction and looser in the other. Then all you're likely to say is, "Isn't it interesting, how that pattern works? If I move in this way, then I'm released." You have reframed your thinking. 

A presupposition "supposes" a way out of a habitual pattern. It embeds a positive expectation and assumes a desired change. If you want to change something in yourself, observe it closely: "How does it work? What seems to trap me? What seems to trigger it?" And, most important, "What are exceptions to the problem? When it doesn't occur, what did I do differently?" Then, do more of what works!  

You'll find the more you use presuppositions, the more you'll see surprising and even unexpected changes (this is a presupposition). :-)

(More in my Out of the Box Self-Coaching Workbook)