How One Attitude Adjustment Can Help to Achieve Your Goals
During 2016–19, I was eager to attend Vipassana. There were couple of my friends who had attended it. But my parents were afraid of the consequences on me of such meditation retreat. Well, I kept thinking that I will attend Vipassana. But the plan never worked out. This cycle continued in other areas of my life as well— I had three onsite opportunities but these opportunities never got actualised. I continued to doubt myself — what if something goes wrong, what if it is not right for me, what are others thinking. My thinking was dominant by all of the things that could possibly go wrong. And with this negative attitude, I wonder now- if I would have ever come out of that loop.
However, things did change in 2020, just before the pandemic hit the world. It started with me and my partner deciding to attend Vipassana together. Having lived in the uncertain world and waited too long for everything to work out, I was desperate to change things. Next I know — We searched for the availability in nearby meditation centres. We were lucky to have seats available for both men and women. We booked it without thinking of our holidays — will it be approved or not. I still had 3 months before the camp. Never did I allow any negative thoughts to creep into my minds. I believed, at the deepest level of my being, that I’d attend this camp in the year 2020. Instead of worrying about my project manager approval, how my parents will react etc., I was focussed on getting more information on the camp, I connected with my friends, watched YouTube videos and read blogs.
In January 2020, I attended the Vipassana camp with my partner. It felt like a great accomplishment — to do something which I failed to do before. Soon after, my partner received couple of good onsite opportunities. In year 2021, we moved to a new country finally.
As I look back at why I was able to attend the retreat in 2020 not before, why we were able to make a move despite so many opportunities before, the answer is clear. Something inside me had changed. I had a strong conviction of doing these activities. And this unshakeable positive attitude propelled me towards achieving it.
In his book ‘Attitude is Everything’, Jeff Keller also makes a similar point. A strong positive attitude is the first step towards achieving a goal. It doesn’t mean that this is the ultimate thing — attitude needs be complimented well by our words and actions. But everything we want to achieve in our lifetime flows from our thoughts and beliefs. Jeff shares two powerful points on how to become positive and get the desired results:
- Become aware of the dominant thought
It is very important for us to become aware of what we say to ourselves, what we think about ourselves all day. If we pay attention, we will realise that how often our thoughts and words are negative, full of criticism and self-limiting. We may be feeling positive at the start of the day but as the day progresses, it diminishes. Subconsciously, for most of us, our dominant thoughts are negative and this works against us. But when we change our dominant belief from negative to positive, it impacts our ability to take actions to move in the right direction. I believe, to be able to change this belief, practicing mindfulness can help. At Vipassana we were taught to practice mindfulness — become aware of thoughts, sensations, emotions, and actions. It becomes easier to take an action once we become aware and mindful of our thoughts.
2. Repetition is the key
Th next important step is the repetition. Just like we learn the lyrics of the song if we listen to it repeatedly. Similarly, Jeff mentions that our belief system will change and shift from negative to positive if we expose ourselves to positive reading, positive news, motivational audios, thoughts and surroundings on regular basis. To build the positive dominant thought, we need to hear the same message over and over again so they become part of our thinking and subconsciously impact our habits and actions. By my own experience, I can tell that this works if we have the discipline to follow it. I had a180 degree change in my thought process once I started listening to motivational audios, reading self-improvement books and purposely kept myself away from news feed and negative thinking people. It definitely took a lot of time for these changes to occur so don’t expect results overnight. But it works.
Final Thoughts
We truly become what we think about. And this is the underlying principle of Law of Dominant Thought as mentioned by Jeff in his book. Our thoughts are really powerful and they can make or break us. So, today, take a moment to become aware of your dominant thoughts, take time to reflect if your thoughts are serving you, helping you to propel towards your goals or are those thoughts holding you back?
