Your success in any endeavor, whether it is to lose weight, grow giant zucchinis, be happy or become a high paid entrepreneur depends on how you think and feel. This post is designed to help you be aware of your thoughts and feelings because it is only when you are aware that you can change.
During our waking hours, our brains buzz with all manner of thoughts. We think about the things we should be doing, we think about things we want to do. We worry about possible events that haven’t occurred. We listen to the words of the people in our lives and those words give rise to more thoughts and their associated feeling. We listen and read what the media feeds our minds and we have thoughts and feelings about that.
Every single thought and its associated feeling can either launch us toward success or act as an impediment. This little exercise that I’m going to share is not mine. I learned it years ago from the book Psycho-Pictography written by Vernon Howard. It’s still in print if you would like to read it. I still refer back to that book when life slaps me around. It helps keep me on track.
Howard explains that you don’t have to worry about using will power to change yourself to achieve success. He explains that your success is a factor of how you think and feel. However, most of us spend no time in the state of awareness of our thoughts and feelings. They come and go throughout the day, but we are not aware of them. Yet, they mold our life and create our reality.
The goal is to be aware. To do that, starting right now, simply be aware of every thought you have and any feeling associated with it. Don’t try and change the thought, just be aware of it. Any necessary changes will happen automatically. Let’s see how that works.
Say, you listen to the news and you hear a story about how the middle class is disappearing in America due to corporate greed. You think about corporate greed and notice a spark of anger. Pay attention to that thought and anger, but don’t try and change anything. For instance, don’t say to yourself. “That’s awful; I’m going to stop listening to the news.” Maybe another thought you have is of a particularly distasteful task you want to accomplish. When you think about the task, its associated feeling might be dread or a feeling of being overwhelmed. Once again, just be aware of the thought, don’t try and alter it.
Do this for one week. Notice how much of your life is spent in negative thinking and its associated feelings of anger, frustration, fear, envy or overwhelm. You’re smart and there is a part of you that already knows that negative thinking will bring about in your life all the things you don’t desire. After a while, you will notice your thoughts and your behavior changing automatically without any effort on your part.
Be forewarned, if you’re like me this exercise will make you extremely tired at the end of the day. I think it has something to do with being constantly attentive. Who knows? Maybe you won’t be like me and be extra tired, but if you are don’t give up and go back to lazy thinking. Stick with it and watch how your life improves.
There, now you have it. The one exercise that can change your life and launch you toward success in whatever way you define success.
If you’ve had an experience where your thinking has changed your perspective and helped you succeed, share your experience. Mama Vic reads all comments.
