Give yourself more credit

Here's a simple mindset shift to take back control of your thoughts.

Instead of focusing on all the things you don’t know, the things you don’t have, the question marks that exist in your life... shift it to the opposite of those things.

Shift back to the things you DO know, the things you DO have and the exclamation marks you HAVE written in your life.

Practically I’m talking about gratitude.

... but it's not gratitude in the sense of sitting down and listing out all the things you’re grateful for in a perfectly calm environment.

I’m talking about real world gratitude.

- I’m talking when you're living your life and you see that model on IG in the Maldives and you're like I’ve never been there… I need to be there. Why am I not them?!

- I’m talking when you're at the gym and you see that really in shape person and you start to think less about yourself.

- I’m talking about when you're staying in on Friday night alone and you're tempted to think you’re a loser.

- I’m talking about when you feel lost in your career as a Sales Director because you haven't made VP yet.

I’m talking about how to take back your thoughts in the context of the real world.

Shift your focus away from lack.

- That’s away from what you don’t yet have - the dream job, the perfect body, the 6 figure check, the car, the confidence, etc.

- That’s away from the experiences you haven’t had yet, the cities you haven't visit, the relationship that’s eluded you, etc.

- That's away from the question marks that continue to dig at you.

Back to you...

That's back to the travels you have had. That’s back to the progress you have made in the gym. That’s back to the things you did learn in your last relationship. That's back to the understanding of yourself you have developed over the years.

We need to remind ourselves of the exclamations marks we have in our lives.

And we need to give ourselves more credit for them! We've made more progress than we think. We've learned more than we think. We've grown more than we think.

In the moments where "lack" threatens your inner peace and self esteem... check that feeling: "ok, I don’t have the answer, I haven’t had that yet... but here’s what I do have."

If we never take time to consider the exclamation marks we've created in our lives and we only focus on the remaining question marks we want to tackle... what's the point?

There will always be something.

There will always be a new thing that eludes you. There will always be more question marks around the corner.

If we don’t take time to let what we have done, seen, felt and accomplished shine through… what is the point?

Real world gratitude...

- That’s real world gratitude where you’re out at a bar and you’re feeling a bit socially anxious and your friend is the life of the party and you’re like why can’t that be me? I’ll never be that confident. Real world gratitude says come back to what you DO have and how much you HAVE grown.

- That’s real world gratitude where you remind yourself how far you came from getting that entry level job to being sales director today even if you’re feeling you really need to be VP before you'll be happy.

- That’s real world gratitude where you remind yourself how much it means to you to be able to run a <8 minute mile or bench 225 lbs even if you’re not totally in love with your body just yet.

It's great to want more in life... but that can’t be the only point of your existence.

Life is about shifting back to the things you should be giving yourself more credit for.