Being in the Right Mind-Set

Shonda Rhimes's book, Year of Yes, was inspiring and funny. I love books where people make over their lives, and that is exactly what Rhimes did. Perhaps my favorite bit of wisdom from her book was about the importance of being in the right mind-set.

Rhimes was talking about her weight-loss journey (over 100 pounds!) and how she was able to successfully drop the weight. She didn't want to give specific advice, because she believes one thing matters more than anything else. Here it is:

"Now, I'm betting all of those big-time programs...work. But only if you decide that YOU are going to do the work to make the programs work. Meaning, nothing works if you don't actually decide that you are really and truly ready to do it.

Are you ready? Here's how you know if you are ready or not: Three years ago, if someone had said something to me like 'Nothing works until you are really ready for it to work,' I would have force-fed them butter until they weighed one thousands pounds. Because that sounds like crap. Everything sounds like crap until you are in the right mind-set."

That last sentence is the one that has stuck out to me in the weeks since I finished the book. "Everything sounds like crap until you are in the right mind-set". It is so obvious, yet I don't think I had ever spelled it out for myself before. That is why different things click with me at different times. You have to be in the right mind-set! And if you're not in the right mind-set, you can hear the same thing a hundred times and not have it mean anything!

Things like "practice makes perfect" or "this stage doesn't last forever" often seem meaningless until one day they click. And you just wonder how they never made sense to you before. Realizing it's all about the mind-set put it all into perspective for me.

What do you think about being in the right mind-set?