“Change your thoughts and you change your world” – Norman
Vincent Peale
We have
spent considerable time thus far looking at the way that we think. Changing the
tone of your habitual thinking is the one thing that can begin to change your
life for the better starting today. Life
is pure perception. Shakespeare said that “nothing in life is good or bad but
thinking makes it so.” Take, for example, the dreaded Monday morning. For years
and years I absolutely hated Monday mornings. Monday mornings meant a return to
the grind; back to work, back to dealing with people and problems. Back to
fighting traffic, paying bills, cooking dinner, getting to bed early, and so
on. As you read yesterday, if I attach a negative thought to some person,
place, or thing, I will have a negative reaction emotionally. A negative emotion can only produce a negative action or behavior, and negative actions or behaviors will only produce
negative results.
I challenge
you to pick one part of your life today and work on changing the way you think
about it. Remember this: WE ARE WHAT WE THINK. If I think over and over again, I love Mondays! It means the start of a
new week, and a chance to work on becoming a better me. It means I have been
given one more chance at this journey called life! If you begin to change the
way you think about Mondays, or any other area of your life for that matter,
you will begin to feel differently. You will begin to act differently, and of
course the results of your actions will change as well. Think back to day two
when you began looking at your thought
diet. Carefully analyze what you are feeding your mentality. Are you
feeding it jealous thoughts? Victim thoughts? Thoughts about lack, worry, or
fear? What if you were to change the way you thought about just one area of
your life, starting today, and changed this thought for good? Do you think you
could keep this up for an entire day? What about an entire week? Try this
exercise to help you: pick one area of your life you view as problematic and
change the thoughts attached to it. I find in incredibly helpful to use sticky
notes for this exercise. Write down alternate
positive thoughts to replace the negative
thoughts you have attached to this area of your life on several notes and
place them where you will see them. It is helpful to place them in areas of
your home, office, or car where you will be forced
to look at them. I put one on the bathroom mirror, one on the dashboard of my
vehicle, one in my wallet, and affix one to my computer monitor at work. Every
single time that a negative thought pops into your head, immediately disregard it and think the positive thought instead. It
sounds too simple to actually work, but it does! Try it today. All you must do
is begin.
For some more insight, inspiration, and direction, please visit my website. You can download my book "Chopping Wood & Carrying Water: One Day at a Time" For free all day today. Roll up your sleeves and get to work!
Thanks for reading.
Paul
No comments:
Post a Comment