What do you think and talk about Expands

Do you want to know what is important to someone?  Anyone at all? Look at their lives, and you will see the things in them that describe what they are thinking and talking about.  It never fails. This process means listening and observing below the surface of the conversation.  If you are living from your ego, then you are a fixed mindset person, which will dictate your focus on making sure your image is protected rather than nurturing who you are.  What you think and talk about expands, and what you ignore and keep to yourself does not.  Where is your focus today? Choose it wisely.

Focus on Growth through Change

I hope to develop a continual focus on growth as a person, which means embracing changes.  This philosophy is not straightforward because sometimes change hurts emotionally.  To face a difference in your life may require you to leave all you know and move to a new location. You may have to leave a loved one behind.   It may require you to abandon some beliefs you have held on to.  Growth is a process that embraces change, and change can only be accepted and influential if you focus on it as a benefit.  Attitude is everything, and when push comes to shove, most people don’t want to change a thing in their lives. Either they like something in their lives and fear losing it. Or, if things are bad, they might worsen if change happens. Dislike of change can be an instinctual reaction.

Every day there are changes from the day before. Sometimes the changes are subtle and almost invisible. Other times they are monumental and life-altering. Change is inevitable and constant; learn to embrace the changes coming to you.  Focus on accepting the changes happening in your life. See them become better and speak about them that way.  Focus on the growth you see in your life as a good thing, and it will be. Look at difference as a painful loss, and that experience will be yours just as easy.  Your focus will determine the growth of an idea in this genre.

Challenges Are Great

The same mental attitude applies to the challenges we face. Focus on the positive things a problem brings. Learn to embrace them. An issue will pop up all the time, and some people try to avoid them at all costs.  It is much easier to drift down a river unencumbered. But no matter how much you try, eventually, rocks will be in your way, and either you learn to navigate around them or get crushed on them.  That is a matter of mindset.

Look at successful businesses but never look at the terrain ahead.  What works today may not work tomorrow.  Embracing the challenge of the effects of new technology or a societal shift in purchasing will be the difference between failure and thrive moving forward. How you focus your mind will determine the fate of your business. There is little chance to grow if your focus is where you are. Focus where you want to go, allowing you to handle what rocks are in your way.

Do you Think People can Learn things, or are they born with the talent?

Ego tells us talent is everything. But is it?  Where is your focus? There will be cases where a person is just gifted with a God-given ability to do something, but to be great, you can’t have a fixed mindset. A limited perspective will lead you to make attachments in your mind to a particular outcome of any activity, limiting the number of experiences. There is a near unlimited list of possible issues that exist, some you may never have thought of and would enjoy the best. Limiting your experience is also a sign that you live through your ego.  Challenges are avoided, and if you would instead give up than be proven wrong,  you are anchoring your experiences to a fixed point.

Most people, including me, have a narrow focus when we approach some things with a fixed mindset. I catch myself all the time having thoughts that could come from growth.  Noticing these thoughts for what they are will allow you to make a different choice and grow from an experience. Skills can be learned, developed, and mastered over time.  Decide what you want to do, and then pursue it. Ask questions, and learn from all sources that make sense.  Do not be afraid not to know something because you will find the answers once you know you don’t know.  Other people will help you become better, which is not bad.

The first sentence of this writing tells a story about what you think about and talk about as life expands. If you focus on your problems, guess what you will have more of?  If you focus on the good things in life, imagine what you will have more of?  It is all up to you and your focus.  Look long and hard at the decisions you are making that direct your attention. Then look at your life and what you are getting out of it and see the connection between them. If you don’t like it, change your focus to something more growth-oriented, making a difference.

“That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it because once you get there, you can move mountains.”- Steve Jobs.

“The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire, not things we fear.”- Brian Tracy.

“The successful man is the average man, focused.”