A huge part of our legacy is our history.
Our past shapes much of what we do and say. Not many people know how to change the narrative they may have been subjected to because of their upbringing.
Many of us carry around ideologies and thought processes that were passed down to us, sometimes making it hard for us to successfully build our own legacy.
For example, if a man is taught that “boys don’t cry” and it was beat in his head throughout his entire childhood, then he will always have a hard time processing how to express his emotions in situations that require tears (death, hardships, pain, etc.).
If you’re the first in your family taking structured and consistent steps to build a legacy, you will have to unravel some things that were planted in your mind and spirit before fully walking in the destiny that you were called to.
Over the next three weeks, I’ll discuss three ways to outrun your history, while honoring the positive lessons that you learned from it.
This week, we will discuss the first way to outrun your history:
1) Write down five ideologies that you learned growing up that you know aren’t conducive to your future and unravel them one by one. I know that sounds like a lot, but the work’s gotta be done. You can either do it now or do it later, but later will cost you more mentally, spiritually and could even cost you financially.
An example of this for me would be: “I was raised to believe that a 9 to 5 was a guaranteed way to earn a living. It also provided security and benefits that would be hard to come by otherwise.”
I know this is a big one for many people, which is why I chose to use it, so here’s how I would unravel that.
Create a new ideology to replace the other one. You’ll notice that I’m not calling the old ideologies "negative” because they may not necessarily be negative. They may have negative tones and may have caused negative thought processes to occur, but it still could’ve gotten you by in the past - it just doesn’t fit now.
You might think that once you’ve created a new ideology, you can slap it right over the old one. I would say, take some time to get to the root of where the old ideology came from and destroy the root. The root cause of the idea of a 9 to 5 being the only way to make a “true” living is usually rooted in poverty thinking. Changing your mind takes time, but at least if you get to the root of it, you aren’t just putting a band-aid over the old ideology expecting it to be completely healed.
Once I’ve created a new ideology, “I believe that I can have multiple streams of income, even if one of them is a 9 to 5. I will work hard for someone else, while working for myself on the side, until I can work for myself,” then, I’ll write this down somewhere I can see it and meditate on it several times a day. The more I see it, speak it out loud and meditate on it, the more it will become my new ideology.
Whenever that old ideology tries to creep back up, I’ll remind myself that I need to work through this until it becomes second nature to me to think, speak and walk out the new ideology.
This means, I also need to shut down anything or anyone that tries to restrict me to that old ideology. Conversations, media or relationships that support the old ideology have to go (or, in the case of relationships, at least be adjusted).
Next week, we’ll tackle the second way to outrun your history. You don’t want to miss it!