When Dr. Bruce Banner was caught in a gamma bomb explosion while trying to save the life of a teen, he outgrew being a timid man and became the Hulk. The Hulk has a capacity for physical stamina and grows to become limitless and the once shy intimidated scientist becomes grossly obsolete when the Hulk takes over. "I don't need you! I don't need anybody! With my strength, my power -- the world is mine." he exclaimed. How many times on a given day do we wish that our inner Hulk would emerge during injustice, fear, sadness and insecurities? Although he's a fictitious cartoon character, sometimes we need to channel our inner Huklkness during hurdles. Most of us would savor the possibility, especially when we feel outmatched in life. You don't need to become a green superhero to move from weakness and into a place of strength. Examine the following 8 methods to move from weakness to strength without damaging your reputation (no offense, Hulk.)
Love Yourself
You can't move forward in life if you don't love yourself. All the props won't help, money, makeup, clothes or a hot date won't fulfill this inner yearning for self-acceptance. Sometimes along the way, we lose our self-love. This could be from abusive parents, relationships or circumstances in life that really wounded us. Self-love is often seen as a moral flaw of narcissism and self-worship. This is not true. When seeking a healthy balance, self-love can help you overcome areas where you would otherwise be too intimidated. This is important when going for a job or even talking to people on a daily basis. Self-love is needed if you're going to be a success in life.
Invest in Your Spiritual Life
Faith is a foundation to become stronger. It will build intuition and will help you learn more about your purpose and where you need to be corrected. What is really cool about faith is it will sustain you during times of instability. Faith can help by allowing you to get in touch with your soul and what it needs. “We fall deep into ourselves, sensing and feeling our souls, by means of depression,” wrote Thomas Moore in A Religion of One’s Own. Continue to nurture your faith as it will do give clarity to the soul. Having a sense that there is more to us than what we see in the mirror, is powerful. Knowing that there is a Creator who loves you? Well, it can be transcendent.
Crush Fear
In the Bible, we will find a man which would be considered a loser by today's standards. He didn't listen to God, he had a temper and made excuses to not follow his purpose. God was longsuffering and demanded that Moses would lead the Israelites into the Promised Land, but Moses was too timid. Are you an insecure Moses? You can't allow mistakes or fears to hinder the growth within you. God told Mosses: “I will be with you.” God was not blinded to Moses’ insecurities. God added, “I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” This took work on God's part and Moses discovered he didn't have to second-guess himself. There are other figures you can learn from if insecurity is driving you into a self-made prison of fear. Think about Moses, he could've missed out on his blessings if he didn't push through. More importantly, the deliverance of his people would've been delayed.
Remain Focused
You can't allow your neighbors, friends or your work life to shape your future. Let's say a friend told you to leave your job because they found out the manager was divulging things about you. It's natural to lash out and release your inner Hulk, but hold off a minute as this could thwart your mission. You don't know what the motive of the friend was and if it's not true, are you going to risk losing a paycheck over it? However, if it's accurate, you need to take hold of your emotions and work out strategies on how to deal with it. You talk to them, play their game or plan your exit. Always operate from a place of power, not weakness. In this instance, the manager is not worth you being sidetracked and if they want to get rid of you, consider it a Godsend.
Filter Your Thoughts
When a person is frail, they don't have the vigor to stand up and if this is you, start taking the mind out to lunch for a break. Think about something else that requires concentration like an uplifting quote or read something positive. A negative thought will just be a negative thought unless you give it the power. Take control of the steering wheel and catch the negatives before they start producing fear, by confronting it one at a time. Once you become mindful of the triggers, you can drive the mind where you want it to go. Does this mean nothing will go wrong, no, but it will help you to cope better with your thoughts.
Think For Yourself
"Most of us don’t want to think,” Alan Jacobs wrote in How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds. "To think, to dig into the foundations of our beliefs is a risk, and perhaps a tragic risk. There are no guarantees that it will make us happy or even give us satisfaction." There are no guarantees in life and something taking a risk by thinking for yourself can be a mission doomed to failure. But you don't want to be considered a sheep and sheep need a person to lead them to safety. You need to take an active part in life, faith and use our God-given talents to press through despite the pressure to conform like everyone else. You can't be strong when thinking for yourself is nonexistent.
Get Back Up
Sometimes following our purpose makes us nervous. We can have the confidence that we are following His plan that we have nothing to fear. You will fail sometimes and that is okay. But not taking action is not an option, unless God is showing you that the timing is not right. Maybe your business failed or you didn't get the job, make the decision that this doesn't have to be the conclusion, but the beginning. God has another route for you to take. There is nothing wrong with feeling sore about circumstances and yes, you know something inside is begging for you to get back up. This is a purpose--heed it and put your boots back on.
Encourage Yourself
Power up the list of achievements when weakness comes calling Reflect on your blessings and what you have accomplished in life. If you kick butt at work, cool. If you can bake like a pro, awesome. Whatever your talents are you need to take them out of the closet and shine a light on them to move back into the realm of power. Start setting goals that you can tackle weekly and then slowly build upon them with bigger goals to overcome unfruitful patterns to help maintain the momentum.
The Hulk can act boorish and go from a quiet scientist into a raging madman in nanoseconds. Tapping into his strengths is what we're after and so should you. Humans are inherently weak and feeble at times. But those who overcome can build a bridge from the point of weakness to the other side.
Beliefnet.com
No comments:
Post a Comment