Numerous studies have concluded that patients have lived longer when they had a detrimental illness, not merely because they were compliant with their medicine, but also because of the mindset they acquired. Your mind has a critical function, in which it dictates your health outcomes and the encounters you have in life. If someone told me two years ago to strive to make Dean’s List in college, I would have told them that such a request was impossible.

For a while I felt ill in the sense that I was working extremely hard, and it seemed as though all my hard work did not pay off. But I realized it was not my hard work that was my problem. It was my mindset that was driving the work that I was doing. I would complete the task of studying and doubt myself going into the exam. I did not believe I could be thorough, and that was a shame. The beginning of spring semester I knew and felt some things had to change.

Being the bookworm I am, I purchased, The Secret by Rhonda Bryne. By purchasing this book I was expecting a spell to be casted upon me, I wanted to know the big mystery! Little did I know that The Secret to success and a happier life was a secret I already found and knew. My family and friends remarked about my negativity. I viewed negativity as a defense mechanism, not a form of dictating my life. So I purchased the book, and the first chapter resonated with me. This chapter was the Law of Attraction. This law explained that we attract the things that we want and don’t want in life consciously, and maybe unconsciously, but consciously most of the time.

I always said “I don’t want to get a bad grade, I don’t want to fail, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t” but never did I say, "I want an A, I want, I want, I want” and that’s when my mindset converted when I came to this realization. I felt like a laptop that had been shut down and I had pressed the power button to be rebooted. Being rebooted changed my life. Being rebooted made me happier again. The first thing I said when studying was, “I want an A and I will get an A,” not even might, I will.

Due to the mindset I had, my determination accompanied by my motivation resulted in me having the correct willpower to efficiently study and get the A that I deserved. I kept that up, through all realms of my life. I ended my sophomore year making Dean’s List, that I once told someone was impossible, and I also had my dear Sadie, my car, who I never thought I would bring with me to college.

I was no longer ill minded, because my mind healed me! That was a minor example, but it goes to show you that you do have the power and can regulate certain outcomes of your life. If you tell yourself you’re bad at school, then you will execute poor actions, and as a result have poor grades. If you tell yourself you aren’t beautiful or good enough, then you’ll lift pounds of low self-esteem. If you tell yourself you can’t get the job, then you may even be late to your interview. If you’re sick and you tell yourself you are never going to get better, then you may feel sicker.

Next time you make a negative statement, refute that statement with one of substance and empowerment, and you will feel better than or equivalent to how you feel when it’s a new year. We wait for a new year because we believe that in the present year we are in, we can’t alter our life, but we can. It’s not the New Year that we look forward to, it’s the mindset that we have going into the New Year that gives us our ‘high’!