Hal Elrod has a simple and life-changing principle he calls, ‘The five-minute rule.’
That is when something doesn’t go according to plan; you can be angry, you can punch a hole in the wall, you can scream at the top of your lungs, but only for five minutes.
Once the five-minutes is up, you need to move on and let go of it.
What I love about this is that what you focus on expands.
According to the National Science Foundation, the average person has between 12,000 and 60,000 thoughts per day.
Of those, 80% are negative and 95% are just the same repetitive thoughts you had yesterday.
This is not a healthy way to live. If you’re someone who’s seeking constant growth and learning in life, then your thoughts today should not be the same as they were yesterday.
Instead, they should be continually growing, changing and expanding. So, don’t cling onto or be weighted-down by negative thoughts; just get rid of them!
Because life will never go as planned; there will be undesirable circumstances and surprises. But never forget that you get to decide how those events will affect your Being.
As Ryan Holiday has said,
“There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception. There is the event itself and the story we tell ourselves about what it means.”
Once you do let go of all the unnecessary pain and suffering created by something beyond your control, you can then focus all your energy towards creating the circumstances you actually do want in life.
As Hal Elrod said, “I believe everything happens for a reason, but I also believe it’s our responsibility to choose the reasons.”
Indeed, why choose misery?
Why get bitter rather than better?
Every experience can and should become an opportunity for continued learning and growth.
The question is: Are willing to get curious enough to become a student of life?
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