“Our key to transforming anything lies in our ability to reframe it.” – Marianne Williamson
Marianne Williamson beautifully explains the value of reframing; it is a way we can transform pretty much any situation.
“Reframing” is a technique that can serve us to deal with most situations in life, both personally and professionally. Yet so few of us use it.
So often we are faced with challenges that can lead to fear, particularly when we are running our own business. The stakes are pretty high. However, most times, those fears do not come to pass and we’ve spent endless hours in angst.
So how do we avoid getting caught up in the worry and fear? By using a very simple technique known as reframing.
In a nutshell, reframing is when we take a negative thought and we replace it with a positive one. We change our perspective and we become more adaptive.
It’s interesting how often we have negative thoughts. When you are consciously aware of implementing reframing techniques into your life, you become so much more aware. It can be scary! When I first started using reframing many years ago ,I would take note of any negative thoughts I had. I was amazed at just how many of them there were. Far too many to reframe, I wouldn’t have time for anything else!
When we use reframing, we are discerning about which thoughts we reframe, choosing those that impact our lives. Many negative thoughts are fleeting and they don’t usually limit our beliefs or prevent us from taking risks or opportunities. It is those larger negative thoughts that hold the ‘I’m not good enough’ and ‘fear of failure’ type beliefs, they are the ones that will hold you back. They are the ones we need to reframe.
So exactly how do we reframe? It’s quite simple, the following tips will show you how.
1. Perspective is not fact.
One of the more difficult aspects of reframing to get your mind around, is that your negative thought is only YOUR perspective on the situation. The goal is not to be dismissive of terrible situations, they happen to us all and they really are terrible. However, we all know the glass half full person who will look at a challenge and instead see an opportunity, even if it’s one of a good lesson learned. First thing you must do is to own that negative thought.
2. What is really going on?
Take a good look at what is behind that negative thought. Is it a fear? Is it a belief? Are you dismissing a great opportunity by telling yourself or others a story like ‘oh, they don’t deal with small business owners’? Are you holding back from chasing opportunities because you don’t believe you are good enough? Is it a confidence issue rather than knowing for certain that chasing the opportunity could not come to fruition?
3. Look for the positive.
This is particularly useful when you look at why you are having negative thoughts. Using the above example, we can reframe that to ‘oh, I’m having that thought because I want to protect myself from rejection or failure’. Using this approach will also stop that inner critic that likes to give us a hard time.
Once you have identified the positive reasoning behind your negative thoughts you can then focus on reframing them into actual positive thoughts that will help you to move forward towards your goals.
“Oh, I’m a little fearful pitching to this big company, I have a dose of Imposter Syndrome going on here. But, I know that I have the knowledge and skill set to deliver what they need, I’m going to go for it anyway.”
It is interesting to see how quickly we can turn many of our negative thoughts into a consistently positive mindset by using the reframing technique. Give it a try!
