When I’m trying to change my mind about something, I will usually start by using a thesaurus to find other words that mean the same thing. This helps me to see the topic from another perspective.
Something I’ve been grappling with lately is the idea of being disciplined. I have a love-hate relationship with discipline.
I’m good at being consistent with the things that matter to me for extended periods of time. And then I also often find myself feeling bored with the routine and (unconsciously) sabotaging myself, just to spice things up (clearly an Upper Limit Problem).
But I want to be disciplined around the things that matter to me all of the time, not just some of the time (although “some of the time” has equated to 13+ books written and published; imagine if I was consistent all of the time!).
And that’s where I struggle.
Then the other day a thought hit me: I should look up “discipline” in the thesaurus (or on thesaurus.com because who the hell has time for an actual thesaurus), just to see if there’s another word I can use for it. So I looked it up.
Turns out, another word for “discipline” is “preparation.”
Hmm… that’s interesting, I thought. I continued deeper into Thesaurus.com, now looking at synonyms for “preparation.”
Training.
Groundwork.
Rehearsal.
And then I realized–discipline is acting as if.
When you’re being disciplined to something–a dream, a desire, a goal that you want to achieve–you’re acting as if. You’re choosing to believe that it’s going to work out, and you are going to have what you want.
And so you start to show that you believe by preparing yourself for it–by becoming disciplined. You create the habits, think the thoughts, feel the feelings, and then take the actions.
You act as if it’s a done deal. Your energy is fully behind this belief.
You become the version of yourself who has already achieved that dream, desire, or goal.
And once you become the person who has already achieved it, then it (or something better) has to show up in your life. It’s law.
All of this mental processing (aka: mindset work) changed my mind about discipline. I no longer see it as a burden or as something that I have to do.
I see it as something that I GET to do.
A gesture to my future self. As a way of honoring the dream, the desire, the goal. As a way of claiming what I want and know is already mine.
Manifestation–and getting what you want in life–is really about learning how to change your mind.
When you can shift your perspective on something, it changes everything.
You can go from procrastinating one minute to being productive AF the next. You can go from not believing something is possible for you to achieving it not long after.
You can do this because when you change your mind, you also shift the energy that went along with that old belief or old way of thinking.
You create better, more feel-good energy.
And a better, more feel-good, more aligned energy attracts better, more feel-good and in alignment with your dreams and desires things into your life.
It really is that simple.
Change your mind, change your life. For good.
P.S. Ready to change your old ways of thinking? Check out my books HERE