There is Straight-Up Power in Your Thoughts… So Be Careful

Changing a thought can alter the trajectory of your day and life

What is that dream, goal or vision that you have for your future that continues to allude you, dangling like a carrot just out of your reach and every time you try taking a stab at it, your brain fires up its negative rhetoric about how it’s too difficult to grasp, you’re not talented enough and why try when all that’s happened in the past is one failed attempt after another?

It seems like your mindset is set. It won’t let you believe in yourself. It keeps holding onto the same thoughts, putting them on replay while it snuggles up in its safe, cozy space. It thinks it’s keeping you safe when in reality, it’s keeping you small.

I’ve done quite a bit of reading about my mindset and here’s what I’ve come to learn. If you don’t believe in your skills, in your talents that each of us possesses, if you don’t believe with all your heart that you can break through any limiting belief or barrier, you will be wandering around within the confines of your comfort zone, unwilling to come remotely close to the edge.

Cultivating a powerful mindset is paramount in going after your dreams and vision. It’s not even about the actual achieving success, it’s about believing you can go after it. The stronger your thinking is, meaning the more positively focused on your outcome and the more intensely you believe you can make it happen, the more likely you will be able to weather any mental storm your mind throws at you.

A positive mindset won’t get caught in murky waters, sinking below the surface. It will rise to the challenge, take on the storm and come out on the other side more fiercely determined than before.

Now granted, you can have all the best intentions in the world, and the rhetoric will play out, some days leaving you powerless to fight against the forces. Some moments it’ll scream so loudly in your head it’ll knock you clear off your feet. And that’s ok. Really?

What’s not ok is to stay down. Roll around in it and believe it as truth. Believe me, I know!

Your story, your words, all have an impact on your success. Oftentimes people look back on their lives and think if they haven’t succeeded thus far, how can it be possible in the future? That’s taking the past and throwing it into your future, all in the same thought.

Looking into the past shouldn’t create shame, guilt, fear, or loathing. It should be looked at as an opportunity to see what worked, what didn’t work, and what new formulations can I create and experiment with based on all this past data. It’s data! Use it. Learn from it. Don’t assume it’s your future. Take it and create new assumptions, test them out and see what sticks.

If you’re able to look at things under the guise of a different assumption, you’ll be able to see your past as something different. You can interpret the past in a completely new way and make the information useful instead of defeating. You can stop judging yourself.

Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change.

I’ve Started Doing This

I started learning how to adopt a Growth Mindset. I stopped the thoughts that were on repeat that said I wasn’t smart enough and that I can’t. I decided to become consciously aware instead of allowing the thoughts to consume me and mold me.

It’s saying to yourself that you’re not that person anymore. You’re not the person who believes that thought to be true anymore, because it isn’t. I will tell myself that I’m smart and I can learn and improve and change my situation for the better.

The scariest part is taking those little steps outside the bubble of my comfort zone. So much resistance comes racing to the edge.

The key is to realize that these steps outside my comfort zone don’t have to be monumental. It could be as simple as asking someone to meet for coffee. Or actually thinking about and doing something about a topic that stretches my thinking, requiring more effort and research on my part.

Whatever makes you uncomfortable is going to expand you, stretch you a little and change you ever so slightly. It will create a new neural pathway and adjust your hardwiring.

Keep doing the things that make you uncomfortable and watch how much your life can change in one year. Or keep believing the negative conversations and limiting beliefs and see how quickly a year can pass with no change in thoughts or patterns.

A few months ago I never woke up at 4 am. I never do nearly as much as I do now. I didn’t believe in myself at all to be successful in anything. I had my head so stuck in my past, and I was so worried about the future that I ended up staying exactly where I was. Procrastinating they call it.

Committing to a New Strategy is a Key Component in Creating Success

What is it you want to achieve? (And this relates to anything in your life.) What do you want? If you want to lose 30 pounds, you need to take a real, long, good look at what that looks like to you. It needs to be detailed out.

Three months from now, what are you doing? Are you biking every day? Walking? What are the activities you’re enjoying now that make you feel amazing? How much healthier are you? And what have you done to get there? How do you feel? Better? Worse?

What are the changes you need to make a new you? Can you commit to those changes? What will your response be when you hit a snag and have a minor setback? What is it you’re telling yourself over the next three months? What does your ego have to say about that?

This is how I’m beginning to change my journey. I ask all sorts of questions and I see what answers pop up. There is a wealth of information just below the surface of the learned responses; the responses that immediately come to mind without any thought. Those are the ones that need altering, and when I dig a little, I’m able to replace those thoughts with higher quality ones. And that’s all you need to get started living a healthier life, with an improved mindset.

Question everything your mind has to say or is stubbornly set on having you believe. It’s those answers and beliefs that create the experiences in your life. If you want to improve your life, you first have to improve your mindset, let go of limiting beliefs and take one small step outside your comfort zone. To be able to even think ahead, in a positive way, and without feeling trapped.

That’s why mindset is everything. Everything.