It’s funny how profoundly our mood affect us. We can go from feeling like we could conquer the world, to feeling like we’ve been conquered in a matter of moments. I had one of those dramatic swings last week when I was settling down to work at a local Starbucks.
Long story short….spilling coffee on your MacBook Air can change your mood…and your plans for the next few days…fairly quickly.
Moving Backwards
The danger of these unexpected detours in life is that we can sometimes frame our whole life by what is happening in the moment. Although I remained surprisingly calm, didn’t utter a word, and went about cleaning up (and attempting to drain) my computer, my mind was racing.
Here we go again.
Why do these things keep happening to me?
I can’t take another expensive hit right now.
Whine, whine, whine, whine….
Negative self-talk is an insidious adversary. It can shift from an unfortunate moment, to the definition of all your moments. The end result is not progress, in fact it often feels like life has been thrown into reverse.
Kick Ass Instead
I’ll admit, I was rattled for the next day or two. The negative questions kept creeping into my mind as I had my computer checked out…realized I needed a new one…and was given a “gift” of a fully functioning hard drive with no loss of data.
It was a lot to process. But something happened as I allowed myself to wallow in self-pity for a while. I decided setbacks are just that…a setback. They do not define my life. They don’t define yours either. Yes, now I have to scramble to load software and get caught up this week. That’s okay.
This first awkward week of the new year will not define me as a person. My mindset to kick ass all year will!
How About You
What is your mindset coming into 2016? Are you fired up; or, feeling like you’re on fire? Either way, it’s the long view…the energy you bring to power through challenges…and the commitment to kick ass all year that will make the difference.
I’d love to hear from you.
No Excuses.
leading through growth
