*a 4 minute read*
You know how you sometimes wake up and you are angry for no reason? Or you go to your place of your work and you give the screw (or mean mug) face to everyone in sight? Or you go to your fridge and realize the almond milk is finished and you forgot to restock before you came home from work? I know, we have all been there, rough times for everyone.
When nothing seems to be going right for you it is a tough spell to navigate through. You are in a funk (no, not the genre) and you have no solutions to get out of it. I do not even have a clear answer to give you that will solve all of your problems. But I know that it takes just one thing to change the whole atmosphere around you. You just need to believe you can get that first one to start it off and everything else will follow suit.
You would think that one thing could not do a lot for you, that it cannot have that big of an impact on your entire mood. But trust me, after the examples I share with you, the “you know what, he is kinda right” thoughts will come into your head, and you will see how you just need that first thing to happen to set up everything else accordingly. Shall we proceed?
One Conversation
So, you walk into a setting you have never been before, and there is a bunch of strangers around you (think of an orientation at school or work, a new classroom, local events). You are forced to talk to people and engage in “icebreakers” to have open conversations and avoid the natural awkwardness already in the air. The majority of the time, it opens up some small talk and a little bit of chit chat that doesn’t go too far ending with a couple of fake laughs and cheap banter (hands up if you have felt this before?).
The vibes are looking dead and you are looking to leave the function at your earliest convenience. The door to leave is in sight and nothing is pointing towards you staying where you are for much longer. But have you ever had that one conversation with someone that changed the whole dynamic and now you think “I might stick around a bit longer you know”? If you have, you know the feeling is unmatched which thankfully turns an awkward situation and period of isolation, into a feeling of involvement and belonging.
You do not need to leave with the best memory of your life or meet your soulmate in any setting full of strangers. But that sense of relief of talking to someone who you get along with, without having to force a conversation, is always appreciated. The way you talk to someone can be in passing or in an organized setting, but if you never put yourself out there and open up to people in the first place, it will never happen for you.
So when you go out and you are in a room of people you do not know, try to think at least one person feels the same way you are feeling. Open up a little more and remember that almost everyone will have the same mindset — they are just trying to find that one person in the room who they can talk to.
One Shot
Listen, sometimes your rhythm is just off. You have been shooting your shot wherever you can, and the results are shocking. You went 0 for 10 last time out and the confidence is looking shaky (fix your form man, do better).
We have discussed it on this blog before. You all already know the rules about shooting your shot and improving your percentages – you simply have to keep shooting (its really that simple).
So when you finally hit that first shot, and you feel like the floodgates have opened, it is because they have. Naturally, we should think if I make the first, I can make the second, I can make the third, and etc. The abundance mindset is key here because once that first one hits, you should believe that you have the ability to go out and get another one.
I stress this one-shot mentality because people give up too easily. You can not be good at everything and anything you do. So it is going to take more than one try to become decent at whatever it is you are doing. Take your opportunities and continue to try it again and again. Plus, you will leave with some good laughs at the end of it all when you remember the days of you being worried about missing one shot.
One Moment
One moment you are tired, the next moment you are on your bed, and the last moment leads to you sleeping. I call that the sequence of “I need a nap” (ha). The moments were all interconnected and led to you falling asleep gracefully on your bed. It started from a single moment that allowed everything else to fall into place.
While moments can be basic or extreme, they always lead to something happening. And we are counting on that one something to change where we are at for the better.
Think of this as a play/pause button for a song. When you press play from the beginning, the song moves forward from 0:00 to the end of the track smoothly without any interference. But when you hit pause, it stops. And if you continue to start and stop the song, it becomes a much longer track than it needs to be because you keep pausing & obstructing the flow of the song.
We can compare the life we live to one long (really long) song that is going to have pauses and breaks. Think of that as the “breakbeat” you hear in many of your favourite singles. But if you keep starting and stopping by force, the journey becomes longer than it needs to be. Allow the song to start and let the breaks and pauses come naturally. Moments will follow through time — you just have to start and press play.
One Time For The One Time
I will leave you all with a term that you can apply at your discretion. There will be times when you have to try things out of your comfort zone (within reason, do not start going wild out there). You do it one time for the one time because you may not get the opportunity ever again and regret may settle in. We do not believe in regret over at Timeless Thoughts so be ready to try something new. The start tends to release a domino effect with endless opportunities; all we need is the first one to get it going.
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