Making Your Mindset

You have the power to change your mindset, or rather, make your mindset, as I like to say. You get to choose the things your mind focuses on, which ultimately dictate how your day (or year, or life) is going to go.

Sound far-fetched?

It isn’t really when you think about it.

Think of how your day goes when you wake up in the morning thinking, ugh, I’m so tired. Oh, it’s raining? Great. I need coffee. Oh yeah, I have more of those doughnuts… I’ll have one for breakfast. Uhhh I have SO much to do today! I feel bloated. Ugh, I look bloated. I should probably go back to bed… I could still make it to work on time if I sleep an extra 20 minutes.

We’ve probably all had those days. But my question is, how do you feel when those thoughts are the first ones of your day? How does your day go when it starts out like that?

It’ll probably be a pretty crappy day, one in which you feel overwhelmed and don’t get a lot done because you can’t even think of where to start. You’ll likely eat carb-filled foods because they’ll make you feel better (for a moment). And that thing you wanted to work on? That project that was going to make your life easier, the one you were going to really benefit from? Well, that’s off the table. Too tired. Maybe tomorrow. (But let’s be real; you know it won’t happen then, either.)

You chose to focus on the negative, and in turn, your day was, well, pretty dang negative.

Now, let’s reverse that. Think of how your day goes when you wake up with excitement… you fling off the covers, get out of bed, stretch with your arms way above your head and tell yourself, today is going to be a great day. I’m gonna kill it with gettin’ things done (and I’ll find fun in doing them), and by tonight I’m going to feel super accomplished. It’s a beautiful day (*regardless of the weather*), and I am so lucky to be alive and here in this moment to enjoy it. Sleep in? No way. I have way too much to enjoy while awake for me to delay getting up. Instead, I’ll go to bed early tonight.

Now, how does your day go when you wake up like that?

Even though you have a lot to do, you’re approaching it with excitement and gratitude (for being alive, period), so it feels a lot more doable. You’ll probably want to have a healthy smoothie because you know how good it’ll make you feel (and how crappy the doughnut would make you feel, even though it would taste good at the time). You’ll magically find time (because you’ll make it) and the energy to tackle that project you’ve been thinking about for a while now (whatever it may be). And making headway there will make you feel SO freaking accomplished, like you could do anything (and you can).

You started your day on a positive, grateful note, and that’s the kind of day you ended up having. This doesn’t mean that nothing negative will come up or that everything will be 100% peachy-keen… but it does mean that you are way more likely to keep taking positive action throughout the day, which in turn will make you feel pretty awesome. It’s a vicious cycle (the good kind) of choosing to focus on the positive, leading you to want to take positive action, making you feel, well, positive! But really, making you feel freakin’ amazing.

When you choose to start your day on this awesome note, you are now in control of it (rather than it controlling you, which happens too often, to too many people). And when you’re in control of your day, you’re callin’ the shots, baby! When you’re feeling excited and energized, you are way more likely to choose healthy foods. And to actually want to choose them, because you know how good they are for you and also that they’ll keep you feelin’ good.

Once you’ve “made your mindset,” you will notice that it becomes easier to wake up every day on a positive note and filled with gratitude.

You’ll feel yourself stepping into that person you want to be, the one who gets up in the morning on the right foot, eats (mostly) healthy foods, and treats her body right. The one who chooses to own her day, and ultimately, life.

Part of making your mindset is acting the way you want to feel (in the words of Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project and Better Than Before, among others). She discovered that, “by acting as if you feel a certain way, you induce that emotion in yourself.”

I freakin’ love this. In a nutshell, this means that if we act like we’re the energized go-getter that we want to be, then we will start to feel like an energized go-getter. If we act happy, we will start to feel happier. If we act like the person we want to wake up every day as, the person who gets sh*t done, checks things off her to-do list like nothing, and makes it happen for herself… well, we’ll start to feel like that person. And that feels really dang good.

Think about it. You, and only you, have this awesome power to choose positive thoughts on a daily basis. You have the power to act the way you want to feel. And, you have the power to influence how your day, week, or even year will go. It’s all about mindset.

How amazing is that?! Let’s all aim to exercise that power way more often (why not every day?).

Do you feel the difference when you consciously choose better thoughts? Do you find that your day goes better when it starts off right, and vice versa? Let’s get this convo going. Comment below.