“To change any aspect of our life we must be willing to change our mind… Unfortunately, that is the one thing most people are the least willing to do.”

~ Bill Crawford

Subscribe

Subscribe to Dr. Bill’s “Quotes and Wisdom from the Top of the Mind” Newsletter

Click Here


Quote & Video Gallery

Why People Resist Changing Their Minds

This quote was chosen because, as someone who helps people change, the one thing that many seem to resist is one thing that is absolutely necessary for success… to change any aspect of our life, we must be willing to change our minds. In other words, we must be willing to look at how we find ourselves thinking about, perceiving, interpreting our past, our future, our failures, our successes and most of all, ourselves, and determine whether these thoughts or “mindsets” are serving us. Have they been chosen on purpose, are they helping us create the life we want, and would we teach or recommend these ways of thinking to those that we love?

Of course, our resistance to changing our minds is very understandable. We have accumulated many beliefs and mindsets as we have grown up, and I’m sure many of these are probably serving us very well. In fact, if we had to constantly be reevaluating every belief or mindset we have, it would be exhausting, if not impossible. The good news is that this isn’t necessary. If we have found ourselves thinking about, or interpreting some aspect of our lives in a way that serves us, no action is necessary. However, if we want to be more influential in those areas of our lives that are not working, they we must be willing to evaluate our “piece of the P.I.E” or our perceptions/beliefs, interpretations, and expectations from a whole new perspective. In other words we must be willing to change our minds.

That’s the way it is when we want to change some aspect of our lives. Our “mind,” or the way we are thinking about something will resist being changed, and operating from this new mindset will feel very unfamiliar, and even awkward. However, if we are willing to keep practicing this new way of perceiving/thinking about ourselves and the world, our brain will eventually create new neural pathways and come to accept the change. For example, if we tend to see ourselves as damaged goods, or “not enough” in some aspect of life, we will need to change our perception of ourselves to one that is more purposeful (one that we would recommend to someone that we love).

This could be a perspective that recognizes and builds on our strengths and looks to the present and future as a place to practice these more positive mindsets until they become familiar and automatic. We might choose to change our minds about the problem and see it and our reaction to it as good information. Now we know what we don’t want to think and do, and we can get busy creating an image of what we do want to do, how we do want to feel, who we DO want to be (what side of the road we want to drive on:-).

Once we have this clarity about the new mindset, we can begin to practice being this way and notice what works and what doesn’t. This process of fine-tuning can also be seen as positive in that we are shaping our minds to recognize and repeat what works, which will eventually lead us to a new way of being.

Of course, for those of you familiar with my “Life from the Top of the Mind” philosophy, you know that this reshaping of our minds is actually a process of training the limbic system (the middle brain that is responsible for routing data either down to the brainstem or up to the neocortex) to access the qualities of clarity, confidence, creativity, and compassion (just to name a few) so necessary for success and happiness in today’s world.

Therefore, if you want to change some aspect of your life, I encourage you to begin by changing your mind about how you interpret, think about, and perceive what is going on, and choose a mindset that is more about the solution (who/how you want to be) than the problem. And then, if you find that this new mindset is helping you create the life you want, you can practice it until it becomes a new habit. If not, you can always (guess what?) change your mind again and try something new.

If you would like me to help you or those in your organization develop a more purposeful mindset and achieve your goals, please feel free to contact me. Helping people change is what I love to do.

Take care and God bless, Dr. Bill