By: D. A. Slinkard
This is the second article for 2022 and I want to remind the reader, we will be going through the alphabet when it comes to the topics this year. We are going to truly be looking at the ABCs of Slinkard on Success for this entire year. The first article was “A for Attitude” and this topic is “B for Battlefield” of the mind. This is more of an accurate statement than most people realize, especially as life tends to be 10% of what happens to us and 90% of how we handle it.
The battlefield of the mind is an important aspect of our lives we must learn how to handle, and must learn how to control. I do believe attitude is important, however, you must learn how to control your mindset to have a great attitude. Most people living their everyday lives have not been able to master this concept, therefore, life can be a little difficult at times to deal with. The question becomes — How does a person master their mindset? How can a person go from out-of-control to in-control with their line of thinking?
The truth is to have success, it will take work and a lot of work. If it was easy being able to control our thoughts, everyone would be walking around thinking positive. Everyone would be living their best life ever, but this is not the case. It is easier to think negative than what it is to think positive. Thinking positive takes a lot of hard work that most people are not willing to put the time into. It is just easier to be negative. It is easier to be destructive with our attitudes, therefore, most people never can pull themselves up by their attitude.
To change your mind from thinking negative to being able to have a positive outlook, you are going to want to train yourself to recognize when your thinking grows more negative. It will take concentrated efforts to realize when you go from thinking positive to thinking negative simply because we often do not even give it a second thought when our thinking goes dark. We just think this is a way of life and as I have already written – it is much easier to think negatively than what it is to think positive. You will want to focus in on something that brings happiness in your life. Take the time right now and think about what brings joy into your heart? Is it a family member? A spouse? A child? Grandchild? Activity? Whatever it may be – the next time you start to go negative, I want you to immediately focus in on the thing or person that brings joy into your life.
It may sound crazy, but this is going to take work. The next time you get stressed out, start thinking about the things that bring joy into your life. Remember, the entire purpose of this mental exercise is to change your way of thinking. In changing your way of thinking, you will also be able to change the direction and course of your life. You will find this is much harder than what most people realize and chances are you will not be very good at changing your thought patterns – in the beginning at least. However, the more you do this exercise, the more you will be able to control your thoughts, and you will be able to realize when a thought pattern is about to change negatively in your life and be able to head it off.
If it sounds psychological – it is. We are all going to have bad things happen in our lives; it is inevitable. There are going to be things happening that we cannot control. However, you must realize you will always have the ability to be in control of yourself. Life is truly about the way we respond to the events happening around us. Will we allow the negativity to change our attitude? Will we allow the event to alter the course of our day? Life is about perspective and which perspective you have been taking? Is the glass half empty or is it half full? I believe our approach and our attitude about life dictates more of what happens in our life than what we realize. We become the thoughts that we think and there is a battle going on, and it is in the mindset. How will you prepare for the battle?
By: D. A. Slinkard
D.A. Slinkard would love your feedback. You can contact him at da.slinkard@gmail.com
April 19, 2024
