Where do you want to move to? I am not asking where you want to live geographically. I am inquiring how you want to live your life. Where do you want to move in your life? Do you want to move from 200 pounds to 170 pounds? Do you want to move from feeling lethargic and unmotivated to energetic and inspired? How about moving from just scraping by financially to living free from financial worry? These kinds of changes may seem miraculous to many, and yet it is achievable by all of us.
“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds u to be.” Abraham Lincoln
The most powerful thing we can do to change our circumstances is make up our mind to do so. It’s deeper than just deciding to make a change. Every day, people decide to make a change in their life. Then as soon as they are met with any adversity they snap back to their old familiar ways and settle for the mediocrity that they have come to despise. It’s not because they are not capable of powering through to achieving what they want. Their mindset is set up for upset rather than a step up.
What I am proposing is learning how to make stepping up our default way of thinking; to make up our mind so that it is set up in a way that can better serve us in achieving what we desire. Where we find ourselves today is a culmination of a mind we have made up for ourselves up to this point in time. Want a different experience in life? Make up a different mind.
Every day, the moment we lift our head from our pillow, we have all we need to create miracles in our lives and even the lives of others. It’s when we forget this simple truth that the illusion we are stuck in our circumstances perpetuates. Be mindful to not fall into the trap of thinking that a miracle is an outer reversal of physical laws. Rather it is an inner shift in perspective. We always have the power to choose the most healthy perspective.
Famous physicist Albert Einstein would often say, “What we say to ourselves before we look at something, determines what we see.” If we want to see a more fit physique in the mirror, a bigger bank account, relationships we relish, or a more booming business, we must be mindful of what we say to ourselves before we look at what currently is.
The emotional quicksand we may find ourselves fighting against comes from our developed ability to find plenty of evidence of why things are not going our way rather than the seeing the signs we either have what we want already or are progressing toward its achievement.
The good news – bad news is, we are evaluation creatures always making up, in our minds, what situations and circumstances mean, and ultimately what it all means about us. If the meaning inflates our feeling of confidence and well being, that is great. If the meaning deflates us, that’s not so great.
Here are several questions we can carry with us to help make up some new compelling meanings along our journey:
- Could a setback maybe just be a step back, so we can see a bigger picture?
- Could a missed opportunity maybe be an unintended detour to a better way?
- Is it possible that a stumbling block is really a stepping stone?
- Could it be a low bank account is an indicator to go do what we know we need to do?
- Could it be that wherever we find ourselves is a sign for us to recognize if we have made up the mind we want for getting us to where we want to be?
- Could it be our past is the trail we leave behind and is not indicative of our future?
- Is it possible believe that failures are neither fatal nor final; they simply reveal we stay open to another way.
- Could it be that a mistake contains the power to grow us into someone we could never have become without it?
The made-up minds of those that succeed simply learned and made it a habit of making up meanings that inflate their feeling of confidence and well being to carry them to the achievement of their goals. It is not an ordained quality for others that we may have missed out on. It is a learned and practiced quality that anyone can develop.
This week, for every occurrence that may activate the internal voice of the critical self-judge, let’s focus on finding three positive possible perspectives for every critical angle that may be our diminishing default. It takes practice. Notice the quick default that attempts to pull us under, then ask, “What else could this mean?” and “What else could this mean?” and “What else could this mean?”
Make it up, make it fun, and get it done!