A healthy level of self confidence and self image is not only necessary, it is essential for any kind of success we seek achieve. Only when you’re comfortable with who you are and confident in what you can do, will other people believe in you and your abilities. This applies both to your personal as well as your professional life.
For those who experience the day-to-day effects of low self confidence it is a very real and troubling issue. The fact is that it dramatically reduces your chances for success in life due to its far reaching consequences. No matter how badly you may want something, a lack of self confidence will always work against you and undermine your efforts.
Low self confidence manifests itself in thought patterns and behaviors that continue to make you feel under-valued and unappreciated. It is a far more common issue than most people would like to admit.
Recent research findings reveal the clear cognitive and behavioral differences between people with a healthy level of self confidence and those with lower levels. The following a just a few examples:
People with healthy levels of self confidence tend to
- feel good about who they are and their value to society
- don't let their actions be dependent on other people's opinion or approval
- think they deserve to be treated with respect
- feel they're in charge of their own destiny
- believe in their future and have positive expectations
- seek and enjoy the company of others
People with lower levels of self confidence tend to
- feel unappreciated or not respected by others
- criticize themselves or others
- question or not trust their own judgments and decisions
- feel inadequate, different or disconnected from others
- take actions to earn the love or approval from others
- be reluctant to change / taking on new challenges
While the reasons for people to develop low self confidence vary, its effects can be traced back to our thought patterns, i.e. the way we think of and view ourselves relative to our social environment.
Therefore, it is important that we not only become aware of the way we think of ourselves but also that we consciously and actively take steps to change the beliefs that cause low self confidence. These are predominantly beliefs that in some way or other make us think that we’re “not good enough”. Ask yourself the following questions:
- What are the areas where you think you’re not “good enough”?
- Is it really necessary to be “good enough” in these areas?
- Are you trying to be “good enough” for yourself or someone else?
- What would “good enough” look like?
Once you’ve identified what the ideal state looks like, write it down in the in the first person presence tense. Here are a few examples:
- I see myself as a radiant being, filled with energy, creativity and purpose
- I choose to surround myself with people who are kind, supportive and appreciate me for the great person I am
- Other people’s thoughts about me or my abilities do not affect me.
- I am comfortable with who I am and have no need to earn the love or approval from other people.
While changing cognitive and behavioral patterns requires a more targeted effort with adults than with children, it is possible.
There are several techniques that can help you change your thought patterns. Some of the ones you may want to consider include positive affirmations, self talk, autosuggestion, visualization and self hypnosis.
“As is our confidence, so is our capacity”, William Hazlitt
Source: http://www.inspirized.com/ - self confidence
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Thought Patterns You Want to Adopt and Drop
Research by leading universities in the field of cognitive and behavioral science proves the existence of so called “automatic thoughts”, i.e. thoughts that come to mind involuntarily and effortlessly as an automatic response to certain stimuli. These are the thoughts that ultimately determine whether you'll fail or succeed.
The average person processes over 60'000 separate thoughts per day, of which 90% occur subconsciously. Automatic thoughts are produced by our subconscious mind and continue to execute without the involvement of our conscious mind. Think about how many things you just do day in day out without even consciously thinking about it. These automatic thoughts are like mini computer programs in our subconscious minds. They automatically come into action as a response to stimuli in our environment.
While many automatic thoughts are positive, some of them can create undesirable limitations in terms of our ability to evolve and progress – you could call them “success blockers”. They simply prevent us from progressing or being successful in certain areas. Automatic thoughts determine your thought patterns, attitudes and behaviors. The reactions we then observe from your environment validate your thoughts.
Certain negative “automatic thoughts” are triggered by common negative deeply rooted belief and thought patterns with groups of people who experience the same or similar challenges and limitations. Conversely, observations of successful people reveal that many of their successes can be attributed to a distinct set of positive cognitive patterns in their belief system.
Thanks to continued research, we now have much more accurate insight into positive as well as negative cognitive patterns. Identifying and recognizing these very patterns forms the foundation of effective cognitive conditioning. Let's have a look at some success enabling patterns:
Success Enabling Thought Patterns
• Believing in your Unique Skills, Talents and Capabilities - Believing in our own innate skills, talents and capabilities is not only important from a professional development perspective; it also enables you to align your uniqueness in its entirety with your potential. Several studies reveal that we are the happiest and most effective when we can utilize our individual abilities to the highest degree possible. The objective is to allow you to raise beyond your current limitations and maximize your personal potential.
• Viewing Life as a “Platform” for Opportunities- Viewing life as a big platform of opportunities opens doors for opportunities to materialize. It focuses our minds on the possibilities rather than the limitations. Have you ever wondered why some people seem to have a disproportionate amount of luck? They seem to be at the right place at the right time or meet the right people at the right time. The truth is that it isn’t mere luck, most of these people consciously as well as unconsciously look for opportunities and find them, because their mind is open and receptive to opportunities.
• Accepting and Expecting Positive Change - Change has a tendency to reward people who embrace it. Welcoming change also means having the courage to explore new areas of potential success. An open attitude toward change is essential for positive change to take place.
• Feeling Empowered and in Charge - Accepting responsibility for your own destiny and feeling empowered to shape your destiny according to your ideas is a key success factor. Successful people don’t look for other people or circumstances to shape their destiny. They actively take control and create their destiny.
• Self Confidence and Self Esteem - A healthy level of self confidence and self esteem is not only necessary, it is essential for any kind of success we seek achieve. Only when you’re comfortable with who you are and confident in what you can do, will other people believe in you and your abilities. This applies both to your personal as well as your professional life.
• Living with Purpose - All successful and generally happy people display high levels of purpose and action orientation. They keep their goals in mind, act on their ideas, follow through with their plans and stay the course until they achieve what they want.
• Accepting and Offering Help - Many people have a hard time asking others for help. They confuse accepting help from others with weakness. This couldn’t be farther from reality. Most successful people know about the importance of seeking and accepting help. They achieve their goals by leveraging other people’s skills and strengths that they themselves lack. At the same time they offer their help to others and create mutually beneficial relationships.
• Seeing Setbacks as Opportunities for Progression - Most successful people will tell you that they have had their share of setbacks. What sets them them apart is that they accept setbacks as a natural phenomenon and have the ability to stay focused on their long term goals. Setbacks are often accompanied by opportunities and it is key that you continue to look for these opportunities while you experience setbacks.
Do you "own" all these success enablers? If not, focus on adopting the ones you don't own and continue to build on the others.
While adopting positive success enabling cognitive patterns is extremely important in terms of reaching your goals, it is of equal importance to eliminate limiting thought patterns (“success blockers”) that continue to stand in the way of personal growth, progress and success. The following is only a partial list of typical “success blockers":
Negative Thought Patterns
• Feeling "not good enough" - One of the key reasons why most people never reach their full potential is rooted in various forms of mostly unconscious beliefs of not being good enough. Although most people don’t like to admit it, it continues to lead the charts of top “success blockers”.
• Resistance to Change - Resisting change is mostly coupled with fear of the unknown. It is often evidenced by people who despite their unhappiness with their situation experience resistance to exploring opportunities for change. This resistance to change often leads to missed opportunities for advancement.
• Dependencies or Co-dependencies - Perceptions of dependencies and co-dependencies come in many forms. The result, however, is mostly the erroneous belief that our happiness and success is dependent on certain people, actions or circumstances outside of our control.
• Blaming Others for Missed Opportunities - We’ve all experienced instances where we thought other people stood in the way of our success. If these experiences turn into core beliefs that we carry with us, consciously or unconsciously, we not only create excuses for not progressing, but also obstacles to recognize ways to work around them and achieve our goals.
• Negative Expectations - The are multiple roots causing attitudes of negative expectations. Negative expectations in life tend to create self fulfilling prophesies. If our mindset reflects an attitude of “I can’t possibly do or achieve that”, chances are that these predictions will become a reality. People with generally negative expectations often feel that life is a constant struggle and the next negative event is just around the corner. Imagine an athlete going into the Olympic games thinking “I’m can’t possibly win”, or a CEO of a company thinking “I don’t believe we’ll ever succeed here”. Releasing negative expectations is key to any form of success you may want to achieve.
• I-don’t-deserve Attitudes - I-don’t-deserve attitudes are often deeply rooted beliefs connected with beliefs of inferiority. Because we unconsciously believe that we don’t deserve to strive for or achieve certain things, we either “go into the game” with low expectations for success, or often don’t even try. The result is often that we simply miss out.
• Being a Victim of Circumstances - Victims of circumstances tend to accept unhappiness, mediocrity or failure as part of their destiny. Victims of circumstances often feel helpless, they think cannot or don’t know how to do or achieve certain things. They often miss to realize that they have the power to change their circumstances. Therefore, they don’t empower themselves to take control in shaping their circumstances according to their wishes.
• Procrastination and Passivity - Positive change always requires an orientation toward action. The best objectives and plans don’t mean much if there’s lack of action and follow-through. And yet, one of the top reasons most people don’t progress or fail to achieve their goals is because they don’t follow through.
• Earning Approval or Love of Others - Cognitive patterns reflecting the necessity to earn the approval or love of other people can create serious limitations on many fronts. These attitudes divert our thoughts, behaviors and actions from our own individual needs and goals to doing to what’s good for someone else. We can be supportive and helpful to others while staying true to ourselves.
• Rational Excuses for Irrational Behavior - Rational excuses for irrational behavior come to light when we find “good reasons” for why certain things can’t be done, or why we do things that shouldn't be done. Excuses, even if packaged in rational sounding reasons, can’t hide the fact that we’re still looking at excuses. As long as we believe these “good excuses” positive change cannot be initiated.
Do any of the above patterns sound familiar to you? If you’re like most people, chances are that at least some of the above “success blockers” are currently preventing you from advancing. Make a conscious effort to address them.
"If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change", Wayne Dyer
Source: http://www.inspirized.com/ - The Power of Positive Thinking
The average person processes over 60'000 separate thoughts per day, of which 90% occur subconsciously. Automatic thoughts are produced by our subconscious mind and continue to execute without the involvement of our conscious mind. Think about how many things you just do day in day out without even consciously thinking about it. These automatic thoughts are like mini computer programs in our subconscious minds. They automatically come into action as a response to stimuli in our environment.
While many automatic thoughts are positive, some of them can create undesirable limitations in terms of our ability to evolve and progress – you could call them “success blockers”. They simply prevent us from progressing or being successful in certain areas. Automatic thoughts determine your thought patterns, attitudes and behaviors. The reactions we then observe from your environment validate your thoughts.
Certain negative “automatic thoughts” are triggered by common negative deeply rooted belief and thought patterns with groups of people who experience the same or similar challenges and limitations. Conversely, observations of successful people reveal that many of their successes can be attributed to a distinct set of positive cognitive patterns in their belief system.
Thanks to continued research, we now have much more accurate insight into positive as well as negative cognitive patterns. Identifying and recognizing these very patterns forms the foundation of effective cognitive conditioning. Let's have a look at some success enabling patterns:
Success Enabling Thought Patterns
• Believing in your Unique Skills, Talents and Capabilities - Believing in our own innate skills, talents and capabilities is not only important from a professional development perspective; it also enables you to align your uniqueness in its entirety with your potential. Several studies reveal that we are the happiest and most effective when we can utilize our individual abilities to the highest degree possible. The objective is to allow you to raise beyond your current limitations and maximize your personal potential.
• Viewing Life as a “Platform” for Opportunities- Viewing life as a big platform of opportunities opens doors for opportunities to materialize. It focuses our minds on the possibilities rather than the limitations. Have you ever wondered why some people seem to have a disproportionate amount of luck? They seem to be at the right place at the right time or meet the right people at the right time. The truth is that it isn’t mere luck, most of these people consciously as well as unconsciously look for opportunities and find them, because their mind is open and receptive to opportunities.
• Accepting and Expecting Positive Change - Change has a tendency to reward people who embrace it. Welcoming change also means having the courage to explore new areas of potential success. An open attitude toward change is essential for positive change to take place.
• Feeling Empowered and in Charge - Accepting responsibility for your own destiny and feeling empowered to shape your destiny according to your ideas is a key success factor. Successful people don’t look for other people or circumstances to shape their destiny. They actively take control and create their destiny.
• Self Confidence and Self Esteem - A healthy level of self confidence and self esteem is not only necessary, it is essential for any kind of success we seek achieve. Only when you’re comfortable with who you are and confident in what you can do, will other people believe in you and your abilities. This applies both to your personal as well as your professional life.
• Living with Purpose - All successful and generally happy people display high levels of purpose and action orientation. They keep their goals in mind, act on their ideas, follow through with their plans and stay the course until they achieve what they want.
• Accepting and Offering Help - Many people have a hard time asking others for help. They confuse accepting help from others with weakness. This couldn’t be farther from reality. Most successful people know about the importance of seeking and accepting help. They achieve their goals by leveraging other people’s skills and strengths that they themselves lack. At the same time they offer their help to others and create mutually beneficial relationships.
• Seeing Setbacks as Opportunities for Progression - Most successful people will tell you that they have had their share of setbacks. What sets them them apart is that they accept setbacks as a natural phenomenon and have the ability to stay focused on their long term goals. Setbacks are often accompanied by opportunities and it is key that you continue to look for these opportunities while you experience setbacks.
Do you "own" all these success enablers? If not, focus on adopting the ones you don't own and continue to build on the others.
While adopting positive success enabling cognitive patterns is extremely important in terms of reaching your goals, it is of equal importance to eliminate limiting thought patterns (“success blockers”) that continue to stand in the way of personal growth, progress and success. The following is only a partial list of typical “success blockers":
Negative Thought Patterns
• Feeling "not good enough" - One of the key reasons why most people never reach their full potential is rooted in various forms of mostly unconscious beliefs of not being good enough. Although most people don’t like to admit it, it continues to lead the charts of top “success blockers”.
• Resistance to Change - Resisting change is mostly coupled with fear of the unknown. It is often evidenced by people who despite their unhappiness with their situation experience resistance to exploring opportunities for change. This resistance to change often leads to missed opportunities for advancement.
• Dependencies or Co-dependencies - Perceptions of dependencies and co-dependencies come in many forms. The result, however, is mostly the erroneous belief that our happiness and success is dependent on certain people, actions or circumstances outside of our control.
• Blaming Others for Missed Opportunities - We’ve all experienced instances where we thought other people stood in the way of our success. If these experiences turn into core beliefs that we carry with us, consciously or unconsciously, we not only create excuses for not progressing, but also obstacles to recognize ways to work around them and achieve our goals.
• Negative Expectations - The are multiple roots causing attitudes of negative expectations. Negative expectations in life tend to create self fulfilling prophesies. If our mindset reflects an attitude of “I can’t possibly do or achieve that”, chances are that these predictions will become a reality. People with generally negative expectations often feel that life is a constant struggle and the next negative event is just around the corner. Imagine an athlete going into the Olympic games thinking “I’m can’t possibly win”, or a CEO of a company thinking “I don’t believe we’ll ever succeed here”. Releasing negative expectations is key to any form of success you may want to achieve.
• I-don’t-deserve Attitudes - I-don’t-deserve attitudes are often deeply rooted beliefs connected with beliefs of inferiority. Because we unconsciously believe that we don’t deserve to strive for or achieve certain things, we either “go into the game” with low expectations for success, or often don’t even try. The result is often that we simply miss out.
• Being a Victim of Circumstances - Victims of circumstances tend to accept unhappiness, mediocrity or failure as part of their destiny. Victims of circumstances often feel helpless, they think cannot or don’t know how to do or achieve certain things. They often miss to realize that they have the power to change their circumstances. Therefore, they don’t empower themselves to take control in shaping their circumstances according to their wishes.
• Procrastination and Passivity - Positive change always requires an orientation toward action. The best objectives and plans don’t mean much if there’s lack of action and follow-through. And yet, one of the top reasons most people don’t progress or fail to achieve their goals is because they don’t follow through.
• Earning Approval or Love of Others - Cognitive patterns reflecting the necessity to earn the approval or love of other people can create serious limitations on many fronts. These attitudes divert our thoughts, behaviors and actions from our own individual needs and goals to doing to what’s good for someone else. We can be supportive and helpful to others while staying true to ourselves.
• Rational Excuses for Irrational Behavior - Rational excuses for irrational behavior come to light when we find “good reasons” for why certain things can’t be done, or why we do things that shouldn't be done. Excuses, even if packaged in rational sounding reasons, can’t hide the fact that we’re still looking at excuses. As long as we believe these “good excuses” positive change cannot be initiated.
Do any of the above patterns sound familiar to you? If you’re like most people, chances are that at least some of the above “success blockers” are currently preventing you from advancing. Make a conscious effort to address them.
"If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change", Wayne Dyer
Source: http://www.inspirized.com/ - The Power of Positive Thinking
When Positive Thinking Fails
Have you tried positive thinking, self talk, affirmations, read books on the power of suggestion, autosuggestion, watched "the secret" or taken courses on how to materialize your goals and are still waiting for results? If so, you may be positively surprised by what you're about to learn.
Research by leading universities in the field of cognitive and behavioral science proves the existence of so called “automatic thoughts”, i.e. thoughts that come to mind involuntarily and effortlessly as an automatic response to certain stimuli. These are the thoughts that ultimately determine whether you'll fail or succeed.
The average person processes over 60'000 separate thoughts per day, of which 90% occur subconsciously. Automatic thoughts are produced by our subconscious mind and continue to execute without the involvement of our conscious mind. Think about how many things you just do, day in day out, without even consciously thinking about it. These automatic thoughts are like mini computer programs in our subconscious minds. They automatically come into action as a response to stimuli in our environment.
While many automatic thoughts are positive, some of them can create undesirable limitations in terms of your ability to evolve and progress – you could call them “success blockers”. They simply prevent you from progressing or being successful in certain areas. Automatic thoughts determine your thought patterns, attitudes and behaviors. The reactions you then observe from your environment validate your thoughts.
A key observation is that certain “automatic thoughts” are triggered by many common belief patterns (schema) with groups of people who experience the same or similar challenges and limitations.
The first step in eliminating automatic thoughts that prevent you from being successful in a certain area is to determine the thought patterns that trigger success limiting thoughts, attitudes and behaviors.
The second step is to actively change these thought patterns (cognitive modification) and introduce cognitive patterns that have been observed to trigger positive results.
But how do you do that? Ask yourself, how many people you know who despite honest attempts to change their destiny
- lead unfulfilled or unsatisfying lives
- continue to struggle with money problems
- suffer from low self confidence and its unfortunate consequences
- are not satisfied with their work and simply show up day after day to collect a pay check at the end of the month
Why do these people continue to fail? In most cases it isn’t for lack of trying or good will. It’s because our brains are programmed to subconsciously react to certain stimuli in the form of predetermined (automatic) thoughts that guide our behaviors.
If the conscious mind tries to initiate a behavioral change that conflicts with the subconscious mind’s pre-programmed thought patterns, the subconscious mind always wins.
In his famous book “Self Mastery through Conscious Autosuggestion” Dr. Emile Coue writes: “In the conflict between the will and the subconscious mind, the force of the subconscious mind is in direct ratio to the square of the will”, i.e. even if you're willing to change, you won't change unless you change the subconscious automatic thoughts.
Think of how many people you know fully understand that smoking is damaging to their health, and yet they continue to smoke. Or how many people know that eating excessively not only makes them feel unattractive but is also bad for their well being, and yet they continue to eat more than they should.
There's clearly no lack of consciousness here, and yet, the behaviors persist. The latest statistics indicate that fewer than one in five people who follow a formal weight loss program actually succeed in loosing weight. Why is the failure rate so high? Because despite all the good intentions the cognitive and associated behavioral patterns of these people remain unchanged and continue to produce the same old undesirable outcomes.
The only effective way to produce results is to re-condition your thought and behavioral patterns. In unscientific terms it could be compared to erasing old “success blocker programs” and installing new “success enabler programs” on your computer. There are several ways you can do that. Some of the ones we encourage you to consider include Autosuggestion, Affirmations and Visualization techniques.
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change”, Wayne Dyer
To Leanr more go to: http://www.inspirized.com/ - The Power of Positive Thinking
Research by leading universities in the field of cognitive and behavioral science proves the existence of so called “automatic thoughts”, i.e. thoughts that come to mind involuntarily and effortlessly as an automatic response to certain stimuli. These are the thoughts that ultimately determine whether you'll fail or succeed.
The average person processes over 60'000 separate thoughts per day, of which 90% occur subconsciously. Automatic thoughts are produced by our subconscious mind and continue to execute without the involvement of our conscious mind. Think about how many things you just do, day in day out, without even consciously thinking about it. These automatic thoughts are like mini computer programs in our subconscious minds. They automatically come into action as a response to stimuli in our environment.
While many automatic thoughts are positive, some of them can create undesirable limitations in terms of your ability to evolve and progress – you could call them “success blockers”. They simply prevent you from progressing or being successful in certain areas. Automatic thoughts determine your thought patterns, attitudes and behaviors. The reactions you then observe from your environment validate your thoughts.
A key observation is that certain “automatic thoughts” are triggered by many common belief patterns (schema) with groups of people who experience the same or similar challenges and limitations.
The first step in eliminating automatic thoughts that prevent you from being successful in a certain area is to determine the thought patterns that trigger success limiting thoughts, attitudes and behaviors.
The second step is to actively change these thought patterns (cognitive modification) and introduce cognitive patterns that have been observed to trigger positive results.
But how do you do that? Ask yourself, how many people you know who despite honest attempts to change their destiny
- lead unfulfilled or unsatisfying lives
- continue to struggle with money problems
- suffer from low self confidence and its unfortunate consequences
- are not satisfied with their work and simply show up day after day to collect a pay check at the end of the month
Why do these people continue to fail? In most cases it isn’t for lack of trying or good will. It’s because our brains are programmed to subconsciously react to certain stimuli in the form of predetermined (automatic) thoughts that guide our behaviors.
If the conscious mind tries to initiate a behavioral change that conflicts with the subconscious mind’s pre-programmed thought patterns, the subconscious mind always wins.
In his famous book “Self Mastery through Conscious Autosuggestion” Dr. Emile Coue writes: “In the conflict between the will and the subconscious mind, the force of the subconscious mind is in direct ratio to the square of the will”, i.e. even if you're willing to change, you won't change unless you change the subconscious automatic thoughts.
Think of how many people you know fully understand that smoking is damaging to their health, and yet they continue to smoke. Or how many people know that eating excessively not only makes them feel unattractive but is also bad for their well being, and yet they continue to eat more than they should.
There's clearly no lack of consciousness here, and yet, the behaviors persist. The latest statistics indicate that fewer than one in five people who follow a formal weight loss program actually succeed in loosing weight. Why is the failure rate so high? Because despite all the good intentions the cognitive and associated behavioral patterns of these people remain unchanged and continue to produce the same old undesirable outcomes.
The only effective way to produce results is to re-condition your thought and behavioral patterns. In unscientific terms it could be compared to erasing old “success blocker programs” and installing new “success enabler programs” on your computer. There are several ways you can do that. Some of the ones we encourage you to consider include Autosuggestion, Affirmations and Visualization techniques.
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change”, Wayne Dyer
To Leanr more go to: http://www.inspirized.com/ - The Power of Positive Thinking
Practical Steps to Increase Your Success Consciousness
Especially in the western world millions of people of average intelligence and education started with nothing and were able to create successful lives. In terms of success, background and education are not deciding factors. Your ability to continuously focus your mind on positive thoughts, however, is the key factor for success. By positive thoughts we mean a focus on what you’d like to achieve rather than what you can’t see or don’t have in your life.
There are several powerful techniques that you can use immediately as you embark on your journey of having positive thinking patterns guide you to whatever it is you want to achieve. The effectiveness of these techniques depends on continuous and repetitive exposure to positive messages that trigger positive thoughts.
Create a positive environment
First of all, it is important that you create a positive work and home environment. What are the areas where you spend most of your time during the day? Is it an office, a kitchen, a study, a factory etc.? Is the environment where you spend a lot of your time a motivating place filled with positive messages? Does it inspire you to be creative and have positive thoughts?
For example, if you spend most of your day in an office in front of a computer, install inspiring screensavers or desktop backgrounds. Decorate your walls with inspiring pictures. Have pictures of significant and successful moments on your desk. All these "things” around you affect your thoughts. Make sure that the places you spend most of your time trigger positive thoughts. Once you’ve established a positive environment, you’ll see these your positive messages on a continuous and repetitive basis.
Expose Yourself to Positive and Inspiring Information
A lot has been written about the effects of our thinking on our life. By now many people know that in some way or another, their thinking affects their life. We hear things like: “Think positive. As you think, so shall you be. You can choose to see the glass half empty or half full”. Does this sound familiar? And yet, how many people, maybe including yourself, have you encountered who you would truly classify as “positive thinkers”? Probably not too many, right? As soon as we get up in the morning we usually get busy doing things and let our thoughts flow freely as the day unfolds. The amount of information our brain processes in a day is unbelievable. Therefore, it is not easy to constantly monitor our thoughts and make sure they are always positive. We can make a true difference, however, when we consciously chose to expose ourselves to positive, inspiring and uplifting information. Minimize the time you spend processing negative information. Ask yourself what kind of books are you reading, or what kind of programs are you watching on TV. Are they inspiring, encouraging and positive, or do they expose you to information that decreases your energy level?
Affirmations
Affirmations are a wonderful and effective tool to focus your mind on positive thoughts. The best way to use affirmations is to write down what you want to achieve. The important thing is that you write it in the first person, present tense as if it had already taken place. For example: “I am earning $ 50,000. I live in a red two story brick house with an ocean view from my bedroom window.” Be as specific as you can in your description. Read your affirmation(s) several times a day.
Visualization
This technique is often used by athletes. It’s all about seeing yourself succeeding. Visualization is most effective if you define a few moments each day where you can be at a quiet place without distractions. As you close your eyes, you visualize what it’s like to see your goal fulfilled. As you do this ask yourself “What does it look like, how do I feel about it, what does it smell like etc.?” It is like a movie sequence that you keep playing and refining in your mind until it becomes and feels real. Repeat this exercise several times each day.
Affirmations combined with Visualization
The combination of both affirmation and visualization is an extremely strong tool. If you can both say your affirmations to yourself and visualize the achievement of your affirmation at the same time you actually multiply the effectiveness of both tools.
Success Conversations
Each day many of us spend a fair amount of time in transit from place A to B and back. Think about all the time you either spend in your car or public transportation on your way to work and back, the time you invest taking your children to school and back etc. You may want to use this time constructively to increase your success consciousness by having “success conversations” with yourself. You can do this by imagining a situation where you’ve already achieved your goal and now tell others about it. Say your goal was to lose 20 pounds and be in great physical shape. Your conversation then could be “You know Mary, I just decided to lose 20 pounds and work out on a regular basis and it really didn’t take me too long to reach that goal. I now just feel like a new person and get so many compliments on my achievement.” Be creative in your success conversations. If your goal is to start your own business, imagine yourself talking to your employees about the stellar results your company just achieved, or see yourself giving an interview to a business news reporter about the success of your company. “Success conversations” is a very powerful in focusing your mind on success. Again, the key is continuity and repetition.
Prayers
Whatever your faith of spiritual orientation may be, prayers are excellent and proven means to materialize your goals. By praying we are asking our creator for help in achieving our objectives. Praying is most effective because it is often connected with a strong faith or belief system. The actual belief in that “As you ask, you shall receive” will drive our thinking patterns and actions to the realization of our goals. Since many people pray each day before they go to bed, it is easy to establish a daily routine.
Talk to your subconscious mind
Whichever of the above tool, or combination of tools, you chose to apply, from a timing perspective we strongly suggest that you also apply it / them right after you wake up and before you go to sleep. Many studies have proven that our subconscious mind is very receptive when we start relaxing before we fall asleep and right after we wake up in the morning. An interesting fact about our subconscious mind is that it unconditionally “believes” whatever we tell it. It is like a little machine in the background that just executes commands without questioning them. Therefore, if we succeed in reaching our subconscious mind with continuous, positive and constructive commands, it will automatically start executing and focus on the materialization of our goals.
Take Action
Last but not least it is incredibly important that we start taking action toward our goals. Often times we simply think that our goals are so out of reach that we don’t even know where and how to start which then can lead to not taking any action at all. The good news is that it doesn’t really matter how big our goals are. The simple fact that we take action, no matter how small, sends a very strong signal that we are actually in the process of realizing our goal. In other words, we are already moving in the direction of that goal. Remember “Every journey starts with one single step” - Confucius. Let’ assume that you’d like to be independent and start your own business. This may appear to be a rather daunting task. However, even if you just start researching about the market, or take a business class at your community college, or think about a name for your business, there are always small but achievable steps where you can take action toward your goal. Remember, the “size” of your action does not matter. What matters most is that you do take action.
Source: http://www.inspirized.com/ - The Power of Positive Thinking
There are several powerful techniques that you can use immediately as you embark on your journey of having positive thinking patterns guide you to whatever it is you want to achieve. The effectiveness of these techniques depends on continuous and repetitive exposure to positive messages that trigger positive thoughts.
Create a positive environment
First of all, it is important that you create a positive work and home environment. What are the areas where you spend most of your time during the day? Is it an office, a kitchen, a study, a factory etc.? Is the environment where you spend a lot of your time a motivating place filled with positive messages? Does it inspire you to be creative and have positive thoughts?
For example, if you spend most of your day in an office in front of a computer, install inspiring screensavers or desktop backgrounds. Decorate your walls with inspiring pictures. Have pictures of significant and successful moments on your desk. All these "things” around you affect your thoughts. Make sure that the places you spend most of your time trigger positive thoughts. Once you’ve established a positive environment, you’ll see these your positive messages on a continuous and repetitive basis.
Expose Yourself to Positive and Inspiring Information
A lot has been written about the effects of our thinking on our life. By now many people know that in some way or another, their thinking affects their life. We hear things like: “Think positive. As you think, so shall you be. You can choose to see the glass half empty or half full”. Does this sound familiar? And yet, how many people, maybe including yourself, have you encountered who you would truly classify as “positive thinkers”? Probably not too many, right? As soon as we get up in the morning we usually get busy doing things and let our thoughts flow freely as the day unfolds. The amount of information our brain processes in a day is unbelievable. Therefore, it is not easy to constantly monitor our thoughts and make sure they are always positive. We can make a true difference, however, when we consciously chose to expose ourselves to positive, inspiring and uplifting information. Minimize the time you spend processing negative information. Ask yourself what kind of books are you reading, or what kind of programs are you watching on TV. Are they inspiring, encouraging and positive, or do they expose you to information that decreases your energy level?
Affirmations
Affirmations are a wonderful and effective tool to focus your mind on positive thoughts. The best way to use affirmations is to write down what you want to achieve. The important thing is that you write it in the first person, present tense as if it had already taken place. For example: “I am earning $ 50,000. I live in a red two story brick house with an ocean view from my bedroom window.” Be as specific as you can in your description. Read your affirmation(s) several times a day.
Visualization
This technique is often used by athletes. It’s all about seeing yourself succeeding. Visualization is most effective if you define a few moments each day where you can be at a quiet place without distractions. As you close your eyes, you visualize what it’s like to see your goal fulfilled. As you do this ask yourself “What does it look like, how do I feel about it, what does it smell like etc.?” It is like a movie sequence that you keep playing and refining in your mind until it becomes and feels real. Repeat this exercise several times each day.
Affirmations combined with Visualization
The combination of both affirmation and visualization is an extremely strong tool. If you can both say your affirmations to yourself and visualize the achievement of your affirmation at the same time you actually multiply the effectiveness of both tools.
Success Conversations
Each day many of us spend a fair amount of time in transit from place A to B and back. Think about all the time you either spend in your car or public transportation on your way to work and back, the time you invest taking your children to school and back etc. You may want to use this time constructively to increase your success consciousness by having “success conversations” with yourself. You can do this by imagining a situation where you’ve already achieved your goal and now tell others about it. Say your goal was to lose 20 pounds and be in great physical shape. Your conversation then could be “You know Mary, I just decided to lose 20 pounds and work out on a regular basis and it really didn’t take me too long to reach that goal. I now just feel like a new person and get so many compliments on my achievement.” Be creative in your success conversations. If your goal is to start your own business, imagine yourself talking to your employees about the stellar results your company just achieved, or see yourself giving an interview to a business news reporter about the success of your company. “Success conversations” is a very powerful in focusing your mind on success. Again, the key is continuity and repetition.
Prayers
Whatever your faith of spiritual orientation may be, prayers are excellent and proven means to materialize your goals. By praying we are asking our creator for help in achieving our objectives. Praying is most effective because it is often connected with a strong faith or belief system. The actual belief in that “As you ask, you shall receive” will drive our thinking patterns and actions to the realization of our goals. Since many people pray each day before they go to bed, it is easy to establish a daily routine.
Talk to your subconscious mind
Whichever of the above tool, or combination of tools, you chose to apply, from a timing perspective we strongly suggest that you also apply it / them right after you wake up and before you go to sleep. Many studies have proven that our subconscious mind is very receptive when we start relaxing before we fall asleep and right after we wake up in the morning. An interesting fact about our subconscious mind is that it unconditionally “believes” whatever we tell it. It is like a little machine in the background that just executes commands without questioning them. Therefore, if we succeed in reaching our subconscious mind with continuous, positive and constructive commands, it will automatically start executing and focus on the materialization of our goals.
Take Action
Last but not least it is incredibly important that we start taking action toward our goals. Often times we simply think that our goals are so out of reach that we don’t even know where and how to start which then can lead to not taking any action at all. The good news is that it doesn’t really matter how big our goals are. The simple fact that we take action, no matter how small, sends a very strong signal that we are actually in the process of realizing our goal. In other words, we are already moving in the direction of that goal. Remember “Every journey starts with one single step” - Confucius. Let’ assume that you’d like to be independent and start your own business. This may appear to be a rather daunting task. However, even if you just start researching about the market, or take a business class at your community college, or think about a name for your business, there are always small but achievable steps where you can take action toward your goal. Remember, the “size” of your action does not matter. What matters most is that you do take action.
Source: http://www.inspirized.com/ - The Power of Positive Thinking
Tolerance
Tolerance begins with understanding; understanding the differences and nuances of different people and accepting them.
The first time I saw an African American was when I was 3 years old. He was a very good friend of my father and my Dad introduced his friend to me. It was the first time I had seen a person with a different skin color than my own. After we shook hands I immediately rubbed my hand against my shirt because I thought the man must be dirty if his skin is so dark. Obviously I didn’t know and I didn’t understand why this person was different and immediately drew the wrong conclusion. My parents were very embarrassed at my reaction but explained to me that the man had a different skin color but was not dirty at all.
While this may be an amusing story, it underlines the importance of teaching, learning and understanding differences in people. We’ve all experienced how some people tend to get upset and even spend high levels of energy justifying why their point of view is right and someone else’s perspective is wrong. Could it be that these people simply have not made an attempt to understand and accept that someone may have a different background, belief system or perspective?
To have different point of views or belief systems is ok. Imagine a world where everybody looked the same way and thought the exact same thing about everything. What a boring and uninteresting place this would be.
Investing in understanding rather than justifying perspectives not only helps us to be more educated and interesting to talk to, it promotes peace and harmony around us.
“The highest result of education is tolerance”, Hellen Keller
Source: http://www.inspirized.com/ - The Power of Positive Thinking
The first time I saw an African American was when I was 3 years old. He was a very good friend of my father and my Dad introduced his friend to me. It was the first time I had seen a person with a different skin color than my own. After we shook hands I immediately rubbed my hand against my shirt because I thought the man must be dirty if his skin is so dark. Obviously I didn’t know and I didn’t understand why this person was different and immediately drew the wrong conclusion. My parents were very embarrassed at my reaction but explained to me that the man had a different skin color but was not dirty at all.
While this may be an amusing story, it underlines the importance of teaching, learning and understanding differences in people. We’ve all experienced how some people tend to get upset and even spend high levels of energy justifying why their point of view is right and someone else’s perspective is wrong. Could it be that these people simply have not made an attempt to understand and accept that someone may have a different background, belief system or perspective?
To have different point of views or belief systems is ok. Imagine a world where everybody looked the same way and thought the exact same thing about everything. What a boring and uninteresting place this would be.
Investing in understanding rather than justifying perspectives not only helps us to be more educated and interesting to talk to, it promotes peace and harmony around us.
“The highest result of education is tolerance”, Hellen Keller
Source: http://www.inspirized.com/ - The Power of Positive Thinking
Have a dream
Having a dream means having a goal or a vision. It also means seeing your hopes fulfilled. Success then, is the realization of your dream.
If you have a dream, you have a passion, a burning desire to see your dream come true. While you work toward the realization of your dream time goes by without noticing, work is something you enjoy doing and you forget the world around you. When you wake up in the morning, it does not matter whether it is a sunny or a rainy day. You see every new day as an opportunity to take you closer to you goal.
What other people say or think about your dream becomes irrelevant. You simply know that you’re going in the right direction. Because you’re inspired you feel a constant flow of energy. If you feel this way, you have defined your dream and maybe your destiny. The only other ingredient to fulfill your dream is persistence.
If you have not found your dream yet, that’s ok. Just keep thinking, dreaming and be receptive to new ideas. There is no hurry and no pressure. One day your dream will come. And once you find it, make a commitment to yourself to follow your dream.
It is the path of discovery of what we were born to do in this world that makes life such a wonderful and interesting adventure.
“When you’re inspired with a dream, God has hit the ball into your court. Now you have to hit it back with commitment”, Robert H. Schuller
To learn more about how to realize your dreams you may also be interested in http://www.inspirized.com/ - The Power of Positive Thinking
If you have a dream, you have a passion, a burning desire to see your dream come true. While you work toward the realization of your dream time goes by without noticing, work is something you enjoy doing and you forget the world around you. When you wake up in the morning, it does not matter whether it is a sunny or a rainy day. You see every new day as an opportunity to take you closer to you goal.
What other people say or think about your dream becomes irrelevant. You simply know that you’re going in the right direction. Because you’re inspired you feel a constant flow of energy. If you feel this way, you have defined your dream and maybe your destiny. The only other ingredient to fulfill your dream is persistence.
If you have not found your dream yet, that’s ok. Just keep thinking, dreaming and be receptive to new ideas. There is no hurry and no pressure. One day your dream will come. And once you find it, make a commitment to yourself to follow your dream.
It is the path of discovery of what we were born to do in this world that makes life such a wonderful and interesting adventure.
“When you’re inspired with a dream, God has hit the ball into your court. Now you have to hit it back with commitment”, Robert H. Schuller
To learn more about how to realize your dreams you may also be interested in http://www.inspirized.com/ - The Power of Positive Thinking
Make a difference
Making a difference can be difficult and it can be easy at the same time. It is difficult when we think “What could I possibly do to make a difference. I don’t have much to offer?” It is easy when we just lend a helping hand wherever we see an opportunity to do so and in whatever way we can.
Why is it important to make difference or make a positive contribution to the world? It’s simply because by giving something to others, you’re giving something back to yourself. It is really about creating a so-called win-win situation. You could compare it to a boomerang. You throw it out there and it comes back to you.
Well, you may think, if I throw a boomerang, there are some physical laws in place that make the boomerang come back to me. If, on the other hand, I help out in a homeless shelter, how exactly is that going to help me?
Some call it karma; some call it a law of the universe. The truth is that there are countless examples, where people who have helped others were blessed with good luck in areas that seemingly had nothing to do with what they did for others.
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”, Theodore Roosevelt
Source: http://www.inspirized.com/ - The Power of Positive Thinking
Why is it important to make difference or make a positive contribution to the world? It’s simply because by giving something to others, you’re giving something back to yourself. It is really about creating a so-called win-win situation. You could compare it to a boomerang. You throw it out there and it comes back to you.
Well, you may think, if I throw a boomerang, there are some physical laws in place that make the boomerang come back to me. If, on the other hand, I help out in a homeless shelter, how exactly is that going to help me?
Some call it karma; some call it a law of the universe. The truth is that there are countless examples, where people who have helped others were blessed with good luck in areas that seemingly had nothing to do with what they did for others.
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”, Theodore Roosevelt
Source: http://www.inspirized.com/ - The Power of Positive Thinking
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