Health & Wellness

Mental Health #1: Piece #5

A particularly effective way to stay positive is working on improving your core strengths, the positive attributes that distinguish you from others. Of course, it is good to work on areas that are lacking. However, you could end up spending a lot of time and energy working to improve weaknesses by only a minimal amount, while you could be improving your strengths exponentially. By no means is this a suggestion to give up and accept defeat in certain areas. Analyze your strengths and determine which ones a little mental elbow grease could improve, and which ones should be considered auxiliary. The majority of your energy should be directed towards building upon your strengths. People are most productive and content when they work on what they’re best at. Sounds simple enough doesn’t it? Yet, there are millions of people who work jobs their discontent with or dwell on tasks they dislike. This is why we encourage our members to communicate openly and often. Combining your team’s abilities means that you don’t necessarily have to tend to tasks you dislike or don’t excel at; bridge each other’s gaps. You’ll be most industrious, happiest, and more likely to accomplish your goals when you incorporate your core strengths.

Mental Health #1: Piece #3 

As the cornerstone of your team, you are the first stone set in the construction of your team. Just as it is with masonry, all other members will be set in reference to the cornerstone, thus determining the strength and position of the entire team. In order to be a solid cornerstone, you must first completely believe in yourself – take a mental inventory of all your abilities and personal gifts. One of the quickest ways to fail is to tell yourself that you don’t have the correct experience. If we allowed experience to rule our goals, then we’d never accomplish anything new. But reviewing our own talents reveals that, even without experience, we do have the means to accomplish our goals. Your teammates will help you build your foundation, filling in the gaps and providing skills that you may not have. But each brick is in a symbiotic relationship, maintaining an equilibrium and building off of each other. No single stone can support the total weight.

Mental Health #1: Piece #4

Making a mental inventory is also a way of performing a self-assessment of your attitudes towards different situations. For example, does your stomach knot up at the thought of what it takes to be super successful, or do you feel energized and excited? The danger with attitude is that it’s usually on autopilot, and if a challenging situation automatically causes strife, then you’ve got a problem before you’ve even started. Identifying and mapping out factors that trigger anxiety or excitement is extremely important. Identifying negative attitudes will show you areas you need to control and will encourage you to confront such situations, taking the “fight” route instead of “flight.” Negative thought can suck you in and overwhelm like a flash flood, so you may need to retrain your brain to catch it when it first rears its ugly head. Sometimes it’s as simple as telling yourself to think about something else – don’t dwell on what’s got you down, keep moving forward. Other times, when you feel yourself in the shadows of pessimism, a good dose of sound reasoning can shed some positive light. If you make the effort to evaluate your negative thoughts and doubts, you’ll probably find that there isn’t sufficient evidence to maintain those insecurities – study the facts, not your fears.

Mental Health #1: Piece #2 

Imagine you’re planning a hiking trip: you’ve got your heavy pack of supplies (daily responsibilities) and your map (general goals). However, you have a sprained ankle and can barely support your own weight. Do you march off into the wilderness with the responsibility of your family and your job on your back, or do you take care of yourself until you’re strong enough to support them? Even if you have all the right tools and assets from your family or education, you can’t expect anyone to carry you through the wilderness of life. This doesn’t mean we need to become master life project managers before we take on major challenges. It simply means that we need to fortify on an individual basis as much as possible in order to build up an indestructible approach to life.

Mental Health #1: Piece #1 

Unless you’re comatose, you’re capable of virtually anything you wish to accomplish. There are, of course, certain goals that you may never be able to achieve, such as growing taller or becoming governor. However, with growth hormones readily available, Arnold Schwarzenegger holding the title of California governor, and operational civilian space trips, not even the sky is the limit for you.

For starters, you need to acknowledge that you alone are responsible for your success or failure. Most people obviously believe in and promote teamwork, so some may say that the responsibility is shared among team members. Yes, it is. But it’s translated as a matter of individual achievements conglomerating to create a single, powerful entity. In order to make the most out of this power relationship, we need to make sure we have a strong foundation – work on yourself first, and then build up from there.