Hey, it’s Stéph from StéphandShay.com—with a simple question for you.
Have you ever thought: “What’s holding me back from achieving everything I want in life?”
What do you want?
Seriously—what do you want in life ?????
When was the last time you asked yourself this question?
We bet if we asked a 10-year-old to make a list of 100 things they wanted right now, they wouldn’t have a problem doing it. They’d grab a pen and paper and be done in a jiff. It would be detailed, too, and highly fantastical.
We also bet that if your best friend in the whole world could help you see your own potential, they would not waste a second showing you—because they care about the person you are and the goals, passions, and purpose you have in the world.
In this Mindpower blog, we’re talking about taking the first step toward achieving anything in your life. Here’s the thing. Only by identifying your limiting beliefs and actions will you remove the blocks preventing you from having the life you want. The reason a 10-year-old can make that 100-point list so quickly is because limiting beliefs have not become part of their daily mindset.
Did you know that, according to the National Science Foundation, 80% of our thoughts are negative, and 95% are repetitive thoughts? Worse! The average person has about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day—that’s a lot of limiting beliefs!
When we play those negative thoughts on a loop, we end up thinking in a negative way more often than we think in a positive way. This negative loop makes achieving anything you want in life very hard—even impossible.
So, let’s start by thinking more like a 10-year-old.
Believing that you can do it will be the initial step towards doing anything you want in life. To do this, you must focus on three things:
- Being disciplined enough to commit only to what moves you forward.
- Being strategic to move forward.
- Staying accountable to keep momentum.
All three of these areas of focus demand mindpower and mental toughness. When you focus on being disciplined with your mindpower and mental toughness, you control your own will. If you don’t strengthen your mindpower and mental toughness (through daily practice), you get stuck, frustrated, and eventually, go backwards.
It begins with changing your mindset.
First, focus on being disciplined enough to commit only to what moves you forward.
Self-discipline is the ability to do whatever it takes to overcome obstacles and reach your goals, even when it’s inconvenient or uncomfortable—it’s another way to say mental toughness. It may involve saying “no” to things you want or saying “yes” to things you hate, but when you stay focused ONLY on the things that move you closer to your goals, it becomes easier to convince yourself to do the hard stuff with a positive attitude.
Does this sound familiar?
Your day starts with good intentions but veers off course due to challenging issues, stresses, or distractions. It happens to us all. Follow these techniques to strengthen your self-discipline:
- Be committed to bigger goals.Many times, people claim they want to be more self-disciplined, but the truth is, they honestly don’t mind being the way they are because the goals they have set are not linked to their purpose, are not centered around their passion, and simply aren’t big enough goals.
- Write it down. The process of writing your goals helps you clarify the thoughts in your mind, come up with an action plan, and stay accountable.
- Enlist the help of others. Building professional and personal success starts with addressing tough problems and doing the uncomfortable work to solve them. Avoiding the tough stuff is easy to do without an accountability coach to keep you focused on the momentum your actions create. Success is about facts and functionality. The rest is just fluff! A good accountability partner will help remind you of this.
Being committed to ONLY what moves you forward requires that you reset your mind.
Next, you must focus on being strategic to move forward.
Feeling stuck is inevitable. Perhaps you feel stuck right now. Stuck equals feeling things are impossible.
Maybe you’re feeling a little stuck working on a creative project, like writing an article or painting a piece of art. Perhaps you started a new business, took on a major project at work, or began a new health or fitness regimen. Your initial passion has worn off, and you’re now feeling a lack of purpose. Overwhelmed. Confused. Unmotivated.
When trying to make a small or big decision, use these strategic steps to move forward:
- Strategically Step Back. Sheer force or just trying harder does not fix STUCK. Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” Think about where you are, what got you here, and what you really want. When you step back from your life, career, and challenges and look from a bit of a distance, you see things from a different perspective.
- Strategically Get Specific. Name it to Tame it. Someone once said, “A well-defined problem presents its own solution.”
Feeling STUCK comes in three ways:
“I feel stuck.”
“I feel stuck because I’m overwhelmed with the details.”
“I feel stuck because I’m worried what people are going to think of me.”
Give a specific definition to your STUCK so you can move forward strategically.
One of the most important questions we ask clients is, “What’s getting in the way?” When they answer, the next question is always, “What else?” You can guess what is next, “What else?”
Uncovering the underlying issues getting in your way helps lay out the strategy for moving forward.
3. Strategically Reconnect to Your Purpose. Overcoming the feeling of STUCK is easier when you reconnect with your purpose and passion.
What reasons, values, or passions drove you to make this change in your life? What picture do you have for yourself, your business, and your life?
By focusing on your original purpose, you tap into your intrinsic motivation. It becomes easier to see the path forward. Connecting to your deeper purpose fuels the journey through the tough times and roadblocks.
We recommend journaling as a way to reconnect to your passion and purpose. Write down these questions and then fill in the answers:
- Are my goals big enough and the potential outcomes great enough?
- Am I communicating and connecting with myself and others?
- Can I pinpoint what’s holding me back?
In our book, Master Your Mindpower, we cover many ways to achieve everything you want in life, professionally and personally, along with providing exercises and resources to help in every area of changing your thinking about what is truly possible.
If you are ready to achieve everything you want in life, you must reset your mind. By following some of the exercises outlined in this blog, you can literally redefine your life. And by doing so, reveal your success. Remember, make your goals greater, so your results become stronger. This is your life. Play bigger.
For more exercises on strengthening your Mindpower and mental toughness, visit www.StephAndShay.com.
Stéph & Shay
#BeResilient!
