Stop Feeding Your Problems…
Want some more problems? Just keep talking about them as much as possible. Find anyone who will listen. Go to a therapist and share all the details before scheduling your next appointment to come back and do it again…
Someone who truly wants to help you will push you to break this negative pattern because obsessing about your problems is not a good habit.
By way of reminder…your brain doesn’t care what you think about. In fact, your brain is like a piece of land. Let me explain with an analogy.
Let’s say you want to plant some flowers in your front yard. You go to the store to get some seeds. First, you choose what looks to be like a beautiful rose bush. Then you decide to buy some ivy to grow around your little garden of Eden, but by mistake you bought wild grapevine, which you didn’t know has a tendancy to grow out of control and choke out all of your other plants and flowers 😱
After getting home, you take out the seeds and dig some holes. You pat down the soil and grab the hose to water it down. Week after week, you feed it what it needs and inevitably the land returns exactly what you planted. The rose bush bloomed first, but the grapevine soon followed and swallowed up all of the beautiful flowers in your garden.
Your brain is like the land. It doesn’t care what you think about; it just gives you back more of what you plant inside it. So, if you keep giving your focus and attention to your problems, your mind will create bigger ones for you to handle — and if you keep it up long enough, eventually, you’ll be so overwhelmed it will start to feel like you’re being choked.
Everyone is struggling with something. Life is full of problems and everyone’s got some. Becoming Built to Lead demands that you throw ’em up, decide what to do, and choose productive actions to make them a “done so”. Some of your problems will be bigger than others, and many are beyond your control, but none will require you to ruminate about them — so don’t.
Instead, be deliberate and plant good seeds. If you have kids, teach them to do the same. At Built to Lead, we recommend replacing this negative pattern of obsessing about your problems with something positive. To start, you can find reasons to be grateful and start planting seeds of gratitude. Then, you can protect them with your focus, water them by adding more, and then watch them grow and multiply right before your eyes.
What kind of seeds are you planting? Be careful, choose wisely, and be grateful….
About the Author:
Chad Silverstein is a seasoned entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience starting, leading, and exiting multiple companies. His business earned national recognition, twice being ranked as the #1 business to work for in Ohio. Chad is now a lead writer with Authority Magazine and Executive Coach with Built to Lead.
