It’s time to take control of your destiny. Discover the transformative power of mindset with this insightful talk with April Shprintz. Inspired by Sara Blakely’s success story and the wisdom of Wayne Dyer, this episode explores the profound impact of learning how to think rather than simply what to think. Learn how to break free from the constraints of caring what others think, the burden of guilt, and the trap of over-responsibility. You’ll gain the clarity and confidence to create a life aligned with your true desires by understanding these obstacles and developing strategies to overcome them. So, are you ready to break free from limitations and embrace your true potential? If so, tune in to this episode with April Shprintz today.
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The Magic Of Learning HOW To Think Instead Of WHAT To Think
Sara Blakely and Wayne Dyer
I am so glad you’re here. I saw a great post by Sara Blakely. If you’re not familiar with her, she’s the Founder of Spanx, a billionaire, who has done incredible things not just in business but personally and for other entrepreneurs, women, and people in the world. One of the things that I love that she does is share her secrets for success. Some of them may seem super simple or, “That couldn’t work,” but I got to tell you. When you apply them to your life, they are remarkable.
The Difference Between Learning HOW To Think And WHAT To Think
One that I had heard about before but not in this way was how when she was younger, she listened to cassettes by Wayne Dyer. It was interesting. She phrased it as, “Instead of telling me what to think, they taught me how to think.” Wayne Dyer is fantastic. He’s a doctor. He has done a lot of work in mindset, healing, and understanding how to create the life you want. She listened to these cassette tapes when she was in high school and learned how to visualize and create the life she wanted. It worked. She’s been on the cover of Forbes. She’s done everything she wanted to do.
The part of it that I thought was so meaningful for all of us is that idea of how to think instead of what to think. That is what a winning mindset is all about. It’s helping you learn how to think, to think in a way that empowers you, to think in a way that helps you see solutions no matter what’s going on, and to think in a way that makes it possible for you to know that no matter what circumstance you find yourself in, that’s a starting point.
You can get to wherever you want to by following your mindset, following your dreams, following the direction that life takes you in, and trusting that the things that happen to you are always happening for you. It’s learning how to direct your thoughts and empower yourself. That’s the difference between being taught how to think and sometimes in situations being told what to think.
The thing that gets in our way from really moving to how to think is if perhaps we grew up in an environment where our family, our friends, and those who were in positions of authority in our life wanted to tell us what to think because either they thought they knew better and we would be safer and have a better life or they wanted us to do what they wanted because that made things easier for them.
The Obstacle To A Winning Mindset
We might have a hard time moving over into focusing on how to think if we have three different things that can get in our way. I want to talk to you about those in this episode and tell you how to overcome them. The first one is we have a hard time moving into focusing on how we want to think if we care what other people think about us. That is one of those things that will stop you in your tracks. It will keep you from accomplishing your dreams and hold you back from finding true happiness if you’re always worried about what someone else has to say about what you’re doing or not doing and the choices you’re making or not making.
If we care what other people think about us, it stops us in our tracks, keeps us from accomplishing our dreams, and holds us back from finding true happiness. Share on XAt the end of the day, the thing is these other people aren’t that important to your life and happiness. You may say, “It’s my partner,” or, “It’s my father,” or, “It’s my sister,” or, “It’s someone close to me.” The thing is this. We control our happiness. We control the way that we feel about anything and everything and we cannot control anyone else.
Overcoming The Obstacle
One of the best ways that we can start to understand our inner voice and what would make us the happiest is to stop paying attention to what other people think and feel about things. At the end of the day, if we know our intent and we know that we feel good about what we are doing, that is more important than every other person in the world agreeing with what we’re doing. What you need to do to not care what other people think is to focus on what you think. How do you feel about your choices and what you’re doing? When you’re aligned with the way that you’re living and who you are, the other opinions will not matter as much.
The other, number two, is guilt. Guilt will get in the way of you focusing on how to think instead of people telling you what to think. Why? It’s because people will use guilt to tell you the things that they want you to do. People will use guilt to tell you that you’re responsible for something that is their responsibility. People will use guilt to get you to buy into the fact that it’s more important that you think what they want you to think than you focusing on thinking in a way that empowers you and gets you to the place that you want to be.
How do you overcome that? It’s going internally focused, being self-aware, and understanding, “Is this true what they’re saying? Is this my responsibility? Are they perhaps playing the victim or perhaps putting responsibility for their happiness on me when only they can make them happy? What is going on here?” If you’re aligned with yourself and you know that you are doing the right thing, guilt doesn’t have a place that it can get in there. You can understand that what you want and what you are doing makes sense for you. It doesn’t matter what somebody outside of you thinks about that.
The third one, and this goes in with guilt but they’re two separate things, is if you find yourself taking over responsibility for things. That will get in the way of focusing on how to think and empower yourself. Over-responsibility shows up in a lot of different ways, but the number one way that it shows up is people shoulding all over themselves, like, “I should do this. I should have been there. I should have known that that was going to happen. I should go this extra mile in the office. I should be doing this for my mom. I should be doing this for my friends. I should have cleaned the house already.”
Over-responsibility for other people and other things will lead to your happiness faster than anything. At the end of the day, there are a lot of things that you could do, but what makes a difference in your life? What gets you closer to your goals? What brings you joy and happiness? Separate all the things you think you should do with the things that are giving you the results that you want and are aligned with the life that you want to have.
If over-responsibility is one of your things, and I’ve certainly battled it and I talk with clients about it all the time, understanding what things you need to show up for versus what things you need to show up to can help you. What I mean is you’re not responsible for other people in a lot of different situations but you are responsible to them to show up, do your best, and be your best. You’re not responsible for the outcomes and what happens to them.
I want you to think about those three things, caring what other people think, how guilt might be playing a role in your life, and also is there over-responsibility that’s keeping you from having the life you want and deserve and keeping you from focusing on how you want to think and create versus them telling you what you should be doing? Here’s to your success.
