I always knew that I had some control over the results of my life. What I didn’t know was that I had full control.
I used to believe that my actions and efforts or lack thereof played an important role. But I also believed that the circumstances of my life played an equally important role. What that meant is that my effort would only take me so far. Sometimes no matter what I did, it would not alter the outcome.
When I started learning coaching tools, I realized that this way of thinking was limiting me and false in so many ways. While it’s true that we often do not have control of our circumstances, it is not these circumstances that determine our results. It’s the thoughts we have about our circumstances that create feelings and actions that lead to our results.
It’s the thoughts we have about our circumstances that create feelings and actions that lead to our results.
We may not have control over an illness we get, but we can make ourselves more or less sick based on our thoughts about a diagnosis.
We could come to work and have a long list of tasks to accomplish or patients to see. We could have a good day or bad day based purely on what is happening in our head, not based on the work or number of tasks in front of us.
You could argue that if you are genetically vertically challenged, you will never achieve a result of becoming a professional basketball player. And that very well may be true. But you could still play basketball. You could still be an athlete. You could enjoy the game. You could have the result of an active and fit lifestyle that involves the sport. And the result you are actually trying to achieve by becoming that professional athlete is still fully within your reach.
If there is something you are physically or mentally incapable of doing, it doesn’t mean you should stop doing it or growing in this area, but it’s probably not a result that you should be focusing all your energy and attention on achieving. If you were born short, your purpose on this earth is not likely meant to be achieved through basketball. You probably want to keep refining your goals. But that also doesn’t mean you should stop playing if it brings you joy.
What this also means is that results are choices. They don’t just happen to us. We get to decide what we want our lives to look like. We can choose the outcome and achieve it by focusing our efforts in the place where it really makes a difference – our thoughts. We want to choose these results carefully and pick ones that align with our higher purpose and inner truth. Once we know the outcome we want to achieve, we can find the exact thoughts, feelings and actions that will get us there.
