Is Your Mindset Making You Disabled? – For those who aren’t familiar with me from the articles I have written for this magazine. I’m a professional life coach with a focus on Mindset. I’m also a Licensed Mental Health Therapist, and over my 30-year career span, I’ve seen the results when a person’s negative mindset is controlling their life. It leads to depression, anxiety, and often a life wasted.
I am physically disabled due to having Multiple Sclerosis, and I know first-hand the reality of being disabled in a world designed for able-bodied people. It can bring plenty of opportunities for feeling frustrated, dismissed, and sad.
What has become very evident to me is that just because a person doesn’t have a visible physical disability.
This does not mean that they are free of being disabled by something. And what I see most often is that many people are, in fact disabled due to their mindset. I would say that even though they may have a fully functioning body, many are actually much MORE disabled or limited than some of the visibly disabled persons I know. All due to the perspective they have in their mind regarding themselves and the world around them. After successfully transforming my life from a place of hopelessness, I’m now living with more joy, energy, success, and fulfillment than ever before. I purposely chose to share the steps I took for achieving that so that NO MATTER what a person’s challenge is (internal or external) they can do the same.
A good beginning question to ask yourself is, “What is MY typical mindset”?
In other words, if you had to describe your usual mindset in a few words, what would it be? Write your answer on paper with the date you’re writing it. Why? Because if it is not to your liking, you can take steps to change it, and therefore, you’d want to remember the date you asked yourself the question and the answer that you gave.
An example of a common mindset can be this: “My usual mindset is one where I hope each day will be a good one, but I tend to get disappointed.” Some keyword descriptors might be:” fairly negative,” “skeptical,” “hopeful but doubting,” “blah,” or even “disillusioned.” Maybe you’d describe your usual mindset as “sad.” Or perhaps you are fortunate enough to be one of the rare individuals who would describe their usual mindset as joyful, optimistic, and excited about their day.
Whatever it is, Identify it.
This default mindset, as I like to call it, is extremely powerful and can determine 75% of your day-to-day reality. That is a HUGE number! How can it be that powerful? Simply put: Your mindset determines how you view YOURSELF, the PEOPLE AROUND YOU, and THE WORLD! That sums up just about everything in any person’s reality, so it’s important to take some time to identify yours.
Mindset is influenced by a host of factors which would take up another entire article for me to describe. But HOW we come by our particular mindset is actually the least important and least significant part of all. The incredibly fantastical (yes, that’s my new word) and important aspect of Mindset is that YOU have the power to create it at any time. No matter what life has “dealt” you, no matter where you are in life. YOU have 100% of the power to determine your mindset and change it to be working FOR you instead of against you. (if you need proof, read Man’s Search for Meaning by the holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl).
I am not claiming that it is always an easy process.
Like anything worthwhile, it requires great desire and determination. But I encourage you to ask yourself: how important is feeling a sustained level of overall happiness to you? This question is critical to ask yourself because If any of us has a big enough WHY inside our heart, we can literally accomplish almost anything in life. For me, nothing is more important than my mindset because I know it determines how I feel moment by moment, hour by hour, which then greatly influences what kind of day I’m going to have and the entire course of my life!
I have devoted the majority of my previous BHL articles to sharing steps you can take to improve your mindset and have a more fulfilling life. You can view these in the prior months’ editions of BHL beginning in July 2022.
The purpose of this particular article is to bring the word MINDSET into your awareness. And help you to really understand the powerful influence it is having on you and your life every second.
My recommendation. Don’t allow a negative, pessimistic mindset to be your norm, as it will cripple you and rob you of the joy and life fulfillment that is your birthright. We only have this one chance at life. So isn’t it well worth it to make it the best that we can? YOU have that power!
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