Feeling worthless and incompetent in the depth of your woes? Congratulations, you’re human! The good news is you do have the power to rewire your thinking and own your struggles — your fears, failures and frustrations at self — in better light. Here’s how, alongside some actionable tasks.
Rewrite Your Story By Reevaluating Your Circumstances
As well as changing everyday language.
“I’m always broke.” Of course you are.
“I could never have that life.” You’re right.
“I was at the peak of my game, but now it’s over.” If you keep saying that, yes.
The thing is, the more energy you put into these emotions, the more you fuel its reality and dishonour all the positive things you can sow into your life like resilience, growth and forgiveness. Write the narrative of your life to bring some clarity to what currently is, then rewrite it in a way that you are a hero, not a victim of your life story. Instead of sounding helpless, speak with strength and courage. How have you become wiser now? Affirm those thoughts into your everyday language. Life is whatever we think it is, so think lightly and beautifully. Better yet, don’t we all admire people who don’t take themselves so seriously with self-deprecating jokes?
Start A Sharing Circle
Or mastermind a group to open up about your struggles, bounce off ideas and support each other. Mastermind groups are an age-old but classic, effective peer-to-peer mentoring concept. We all have our own unique strengths to bring to the table, so link with people who have strengths you don’t have. Every week, fortnight or month, the group will meet face to face or online with an agenda sharing struggles, advice, learning, creativity or even cross-promotions. All of this, alongside the fact of networking, is key to collaborative success. Start on a grassroots level with friends or friends of friends, or opt for paid options online connecting you to people all over the world. More than ever, it is easy to find, connect, and surround yourself with people to bring out the highest version of yourself.
Start A Quick Daily Journal (Documenting Two Things)
Number one, what are you most grateful for today? And secondly, what are you most excited about in life right now?
When we’re thick into our troubles, it’s easy to forget about all the good stuff in our life. Reminding ourselves of what we’re great at, what we’ve got, and how far we’ve come spreads more positive vibes into our lives. It could be “I’ve got a roof over my head”, “my colleagues are super supportive” or “damn, these clean sheets are nice”. Then asking yourself what you ignites you most on that very day gives you something to look forward to. “It’s been tough in the office but these new Monday morning meetings will get the team together!” or “I’m excited to rewrite my ‘About’ section on my blog”. Humble gratitude and prolonged passions softens the wrath of your struggles.
Your New Morning Affirmation: Failure Is Transformation
You’re missing out on opportunities if you’re striving for perfection. The more you struggle, feel uncomfortable or fail, the better. This isn’t crazy talk, every single entrepreneur will tell you so. It is our ability to continue rising after every fall that we reap the benefits of knowing what works or doesn’t work. Behind every success story is many failures. Failure brings about an epic life story. Simply put, if you haven’t “failed” at anything, you’re playing life in the safe zone and aren’t aiming big enough. Dare to dream. Remember that life is play and to feel anything at all is a gift so enjoy all your successes and failures.