Mental Moment-Why Didn’t I Do Better
You’ve probably heard me occasionally preach about negative thinking, how it is self fulfilling prophecy (if you think negative that is the way it will turn out) and doesn’t get you to where you want to go. You’ve probably also heard me talk about how positive thinking is important to getting what you want. Between those two areas there can be a huge divide. Today I want to give you some thoughts about changing perspectives and looking for the positives versus the negative.
Perfection
We have this almost innate ability to focus on negative things. We didn’t do this right or we could have done better. Why when that is probably only 10-20% of the situation? Why do we focus on 10-20% of a situation when 80-90% is good, right and positive. I get that we want to do better and be better. We need information about what we need to change. However when we get stuck in that thinking and are striving for perfection we lose our ability to see what’s good and right; to feel good about ourselves. We stay stuck in thinking that is negative leading to more negative thinking and negative outcomes and feel badly about ourselves, our life and our society. The problem is, that is not completely who we are but it makes us into who we are and it feeds into the larger issues of society.
Conscious shift
When we think about situations i.e. painting a picture, writing a book, playing music or practicing our sport work on becoming consciously aware of your thoughts around those situations. See what you can improve upon but also see (celebrate) the things that are positive and went well. This difficult but small and mighty shift will aide you in getting closer to what you want, lower stress and anxiety and increase confidence. It’s a humbling experience to realize your mistakes but it’s even more humbling to think about how they can facilitate change, be OK with them and let them go while also taking notice of the positive aspects of that same situation.
Have you ever had a conversation with someone around the negatives and positives of a situation? Which is more difficult for people to talk about and why do you think that is?
The more you can learn to switch your brain from thinking negatively the more accomplishments and successes you will ultimately have and the more confident you will feel. Isn’t it better to enjoy accomplishments and successes than it is the negatives of a situation?
Happy end of the week!
Dr. Michelle
