You have the ability to tell your mind what to do, but what you don’t have is the ability to tell it what not to do.
If you don’t believe me, try it right now.
Tell yourself not to think about something, anything, and just see how that works out for you.
This concept is instrumental in knowing how to change directions in life. It is here that you have the chance to reparent yourself and change your relationship with the narratives in your life. If the narratives that your mind is spinning up aren’t actually helping, all of the self-denying in the world will be useless. For example, if you have an underlying belief that you are a failure, the more that you try to tell yourself that you aren’t a failure, the more you will focus on the fact that your mind has a belief that you are. You can redirect your attention to what you want to create, but you can’t tell yourself to stop focusing on the narratives that you’ve already created. Said simply, shift your focus to what works and what you want as opposed to what isn’t working and what you don’t want. Stop dwelling on what isn’t serving your life and begin to look for what is. Psychologically, your brain is set up for that solution. When you identify areas in your life that aren’t working for you, you have to take these moments to calmly search for alternative narratives, and then choose the one that you want to adopt. It’s not always easy but it certainly is this simple.
You can choose to believe something different than you have believed your entire life. Limiting beliefs are blinding and lead you to believe that you are up against a legitimate wall, as they create walls in your mind.
If you want to change your reality, it is only your thinking that you must change.
The rest will follow suit. Your mind will tell you something about failure, but you can choose the way in which you respond. Most people don’t feel they have the ability to choose how they respond to something. Once again, that is just a misconception about how life works. What holds us back in reality are patterns, not reality itself.
This blog was an excerpt from Rick's second and newest book, Ambitious Heroes and Heartache.
Rick is an author, speaker and an educator who specializes in helping individuals and organizations understand themselves better so that they can; increase performance, find meaning in their work and build a life that is in alignment with their ultimate goals.
As a former member of the Naval special operations community as well as ultra endurance athlete, Rick crafts content to help lead people through adversity and into a life of meaning. You can hear his ideas on his podcast Morning Coffee which airs Monday through Friday or by picking up a copy of his debut book, Burn Your Couch.
On February 26, 2020, Rick and I will be doing an IG LIVE at 8:30 pm EST on my page @deebird20 and we will be discussing Rick's imprint of service in the world.
I will be recording the IG LIVE and uploading the audio here for you to listen to in the future.
Thank you for your constant support in my mission to spread holistic healing education, tools, and skill across the world!
All the love, Danielle
