Maybe I'm just going through a mid-life, but as human beings there are always things in our heads that we battle, regardless of our age. Am I doing the right things? Will people like me? Look at what they're doing. How can they afford that? Look at how happy they are. I should do that. My hair's getting a little thin...and a lot gray. I guess the last one was more of a statement then anything. I'm sure you all noticed already anyway.
This past week I had the opportunity to watch the 'Art of Livin'' event put on by Matthew McConaughey, along with some other great inspirational speakers who have positively impacted millions of people all over the world. The information they shared was priceless and I would highly encourage you to spend some time over the next few days and weeks to watch it here is the link The Art of Livin'
One of the main things I took away was from the great Tony Robbins. His #1 question is what are you going to focus on? Focus = Feeling - because what you focus on creates emotions and emotions change your life, both good and bad. He used an example of a situation where your spouse or significant other is late for dinner. Some people would focus on things like; Were they in an accident? Are they with someone else? I can't believe they're late, don't they love me enough to be on time? etc.... without all of the information our mind jumps to conclusions and those things you focus on will create an emotion. The fear, jealousy or anger could impact your next action. That next action may change your life or your relationship and maybe none of those things were actually true.
He used another example that also made sense to me. If you focus on your fear then you'll drive toward that fear. If your car is out of control and you're trying to steer away from the telephone pole you should look to where you want to steer... not toward that fear. So point your focus toward the way you want to go and this will give you the ability to drive in the right direction.
I see this happening in our lives today. We focus on what the news tells us, we focus on our friends social media posts, we focus on the fear we have. Instead of focusing on where we want to go our fear drives our decisions. Instead of focusing on what we have, we focus on what we don't have. When we focus on or expect the worse happening....it's more likely to happen.
Focus on the successes and learn from the failure. Focus on where you want to go, focus on how you are going to achieve what you want. Define what is important to you and then be intentional and spend YOUR time on the things that are important to YOU.
As a financial advisor, I talk about investments on a daily basis. I can tell you the best investment you will ever make isn't into your Roth IRA, your 401(k) or precious metals....the best investment you will ever make is in yourself. What does that look like? Well, that's for you to focus on.