I use Facebook. So do you. Your dog, or one of your friend’s dogs, probably has its own account. I don’t really know why I keep using it. Does anyone really know, though? I guess I find some misanthropic entertainment in scrolling through the daily newsfeed to uncover anecdotal blips of ridiculous behavior. My favorites are the self-pity posts. These are the victimized, in which their mood has been terribly slain by the harsh reality that the newfound goal of the universe is to suppress just one individual’s complete sense of happiness and ambition.
It’s fairly easy to fall victim to this frame of mind every now and again, some more so than others. It’s the “Why can’t anything go my way” or “Why do these bad things always happen to me” type of logical processing.
I work in sales and you probably do too. And you know that in sales we have some form of weekly, monthly, quarterly and/or yearly quotas. These goals of ours don’t have feelings and they don’t take any excuses either. In sales we’re relient on other people from other companies, mostly perfect strangers, to nod their head and say “Yes” or to sign and date some sheets of paper. This process comes with a lot of people shaking their head “No” and not obliging to your requests, even when you’ve “done everything you can.”
It happens. Forrest Gump traveled across the country on foot and ran through a big pile of “It”… It happens. He shrugged it off though and continued on his merry way. On the different paths we take there are periodic and randomly displaced piles of misfortune that we step on. They weren’t put there as a personal vendetta against us. They’re just there. If it had not happened to you, it would have probably happened to the next person behind you.
People preach about displacing the problems or issues that are completely out of their control. In actuality, if you’re able to do that and let go of that accompanying stress then you’re defying the notion that you indeed have control over everything. You may have no physical control over the situation but internally, within your own mind and behavior, you do. This bad, horrible thing happens to you, but now you have a choice about how you’re going to handle it internally. Do you let it keep you up at night, harp on it when your eyes open in the morning, or do you press onward, keep active and leave that big pile of misfortune on the road way behind you. It might still have your footprint on it, but at least it’s out of sight and you’ve made the conscious decision to focus on what’s ahead.
I think that a fragile, insecure shell for a positive mentality is the #1 most lethal obstacle when striving for any type of accomplishment or goal in life. People all too often hold themselves back because they overthink and overanalyze situations. But what’s encouraging is that we can change that mind set quite easily. It takes work and repetition and a strong sense of self-awareness but it’s completely feasible to cut ties with the nuances and the trivial problems that sit like elephants in the room. There’s always a choice within unfortunate events and it’s empowering when you realize you do have control over it all.
