SPOT ON

MAKING IT

[From the casebook of Doctor Spot, Emeritus Professor of Urinology, University of Yonkers]

[Case #106. Noah Cheever. Transcript of tape recording, Tuesday 11 June, 19—]

DS: Okay, Noah, what are you going to do for yourself?

NC (puzzled): I thought I was here so that you could do something for me.

DS: The best thing I can do for you, Noah, is to show you how you can do things for yourself. Indeed, you are the only one who can do things for yourself.

NC: I don't understand.

DS: When you first came to see me you identified your concern: you said you never manage to get things done, although you always have lots of ideas. Right?

NC: Right.

DS: Your difficulty comes, then, in putting your ideas into practice. Right?

NC: Right.

DS: Who can put your ideas into practice if not you, yourself?

NC: But that is precisely my problem, Doctor.

DS: No, Noah, that is your opportunity! Your problem is actually to identify precisely what you want to achieve, and then to employ the right formula in order to achieve it. This is known as formulating an outcome - actually a well-formed outcome.

NC: What do you mean by a well-formed outcome? How does this differ from any common or garden variety of outcome?

DS: A well-formed outcome has to satisfy certain criteria. It has to be positive, not negative. What do I want, rather than what do I not want? It has to be specific and reasonably achievable. It must not be too large. If it is too large, you must break it down into smaller chunks and achieve them a bit at a time. Finally it should be ecologically sound, with a proper regard for the environment, for your relationship with other creatures, other people, and with yourself.

NC: How do I do all that, then, Doctor Spot?

DS: Well, Noah, I want you to go away and produce the answers to the following questions. Write them down carefully now in your notebook. One: What do I want? And, when you consider the answer make sure you express it in absolutely positive terms, i.e. what you want; not what you don't want. Two: How will I know when I have got it? Three: What will I be doing, seeing, feeling, thinking and hearing when I have done it? Four: How will I reinforce my positive intentions? For instance, cast your mind back to an occasion (no matter how long ago) when you actually achieved something. Then try to recall how you felt, thought at the time. Also what visual or auditory associations you may have around that incident. And try to keep all that in your mind when you are producing your well-formed outcome. Finally: How will I try to sabotage myself?

Right! I'm putting you in my diary for next Tuesday at 10.30am, and I expect you to have all the answers for me then.

[Case #106. Noah Cheever. Transcript of tape recording, Tuesday 18 June, 19 --]

DS: Good morning, Noah. You're looking very pleased with yourself today.

NC: Indeed I am, Doctor. I actually completed the exercise you set me last week. And it has made all the difference.

DS: Good, good! Let me hear your answers. First: what do you want?

NC: I want a new career.

DS: Next: How will you know when you have got it?

NC: I will be enjoying a remarkable sense of achievement, of fulfilment.

DS: What will you be doing, seeing, feeling, thinking and hearing?

NC: I will be sitting behind a desk, like you. I will see a lily-livered, weak-willed individual (like I was) lying on a couch. I will be feeling powerful. I will be thinking: this is the life! I will be hearing myself saying: give yourself a well-formed outcome!

DS: How will you reinforce your positive intentions?

NC: I will recall how marvellous this moment is, and will see, hear and feel all the associated sights, sounds and feelings I have at present.

DS: Finally, Noah, how will you try to sabotage yourself?

NC: By my patterned response to the imagined suffering of others. By introjecting the frustrations and inconveniences of other people, which I imagine to be caused by my selfishness. This, I now realise, is what stopped me from being an achiever before. I always imagined that I could only achieve something for myself at the expense of taking something from others. Now I realise that I cannot live other people's lives for them. I can only do things for myself, not for others. They have to do things for themselves. They have to take responsibility for their own ecological considerations. I have you to thank for opening my eyes to that, Doctor Spot.

DS: And . . . therefore . . . your outcome . . .

NC: I thought you would have realised. Why! I'm going to set up in practice as a psychotherapist, and show others how to produce well-formed outcomes in order to cure themselves. Sorry, Doctor, but this is the last session you will have with me.

DS: [thinks] At this rate I'm going to end up without any clients at all. I'd better start formulating a few well-formed outcomes of my own.