Hi, I’m Chad!

Hello and thanks for checking out my blog! I am so excited to share with you my journey as I read and learn how to change my mindset. What is this mindset thing everyone seems to be talking about lately? The dictionary defines it as – the established set of attitudes held by someone. Simply put it is the way we think in all aspects of our lives. Many external factors affect our Mindset and we can find ourselves overwhelmed with negative thoughts and emotions that can negatively affect our lives. Sometimes this can be slowly over long periods of time or it can happen because of a traumatic event in our lives. Or both.

Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you will start having positive results.

-Willie Nelson

Why am I writing this blog?

The reason I am writing this blog and making myself vulnerable to everyone who reads it is I want to share my experiences in the hope that others struggling in their lives get inspired to change their mindset and get a new perspective on life as I did. Also I’m hoping it will inspire me to keep pushing myself to improve.

What got me started on this blog?

Over the past year I had spiraled down into negativity, anxiety, and then depression. In a fairly short period of time I lost my wonderful devoted dog, Moose, to old age. I got overwhelmed at work with long hours. Nearly lost my job due to an emotional outburst on my part. Had some health issues which weren’t serious but for someone who loves outdoor athletics was very disconcerting. And then my wife told me she was leaving me. Sounds like a good country song in the making right?

Overwhelmed with the losses I had suffered, my emotions were out of control. Negativity ruled the day and I was feeling lost, alone, and like I had completely failed in my life. I didn’t want to do anything. I ran through every mistake I had made over and over. Imagined every worst scenario of the future. I often felt like there was no point in going to work and once done with the day had no desire to get home to an empty house. I often had very negative self-talk and generally felt miserable. I was at a very low point in my life, second only to the loss of my oldest son in a tragic car accident six years earlier.

Where is this blog headed?

A couple months later now I am feeling much more optimistic and it’s due to a lot of hard work on my part and a lot of help from the people in my life. I realized that my emotions were spiraling out of control and I did the only thing I could think of at the time. I started looking everywhere for answers on how to overcome all the emotions that were crushing me. This blog is going to be a logging of all the things I learned and used to climb out of the hole I found myself in the bottom of. Once I started learning about mindset I started on a path of learning that has expanded rapidly. What’s more I am learning that self-love and self-development is a journey of a lifetime, not just a skill to be learned and pulled out when you find yourself struggling. So once your caught up to where I am now I am going to continue posting my journey and hope that you can learn from my successes and failures. One of the first things I did was start going to a therapist and I often check with her to ensure what I’m doing and trying in my journey is right for my own mental health. I encourage you to not blindly follow what I’m doing but use it as inspiration to find your own path because everyone is unique and has different needs.