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Fertilize your Inner Peacock By David K. Nelms
December 9, 2004
Well over a year ago I was jolted by a mysterious change in my daily routine. It was a very exciting thing because the change constituted the spontaneous disappearance of a nervous habit. This habit has plagued me for the whole of my life. It was an un-touchable that simply vanished overnight.
Now that I know how it happened I will be rich beyond my wildest dreams. Habit control is the Holy Grail of self-help. And I know this: Some Hammer from a small group of Hammers precipitated the change. I vividly recall the subject matter of the exercises and they were a duel success. I got what I was after and lost a behavioral parasite in one sweet motion. Allow me to describe the situation for you.
Imagine that you are at the edge of a giant cliff with jagged rocks hundreds of feet below. You are surrounded by four strong men. Each of them has a firm grasp on one of your limbs and they are swinging you forward and back in an ever-increasing motion. The lead man begins to count. When he hits three they all release their grips and you are hurled high in the air and well over the edge of the cliff. At this split second in time your body begins a number of emergency physiological functions. Every orifice puckers into an airtight knot, blood pressure skyrockets, and an inner crisis occurs, powerful enough to transform hardened atheist into an earnest seeker of god.
This is the feeling that overcomes me when I think of going in front of a camera. As an author who must promote his books, television is an important source of publicity. One day I must venture there and the idea has always been terrifying.
In contemplating possible strategies to overcome this fear, a fellow I used to know came to mind. We worked together as electricians in a hospital. His name was Pat, and his job was to perform an amazing feat of balance and coordination. It involved throwing a large screwdriver against the floor, handle first. The screwdriver would bounce loudly, rise majestically, roll one and one quarter turn and float to rest in his palm. Shifting his stance, he assumed a Superman-like pose and flashed a giant, immortal smile. It was the kind of smile that only beams when you rescue a rich man’s son from an onrushing train and collect a billion-dollar reward. We called him “Hollywood Pat”.
Hollywood Pat looked good and dressed sharp. He was also a very funny guy. Entertainment was his middle name and in times of boredom he was priceless. He claimed to have been a (heterosexual) male stripper at one time, and his self-image was commensurate. The cold, hard truth is that he effortlessly presented himself as having importance by bouncing a screwdriver while we did the work. He had the world by the balls.
Pat would unhesitatingly position himself in front of cameras. In his inner world, people thought he looked good so in the real, outer world he did. But he wasn’t gifted with physical magnificence. He would look pretty ordinary in a line-up. His transformation occurred when he was in front of an audience. When he bounced that screwdriver and flashed that smile he was a big star. He was Hollywood Pat.
Being more like Pat and projecting myself more effectively could benefit my book sales and personal relationships. Evidently it could also cause me to have a mysterious change in behavior that boggles my mind. But boggled or not, it has been well over a year since the offending habit departed. So it is with confidence and great pleasure that I can finally reveal this secret to you. Ladies and Gentlemen: The new Ferrari of Habit Control.
*How I Eliminated the Habit of Biting My Fingernails*
Use the Hammer to reinforce the following:
CASE: Imagine being in an uncomfortable situation
NEW: Pretend that you are Hollywood Pat
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