You have 0 items in your cart
Living your life with a bug-free mind is essential in removing barriers to your growth. We accumulate a set of beliefs over the years. Mixed in with good beliefs are also some bad beliefs we’ve naturally picked up along the way. Getting rid of those bugs equips us to flourish and persevere during the toughest of times.
Young toddlers do this without even thinking about it. Learning to walk is one of the most difficult skills to acquire. If every adult in the world lost the ability to walk and had to learn all over again, we’d have a world overcrowded with wheelchairs.
Yet toddlers make it look easy. What we often don’t notice is their mindset not to give up. They will continue to push forward fall after fall. They keep going until they succeed. The majority of adults in the world would opt for the wheelchair.
In the book, Breakpoint And Beyond: Mastering The Future Today, the authors talk about the Principle of Pull.
Every cell in a tree, caterpillar, and even human beings, grows and develops, not based on its history, but by being pulled towards its possible future.
The pull is internal. It’s the way we were programmed. Successful living is enhanced, in large measure, by having a powerful vision of the future. The more compelling the vision the more powerful the pull.
Knowing where you want to go is a good start. But there’s more.
Research shows that as we age we begin to lose our natural ability to use our skills. That’s why the current population of adults having to learn to walk again would result in wheelchair gridlock. What happens? We develop viruses in our thinking that impact our abilities.
These bugs lower our expectations. Lower expectations control our thoughts, which impact behaviors, which influence our outcomes.
- Walking is too difficult.
- I can’t do it.
- Where’s my wheelchair?
So we say, “I’m not talented enough, smart enough, this is over my head, it’s not worth it.” The bugs lower your expectations and say “you’re not good enough.”
When I was in junior high I planted tomatoes in the backyard for a science project. I went out each afternoon and made the effort to get the bugs off the leaves. They kept showing up and were impeding the growth of a healthy tomato plant. So I made a daily habit of debugging them.
In the same way we have bugs in our brains that retard our success. So the first step in debugging is to be aware of the pesky things. What are my doubts, my worries, my fears? What makes me anxious? Be specific as you spot the bugs.
If I believe something is going to happen, what are those darn doubts hiding behind those leaves? If babies doubted they could ever walk, most of them wouldn’t have. But they were doubt-free. Put them in a wheelchair and watch how quickly they get out!
You’ve proven it over and over again that you can be successful. So just check for the bugs.
Here are four things you can do to eliminate them:
- Monitor your thoughts. They are powerful. They will either move you forward or backward. “Why am I thinking this way? Is it helping me? If it’s not helping me then it’s hurting me.” Much of your life’s journey is born out of your thoughts.
- Change your thinking. Plant your thought-seeds today knowing they will impact your life tomorrow. If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you. Change breeds growth. When it gets tough, push a little more. You’ll discover that the next step will look possible—just like when you were a child learning to walk.
- Observe your doubts. Here’s a tip. Your observations are more powerful than your doubts! Your awareness drains their power. You are observing them and saying, “this has no value for me.” Whether it was a bad experience in childhood, or a grudge you are holding, or just lazy thinking. Your observation gives you the ability to choose to let them go.
- Deploy your best self. As you observe your doubts, your positive beliefs – the best parts of yourself — will fuel your growth. You are living proactively, not reactively. You are being a parent of your future, and not just an offspring of your past.
Bugs naturally gravitate to healthy plants and people. Make it a daily habit to knock them off.
How do you knock the bugs off your thinking? We’d love to hear from you! 🙂
