QOTD: “If ever you think that you’re losing control of a situation, just shift your mindset and watch your situation change.” – Dr. Amelia Rose
If you are experiencing low energy, or are not in good spirits, you may want to consider altering your mindset. When you are down, it can be due to negative thoughts. You start to dwell on everything that is going wrong. You reflect that you aren’t where you thought you would be and it gives you a sinking feeling.
When you start to have negative thoughts, you are setting the stage to beat yourself down. What’s worse is this situation continues to grow. Negativity feeds on itself. When you put yourself down, you will eventually put others down. You will look for others who share your negativity because misery loves company. As the negative energy thrives, you fall deeper into the mental abyss.
To turn this around, you first have to realize that it’s happening. No one likes to admit to doing something wrong, but negative thinking is wrong if you are engaging in it. You have to try and reflect on your life. Think back to when you were happy. Was it a couple of months ago or a couple of years? That will give you a good indication of when you started with the negative thinking. When you were happy, it’s unlikely you were thinking negatively.
If you don’t believe you are negative but you feel down about your current situation, consider asking friends and family how you have been behaving recently. Tell them you want an honest assessment. Unfortunately, because you are in a negative mindset, you may lash out at their answers. That will make them upset with you since you told them you want an honest assessment. However, if it helps you to see what you are doing, eventually they will forgive you when you turn the situation around.
Once you have identified that you have a negative mindset, work hard to introduce positivity into your life. Set up a bad thoughts money jar and whenever you say something negative, put money into the jar. You can do this at work, at home, or both. When you see the jar filling up, you know you have more work to do.
Avoid other negative people as much as possible. They will try to bring you back down, and you may even let them do it. Limiting your exposure to these people is a great step to take on your journey towards positivity.
Flipping your switch can seem like a massive undertaking. One that there are a million different ways to achieve if all the articles on the internet have anything to say about it. However, flipping your switch is a personal undertaking, one that may have similar milestones for everyone, but really can and should be curtailed to a person’s needs in order to be successful. Keep reading for the 7 steps you need to personalize to flip your own switch.
- Find an Activity that Challenges You
The activity that will most help you flip your own switch is the one that challenges you. Not your neighbor or your sibling. But you. This could be as simple as folding an entire basket of laundry in one sitting or the Sunday morning crossword in pen!
- Commit to yourself
Whatever challenge you’re undertaking, you’re doing it for you. Make a promise to yourself that you will try your hardest and not give up when the going gets tough.
- Set Realistic Goals
Make sure your goals are attainable. You aren’t going to fold all the laundry that you do on Sunday by the end of Sunday. But maybe you could at least hang up the stuff that will wrinkle. Or perhaps you will only use a pen on the crossword answers you feel 100% certain about, pencil on the rest.
- Turn off the T.V. (or the Internet) In General
Get rid of the useless distractions. That show is not going to help you concentrate or make time go faster, so just don’t. You can’t flip your switch on one activity if your brain is partially paying attention to another.
- Remove Interruptions
Kids, phones, whatever. Do your best to remove the interruptions that you know will crop up.
- Track Your Progress
Find an easy way (read: not time-consuming, expensive, or labor-intensive) to track your progress. Sometimes this is a calendar to check off days. For others, maybe you need to journal about your feelings, how it went, or your next goal to achieve.
- Enjoy Your Experiences
Enjoy what you’re doing and the experiences you are having. It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey.
Learning to flip your switch is a process, not a one-day training online. It will take time and practice to find out exactly what it takes for you to be in the zone.
“There is a great difference between worry and concern. A worried person sees a problem, and a concerned person solves a problem.” – Harold Stephen