Be Present
“If you do not overcome your fears and act on your idea, it will die as a mental construct” – Mansfield
When you refuse to be present, there are times when you wonder why someone else seems to find success easily when other people struggle.
You may start to think, “How the hell did they get to where they’re? I’m smarter than them!”
That may or may not be true, but one thing is for sure: if you’re not afraid to take action, you are more likely to find success. Learning how to overcome your fears gives you a significant advantage, whether or not you think you are intelligent or a hard worker.
You have to remember that it’s not all about the “Great Idea.”
In fact, lots of people have great ideas. Even more, maybe sharp as pencils. They can know exactly what to do, but what good is all that knowledge, imagination, and information if they’re too scared to do anything with their skillset?
Let’s not give fear too much of a bad rap here. When mankind needed to be hyper-aware of our environment in more primal times, fear was certainly a useful tool for staying alive. We were born with the ability to fear, so like anything else we’re born with, ultimately, it serves a purpose.
Fortunately, most of us aren’t typically in “fight or flight” situations like our ancestors. Even so, people tend to invoke that same primal instinct about things that have nothing to do with life or death. It just seems like it when a big change or decision is upon us that forces us out of our comfort zones (even when we know financial “comfort” isn’t quite as comfortable as financial freedom).
The Protective Mind
The protective mind acts like a helicopter mom, hovering over us as if every move we make will end in disaster.
It’s constantly creating doom and gloom scenarios, trying to scare the heck out of us in the hopes that we won’t try anything new.
In many cases, it’s our own protective mind that prevents us from taking the actions necessary to reach our dreams.
When that happens, all of our great ideas are now accompanied by uncertainty and doubt. So, you might think that a lot of people wait for their fear to subside before taking action to reach their dreams. Wrong! You don’t have to be fearless in order to act.
You acknowledge the fear and act anyway.
Fear itself holds no real power over us because it’s only a reflection of what may happen in the future, not what’s actually happening now.
Being Present & How it Can Grow Your Success
So what does that mean for us?
It means that being present is vital. It means that it’s not the situation that creates your outcomes in life; it’s always your reaction to the situation that will determine your life.
It’s Not Your Circumstance, It’s You
There is a part of you, your higher self, that wants to stay present. It wants to be with what you’re doing and where you’re at in any given moment, no matter what’s happening around you.
If you feel stuck, or like things aren’t moving or changing fast enough, or whatever negative weight you’re feeling, it’s because you’re not 100%, present with whatever is at your feet, even if it seems crappy.
Here’s the problem. You’re thinking, “Mansfield, you’re not giving me the answer that I want! I want to make a move and feel more satisfied now!”
I’m going to tell you something you’re going to hate: If you can’t be happy where you are, you aren’t going to be happy in the next place either. I firmly believe how you do anything is how you do everything.
While you are in this job/business you hate, practice enjoying where you’re at now. No matter the specifics of your unhappy situation, find the good in it while being present.
Change Your Mind, Change Your Life
I am going to tell you something you’re not going to believe.
When you can do this, magic is going to happen. Something will unfold and call to you, and another opportunity is going to be standing right in front of you. Now, you can move to it with grace and without fear.
Why?
It’s because you’re coming to your life with positive and enlightened energy instead of a fear-based, negative, contraction-based energy. This negative energy is only going to infect your next location. You probably won’t even see the next opportunity coming with this clouded vision.
Regardless of the area of life we’re talking about that you’re dissatisfied with, find the satisfaction in it. Don’t look for anything outside of it.
Even if you end up doing this for 30 days, 10 days, or three months, it doesn’t matter; find happiness where you’re at, and just be open to the new things that come into your life.
Successful people have doubts, and successful people worry. The only difference between those who succeed and those who don’t is that successful people act regardless of the fear. If you don’t have integrity or brains and you still act, you are more likely to find success than geniuses with integrity who keep it to themselves because they’re too afraid to put themselves out there.
Habitual fear can be paralysing. It can trick us into believing that we can’t act, that we shouldn’t act, that acting is going to lead to pain. Even if it’s what you’ve been taught or it’s led to pain before, you can’t let it hold you back. You’re never going to be happy or successful if you don’t get beyond your fear.
Conquering Your Fears
Fear happens. It’s natural and normal. But you don’t have to let fear paralyse you.
There are 3 essential keys to overcoming fear: awareness, understanding, and rewiring.
You have to recognise what you’re afraid of, confront it, and then change your thoughts and emotional reactions. Well, you’re certainly aware now, and you have a better understanding of fear. So what’s left?
Rewiring.
In order to rewire yourself around fear and truly start living the life you want, you need to do two things.
One, you need to change the way you react to your thoughts. When those negative, fear-based thoughts come to mind, you have to train yourself to focus on the present.
After you’re able to understand that your fear isn’t real — that it’s just the future you’re making up — the final step is looking at the story you’ve told yourself and reconditioning or reframing it.
By that, I don’t mean telling yourself “This thought is wrong.” Since fear lives only in your imagination, there’s nothing right or wrong about it. Instead, I want you to ask yourself a simple question: “Is this thought helping me, or not helping me?” It’s that simple.
The truth is, you can change your beliefs any time you want to.
That means every time you have a fear that’s holding you back, I want you to tell yourself, “That’s not helpful. I’m going to believe something else.”
Two, you need to get in touch with what your ultimate life actually looks like. You can’t really go anywhere if you don’t know where you’re headed, can you? You don’t just wander around hoping to get somewhere! What you need is a goal destination, like a restaurant or a bed and breakfast. Then you can make the map and go where you need to.
Once you stop worrying about what’s going to happen in the future and start living in the moment, you’ll be amazed at how much progress you make in a short time. You need to harness your inner power, to do this you must think BIG but start SMALL.
As always, hope you and yours are safe. We would love to hear from you so share your thoughts with us in the comments section.
Photo Credit: Photo by Medhat Ayad from Pexels
