Hello and welcome back to The Joy Within’s podcast. Today, I want to talk about a trap that I think we all fall into at times, whenever we’re pursuing a goal or trying to break through to the next level, the next phase of something, whether that’s a project we’re working on, or a personal, inner goal.
That trap is believing that the way things are now is the way they are going to be. Now this trap can happen in a lot of ways — if things are good, for example, you might become attached to them and the assumption that they’re permanent keeps you rooted in attachment.
But, today I want to focus on what happens when we aren’t yet where we want to be. We have a tendency – often subconsciously – to look at where we are and extrapolate the future based on the present. We think we can predict where we’ll be based on where we are. And that’s a dangerous game, because sometimes it can be helpful – it can inform us about the choices we make and whether those choices are getting us the results we want – but, I think most of the time, that tendency gets in our way. It holds us back. It creates doubt and disbelief about our ability to be, do, or have whatever goal we’ve set for ourselves. It limits our thoughts, and when we repeat it, day in and day out, it creates limiting beliefs. It creates negative emotions, and it stops us from getting into alignment. So, you have to be careful not to let what is get in the way of what’s coming to you. Let me repeat that: Don’t let what is get in the way of what is coming.
Let me give you an example of this, which I see all of the time with my students here at The Joy Within. They’ll sign up, watch a video or two, and then say something along the lines of “I really want to change, but I’ve always been this way. I’ve always struggled to be happy” Or struggled with stress or anxiety or feeling scattered or whatever it is for that person.
And, sometimes they’ll even say something like: “I can’t even imagine how it’d be different.” This attitude is a sort of learned helplessness, really. And it’s super common, but we often can’t recognize it within ourselves. We get so used to being in one set of circumstances, that it begins to blind us to other possibilities. Often, you might have already tried to change, or you’ve tried to go after your goal, but you’ve not had results, or have made only nominal improvements, so you begin to cement the idea that your life will always be more or less the same. You might start telling yourself the story that maybe a few things could change, but it’ll be a long road ahead, or it’ll take an immense amount of work.
Think about it for a second: have you ever fallen into this trap? Hve you ever really wanted to change something about your life, but built it up so much in your head, that it seemed like so much work, or so far off, you started to convince yourself you’d never get there? Or maybe you even convinced yourself you didn’t want the change in the first place.
This happens all the time. On the surface, it seems reasonable. After all, you’re just extrapolating what you think will happen based on your own past experience. But there’s a huge flaw: we tend to ignore the possibilities brought by quantum leaps and compounding, exponential change.
We often don’t appreciate how small changes, whcih on the surface, don’t appear to amount to anything, can actually combine to create rapid, transformational results. Or, we don’t recognize that it might only take one idea, one shift in perspective, one new way of thinking about the issue, to completely transform everything.
When my new students tell me they’re not sure our program will work – usually because they’ve tried and failed in the past – it’s because they don’t realize the power one or two missing links can have. In our case, a student might say “I can’t meditate” or “I’ll never be happy” but really they’ just never learned about their inner resonance, and how to connect their thoughts to their energy.
In business, it be a small tweak to your messaging, or where you’re spending your marketing budget, and that small tweak makes all the difference. In dating, it might be the quantum leap of just meeting that one person, and then everything else clicks into place.
It doesn’t matter what your goal is, rapid change requires a belief in the possibility of rapid change. You can’t let what is get in the way of what’s coming. You have to do whatever it takes to cultivate the right belief system to achieve the goal you want.
Because if you don’t, the other thing that will happen is – not only will you feel disheartened and start to doubt your goal is possible, but you’ll actually make that goal harder to achieve. If you think: I’m terrible at sales, every time you go on a sales call, you’re never going to get better. If you think, I hate dating every time you go on a date, chances are you’re not going to make a good impression and you’re not going to have a connection.
At some point, we can believe so strongly in what is, that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s a dangerous trap. You have to do whatever it takes to snap out of it. You have to shift your thoughts. You have to change those beliefs. You have to believe that positive change isn’t just possible, in a vague sense, you have to know it, deeply. You have to feel it, and know that it’s realistic, for you, and that you are on your way to it. And that’s exactly how The Joy Within can help.
If you feel stuck where you are. If you don’t know how to break through to that next level mindset, just login to Happiness University. Follow along with the simple daily trainings, then just sit back and watch as you start to think differently, and your life starts to transform right before your eyes.
