Feeling Stuck? The Question You've Been Asking All Your Life May Be the Problem (Summer Shift Week 5)

Because the words that follow are what shape the future.

Now, the problem here is that most of the time, we're asking it from the negative.

What if it doesn't work out?

What if this goes wrong?

What if the diagnosis is positive?

What if they say no?

And quietly, unknowingly, we start shaping our future, anticipating the worst.

Well, today I'm proposing a simple shift, a mindset shift, a change in perspective of simply changing that statement to what if it does work out?

What if it all does go right?

What if the diagnosis is negative?

What if the promotion is a yes?

What if everything does go like I have planned?

My friend, that's how you change your life.

That's not just a change of mindset, that's not just a change of perspective, that's an entire life overhaul.

And it's exactly why I've chosen this topic to kick off week number five of our summer shift series, where we are shifting perspective each week here in the summer months.

My friend, if you're new here, I am the host of Great Grace and Inspiration, as well as an inspirational public speaker.

My name, Kevin Lowe, a guy simply on a mission to use my own story of going blind over 20 years ago to hopefully just inspire you.

That even when life may feel like it's falling apart and the days maybe look a little gloomy, that there's always hope, that there's always something better.

And honestly, the topic that we're talking about today is so vitally important of changing our mindset, changing our position on life, changing how we look at things from the positive instead of the negative.

In case that you are just now hopping on board with the summer shift series, well, basically we're just taking the summer one week at a time, making little small improvements in our lives to make a big monumental impact in the year.

And in general, basically the kind of shifts that we've been talking about are the shifts that we make inside us.

These are the shifts that we choose to make that start to change us before the outside world ever even thinks about changing.

And the reason is because a lot of times life doesn't change.

We do.

We have to learn to adapt, to overcome, to grow bigger, better versions of ourselves.

This it includes the way we think, the way we evolve, the way we respond, and the way we hope, which directly ties into today's topic.

Today's shift is simple.

Stop letting fear take control.

Stop letting fear ask all the questions.

And the reason is because fear, it can be sneaky.

And that's simply because fear it doesn't always sound like fear.

Instead, fear, a lot of times, it sounds practical.

It sounds responsible.

It honestly sounds like wisdom.

Fear it shows up trying to make you think that it's just there to protect you.

It has your best interest at heart.

It doesn't want you to be hurt again, it doesn't want you to be disappointed again.

But the problem, of course, is that fear, dressed up however you want to dress it up, it keeps us from living the lives that we're meant to live.

If we never have the courage to jump in, well, we never have the opportunity to experience what's waiting for us.

We've talked about that in one of the previous weeks of the SummerShift series, about having the courage to jump in, to take the dive.

Fear, it tries to keep us safe by keeping us the same, by keeping us still.

But my friend, that's not what life's about.

Life's about taking chances, taking the risk, going for it.

Because if we never do, then we'll never get to actually experience what it's like to truly live.

Have you ever had something that you've been really excited about and you've wanted to believe it?

You've known it.

But there's another part of you that says, hey, be careful.

Don't get your hopes up.

You know how things have gone before.

You know that things don't typically work out for you.

And it's true, hope can feel risky when life has disappointed you before.

When you've failed so many times before, why do you even want to try again?

All you're gonna do, you think, is lead yourself to have more disappointment, to be embarrassed once again, to embarrass yourself.

And you're over that, you're over hurting.

So you stop trying, you stop dreaming, you stop chasing after your goals, your dreams, and instead you just let fear take over.

But the thing is, is that I don't want to live my life that way.

I don't want fear, depression, anxiety.

I don't want that to get through control where I go with my life.

And I think that is why today matters.

Because the questions we ask ourselves matter greatly.

Specifically, the question we're talking about today, the what if question.

The questions that we ask ourselves quietly dictate the lives we're prepared for.

Because if I keep asking myself, what if they say no, then eventually I'm gonna stop asking it all.

If I keep asking myself, what if this fails, then eventually I'm gonna stop trying.

And if I keep asking myself, what if this doesn't work?

Then chances are I'm just gonna stop even dreaming again.

And my friend, if that's where you are, I don't want you to stay there.

And you don't have to stay there.

We've all experienced so much hurt, so much disappointment in our lives, that, as I said, we don't want to feel it again.

We don't want to have to deal with it again.

And so we allow fear to stand in the way that what if question poses the negative to keep robbing us of the opportunity to live because we don't want to have to deal with the hurt.

But the shift today that we're gonna make is gonna open the door to possibility, to opportunity.

But what I'm proposing today is what if we just start giving hope an equal opportunity to show up in our lives?

Not more space than wisdom, not more space than even fear, but just equal space, equal opportunity to show up.

Because we may feel like hope is being silly.

Hope is irresponsible.

But in fact, hope is necessity to life.

Hope is bravery, hope is courage, hope is belief.

And to really paint a picture of the power of hope, I think back to a story I heard a guy tell.

He was locked away in a prison cell.

He had been building a life for himself in this country, in the United States.

And yet he found himself in jail.

And they were looking at deporting him back to his home country.

He had built his life here.

He made the choice, though, to have delusional optimism, reckless optimism.

Even though he was in a horrible situation, the outcome looked grim, he chose to take control of what he could.

And that was his mindset.

He chose to believe that it was all going to work out.

Everything was going to be good.

He started asking, what if this all does go perfect?

What if, because of this, because of this horrible situation, what if it makes the next weeks, a month even better?

What can I learn from this?

What can I do with this?

It changed everything for him.

Now, the important thing to remember is he was in the middle of prison, in a jail cell, thinking that everything he'd been working for was about to be destroyed.

And yet he made the conscious decision to start asking, what if it does work out?

What if this all does go right?

And what really struck me about this story, and what I want you to understand, is that it's easy to be optimistic when everything's going your way, when everything's working out.

But it's a whole other thing to reach for hope when it seems like everything's crumbling down around you.

Now, delusional optimism, reckless optimism.

It's not pretending that the situation isn't real.

He wasn't trying to pretend that he wasn't in a horrible situation.

But instead, he looked at it as though this prison cell, it's not the whole story.

Where I am today is not where I'll be tomorrow, not where I'll be next year.

This might be my reality, but it's not my story.

And my friend, it doesn't have to be for you as well.

Whatever that mental prison you might be in.

Maybe it's a prison of dreams that seem like they don't work out.

Maybe it's weeks and months and years of feeling like you're stuck.

Just because you're stuck today doesn't mean that you're stuck tomorrow.

You can have hope for tomorrow.

Have hope for today.

Because my friend, hope has the power to change everything.

And again, we're not denying reality.

We're not pretending the hard stuff isn't hard.

Instead, we're focusing on what we can control, on changing our mindset, focusing on the positive, on looking for the positive, understanding that what if things do work out?

What if everything is gonna work out perfect for me?

What if I wake up tomorrow morning and everything changes?

What if everything I've been working for finally all comes together tomorrow morning?

My friend, what that does, that changes not just your mindset, but that changes how you approach everything.

When you can start changing your mind, tricking your mind even, in believing that everything is gonna work out just the way you hope, my friend, you start walking differently.

You start standing differently, you start smiling more, you have better posture, you have just a glow about you.

My friend, I'm recording this because I needed this reminder.

This topic today is not what I had originally planned on doing for this week in our summer shift series.

But I found myself in one of these dark moments, these dark days, where I felt like, what is any of it worth?

Why am I doing what I'm doing?

Because nothing ever works out.

And then, thank goodness, I kept going.

Thank goodness, I heard a podcast by a friend of mine, Kate Gladden.

She's a woman who you've actually heard here on this podcast.

And I was listening to her podcast called Okay Now What?

And she was the one who brought up this idea of what if it does work out?

And it totally changed everything for me.

It was the gentle reminder I needed that, hey, you know what?

What if it is working out?

What if everything is gonna be okay?

And my friend, that's what I want for you.

So if you've been asking yourself the question of what if it all doesn't work?

What if it all goes wrong?

I just want to encourage you to follow it up with another question.

But what if it does?

But what if it does work out?

But what if everything I've been working on is about to come true?

My friend, that is the shift that I'm making, and that is the shift I want you to make as well.

I'm your host, Kevin Lowe.

This was Grit Grace and Inspiration.

And my friend, I hope you're enjoying your summer months, and I hope you're enjoying this podcast.

If so, if you've enjoyed today, if it made you think of somebody you love who maybe they need to hear this, well, please consider sharing today's episode with them.

And until next week, get out there and enjoy this beautiful time of year, catching a little bit of summer sun while listening to the podcast.

I'll see you next week.