Outside In or Inside Out?

I went to a seminar a couple of weeks ago in London with two world renowned Success Coaches, Michael Neil (you’ve heard me talk about him before) and Dr Robert Holden (he comes highly recommended by Oprah Winfrey ... and she doesn’t recommend just anyone!).

I’ll discuss more about what they both talked about in other posts, but for this one I wanted to talk about a theme that ran through both of their individual pieces as well as their joint section – that’s the idea of living outside in or inside out.

Outside In

The person who lives outside in lets everything around them affect them, usually negatively.  A bit like the Victim of the Victim/Owner I’ve mentioned in another post, they feel that everything is done to them and their lives are as a result of outside influences that they have no control over.  It doesn’t occur to them that they have options on how they view outside circumstances and how think and react to them.

Therefore, they lurch from one disaster to another without realising that they have an option to change things, make things more positive and have a happier, healthier life.

Inside Out

The person who lives Inside Out is in control of their life.  Yes bad/negative things still happen to them, but they view them in a different way.  They know that they can control their thoughts (and therefore their emotions) about what’s happening and because they can control their thoughts and emotions, they are better able to deal with difficult situations.  They think more clearly and are therefore more resourceful.  They aren’t acting like a Victim ... they Own their lives.

So, how do you transition from an Outside In to Inside Out life?  Firstly, you have to come to terms with the idea that you always have a choice about how you think about a situation.  You’ve probably heard/witnessed lots of things around perception eg two people can witness the same car accident, but both recall the event totally differently – they both have different perceptions of what happened.  You may be talking to your friend about a mutual acquaintance, but both have completely different views on that person – that’s because of the way you think about them and the way you’ve interpreted how they think about you.

We all have the ability to choose our thoughts.  We can choose to see something in a negative way or we can choose to see something in a positive way.  Inside out is choosing to see things positively.  Those who live Inside Out are happier, in control, more resourceful and enjoy life more.

How would you describe your life?  Are you living Outside In or Inside Out?

Have a wonderful weekend.

Jo