One of the most difficult things to master in life is your own mind. Every one of us has hundreds, maybe even thousands, of thought patterns that repeat themselves over and over in our head.
Some of these thoughts are supportive of our goals and self esteem but many of them actually hurt us or hold us back.
Taking control of your mind and directing your thoughts towards the things you want in life can be a huge challenge. But when you are able to overcome the challenges and focus on the things you intend to create in your life, the results can be amazing and exciting.
Let’s say, for example, that you have had a lifelong dream of traveling the world for a year. You know that this would be a life changing experience that you would remember forever.
But then you look at your current circumstances and you see a laundry list of reasons why this dream could never come true: a good job you can’t leave, a lack of funding, commitments to family, friends, teams and organizations, etc…
Your mind immediately says, “this trip is not possible until you clear all of those obstacles out of the way.” You then realize that removing all of those limitations is next to impossible and even if you are able to remove them, new obligations/limitations will replace the existing ones.
At the same time, you could look at other areas of your life where you are able to make things happen that seem impossible: you meet a crazy deadline at work, you brave the snowy roads and somehow make 3 family events for Christmas, you get the kids to school and yourself to work despite a huge traffic jam and car problems. The point is, you are achieving things in your life, on a regular basis, that seem difficult or impossible when you analyze them. Yet you seem to pull them off over and over again because you had no other choice… you had to get these things done.
When you realize that you have this ability to make things happen and figure things out “on the fly”, you gain a new confidence that you can apply to even the biggest goals in your life.
So if your dream is to travel the world but there are a mountain of excuses stopping you, the real solution is to treat the dream as inevitable and start acting as though it is inevitable. It could start with a small action like doing research on places to stay in your dream locations or it could start with a huge action like buying plane ticket to the first country on your dream list. This first action will lead to another and like every other time in your life, you will figure it out as you go along only this time, instead of getting the kids to school or finishing that project at work, you will be fulfilling a lifelong dream!
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