Even If You Feel You Can’t Control Much, You Can Control This!!

Have you ever felt like things in your world were out of control? Here’s some good news! There is one thing you can control — your belief system. And doing this will unlock a whole new world.

Let’s start by unpacking what a belief system is. Some people call this your mindset. A mindset is a set of beliefs that shape how you make sense of the world and yourself.

Your mindset influences how you think, how you feel, and how you behave in any given situation. And your mindset has already been formed. You see this as “just the way things are.” You don’t even think about what you’re thinking about. You don’t even notice the way you see life.

Because your mindset is so powerfully impacting, what you believe about yourself and the world around you affects your success or failure.

Ask yourself, What do I believe about myself? What messages are on repeat in my head? Have I allowed someone else’s perception of me to become my reality?

I had to silence the negative messages that kept rolling around in my head. You know the ones I’m talking about: You will not …. You will never .… You can’t …. You won’t ….

Those negative lies were on repeat in my head because I believed what other people said about me. I believed I would never be happy within myself. I believed I would never get out of poverty. I believed that toxic relationships were normal. I believed my life would never change.

That was my belief system, my mindset. It wasn’t true, but I thought it was due to all that I had been through as a child.

Our belief systems are formed, sometimes in childhood and sometimes through other experiences. Anything I did, I did with that twisted mindset. For a long time I was stuck, and it held me back. The sad thing was, I didn’t even know that believing those statements kept me from thriving. I went into every situation with that defeated mindset.

How a mindset works. The longer the lies were on repeat, the more I believed them. It became the filter through which I saw life. 

How to change a mindset. I got sick and tired of being sick and tired! I finally realized that if I was going to thrive, I had to change my mindset and shift my thinking. Here’s how I did it.

1)  REALIZE.  I had to realize that I was a person with sight, but no vision. I could only see what was right in front of me, and that was clouded by a faulty belief system. I had to realize my life could be different.

God allowed someone to come into my life with vision for my future, and that helped me realize that my life could get better. That person could envision a changed life for me. I had to change what I believed about myself to envision it too.

2)  RECOGNIZE.  How do you recognize the negative mindset that plays over and over in your head? Pay attention to what you are thinking. Notice your thoughts and your self-talk. Listen to the words you say to yourself all day long. 

3)  REPLACE. Replace those negative thoughts with positive ones! When you notice yourself thinking, I can’t, then flip it around to I can! I may need a little help, a little time, a little more learning, but I can do it! I can take those baby steps.

In order to thrive in my life, I had to replace the negative messages with the truth, and then believe the truth. When I worked on controlling my thoughts, I found that I could be who God created me to be and do what He created me to do.

My life has taken an upward turn ever since. It is not always easy, but it is so much better. I am changed because I have new vision, and the same can be true for you.