Attitude is Everything

A question I like to ask myself often is this: if money were no object, would I still be doing what I’m doing today? 

Many people work simply to be able to pay for life as it hits them - groceries, rent, gas, kids’ shoes, etc. Others work to be able to do more - travel, remodel, landscape that yard you’ve been saying you were going to do for years, and so on. 

How do you know what you’re doing right now is what you’re supposed to be doing? Do you feel a pull toward something else? Or to think of it in another way, if today were your last day on earth, would you feel like you fulfilled your purpose?  

Somewhere along the way, I adopted someone’s saying about work: you should be learning or earning. 

In the best world, you’re doing both. In the worst cases, you’re doing neither, and it’s time to move on. 

Of course, as a former teacher, I’m going to tell you that learning is valuable enough by itself. You never know when you’ll put skills you learn at work to use. 

For example, although I was teaching teenagers, they taught me how to build strong relationships. I didn’t realize how powerful a skill that is until I looked around and noticed that there are several people who don’t know how to make friends and keep them. Hint: it’s not by putting yourself first. 

Anyhoo…

But let’s circle back to what you would do if money were no object. Would you begin painting? Climbing? Building something? Creating beautiful interiors? 

Do you have a higher power guiding you, or do you put your trust in yourself? Maybe you put your trust in those around you, and that’s why you haven’t made the jump yet to whatever you’d really like to do. 

Personally, I’ve become closer to God than I’ve ever been since I decided to become a writer. There were many days when I thought I should throw in the towel and find a full-time job. But I couldn’t give up my dream. I kept the majority of those thoughts to myself, sharing them only in prayer. 

Luckily, when the worst of these times hit, I happened to be working with an amazing coach. She taught me about having a poverty mindset. That’s what you have when you look around and all you see are the things you’re about to be out of. You might only have seven pieces of bread left, or four eggs, or one pound of hamburger.  

The goal should be to have an abundance mindset. Instead of looking at it as not having a lot of food in the house, you could see the bread and eggs as just a bit of milk away from French Toast, or using all three items, you could create a burger with egg on top. I know, some people are weird. 

As I began changing my attitude from “how am I ever going to afford more of (whatever it was), it became obvious that I was missing what I already had. I had a roof over my head in a house that I truly love, I have amazing people in my life, and I have more books than I will probably ever get through, which makes me really happy. 

Real Work

Changing the way I saw things was hard. Negativity can wrap its arms around you and pull you into a downward spiral. Depression is real. It’s also real hard to find a way through, as I mentioned briefly in this post. 

It took a bit for me to embrace the abundance mindset, and I had to remind myself every single day to find at least five things I was grateful for and write them down in my Gratitude Journal. This was something I had taught my students to do, but had forgotten myself. It made all the difference.  

Now I can find something to look forward to every single day, and although I may not want to be out of bed, I continually look for the magic in each day. My hope is that you, too, find a way through the poverty mindset and grab onto the one thing that makes your heart soar.