Friday, 29 August 2014
Positive thinking makes a difference
Regular positive thinking will help you develop inner peace, success, improved relationships, better health, happiness and personal satisfaction. Positive thinking can be your key to success!
Positive thinking is contagious. People around you detect your mental moods and are affected accordingly. Think about happiness, good health and success and people will more likely appreciate you and want to be around you, because they enjoy the atmosphere that a positive attitude produces.In order for positive thinking to produce results, you need to develop a positive attitude toward life, expect a successful outcome of whatever you do and take action to do what is necessary to ensure your success.
Effective positive thinking that brings results is much more than just repeating a few positive words or telling yourself that everything is going to be all right. It has to be your primary mental attitude. It is not enough to think positively for a few moments, and then letting fears and lack of belief enter your mind. Some effort and inner work are necessary.
Are you really willing to change the way you think, to make a real inner change? Are you willing to develop a mental power that can positively affect you, your environment and the people around you?
Here are a few actions and suggestions to help you develop the power of positive thinking:
- Stop with your negative attitude and speaking negative words about everything you talk about!
- Use positive words while thinking and talking. Use phrases like, “I can,” “I am able,” “It is possible,” “It can be done,” etc.
- Actively focus on thoughts of success, strength and happiness.
- Try to disregard and ignore negative thoughts. Refuse to think such thoughts and substitute them with constructive good ideas.
- In your conversation use words that suggest feelings and mental images of strength, happiness and success.
- Before starting with any plan or action, visualize clearly in your mind its successful outcome.
- Read at least one page of an inspiring book every day.
- Surround yourself with people who think positively.
- Watch movies that make you happy.
- Sit and walk with your back straight. This will strengthen your confidence and inner strength.
- Walk, swim or get moving in some other physical activity. This helps to develop a more positive attitude.
http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/positive_thinking_makes_a_difference
Friday, 22 August 2014
How negative thinking affects our lives (and how we can benefit from positive thinking)
August 6th, 2014 by Giorgio Aprile, MA
The way we think has a massive influence on how we feel.Let's consider a simple example: I didn't get a promotion at work. My first reaction is a belief that I'm a failure, that I'll never get the promotion and that I'll end up losing my job because I'm useless. This is quite negative thinking, and as a consequence I feel awful. In fact I feel useless and I end up with low self-esteem, low self-confidence, low motivation and hopelessness.
I spend the following two days in this state, then I am tired of being miserable and I decide to talk with my boss. I discover that my contribution at work is strongly appreciated and that I didn't get the promotion because of absence of funds. Now I think I'm a good worker and I have good hope that I'll get the promotion when the financial situation changes. My mood changes radically: now I feel satisfied, energetic and I re-gained confidence.
It is clear in this example how thinking influences the way we feel. Sometimes we experience a difficulty in our life because we think in the wrong way. If we change the way we look at the situation and at ourselves, the difficulty can appear as an opportunity, or maybe just as something that happened but doesn't affect our life in a significant way.
Negative thinking patterns can cause us to get stuck, because thinking serves not only as a way to see and understand the world, but also as a mechanism of creation of outcomes. We certainly want to create positive outcomes, thus positive thinking represents a wonderful instrument for our lives.
Negative thoughts can be explicitly or implicitly negative, and we cannot be aware of them. Explicit forms of negative thinking sound like "I am never going to overcome my fear of dogs" (it makes us feel hopeless), while subtle forms sound more like "I wish I could deal with my fear of dogs" (I wish I could...but I can't!).
Often, we have to deal not only with negative thinking, but also with negative mindsets. A negative mindset is a combination of negative thoughts, beliefs, patterns, interactions and behaviours. Sometimes, different negative mindsets can coexist at the same time, and in this case the impact of negative thinking is even heavier.
Positive thinking is a very useful and effective tool to improve our lives by changing our thinking. Positive thinking empowers us and makes us feel better because it encourages us to think about the world in a different way and to react to external circumstances in a more constructive way.
A criticism that is often drawn about positive thinking is that it's not healthy and mature to have a Pollyanna attitude and deny the reality. This criticism can be safely subscribed, apart from the fact that its objective is not positive thinking but a Pollyanna attitude of denying reality. A Pollyanna attitude has nothing to do with positive thinking, rather it is a strong misconception of it.
It is crucial not to use positive thinking as a mechanism of suppression of negative thoughts, feelings and emotions. In fact, these need to be respected and expressed, without letting them dominate our life experience. Repressed negative thoughts, feelings and emotions can keep us stuck and prevent true change.
We need to acknowledge and express properly all the negativity, but at the same time we must not let the negative dominate our lives.
Coaching is a great tool to help us change our negative thinking and attitude - particularly if supported by approaches such as CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) or Mindfulness. In fact, the first is an extraordinary effective tool to challenge our thoughts in order to experience new positive outcomes, while the latter can consistently improve the awareness of our thinking.
Monday, 18 August 2014
Just Do It
If you want to get promoted on your job, get fit, go back to school,
write a book, launch an album, or a business, I have the solution for
you…
Quit talking about it, stop waiting for permission, and do it…
At the end of the day, all the talk, and all the reasons, and all of
the excuses, count for absolutely nothing – a chasing after the wind.
You’re wasting time that could have been used productively to actually:
“do it.”
Socrates said “to do, is to be;” the only thing that matters is what
you’re doing today. Are you on track “right now,” or are you making
excuses. In a very real sense, tomorrow never comes; either you do it
today, or it never gets done.
You see, when what you call “tomorrow” comes, you’ll rename it
“today,” and if your mindset hasn’t changed to this “do it” mindset that
I’m referring to, then you don’t have a future, you don’t have a
tomorrow, you just have a longer today – more of the same is personally
guaranteed.
What am I saying?
When all the talk is over…you still have to “do it.” Do what? Earn
it, work for it, bust your butt, be uncomfortable, go through the pain;
you have to do whatever it takes…there are no short-cuts.
You might be thinking, “But it’s hard”…do it anyway…
“Well, I might not have any free time”…do it anyway…
“Well, the bank said no”…do it anyway…
“My wife won’t let me”…do it anyway!
Just do it!
And in the words of A.L. Williams, “Do it, and do it, and do it, and
do it…” and when you’re done doing it, do it some more, and then do it
some more, and then do it some more, and never stop doing it.
But, I don’t feel like doing it….Well, “do it anyway,” do it until
you feel like doing it, do it until you enjoy doing it, do it until you
love doing it…do it until you can’t get enough…do it, and do it, and do
it, and do it…
…You don’t start off “feeling like” doing it, but if you stay focused, one day you’ll be excited to “do it”….
But what if I have NO motivation to “do it”?
If you’re not motivated to do it, then why in-the-hell are you doing
it? You can’t do what you’re not motivated to do! You can’t achieve
success, if you’re not motivated to succeed; you must be driven by an
inner vision of what might be – you must have a grand conception of the
future. You can’t do what you can’t see; you can’t become what you
can’t perceive – …you just can’t.
Isaiah wrote, “Where there is no vision the people perish.” …In
other words, the people don’t make progress; the people fall by the
way-side.
If you can’t see yourself “fit,” or launching a business today (like right now), it can never happen tomorrow.
If you don’t have a strong vision….maybe you don’t really want it.
At some point in your life you have to be “real” with yourself, you
have to say, “I don’t really want it…if I have to work that hard for it,
I don’t want it!” Be real – “god-dog-it” at least be honest with
yourself! At one time I thought I wanted to be a billionaire, but the
reality is that I do not have the motivation to become a billionaire.
It would be nice if someone gave me a billion dollars, but to work hard
for it seems like a waste of my resources (if I’m being honest with
myself) – that’s a goal best left to others, those who have the energy,
the passion, and the vision to achieve such a goal. You may be the same
way, it might be nice if someone magically made you “fit,”but you don’t
want to be fit at all cost; you simply don’t have a vision for
fitness. You don’t have a strong enough reason to be fit.
As I quoted earlier, where there is no vision the people perish, but I
also like to say, where there is a vision, the people prosper. When
you have a “clear” vision, when you can “clearly” see the end from the
beginning…when you really believe that you can achieve the goal, you’re
almost there; just believing that you can achieve it is most of the work
– it’s really that simple. When you believe, victory becomes
“sweatless,” like taking candy from a baby. You become driven by a
force that won’t let you stop until the goal is achieved. You’ll slam
through walls and kick down doors until the goal is achieved.
When I am committed to a goal, nothing can stop me but the
achievement of that goal. …I know how to see the goal (in my mind’s
eye) as already complete; I know that I can do anything that I really
want to do. I know that if I can see it, I can achieve it.
It’s not impossible to write a book, or go back to school, or get
promoted, or get fit, or start a successful blog. These things are all
well within the realm of possibility – far from impossible. But can you
perceive it? We’re not talking about the impossible (e.g. we’re not
talking about becoming a professional football player at 65 years of
age). Other people have done what you’re trying to do, people you know,
people just like you, all you need to do is believe and let that belief
carry you to victory.
If you can see it and believe it, the truth is, you will achieve it.
If you’re not achieving the goal, it’s only because you’re not seeing
it and believing it. Get clear on why you want to accomplish this
goal; then see yourself succeeding in your mind’s eye.
Everywhere you go, hold this image of success in your mind, believe
that it’s possible, because it is, and you will surely achieve it.http://www.mrselfdevelopment.com/2014/04/just-do-it/
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