One of the biggest challenges in my life has been changing my attitude about pretty much everything! See, I grew up in a very negative environment, so changing my mindset and beliefs about certain things was very difficult for me. It was like becoming a new person or creating a new me. Isn’t that scary?
Change is scary, no matter what type of change we are referring to, it’s always frightening. We fear to change jobs, switching careers, leave an unhealthy relationship, etc. Our brains want to protect us from the unknown; whenever we think about change or going outside our comfort zone, the “fire alarm” goes off in the brain, and it causes us to be scared and to seek safety. In other words, to stay still and not put a foot out of our comfort zone.
However, change most of the time (if not always) is good for us. It helps us grow and see things differently; it also helps us learn from our experiences, challenge ourselves to do better and to evolve as a human being.
When I discovered that I needed to change my attitude about A LOT OF THINGS in my life, I freaked out. I thought I was not going to be capable of that. How could I change my attitude about money, for example? I come from a “poor” family, we barely had food to eat, I even remember sometimes not feeling full, but there was no more food left.
It was until one day, I was teaching my class as usual, when I shared with my students that I come from a very poor family, we didn’t have a lot to eat or money to buy snacks, but we had a big backyard that had fruit trees like mangoes, papayas, bananas, etc. I overheard a student whispered to another “I thought she said she was poor” HUGE AHA! MOMENT for me, I truly believed I was poor, but I wasn’t.
I was rich in a lot of different ways, later that day I remembered that the times I did not get full and felt like we did not have enough was when we ran out of fresh milk that my grandma had just bought from the neighbor. What would I give now to have freshly milked milk or any organic fruits grown in my backyard?
I realized I do not come from a poor family; it was my attitude and my belief that made me poor and a “victim.” Later in life, even when I had a lot of clothes, I was traveling a lot with my husband, had a brand new car, and I could afford all the food I wanted from the supermarket, I still felt poor. It was until that student helped me realize that I had the wrong attitude about money.
Now, my life
In what areas of your life do you feel you need to change your attitude or mindset?