Pull Mode

Pull Mode,  on the other hand, is about leadership and paying attention to growth and  improvement.

Rather than focusing attention on problems to be solved or fixed or overcome, in Pull Mode we  take time to clearly envision our future and allow the goal to pull us towards it. The results of  Push Mode and Pull Mode may appear to be the same (that is the achievement of the goal)  but Pull Mode takes less effort and allows our unconscious activity to take precedence over  conscious linear processing.

The idea of Pull Mode is that you create a vision of the future that is so compelling for you (and  perhaps for others) that you cannot help but be drawn towards it. The things that you need to  do on the way become minor irritants that simply get done and anything that really is not  important is not done and fades into insignificance.

Hold on, what if something that is important is not recognised as being important?” Excellent  question. Things that appear to need to be done, whether important or not, on your journey are  your friends - they are obstacles to your progress but think of them in terms of friends, or  learning opportunities.

Let me take a personal example if I may. Two things about running a business that I personally  do not enjoy: 1, Filing, 2. Doing the accounts. I appreciate that some people just adore filing  and doing the accounts but I don’t. In Push Mode, I resist doing them until I absolutely have to  or, usually, risk a penalty. It is the penalty that drives me to do it. I still hate doing it but I  dislike paying a penalty more. In Pull Mode, these things still come across my path but now I  see them as friends - the chance to look again at scraps of notes, letters or offers. I have  learned to change my mindset from doing the filing to my enjoyment of a clear desk and in-tray  and just do it. It’s no longer something I resist. Do I enjoy doing it? No, I don’t if I think about it  consciously, I just let it happen.

But what if it should be done and its not that critical or important?”

The chances are, for me,  that it won’t get done. Importantly, if I find myself resisting doing something, I stop, tune into  my thought processing and ask myself why I am resisting it?

For example, keen observers may have noted that I didn’t talk about doing my accounts in Pull  Mode above. You’d be right. It is something that I continued to resist - I can’t really explain  what it is about doing the accounts that I just don’t want to do, and I found this quite strange  considering that I do enjoy building spreadsheets of budgets and am quite au fait with P&L and  Balance Sheet - and then it occurred to me that I like thinking through future scenarios, but  what’s done is done. I honestly can’t be bothered about it. Now, of course, there’s legal  compliance… and I realised further, I really don’t like to be told that I have to do something. So  what did I learn from this resistance? I learned that I am quite happy considering the future and  do not wish to have to create organisation of the past. Decision? Outsource to someone  capable and trusted.

In Pull Mode, you only do the things that you want to do that move you towards your goal such  that the work you are doing is effortless. Obstacles that need to be overcome that meet with  your own resistance are a warning flag to you that something else is going on - stop and allow  yourself to consider what the resistance is trying to tell you.

Isn’t it possible then that you’ll go into Pull Mode, and miss the important things that need to  be done?

Sure it’s possible, but unlikely to be important in the achievement of the goal. Things that are a  requirement in your society but have no direct relationship to the achievement of your goal. Yet  there’s a third mode of being that is neither Push nor Pull, and that’s Drift Mode.