Life is not Testing You, It’s Reflecting You

Fortin teaches us all how to stop being a victim to our circumstances. To take our power back by shifting our mindset and breaking our old habits.

The following 6 quotes can change the way you see and engage with life.

6. “You are not at the mercy of your circumstances. You are at the mercy of your interpretations.”

How often do you tell yourself you don’t have enough energy, time, or money? When this is the story we tell ourselves, we’re bowing down to the whim of our external circumstances.

In his podcast, Jim Fortin always explains that we are never at the mercy of our external situations, but only at the mercy of our interpretations. He explains that we are never ‘stuck’ in life.

We only feel stuck when we give our power away to external circumstances.

How to apply this lesson

Next time you’re faced with a situation that would usually stress you out, try changing the narrative you have around it.

For example, find something you usually label as bad or negative in your life. Can you find a positive in this situation? A lesson you learned?

Something you might be able to teach others, so they don’t make a similar mistake?

5. “Life is not testing you; it’s reflecting you.”

So often we think life is testing us, but Jim explains that life isn’t working against us, it simply reflects us — we are electromagnetic beings, and the laws of the physical universe affect us.

Nicola Tesla once said,

“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.”

Energy seeks its own vibration, so the frequency you put out there with your feelings is mirrored back to you by the universe.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⁣

How to apply this lesson

If you feel like you’re not getting what you want in life, it may be because you analytically think you want XYZ, but your feelings contradict it.

Your feelings are everything, you can convince yourself you want something, but if your feelings aren’t in alignment, you won’t receive your desires.

When you shift your feelings, your life begins to change.

4. “Mastering your silence is the answer to finding your ultimate potential.”

Often we don’t take action because we don’t feel ‘prepared’ enough. We wonder if we should quit our job and pursue our dreams, have kids, or move house.

“But I don’t have the answers!” we flounder around, afraid to take action.
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Instead of doing what you want, you step back and don’t do anything. Which is a decision in itself, and it can lead us to feel lost in life.

Fortin states that we can find the answers we seek in silence.

How to apply this lesson

My favourite way to tune into what I need is via meditation and journaling. I know these techniques are shared to death on here, but they work.

Automatic writing can be a fun way to brain dump and gain the clarity you need. The other night I was journaling, and suddenly I was hit with a solution through my random automatic writing.

Sometimes the answers come to you when you stop trying to force them.

Recently I’ve been doing breathwork meditations.

3. “We do not see the world as it is. We see it as we think that it is.”

Why is it that we all see the same situations through a different lens? Our experiences in life are very individual, and the way we see everything changes because of this.

Jim Fortin wrote that if we want to know how we think the world is, all we need to do is take a look at our lives, business or relationships.

“THAT is how you think.⁠”

How to apply this lesson

Ask yourself, “how am I interpreting everything around me?” This could be your love life, work, family or finances.

Is looking at these situations in this way helpful? And what can you do to see things differently? Look at situations as if you are the person you want to be in 5 or 10 years.

2. “When you become 100% responsible for your words, your life will begin to transform in miraculous ways.”

How do you speak and think about yourself, others and your life? Your words (and thoughts) are powerful, and according to Fortin, they create your reality.

Poet Kahlil Gibran once wrote,

“We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.”

What we say stems from our identity, and this creates our beliefs. Our beliefs become our internal narrative, and then the story we tell ourselves drives our actions.

How to apply this lesson

When we become aware of our thoughts and what we say, we can learn to pivot and shift them to something better. Every time you catch yourself thinking negatively, click your fingers and redirect your thoughts.

For example, when I find myself thinking “I don’t want to waste my money on XYZ!” I pivot this interpretation and say “I’m choosing to invest my money elsewhere.”

When you do this consistently and repetitively, you’re rewiring your brain to break these old thought patterns.

1. “People who trigger you are your greatest blessing.”

We all have subconscious triggers. For some, it might be if they spend ‘too much’ money, or when someone speaks to them in a certain tone. The issue is that we usually fly off the handle on autopilot.

But what if you looked at your triggers as opportunities for personal growth instead of something that pisses you off? You have the ability to move past the automatic response to what others do or say.

Instead of flipping out at others, you can learn to respond differently and release the knee-jerk reaction. This way, you aren’t giving your power away to some external situation.

How to apply this lesson

When we start disrupting those old patterns, we can replace them with new ones — but it must be done consistently and repetitively. This is how the brain learns new habits.

Even if you’re able to catch yourself when you’re feeling triggered (the moment you feel yourself about to react) give yourself a high-five. You’ve just started the process of changing your patterns.