Why Meaning is Everything

How You Can Choose Success Every Time

Answer this question now — Are the events in your life happening to you, or happening for you?

People have enormous capabilities beyond what’s commonly thought to be possible. The power to tap into our unlimited potential is directly connected to how we define reality, how we view ourselves and what believe we can achieve.

No matter what is now, or will occur, you can choose — right this moment — more empowering meanings for everything in your life. You hold the power to create a new world for yourself and those you care about. The mind-shift is simple, but profound.

meaning is everything

CORE DECISION: WHAT IS THE MEANING?

Is this the end of something wonderful or the beginning of something unpleasant? Are you being punished for your failure or rewarded for your success? The minute you decide to focus on something, you assign it a meaning and infuse it with feeling. How you define an event produces emotion and determines your inner feeling state going forward. The meaning you assign to any event, interaction or outcome defines the emotional tone of your experience and the feelings you generate throughout your life. Meaning equals emotion and emotion equals life. The meaning you give your experiences will always change how you feel — and the emotion you feel always becomes the quality of your life. Our memories are actually anchors to feeling states, images, sounds and sensations — all of these aspects rely on the meaning we give to them.

“The meaning you attach to something produces the emotion of your life and your emotion is your life.” — Tony Robbins

Meaning equals emotion, emotion equals life — write this down or memorize this stanza. This is the essence to the entire power of Meaning; the meaning you give events, interactions and outcomes determines how you feel. Meaning informs your emotional state. By creating a ladder of positive and empowering meanings you effectively change the direction of your life and provide yourself rational, proven reasons your success will continue.

And it all starts now, with your decision to become conscious of the Meanings you are constantly creating. This technique is called “reframing,” and it’s one of the most powerful tools you can use to improve your psychology.

THE POWER OF REFRAMING

Reframing isn’t about pretending a situation is great when it may not be. Rather, it’s about discovering what could be great, what you could learn by consequence or how you can use the situation to create a better outcome. Perspective is a powerful thing. When you can reframe a particular experience or interaction, you can often change what happens as a result.

Let’s say, for example, your boss is always yelling at you. One way to reframe the situation might be to say, “It’s great that she cares enough to tell me how she really feels. She could have just fired me.” Or, perhaps you had to pay $4,000 more in income tax this year. Another way
to look at it is, “It’s great. I must have made a lot more money.”

Human beings tend to attach certain meanings to experiences. We say, “This happened, so it must mean ______.” In actuality, there may be an infinite number of ways to interpret any experience. We frame the events in our life based on the ways we’ve decided to perceive similar experiences in the past, forming habitual patterns we repeat throughout our entire lives. Are your patterns helping or harming you? It’s vital to remember that our perceptions are creative in nature — if we define something as negative, that’s the message our brain receives and responds to by creating an emotional state to reinforce that reality.

“The quality of your life is the quality of your communication, with yourself as well as with others.” — Tony Robbins

Reframing is the difference between being constantly disappointed and being consistently satisfied. By stacking positive interpretations, one after the other, you become the author of the success story of your own life. How would you feel at bedtime if every day turned out to be “ideal,” “interesting” or even “amazing?” It’s closer than you think.

Start harnessing your innate ability to supercharge your emotions, empower your decisions and elevate your life today — through the power of meaning.