Shifting Your Thinking

“One thing that’s become clear to me is that really good people can make really bad decisions. The kind person forfeiting their dreams while waiting on friends and loved ones to affirm their new direction. The caring leader surrendering the future of her organization in an effort to keep everyone on board. The world-class athlete ignoring how his hyperfocus is crippling his relationships and stealing his happiness. The highly successful entrepreneur trying to fix his marriage as if it were a business. The person who has always performed for the approval of others discovering that they lack the resilience required to master the skills of their craft.   If my mind can be structured for failure, then it can also be structured for success” (qtd. in Mind Shift: It Doesn’t Take a Genius to Think Like One).

Recently, I heard Erwin Raphael McManus featured on a podcast I often listen to.  I was so impressed by hearing his journey in life and his philosophy of taking control over his life from the ego that I listened to his book, published in October 2023 and referenced in the previous paragraph, on Audible. While I do not agree with everything he espouses, I do see some value in each of his thirteen elements of mind shifting, especially in taking personal responsibility for one’s life in the present and not looking back or too far forward. The ‘mind’ is the ‘ego,' so when we shift our thinking, we are changing from the inside out.

Here are each of the thirteen mind shifts McManus defines as part of taking leadership over our own lives:

“Mind Shift #0: Change Your Mind. A willingness to change one’s mind in the face of new evidence reflects one’s ability to let go.

Mind Shift # 1: It’s All About People. If you have a dream in which people are simply tools to be used to accomplish your outcome, that’s not a dream—it’s a nightmare.

Mind Shift # 2: You Don’t Need an Audience. [Be prepared to step in and step up before that moment arrives when you must perform, speak, deal with an audience - even if it’s an audience of one person, go through an interview, give a sales pitch.]

Mind Shift # 3: You Can’t Take Everyone With You. While it feels good to be accepted, it feels freeing to accept that you won’t be accepted by everyone. [Not everyone will want to go along with you when you change your mind.]

Mind Shift # 4: They Won’t Get It Until You Do It. [Or, they’ll believe it when they see you accomplish it. Believe in yourself and surround yourself with people who believe in you.]

Mind Shift #5: You Are Your Own Ceiling. [Limiting beliefs limit you.  Your self-talk / ego / mind can help or hinder you.]

Mind Shift # 6: Talent Is A Hallucinogen. [Talent may get you started, but, it’s not enough to succeed. Just like ‘love’ is not enough to form a successful relationship, it takes much more.]

Mind Shift # 7: No One Knows What They Are Doing. Our failures compose the best parts of who we are. [Everyone starts from a place of not knowing how to do something before they learn it and curate it.]

Mind Shift #8: Bitterness, and Other Poisons That Will Kill You. [kills your drive, kills your dreams, kills your health, kills your peace of mind - true forgiveness is the only way out of bitterness]

Mind Shift # 9: You Find What You Are. [For example, you attract what you already are, so, if you don’t trust people, you will attract untrustworthy people to you.]

Mind Shift # 10: Be Average (At Almost Everything). [The American education process is broken and is teaching people to become mediocre workers rather than to focus on the one individual area that needs developing, curating. ‘Success’ is individually defined.]

Mind Shift # 11: Success Weighs More That Failure. [Everyone fails; people become successful who pick themselves up and learn from failure. Then, once you experience success, there will be people who seek to drag you down and wait for you to fail.  Don’t give them the satisfaction because you know that failure leads to success if you learn from the errors.]

Mind Shift # 12: There Is No Such Thing As Too Much Of A Good Thing. The problem with the concept of ‘balance’ is that it often creates a mental construct that everything in your life should be equal. Not everything in life carries the same weight” (Mind Shift: It Doesn’t Take a Genius to Think Like One).

As you read through each mind shift element, did any of them resonate with you?  Are you stuck somewhere in your thinking about how life ‘should’ work, but doesn’t work for you?  What mind shifts could you make that will change your outlook on life from the inside out?  Please share your thoughts, insights, and tips on shifting what your mind tells you and what you tell it by either commenting below this post if you are reading this on social media, or, if you are reading this through your email subscription, please share, by emailing me, at reimaginelife22@gmail.com.

Thank you for reading and participating in this blog essay; I invite you to subscribe to my blog at www.reimaginelifecoach.com.  Happy holidays!