Self Improvement Information

If you have been a reader of this website, you know that it is my belief that we can and should control the thoughts we think.  If we really want to accomplish our own idea of success and live the life we want, we will need to understand this concept and learn to have it work for us.  Our thoughts are always working in our lives, but if we are don’t make the decision to be vigilant of our thoughts we will accept the thoughts of others as our own.  How much of what we think is really our own?

Yesterday, I had a very fun and busy day.  We took our dog for a walk downtown on the river to see all the changes Des Moines has been doing to keep our city one to be proud of.  I cooked and had our family over for a Sunday supper.  It was a busy and happy day.  By the time I sat down to catch the new series “The Prisoner” that I had prerecorded, I was beyond tired.  I didn’t see any of the show and the next thing I know it is 4:30 am and I am dreaming the craziest things.  I kept hearing “girls gone wild” and my dreams were weaving that into them.  I woke up realizing that the infomerical was playing on tv and my mind was absorbing all that crap.  Yikes!!!

It really made me think.  How much of our environment is dictating what we absorb and feed into our subconscious mind?  I know that I am not going to run out and start lifting my shirt and shaking my God given talents at any video cameras or smooching random women.  I am an adult woman and the decisions regarding my moral code and sexual preference were made years ago.  But, what about those that are younger and more impressionable?

I am not suggesting that we start censoring tv, commercials, or movies.  They are personal choices and if they weren’t in demand and profitable, they wouldn’t be made. Supply and demand is a powerful thing.  What I am purposing is that we, individually, consciously, and selectively, make our decision to pick and choose what we allow into our inner subconscious environment.  We should be careful to not let other people’s thoughts and ideas color what we feed into our minds unless we find value in them.  Only if they help us create our inner world that which we want to reflect in our outer world and see it manifest.

By not making the decision to safe guard what we allow into our minds, we let random perilous thoughts such as ugliness, fear, and self doubts enter our subconscious mind’s environment.  Don’t we have enough respect for ourselves to filter it out?  Or, could it be that we haven’t taken the responsibility of being our own decision maker that is in control of what we feed that inner us?  You, after all,  are the only gate keeper of your subconscious mind.

How could our lives be different if we monitored our thoughts and became more aware of our paradigms that keep us from living the life of our design?  What are the decisions that we make daily that undermine ourselves?  Do we really feel that we need to listen to those outside things that steal our happiness and peace of mind?  I don’t believe that we would choose to feed our small infants a steady diet of negativity and self esteem robbing comments.  Why would we choose to feed those things to our subconscious mind that is as vulnerable as that tiny child?

Every day, we make the decision of what negative or positive thoughts we will think.  Let’s learn to take responsibility for our decisions and our thoughts and build a life by design.

In my career, I have worked extensively with successful people and people who are striving for success. I have worked closely with individuals that make millions of dollars a year and those that are content to make a meager salary. That is two different ends of the spectrum.  What makes so much difference between these people that it creates such a profound effect on their earning capabilities? 

Successful people are, as the cliche goes, “a different breed of cat”.  They come in all shapes and sizes.  All colors and creeds.  Different ages and educational history with vastly different backgrounds. So, knowing all of this, what do they have in common?  Here are a few of my observances.

1.  They think different.  They practice possibility thinking with all of their challenges.  Successful people are not people who don’t experience challenges.  Most of the time, they experience more because of their desire for success.  They approach challenges differently.  They spend very little energy on things like chips on the shoulder, feelings of self pity or thoughts of “poor me”.  When faced with a problem they focus on finding and implementing a workable solution that advances their steps to success.

2.  They have a clear concise mental picture of what success means to them.  Their picture of success is defined.  Success does not happen to people.  It is planned.  Many successful people have failed miserably several times in their quest for success.  In spite of these failures, they cling to their defined mental picture of success.  They develop a credo of never seeing failure as failure, but as:

 a.  a learning experience,
 b.  the negative feedback that they need to change course in the direction they are going
 c.  the opportunity to develop their sense of humor
 d.  the opportunity to practice their techniques and perfect their performance
 e.  the game they must play to win.

Years ago, I ran across this Champion Creed:  “I am not judged by the number of times I fail, but by the number of times I succeed.  And the number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I can fail and keep trying!”

3.  They have “stick to-ed-ness” as my grandmother used to say.  They have persistency to work at their goals until they succeed. Their threshold for defeat is extremely high.  They work at success until they achieve it.  They may have to change the vehicle they are using to reach success if that path no longer works, but they never change the desire for success.

4.  Successful people have fears just like the less success people.  The difference is that they have a way of working through their fear.  Successful people use fear and defeat as a  experience rather than a life defeating moment.  They have developed the tools in their tool box of life to work with experiences that others let define their lack of success.

5.  Successful people’s minds are goal seeking devices.  They set themselves measurable goals and work at them until they accomplish what they set out to do. They discover a goal setting system and they stick with it.

Napoleon Hill, one of the original gurus of success, in his book “Think and Grow Rich”, said, “Truly, “thoughts are things,” and powerful things at that, when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a burning desire for their translation into riches, or other material objects.”

The beautiful thing about success is that it is not a closed ended system.  Anyone can become a success if they are willing to change their mindset.

Are you ready for success?  Click here!

Yesterday, I wrote about monitoring your thoughts.  Did you give it a try?  How did it work out?  Today, I want to communicate with you about why we have negative thoughts.  If you are having a challenge being over run by negative thoughts then we need to get to the bottom of it.  Wouldn’t you agree?

I watched a four part video from a gentleman by the name of Sean Stephenson.  He has some amazing pearls of wisdom that you should take the time to listen to.  Sean has an amazing story.  He is being heralded as the next Tony Robbins.  The interesting thing about Sean is that he is only 3 feet tall.

One of the many pearls of wisdom that I gleaned from this interview is “limited beliefs magnetize our universe.  We keep attracting those fears over and over.  If we don’t attract them, we are manipulating those around us so that they fit our mold of what we fear.”  He also said something very important, “beliefs, to stay alive, have to be fed with evidence.  You will go out and fabricate, minimize and blow up things to support your belief.”

So, I ask you, do you think that you could be using your negative thoughts to support a negative belief about yourself?  Do you think it might be important to discover what that negative belief is that you are trying so hard to support?

I had intentions today to give you different techniques for you to use to change those negative thoughts into positive thinking.  But, as luck would have it, I found an article from one of my favorite teachers of the mind, John Kehoe, who wrote the book “Mind Power into the 21st Century”.  The book is excellent and John has made a life time career of delving into the workings of the mind.  His article on “Eliminating Negative Thinking” has it all and I know you will enjoy it.

My mission with this self improvement blog is to give you valuable information that you can use in your personal development quest and it will enrich your life’s journey.  My hope for you today, is that you will take the time to watch the four part interview with Sean Stephenson and also read the informative article from John Kehoe.  I don’t think you will be disappointed.

Afterwards, leave me a comment.  I would love to hear your thoughts.

Click here for Sean Stephenson’s talk.

Click here for John Kehoe’s article.