There’s a competition out there to control your mind! 😲
What does this have to do with running an online business?
Everything… If you actually want to become successful at it!
If I’m writing about it, it’s because I’m going through it. After all, I’m sharing my journey 🙂
In last week’s blog post, I wrote about “Conditioning” and how it’s happening all around us.
You might want to have a read, and I’m going to start this post with something important about misunderstanding when it comes to us taking control of our minds.
This post has had a lot of amazing comments with some good feedback contributed last week, however, I’ve noticed something when chatting about this.
Our goal in taking control of our minds is to think as positively as we can and think in the direction of the person we want to become and the life we want to achieve and have.
Then we come in contact with negative messages, advertisements, commercials, people’s opinions, even our own insecurities, and they battle against our positive thinking.
I previously used the analogy of the famous tug-of-war, the back-and-forth fighting and pulling. I’ll continue on this analogy.
Now here’s my concern. 🤔
It’s common to think that we need to fill our minds with as much of the right thinking in order to push out the negative and unhealthy thinking.
I understand this and I think it’s partly correct. This comes from the thought that what you feed becomes stronger.
This causes us to think as long as we feed our minds the right thoughts it will get easier and eventually, we will have a pattern of thinking the best thoughts and move forward in life.
We haven’t been feeding any or not much negative thinking to the mind so it’s going to be very weak.
Or is it? Is there something else we can do to solidify our victory and eliminate more negativity?
I believe there is!
It is said that the average person has approximately 60,000 thoughts in a day and about 75% of those thoughts are negative. 😲
I understand that this includes any negative repetitive thoughts we have allowed ourselves to repeatedly think.
I’m also aware that tens of thousands of negative messages can enter randomly in the course of the day by what we see, hear, and read, without us even picking up on it.
So how can we protect ourselves? 💂
In addition to doing our best to fill our minds with the right thinking, we can change any negative thoughts we catch, AND prevent them from coming in again, if possible!
How does someone enter a room, home, or office? Through a door, opening, or gate.
A while back I came to an understanding that I had gates, ways for things to enter my mind.
These gates were my eyes and ears. Those thousands of negative messages that enter they come in by what we see and hear.
I understood I needed to be a GATEKEEPER and guard those entranceways. 💂
So, back to the tug-of-war and us feeding the positive team, there still seems to be food reaching the negative team that we might not be aware of.
So, is it enough to just feed our mind with positive thoughts or is it also necessary to monitor the gates, and when we’re aware of a breach, assess it and take action?
Eliminate sources of negative feeding as we find it.
Let me give a simple example of something that impacts me.
I don’t handle certain drama movies and shows well. Sometimes life is very hard and I find if I watch them it makes me feel defeated. So, I don’t watch many.
I eliminate many and not all because it’s not all types of drama that impacts me. I’ve learned to sense the tone of the movie shortly after it starts and I don’t continue watching it if I feel this way.
I’ve even mentioned to my wife that some of what she enjoys so much I can’t watch.
On the flip side, I really enjoy horror movies. I’m yet to find one that actually scares me at all.
However, my wife doesn’t enjoy horror and my son who is almost 30 can’t even watch the trailers for the horror movies I like. 😊
Another for me is the news. Every time I watch the news it’s so negative it impacts me. For that reason, I might listen to some news on the radio for only about 15 – 30 minutes once every week only.
This is how I guard my gates. It’s something I have to continuously do. If I let my guard down, and I sometimes do, I have to fight for the ground I lost.
It’s easy to miss something so be diligent!
It’s all about the little things. Little subtle things over a period of time that we don’t notice.
I’ve built houses for a time before I damaged my back, this involved rough and finished carpentry.
Building a house, the big things (rough carpentry – exterior frame, roof and interior walls) go up fast and look productive but the little things (finished carpentry) need more time and focus and if overlooked can ruin the job.
Same in life!
It’s more common for us to notice bigger things and be able to prevent them from ruining our lives.
The little things that come at us, however, over some time are harder to notice, can cause more damage and often does.
We also have this mentality in building a business. We think we need to complete only big things to be productive, take big steps, but it’s doing the little steps regularly over time that gets the best job done and takes the most time.
Focus on the little things (the process) and it can lead us to success in life and business.
So what do you think?
WOW! I was expecting to write only about one paragraph or two about this, then it seemed I couldn’t stop 🙂
I hope it gives you something to think about and helps you in your own journey in life an business!
As I said earlier, if I’m writing about it, it’s because I’m going through it.
There are season’s in life when I’ve been on track with my mind, then other times when I’m challenged and going through a growth spurt in life an business.
That’s when I reflect and go through learning something deeper about the mind and where I’m positioned, in order to empower me to push through and continue growth!
I would love to continue hearing your feedback and comments, they are so valuable to me! Thanks in advance for sharing 🙂
Talk soon,
Denny
Are you ready to learn a bit more? This is where I started.
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Great post! Thanks for sharing your experience with us all. It’s so easy to fall into the negative and allow it to consume us.
Thanks so much for your comment and feedback!
Hi Denny – This is such a great concept to be the gatekeeper of our minds. I agree that there is much competition for this space in our minds. It is sad to think that so much of what enters our minds is negative as you identified in this post. To be the proper gatekeeper we have to find ways to negate the negativity and do our best to allow positive thoughts that will allow us to succeed. Life is hard enough without letting external forces interrupt what we are trying to accomplish. Thanks for pushing this great message through and for giving me something to think about this week!
Hi Ernie,
Thanks for commenting, it’s always great to read your thoughts!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the post and got something from it you can think about.
You’re correct saying, Life is hard enough without letting external forces interrupt what we are trying to accomplish.
We don’t need the extra opposition! Thanks also for your encouragement and support!
All the best in the days ahead!
Denny