The Happiness Mindset #1
The Power of Self-Created Stories

The concept

Whenever life leaves you hurting or feeling powerless, check what stories you’re telling yourself about a particular situation.

Our brains are wired to be fear focused in order to keep us alive. This evolutionary tool was helpful when our ancestors were faced with the threat of becoming some large cat’s dinner each day. In our modern world however, this negatively biased lens can be unhelpful if left to spiral out of control.

‘The fear response serves survival by engendering appropriate behavioral responses, so it has been preserved throughout evolution.’

Source: ‘Fear’ Wikipedia

The fear response is triggered by our evaluation of a situation and, more importantly, whether we decide we can or cannot deal with what’s in front of us. Therefore it’s not what happens to you, but the way you interpret that event that causes you to experience uncomfortable emotions such as anxiety, stress and fear.

The great news is: You are in charge of what perception you choose to take, and there is always a different and more helpful way of looking at things.

Take the reins of your happiness by being the editor in chief of your own mind and choose which version of events you want to buy into. This, our treasured Evolve friends, is the epitome of self-mastery.

The Happiness Mindset Part 1 - The Evolve Company - Coaching in Hampshire

Oh, we know… life changing stuff, isn’t it?

‘Practicing self-awareness can help curb the potent influences of negative emotions on goal setting and decision making.’

Source: How Fear Helps (and Hurts) Entrepreneurs, Harvard Business Review


The way forward

When you feel like a situation is weighing your down, write down how you are viewing a) the situation itself and b) yourself, and your ability to be able to cope and conquer.

From that very moment, reinstate your personal power by writing a new and solution focused story – one that places you as the hero of your own life.

The Happiness Mindset Part 1 - The Evolve Company | Coaching in Hampshire

For instance

  • View disappointment not as the end of a road, but as course correction taking you in an even better direction – then get busy focusing on the next step
  • View personal or professional heartache not as a weakness, but as the moment you get to discover just how strong you really are – now invest that strength in building ‘the new’
  • And finally, view mistakes not as a sign that you’re not good enough, but as a sign of you being brave enough to strive for something in the first place. In our book, this makes you the kind of every day superhuman that everybody wants to be.

Stay safe. Stay hopeful. Stay striving.

Team Evolve
#happinessmindset #choosehappy #drivingseat

The Evolve Company - Coaching in Hampshire

Team Evolve