The Seasons Of Life (Handling Tough Times)
One of my favorite mentors, Jim Rohn stated this so eloquently. As he did with many of his teachings and philosophies. Life is like the seasons.
Sometimes your up, sometimes your down. Sometimes things are going your way and some times your not. Sometimes your in love and other times your heart is smashed into a million pieces.
You may seem to be having the longest winter ever. Or the hottest and most profitable summer of all time. Or maybe the leaves just seem to keep falling away in a horrific Fall.
The fact of the matter is that life is up and down. And to deny this would be extremely foolish. But if we accept this, we take our power back in a sense. We know that things will be good, and then things can get bad as well.
There is a time for sowing and a time for reaping. There is a time for happiness and a time for sadness.
So knowing this fact is one thing. But how do you thrive off this fact? Spin it and use it to your advantage?
We’ll like I shared with you above, everyone has ups and downs. That’s the thing called life. But when it comes down to it, why do some people get rich in recessions. At a time where many people are at their most pessimistic, other people are thriving even more than they were in the flourishing times.
Why is this?
One word that comes to mind is PERSPECTIVE.
You can’t choose the cards you are dealt. But you are obligated to play them. And if you are reading this blog, I know you are a winner. You want to play the hell out of that hand to win.
But sometimes, when we have a hand that seems to be unplayable, we can’t shift our mindset out of that limiting space.
But life is literally all about perspective. Some people people see beauty and opportunity in the same place another sees famine and hardship.
So the first step that I want to offer with you that has helped me a lot is to –
Trade In Your Identity (Die To The Old Self)
I am just as guilty as anyone when it comes to assuming this identity about myself. It is a vicious cycle to. Because how you see yourself is how others see you. So you keep reinforcing how you see yourself by behaving in a way that in congruent to how the world already sees you.
And to not to this anymore means death to our beloved ego.
But to become someone new, we need to become NO ONE first. We need to see ourselves as malleable. Changeable and formable.
We need to ditch the identity that we have assumed and had reinforced by the world around us.
Which first off, takes complete honesty on our parts to identify what isn’t working.
So in order to thrive in your rough times, or winters if you will, the thing to do is identify the story you are telling yourself on why you aren’t doing well.
For example, over the last couple years, I have an extremely high anxiety. Maybe you can relate? But it was also coupled with constant ringing in the ears, vision problems and heavy levels of paranoia.
I was so consumed with these symptoms that it because my identity. I used it as an excuse to why I wasn’t doing as good as I could.
But then one day a friend of mine asked me what good things are coming from what is going on with my health.
At first I said “not a damn thing”. But then I searched deeper and found reasons to how this was making me better.
I knew that my extremely high levels of anxiety made me want to always be in motion. Because I could partially forget about these nearly debilitating symptoms.
So I started to create more intense workouts. Which made my body more lean and muscular than ever.
It forced me to live in the moment because I was constantly hyper aware of what was going on around me. It became almost a spiritual experience.
It also projected me straight forward into my real estate career. I was doing 4 to 5 open houses a week and cold calling everyday. Working 7 days a week. Building a great foundation to what I believe is going to be a career that I can both make a great living off of, and help tons of people.
Long story short, the question my friend asked me shifted my perspective. And after a while, I started telling myself new stories about my identity.
I let go of the old story and started really liking what these health issues where actually providing for me.
I started affirming powerful statements to myself like:
“I am a workaholic”
“I will outwork anyone”
“I am the hardest worker in the room”
“I am literally unstoppable”
These were phrases that I would cycle through my head. I took off the old identity (died to my old self) and then started wearing an entire different identity. The more I said these things to myself, the more I embodied these new characteristics.
And the more I stated them to myself, the more the world started to notice too.
I would get compliments and job offers in real estate constantly. As well as referrals from my broker as he noticed how hard I was working.
So at the end of the day, one shift in perspective can change your life.
I love the quote Tony Robbins coined
“Figure out how the worst day of your life is actually the best day of your life.”
Many times during these winters of our lives, we feel as if they are some of the worst days of our lives. Like we will never see the light of day.
But it is in our darkest moment that we must focus on the light.
You can either take the shovel life gave you and bury yourself. Or use it to dig yourself the hell up out of the hole and bury all your problems in that same hole. Standing triumphantly over all of your problems and limits that you have transcended.
So again perspective is truly everything. When people go pessimistic you go optimistic. Always find the good in situations. This is how you make winters more enjoyable. But not only this, but you arrive at your summers much more prepared to profit and win even more.
And you are a damn winner.
Don’t Buy Into Beliefs Others Try To Bestow On You
This tip reminds me of how people get so up in arms about big elections. Like for example the election between Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Some people thought the world would end if either one of them won.
But the outer world is only a reflection of your inner world. If you change your inner world, the outer world changes.
The outer world doesn’t dictate your life. It is a mere reflection of what is going on inside.
And to quote Jim Rohn again,
“For things to change, you must change.”
So when people try to reinforce something in your life that isn’t bringing you out of your winter, have none of it.
Even if they are trying to help.
Only embody powerful and uplifting tips and help from your outside environment.
Involve yourself with people who care enough about you to really tell you how it is. How you NEED to hear it. Not how you WANT to hear it.
Birds of a feather flock together. You want to fly with eagles, high above the altitude that any other bird can fly.
As it is said that when an eagle meets another bird in flight, it can only be another eagle. As this breed of bird is the only one that can fly thousands of feet into the sky.
So become mindful of what people are saying to you. Become hyper aware. Stand guard at the door of your mind. Only let things in there that deserve to be there. Demand rent on only the most powerful and uplifting thoughts. Evict every other one of them.
So I feel that if we live out these tips during our tough times, I believe that we will get out of these tough times faster. I also believe that we will arrive at a more beautiful destination after our winters are over, than we would if we choose to stay the same.
Allow yourself to transform. Literally go beyond your old form. Change your perspective. Filter your thought and the thoughts of others. Our consciousness is very gullible and tends to believe everything that it hears.
This is where we need to always be monitoring our perspectives and internal and external thoughts. Until we can get into a head space to where we can subconsciously start to let go of things that don’t serve us.
Or laugh at limiting perspectives. Knowing that the people that told us these limiting perspectives growing up, or in our current lives, are only telling us this because they choose to believe limiting beliefs at a time in their life.
Just know that everyone has their own truth. But you can choose your own truth. You don’t have to be ran by programs that were instilled in you from the past.
Decide you want to get out of the funk. Decide that it means more to you than it does to remain limited and stuck in old patterns
When you catch yourself running on autopilot, by mentally or actually saying limiting things, interrupt the pattern. State something that is empowering. Feeling it with emotion. This is called an incantation. It instructs your subconscious mind to accept it as true.
Feel it with emotion and then use your body to feel that entire emotion. State it strong and proud. With courage. And your mind will start to act on this new belief.
This is how you change your life.
Divorce your story, marry the truth. As Tony Robbins says.
We live in a universe with infinite possibility.
Know this and live this. (Especially during your tough times)
I will see you at the top.
Chris