MIndset

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Mindset (Page 27-31)



It may be my goal to get up at a certain time to go jogging. If my mind does not really want to do this you can put money on me sleeping in tomorrow. In fact I may even be coming down with something and so it would be foolish to go outside. I can believe this or I can make myself do what I have determined I would like to do. My mind will only object for a short while, before long my mind will object if I am not doing this.
Even worse is when the mind uses time against us… tomorrow never actually comes. Your mind will set great goals for you to accomplish in the future with no intention of that future ever coming. This is a way that your mind actually keeps you doing what you really want to do after you win the argument. “I do want to lose weight and I will!”
“Okay, okay, I will help you then, finish the double fudge chocolate brownies your daughter made for you out of love… and we will sit down and make an attack plan for this. Not only that we will put the plan in motion first thing in the morning.” Meanwhile you polish off a few brownies and pass out on the couch. When you wake up you have forgotten all about the vow to lose weight and have a brownie or two for breakfast. It is mid day before you realize that you had not set your new plan in motion and since today is ruined for your diet you will try again later to set that goal and start tomorrow.
This goes on for years. It is the story of many people’s lives really. It is not always about food either that is just an easy one to think about. There are too many scenarios to even count and I am sure there is some goal that you have in the back of your mind. When will you get to work on that goal I wonder?
Don’t be too mad at yourself just resolve to change one habit today that leads you away from your goal. You see I really think that we are starting too big. We see this mountain before us and we wonder how we can ever move it. We see this great task that promises to destroy us and so we are afraid to even approach the situation. The real tool you need is not a backhoe or an earth mover, it is a shovel… one little shovel of dirt at a time is how you move a mountain. Do you think I am just saying something that sounds nice? Look at the earth that you live upon. Look at the rocks and the mountains and the ocean. If you look at a river you can see the power of a little movement over time. Rocks and great boulders are formed by the constant flow of water. They are eroded away and sometimes they change the course of the water but in the end water goes where it intends to go. You can look at the greatness of a mountain and see it’s body slowly corroded by the effects of a slow running stream. How great are you mountain before me when a drop of water can change you forever? Not one drop… but two… and three… four… how many drops does it take? It all begins with one… one drop of water that sealed the mountain’s fate forever… the water would not be moved. The mountain will accept what is acting upon it and they will become one.
You need to act upon your life in the same way as that drop of water. I am here… this is my course… you will let me go where I intend to go… and I will act upon you until we agree… one small drop at a time.
You can beat down the plan of tomorrow by making one small change today. The mechanism to change your mindset is your action step. It starts with the plan, it needs to be tracked, but the true mechanism to change your mindset and change your life is the action that you take or do not take today.
What small thing can be your drop of water, what little thing can you do today that will take you in the direction of your goals. Not the goals you think you want but the goals you have decided that you really want. Do that one thing today and be prepared to add one more step each and every day. The mechanism is your action.

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