Let’s talk about the internal aspect of making positive changes to your current reality. I believe that the foundation of a successful life has a lot more to do with attitude than it does with aptitude, but I’m not the only one.

Surveys, studies and research consistently indicate that 85% of success in almost any endeavor will depend on attitude and only about 15% on aptitude. Yet, in most educational settings the emphasis is exactly the opposite. In fact, attitude is rarely discussed.

Adding attitude to your knowledge and skill

Regardless of what you do for a career, technical knowledge and skills usually play an important role. But is knowledge and skill all it takes to succeed? In this highly competitive world there are lots of people with knowledge and skill. Obviously, success requires that you know what you are doing and that you can deliver what you promise.

In addition to knowledge and skill, what else is required for success? We have already established that attitude plays a huge role, but what does that really mean in practical terms? More specifically, how does changing our attitude translate into success?

Mastering your dominant mental disposition

Admittedly, this concept that changing your attitude changes your reality can seem a bit abstract. At least until we understand that our dominant mental disposition  is the element that brings together “who you are” with “what you do.”  So, even though attitude may seem less tangible than other aspects of building a successful life or career, it’s still one of the most powerful.

For clarity, let’s start by breaking attitude down into its four major components:

1. Expectations
2. Adaptability
3. Confidence
4. Appreciation

Whether you recognize it or not, these four components of attitude form the foundation for your personal and professional success. Trying to make positive changes in your reality without giving attention to these areas will only serve to provide you with a lot of frustration and very limited results. So, let’s take a closer look!

Expectations

Do you expect to succeed or to fail? Do you expect to find love and happiness or something less? Your expectations have a lot to do with what you think you do or do not deserve because they are a reflection of your feelings of self worth. As such, expectations influence how you interact with the people around you as well as their perception of you. In response, your world will find a way to provide evidence that your assessment of your own worth is accurate.

If you think that you are unworthy of love it will lower you expectations. In response, you will attract, and be attracted to, partners who are incapable of showing you love. If you feel like you are not deserving of success you will expect only mediocre results. Because of your low expectations you will make choices that limit your ability to succeed.

Of course, if you have a high sense of self worth, your expectations and your results will likely be much higher. In both of these cases, your results will serve to reinforce your expectations and your beliefs about what you think you deserve.

Adaptability

The ability to adapt to changing circumstances while maintaining a positive, optimistic outlook is a huge part of the formula. Fact: sooner or later everything in life changes! If we struggle with or constantly resist change, we will always be behind the curve trying to regain something that doesn’t exist anymore.

Perspective has a lot to do with our ability to adapt. If your perception is that you like your life just the way it is and you don’t want anything to change, then change represents pain and you will try to avoid it. On the other hand, if you view your life as an exciting, ever-changing adventure, you’ll not only expect change, you will actually look forward to it.

Confidence

A reasonable degree of self-confidence gives you a distinct edge in every area of life. If you lack confidence in yourself, it becomes difficult for others to put confidence in you. This applies equally to business and personal relationships. Confidence, or the lack of it, is something that others can easily sense because it will manifest in everything you do and say.

Your outlook is heavily influenced by your degree of self-confidence and mastering the inner game of attitude is impossible unless this essential quality is developed. As long as it is tempered by reasonableness, a “can do” attitude is what opens the doors of opportunity and gives you the courage to walk through them.

Appreciation

Like confidence, appreciation is a magnetic quality. In fact, no other quality touches people in the same way because everyone wants to feel appreciated. If your attitude communicates appreciation and gratitude you will be able to build rapport with almost anyone.

It’s important that your appreciation be sincere if you want it to permeate your disposition in a meaningful way. Appreciation is not about flattery, it is a reflection of where you are coming from. Cultivating an appreciative point of view is a vital step in using attitude to make positive changes in your reality. Never underestimate the power of appreciation!

Attitude is everything

For most of us, taking in new knowledge and learning new skills is an ongoing part of life. Now we see that a truly successful life requires that we pay special attention to the areas that can have the greatest positive impact on our quality of life and degree of overall success.

Attitude is one of the most important elements for bringing together “who you are” with “what you do.” It may not be everything, but it’s important enough that nothing else compares to it. Once you see firsthand how changing your attitude changes your reality, your life will be forever transformed.

How important do think attitude really is?
Do you agree that it has a strong relationship with your reality?
The lines are open!

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Sometimes people find themselves inadvertently cultivating a desire for things that are out of harmony with their beliefs and values.  Wrong desires are the foundation of untold pain and suffering.  So much of what is wrong in the world today started out with someone acting on an inappropriate passion.

Such actions never lead to a life of personal excellence.  Instead they rob you of your dignity and sense of self-esteem.

The problem with justification

When we desire something in life, there is a tendency to justify our actions and excuse behavior that is out of harmony with our deep down sense of right and wrong.  We may not even know we are doing it on a conscious level or we may minimize the situation telling ourselves it’s no big deal.

The problem is, a on a deeper level we have created a conflict, an internal battleground.  If we allow ourselves to continue without correcting the problem, sooner or later that internal conflict will undermine our efforts and we will be forced to compensate.

Use your power of choice

But remember you have a choice.  The same skills that allow you to assign a positive emotional value to average daily activities also give you the power to devalue unwanted or inappropriate tendencies.

Doing so will make it possible for you to choose to be passionate about things that support your personal values and to discard anything that offends those values.

When you choose to be the one who decides what you will be passionate about, you become the master of your own world and the designer of your own life.

Circumstances verses attitude

The quality of our life is more about what we make of it than what our current circumstances are.  Really, it’s all about attitude.

Circumstances have a way of changing.  Sometimes they support our dreams and passions while at other times they provide a challenge.  The ability to keep your dreams alive in the face of challenging circumstances is one of the greatest attributes of a successful person.

When your passions are in harmony with your values and beliefs obstacles become opportunities and walls become hurdles that you can jump over.

Do you ever desire things that conflict with your values?
How do you respond to such a desire?
The lines are open!

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My book TRUE SELF is the fastest inexpensive way (coaching is the fastest) to make positive life changes very quickly. Do you want to discover your core passions, dismantle your hidden, limiting beliefs, and realize your most desired goals? TRUE SELF will guide you through the process.

The vast majority of people are not particularly inspired and their lives are anything but inspirational. That’s a trap that you and I would prefer to avoid, right? So, the question is: How do we become part of the inspired minority who live lives of passion and enthusiasm?

Obviously, there must be some point of divergence that will lead us away from the pack. Where exactly can we find the turnoff that will get us moving away from an ordinary life and toward an extraordinary one?

Stop following the masses

It makes sense, doesn’t it? If the majority of people are not living the kind of life you want to live, why would you want to follow their advice or their example? After all, you wouldn’t take marriage advice from someone who has been divorced multiple times or hire a financial adviser who can’t even pay his own bills.

And yet, there is no shortage of advice from unhappy industry leaders, narrow minded educators, or self serving specialists. Before you listen to anybody about anything, take a moment to figure out who they are and who stands to gain from their advice. Just because someone lives in a bigger house than you do or makes more money than you do, that doesn’t mean that you should listen to them.

But what if they are a person of integrity and their advice is sound? What if they are living exactly the kind of life you want to live? Does that mean that you should listen to them? Yes, you can probably learn a lot from them, but there is still one very important consideration.

They are not you!

What does that mean? It means that you need to take everything you learn and customize it according to your own unique case. They probably got where they are because they were inspired to pursue their unique course and they succeeded. And this touches on the main point of this whole article.

The most powerful inspiration comes from pursuing an unconventional path. That is the only way to truly break away from the pack. You need to work at being you, not some duplicate of someone else. The more you identify with your true self, the more inspired you will become. Sure, we want to learn from others, but we want to filter what we learn so that it becomes a reflection of who we really are.

Awaken your unconventional side

One of the biggest challenges in life can be trying to figure out who we really are. There are so many powerful influencers, making so much noise and exerting so much pressure, that we can easily lose touch with our own unique identity. This pressure to conform to the will and wishes of others starts when we are very young and follows us throughout our lives.

That’s why the turnoff that will get us moving away from an ordinary life and toward an extraordinary one starts with unconventional thinking. Sorting through the static to discover your true self requires that you master the art of nonconformity. If you conform to the pressure to be just like everyone else, or anyone else for that matter, how can you expect to live an inspired life? To live a life of passion you must awaken your unconventional side.

Get inspired on the path of nonconformity

I have lived my whole life in the pursuit of my dreams, not someone else’s. Even so, there have been times when I was tackling some new challenge that I caught myself starting to follow some influential mentor a little too closely. It is an easy habit to slip into. Sometimes, it may even be necessary for a short time to learn a new skill. That’s called modeling and it is a powerful learning tool, but only for the short term.

In a recent article called What is the Ultimate Source of Personal Power? I talked about the physical, emotional, and motivational benefits of being truly inspired. To avail yourself of that personal power source you need to train yourself to think independently of masses. You need to get to know your true self and you need to follow you own unique path to success. This is where you will find the kind of inspiration that fuels a truly remarkable and passionate life.

This article is the 2nd in a new series about the power of inspiration called 
Inspiration – the Power to Move Life’s Mountains. Articles include:
1. What is the Ultimate State of Personal Power?
2. Inspiration and the Art of Nonconformity

What is it that gets you really inspired?
When was the last time you felt that way?
Do you think inspiration and nonconformity are connected?

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What is it that can move a person to go from a state of ho hum complacency to totally motivated and ready for any challenge? How is it that some people are able to harness the fortitude to overcome every obstacle that life throws at them while others give up and surrender their dreams?

What kind of elusive personal power makes it possible for guys like Thomas Edison to achieve success after ten thousand failed attempts? And what driving force motivated Walt Disney to unlock such massive creative ability after he was fired from his newspaper job because he lacked original ideas?

What source of personal power fuels these people?

At this point, you might be thinking that these “special” people have some rare quality, gift, or talent that the rest of us are lacking. Maybe they were born smarter, more motivated, or super creative. Perhaps they just had some unique opportunity that fell in their lap because they happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Certainly, if any of those conditional factors were major contributors to the success of such people, then the rest of us would have plenty of justification to just settle. Well, that’s not the case so we need to get over it. In reality, it’s the ability to tap into the ultimate state of personal power that creates the distinction we’ve been talking about, and that is something that is available to all of us.

We’ve all been there at some point

Can you remember a time in your life when you felt really motivated? It could have been when you met that special someone that you wanted to spend the rest of your life with. Maybe it was the day you graduated, or when you finally landed that job you really, really wanted. Stop and think back for a minute until you lock onto a time when you felt super motivated. What exactly did that feel like?

Didn’t you feel like life was full of opportunity and promise? Remember how, at that point in time, it seemed like almost anything was possible. Remember how empowered you felt, like nothing could stand in your way. What do we call that wonderful, powerful, oh so desirable state?

We call it INSPIRED

When we are truly inspired it changes everything. We become increasingly more motivated and passionate; we also become energized and fully resourceful. When we are feeling inspired we manifest a positive, optimistic outlook that allows us to spot new opportunities and to act on them with focus and determination.

In short, being inspired is the ultimate state of personal power and tapping into that state is what enables ordinary people like you and I to accomplish extraordinary things. We all have different talents and abilities, but it’s inspiration that will push us to reach beyond perceived limits and to test the boundaries of our potential.

Inspiration is the rocket fuel of life

Just to make sure we fully appreciate the energy generated by personal inspiration I decided to gather a little official backing. The dictionary describes inspiration as: stimulation of the mind and emotions to an unusually high level of feeling, creativity, and activity. Some common synonyms and related words are: imaginativeness, creativity, ingenuity, genius, productivity, originality, inventiveness, cleverness.

What happens to an otherwise ordinary life when we apply all of these benefits? It turns extraordinary, that’s what. We can learn new skills and strategies until the end of time, but without inspiration how much good will it really do? Knowledge alone is just academic data sitting on our mental hard drive waiting for an opportunity to become useful. Inspiration provides that opportunity.

Let’s light the fires and kick the tires!

At this point I think we can all agree that a large dose of inspiration can produce an abundance of desirable benefits in every area of life. Since that’s something we all want, the next obvious question is, how do we get more inspiration, and once we get it, how do we maintain it?

These are such important questions that I am inspired to make this the first of a series of articles called: Inspiration – the Power to Move Life’s Mountains. You can help me make these articles more meaningful for you by answering one or more of the following questions.

What usually gets you feeling inspired enough to take action?
What’s the most inspired you have ever been and what happened?
If you could get really inspired, what would you do?

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Editor’s note: This is a guest article by Stuart Mills

“Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice and need.” ~Voltaire

How many times have you been talking about work with someone, and these words (in some way) pop up: “I hate my job.”

I’d bet ‘a lot’. A lot of people openly admit that they hate their jobs and that they would quit if they could afford to. They won’t admit this to their superiors, but they’ll admit it to just about anyone else within earshot. Why are they so open? What do they hope to gain by announcing that they don’t like their jobs and their manager’s a bad piece of work? Beats me.

Everyone has to work, otherwise you wouldn’t get anywhere in life. I see people who are 43 years old and still living with their parents because they can’t find a job. Rubbish, there’s no such thing as ‘can’t find a job’, rather, they’re too lazy to get up and look for a job. They let their parents cover their needs, and let the world keep turning. This is not the way towards satisfaction in life.

I Can’t Get No Job Satisfaction

Why don’t more people enjoy their work? Satisfaction comes from spending the hours of your day in ways that truly fulfill you, and you spend a large portion of your day at work, so I’d say ‘job satisfaction’ is pretty important. Yet, a lot of people seem content in finding a job that doesn’t challenge them and doesn’t excite them, only to pick up a decent pay check at the end of each month. They act as if money is the most important thing in the world.

Well if that’s the case, why don’t they find a job with more money?

Benefits of Job Satisfaction

It’s very important that your job satisfy you in some way, due to the benefits you’ll receive. The benefits of job satisfaction are many, here are four that come to mind:

1. Promotes a healthy, balanced lifestyle, keeping stress levels to a minimum.
2. Fosters pride in your work, knowing that you’re doing something good.
3. Motivates you to get out of bed earlier, with more spring and energy.
4. Makes it easier to focus on more than just the money.

I could go on, but now we dive into the important part of this article: the ‘how-to’!

How to Find Job Satisfaction

Here are five tips that I’ve found, that will work towards greater job satisfaction for you:

1. People Need You. If you find yourself wondering why you’re even bothering to do this work when no one seems to appreciate what you do, then don’t fret. There’s always someone who relies on you, no matter what type of work you do.

The public rely on the toilet cleaners to keep the toilets fresh. The public rely on the trash-men to remove their unwanted garbage. The public rely on the fast-food trainee to provide them with easy, stress-free food. No matter what job you have, there are always people out there that rely on you to do your job right. And usually, if you don’t do your job, then they will suffer for it.

So recognize that there are those who need you to do a good job. People depend on you to deliver the goods and to be consistent about it. Please don’t let them down.

2. Plan Out Your Day. Often, we’ll find a day disappears as quickly as it arrived because we got bogged down with minor chores and emergencies that kept appearing. These minor fires mean we don’t get to tackle the much bigger fires, which would give us a lot more satisfaction.

What’s the best way to deal with this? Plan out your day. At the end of your shift, decide what ‘major fires’ need putting out tomorrow, what big things could be tackled to improve you and your company. Plan out when you’ll tackle these major issues, and then stick to that plan no matter what little embers may pop up. You need to make sure your time is your own, so that you won’t lose it by running around aimlessly.

Every day, we’re given a bucket of water. Don’t waste it on small embers, use it to put out the big fires.

3. Mix It Up. Consistency is a good thing to have at work. But what isn’t good to have is the same routine, day after day after day. It drags you down, it makes you tired early in the day, and it kills any motivation you have for the job.

Here’s a splash of cold water in the face: mix it up! Do something different! Step out of your routine and take a fresh look at things. What’s driving you to boredom? What has gone past its sell-by-date and needs to be ditched? Get rid of that which no longer works. Minor chores can be ditched, pointless re-arranging can be dumped. Inject some variety into your days, even if it’s something as simple as taking a different route to work.

Decide on three things that you could introduce to your work that would mix it up. Then do them! Don’t delay in this, the longer you put it off, the more the old routines will look tempting again. Don’t be afraid to try something new.

4. Talk With Your Colleagues. It amazes me sometimes how little some people actually know about their work colleagues. There’s ‘Dave’, and ‘Sue’ and ‘Bill’ and Jane’, but go beyond their first names, and there’s a gap. It seems that when asked, we don’t know that much at all!

Your colleagues are not robots. They’re other human beings too, breathing and talking and trying to make a living, just like you. So treat them as human beings. Get inquisitive. Get to know them a bit better each day by asking a different question, or by starting a new topic. Share experiences with them, and they’ll realize that you’re human too, and that it’s OK to talk with each other about something other than work.

The more you know about your colleagues, the more you can relate to them, and the more interesting your job becomes.

5. Take Pride. This work that you spend so many hours a day doing, there’s something personal about it that only you can claim. It was done by you.

Warren Buffett said, “There will never be a greater you, than you” and he spoke the truth. Only you can put your own stamp on the work you do. Only you can be truly satisfied with the work you do. So take pride in this work, and see that no-one else can do the job as well as you can.

Every day is a chance to do something great. So do great work, in the way that only you can.

I Want to Hear From You

I’m going to ask you a few questions now:
How do you feel about your job? Are you satisfied?
If not, then what is it specifically that you are dissatisfied with?
Share your stories in the comments below, we’d love to hear from you.

Stuart Mills is the creator of Unlock The Door, a place where he wants to help you become like Neo from The Matrix. You can also find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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Are you naturally trusting, or do you tend to be suspicious of other people’s motives? Have you ever been taken advantage of by someone you trusted? Do you feel that trusting others is naive?

Sadly, there is no shortage of people in this world who will try to take advantage of you. How many weird emails do you get telling you that you have won a lottery, or there’s a question about your item on ebay, or that you are the beneficiary of millions of dollars from overseas someplace? What do all these messages have in common?

Someone is trying to take advantage of you

Does this mean that it’s unwise to be trusting of others? Well, sometimes it is unwise, but then again, being suspicious of everyone you meet is not a very positive way to live your life. So what’s the answer?

Before we delve into answers, let’s consider how we are affected by our own attitude toward trust. As with everything else, your level of trust, or suspicion, sends a subtle message to those around you. People respond to that message in various ways, and their response will have a direct impact on your quality of life.

How do you feel when you meet somebody, and right away you sense that they don’t trust you?

Consider three possibilities:

1) Does it make you feel like you have to prove that you are trustworthy? That’s not a very comfortable feeling because it immediately puts you on the defensive.

2) Perhaps it causes you to jump to negative conclusions about that person, thinking, “what is their problem anyway?” In this case, you reacted with suspicion to their lack of trust. Again, not a comfortable feeling.

3) If you are someone who struggles with a lack of self confidence, how do you think it would feel to have someone who doesn’t even know you, be suspicious of you? Needless to say, it is very difficult to build self confidence with that kind of negative emotional feedback.

In all three of these examples, having someone else treat us with a lack of trust had a negative influence on our mental and emotional state. If that is how they made us feel, we need to ask ourselves…

Are those the feelings I want to bring out in other people?

The truth is, we don’t like it, and neither do they. Now, let’s look at the flip side. How does it make you feel when you first meet somebody, and you immediately sense that they are trusting toward you? It makes you feel good, right? In fact, you like that person right off, don’t you? If they make you feel good, and you like them, you are much more likely to treat them with respect in return.

If you want others to treat you with trust and respect, do the same for them. In most cases, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose. Trusting others sets up a subconscious desire in them, to live up to your trust. Many times, that is all that is needed to help them rise to the occasion.

Everybody likes approval

Trust is a form of approval, and when someone else feels your approval, they will generally respond in a very positive way. Approval is one of the strongest motivators there is. People seek out approval, and will go to great lengths to gain it. If they view you as a source of approval, they will feel drawn to you without even realizing why. Making people feel good about themselves is a win-win situation.

Successful relationships are built on trust

The more we count someone as trustworthy, the higher they rate on our internal people-meter. Obviously, complete trust is something that must be earned. But, could we begin every relationship by giving the other person the benefit of the doubt?

Who do you like to do business with, and who are your best friends? The answer to both of those questions is directly related to who has earned your trust. When we feel that we have good reasons for trusting a company and their products, we become repeat customers. When we feel that we have legitimate reasons for trusting other people, they become our friends.

Now, let me ask you this: who is the most important person in your life? Isn’t it the person that you trust above all others? Trust is a factor in all positive relationships. The greater the level of trustworthiness, the stronger the relationship.

Back to our opening question

In a world where some people are looking to take advantage, is it unwise to trust others? Only if you have some legitimate reason not to trust them. Keep in mind that we’re not talking about trusting somebody you just met with your newborn baby or life savings. All we are talking about here is the attitude you project toward people you meet for the first time. So use common sense and exercise caution when caution is called for.

But, don’t let the spammers and scammers of this world mold your opinion of people in general. If you greet most people with trust and give them the benefit of the doubt, you will not be disappointed. Helping others to feel good about themselves will raise the quality of their life, and yours.

What do you think about this approach?
Was this information helpful?
The lines are open!

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Many relationships are under tremendous stress these days. If that is true for you and you want to turn it around, take a moment to consider this solution.

Do you ever find yourself feeling stuck in negative thought patterns that dampen your expectations? You know the kind I mean, where you start expecting the worst possible outcomes.  Have you ever thought or said: ‘I don’t think I can make this work, or I seriously doubt that I can pull this off.”

This is a common mindset that often proves very difficult to change even after you finally decide that you’ve had enough.  That’s because the negative thoughts behind the negative expectations tend to breed and multiply like a malicious virus in your internal computer.

The good news is that turning a negative thought pattern into a positive one simply requires a bit of patience and persistence. You just need to make a conscious effort for a short time until the positive thought process begins to take over.

3 simple steps to begin forming positive expectations

1) Develop self-awareness to recognize negative expectations. One problem with negative thoughts is that they often form below your conscious level of awareness. You can get so used to them being in your head that you hardly notice them anymore.  To turn the tide of negativity, you’ll have to develop a stronger level of self-awareness.  One good way to start is by performing an attitude check-up several times a day.  Pay attention first to how you feel.  If you’re feeling positive and productive it’s an indicator that you’ve been thinking positive thoughts.

However, if you notice that you’re feeling irritable, pessimistic or stressed, you’re probably focusing more on negative thoughts.  When that happens…

2) Challenge and change the negative thoughts. Believe it or not, it is fairly easy to challenge and change negative thought patterns and expectations with a little focus.  For example, if you find yourself feeling doubtful about your ability to finish your work on time, you might engage in a bit of encouraging self-talk. For example, you might say:  “Okay, so I’m a bit worried right now, but really everything is under control.  I’m strong, I’m smart and I am definitely capable of finishing this project on time. I just need to focus, do my best, and everything will work out fine.”

Even though your circumstances have not changed, your attitude certainly has. This type of self-talk can get you thinking and feeling in a much more positive direction.

3) At the same time, while you’re changing negative thoughts to positive ones, work daily on developing a general positive expectation habit.  Each day when you wake up, affirm confidently, “Today is going to be a great day because _________!  I feel fantastic about being able to _________.” Fill in those blanks with three specific reasons for holding positive expectations about your day. Make them realistic and achievable so that your reality aligns with and affirms your positive expectations.

Change your perception, change your reality

When you encounter obstacles or problems, try to view them as opportunities to learn, grow and strengthen your overall perception of yourself and your abilities.  Perception is always 99% of the game! If you simply work on shifting the way you look at the experiences of your life, you will naturally start forming more positive expectations.

How do you push aside negative thoughts?
Do you have a favorite “positive expectation” tip to share?
The lines are open!

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Have you ever noticed that every challenge also contains a blessing in disguise? If not, perhaps you haven’t been looking closely enough! Granted, life’s challenges usually seem like inconveniences when they interrupt our schedules, or get in the way of something we want to do. Isn’t that part of the reason we call them challenges?

When we’re working toward a goal that’s important to us, the last thing we want is to face some big, unexpected challenge or obstacle. When that happens, it usually means a big delay, added learning curve, greater expense, or some other unplanned complication. When we are focused on results it is hard to appreciate detours.

Reframing challenges

What if we could learn to see life’s challenges in a whole new light? What if we could learn to see them as highly beneficial experiences, adventures in learning, or even blessings in disguise? Wouldn’t that be a welcome shift in perception?

The truth is, with the right mental attitude we can completely reframe the way we experience challenges. And asking the right questions is one of the most effective ways to do that. With a little practice we can come to view challenges as some of our most valuable life experiences.

5 questions you can ask yourself when facing challenges

1) What can I learn from this?
Too often we view challenges as irritating annoyances, when in fact they may hold a great opportunity to learn and grow! If we start by asking ourselves, “what can I learn from this experience?” it immediately puts a more positive spin on the situation. It allows us to discover something worth appreciating about our experience. It makes it possible to recognize true value that might have gone unnoticed, and to see opportunity and possibility instead of inconvenience and annoyance.

2) How can this strengthen me?
One major reason why challenges intimidate us is because we don’t feel capable of handling them. We may have a limited perception of our own abilities, so we automatically believe that the challenge is bigger than we are. If we learn to see each challenge as an opportunity to become stronger and more capable, everything changes. We can use challenging situations to unlock our untapped strengths and abilities. Each time we do this it will increase our confidence until we begin to see most challenges as opportunities to harness our personal power to an even greater degree.

3) How can I use this to my advantage?
More often than not, we tend to view challenges as disadvantages – but is that necessarily true? When something gets in our way, what do we do? Don’t we start searching for a different strategy to accomplish our goal? Challenges often help us discover better ways to do things. Thanks to the challenge, we may be able to replace a flawed strategy with one that works much better. Asking “how can I use this to my advantage” opens our mind to alternatives that we never would have considered otherwise.

4) How can I use this to help others?
Even though we might believe that our goals only affect us personally, that is rarely the case. What we do, how we think and feel, and our course of action has an impact on the people around us. Not only do other people watch the things we do and how we live our life – they often model their own behavior after ours. If you refuse to let challenges intimidate you or slow you down, you just might inspire and motivate others to do the same when they face obstacles of their own. Anytime you experience personal growth, you help the people around you in some way.

5) What would make this a worthwhile experience?
Sometimes, just being willing to recognize that a challenge may not be such a bad thing can be enough to help you realize all kinds of wonderful benefits from it. This question does a couple of things: first, it helps you feel more empowered because it affirms that you always have a choice in how you react to any situation. Second, it reminds you that every challenge holds the seeds for unlimited blessings and opportunities.

How you see them is up to you!

Challenging circumstances are part of life, that’s not going to change. However, that doesn’t mean that you are a victim of circumstances. Your attitude and perception are something that you create. They are not dictated by your circumstances. You always have a choice! So, the real question here is this, do you choose to see blessings in life’s challenges?

Have you had challenges turn out to be blessings?
Have you learned valuable lessons from challenging times?
The lines are open!

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