Learning how to create opportunities with the right mindset is a skill set that all athletes should develop. Not only will it change how they approach their game, but it will also change how they approach life.
Allow me to tell you a quick story about what I learned about changing my mindset to create opportunities while on a beach in Jamaica.
I was on vacation–you guessed it, on a beach in Jamaica–worried about what was happening with work back home. It had been well over a year since I last disconnected from my phone, email, and social media. I needed this break, but I was having a really hard time letting go of all that tension and worry from being disconnected. When I left, everything was just fine. Plus, those who might need to reach me, had my husband’s contact information. But there I was looking out over the sparkling aqua Caribbean sea, running my fingers through the pristine white sand, thinking about my email inbox.
My mind began to wander off. In an instant, I was disconnected from my surroundings. I might as well have been in my office at that moment instead of on that picture-perfect beach. I was lost in thought about what “fires” would I have to put out as soon as I logged back on. What was I missing? Was this break going to make things harder for me when I got back?
I caught myself going down a very familiar mental road of focusing on the negative narratives, that truthfully, way more often than not, never happen. I decided to apply my mindfulness and thought habit tools to recalibrate my energetic vibration and stop the stress that was mounting underneath the glistening spring sun.
I began imagining there wouldn’t be problems waiting for me, but there would be new opportunities.
I took a few deep breaths and instead began visualizing that when I opened my email, there wouldn’t be problems, there would be opportunities. I let my imagination answer questions like, “what if there’s a really cool message in that inbox?” I felt my body begin to relax and a smile emerge. I decided I would use my vivid imagination to focus on opportunities transpiring, and then relaxed enough to let the whole email issue go altogether. (I call this thought process “spiraling up,” which is the complete opposite of anxiety-driven racing thoughts that go nowhere but down and around.)
Imagine my surprise a few days later when I turned on my phone and there were several unexpected opportunities in my inbox. I grinned from ear to ear in the departing lounge, grateful that I opened those messages (rather than the feeling of overwhelming regret that I had originally visualized.) I mean, who is ever that happy leaving a vacation? But there, I was excited to get back home and to my life.
“Huh. See what happens when you let go, Misty,” I thought to myself. “Magical.”
The opportunities were the result of many, many hours of work (ahem, years), so it’s not like people thought of me for these things out of thin air. But, nonetheless, they were unexpected because they came to me as a result of my effort and my work speaking for itself.
I stopped stressing myself out trying to find a solution to an imaginary problem.
Keys to the game:
- Observe and acknowledge your negative thought habits so that you can catch them and reframe them.
- Allow yourself to tell a different story. Just because it was one way before, it doesn’t mean that it has to be that way now.
- When you let go and imagine bigger, anything can happen.
- Opportunities may not always happen in the timing that you wish for, but if you continue to work and have faith, you’ll be led where you are supposed to go. (Even when that might not always look like what you think it will look like. That’s the magic of surrendering and letting go.)
Need someone to help you reframe negative thought habits and let go? Join a one-on-one VIP coaching program with me.