Saturday, January 12, 2013

Your Restrictions Are Restricting You

I'm still in recovery mode from a recent knee surgery. It's made walking up and down stairs at work a bit rough, so I have tried to schedule my meetings on the same floor as my desk. I just needed to reschedule a meeting next month, and was trying to find something on my floor to no avail. My recovery time is projected as four to six weeks. This meeting is the day before the nine week mark. So why is it that I felt the need to avoid the stairs still?

The reason is simple - we frame how we look at things by the restrictions we put on ourselves right now.


Don't agree with me? Ever feel tired and can't imagine how you'll do X, even if it's out in the future?  Ever get asked about requests for the grocery shopping list based on what you'd like to eat in the coming week, and be unable to answer because you're not hungry at the moment?


I've been talking a lot about The Happiness Advantage and the messages about how our mindset really does dictate our success (not the other way around, despite so many people insisting on their happiness coming once they achieve XYZ). Because I'm feeling constrained right now (a form of 'unhappiness', if you will), I can't see myself achieving getting upstairs for a meeting (ok, I can picture it, but only with a struggle). Because you're stuffed at the moment, you can't see any possibilities for meals in the coming days.

You may be sitting there thinking to yourself, "Yeah, right. Your knee is messed up. I am too full to think about food.  This is all obvious, but much easier said than done." If you insist that it's easier said than done, then it will be. You've constrained yourself to have too hard a time to shift your thinking, so you won't be able to.

I booked the meeting upstairs. I'm not letting today's pain dictate tomorrow's actions. How about you? How are you going to free yourself from perceived shackles and enlighten.your.body?

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