Sunday, September 1, 2013

Shifting the Mentality to "I am Enough"

I have begun to re-read Daring Greatly by Brene Brown.  It only took me a few pages to realize why I enjoyed the book so much the first time around.  Today I just want to share a passage from the book that she included from another author, Lynne Twist.  Is this how you start your day?  Is this how we want to live our lives?  Where nothing is ever enough?

"For me, and for many of us, our first waking thought of the day is 'I didn't get enough sleep.'  The next one is, 'I don't have enough time.' Whether true or not, that thought of not enough occurs to us automatically before we even think to question or examine it.  We spend most of the hours and the days of our lives hearing, explaining, complaining, or worrying about what we don't have enough of.....Before we even sit up in bed, before our feet touch the floor, we're already inadequate, already behind, already losing, already lacking something.  And by the time we go to bed at night, our minds are racing a litany of what we didn't get, or didn't get done, that day.  We go to sleep burdened by those thoughts and wake up to that reverie of lack....This internal condition of scarcity, this mind-set of scarcity, ives at the very heart of our jealousies, our greed, our prejudice, and our arguments with life..."

I think this passage is powerful, thought-provoking, and an opportunity for us to examine our lives.  Instead of feeling like we aren't enough, that we don't have enough, perhaps we could focus on the fact that we are enough.  That we have plenty, most likely more than we truly need.  Throughout the course of a day we have most likely given our best effort and accomplished as much as we could.  Perhaps that should be enough.  Instead of worrying about the "didn't's" maybe we should just be happy with the "did's."

It is difficult to change your mindset.  Converting from the mentality of "not enough" to "enough" will definitely take some deliberate thoughts and actions.  I am ready to make that change, for myself and for my family.  It's time to make a cultural change.  To shift from whining, complaining, and wanting more, to being satisfied with what we have.  That doesn't mean that we shouldn't strive for more, to have dreams and goals, but on our journey there, we should be grateful for what we have already accomplished.  It's time to sit back and enjoy the ride.






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