Simply a matter of perception…
There is a lot that can be said about how you speak to yourself in your mind, and I will come back to speaking to yourself positively another day. Today I want to talk about how the words you use influences how you perceive a situation.
You’ve been crushing your nutrition plan and your friend is making a homemade burger and asks if you want one…
You can either think “I’ve been crushing it, I deserve a cheat meal!”, and riddle yourself with guilt through every bite as you cheat on your hard work.
Or, you can think “I’ve been crushing it, I’m going to enjoy this burger because I know it will help me stay sustainable long term and one meal won’t dictate my progress”, enjoying every bite because you know that way you’ll leave satisfied.
Person A repeatedly uses the word cheat, and every piece of slack they give themselves is perceived to be negative.
Person B sees that meal in the positive light that it should be in, because they've changed their internal dialogue.
In a situation like this, the first case is a lose-lose; you cheated and you didn’t enjoy it because you felt guilty. Instead, make it a win-win by reframing your vocabulary and enjoying the moment.
Another example is the word “sacrifice”. I word that, I will admit, I have used in a negative light until recently. (We're all a work in process...)
Many will see an investment in themselves as a sacrifice of everything else they could have done or been. When in-fact, you got it right first time round; it’s an investment.
Sacrifices carry feelings of missing out, feelings of what could have been, what slipped out of your hands.
Investments carry feelings of growth, feelings of what's coming in the future - the positive side of the same action.
Simply a matter of perception.
You can sit in a car looking out the window at grey dull skies, but if you just shifted over to the other side of the back seat you'd be welcomed with rays of sun in your face and a sea of blue.
Shift yourself over.
See the glass as half full.
Comments