I just got off the phone with Susan and Tina. Both of them were snatching the phone from each other to give me all the details of what they experienced…

Last week Susan was driving Tina to school in the morning when they had a near miss accident. A dog was running behind another dog and didn’t notice Susan’s car approaching. Thank God Tina screamed in time and Susan managed to apply the brakes. A few people gathered around after listening to the harsh brake sound and they consoled our little Tina, who was baffled with the jolt, but more importantly with the trauma of what could have happened! Susan mentioned that she decided to bring Tina back home instead of sending her to school, as both of them were in a state of shock.

Don’t worry, no physical harm was done, but both Susan and Tina are badly shaken by the thought of “what if something happened to them”, “what if something happened to one of the dogs”, “what if Susan could not apply brakes on time”, “what if Tina did not scream in time”, etc.

Yes, this “what if” is the cause of most of our worries….Do you agree?

Have you heard the saying – Everything happens twice – once in your mind and then in reality 🙂 and believe me the one that happens in your mind is the worst version (if the thought is negative) and the least positive, (if the thought is positive). What an irony 🙂 We are so brilliant at second-guessing ourselves and doubting our own decisions!

Do you know why this happens – because we are wired to restrict our brain from thinking that “all has been well” + “all is well” and most importantly “all will be well”. Do you agree?

Have you noticed that most of the time, when the actual thing really happens — we are least affected, as we have already played the worst scenarios in our mind. But here’s the real cost: we remain so engrossed in our negative thoughts that we fail to realize the good things currently happening in our lives. We forget to be grateful for our blessings!

Listing below a few action points for easy reference:

• Be mindful and alert in what you choose to think.
• Analysing the situation and second-guessing your own decisions – these are 2 different things, so be watchful of your thoughts and take appropriate actions.
• Be grateful for all your blessings always.
• All has been well, all is well and all will remain well – provided you keep your mindset in check.
• Don’t be too harsh on yourself – you have done well so far and there is always hope for improvement (I sound like our Grade 5 English teacher 😉)

To conclude: It’s all in the mind; once we start looking at the glass as half full instead of half empty – then we will begin to see opportunity instead of problems. I am sharing above my action points that I plan to follow to keep my thoughts in check. Would you like to try it with me? Please feel free to share your action points to add to this list in the comment section below. Let us all learn to be alert in what thoughts we feed our minds and gradually work towards improving the outcome, what say!