Last week I re-shared one of my Most Valued Podcast episodes called Soothing Your Inner Critic. It was originally episode 6 and now I shared it again as episode 85.

I did that because I have new listeners joining the podcast all the time and now that there’s more than 80 episodes, I know you guys don’t always have time to go back that far to listen. So, I thought I’d share again because most of us have at least occasional flare-ups of our inner critic in whatever form it takes. And it’s good to be aware of it and to understand how to calm or soothe it.

Because if we don’t learn how to do that, it can hold us back from the things we want most in life. So, if you haven’t had a chance yet, you might want to go back and give that episode a listen.

But today I want to build on last week’s episode. And I want to talk about how to bring your brain back to neutral no matter what challenges are going on in your work or life. 

How to practice self-command when it comes to what you CHOOSE to think about you, your possibilities, your work, your challenges. 

All of it. 

Because when it comes to making the most of life, I think most of us would agree that life is what we make of it. I mean we know that we’re all going to have challenges and most of us intuitively get that our attitude determines our altitude. Or that we need to make lemonade from the lemons. Or whatever cliché you want to use. The clichés are there because in general, they’re universally agreed upon truths.

But guess what?

Very few of us know how to direct our thought life. How to think ON PURPOSE.

Why?

Because we’re not taught this. 

When you really stop to think about it, it’s kind of interesting that literally no part of our education – unless you study mental health or psychology – teaches us how to manage that super powerful computer processor that is our brain.

We have zero idea of how to consistently make it work for us. And because of that, even the most disciplined personal development devotees will experience hit or miss results.

And your average person doesn’t even know that their brain is theirs to direct. And that the way they feel doesn’t just HAPPEN. It’s not random. It happens because of a thought we’re thinking. It might be a thought in our subconscious…so one we’re not aware of. But it’s that thought that’s causing us to feel crappy. Not the situation that’s going on.

And here is where people who are new to this concept sometimes jump in and talk about all the “bad” things that happen in life. Sickness. Death. Financial Troubles. Job Loss. And they say, those things are bad, and I can’t just tell myself they’re good.

So let me set the record straight. Yes. Bad things happen. And the answer isn’t to try to tell yourself they’re really a good thing. But the key is to adopt a view of life that says, hey…the human experience is going to be part good and part bad. Sometimes we have the ability to change bad to good, but sometimes we just have to deal with it.

So, what we’re going to talk about today is not magical thinking. It’s not trying to turn everything into sunshine and daisies. Because that’s not realistic. But what I want to talk about today is how to talk charge of your thought life. How to decide ON PURPOSE what you want to think about the things going on in your life. About you. About the people in your life. About anything. Because it is a choice. 

For more, give the episode a listen.

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