What is your biggest obstacle in life? If I ask you this question, you’ll surely have an answer. You may have to decide between a couple of things, but you will certainly be able to rattle off one thing that holds you back, brings you down, and is responsible for you not being able to be all that you can be.
At any given time, we are surrounded with adversity. The economy is bad. Our boss is unfair. Our spouse doesn’t understand. We don’t have enough time. We’re too old. We’re too young. Life is hard. Blah… blah… blah. We are so good at seeing what’s wrong in our lives. We are masterful at making excuses. And we love to complain.
Of all the things working against us, of all the things we can whine about, and of life’s unfair disadvantages, our biggest problem is our story. That’s right… our biggest enemy is the story we tell ourselves.
The human mind is complex. We are wired to be able to analyze complex problems, anticipate future happenings, reflect on past events, and ponder the environment as we make it through our day. We have approximately 70,000 thoughts each and every day. Amazingly, 90% of those thoughts are the same. And there is debate around what percentage of those thoughts are negative, but that doesn’t even really matter. Because negative or positive, if you have the same thoughts today that had yesterday (and the day before that… and the day before that… and the day before that..), your emotions, and thus your life, will never change.
Ask a struggling businessperson why they are struggling, and they will supply you with a list of reasons. The town is too small. The economy is down. People don’t want what they are selling. They can’t find good help. It’s not like it used to be. And on and on…
What has always intrigued me is that you can usually go one or two blocks down to a similar business that is thriving. Same town. Same economy. Same customer base. Same employee pool. And same time.
The conditions can be the same, but the outcomes are dramatically different. One is thriving, while the other is dead in the water. And the biggest difference? The story each businessperson tells. What each one sees. What they each focus on. What they believe.
We wonder why our life doesn’t change. But how can it if we wake up each day thinking the same limiting, negative thoughts. We subconsciously got through each day on autopilot, thinking the same thoughts, feeling the same feelings, and thus, producing the same results. Nothing will change until our story changes.
Dr. Joe Dispenza sums it up beautifully by explaining it this way… “Your life’s not going to change very much because the same thought leads to the same choice, the same choice leads to the same behavior, the same behavior creates the same experience, & the same experience produces the same emotion.”
Read that again. And again. And again. You’ll see that if we keep telling ourselves the same story, those same thoughts lock us into the same choices, behaviors, experiences, and ultimately emotions. So, not only do our lives never change, the way we feel never changes.
So, what’s the solution. CHANGE YOUR STORY! It’s just a story. Retell it. Instead of focusing on what you don’t have, focus on what you do have. Instead of highlighting what talents you lack, highlight the talents that you have. Instead of dwelling on what’s impossible, start dwelling on all that is possible.
Believe that you are unlimited. See the world as abundant. Think about all that we once thought was impossible, but now know is possible. Your family history, the neighborhood you’re from, your parent who didn’t love you enough, the rough economy, that person who screwed you over, the fact that you’re too short (or too tall), that bad investment you made, etc. These are all part of your story. And if your story isn’t serving you, uplifting you, inspiring you, or helping you get the life you’ve always dreamed of… start telling yourself a different story. Your worst enemy isn’t what you think it is. It’s your story. The one you tell yourself every morning when you wake up. Time to change your story!
