Mindset

For the past few months my outlook on the world around me has been slowly changing. For the first time in 6 years I can say I genuinely enjoy my job. At first, I detested it, coasting from day to day, thinking about anything else that I could be doing at the moment. I felt pretty good about the technical training, but as soon as I returned to the field I became miserable again. After a while I started to tolerate it, reminding myself that there are a lot of jobs worse than being an electrician. However, my mind was still not into it, I kept convincing myself that I wasn't good enough for the job and insisted that there was something out there better for me. The only reason I stuck through with it is the fact that I promised my family I would get my journeyman ticket before quitting. I was still unfocused and unsure what I wanted to do with my life. I didn't have the right mindset.

Lately I've been thinking about how I think when it comes to kung fu. I stay focused and engaged, in turn I am enjoying it greatly and seem to be grasping the concepts pretty well. So I asked myself, "If it works with kung fu, couldn't it work with my job too?" I conducted a few tests, almost tricking my brain I was going to the kwoon instead of work. It started working! Almost like making a fake smile which eventually gives you real happiness.

I don't even need to trick myself anymore. Now that I am truly focused on what I'm doing, I feel great about it. I wake up and look forward to going to work. Rather than finding ways to make it through the day, comparing myself to my more successful co-workers and putting myself down, I now try to see how I can improve the efficiency and quality of my craftsmanship each day. I feel great now!

Your mindset greatly affects your life. The same activity can be either enjoyable or excruciating depending on how you go about it. Marty McFly explains it perfectly, "If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything."

See you on the mats!