(ThyBlackMan.com) Embracing change and challenge is a struggle for most of us. Why? Because, as humans, we are wired to secure the path of least resistance. Given the choice between easy and hard, we invariably choose easy. But did you know there are benefits to embracing our challenges, to learning from our greatest change? Here are three powerful mind-sets for getting the most of your life – right now, right where you are, in your present season.
Mindset#1
Do Not Trust Appearances
Most people lose hope for the future because they are held hosta
ge to the appearances of the present. Our brains are wired to fix attention on what’s immediately in front of us. It’s part of our ‘flight or fight’ instinct. Debt, relationship conflict and bills are the usual suspects. Do not trust appearances. Believe that you are in your season, although there is evidence to the contrary. It requires hard mental labor to do this. This does not mean that you bury your head in the sand. Rather, it means that you do not allow what’s in front of you to impede your momentum.
Mindset#2
Focus on the small things
I’ve always been a ‘big picture’ guy. I’d work on creating the panoramic view and would allow the details to fall where they may. I soon learned, though, the value of small things and how they lend so much promise to my present season. When was the last time you smelled a rose? Held a newborn baby in your arms? Engaged a stranger?
Appreciate the small things. Go for walks in the park. Feed the ducks. Have lunch with a kindergartner. Write a letter to a long-lost friend. The value of small things is therapeutic; it acts to relieve us of the constant craving for the spotlight.
Mindset#3
Grow Don’t Just Go Through
A client recently said to me “I’m going through” when I asked how she was faring of late. Her words struck a chord in me because so many people do just that when faced with their most difficult challenges: they go through but they don’t grow through. There’s a profound difference between the two.
Engage your struggle. Make it your determination to gain and glean as much self-knowledge as you can from your challenges. Merely ‘going through’ means you are reduced to being a spectator to the game of life – your life! Become a participator. Learn new things about yourself. Most of our growth as humans comes during our time of lack, not plenty, our season of change, not normality.
There are benefits to embracing the moment!
Staff Writer; W. Eric Croomes
This talented brother is a holistic lifestyle exercise expert and founder and executive coach of Infinite Strategies LLC, a multi-level coaching firm that develops and executes strategies for fitness training, youth achievement and lifestyle management. Eric is an author, fitness professional, holistic life coach and motivational speaker.
In October 2015, Eric released Life’s A Gym: Seven Fitness Principles to Get the Best of Both, which shows readers how to use exercise to attract a feeling of wellness, success and freedom (Infinite Strategies Coaching LLC, 2015) – http://www.infinitestrategiescoaching.com.