Are Your Thoughts Ruining Your Life
Financial Anxiety
Clever Dude asks a very important question on his website - is the thought of debt ruining your life? Yes you may have debt, but are you paying your bills every month on time? Do you have creditors calling? Have you had to sell anything to pay a bill? If not, your situation may not be as bad as you imagine in your head.
Our imaginations are powerful. Psychologists say that when we imagine something vividly, it creates memories in the same way an actual experience would. So while you are fretting, and laying awake at night imagining the worst case scenario, your brain is treating it like it is really happening. Your pulse quickens, your heart races, you feel that shame and fear. You see yourself having to deal with the collection calls and past due notices. As far as your mind is concerned, that whole situation you just imagined actually happened. And once you have imagined it, that image will keep coming back to haunt you. At some point you have to stop the tape from running and realize that it probably isn’t as bad as you think.
The Battle of the Brain
This isn’t true of just our financial situation. How many times have you seen an attractive man/woman at a party and thought about going over and striking up a conversation. You begin to imagine yourself walking over to that person, introducing yourself and maybe offering a drink. Then the whole scene goes dark, and there is a spotlight shining on you. Your tongue swells up and you start babbling like an infant. Everyone starts laughing and pointing, and that person you want to meet is sneering at you and asking why he/she would ever want to be hit on by someone like you. This whole imagined scene takes place in a matter of seconds. In those seconds, you have failed. As far as your brain is concerned, you have already been humiliated. How can you ever get up the courage to make a move now? The battle is over, just pack up and go home.
Or maybe you have a business idea. You sketch out a plan on the back of a napkin, and start making a few tentative phone calls. One of your old friends tells you your idea will never make it. Most small businesses fail in the first few years anyways. You picture yourself quitting your job and striking out on your own, only to be rejected by potential customers and investors alike. You struggle valiantly working long hours, pouring blood and sweat into your new enterprise, but nothing works. You hear the phone ringing off the hook with vendors calling for past due invoices. Customers are returning products as fast as you can ship them, and the whole thing collapses around you. You are going to lose your house, and cars, and will have to live in a cardboard box under the bridge begging for spare change. In just a few moments, you started a business, and failed miserably. For your mind, it is a memory almost as vivid as if you had just lived through the whole awful mess. But you haven’t even written your entire business plan yet! Now you are throwing the whole thing in the trash because your mind played a trick on you and beat you before you got out of the starting blocks.
So - Change your Mind
Our thoughts can ruin our lives. They can also make our lives wonderful. We can turn that same powerful mind to our advantage. We can picture ourselves as winners. We can see ourselves debt free and living the life of our dreams. We can imagine how successful we will be every time we approach someone of the opposite sex. They will like us and want to be with us. At the very least, we will make a friend. We can envision business success. Our idea is well researched, well implemented, backed by a sound team of mentors and investors. How can we fail! Just redirecting our brain, that powerful 3 pounds of grey matter, can invest us with the energy, vision and commitment to succeed.
The next time you find yourself imagining failure and catastrophe, remember that you are in control of your thoughts. You can direct them in the way of success and fulfillment. When your mind is pointed in that direction, the rest of your life will follow.
