I remember growing up as a young boy where there were some days I would not get my way. I would cry, throw a fit because I thought things were not fair. I would often ask, "Why can't I get my way?" At the time, I believed that my way was right, and my parents needed to do what I said. Since I thought my way was right and did not obey my parents, I would get disciplined. However, after a while, one of my parents would sit me down and tell me to change my attitude.
It is typical to expect children to act this way. However, many adults have bad attitudes as well. Maybe we don't cry or throw a tantrum anymore. Hopefully, we have learned to manage our emotions. But perhaps our bad mood has appeared when it comes to how we understand work, money, our romantic relationships, etc. Have we worked hard for the money but have nothing to show of it? Are we continuously stirring tension in our relationships? Maybe it isn't because of our job or our significant other? Maybe it is because we need to change our attitude. How can we change our attitude? Below I have listed four different ways to change our mindset and cause us to succeed in life.
Stop making excuses.
Stop excusing yourself and acknowledge where your attitude needs to change. When we think of it, what do excuses do? Excuses excuse us from dealing with the very thing that is keeping us from succeeding. For example, some of us have had a great business idea for years, but we have excused ourselves from creating that business because we have said, "I don't have the time," or "I have tried this once, and it hasn't worked." These kinds of excuses excuse us from dealing with ourselves and our lack of motivation or laziness.
2. Break up with your old self.
What do I mean by "break up with your old self?" I am talking about breaking up with our old mindset. Picture it like this; our mind is like a computer database. The information sets it, and we download it. The information we receive as a child has set how many people view the world. If Mom and Dad had a bad attitude towards work, relationships, and life, the child would likely follow suit. Why? Because that is the attitude they were exposed to.
For instance, some people believe that they could never live in a nice house. Why? It is because of how they have been taught how to think. At some point in time, someone has told them a lie and caused them to believe that they cannot become successful. Or at least afford to live in a nice neighborhood. Since they have bought into this lie, they have developed a negative attitude towards living the life of their dreams.
When we break up with our old mindset, we have to make a conscious decision not to allow this way of thinking to continue to run our lives. When we break up with our old mindset, we intentionally decide to learn a new way of life.
Learn new information.
Picture your smart device; now and then, the manufacturer will send out an update. Sometimes the updates are sent out to fix bug problems that can cause your smart device not to work correctly. Other updates will update the software on your smart device. These kinds of updates allow your device to operate at higher speeds and do everything we love our smart devices to do. However, for us to utilize the upgrades, we have to learn how the update works. Notice that every time you update your device, they either provide a message or walk you through how to work your device with the new software. Reading the instructions is necessary to get the most out of your device.
It is the same with life. If we desire to live the life we are supposed to live, we must be willing to upgrade our thinking, which means we must learn new information. There are a few ways we can learn new information and change our attitude, including traveling, studying new information, and crossing the pipeline in our lives, allowing us to visualize ourselves in the place we desire to be.
A. Travel.
Did you know that some people have never traveled outside of their hometown, let alone the United States? Traveling gives you a chance to see how other people live outside of where you live. When we travel and see how other people live outside of where we live, we can become more appreciative of what we have and be inspired to live the life we desire to live.
For example, I remember when my father took me to his place of birth in 2006. My father was not born in the United States. He was born on a small island named Trinidad and Tobago. When I arrived in Trinidad, I was a bit culture-shocked at first. They did not have a lot of the nice things we have in America. I noticed that there were some things we often take for granted in America that they did not have access to. Like nice roads. In America, we may complain about our taxes, but our taxes take care of is our roads. Over there, their streets were small, and at times I felt like we were going to get into an accident because they drive on the left side of the road, and their streets were small. I also noticed that they did not always have access to clean water as well. My experience in Trinidad made me appreciate my father and the things we often take for granted in America.
To simply put it, travel allows us to broaden our perspective. It allows us to see new possibilities and what we have access to. Because of my exposure abroad, I can understand how it can be frustrating when so many people in America are not taking care of the opportunities available to us.
B. Study new information.
As I stated earlier, the information we have learned has set our mindset and how we think. Therefore, if we want to change our attitude, we must learn new information. For instance, there was a moment in time when I had to realize how financially illiterate I was. Because I was financially illiterate, I accumulated more liabilities than assets, ending with my account not having any cash flow. So, for me to adopt a new attitude towards money, I had to learn new information. I had to talk to financial advisers, read and listen to audiobooks about finances. The more I accumulated new information regarding finances, the more it changed how I thought about money.
For many of you, your issue may not be in finances. It may be how you handle relationships or even your health. Whatever the area may be, we must learn new information in that area of our lives. This new information will allow you to see life through a new pair of lenses.
C. Cross over the pipeline.
What do I mean by "Cross over the pipeline." By saying this, I recommend putting yourself in the place you desire to be. One thing my father told me was, "you have to envision yourself in the place you desire to be in life." To illustrate his point to me, he used the story of when he crossed the pipeline when he was a kid. My father did not grow up wealthy. My Dad grew up on the rougher side of Trinidad and Tobago. However, when we visited the house he grew up in, which burnt down, he showed me the pipeline in his backyard. This pipeline was the boundary line between the poor neighborhood and the wealthy neighborhood. It was by crossing that pipeline that he began to envision himself living in a nice house. He also learned how to do handy work and build a foundation to create wealth for my family later. My father still teaches me this lesson today and tells me that I have to see myself being what I desire to be but to do that, I must cross the pipeline that is keeping me from where I am supposed to be. Not to brag too much about my Dad, but I have seen my Dad, who came from nothing, not only move to America but build a church, own land, have influence internationally because he was willing to cross the pipeline in his life.
So what do the pipelines in your life look like? For many of us, we may have to cross over the racism pipeline in life. Racism is something that everyone has to some extent. However, to live the life we are supposed to live, we must learn how to cross that pipeline and relate to people who don't look like us or are from another part of the world. For others, it may mean that you intentionally go to the parade of homes and envision yourself in that lovely house. When you are willing to cross the pipeline in life, it allows you to build relationships and put you in places you have always dreamt of being.
Finally, we must stop making excuses that keep us where we are, break up with our old mindset, and learn new information to change our attitude. When we learn how to do such things, our fresh perspective will open up a world of new possibilities and allow us to live the life we are supposed to live.
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