What Changes When You Focus on Your Inner World

Humans can control far fewer things than we like to believe. No, it is not our kids … although we influence them deeply when they are young. It’s not the outcomes of your team’s yearly targets. And it’s definitely not our friend texting back their ex after you’ve repeatedly told them not to.

And when we ignore our inner world, we end up living reactively … repeating the same patterns, making the same choices, and wondering why nothing changes.

With strong self‑awareness, we can steer what happens inside us … our emotions, our actions, our behaviors, and our thoughts. Our mind plays a major role in shaping, interpreting, and regulating all of it. And if that’s true, why do we let it run passively on autopilot?

The mind is like any other part of us: we can intentionally train it, or we can let it be. The key is consciously choosing instead of defaulting to our usual patterns. Our mind is vastly more powerful than our physical body, yet we fall short on mental fitness. We spend years strengthening our careers, our bodies, our hobbies and we don’t focus anywhere near as much on our inner world. And the reality is that the quality of our spirit is what determines the health of everything else.

Impostor syndrome is the gremlin that insists you’re not enough even when evidence says otherwise. Assumptions are the belief that what happened before will inevitably happen again, even when the context has changed. Interpretations are the stories you create without having the full facts, and then treat as truth because they fit the familiar narrative. Limiting beliefs are the long‑held ideas about yourself, others, or the world that quietly restrict what you think is possible.

And if you don’t catch them, they quietly run your life without your permission.

These are the GAILs. This is exactly why mental fitness matters … because these patterns won’t shift on their own. They come from the mind doing what it’s used to doing. They’re not good or bad, they are likely left unexamined. And when unchecked, they keep us small. Mental fitness is critical to having strong self‑awareness, and a consistent practice is what builds that muscle. Without practice, the mind defaults to its oldest, loudest patterns which are not necessarily helpful.

Be honest with yourself, when was the last time the voice in your head was particularly kind to you? How often does it offer harsh criticism over clarity? And what might shift if you interrupted that voice the moment it started spiraling, if you redirected, reframed, or challenged it? Sit with that for a minute.

So how do you practice mental fitness? There are many ways to do so and choosing one and staying consistent will shift everything.

For me, it started with morning pages … a practice introduced to me by two artist mentors who learned it from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. It’s essentially a brain dump of everything running amuck in your mind while it’s still free from daily pollutants. First thing in the morning, before getting out of bed, I write. I let the notebook hold both the useless and the useful thoughts so my mind can clear for the day. It’s incredibly meditative. The trick isn’t to erase the thoughts or judge them … it’s to acknowledge them, validate their existence, and choose how you want to move forward from them.

Another practice my clients find sobering is keeping a judgment journal … something I learned during my coaching program. Anytime you pass judgment on anything or anyone, including yourself … write it down. At first, the work is simply to get into the habit of noticing when something you think or say is judgmental. Judgment also isn’t good or bad, it’s also usually unexamined. With consistency, this practice sharpens your self‑awareness. And when you feel ready, ask yourself what the judgment you caught yourself making is pointing to. Dig. Then dig some more. And with these learned insights you get to choose how to move forward.

Mental fitness isn’t about controlling every thought … it’s about choosing which ones get to stay because they serve you and your purpose. Your wellbeing shifts the moment you stop letting your thoughts lead and start leading yourself from within.

That’s the shift that happens when you focus on your inner world.