Mindset is everything. This is one of the biggest ‘hacks’ to living a joyful life in spite of life’s circumstances.
Your mindset can be your greatest asset or your worst enemy. Your life will automatically go in the direction of your thoughts.
Do you feel stuck and overwhelmed in life? Do you feel that this life has nothing good for you? It will interest you to know that, many might not have been put behind bars before but surprisingly their mindsets have imprisoned them right in the comfort of their homes and they might have been serving the sentence since.
Many have been kept in bondage unknowingly by the kind of mindset they operate with.
Bear in mind that your life will be as good or as bad as your mindset is. Whatever transformation you’re seeking to enjoy in life will begin right in your mind. Positive thinking backed by positive actions will ultimately produce a positive and fruitful life, whilst negative thinking causing you to get stuck will produce a negative and backward life.
There’s no way you can decide to keep walking with negative thoughts and expect a positive life out of that. One cannot be walking backward and forward at the same time; you will have to choose one direction.
If you think that life is tough and unbearable and nothing good will emerge out of it, I’m sorry but that’s exactly what it’s going to be for you. On the other hand, you know for sure that life can be tough but you are deeply convinced that with perseverance you can make it to the other side and experience a peaceful and fulfilling life, that exactly will be your portion.
You decide whether you will allow that situation to destroy your joy or not based on what you think and feel about the situation. You know what, no circumstance has the capacity to steal your joy and peace in this life. Because true peace is never the absence of storms but the confident assurance that all will turn out just right knowing that God is in control.
Remember that what you choose to see determines your reality so you’ve got the power to change your reality by shifting your focus.
“Thoughts become perception, perception becomes reality. Alter your thoughts, alter your reality.” — William James
You may have been battling in prayer each day and binding ‘demons, but the shocking truth is that you may be your number one enemy and limitation based on the limiting beliefs you entertain on a daily basis.
In the Bible, the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years instead of using just twelve days to get to Canaan because their mindsets had to go through so much transformation in order to inherit the promise land.
Do you feel that your life is on standstill and that you aren’t making any progress in life? I will entreat you to take some time to reflect on how much your thinking may be negatively impacting you and preventing you from getting to your ‘promise land’ in life.
Let me reveal to you how the brain functions…
The brain automatically functions to keep you safe and alive. That’s why it will switch the “fight or flight” system on so you can run as fast as you can on meeting the lion in the jungle or gather the needed courage and effort to kill the lion if you can. This is a good survival instinct which is badly needed to survive in this dangerous world full of devourers.
So the brain does everything to keep you “safe” in your comfort zone. That’s why about 98% of human population will prefer to stay in their comfort and familiar zones whilst only 2% will dare break the status quo to impact the world.
The mind does not know what is true and what is not. What you keep telling it is what will definitely become its truth. Whatever you keep repeating to your mind will become downloaded into your subconscious and your life will get programmed with exactly that.
Therefore your ability to decipher when there is a real threat from when your mind wants to limit you from launching out deeper in life is extremely crucial.
Fear is False Evidence Appearing Real. Your brain will sometimes give you a false alarm whenever you decide to step out of your comfort zone. You will feel the fear but do not let it paralyse you. Instead, let it fuel your courage to still take steps and do it anyway. Let fear rather push you to seek more knowledge in order to take the best action that will propel your life in the right direction.
Mindset is everything
I want to reveal to you this very moment that mindset is indeed everything.
Let’s take two people who were given a similar goal to achieve. The same kind of obstacle was brought their way in their pursuit. The one with an overcomer’s mindset will not see the obstacle as a ‘stop’ sign post.
He will immediately shift his mindset in the positive direction by seeing the obstacle as an opportunity to re-strategize, learn and gather more energy to overcome the obstacle or create a new route to get to the finish point. “Oops! The road is blocked, but we will find another way to make it to our destination.” And at the end of it all he is better, wiser and stronger.
The one with the defeater’s mindset gets stuck immediately he meets this roadblock and will see this as a ‘stop and do not continue’ sign post. “Oops! The road is blocked, let’s get back home since there’s no way we can continue this journey. This is not meant to be.”
The mindset plays a key role in how far one can go in life. Oh yes! You will only go as far as your mind can take you. Mindset is the game-changer which separates the ‘boys’ from the ‘men’
You may not have control over the obstacles life presents to you, but you have total control over how you make them mean to you.
Time for a mind detox
Feed your body with junk and your body will get sick. Feed your mind with junk and it will get toxic and sick too…
Some years back, I enrolled in a 21-day body transformation program to help shed some post-partum belly fat so as to stay in shape and remain fit.
The program commenced with a 7- day detox. The health coach prescribed several ingredients mostly in the form of natural herbs and vegetables from which I made several kinds of detox water and smoothies to initiate the body detox process. The process of detox is supposed to eliminate toxins or unhealthy substances that have accumulated in the body over time.
After a week’s detox, a meal plan which included only healthy vegetable diet and daily workouts were then prescribed. I was super confident that I was going to achieve this health goal I set for myself and viola, I did! The toxins and body fat that had accumulated in my body for years were flushed out and I felt so healthy, vibrant and perfectly in shape.
Many at times, we find ourselves putting in all the measures to stay physically healthy and fit; right from infancy we are taught how to maintain a good personal hygiene and that easily becomes a part of our daily routine.
But pause for some seconds and ask yourself this question, how many times in your life have you ever taken any steps towards keeping a healthy mind? Have you ever sensed the need to think about what you think about on a daily basis? Is it even relevant to detox your mind from the negative and false thoughts you have always clinged to, which is becoming a reality to you?
The repetitive thoughts of “I am a failure”, “I do not match up”, “Why am I still single?” “Nobody loves me”, “I feel lonely and abandoned” etc are all forms of junk which poisons our minds and keep us mentally unhealthy.
It will interest you to know that more often than not we incur more psychological traumas than physical traumas growing up, but most of these go unnoticed; some too are ignored and are never addressed.
A parent is quick to get that gauze and ointment to dress that obvious bleeding cut on a child’s leg, but that unseen traumatic experience which has had a dent on the child’s mindset is never addressed let alone get healed, and it festers to impact the individual’s life negatively. This child grows up into a hurt adult and hurt others as well.
We’ve got to be mentally healthy. We’ve got to take every thought captive and keep renewing our minds. You’ve got to catch all those limiting thoughts quickly before they enter your heart and become a part of you. As a man thinks so is he. You are your thoughts. Your thoughts make you. Your thoughts steer your life. Your life will go in the direction of your thoughts.
2 Corinthians 10:4- 5 says “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.’
There is a battle ongoing in our minds every moment, and we’ve got to be armed with the power of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit because the devil, the accuser of the brethren is at work day and night to confuse our thoughts and turn what is nothing into something so we can waste the whole day worrying.
So what’s the way forward?
The negative thoughts no doubt will pop up but it’s up to you to decide whether you will give those thoughts a special room in your brain to lodge and incubate to produce negativity all around you.
In life, whatever you focus on expands and becomes magnified. Whatever you focus on will ultimately become multiplied in your life. If you focus on the negative, continue to bombard your mind with negativity, stay in a negative environment, your life will no doubt turn out negative. Just as a computer is programmed to function, be sure you deliberately program your mind with the right software by feeding it with positive thoughts so it can serve you well.
Decide to keep a positive focus and you will be amazed at how energized you will become to continue pressing on in spite of the hurdles this life presents to you.
The same energy it takes to think negative can be channelled into thinking the right things that will serve you well. Take absolute control of your mind and let it work for you instead of against you.
Address that negative thought immediately it pops up in your mind and replace it with a positive thought. Keep training your mind and build those muscles of positivity and you will be amazed at how beautifully your life will turn out.
Your mind speaks to you- “You are weak”,” You cannot do it!” Tell yourself boldly- “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. He that is in me is greater than he that is in the world. His strength is made perfect in my weakness. I am enough and I am meant for much more!”
Conclusion
No matter how big that challenge may seem, remember that all hope is never lost until you decide to throw in the towel. Shift your perspective. Look beyond this current situation, pick up all those bitter lemons and you will be amazed at the great lemonade you can make out of them.
Rise up and break through all those mental roadblocks which have crippled you for far too long. Set yourself free and dive right into life with higher doses of positivity to achieve greater exploits.
All is not lost. This is not the end of the road for you .Your best is yet to come. The Lord will work it all out for your good if you renew your mindset and remain faithful to Him in the period of adversity.
I understand it may be difficult but I encourage you to renew and infuse your mind with more doses of positivity. You are bold, you are fabulous and you deserve the best in life.
The writer is a medical doctor at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi-Ghana; a Relationship and Life Coach, Breakup and Divorce Healing Support Expert.
She coaches people to break free from the hurts of broken marriages and relationships keeping them stuck in life, so they can turn their pain into wisdom, live their best life and find love again when the time is right.
Contact: +233596350763
Email: [email protected]
