Adopt a Proactive Mindset

Recently, I was reading a book by Joshua Seth (see right-hand panel). His book advises those in a specific field of work. In his book he offers a thought process that starts with a proactive mindset. With his permission, I have rewritten that process so that it applies to the general case. His approach is very insightful.

You can live your dreams and have a fulfilling and productive life full of exciting adventures and useful activities. You just have to take that first step and commit to doing it. There is no time like the present.

We don’t live forever you know. In fact, have you ever thought to count up the number of days you have left in your life? How many do you think are left? Millions of days? Hundreds of thousands of days? Tens of thousands of days. Actually, you likely have less than 30,000 days left on this earth. 365 days x 80 years = 29,200 days. After that, your time in this world is over. You then move on to your next phase of eternity.

How many days have you used up already? How many have you squandered on unproven ideas that never panned out? How much longer are you willing to gamble with your future?

After years of coaching sessions, Joshua Seth has found that his clients generally need to progress through the following steps:

• Before you can live your dreams, you need to identify what they are.
  
  
• Before you can identify your dreams, you need to believe that you are a person worthy of living those dreams, who has the right to live those dreams.
  
  
• Before you can improve your self-esteem to the point where you can dream big dreams, you need to take control of your life and stop allowing it to overwhelm you.
  
  
• Before you can take control of your life, you need to learn certain skill-sets like stress reduction, time and information management, and simplicity of living.
  
  
• Before you can do all that, you need to change your mindset from one of reacting to your environment to one of proactively creating your environment.

Wherever your career is at the moment, it is the cumulative result of all your past thinking. Therefore, you can change the course of your career and your life by changing your thinking now.

Look in the mirror before you go to bed tonight and say to yourself, “I am successful.” And really mean it. Say, “I am successful in my field of work” if you like. Just do it with positive emotion and resolve. Repeat the process tomorrow morning, and every morning and evening until it becomes your reality.

Success starts and ends in your own mind. Make it work for you and give you the competitive edge that will help you achieve the good toward which you strive. You’ll be glad you did.

 

Joshua Seth coaches speakers and entertainers. Please visit his website, www.cruiseshipspeaking.com. There you will find a free MP3 that reveals how to build a six figure speaking business while traveling the world for free as a cruise ship speaker.