Ever wonder how you got to where you are? While there is no doubt circumstance plays its role, the core values and beliefs inherited from childhood onwards is largely responsible for your current station in life.
The story you tell yourself forges your destiny
Whether we realise it or not, we all have an internal dialogue which dictates the outcome of our lives. For most, negative self-talk prevents us from reaching our potential.
Fed by a constant barrage of disempowering information from the media, community figures, and even our own parents, it is no surprise so many give up on their goals as they move through adulthood.
Thankfully, you can seize control of the pen writing your story. Instead of letting default beliefs decide your future, you can replace them with empowering ones. When you install these beliefs in your head, the choices you make are influenced by them, leading you closer to your goals.
Failure isn’t final – unless you give up
While it is important to adopt a positive self-image and set of beliefs which serve your long-term goals, it is inevitable you will fail along the way. How we respond to these setbacks have a huge impact on how our lives will unfold in the future.
Sadly, after smacking into the first few roadblocks, most get discouraged with their lack of progress and go back to the meagre existence from which they desperately want to escape. Successful people view failure as stepping stones to the goals they wish to achieve.
They analyse why they didn’t hit their ‘views’ goal on YouTube, make necessary adjustments, and compare those results to the ones they get a week later. In their mind, failure isn’t the end of the world – it is just another data point in the ongoing experiment known as life.
Nothing has meaning – except what we give it
Emotion is not an external affliction – it wells up from within us. From the moment we are born, we assign meaning to every commonly encountered situation. Many events have a positive (receiving a compliment from a co-worker) or negative (being mugged on a street corner) meaning attached to them by society.
However, some associations vary considerably between average and successful people. Receiving your first troll comment on a video is a classic example – creators who view this occurrence negatively may fold in the face of such pressure, while those who view it positively aren’t bothered by it, as they take it as a sign they are discussing a subject of great importance.
Work on your mindset every day
As time goes by, your goals will shift. Life will creep up on you when you least expect it. You will happen upon new information which will challenge your perspective. For these reasons and others, it is important to reevaluate your mindset on a daily basis.
At a minimum, reinforcing the same core values you committed to the day before will help you stay on track to achieve your current goals.
In the long term, it will help you re-align your life around new goals, get back on the horse after a life event (maternity leave, the flu, losing your day job, etc) derails you, and it will give you the needed framework to reject or incorporate any new beliefs you encounter.
