What's Your Setting?

When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.—Wayne Dyer

Hi and welcome back to “A Dare a Day”! The other day I was mowing my lawn and it occurred to me that this task had become a weekly event. It seems that my grass is growing at an unprecedented rate, which I at first attributed to the above average amount of rain we’ve received recently. However, while taking a break in the shade I noticed that my lawnmower seemed high off the ground. Just then, I remembered that I had adjusted the wheels a few weeks ago going over some stubborn weeds because the lawnmower kept dying as I mowed over that patch. The blade was getting caught on something so I adjusted the blade higher. I had forgotten to lower it again when I was done, so for the past few weeks the mower was leaving my lawn longer than usual.

It occurred to me that this was a great metaphor for some things that I’ve recently changed in my life. I’ve recently made some internal adjustments to some of my goals and I’ve been seeing positive results. For example, one area I could never seem to find consistency in was getting fit and healthy. I would go through periods where I would diet and exercise rigorously with varying results but nothing seemed to “stick”. Finally, I decided to stop trying to “lose weight” and think of my health from a different perspective. I decided the real thing I was after was feeling good about myself and feeling more energetic. As I started to approach the actions I was taking from this perspective, things started to change. I didn’t find myself struggling to work out. I found that I was eager to work out and looked for any opportunity to squeeze in some sort of exercise despite having spent years using “lack of time” as an excuse not to. Suddenly, it seemed there was more than enough time. In addition, I attracted a wonderful personal trainer into my life who I’ve been working out with over the past several weeks. He is very passionate about what he does and his dedication is contagious!

Like the lawnmower, I was simply on the wrong “setting”. I kept approaching my goal from the same mindset expecting to get different results. It wasn’t until I changed my internal “setting” that I started to see different results from my actions.

For today, I dare you to examine a goal in your life where you seem to be “stuck” and check your “setting”. Chances are if you’re not seeing any positive results in a particular area of your life, you may be approaching the goal from an angle that isn’t in alignment with that goal. Although I hope that losing some excess weight will be a side effect of my new routine, that is not what I am committed to any longer because that perspective didn’t work for me. What does work for me is focusing on my desire to feel energetic and confident. When I exercise, I don’t think of burning calories, I think of gaining health.

I truly feel as if I am in complete alignment with my goal now. I hope this exercise works for you as it did for me! Thanks for reading today and for daring to dare!