500+ for 50 – day 38: scaling mountains

In life we tend to spend a whole lot of time focusing on the mountains that lie before us.  I can assure you that it will not be uncommon for you to find yourself in a conversation with someone who has little more to share than the agony that they feel as a result of their seemingly never-ending to-do list.  People like to be able to vent about their circumstances.  That’s natural, and we need to be able to accept that and forgive it.  But we also need to be able to recognize what’s happening on a deeper level when a person chooses to focus their attention on their obstacles, rather than on the attainment of their eventual success.  Whatever we give our attention and feeling to in this life is what we are going to attract more of to our world.  So we need to be careful to train our minds to approach life from a more optimistic point of view.  It’s critical that we learn to tame our tongues.  If we desire positive outcomes, we must always lead with a positive mind and a positive mouth.

When you’ve spent your entire life conditioning your mind to respond to the adverse circumstances and events that arise in a negative way, it can be a very challenging task to abandon those limiting ways of thinking so that you can set yourself up for more rewarding outcomes moving forward.  I know this to be true, as I’ve lived it myself.  It’s hard to dispose of deep rooted mental conditioning, no matter how badly we desire change.  But it is absolutely critical that we make a determined effort to shift our focus and lead with a more optimistic view if we ever want to embrace anything more fruitful in our future.

You’ve got to envision your mind and your mouth as you would the world’s most powerful magnet.  Whatever originates in your mind and flows from your mouth is what is going to be attracted back to you.  So if you focus your conversation on a never-ending to-do list, you’re going to likely always feel as though you have a million things on your plate that are constantly overwhelming you.  If you direct your attention towards fear, your anxieties will inevitably dictate the decisions in your life, no matter how badly you desire to allow your faith to lead the way.  If you involve yourself with the discouraging feelings associated with debt or on lack, you will never see your way to prosperity.  The bottom line is that life is going to present its mountains.  And if you spend all of your time and energy staring up at them in awe and frightfully avoiding the climb, you will never see your way to the peaks.

Your climb begins the second that you first assess the obstacles before you.  It’s in that very moment that your greatest opportunity lies.  You have the ability to lead your thinking and your actions in one of two ways.  You can either revert to your past conditioning and visualize the journey as long, arduous, and perhaps an impossible feat…OR you can choose to take action immediately, focusing your mind on the powerful feeling of fulfillment that you will receive as you stand atop the pinnacle and look back on the trek behind you.  If you ever wish to excel at satisfying your commitments and achieving all that you desire in life, I encourage you to choose option number two.  Spend not one wasteful second giving any energy to the mountains before you. Visualize success, and begin taking action in faith. 

One thing that I’ve learned since reconnecting with my faith several years ago is that God is often going to seek our willing participation in order to make extraordinary things happen in our lives.  More than anything else, He is going to request our presence and our surrender to His will.  In surrendering to Him we must restrain our worldly ways of thinking and learn to tame our ruthless tongues.  We must begin to see things by His vision, not by our own sight or by the direction of the masses.  And that involves perceiving life’s obstacles in a far different way than what we’ve been used to.  We need to learn to approach the mountains that lie before us with unwavering faith in His ability to lead us to the summit.  God does not want us to get bogged down at the onset of our journey feeling overwhelmed with stress, anxiety, and doubts about the climb.  He simply wants us to take action with resolute determination and trust in His willingness to see it through.  Because when we follow His direction, life becomes much less stressful and far more fulfilling.

Don’t allow yourself to be limited by past conditioning and by the words of an untamed tongue.  Start retraining your brain to lead with optimism and faith so that you are able to attract like a magnet God’s amazing grace to your life.  It will make your ascent to the top of the mountain feel virtually effortless.  And instead of nagging about the burden of your last climb, you’ll find yourself eagerly promoting your desire to seek out your next summit to scale.

May God Bless!