[From the archive] Two Concepts that Changed My Life Drastically, but Slowly.
Slow, sustainable change..that's all we truly NEED and its within our reach.
When I talk about mindset change, it's a way of life. It's something that does not happen overnight.
It happens gradually and it changes YOU and your life for the better.
Mindset change may seem like a small change but the depth of this change is caused by many concepts or frameworks.
I prefer to call it a framework because it helps put things in perspective.
Many such frameworks helped me change my mind and my life now that I look back. But back then I did not think of them as something that helped me.
But they did and now when I zoom out on my journey, I realize how important these concepts were in my life.
This week’s letter is about 2 such frameworks:
Getting sincere with yourself
Respecting time
Let's dig in.
Main
Getting sincere with yourself
What does being sincere with yourself even mean?
Many times you will hear ‘get sincere with yourself’ or ‘sincerity starts with you’ but you won't think about it much.
Turns out it's true.
Sincerity does start with yourself and it changes our life for the better as we slowly, mindfully implement it in our lives.
Sincerity means getting real with yourself,
Finding yourself,
Finding what is good for you and what is not and making an active effort to make your life move in the direction of wellness and wellbeing, one step at a time.
Wellness and wellbeing are big words with very detailed and widespread meanings.
For the purpose of this letter I will keep it short and summarize for you what you can begin to think about each of them.
Wellness: overall well being of a person
Wellbeing: emotional, physical and mental health of a person.
Are you emotionally, physically and mentally the best version of you right now?
If not, why not?
The easiest way to START getting better emotionally, physically and mentally is to start getting sincere with yourself.
Break down things.
Keep it simple
And work on one thing every day.
Because that is the only amount of time you will ever find in your day.
And that time is enough if you use it wisely.
Emotional wellness:
Ask yourself important questions, answer to yourself. Get in this habit. This is the best, straightforward way to get closer to yourself and to get better my your self.
Important note:
If you have never sat down with yourself, it's a long way to go. Dont be hard on yourself.
Start small and keep it consistent..like for 5 minutes, every single day.
5 minutes every day will change your life more drastically than you think.
I never had enough time, was exhausted at the end of each day…thinking nothing is good and I will never find the time.
But I started listening MORE to the voice in my head.
It kept saying, break it down.
Just start today, you dont need alot of things.
Just 5 min and presence of mind.
I started spending more time with inspirational content from Justin Welsh, Tim Stoddard, Dan Koe.
I started with 5 minutes a day and built up the habit.
I utilized the time I traveled to and from work.
I started getting better slowly.
Example of questions for emotional wellness:
What am I feeling today?
Why?
Am I content in this current situation in my life?
Do I miss something?
Am I truly happy?
These are big questions..give yourself time. Keep repeating the questions, the answers will come to you slowly.
Ask yourself many things, find your answers.
Each answer that FEELS right, is telling you about YOU. and this is something you never found earlier because you never tried.
Keep trying.
Next for physical health:
Same exercise but different questions:
Am I well overall?
Am I getting enough sleep?
Am I fit right now?
What does fit mean? (losing weight is not what FIT alone means)
Maybe you don't need to lose weight. Maybe you need to get more active in your day.
I certainly did.
Sitting for 10-12 hours a day destroyed my mobility levels.
I was more dull and drained each day.
This had a lot to do with my work timing (which i couldn't change obviously)
But what I could change was increase my physical movement.
Take the stairs instead of the lift.
Walk to the metro station rather than taking a taxi.
Mindfully getting up and moving from my desk every few hours if not every hour.
There are many coaches on the internet, I personally like Dan Go.
He provides a lot of value, easy steps and tricks to start your physical and overall fitness journey.
Mental health:
Questions again.
Same way, just different questions, which cater to YOUR need of the moment.
Questions like:
What is bothering you?
What is the void in your heart?
What has not healed for YOU (check out this note i wrote on this topic)
Many times you don’t need professional help. You only need some time with yourself, to get some mental clarity.
In my case, the time and life was so busy at that point there was no extra minute for anything else.
So I thought and did what I could ..in the moments I got to myself. Literally.
I thought a lot about things I never thought about before,
Uncomfortable questions,
Questions like what matters to me?
What am I waiting for?
Who said this? And why am I stressing about it?
Etc
5 minutes every day is all you need sometimes..
It will not feel like change, but over time it will be a massive change as you look back.
Start today, let me know how it goes!
Now to the second framework..
Respecting time
‘’Time and tide wait for no man’’
‘’How we spend our day, is how we spend our life’’
These are simple quotes I found to share my point with you. But these are enough to understand the importance of time. For starters, consider the below:
All you will ever SEE is the 24 hours in front of you
With each passing day, you are getting older
The youngest you are, is today. So can you agree you are your best self today? Tomorrow you will be a day older?
What went by, will remain in the past, what tomorrow holds will remain uncertain. The only SURE thing you can know about is the 24 hours in your hand right now.
Time is passing by EACH day. You like it or not. It's not waiting for you to be ready.
So how many more 24 hours will you give away, without doing what is important for you?
When will you get ready?
When will you catch up with time?
From my experience I can tell you the best day to deal with time is to RESPECT it.
Respect time, value time, make the most of the time in front of you (24 hours).
Because this is something you can control (ref to my note on this point if you like)
When I stopped giving power to what went wrong,
When I stopped feeling bad for things I could not change,
I started moving towards what I could do today, regardless of what happened yesterday.
Little by little, day by day I started feeling better.
I started doing better, because I was with time.
I was no more fighting with myself and stressing about the past.
I was more peaceful and mindful of what I could do for ME.
I could make the most of the day..and I did.
In bits and pieces..in minutes I got in the busy day.
Instead of mindless scrolling I started learning about copywriting..then about writing..then about something i didn't know existed ‘solopreneurship’ and many more things.
It started with respecting time,
Rising and resting with time.
Making the most of the ‘free time/free minutes’ in the day (some months I went completely off Instagram as it distracted my thoughts)
Spent 5 minutes every day on self reflection:
- Thinking about what I am doing in my life right now?
- What do I want to do?
- Who am I thinking about more..myself or what others expect of me (check out Holly’s great post on this point!)
- What is my mission in life? What can I do forever without it feeling like ‘work’?
- Why is it not considered ‘real work’ yet. Who told me that? Is it a limiting belief?
Etc
Closing
To conclude,
Nothing in life is hard,
But also nothing worth having comes EASILY.
Nothing stays, you have to make it stay..by being consistent in your efforts.
Like a fit body and mind- no one can give it to you and no one can do it for you.
You have to do it for yourself.
Hope these 2 frameworks help you THINK and take some ACTION, starting TODAY.
Thank you for reading!
If thinking is all you can afford right now, let me tell you something:
It is enough.
You thinking for You is enough to change your life;
To have that life of your dreams,
Its truly enough.
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Rise and shine! You got this ☀️✨
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What it takes to embrace something new and unfamiliar
Magic is hidden in your perspective