What are you telling yourself?
The stories we tell ourselves are what define us, not the events themselves.
Currently, I am listening to a podcast hosted by Rich Roll with guest Michael O’Brien. I am not finished, but you too can listen along here.
A quote that hit me goes, “Events in life are neutral until we give them a label.”
This was important to Michael because he was involved in a near-fatal accident that involved some healing and a lot of doubt.
He had to decide what that day meant to him and where to go from there. So he agreed that that fateful day would be called his last bad day. It calls it out for what it was and is, a bad day but with undertones of optimism because it would be his last.
That is a premeditated mindset, or rather, premeditated optimism. I’m also fighting a labeling problem because the events of my life have not been as traumatic. But I am sure everyone knows what I am talking about. We have all had those moments when we tell ourselves something that isn’t entirely a lie but isn’t really the truth either.
Maybe you have said to yourself, I am a bad writer, I am lazy, I can’t stand the cold, I’m not good at running, I’m not a morning person, I am bad at time management, etc. The list can go on and on.
I have decided to, first of all, stop declaring labels that I don’t want or labels that are not true.
Instead, I have decided to start relabeling them and recognize that there are pros and cons to strengths, or rather, for every strength there is a weakness, so instead of focusing on the deficit, I want to focus on the potential.
For example, I am bad at time management. Rather, I am great at experiencing the moment and valuing the present and the here and now over the future.
I am addicted to my phone. Yes, but primarily, I am deeply interested in a lot of things, and the internet and media are an infinite well. My addiction stems from a desire to explore and discover.
The list goes on you can relabel the story you tell yourself. but that doesn’t mean the problem goes away; it means you can more easily replace the negative with the positive for more effective results.
Also, if you are underperforming at work or in life in general, look at the thing you are struggling to do well and what your vice might be. it very well might be that you are in the wrong field and that a variation of your vice is what you should do instead.
Read more here.
Originally published at https://korublog.substack.com.
