[Otros] Special guest post by Kirstin O’Donovan

Hoy es un placer dar la bienvenida al primer guest post de Goodbye San Francisco.

Kirstin O’Donovan es una emprendedora sudafricana afincada en Madrid dedicada profesionalmente al coaching, productividad y temas similares desde su empresa Top Results Coaching. Sin más os dejo con el post que amablemente ha escrito para los lectores de Goodbye San Francisco.

Real change doesn´t happen from learning new information, but to the extent that we apply the information we learn in our lives, because if you keep doing what you doing, you will never get different results.

The global economy has been severely hit by the unprecedented crisis and many of us are questioning our future and the system we once trusted. We hear we are emerging from the recession, and then we hear we are not.  With no improvements for a long time and the constant reminder of bad news, it is more important now than ever to keep your mind working for you and not against you.

What small changes can you make to your internal world to better manage your external world? Changing your mindset to one that empowers, motivates and helps you manage these times may sound simple, but these may be some of the hardest mental shifts you may need to make.

Do you feel like a victim?

I am not referring to losing your job, or specific situations, but rather to your general attitude towards life. Do you find that you are always blaming others for the way your life is and are you always looking to point the finger at everybody but yourself? The problem is that this mentality does not help you in any way; it is disempowering to oneself. You may be accustomed to thinking this way, but it will never get you anywhere. 

Break out of your comfort zone, change your victim mentality and go out there and decide to be in charge of your life and not at the mercy of what happens to you. When you start to take responsibility for your happiness and your success, you feel more empowered and in control, this in turn, creates motivation and opens up opportunities that you didn’t see before. If you really want to have success in whatever success means to you, you need to take responsibility for that happening or not, and no one else.

Where is your focus most of the time?

It seems to be more common that we focus on what we don´t like, what we don´t want to happen and what we are not happy about. As our emotions are associated to certain situations, you can imagine how you will feel emotionally when you focus on everything you can´t do and can´t change. I am sure feelings of helplessness, stress, depression and anxiety surround this focus. Our focus actually determines our reality, what we focus on, we seem to have more of in our life.  Change your focus to what you can change, what you want to happen, how you can improve your life and stop harboring on what you have no control over.

Most of the time, it is not what happened to us that affects us most, but how we deal with what happened. We need to push ourselves forward, to keep looking ahead and focus on how we are going to obtain that dream job or lifestyle! 

Question your thoughts and attitude towards the world.

The human brain produces approximately 70,000 thoughts on an average day. How much of your thinking is negative? Can you imagine the impact on you if the majority of your thoughts are negative? Your world will be more negative. How does it help you when you are negative? How is it going to help you move forward by having a negative outlook, by being pessimistic? It doesn’t in any way and it only makes you feel worse. You need to control your negative thoughts, be aware of when you are thinking negatively and change your thoughts to ones that are more balanced and that will serve you. 

Control your thoughts or they will control you. Remember:  Your thoughts lead to feelings, your feelings lead to actions and your actions lead to habits. So if you think to yourself ¨I am not good enough, good things only happen to other people¨, So tell me, is that a fact? Or is it your belief? You are making assumptions that will not only leave you feeling unnecessarily bad about yourself, but your actions or inactions will depend on that thought, and guess what, so will the results in your life.

This is the same for your attitude, if you have a positive attitude towards something; you will most likely look at the exact same situation very differently to someone who has a negative attitude. You will be your own biggest obstacle if you have a negative attitude in life. It is worth taking time to look at yourself and your attitude towards different situations. 

We are conditioned to think more negatively than positively, being positive all the time may seem ¨unrealistic, naïve or even foolish¨, but the proof is there, someone who is successful in what they love, held more of a positive attitude than negative one.  Adopting these strategies or principles won´t make the crisis disappear, but it will definitely make it easier to get through. Remember that the majority of our happiness or sadness depends upon your state of being and not upon your circumstances.

Real change doesn´t happen from learning new information, but to the extent that we apply the information we learn in our lives, because if you keep doing what you doing, you will never get different results.

Kirstin O´Donovan, Productivity Coach at TopResultsCoaching

Want 7 Simple Strategies to Triple Your Productivity? - Free Access to E-Course - - www.topresultscoaching.com