“The last time I was putting that helmet on, just the smell of the rubber made me feel so bad. This time everything is totally different. Its still the same smell, but its related to something else. Its not my enemy anymore. I think the biggest link that I created is this;

Where you are going to go, normally you shouldn’t be there, but as soon as you wear that suit, it allows you to be there. Its the only way to survive in that hostile environment, and by thinking about that, changes the whole picture.”

When I heard Felix Baumgartner say this, I paused the TV and quickly jotted it down.

It resonated with me particularly this week because I have been working on the idea of how concept determines experience and whether, with the right system, we can turn any situation to our advantage regardless of what it is, or whether this is just wishful, naive thinking.

Reframing is nothing new. NLP has spoken about it since the beginning and the idea that every event or situation is neutral. It is just our beliefs that give an occurrence its identity to which we then attach an emotional and behavioral response to.

Also it was apparent from the interviews with Felix that there where lots of different psychological techniques that needed to applied to create his new belief that his Suit was not the enemy anymore, but his savior.

In order to change your beliefs about something you need leverage. You must really want to change something to have a chance of continued success.

However that was not enough. Felix really wanted to jump from space more than anything but his claustrophobia from the suit, (or what this symptom really symbolised) – made it impossible. He had inner conflict.

“I feared and hated the suit because of my desire for freedom.

Because the real cause of Felix’s problem wasn’t the means value, which he called freedom, which had in the past aloud him to achieve all his other feats.

It was really a question of, ‘what does not having the freedom mean’ to him deep down which turned out to be, as he said himself :

“The worry is I won’t fly supersonic or, in the worst-case scenario, I’m not as fast as Joe Kittinger was in 1960. You have to explain to the world that, 52 years later, you’re slower than Joe? My worst fear was not dying, but failing to fly supersonic.”

So sometimes even when you consciously really want something, if underneath there is something that you fear more, then you will fail.

Felix did lots of psychological practices to change his mind, and yet after watching the BBC2 programme and reading lots of articles about him what initially appears to have provoked him to make the change and come back to the space programme was jealousy.

It was only when he saw footage of a replacement doing his job in testing that he was shocked into returning.

“I felt jealous,” he says, “and I thought: ‘You’re not supposed to be in my suit.’ I saw the BBC film yesterday and it’s disturbing because you see my name on the helmet, then you realise: ‘Hey, that’s not Felix. Some other guy is in there.’ No offence to Rob [the test pilot].

……. it really hurt my feelings when I saw Rob in my suit. It felt like I’d been replaced. Of course, it was part of the journey, but when you’re inside that situation you never like drama.”

The chicken and egg question I then asked myself was this.

Would he of come back and achieved what he did without the therapy before hand?

After all, the therapy Felix had done up to this point may have helped but it did not bring him back. Seeing someone else in his suit did.

Would he have come back because of jealousy anyway, but then still been unable to wear the suit because of the underlying fears he had, had he not done the therapy previously to clear them up?

Also did he need therapy prior to coming back in order to be able to reframe the meaning of the suit when he did return or would he have done that naturally without it?

Do you need the seed first of an idea first, or great soil to plant it in order to grow it?

Which ever one it is, what is sure is that Felix once provoked, then had enough leverage to act and see his goals through.

Which brings me back round to what I mentioned earlier, which I call The Advantage Strategy.

And I have found it is a great way to ‘change my soil’ or my perception in every situation.

Whenever something I perceive as negative happens I quickly ask my self ‘WHATS MY ADVANTAGE?’ (I.E – How can I win in this situation. How can it benefit me. How can I turn this to my Advantage)

It sounds simple, and perhaps at first glance naive or insulting. However what I am suggesting is that what it does is it directs your mind to find aspects from what can often be a terrible situation and draw strength from them in order to cope.

It doesn’t necessarily mean everything will be roseY and easy. That would be madness. Life’s not like that.

What I am saying is whatever our reality is it is not going away regardless of how we react to it. As Katie Byron says, “Everytime I fight reality I lose”.

By asking what is my advantage, begins to condition the mind to search for proactive and useful ways to channel our thoughts and actions just like it did for Felix with the suit.

 Its still the same smell, but its related to something else.

Its not my enemy anymore.

I think the biggest link that I created is this;

Where you are going to go, normally you shouldn’t be there, but as soon as you wear that suit, it allows you to be there. Its the only way to survive in that hostile environment, and by thinking about that, changes the whole picture.”

Try iT Perhaps and see what comes into your mind. You may surprise yourself.