Day 7- Mental Health.

Today we will look at your mental health and ask questions about what thoughts are most common in your mind? Take inventory of your negative thoughts. How do you cope with difficult situations, either in life or in your work?

In your notebook, write down the common negative thoughts that you are fully aware of right now. For example, perhaps you're in the habit of constantly stating, “I can’t. I shouldn’t. Wouldn’t it have been great if I had done this instead.”

Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda.

These types of statements that many people say to themselves embed themselves into the brain and quickly cause drudgery and burnout. In more cases than we're probably aware of, depression and anxiety.

You become unable to put your total focus in a task for your work because you are unable to stay on track. You drift into the realm of, “Wow, this is hard, I just can’t do it.”

When that starts to happen, it can snowball and become an avalanche of remembering times that you were unable to do something and just gave up.

You need to change the statements.

For example, “I can’t,” becomes “This is giving me some grief right now, what is causing this difficulty?”

All of a sudden, you're on a quest to figure out the root cause of the difficulty. Rather than throwing your hands up in despair, you're now a man on a mission.

And you know what? So many times it's just a tweak here or there in one small aspect of our work that's causing the hangup. Once you identify that tweak and make the necessary adjustments, you're on your way to not only completing your work but CRUSHING your work.

When your mental game is not on point, you not only suffer from the “I cannot,” you open your self up to having a serious bout of depression.

If you are feeling sad and out of sorts frequently, make a list of what you feel may be causing it. Are you eating properly, exercising, talking out your frustrations with family or friends? Are you harboring resentment and anger against someone who has wronged you?

These are your first go-to things to do when you aren't feeling great on the inside.

Lift yourself up with positive affirmations. Read inspiring books like the Bible or other sacred texts.

Forgive the person who has wronged you. Harboring anger against someone is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

Sing an uplifting song to yourself. Tell a joke. Give a word of encouragement to someone else who's going through a difficulty.

Make a charitable contribution.

Soon you realize you've actually got it pretty good.

Of course, it never hurts to see your doctor and get some advice. Explain how you feel and how it hurts your ability to focus on the truly important things in life.