I wanted to start my first blog post with this statement 'What controls your mind, controls your life' because I believe it is the foundation of everything that happens to us in our lives. From how we feel to what our perspective on our life is.
It's also the reason behind why I started this blog and why I also started my company Inspirational Goods, LLC. I know from practicing this daily; what you consume internally becomes an outward reflection of you.
I remember when I was first introduced to this concept in middle school when I played basketball, we were given the short poem by Charles Swindoll. In short, the last part of it he writes "The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude ... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me, and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you ... we are in charge of our Attitudes."
I understood this and kept this philosophy with me ever since, but your attitude is just one part of your perspective on life. That's the end result - how you react. But what I would like to talk about is how do you get to the point where you can control how you react, and choose to react in a positive way? How can you strive to have an overall positive mindset EVERY DAY of your life, no matter what happens?
I am a personal development junkie. What I mean by that is I am constantly interested in reading things about self-improvement and making my life better as a whole. Not just about finance and making more money, but about how to be my best self mentally and how to be positive and be truly happy and in-control of my life. My bookshelf and car are filled with books and audio books about these topics and my podcast list is filled with experts and interviewers in this space.
What I've learned from reading the books written from back in the 1930's by Napoleon Hill, to the more recent authors and podcast interviews I've listened to is that the media we consume (books, TV, Music, etc.) have a huge influence on our thoughts and our thoughts ultimately control our attitude, and our attitude controls our perspective on life.
Changing your mindset to be positive is not an easy task. It takes effort every day. But over time, it really does get easy and soon your mindset will change to become positive. You will look at everything that happens in your life with a new, positive perspective and everything will seem better.
To start, I would recommend reading just 5-10 pages of a personal development book per day. By reading something positive (Or listening to the audiobook), you will be forced to have that material floating around in your head. Doing this consistently, you will always be feeding your brain positive material. If you're not sure what to read, you can go to your local bookstore and take a look in the personal development/self-improvement section, or you could do a google search for top personal development books and order one online.
If you like to listen to podcasts, open your app and just search for any of the keywords like "personal development", "self improvement", or "lifestyle" and try some different ones.
I know everyone has different opinions about social media, but this is an area that you can use it to inspire you. For example, you can follow instagram accounts that post positive and motivational things. You can search tags for the same type of keywords. Some of my favorites are @tinybuddhaofficial @thinkgrowprosper @lewishowes @thegoodquote @gabbybernstein to name a handful.
Lastly, I will say to please be conscious of who you surround yourself with. We really are a product of the people we associate with the most. If you feel like your circle of family and friends is negative, distance yourself. You need to take care of you. It doesn't mean that you need to cut someone off completely but be in control of the amount of time you spend with negative people because it does rub off on you and the way you feel about yourself.
So each day we have a choice. We can be mindful of "feeding" our brains this positive stuff, and soon it will be the way we think and feel. Or we can choose not to. This is where negativity can set in. Being positive is not something that is a natural mindset for most of us. It takes work, even for the people who say they are naturally positive. Just remember, the more you consume the good thoughts, the better you will feel overall.
If you have any other tips, please share in the comments below
Here's to setting your foundation for the best mindset possible.
xoxo,
Lauren