Negativity in the world and more specifically in your life can take its toll. Feeling weighed down by responsibilities and life changes can have an impact on your mental health. Sometimes it can feel like life is throwing more negativity at you than you can handle. However, there are ways of combating this. You can create positive change in your life.
The first step is to realise that you want change. Take some time to really focus on your “why” – your strong, emotional reasons for wanting positive change. Maybe you want a promotion but you’ve been feeling stuck. Write down all the reasons you want that new job and all the good feelings it’ll bring you to be in that more senior position. Then you have to decide that you are going to make that change happen.
Making any change takes two things: you need to be in the right mindset and you need to take the right action.
Being in the right mindset is all about your beliefs about yourself. Henry Ford famously said “Whether you believe you can or you believe you can’t, you’re right.” So much of what we actually achieve in life is limited – or possible – because of how we define ourselves, the stories we tell ourselves about who we are. If you want to stop smoking but you continue to define yourself as a smoker and tell yourself you need a cigarette when you’re stressed, you’ll struggle to give up – because your identity and beliefs are in conflict with your goal.
So if you want that promotion, start expanding your identity so that you believe you are the sort of person who can have that more senior role. Connect with your vision of who you want to be in that new role: spend some time visualising yourself in that role, doing a fantastic job, reaping all the rewards. Really dive into that visualisation, engaging all your senses so that it becomes real for you. By making your vision compelling and exciting you are programming your mind towards knowing it is possible, and achieving that outcome.
And once you expand your identity, everything shifts.
Next, you need to take the right action. The outcomes we get in life are largely down to the rituals we adopt. So, if someone is a long distance runner – that doesn’t happen by accident – they have adopted the right rituals to achieve that status. Every morning, they set their alarm and instead of rolling over, they put on their trainers and run.
If you want a promotion or to change of career, you need to adopt the right rituals: maybe you need to start networking, or studying in the evenings or looking for stretch opportunities at work. To achieve something different, you need to do something different. The key thing is consistency – start with baby steps but really commit to adopting the new habits and actions that will get you to the new outcome that you want.
Wishing you all the best with whatever steps you are taking towards your positive change.
Sarah
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