When everything goes wrong, it’s easy for your mind to spiral. But you have the power to shift your mindset and show up strong in a resourceful state—no matter how the day begins.
You’re late for work and you rush out of the house, only to realize after the door locks behind you that you’ve forgotten your keys. It starts to rain, unexpectedly. You step in a puddle on the way to the train. Now you will have one soggy foot for the entire day. You imagine having that important meeting, where you’ve got to be on your game, with one squishy sock. Still determined to make it a good day? You now discover that today was the day that the train schedule changed, and you’ve missed your ride into the city.
How’s that working for you? Do you feel capable of taking anything on or do you feel more like “If one more thing goes wrong I quit!”? Each of those events has drained your resources a little more, taken away a little more of your good will and energy. It has all conspired to create a very unresourceful state inside of you. You don’t have the emotional bank account to afford any good will or the energy to feel good about anything. You don’t have the strength to be optimistic. If you had to sing “Happy Birthday” now it would sound like a funeral dirge. How do you think the rest of the day will go? Would you feel confident in taking on something important? Of course not.
Life has put you in a state of mind that is anything but bountiful. You wouldn’t expect to do your best work from this state of mind and you’d be right. Contrast this with a day that you’ve woken up from a great dream, feeling like a million bucks. It’s a sunny day. Everyone you meet is all smiles and happy to see you. You feel like you can take on anything! You’re invincible. Now, this is a resourceful state.
The reality is, we are constantly creating one of these states of mind or the other, and we don’t realize it.
You have no control of your circumstances but you do have complete control over your state of mind. Is that confusing? Let me clarify: Shit happens, but your experience is determined by how you react to the situation, not by the situation itself. Depending on your outlook and your mental discipline, you can have misery in a mansion or happiness in a one-room shack. It all teeters on your interpretation of events.
