All the power you need to succeed lies within.
The mind is a powerful thing.
When I first created an email signature, I didn’t have any degrees to boast about so I put a quote: “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve” by Napoleon Hill. I said these kinds of things to people all the time…and eventually my friends expected me to say them. Very soon I became known as the person that’s “always positive” – which is cool, because I was mostly positive and even when I wasn’t I would wear a smile that would hide any shadow of doubt.
Eventually, after acting like this person that was always positive I pretty much became that person.
What are thoughts anyway?
They just seem like abstract things. How can these intangible brain farts shape our life in any way?
A few years ago a group of friends and I went to an outdoor “adventure” park of sorts. I have never been a risk-taker, so of course I did not want to go zip-lining. I just kept seeing how I would face-slam into a tree like Tarzan in those Disney cartoons (except I wouldn’t bounce back that quickly). I had also watched this movie about a man who went zip lining in South America and he fell from the line and some men from an organized crime ring found him and started taking his bone marrow to keep their boss alive. Yeah, a lot of bad thoughts! So, I vehemently refused to go zip lining with the rest of the crew. I volunteered to watch everyone’s belongings until they came back.
They went to pay for their escapade and were short a few dollars, so I made up the shortfall. Little did I know they were short only because they had paid for me to go along as well. As they literally dragged me – kicking and screaming to the first stop – I zoned out when the operator started giving instructions, then quickly zoned back in when I remembered I didn’t want to end up like that man from the movie. We had three sections of the park to cover. After the first one – I was terrified but felt okay; by the second I was having a great time; and at the final one – I was disappointed with how short the distance was.
I share this bizarre story to illustrate that sometimes we block our minds to amazing experiences without even knowing it. We, for no good or concrete reason, decide that we are never doing this or that. These thoughts build up a wall in our mind and completely block us from even rational arguments to take the action or behaviour.
Create your own opportunities
At the end of 2018 I was slightly confused about what I wanted my life to look like, career-wise. I had been in a great job, then I went back to school…and now I had no idea where my life was going. The job prospects that followed definitely mirrored this. In theory the positions were cool, and they seemed like good jobs on paper…but I was pretty miserable and the job descriptions (looking back at it now) were SO VAGUE! I mean, it felt like they weren’t even sure what they wanted me to do.
At the beginning of 2019 I decided to really take control of this whole process.
RELATED POST
Jen Sincero, in her book “You are a badass”, notes that the entire world (with which we react) has energy. We are all vibrating at a rate in which to match the universe. Now when this vibration occurs alongside things we value or things we dream about – then it is magical. But, for this to happen we have to transform our thoughts; break down those walls and be mindful of just how much our own thoughts can influence our lives.
So by January 2019, I looked for jobs online almost everyday. I was also applying to jobs almost everyday. I realized a particular title kept popping up in my searches, I thought about it for a few days and wondered whether this title really reflected what I wanted to do (also comparing job descriptions for this particular position). In a matter of 30 days I was contacted by an employer seeking to fill that same position, and within 17 days I started working there !
You may think this is all rubbish and I’m over-exaggerating, but I just took out my calendar and counted the days lol.
Please know that what you think, you will become. So speak great things over your life, even when you don’t see a cloud, much less a silver-lining.
“Cogito, ergo sum” – René Descartes
usually translated into English as:
“I think, therefore I am“