Pull Your Weeds

If you leave a plot of land alone, over time it will become overrun with all sorts of plant life. Most of the plant life will be of a hearty variety, and weeds will be chief among them. Weeds tend to grow wherever the soil is left untended; they require no care and thrive under almost any condition. Once they’re firmly established, weeds crowd out more beneficial plants by growing faster and using up all the resources, like nutrients and water, depriving other life of the opportunity to grow.

Negative beliefs and thoughts operate very much like weeds. Neglected space is always fertile ground for cynicism, pessimism, skepticism, and negativity. If one does not tend to their beliefs and their thoughts, negativity will grow until it dominates, leaving little space for what is positive. Just like weeds, the negativity uses up so much of the resources to the point that nothing else has a chance to live, thrive, or survive.

To change your negative mindset, you first must start cleaning up and pulling the weeds. To do so, you must first be aware of the negative thoughts you have, of which it is said to make up about 80 percent of all of your tens of thousands of thoughts each day. Once you recognize those negative thoughts, you must begin to examine them to determine whether they serve you.

Do your thoughts and beliefs move you closer to your goals, or do they provide you with the ability to blame someone or something for your current situation? Do they empower you, helping you to become the person that comes after the person you are now, helping you be more, do more, have more, and contribute more? Or do they disempower and discourage you?

When your thoughts and beliefs don’t serve you, they are like weeds, and you have to pull them up by the roots and plant something better in their place. What you plant in place of your weeds is going to require continuous care and feeding. And it is going to require the routine maintenance of removing weeds and anything else that might harm you.