Looking For Change? Check Your Focus.
June 16, 2010 by Ilana Arazie
Filed under Career, Featured, Health
I recently picked up a copy of Career Renegade by Jonathan Fields, which is a book about creating your own money-making career based on your passions. I’m passionate about chocolate cookies. I wonder if that counts.
On the first page I read a sentence that stuck in my head. You may have heard it before: “A fundamental rule of life is that whatever you focus on grows. Most of what we hear or read isn’t all that new, but it contains lessons that we need which aren’t ingrained in our minds yet.”
I remember walking the busy streets of Manhattan in my late 20s and thinking about everything I wanted, but didn’t have.
I didn’t have the amazing guy I had dreamed about while growing up.
I didn’t have the exciting, sexy job that made me want to hop out of bed.
Lord knows, I didn’t have the fabulous apartment. Walk-up studios are never fun for single girls in heels.
It was no wonder that my focus on what I didn’t have or want kept me stuck, fostering more negative outcomes—not to mention many frightening Friday night dates.
However, I grew up in a typical Jewish home, where complaining was as common as Chinatown visits on Sundays.
Fields writes, “Repetition cultivates belief. This is the basis of all conditioning, also known as brainwashing…When we create a disaster scenario in our heads…with every repetition that scenario becomes the irrefutable outcome of our efforts.”
I knew I had to shed my doomsday way of thinking, passed on to me by my beloved forefathers. So, I started focusing on what I did have and love in my life; and wouldn’t you know it, more of that came my way. Every morning I wrote down 10 things I was grateful for and e-mailed them to some close friends. Yes, my lists usually included chocolate of some nature. Throughout the day I envisioned what success looked like for me and actually believed it was possible. Slowly but surely, my life turned positive. Today, I only have to walk up one flight of stairs to a nice, spacious, one bedroom apartment. (Ah, isn’t New York a special place?)
What are you focusing on today or at this moment? Concentrate on everything good in your life and every possible fantastic scenario for the future. Pay attention to every thought and kvetch in your head. What you focus on has the power to turn your days sour— or oh-so-sweet.
Photo: Flickr
About our contributor:
Ilana Donna Arazie is a blogger and vlogger based in NYC who chronicles stories about living your best life in a big city. Her stories have been featured on the Associated Press, Chicago-Sun Times, Yahoo, The Travel Channel and other media outlets. She is the founder of Downtown Dharma.com , a site that is a bit of Cosmo meets Deepak Chopra, offering deep yet fun insights into finding peace and meaning.
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