Whatever success means to you, when you think it, you can achieve it. When you conceive it and believe it, you can achieve it. These words, from Napoleon Hill (and others over the years) form the foundational concept for the entire personal development movement.
Your mind is an extraordinarily powerful tool – your thinking determines so much of what you do in life, your thoughts power your actions and create your results, the fact is; your outer world is a direct reflection of your inner world, the quality of your thinking directly influences the quality of your life.
To create change in our lives we must first be able to see, in our minds eye, the change which we desire. We do become what we think about most – what you dwell upon most grows and expands in your life – positive and negative.So, to really change the quality of our life, we have to change the quality of our thinking. If we don’t decide what we are going to “Dwell Upon” then we are letting others do it for us, letting others do it to us.
There’s plenty of negativity around us; from the nay-sayer woe-is-me types to the mainstream media constantly feeding us what they present as news (really just a string of doom, gloom and violence designed to captivate us through another set of car dealer, fast food and beer commercials). If we are to create massive success in our lives, to become the people we always knew we could become, we have to take charge of what goes in our mind and what goes on between our ears.
Focusing on the positive, looking at the bright side, seeking the good in any situation is a start – feeding our minds with a nourishing flow of powerful, positive images, ideas, goals and strategies takes us to the next level.
The biggest blockade in our lives are the walls of our comfort zone – the way you have been thinking, the way you have been doing, the way you have been achieving – in the past – and it’s become habit and habits can be hard to break, unless you know how.
Resist Homeostasis! Homeostasis is from the Greek “Homoisis” meaning “similar” or “like” and Stasis meaning “standing still” – this condition is the major factor that stops people changing their habits because our bodies (and our minds) view change as dangerous unless it is very slow … kind of unproductive in the modern media world where we are told, sold and promised instant happiness, improvement, weight loss … whatever.
Part of the process in changing our thinking is to unstick ourselves where we are stuck and become more flexible where we are rigid. The first step? Admitting you’re wrong – we all are from time to time and when you discover you’ve made a mistake (and everybody makes mistakes) don’t waste time and energy defending your ego, free yourself from that, just acknowledge the mistake and move on – move forward. It’s also quite freeing to say “I changed my mind” when you have new information and experiences that shine a new light on the subject and to admit “I don’t know” – this simple statement will open you up to new information, new learning, new behavior. A key here is your thinking and self talk; “I don’t know (I’m stupid)” is not nearly as productive or fun as “I don’t know (and I can’t wait to figure it out and find the answer)”. Watch the chatter in your head!
We are emotional beings striving to make logical decisions. The most powerful the emotion wins; we might want to make positive change in our lives but the fear of change is holding us back. Learn how to make positive emotions the most powerful in your life. Emotions are driven by beliefs and the more supporting evidence and anecdotes a belief has, the more powerful the emotion becomes.
To reprogram your mind, begin with the end sight – create a powerful vision of how your life will be, where you aregoing, who you are becoming. Write it down, add pictures, instill inspiration – dig into this process and you will develop your powerful “Why”.
By creating a powerful vision for your life with supporting goals and action plans you know how things are going to turn out, you have provided your brain with a blueprint for success, a vision of your life as you want it to be so your mind is busy all the time (running in the background and as your subconscious) creating that possibility, your actions create the probability and your beliefs create the certainty.
Once you have defined success and created that brilliant vision in your minds eye – you see yourself as happy, healthy and successful, then you know how things are going to turn out, you know that things will work out … you have seen the results and know that everything is going to be OK.
From this point forward you can relax and enjoy the process; you know everything that happens along the way is merely a series of course adjustments, challenges to be overcome, situations to be resolved – there’s work to be done, but you already know the end of the story.
How you feel determines how you act and how you act determines your results – focus on your vision, the feeling of success and your mind will guide you towards those actions, you will instinctively know what to do. Take those actions and you will create the desired results. Be alert now for the creeping Homeostasis – fight the innate desire for No Change, for “safety” within your comfort zone.
Fill your mind with positive images, new knowledge and beliefs. Feed your mind with powerful good stuff so it creates powerful good habits. Take action based on this new vision, this new knowledge, these new ideas. Action generates feeling just as feeling generates action.
Stay focused, stay positive and watch your thinking. Make course adjustments, modify your strategies, behaviors and actions – always with the end in mind.
Successful people think “Success” all the time – their positive beliefs overcome their fears, their vision of success drives their actions which in turn support the habits of more action to manifest their vision of success.
It’s a powerful and empowering circle.
You can have the life you desire and deserve once you determine what it is, commit to creating it and program your mind to propel you there.
Why not you? Dream Big – Live Large!
Tell me of your Successes! With Love and Light – Mike Wolpert
