If
you are in a mid-life rut getting out of it and making changes to improve how
you feel about your life seem difficult this is usually because at mid-life we
have so many ingrained habits and set ways of thinking that change is harder
than it was in our youth.
To
successfully begin the process of change for the better we need to start
building new habits and ways of thinking and that all starts with developing
the positive mindset.
Positive
Thinking plus Positive Action
Start
by fixing in your mind what successful positive thinking is and is not.
It
is not about looking at life through
rose-tinted glasses, wandering through life believing that everything is okay
with the world and you need to nothing is ultimately unrealistic. Similarly
Positive Thinking is not simply
trying to will good things into existence that, on its own, is just
daydreaming.
Positive
thinking is about focusing on ways to
move your life forward. It is about having belief in yourself and your
abilities to overcome those obstacles in everyday life that get in your way. Positive
thinking is about having goals you want to achieve and faith in yourself to be
able to actually achieve them.
Effective
positive thinking needs to be grounded with realism, accepting that life will
throw up challenges and problems. Yet rather than focus on those problems, as
most people tend to do, we must focus on solutions and finding ways to move
beyond those stumbling blocks. We all have it in us to either overcome the
things life throws at us or seek out those who can help us do it.
Effective
positive thinking also needs to be a little bit self-centred. We need to be focused
on those things only we can have an effect on and not on the actions and deeds
of others or events that are beyond our control. Obviously being self-centred
doesn’t mean thinking about doing anything that would be detrimental to others
but if we can be the best we can be then those closest to us will also benefit.
However
no amount of positive thinking will come to anything unless we put those
thoughts into action.
That,
of course, is not always as easy as it sounds. Stepping outside of our comfort
zone is often difficult for a number of reasons, not least because, as the name
suggests, in our comfort zone we are comfortable therefore outside that zone is
uncomfortable!
We
come up with all sorts of excuses to avoid taking that step outside, we don’t
have the time, we so many other things to do, we will get around to it but no
just yet etc. Our habits and routines, our worries and fears and our beliefs
about our abilities all trap us inside the comfort zone.
To
build and develop our positive mindset we need to break down those barriers of
the comfort zone in order to move forward in the direction we want to take in
life. Obviously, as with all things in life, sometimes are easier than others
to do this yet waiting until the time is right can just reinforce the comfort
zone barrier as it is often to convenient to tell ourselves that we will wait
just a little longer until circumstances are even better and that time never
comes.
To
develop a positive mindset we should start to break down the restrictions of
the comfort zone and an effective way of starting that process in getting into
the habit of breaking habits!
We
all have our daily routines, so we can start by changing one thing every day.
Maybe you could change the order of the way you do things when you first get up
in the morning, maybe you could change the things you do on the way to work
every morning or maybe in the evening you could turn the television off for
half an hour an practice you positive thinking.
If
we want to become good at anything it takes constant practice, building your
positive mindset is no different. Training our minds to think differently,
positively will help us break away from the comfort zone which so often holds
us back from achieving success and fulfilling our lives.
Building
your positive mindset will also build your self-confidence and self-esteem and
create a positive cycle of thought, the more we build the stronger the positive
mindset becomes.
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