415 My Focus Dictates My Future February 2018 Monday Week 4

Mindful Mondays-#415 February 19th The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast

My Focus Dictates My Future

"Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do."
~Pope John XXIII

Who we become is not determined by who we are, because that is a faulty question in itself…and the reason I say that is because you were created to do impossible things. The mere fact that you are still breathing, that you still are moving, that you are still thinking—means that your possibilities are limitless.

We are beings with free will, with choice, and we have the ability to get better at anything we decide to put our time and attention to. I think it was Einstein who said something like 'anyone can get great at anything, just for some it takes a little longer.' And if something is important to you in obtaining, you will be willing to put in a longer amount of time if need be.

I am a proponent for speaking and thinking towards the ideas of who you want to be one hundred percent of the time. For when we keep our attention on where we don't want to be it's easy to get trapped in thinking that's where we belong. Life is a game of cat and mouse or hide and seek. And it's not that you are running from your fears but it's that we have to choose not to live in them.

And people might say I'm anal when I talk about how we speak…but the more we speak something then the more our subconscious hears it and learns it, and the more you think about it the more you download it into your system. I know it seems illogical because we decide where we want to be, and most of those negative thoughts are just brief thoughts… right???

Maybe; but how many brief thoughts happen over and over again and build upon each other where it just becomes natural to think and see things in that negative way. And if you still don't agree with me think about a business' review or comment page. People are more likely to complain about bad service than to praise good service. We think that good service is a natural by product of the business and it's what's expected. But it took deliberate effort on the business' part to make your experience happen a certain way.

Yes there are unmotivated employees and bad companies, but an effective business works to make sure that you as a customer is thought about in every step of the process. And this may be getting off point a little bit here, but I want to talk about kindness to the people within certain places.

Whenever I'm dealing with a call center and someone is kind, patient, and helpful to me I always ask if I can speak to their manager…and I'm sure the service person starts sweating thinking oh no another customer who you can't make happy. And when I speak to their manager I let them know it's not a bad call, but it's to commend their employee on how great they were with me.

I've been in the service industry for most of my life and I know how people can forget the effort you put into making their experience a good one. And for me even if the work was subpar, I want that person to know that I noticed them and I wanted them to have a better day…even if it's just thanking them for their time and wishing them a great day ahead.

But the point I'm trying to make is that it's my hope that my kindness will change that person. It's my hope that that person will think more highly of themselves and that people are watching and noticing them. It's my hope that they take that knowledge and don't stop at giving the bare minimum the job requires, but to go above and beyond because it's now a part of them. Now I know I can't change anyone, but I think I can be the spark, or the catalyst, to cause a chain reaction towards a better change.

Your life is the sum of your thoughts, the sum of your actions, the sum of what you speak…which is ultimately the sum of what you believe. Your beliefs will dictate who you think you were, who you think you are, what you think you can do, and who you think you can become. And a belief isn't a finite substance…it's the small things we do in every moment that will lead us to a certain outcome. So when we keep looking towards impossibility, and when we keep finding ways to see the negativity and prove it in our lives…we will find that we begin to make that our home.

So today let's, you and I, make a commitment to seek a higher truth. Let us look to find the possibility in so-called impossibility, let's look to find the beauty in the so-called ugliness, let's look to find power from our so-called weakness, and let's make sure to put our one hundred percent focus on not only seeing what we want to see in life, but then following through to create it. The world around you, is not dictated to you…it's determined by you. Because when you think about it…the mere presence of you is a fact that a miracle is happening, and when you think that way…then every problem is one more opportunity to live better.

Today's Personal Commitment:
I get it, it's hard to focus one hundred percent of the time on what you want. It's easy to look at what's going wrong, it's easier to see the people who have wronged you as you live in resentment because of it, and it's easier to notice why things don't work out for your life like you'd hoped they would.

But when doubt the power we have in our lives by focusing on untruths in our words, actions, and thoughts…then we get trapped in misery. We get stuck within a dungeon that is not ours.

So I have a few questions for you:

How did you start your morning? Do you go through the routine of what you normally do, maybe even wishing you could go back to bed; or were you excited that you could make this day whatever you wished it to be?
Did you speak with kindness towards yourself?
Did you speak with kindness towards the day?
Did you speak with kindness towards others?
And did you speak with hope and possibilities for the day ahead?

I get it, you might be saying that I'm a dreamer focusing on the impossible…but that's because you are looking microscopically. What if you started with one little thought on what was possible, and you continued that thought a hundred more times, and then a thousand, and then a million. Sure some will say that you'll be let down by getting your hopes up, but I say you will begin changing because you decided to put your attention to the possibility of things rather than the impossibility of things. That's the only way I've seen people make change; by focusing on where they would like to go instead of staying focused on where they don't want to be.

And hear me clearly, I said FOCUS. We need to look at problems to see what we don't like, so then we can pivot to looking at where we want to be. So looking at the problems can be good, but it's a fine line between looking, and looking too long and focusing on them.

So what is one way you can focus differently today? How can you say this affirmation more times today, how can you see more possibility in the places you feel stuck in, and how can you continue to do whatever positive thing you chose today…even when you don't feel like it? Which gets me thinking about the movie Rocky IV where Sylvester Stallone is tucking his kid into bed at night and his son asks if he's ever scared…and he tells his son:

"Well the truth is, sometimes I do get a little scared. When I'm in that ring and I'm really getting hit on, and my arms hurt so much I can't even lift them, and I'm thinking god I wish this guy would hit me on the chin so I wouldn't feel nothing anymore. Then there's another side that comes out that isn't as scared. It's another side that wants to take more; wants to go that one more-round. Because going that one more-round when you don't think you can is what makes all the difference in your life."

So I'm challenging you let that other side come out, not the side that wants life to punch you in the chin so you don't feel pain anymore, as you go that one more-round…and to continually choose to go that extra round every time because it will make all the difference in your life.

My Focus Dictates My Future

Thanks for listening. I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: chris@strongwithin.com phone:865-219-3247

Music by:
- Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
- I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide