Mental Moment-What are You Thankful For

We are so busy getting caught up in what we aren’t doing, shouldn’t have done or aren’t doing right that we forget sometimes that it’s important to be thankful for what we are doing, what we did do and the things we did right. Although it might sound cliche’ what are you thankful for?

It’s almost that time of the year to evaluate and set goals for next year (hence my last couple of blogs). Generally when we do that, it brings out all that we’ve not done or things that we failed at trying to do. Why do we choose to place our focus on those things? As humans we are programmed to focus on those things but what about all things you have done and you didn’t fail? I’ll bet that list is actually longer.

I understand that making mistakes and failures are good information for setting your next set of goals but they do not define who you are as a person. It’s simply information. Successes and positives are just information too and they also help us move forward but in a positive, less judgmental way. They make it possible for us to feel motivated and confident. Upon recognition they feel good…which I suppose is part of a human beings challenge. We don’t like to feel good anything because somehow then we feel like we aren’t accomplishing anything…that’s a blog for another day.

My recommendation is that your goals for 2014 include: I am going to start my day in a positive way (affirmation or phrase) and I am going to end my day by reflecting on what went well (successes or positives). When I say successes and positives I mean moments, which is different than the entire day, week or month. Because this is challenging (and unnatural) for most everything I suggest that you start practicing it now.

You want to build confidence for 2014? Start thinking, talking to others and acting in line with success or positive moments.

I hope you and your family have the Happiest of Thanksgivings!

Dr. Michelle

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