What’s going on for you?
Do you know how you’re feeling?
What are you thinking?
Why do you do the things you do?
Many of us are simply unaware of what’s going on for us.
We move through our day not paying attention to what we’re thinking and feeling.
We tend to do the same things over and over.
We react in similar ways when things trigger us.
We act in ways that seem like a mystery to us.
We think it’s just the way we are or the way things are.
You probably never give it much thought.
You probably never think about what you’re thinking except that you notice you often feel anxious, frustrated, self-conscious, filled with doubt, angry, you feel stuck.
But why?
The why. That part is fuzzier.
Our brain tells us we’re angry because our boss is an as*hole, or we’re self-conscious and filled with doubt because our work isn’t as good as the designer who sits next to us.
We don’t even know why we’re anxious, we only know we feel it all the time.
We feel we’ve hit a roadblock, we’re at a crossroads in our career and we don’t know what to do.
So what’s going on here?
What I want to share with you is something so powerful and seemingly simple.
What’s going on is we’re having a whole series of thoughts.
And these different thoughts are creating our experiences.
Your feelings are created by the thoughts that you are believing.
You need to examine all the thoughts in your head to get a clear idea of what’s going on for you.
We think we know what we’re thinking but we really don’t, so we need to start writing all our thoughts down.
I suggest you do this by creating a thought download every day.
You may want to leave your thoughts in your head but it’s extremely important to write your thoughts down.
This is the only way to become more aware of what’s going on for you.
It’s like doing research on your brain to observe how it works. This is critical because your thoughts produce your feelings which drive your behaviors.
When you write down all your thoughts, you can start seeing all the thoughts you’re believing.
Get curious
Closely examine each and ask yourself – is it’s true?
Get really curious about what you’re thinking every day.
If you want to understand why you believe something or you do what you do, you must start by looking at your thoughts and getting curious about your thoughts.
We tend to believe our brain but it often thinks things that aren’t true.
Our brains are wired to create narratives around everything we think about and to find evidence for the things we’re already thinking.
Do you ever notice times when you create a story in your head and it doesn’t prove to be true? We sometimes call this jumping to conclusions. As humans, we do this a lot.
Remember it’s not true just because you think it.
When you write all your thoughts down you will become more aware of all the beliefs you’re carrying around.
You can start seeing more clearly why you’re feeling angry or why you feel so much self-doubt or are anxious.
What thoughts are you having about your career?
So start by writing down all your thoughts.
Do a thought download every day.
It’s about understanding yourself better by examining your brain. It’s an important first step.
Stay tuned. Next, I’ll share with you how to get a deeper understanding of what’s going on for you by taking a look at your feelings. Our feelings drive our actions so it’s super useful to understand how you feel.
