Why the way we think is holding us back.

6d ago (edited) in Mindset

Most people wake up in the morning and start thinking about their problems.

These problem are connected to specific memories and these memories are connected to certain people and things.

Your brain is like an old tape recorder that plays the same cassette for you everyday. If your brain is a recording of the past then when you start your day you are already thinking and living in the past.

How are we meant to make the most of what is ahead if we are forever fixated on the past?

Before i get into that lets talk about WHY we get fixated on the past.

Every memory we have is linked to an emotion and overtime we get attached to these emotions. Good and bad. This is why we get stuck in cycles of despair.

If we look at our memories and examine what we feel when we think of them this is the key.

The brain is powerful and we can either let it become our worse enemy or our strongest ally.

So we need to shift our thinking to the future.

And this requires you to use your imagination.

Journalling or future casting is what i am talking about here.

I am sure many of us have written down goals but we need to go a little deeper.

I am going to draw on my own experience here.

As you all know going to prison was the lowest point of my life.

After the novelty wore off, the letters stop coming, the visits slowed down and people stopped answering the phone because they thought i was going to ask for something. (that was never the case), it was just me and my thoughts, night after night.

For a while i was bitter and tried to fight my sentence, i was smoking weed and was on basic regime where i had to live on £4 per week.

The day we got nicked played over in my mind for months..what if after what if...

I was bitter and angry.

"26 and they are taking my prime away from me?" (yeah i thought your late 20s were your prime)

It was only after reading Think and Grow Rich By Napoleon Hill,

that i came across this phenomena, and the craziest thing is that i had already done it before.

I did it with my rolex's and my BMW e24 (1986).

Not only did i set them as goals i actually imagined the feeling of owning and wearing and driving them.

Yes. they were superficial goals but thats all i knew.

When you grow up going to school in ripped shoes your going to want that sort of shit.

And then i did the same for Base Alpha as a coaching brand.

So this is what i am saying.

If you are not happy or enjoying the life you have now is because you are living in the past and because you are continuously thinking about your past problems and they then become your present.

Like a self fulfilling prophecy. Like a prison.

This is what needs to happen.

What i want you to do is write out what you want your life to look like you can include anything and anyone this is your life but more importantly I need you to FEEL that life,

what emotions will you experience when you achieve those goals or milestones,

The brain can't tell if something is real or not all it knows is the emotional state something creates.

The same way you feel the same negative emotions when you think of your past problems.

So feeling the emotions these achievements will bring is the key.

Leave that notepad on your bedside table and instead of diving into your problems in the morning which all come from the past and sitting in those emotions you feel from it (good and bad), read and imagine that vision you created.

Sit on it for 10mins.

This is one of the ways you can break through cycles of despair and lack of progress.

We all know we are fulfilled when we are progressing. When we have a clear path to tread.

So create that vision, if you need help doing so reach out.

My 2 pence for today.

Imthiaz Ghulam

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