Your guide to a healthier perspective of life
“A man is what he thinks about all day long.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Protect your thoughts. If you let negativity seep in, you will become a negative person. Be conscious of your thoughts and if they are what you do NOT want to become, change your way of thinking.
“The world’s apparent chaos is only a reflection of our own inner turmoil.” – Michael Gerber
The problem isn’t the world. It’s us. Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. Are you going to react poorly? Are you going to let your emotions get the best of you? Control yourself. Control your responses. If you can’t do that, you are just a grown up, older child. Be mature and don’t act on impulse.
“Comfort makes cowards of us all.” Michael Gerber in “The E-Myth Revisited”
How true this is. We use comfort as a crutch. We don’t like being uncomfortable and, as a result, try to get back to that comfortable place. But staying in your comfort zone leads to mediocrity. Staying in your comfort zone leads to complacency. It keeps you hidden from the world. Stay hidden, keep your opinions to yourself, and you might as well consider yourself invisible. That’s fine if you want average. It all starts with a mindset though. Embrace discomfort and you will be on the path to self-improvement.
When things don’t go as planned, you can either look at it as a negative or spin it into a positive. For example:
When you’re sore from a workout, it allows you to be grateful for everyday when you feel “normal.”
When you’re sick, it allows you to be grateful for when you’re healthy.
When you got a bad night of sleep, it allows you to be grateful for when you sleep really well (or even moderately well).
We can go on and on with the examples. The point is that things won’t always go your way in life. You may have a plan, but there’s little reason to believe that everything will go exactly according to that plan. You can either pout when that happens and get down on your luck, or you can spin the narrative. Use it to your advantage and learn to really embrace the things we often take for granted.
Just remember, when you’re feeling sick, or tired, or sore, it’s only temporary. What about those who are chronically sick, tired, or sore? What about those people who have it way worse than you – who don’t have access to medicine, to a bed or proper shelter to sleep/live in, or who are physically or mentally handicapped?
It’s easy to make yourself the center of your world, because you’re always with yourself and you’re always aware of how you’re feeling. But once you reframe you’re perspective and start thinking about other people and their situations, you can begin feeling more grateful for even your “bad” days.
All you can do is all you can do. There is no more. Sorry, but you can’t give 110%. I know it’s a popular phrase, but it’s not possible. You only have 100% to do it. Maybe eventually you’ll increase your capacity so that what is your full effort today becomes more effortless in the future. But in terms of today, you can only try your best to do what you’re capable of.
You can only control what you can control – your effort and your attitude. Stop worrying about the future. Stop worrying about what other people will think. Stop worrying about the results. If you continue to follow the process, and it’s the right process, the results you desire usually come. It doesn’t always work out (there is no formula for guaranteed success), but if you think in bets and play the odds, you can put yourself in the best position to succeed.
All you can do is all you can do. The key to reducing stress is to let everything else go.