Everyone’s heard of downward spirals, but upward spirals are just as common. Just like in physics, it’s always easiest to keep your momentum in the direction it’s already going.
If you think you’re a rude person, you’ll act rudely to others, giving more reason to think you’re rude. If you think you’re a kind person, you’ll bring kindness wherever you go, reinforcing to both yourself and to others that you’re kind.
Both upward and downward spirals are actionable. If you’re doing something negative, try to identify which thoughts are causing those actions and break the cycle. If you’re excelling, put in more effort and reinforce the cycle. The better you know yourself, the easier it is to identify cycles in your life.
Good and bad events can happen out of the blue, but it’s much easier to make good events happen if you have a string of them going already. The same is true for bad events.
The human brain is designed to form patterns: the more you do something, the easier it is to do it again. Be intentional about where your momentum is taking you.