Hello everyone!
Brad here and .... and.... I told a story. This will not be movie theme week. My/our week has been a little crazy and I simply didn't have enough energy to get it done! 😵 It's OK though. It's a little comical that I was planning to discuss the never-ending battle for independence. I'm pretty sure I lost that battle this week. That however is not how my story will end.
Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
That doesn't mean parts of this week didn't feel like they might end very differently. I won't go into a list of all the woes I deal with. Most folks with disa....altered abilities have their own list already. What I will discuss is the backroom war called mindset! Most of us know that staying positive yields the best outcomes. That knowledge is easy. Choosing (and it is a choice) to behave positive, speak positive, and focus on the positive, when our bodies and sometimes so many things around us feel the complete opposite of positive, is not easy.
I have advantages that so many do not. First, I am married to the queen of optimism. When I have difficult days, it sometimes shuts me down. I will sit and stare, sleep, forget to eat, and just hibernate. April always recognizes my situation and begins to prompt me into action, first with her wife and mother of 5 superpowers, and then with encouragement. She knows those things alone won't change how I am feeling, but she follows it up with acts of service to make sure I do not feel lonely, left behind, or unneeded. Now, April has bad days too, but she has an ability to just keep on keeping on. I wish I had that ability, but I do not. I need help. I also have supportive adult children.
I also have Go Enabled inc. to help me stay focused. I always have work to do and since we started this business, I have met so many people who face tougher battles than I do. That helps me keep a better perspective than only focusing on poor pitiful me lol.
In spite of all the support I have that many do not, I still need to do more to adjust my mindset. This past week I was working on a class and watched a mindset video that stuck with me. The average human has between 70,000 and 90,000 thoughts per day. The kicker is that 90% of those thoughts are the same thoughts we had yesterday. Since our thoughts have such a huge impact on our lives and health, it is imperative that we work towards changing those repeat thoughts. The question is, how?
I am not a doctor or a therapist but what I am learning and working towards is proving effective. I have lots of improvement to make, but I am starting with some very basic choices. In coaching little league football, I always told my offensive lineman that if you're staring at the mud on the ground instead of the player in front of you, you will likely end up laying in it. So, I am working to transform my environment. I'm going to put my goals and positive thoughts all around me. Wall hangings, phone backgrounds, computer and TV screen savers, etc. Even if I don't feel it, I will continually see it. I have personally seen this make a difference in my life in the past and I'm planning to reset my goals, both physically and mentally and make sure I'm staring at those instead of the muddy ground that represents how I often feel. How I feel changes daily, but my focus and my mindset doesn't have to!
I am well aware that so many people don't have the support system around them that I do, but we all must start somewhere. Maybe the thing you surround yourself with is a vision of the support system you'd love to have. As I said, I have a lot of room for improvement. I am going to give it my best shot. If you feel like you could use a mindset adjustment, please do this with me. We will soon be opening a FB Group where we can share our goals, our accomplishments, and our experiences to help us all Go Enabled, Stay Enabled, and who knows, maybe a mindset shift will help us feel Enabled too!