Editorial Op-Ed | Top 3 Reads | Of Reading and Writing
Illuminating How We Can Change Our Mindset for a Better Life
We can have a better life. It has a lot to do with how we think. When we focus our thoughts on progress and building a better future, we start enjoying the best of life. These stories from Illumination demonstrate that.
Sometimes, all it takes is a shift of mindset.
Jeff Bezos is right. Every business is fortunate to have unhappy customers. Because solving discontentment brings good results.
Problems are like puzzles. They are complex and mind-bending. But when we do solve them, we collect gems in life.
Mind you, these are gems that will stay with us for life.
Therefore, rejoice when you have problems in various aspects of life. They are problems because they bother you. They bother you because they hamper your progress to your goals and aspirations.
Don’t fret. Because solving these problems take you one step closer to your life goals. Rejoice!
The trick is to stay positive, stay undefeated, and be relentless in active experimentation. Keep forging ahead.
We do that in 3 ways:
- Get back up when we feel defeated by life.
- Build self-confidence.
- Master control.
The top 3 reads from Illumination demonstrate that.
Get Back Up When We Are Defeated by Surrounding Affluence
I know. It stings. And it stinks.
We think differently about luxury and affluence. The point is to stay in our own lane.
“It was relatively harmless when the affluent over-spent on cars, clothes, bags, or shoes. Chasing shiny, en vogue things has always been a hobby of the rich. But luxury beliefs are much more dangerous than luxury things. Luxury beliefs are ideas and opinions that confer status on the rich at minimal cost. But these beliefs have the potential to wreak havoc on the lower class.”
David D. Hopkins | Rich, Privileged, and “Friend of the Oppressed”
Never ever believe that you will not be rich.
You have to change your mindset. When your mind is focused on abundance and prosperity, riches will follow.
Focus on yourself and keep moving.
There is social mobility. Take time to move up.
When Self-Confidence Matters
This is my inclination.
Self-confidence matters. If I have to choose only 1 thing that matters, my answer remains the same.
“Over the past 5 months, I have written & published daily. I have never written anything in my life before, let alone published online, apart from the usual emails and occasional tweets. The only reason this was possible — I had to build my self-confidence and self-worth.”
Aravind Murthy | Self-Confidence for New Online Writers — Key Strategies on how to build & sustain it
I share Aravind’s thinking.
I started from 0 articles, 0 followers, 0 alphabets. My first month was $0.01.
But that is not the point.
When we focus on building self-confidence, our skills get better. When our skills get better, results follow.
Some of us improve faster. Others take more time.
Regardless of speed, focusing on ourselves is always the right thing to do.
And Then There is Control
This is a maxim.
Control what you can.
“What is the most important? To write. What can I control in this situation? I can’t control whether people like or be interested in what I am writing, or not. But I can write and share. That is the one step that I have absolute control over. It is the keystone step of any aspiring writer. So I decided to change my goal of acquiring 100 followers to publish 100 stories by December. This challenge is entirely in my capabilities, empowering me, making me happy as a writer!”
Lilie Kaizen | Change from 100 followers to 100 published stories
We cannot control the number of followers we get daily. We cannot control how many viewers and readers we have per story.
But we can control our writing.
When we focus on getting our work done, we have a shot at writing success however we define it. In fact, that is the only thing we can control.
So, show up to grind.
Write. Write your best. And then, try to write better than yesterday.
I know these are the 3 things I can control. I will let the results come to me.
Summary
Mindset is everything.
Pursuing a better life requires a positive, can-do mindset.
Spending time dawdling, complaining, and comparing with others is a waste of our time. It can be put to better use, such as improving our skills.
Such as writing.
The day will come where we start to write better. Our self-confidence builds, followers, and income increases.
Have faith. Stay positive. Put in the work.
You, my dear writer, will make it.
Dr Mehmet Yildiz Liam Ireland Maria Rattray Karen Madej Carol Price Tree Langdon Britni Pepper Agnes Laurens Claire Kelly Dew Langrial Dr. Preeti Singh Josh Balerite Acol Noorain Hassan, BMS Geetika Sethi JS Adam John Cunningham Zen Chan Technology Hits Regi Esther George Kyomi O'Connor The Wordsmith™🏳️🌈🇺🇸
Resources from Previous Editorial Op-Eds:
If you find this editorial op-ed helpful to your writing journey, you may uncover more gems in the previous op-eds written for the benefit of ILLUMINATION’s contributors and readers.
- Illuminating the Editor’s Dilemma: What We (Really) Do and How We Can Do Better.
- Illuminating the Way to Overcome the Writer’s Silent Disappointment.
- Illuminating A Potential Structure for an Effective Writing Week.
- Illuminating the Need for a Writing Downtime.
- Inside the Minds of Editors: What We Look Forward to and Look Out for.
- The Future of Reading is in Writing.
- Illuminating How We Can Find Ourselves (Again) When We are Lost.
- To Write is to Build a Skillset You Will Never Regret.
- Illuminating the Way to Find Your (Real) Voice.
- First, We Read. Next, We Write. Then, We Reimagine How We Can Write.
As a content contributor, I write my observations from daily life and my business exposure. Because our life experience is the bedrock of our unique perspectives.