Create Change in your life

When you think negatively you don’t think about life in a very positive way. The negativity will cause you to cloud your thinking, it will cause you to dwell on the past and worry about the future. The question to ask is what is the point of your negative thinking, why are you doing it? Is it because you are feeling bad, stressed, angry, uncomfortable, restless, depressed? The result is a very un-resourceful state which you stay stuck in. The mind will then stay negative and you may even feel angry about feeling negative, so it then becomes an endless cycle of negativity.

Rather than think of all the plans you have made for the future, you instead immediately lower your sights about what you think is possible for yourself. You will start to dwell on your limitations, and your thoughts will be taken over with anger about the past and fear for the future.

Negative thinking will take you to the place where you don’t want to go, the exact place you are trying hard to move away from. Negative thought patterns will crush you.

Now there are certain events which can trigger off a chain of negative thinking, we are human and sometimes we get the blues? We can allow our thoughts to dominate us at times, but we shouldn’t let our minds control us like this. The mind is available for you to use anyway you want. It is capable of taking you to the highest highs, it is also equally capable of taking you to the lowest lows, you need to make sure that yours takes you to the highest highs.

• Do you spend time being negative?
• Do you look at things in your life in a negative way?
• Do you think negative thoughts about your life and your future life?
• Do you sometimes feel like just giving up, or giving up on yourself?

If your negative thinking is left untreated it can be seriously bad for your health and eventually lead to suicidal thoughts.

How is this happening?

You are thinking hopeless thoughts for the future.
You don’t perceive that there is anything worth living for.
You believe you don’t actually deserve to succeed.
You belief you are destined to live a miserable existence.

“Negative beliefs are barriers that have to be overcome before we can even hope to go any further in our lives.”

“We are all worth more than we already have and everybody deserves a shot at something better.”

“Negativity is like a poison that can ruin the human spirit and suck the life right out of you. Negativity is born from concepts invented in your mind about what you cannot or will not be able to have or do and feeling powerless to do anything about it.”

You can do something

There may be times when in your life people tell you that you can’t do something, probably when you were younger and also perhaps as you have gotten older.

However the statement left in its original form ‘You can’t do something’ will have little meaning, it is only when we change the statement and repeat it back to ourselves with an ‘I’ that it can really affect us.

It then becomes an identity statement, a statement that your brain starts to believe to be true, a statement that will not only cause you to have doubts about your ability to do something; it will also affect your behavior and actions.

Turning it around

There are times when we sometimes don’t have the skills to carry out a particular task, when this happens rather than say to yourself ‘I can’t do this’, say ‘I can’t do this yet’. Don’t form a limiting belief from one small event that happens in your life. Your confidence levels can really drop when you do this. When you form a negative belief it affects your actions as well as your feelings. Not having the skills at a particular task is one thing but it is a completely different story when you form a lasting negative belief from it.

admin Beliefs change your life, Positive Thinking

It doesn’t take any more effort to think about how you could earn $10,000 in a year than $1,000,000. If you go away and ask yourself how you could come up with an extra 10,000 your mind would then go away and come up with an answer maybe not right away, but it would certainly still find one eventually or at least come up with some ideas. The same is true of 1,000,000 it would take no more effort to think about how it would be possible, it may take longer (or maybe it wouldn’t) but you would have to run the same programs in your mind, ‘how could I earn this much money’, the figures will only direct your thoughts to find an appropriate strategy, you are not guaranteed of either and at this initial stage of thought you are simply using your imagination to come up with possibilities.

Yet most people wouldn’t even bother to start with such high figures, instead there would be a barrier in their mind that said it would be impossible.

Everybody is equally apt at coming up with ways to make money, however the figure you place on it will ultimately determine the kind of results you will get. Because to make more money will require you to think in grander terms, for example more people buying what you have to sell or whatever.

The point being that at this early stage of thought there should be no barriers, to what you perceive to be possible for yourself, none at all.

admin Mind change your life, The mind

A powerful tool

Your mind is a powerful tool and it is something that needs to be working for you at all times, never against you. You control your own mind and your own thoughts, every single one of them.

Most people would probably say their minds controlled them, it doesn’t, our mind is a tool to be used as effectively as possible. Your brain can take you to wherever you want to go in life, it is equally capable and happy to take you to places where you don’t want to be. The highest highs and also the lowest lows, you decide.

Say the word ‘beach’ and what do you think about? Picture an apple tree and what do you see? You control everything that happens in your own mind. There is great power in this, the power comes from the life you will lead as a result of what happens in your mind first.

You can direct your brain at all times, you can tell it where you want to go. If you don’t control your brain then who does? And if you don’t learn to manipulate your own mind to get what you want then what will the consequences of this be?

The meaning makers

The meaning you give to anything is whatever you decide to hold in your mind. Reality is whatever meaning you decide to place on the events that happen in your life. It is from the eyes of your mind that your future life will be created, reality isn’t necessarily what happens to you right now, reality is what you decide to feel about what happens right now, the perception you attribute to the thoughts you think and the world you see is what makes it real to you.

When you manipulate things in your mind, ideas, concepts, thoughts, you change the outer aspects of your world. A mind made concept is something that has no existence in the real world it is formed in the mind only, you can’t make a movie of a belief you have, you can only make a movie of the actions of that belief.

We all decide what meanings we give to the events we have in our life, and also the thoughts we think, and we are able to change this meaning at any time, the meanings we give to things that have happened in the past do not have to be the meanings we attribute to these things in the future.

Meanings and the perceptions of the events and even the ideas you have are all mind made concepts.

“Meaning is to hold in mind.”
“Meaning in an invented reality”

So it is all choice, we might not believe it at first, but our lives are indeed based on the choices we have made and will continue to make in the future. So in order to create a better life for ourselves and indeed others, it is in our best interests to first decide to form empowering beliefs about ourselves, and what we can do and create in our life.

Saying we can’t do this or that, looking at our life as it is today and not believing it will be different in the future are not the most useful things we can or should be doing with our mind. What you want to be doing with your mind is reminding yourself of how great your future will be, how you have got what it takes to get you there and what exactly you will do to make it happen. There are essentially two roads your mind can take you, the road which leads to where you want to be, and the road which leads to the place you don’t want to be. You want to be focusing on where you want to be going at all times.

Your mind is a tool to be used here and now, and you decide exactly where it will take you at all times, always remember this.

admin Featured, Mind change your life, The mind

What would you like in 3 months that you don’t have now? What about 6 months or a year from now? If you know your life is not taking you where you want to be than that is a sure enough reason to do something about it. If the image you get of yourself in the future doesn’t fill you with excitement or motivation then you need to do something about it. Your life is special and you should not waste it doing something for which you are not suited to or that you don’t enjoy. If you find yourself in the position of not knowing what to do with your life this is OK, understand that at this point in your life there are many opportunities available to you.

Don’t limit what is possible in your life through narrow thinking, you can have what you want, believing anything else is pointless and will lead you into a spiral of despair and negativity.

If you don’t believe you can have the life you want then you will more than likely end up depressed, so the first step to creating the life you want to is to believe it will happen.

You will need to be your own best friend right from the start; you will need to have your mind working for you not against you if you are to get remotely close to having the life you envisage for yourself.

What exactly do you stand to benefit by making changes to your life?

• Increased happiness / well being
• Greater wealth
• Increased self esteem / self confidence
• Improved outlook, more optimistic
• Healthier mind / body
• More friends, wider social circle
• Greater job satisfaction
• More satisfaction to live for now rather than wait for some point in the future to arrive
• Better relationships
• Career success
• More excitement
• Stress free life / More security

Feelings associated with successful change:

• Satisfaction
• Fulfillment
• Determination
• Empowerment
• Positive Attitude
• Self-confidence
• Creativity
• Self esteem
• Invincibility
• Happiness
• Courage
• Contentment
• Achievement
• Triumphant

admin Beliefs, Changing direction, Happiness, New Ideas (creative thinking) change your life, Changing direction

Re-labeling the external part of a negative belief - So let’s say you have a limiting belief that involves or is based on some behavior exhibited by yourself or someone else. Are there other meanings you could give the behavior that would make it much more positive? Are there any other terms or labels that could reduce, alter or transform the meaning of the external behavior?

For example - ‘I’m not clever enough.’

Is being clever really the issue here? What about if this is a sign that you just need to study more. Do you really believe just because you aren’t clever enough you won’t be able to succeed in other areas of your life? Is being clever the be all and end all of everything?

Well OK let’s say it’s true, so you may have to give up on the idea of being a Brain Surgeon, but it really doesn’t stop you from achieving an infinite number of things in other areas of your life does it?

Maybe not clever enough but still clever right? You might not be clever enough but you are determined and motivated to get where you want to go are you not? Maybe your IQ isn’t up there with Einstein’s but whose is? If we were in another country now, how would this hold up? Would people in other cultures use this belief to prevent them from having what they wanted in life?

What about if you looked upon this as an indication that you are not where you want to be yet, you could become clever enough if you made study a priority in your life. In what situations are you not clever enough? Are you clever in some situations and not in others?

I suppose if we are mixing with the best intellects of our time then this might hold true, but what about in everyday life, surely you are clever enough? Are you sat around doctors with PhD’s when you say this? What about saying ‘I’m not quite up to their level in terms of education’ or ‘These guys have certainly read a lot more books on the subject than I have’?

admin Beliefs Beliefs, change your life, Positive Thinking

When you have a negative belief try re-framing it with some of your values in life. For example with a belief such as ‘I’ll never be able to learn Japanese’, you could say something like - It looks like it is important for you to learn a language? You must value people who speak a second language. Do you also value the time it takes to learn a language and the dedication and commitment required? Which do you feel you should concentrate more on to be true to yourself?

Do you think it would be better to spend time saying you won’t be able to learn Japanese or instead spend time actually listening to audio tapes and reading books about the Japanese language?

So you do care about learning a language, with this in mind can you think of ways that you will be able to learn Japanese?

Some questions you may want to ask yourself:

• What are some of your higher criteria or values?

• What would happen if you applied your higher values and principles to the negative belief?

• Which of your values would prove useful to apply on this belief?

• What values would qualify your negative belief in such a way as to make it much less limiting?

admin Beliefs Beliefs, change your life, Positive Thinking

A story about re-labeling behavior - Sam always hated meetings at work, not because she didn’t like talking or that she felt self conscious, it was because (in her eyes at least) everybody at the meeting were a lot more intelligent than she was. Sure they worked in different departments, and they were bought into the company to do different jobs, but Sam just believed them all to be slightly superior to her, more capable and this always made Sam feel uneasy when at staff meetings.

You see everybody was supposed to talk at staff meetings, they were open discussions and everyone present was expected to participate. Most people did participate all except one, Sam.

One particular meeting was all about new strategies and ideas that they could implement on their current project which was currently behind schedule. It was a typical meeting, lots of brainstorming of ideas and as was common some well thought out strategies were being put forward. As usual Sam played the part of the careful observer, listening intently to what others had to say but not putting any ideas of her own across.

Nobody ever said anything to Sam, but she always felt uncomfortable and it was this feeling of discomfort which would really get under her skin. She would often think about it for hours after the meeting had finished. In her mind everybody else was more intelligent than she was. Their discussions proved that, as clear well thought out comments were always present in every meeting.

In Sam’s eyes it was because her colleagues produced clear concise ideas at the meetings that made them more intelligent than she was. This was what she thought anyway.

Sam thought about this for a while, she started to wonder what other ways she could look at their behavior? Was it true that because they spoke clearly at each meeting it meant that they were more intelligent than everybody else? Maybe it was because they had never been afraid to speak out that their ideas always seemed so clear and well thought out.

Could it be that they had been exposed to meetings more than Sam and so found it easier to articulate their ideas? What about if they were taken out of the meeting? Sam knew she performed just as well as her colleagues outside of the meeting room, it was just in the meetings where she failed to perform.

Did it really mean that because someone spoke up in a meeting they were more intelligent than those who remained quiet? Sam started to think that this was absurd, and rightly so, she started to come up with alternative conclusions for the behavior that her colleagues displayed in the meetings.

• They had more practice
• They weren’t afraid to speak their mind
• They were used to it
• They had done it many times before
• They didn’t worry what others thought

Sam thought about these new ways of labeling their behavior, rather than say they were more intelligent it made more sense to attribute it to more experience.

And so armed with this new way of thinking about her colleagues behavior Sam started to formulate her own plan for contributing more in meetings, she now knew it wasn’t down to intelligence but rather lack of experience, so little by little, speaking more in each meeting Sam began to involve herself in staff meetings more and more, and was soon not only putting forward her own ideas but also having them adhered to in the weeks that followed.

Sam felt great and no longer felt inferior or worried when a staff meeting was called.

admin Random Beliefs, change your life, motivate, motivational

One way to think about any negative or limiting belief you have is what exactly it will do for you in the future, or what are some of the consequences that the belief could produce? In particular do you like what you see when the belief plays out in the future? For example - ‘I feel too lazy to implement any of my goals.’

Where exactly will you be in 3 months time with this attitude? It is fair to say with this attitude that in 3 months time you will be exactly where you are now. You would have produced absolutely nothing. In the long run this will get you nowhere, is this what you want? Is this really acceptable for yourself?

If you continue to have this belief just exactly where will you go in life? Would it be better if you didn’t have any goals, would you then feel less lazy?

If this is an embedded command to your nervous system then do you really want to feel lazy about your goals? Are your goals such that they cause you to be indifferent about achieving them?

Are your goals so lofty that the reason you say this is so you can develop a ‘I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it’ attitude? It sounds like you are prepared to not achieve any of your goals by way of you feeling lazy, is that what you want? Is where you are now your highest path, if so take a look around and congratulate yourself?

Well you obviously have goals and you do care about achieving them, Is this attitude really helping you achieve your objectives?

(Assume you are achieving some success)

When you keep telling yourself this, it seems that you are forgetting how many of your goals you have already achieved, if this is feeling lazy imagine what you could achieve if you were feeling motivated.

admin Positive Thinking Beliefs, change your life

Overcoming negative beliefs - Useful questions to ask yourself about your negative belief:

• Who says this?
• Do you realize this is just a map (your map) about the world at large? It doesn’t mean that it is true.
• When did you (or somebody else create this idea), what was the context?
• Do you really think that this belief applies to everybody?
• Did somebody teach you to think like this?

As an example take the limiting belief of - ‘My business won’t make any money’.

Where does this belief come from, is it yours or somebody else’s?

Of course not everybody would believe this. There are individuals and companies that make a lot of money. Have you always believed this or has this belief arisen out of something you have recently done?

Does everyone who starts a business think this way? Do you realize that this is just a map about the territory, and that it doesn’t make it true (or even real).

admin Random Beliefs, change your life

Negative and self limiting beliefs can and very often do hold us back in life. These beliefs can stop us from achieving what we most want and need in our lives. Our limiting beliefs more often than not have been learned as we have gone through life and very often we have bought them with us from childhood. While they don’t serve us well, they are still very personal to each of us. Many people form strong identities from their beliefs, limiting or not and so any negative beliefs can become a deeply ingrained part of their personality one that they carry around with them for years.

Beliefs are personal; they are important and have the ability to define our entire lives. Our beliefs have governed how we have lived in the past, they govern how we are living now and they will govern how we will live our life in the future.

Examples of some negative and limiting beliefs:

• I’m useless, I always have been

• I am an idiot

• I’ll never be a success

• Everyone hates me at work

• I won’t become rich

• My Business will fail

• I’m not clever enough

• I’ll never be able to learn Japanese

• I’ll never get promoted at work

• I’m too fat

These negative and limiting beliefs ultimately serve no real purpose apart from to stop us from having what we want in our lives. They become so entrenched in our minds that we just accept them as normal, never really believing we can do anything about them.

Just one negative belief about yourself, your situation or anything else related to your life can dictate to you the action you take, the behavior you exhibit and the environment where you find yourself.

A negative belief can really make it difficult if you are looking to make a change in your life or accomplish some goal. It becomes your own personal roadblock that stops you dead in your tracks. You accept it and it becomes the way your life is.

Of course everyone is entitled to believe what they want. We have a choice, and we can choose to not accept our limiting beliefs any time we wish. Do you really want to continue creating mind made barriers for yourself?

You may want certain things in your life, you may want more for yourself, your family and even for the world around you, but yet your limiting beliefs never seem to go away, they have always been there and they will always be there in the future. They will remain a fundamental part of who you are unless you do something about it.

Remember that beliefs can be changed, and this is great news when we know we have beliefs that limit us. You probably used to believe in Santa Claus but I bet you don’t anymore. Rest assured that if you want to really change a negative belief you have, it can be done.

One useful strategy to use is to step forward into the future and envisage what will transpire (or not) as a result of the belief you hold.

When we do this we can see just exactly where our negative belief will lead us.

Types of question to ask yourself when taking the negative belief into the future include:

• What will happen later on in the future if you persist with this belief?

• What consequences will occur as a result of this belief?

• What results will or could arise from the initial set of results?

For example:

I’ll never be able to learn Portuguese.

With a belief like this, where will you be in 2 years time? Imagine instead if you start learning Portuguese now, how much of it would you be able to speak in 2 years time?

Do you realize the more you believe this the more this will prevent you from actually learning Portuguese. So eventually over time you will not be able to learn any new languages with a belief like this.

So I guess you can forget about conversing with any Brazilians in their own language when you visit Brazil then?

You could carry on asking similar questions based on what you will be able or not be able to do as a result. Try it with your own negative beliefs and see if your perspective changes.

admin Positive Thinking Beliefs, change your life, Positive Thinking