We can choose our attitude
How would you describe your life right now? Are you surviving from day to day or thriving? I do not intend to highlight your problems, but rather to help you get an idea of your current conditions. It takes courage to take an introspective look at ourselves, especially when we don’t like what we see.
Most people never go on this journey because highlighting their shortcomings threatens their self-esteem. The problem is that we get stuck and stagnant, without growing or moving forward. I am sure that if you are reading this article, you are not that person. You are not the person to rest on your laurels because something within you identifies with growth and expansion.
Even if you don’t know how to improve your life, you recognize that you are not satisfied. If you are not prospering in the respective areas of your life, what is the cause? Honestly, what do you think is holding you back from reaching your potential in this area?
It could say external factors like the economy, unforeseen circumstances, or something else. I am not ruling out these factors, but we can still choose our attitude and overcome our difficulties.
Do you agree with this? Do you think that some people are given an easy hand in life, while others have a hard one? Be careful with your answer because this is a belief that can stunt your growth. Perhaps there is a reason why some people face more difficulties than others. They may be called to serve others through their purpose.
life is not a problem to be solved
I don’t know his particular story to comment on, but having trained hundreds of people over the years, I have observed a theme in many people’s lives. Those who excel in life come from unlucky backgrounds. Some were abused as children; others lost loved ones when they were young. Some experience illnesses from which they recover.
That’s why I’m drawn to the quote from motivational speaker Jim Rohn, who said, “The same wind blows over us all; the winds of disaster, opportunity, and change. Therefore, it is not the blowing of the wind, but the setting sail the sails that will determine our direction in life”.
It is true that life is subject to pain, disappointment and suffering. Some of us suffer more than others, but it is our attitude or what Jim Rohn calls: the setting of the candles that determines our direction in life. It is if we choose to bounce back from our setbacks and grow from those experiences.
As you have probably noticed, life is about growth and expansion, and we can’t stop this process other than interrupting the sunrise in the morning. Life weaves its wisdom of impermanence and change throughout our lives, and we can retreat into despair or accept challenges.
Sometimes we lament our experience and believe that we are being treated unfairly. But it does not change our circumstances. Feeling victimized doesn’t change the fact that reality wins out over our beliefs about it. Life doesn’t care if we think it’s fair. It is not a factor, because justice is not what life is.
A better question to ask is: what am I called to learn about this situation? Where is the growth in this challenge? Who do I have to become to see this situation from a higher perspective? We have to change our thinking and stop believing that life is being imposed on us.
Life is not happening to us, it is happening to us. When we change the way we see things, the things we look at begin to change. This is the underlying message of the American author, Dr. Wayne Dyer.
It is the understanding; life is not a problem to be solved, but to be experienced from the level of the soul. Life is a sea of contrasts, where we choose how to see our difficulties. We can see them through the lens of pain and disappointment or growth and expansion.
It takes a certain mindset to adopt this way of thinking. It doesn’t happen overnight and with enough pain and anguish we finally learn that life is pulling the strings and that we are a tiny speck in a vast universe, constantly contracting and expanding.
A flexible mind is a prosperous mind
I often remind coaching clients when they are overwhelmed by their difficulties to go into Google Earth and see their problems in the realm of the cosmos. It requires stepping back and acknowledging that life is not being made to us, but expanding through us.
Do you get the feeling that surviving and thriving are different mindsets? If we want to move from one to the other, we must be flexible in our thinking. We need to expand our understanding of our problems and look at them through the lens of growth and opportunity.
A flexible mind is a mind open to change, which is the only thing that flows throughout life. We cannot resist change, otherwise we remain stagnant and victimized. Life is doing what it does; expand and contract.
Since we are the stuff of life, we should allow life to flow through us instead of running away from our problems. We both know that it never works out when we run away from problems.
With this in mind, I invite you to consider the questions I asked you in the opening paragraph. Sit down for 10-15 minutes and write honest answers to the questions. Approach the exercise as if you were trusting someone you trust. Here, that someone is your private diary.
Try to get an idea of what is stopping you from thriving. Do not try to find a solution yet, because that will come when you have an open mind. The key is to identify the problem, and a solution will emerge in due time. Ultimately, a flexible mind is a prosperous mind because it is open to change, which is the essence of life.
