451: What If the Question You've Been Asking All Your Life Is Keeping You Stuck? (Summer Shift Week 5)

Kevin Lowe: Because the words that follow are what shape the future.

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

Kevin Lowe: What if it doesn't work out?

Kevin Lowe: What if this goes wrong?

Kevin Lowe: What if the diagnosis is positive?

Kevin Lowe: What if they say no?

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

Kevin Lowe: Well, today, I'm proposing a simple shift, A mindset shift.

Kevin Lowe: A change in Perspective of simply.

Kevin Lowe: Changing that statement To what if it does work out? What if it all does go right?

Kevin Lowe: What if the diagnosis is negative?

Kevin Lowe: What if the promotion is a yes?

Kevin Lowe: What if everything does go like I have planned?

Kevin Lowe: My friend, that's how you change your life. That's not just a change of mindset.

Kevin Lowe: That's not just a change of perspective. That's an entire life overhaul.

Kevin Lowe: And it's exactly why I've chosen this topic.

Kevin Lowe: To kick off week number five of our summer Shift series where we are shifting perspective each week here in the summer months.

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

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: that even when life may feel like It's falling apart.

Kevin Lowe: And the days maybe look a little gloomy, That there's always hope.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: From the positive instead of the negative.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

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

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

Kevin Lowe: And the reason is, is because a lot of times life doesn't change.

Kevin Lowe: We do. We have to learn to adapt, to overcome, to grow bigger, better versions of ourselves.

Kevin Lowe: This includes the way we think.

Kevin Lowe: The way we evolve, the way we respond.

Kevin Lowe: And the way we hope, which.

Kevin Lowe: Directly ties into Today's topic.

Kevin Lowe: Today's shift is simple.

Kevin Lowe: Stop letting fear take control. Stop letting fear ask all the questions.

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

Kevin Lowe: And that's simply because fear, it doesn't always sound like fear.

Kevin Lowe: Instead, fear, a lot of times, it sounds practical.

Kevin Lowe: It sounds responsible. It honestly sounds like wisdom.

Kevin Lowe: Fear, it shows up.

Kevin Lowe: Trying to make you think That it's just there to protect you.

Kevin Lowe: It has your best interests at heart. It doesn't want you to be hurt again.

Kevin Lowe: It doesn't want you to be disappointed again.

Kevin Lowe: But the problem, of course, Is that fear, dressed up however you want to dress it up.

Kevin Lowe: It keeps us from living the lives that we're meant to live.

Kevin Lowe: If we never have the courage to jump in, well, we never have the opportunity to experience What's waiting for us.

Kevin Lowe: We've talked about that in one of the previous Weeks of the Summer Shift series.

Kevin Lowe: About having the courage to jump in, to take the dive.

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

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

Kevin Lowe: Life's about taking chances, Taking the risk, going for it.

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

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

Kevin Lowe: You've known it, but there's another part of you that says, Hey, be careful.

Kevin Lowe: Don't get your hopes up. You know how things have gone before.

Kevin Lowe: You know that things don't Typically work out for you. And it's true.

Kevin Lowe: Hope can feel risky when life has disappointed you before.

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

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

Kevin Lowe: And you're over that. You're over hurting.

Kevin Lowe: So you stop trying. You stop dreaming.

Kevin Lowe: You stop chasing after your goals, your dreams.

Kevin Lowe: And instead, you just let fear take over. Okay.

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

Kevin Lowe: I don't want fear.

Kevin Lowe: Depression, anxiety. I don't want that to get through Control where I go with my life.

Kevin Lowe: And I think that is why today matters.

Kevin Lowe: Because the questions we ask ourselves matter greatly.

Kevin Lowe: Specifically, the question we're talking about today. The what if question.

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

Kevin Lowe: Because if I keep asking myself, what if they say no, then eventually I'm going to stop Asking at all.

Kevin Lowe: If I keep asking myself, What if this fails.

Kevin Lowe: Then eventually I'm going to stop trying. And if I keep asking myself, What if this doesn't work?

Kevin Lowe: Then chances are I'm just going to stop even dreaming again.

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

Kevin Lowe: And you don't have to stay there.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: And so we allow fear to stand in the way.

Kevin Lowe: that what-if question poses the negative to keep robbing us on the Opportunity to live because we don't want to have to deal with the hurt.

Kevin Lowe: But the shift today that we're going to make is going to open the door to possibility, to opportunity.

Kevin Lowe: But what I'm proposing today is, what if we just Start giving hope and equal opportunity to show up in our lives?

Kevin Lowe: Not more space than wisdom, Not more space than even fear, But just equal space, equal opportunity to show up.

Kevin Lowe: Because we may feel like hope is being silly.

Kevin Lowe: Hope is irresponsible. But in fact, hope is necessity to life.

Kevin Lowe: Hope is bravery. Hope is courage. Hope is belief.

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

Kevin Lowe: He was locked away in a prison cell. He had been building a life for himself in this country, in the United States.

Kevin Lowe: And yet he found himself in jail.

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

Kevin Lowe: He had built his life here.

Kevin Lowe: He made the choice, though, to have delusional optimism, Reckless optimism. Even though he was in a horrible situation.

Kevin Lowe: The outcome looked grim, He chose to take control of what he could.

Kevin Lowe: And that was his mindset. He chose to believe that it was all going to work out.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: What if it makes the next weeks, a month, even better? What can I learn from this?

Kevin Lowe: What can I do with this?

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: and yet he made the conscious decision to start asking, What if it does work out? What if this all does go right?

Kevin Lowe: 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.

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

Kevin Lowe: Now, delusional optimism, reckless optimism.

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

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

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

Kevin Lowe: Where I am today is not where I'll be tomorrow. Not where I'll be next year.

Kevin Lowe: This might be my reality, but it's not my story. And my friend, it doesn't have to be for You as well.

Kevin Lowe: Whatever that mental prison you might be in, maybe it's a prison of dreams that seem like they don't work out.

Kevin Lowe: Maybe it's weeks and months and years of Feeling like you're.

Kevin Lowe: Stuck.

Kevin Lowe: Just because you're stuck today.

Kevin Lowe: Doesn't mean that you're stuck tomorrow. You can have hope for tomorrow.

Kevin Lowe: Have hope for today.

Kevin Lowe: Because my friend, Hope has the power to change everything.

Kevin Lowe: And again, we're not denying reality. We're not pretending the hard stuff isn't hard.

Kevin Lowe: Instead, we're focusing on what we can control, on changing our mindset, focusing on the positive, I'm looking for the positive, Understanding that what if things do work out? What if everything is going to work out perfect for me?

Kevin Lowe: What if I wake up tomorrow morning and everything changes?

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

Kevin Lowe: My friend, what that does, that changes not just your mindset, but that changes How you approach.

Kevin Lowe: Everything. When you can start changing your mind, tricking your mind even, and believing that everything Is going to work out just the way you hope.

Kevin Lowe: My friend, you start walking differently. You start standing differently.

Kevin Lowe: You start smiling more. You have better posture.

Kevin Lowe: You have just a glow about you.

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

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

Kevin Lowe: 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?

Kevin Lowe: Because nothing ever works out.

Kevin Lowe: And then, thank goodness, I kept going.

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

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

Kevin Lowe: and I was listening to her podcast called Okay, Now What?

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

Kevin Lowe: And it totally changed everything for me.

Kevin Lowe: It was the gentle reminder I needed that, Hey, you know what?

Kevin Lowe: What if it is working out?

Kevin Lowe: What if everything is going to be okay?

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

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

Kevin Lowe: What if it all goes wrong? I just want to encourage You to follow it up.

Kevin Lowe: With another question.

Kevin Lowe: But what if it does? But what if it does work out? But what if.

Kevin Lowe: Everything I've been working on is about to come true? My friend, That is the shift.

Kevin Lowe: That I'm making. And that is the shift I want you to make as well.

Kevin Lowe: I'm your host, Kevin Lowe. This was Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

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

Kevin Lowe: If so, if you've enjoyed today.

Kevin Lowe: If it made you think of Somebody you love.

Kevin Lowe: Who maybe they need To hear this, well, please consider sharing today's episode with them.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: I'll see you next week.