Decide Who You Want to Be. Then Become the Person Who Does That.
How Mindset & Routine control your life.
You have big dreams. You know you are capable of achieving those dreams. You’ve played them out 100 times in your head. If you only had more time, more money. You think this would surely be yours if only you lived in a different time or place. Surely your dreams would be a reality if you didn’t have to go to that job you hate that eats up all your precious time.
The realities are you dreams can become your future life is you could just get out of your own way. Bogged down by excuses, routine, daily life, laziness, or worse, “they won’t let me”.
Gurl! I am here to tell you to stop that negative self talk. It’s doing no one any good. All a negative outlook is providing is the comfort of staying put in a life you aren’t 100 percent happy with.
How do I know?
Because I have a list of my own self defeating habits.
The Goal is to break free from the habits that make your daily life and establish a new routine. After all, our mindset and daily routines control what we really get in life.
Could it possibly be that fear is holding you back? Or laziness? Maybe you’re a procrastinator, a busy maker, or suffer from analysis paralysis.
Whatever it is that keeps you tied to living a life designed from your past thoughts and behaviors, today we are going to talk about simple steps you can take starting now to step into the life of your future dreams.
Fear
We all deal with fear in some way or another. Let’s face it, most of us sit around and let fear control our lives so much that we end up living a life of protective walls guarded by anxiety.
Here is a list of some common fears we all deal with on some level.
- What if I fail?
- What if I’m rejected?
- What if I look bad?
- What will others think?
- What if “they” laugh at me?
- What if I look stupid?
- I don’t have enough time
- I don’t have enough money
- I don’t know the right people
And let’s not forget the I’m nots
- I’m not qualified
- I’m not smart
- I’m not attractive
- I’m not old enough
- I’m not young enough
- I’m not fit enough
What I see here is a whole lot of “I’m not enough”. Go ahead, add your own fears to this list. Family fears, social fears, work fears, money fears.
We all have them. Lurking around waiting for us to step outside our comfort zone. Them Blam-O! They rear their ugly heads.
What if you took those fears and turned them into a positive?
For instance, now that you’ve identified your fears, think about what the opposite of those fears would look like.
I’m not smart enough, is huge! but what if you redirected the thought to be something more positive. “I’m learning about my craft, and everyday I feel more qualified to do the work.”
Change, “I’m so tired after working all day to have any energy to pursue my art.” to “I love that I can use my time at work to learn about the online skills I’ll use once my art is online.”
Clearly you need to take the time to re-direct these statements. Make them affirmations. Then post them somewhere you can see them daily.
Do it Now! I’ll wait.
Remember fear is just energy. And energy can be shifted. It may feel silly or forced or untrue at first, but if you continue to reframe, you will start to feel that energy change within yourself.
The Grass is Greener
Let me tell you what I know about grass. It’s not always greener on the other side. It’s greener where you water it. If you waste your time checking out your neighbors yard and how great it looks instead of focusing your attention on your own yard then yay, their yard will be greener.
Start taking care of your own yard. Pretty soon you’ll notice you have something in common with the neighbors yard. A conversation will naturally start. Tricks will be traded. The value of both your homes curb appeal with increase, you will be learning as you grow.
In a nutshell, clean up your own backyard. The grass will be greener when you do.
Take care of all the little things. These add up to the big things. break it down into sections and start plugging away.
Here’s a list of small things you can do everyday that will save you time, money, mental power so you can focus on the important stuff.
- Make your bed
- Take a shower
- Get dressed
- Brush your teeth and your hair.
- Silence your phone
- Limit your social media scrolling
- Clean your home.
- De-clutter
Seems silly? Maybe, but it’s the little things we do to take care of our outer environment that affect our inner environment. Small steps equals big changes.
Baby Steps
Establish a morning routine. Make it one that doesn’t include jumping on your phone first thing in the morning. When you do this you are diving head first into the troubles of the world, and reminding yourself of who you were yesterday. Your algorithm is set up to reflect the person you have been. Not the person you are becoming.
If this seems impossible to you, then take the time and clean up your feed. Only like and click on positive things and images that will lead you to more of those thoughts and feelings. Dump the voices of negative dividing news links and stories. Make your scrolling a pleasant one.
Start writing down 3 things you will do everyday to lead you into the direction of your dreams. Break them down into baby steps so they don’t overwhelm you. Do these things first thing in the morning so they don’t linger all day. Or plan out what time you will work on them so you don’t continue to put off what’s important.
This will help establish a morning routine that is designed to move you forward.
Simple Not Easy
Note that I said these are simple tasks you can set into motion right now. I did not say easy. This is why it’s important to break the big steps into small ones.
Making your bed sounds simple enough, but if it’s not a part of your normal daily routine, then it may take some brain power at first. I use this example because there are a ton of studies, stemming from the Marines, that suggest that doing this sets up the vibe of your whole day. Look into it here.
We are all in a state of uncertainty right now as we are quarantined at home. What a great opportunity to establish your new mindset and morning routine. You aren’t going anywhere (please don’t go anywhere), and you have the time. I understand how nice sweats, Netflix, sleeping in can be, but is it helping you reach your dreams?
Use this time wisely. Get ahead now in your efforts. It’s a great opportunity the world just gave you. You can shine, or scroll. You decide.
