6 Steps to Getting Your Day Back on Track

The day was unfolding like any other. I had a plan in place, not the kind that will change the world. The kind that has reasonable goals, that can be met without the use of a superhero cape. I was chugging along when I suddenly noticed that my progress has slowed – a lot. Well, maybe it had just screeched to a halt.

As I sat considering what had gone wrong, faint whispers emerged. “You can’t do that, you are too disorganized, you never will!”

Have you experienced this? The echoes of false beliefs that cause you to stop doing what you are more than capable of completing?

I have. But today was different. I did not let myself get derailed. I stopped those thoughts and got back on track. You can too!

The strategy has a lot in common with pest control. Stay with me here. Negative thoughts can invade, steal and destroy, just like household pests like ants. Just like unwanted insects negative thought patterns can be stopped and replaced. Here’s how:

6 Steps to Get Your Day Back on Track

1. Notice the invasion. It sounds simple, but sometimes the whisper of negativity is so quiet that I am not even aware that it is there. Sometimes the refrain is so familiar I just accept it as truth. Today I discovered it when I was figuring out how my day had got off track.   
2. Search for the damage that has been done. Look to see how your life has been affected. This time, my progress toward meeting my goal was slowed and then stopped. My confidence was shaken.
3. Identify the point of entry. Was it related to a message from a friend, a post on social media or a memory? Comparison with friends or colleagues can derail me quite quickly. Today, it was related to a past memory of failure, one that I had woven into my belief system.  
4. Remove the invasion and replace it.  I examined the lies and replaced them with truth.  The lies that were my past mistakes or failures do not define me. As I objectively scrutinized these lies, they seemed ridiculous. I stopped believing them. The Biblical truth I chose to replace them is this verse: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”  2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
5. Think about the verse or truth and apply it to your life. 2 Corinthians 5:17 shows that I am not the same person I once was. I do not have to be chained to old patterns and expectations. The new is here! I should not expect the same results I have seen in the past. My past is gone.
6. Be vigilant for new attempts of invasions. Just as the ants will try to come back, I need to expect that the negative thoughts that I know so well will try to slip back. So, I will notice them and act.  I don’t have to be de-railed and neither do you.

Let’s step into the new.

Let’s get our day back on track.

Photo by Ravi Roshan on Unsplash