You Cause Your Own Success
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. — Newton’s Third Law
Everything you put out into the world, be it thought, word, or deed will bring something back to you. In other words, you control your own cause and effect with your attitude. If you leave your shoes in the middle of the floor, invariably you’ll either trip over them, or kick them under the bed, or somewhere you can’t find them. Whereas, if you’d put them away where they belong, you’d have saved yourself injury and aggravation, not to mention being able to locate them when you needed them again.
It raises the question, why not do whatever you can to give yourself the advantage?
Yet every day, despite being given the choice, people start the day with a grouchy attitude, expecting the worst, and wonder why their day goes downhill, and everything seems to go wrong. If you wake up already dreading the day ahead, the Universe will give you what you expect. If you snarl at the first person you see, or yell at your pet, you’ve essentially told the Universe I want a crappy day.
Choose To Be Happy
Photo-Larry Koester via Flikr
Given that you have the choice, why not start your day on a high note? Why not tell the Universe you want a happy, healthy, productive day? Would you honestly, on a conscious level, ask for everything to go wrong? I doubt it. Yet every day, people do exactly that, then wonder why their day was so lousy, often blaming it on everyone and everything except the real culprit, themselves.
What if I told you by taking control of the cause and effect in your life, you could make things work to your advantage? Would you put forth the effort to start every day looking forward to what lies ahead? Or would you continue to hate the job that’s been sucking your soul because it means a steady paycheck, and maybe a few perks?
No one’s life is perfect. Each one of us has challenges, or circumstances that aren’t aligning as we’d like. But believe it or not, you can start changing things in your favor by altering your thoughts, and words. It won’t happen overnight, but you will see improvements right away, if only in your interactions with others.
Attitude Attracts
When you feel good about yourself, and the job you’re doing, it comes through in the way you carry yourself, and how you speak to other people. It might even make the morning commute a bit more pleasant if you use the time to clear your head, and maybe enjoy that first cup of coffee instead of grumbling about the job.
When you’re angry (the cause), you are more confrontational (the effect) in your interactions with others, be they in person, via email, on the phone, or in traffic. The dark cloud hanging over your head communicates to everyone around you. Some have already adjusted their mindset so your bad mood doesn’t affect them, but most will give as good (or as bad) as they get.
I wasted a lot of years hating my job, the office politics, the people I worked with, and the sheer tedium of what I was doing, never realizing I was my own worst enemy. A huge part of my problem was a lack of self-respect, and what I know now I didn’t know then was, until I started seeing myself in a better light, no one else would either. I’d continue to be the scapegoat, or the person people crapped on. The more I groused about it, and expressed my dislike of the situation, the more of it I got.
I blamed my boss, my co-workers, even a customer at times. Yet, when I did work with someone to achieve a goal, I felt uplifted by the sense of accomplishment, even when it went unrecognized or unappreciated by my bosses. The people I’d been working with and I knew we’d gone the extra mile, and created a quality product. Perhaps a few of those moments were what showed me there was something better, but it was up to me to make it happen.
Shift Your Mindset, Change Your Life
Sometimes, the answer lies entirely on shifting your mindset. In my case, shifting my mindset led to leaving the corporate world entirely, and working on myself in order to forge a new, better path. Though it didn’t happen overnight, taking that first, scary step led to a multitude of changes. I lost weight. I started showing up for myself even when there was no material gain involved.
Best of all, I started adding healthier habits to my life. It’s truly been a case of the better I feel, the more I want to do to feel better. It made me look back at my old life and see how self-defeating I’d been, and how far I wanted to get from the person my behavior and attitude had created.
Admittedly, you’re not going to be a Pollyanna every minute of every day. There will be times when you are a bit of a Debbie Downer. Don’t beat yourself up about it. Simply look at that side of yourself, and promise to do better. For me, it’s as simple as refusing to do the Electric Slide at a friend’s wedding. Looking back, it colored my experience, and kept me from cutting loose and enjoying the entire experience to its fullest.
Learn to Find the Cause
Learn from those experiences, and allow them to help you grow. Dig deep to find what caused you to be grumpy. Take a good, hard look at it, feel whatever it makes you feel, and send it packing. Most likely, they’re lingering parts of your psyche saying you weren’t good enough, and you know that is pure crap.
You are good enough. You are worthy. You deserve to have a happy, successful life. But no one is going to hand it to you. You have to put in the work. You have to determine where you’re getting in your own way, starting with negative self-talk.
The best way to cause a better life, is to start your day with something that makes you feel good about yourself. Whether it’s repeating a mantra while looking in the mirror, stretching, journaling, going for a run, or dressing for success, only you know what it is you need to lift your spirits. So do it! Give yourself the gift of a good day—every, single day!
Some Days are Diamonds, Some Days are Stones
Sure, you’ll have days with more challenges than others, but the challenges don’t have to color the entire day. In fact, facing the challenges head on, and dealing with them calmly will prove just how capable you are. Once you’ve navigated the bumps in your road, take a moment to look back and say I did a good job with that!
Essentially, when you make the best of a lousy deal, and don’t allow yourself to use it as the template for your entire life, you develop resilience which helps lift you out of victim mentality. You realize you’re stronger than you knew.
Above all, remember, what other people think of you is none of your business. As long as you love, respect, and appreciate yourself, you’ll attract people, opportunities, and situations which do the same. It’s simple cause and effect.
About the Author
Sheri Conaway is a Holistic Ghostwriter, and an advocate for cats and mental health. Sheri 
believes in the Laws of Attraction, but only if you are a participant rather than just an observer. Her mission is to Make Vulnerable Beautiful and help entrepreneurs touch the souls of their readers and clients so they can increase their impact and their income.
If you’d like to have her write for you, please visit her Hire Me page for more information. You can also find her on Facebook Sheri Levenstein-Conaway Author.
Be sure to watch this space for news of the upcoming releases of ” Rebuilding After Suicide” and “Sasha’s Journey”.
