What Were You Thinking?

It’s not easy to become a champion. After all, your courage will be summoned, your strength will be challenged, and your resilience will be put to the test. But one thing is clear: Making it to the top is tough. And while it’s one thing to lose to a competitor, it’s quite another to beat yourself. Your thinking can work for or against you. Give that some thought.

Some folks make their own luck while others can’t seem to get out of their own way. They engage in a destructive thought pattern, often without knowing it, sabotaging their efforts.

Are You Thinking Clearly?

Here are 20 signs you might not be thinking clearly. Do you:

Take things for granted? When you take things for granted, you diminish their importance and may even jeopardize their very existence.

Belittle yourself? Are you your own worst critic? It’s one thing to expect perfection of yourself, yet quite another to beat yourself up for coming up short.

Blame others for your circumstances? If you believe folks like you don’t stand a chance, it may discourage you from trying — making failure a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Compare yourself with others? Keeping up with the Joneses is like chasing a rainbow. While it might look beautiful from a distance, it will always be beyond your grasp.

Think you’re better? If you think you’re more important than everyone else, you’re not thinking. Those who serve arrogance as their main course will eat humble pie for dessert.

Worry about tomorrow? Don’t believe everything you think. According to research, most things that people worry about never come to pass.

Complain out of habit? The more time you spend complaining, the less time you have to address any given situation.

Think the world owes you something? Everything worthwhile in life requires an element of sacrifice. If you want to share in the rewards, share in the work.

Need constant reinforcement? When you constantly seek approval, you give more weight to other people’s opinions than to your own.

Let success go to your head? People who think they know it all often fail to invest in their personal development. After all, what more can they learn?

Surrender your principles to please others? Never lower your personal standards. Never!

Think others know better? The right answer isn’t always determined by the number of people who say or believe something, but rather by the one who has the courage and conviction to question conventional wisdom.

Postpone decisions? You’ll rarely have all the information you need to make a “perfect” decision. Hold yourself up to a high standard, not an impossible one.

Mistrust people? If you believe people are trustworthy, you’re going to manage relationships differently than if you think everyone’s out to get you.

Hold grudges? Forgiving doesn’t mean forgetting, nor does it mean approving of what someone did. It just means that you’re letting go of the anger toward that person.

Resent successful people? People don’t hurt you by being successful; you hurt yourself by being envious of them. In fact, the more time you spend vilifying others, the less time you have to make your own dreams come true.

Demand perfection of yourself? If you believe that excellence isn’t good enough, you may wake up one day and realize that your quest for perfection was anything but perfect.

View the glass as half empty? Do you view the glass as half full or half empty? I hope you said “neither.” It’s never good to see the world through a single filter.

Refuse to let go? Leave the past behind. You cannot change the past, but you can certainly affect the future.

Possess a can’t do attitude? If you stop focusing on all the reasons you can’t do something, you just may surprise yourself to see what you can do.

Most destructive thinking is avoidable. That means you can correct your mindset if you wish. But that requires change. As Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Check out Frank’s new book, The Path to a Meaningful Life.