One of the things I appreciated about the story of Billy Beane (Oakland A’s General Manager) as depicted in the movie, “Moneyball”  is how he handles his  superstition  about effecting the outcome of the game if he is on-site rather than in the underground gym watching it on the screens.  Boy can I sure relate to that belief.  Early on in my therapeutic exploration of my past, they called my idea of making sure everything happened perfectly the way my eleven year old brain wanted it to, by touching every other fence post and hopping over all the lines on the sidewalk, as bordering on obsessive/compulsive.

And I swear whenever I deign to watch a Cowboy’s game with my little brother, they slide into losing until I leave the room. I have to be out of the room for them to win—hence I do not watch anymore Cowboy Games (but they still lose!)

Perhaps a good healthy does of superstitions is a way for us to listen/see our fears in a creative way that we can process and digest but taken too extremes, of course, it can get in our way.  Take for example that I am offering a weekend retreat (December 16-18, 2011) at one of my favorite places outside of Wimberley, Texas (The Red Corral Ranch) to explore my friend and best-selling author Janet Conner’s book, “Writing Down Your Soul“.  I love this book and the process and when I offered some weekly meetings a year ago to explore the book–people loved it!

Well, the superstition enters in because although I have had some very successful and fun retreats throughout the past ten years (I believe retreats are so important to offer women to take a rest!)  because of one lone retreat where I got in over my head due to the cost of the accommodations and had to PAY to attend MY OWN retreat….I have not offered one for the past 2 or 3 years until now.  Almost immediately upon announcing this retreat and inviting people to attend, I began hearing from those who wanted to join me.  In fact, I already have one person paid in full already (all that is requested now is to turn in the $75 deposit and pay the remainder by November 16) to cover the cost of the accommodations and the retreat itself.

But I’m having that Dallas Cowboy game kind of a feeling about returning to those people who said they were interested to  button that up with them (you know, giving them detailed info about the hows and wheres etc.).  Can you imagine if CEOs of companies out there allowed themselves to be swayed by their superstitions?!  Some might fare well in spite of themselves, but I doubt very many would thrive with the restriction of superstitions.

It’s great when a person like me can make connections about cause and effect and see above, beyond and around what many cannot in order to connect the dots. However, when the connections are taken too far off in any direction….well, it is no different then if I had photo shopped my own imagination.

How about you? Do you ever allow superstitions to get in your way?