In the ‘90s I did a keynote presentation entitled “Today’s Thoughts, Tomorrow’s Reality” for several organizations, including Goodwill Industries, the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association, El Dorado’s Self-Esteem Task Force, South Sacramento Resource Group, Sacramento Employers Advisory Council, the West Coast Women’s Show, Golden Bear Mortgage Corporation, Downtown Capitol Business & Professional Women, and Body Wise International. I recently came upon copies of articles from a couple of newspapers that covered it and realized that what I believed then, I still believe now…and that sometimes we need a reminder to take our own advice!
The following was written by Cecil Ringgenberg, a staff writer for The Reporter on May 8, 1996.
Taking Charge of Life
Some people tend to avoid reality because it is so negative. Escaping from life’s negatives seems more reasonable than wallowing in suffering. However, according to behavioral therapist LaNell Silverstein, the best way to change your life is to change your mind.
Our conscious mind is aware of all that goes on. It acts as a gatekeeper, deciding whether we believe what we hear. People are often negative because of former failures. Beliefs enter into our subconscious minds, and from there, surface as attitudes.
For example, suppose you were not able to dive off the high dive the first time you tried. You might explain the failure to yourself in these terms: “That is a stupid activity. I’ll never climb up there again.” Such a thought is negative and guarantees your future failure.
If any person is not experiencing life as they want it to be, they should check what they are saying and thinking. Words and thoughts are like seeds. We reap in life what we plant in thought and word.
Many successful people, on the other hand, have also experienced setbacks in life. However, their reaction is to try again later without making the same mistake that caused them to fail originally. What is said and thought today becomes the reality of tomorrow. We speak our failures into existence. Since actions follow thoughts, success comes from being positive and failure results from being negative.
Many successful people write down their goals. Writing is 10 times more effective than speaking when you want to achieve something. However, magic is not involved in success. After goals are written down, steps must be taken to achieve them. Too often we act in fear, not in faith.
Nobody lives alone. We are surrounded by people who do not understand the power of being positive. They flood our lives with their negative actions and remarks and thus pollute our thoughts.
One way to overcome negativity is to say, “Cancel,” whenever we hear a negative thought expressed. We have roughly 50,000 thoughts each day. Negative thoughts and words should be cancelled and replaced by positive thoughts and words. Dwelling on the positive plants positive seeds that will result in progress.
Another practical step to take is to create a quiet time each day. We often become stressed due to fast-paced living. Being stressed out prevents us from finding solutions and can harm our health.
Take 10 minutes and let your thoughts flood out. Daydream awhile, imagining yourself being praised for solving the problems before you. Bask in the warmth of imagined accomplishment and notice your increased ability to think of solutions once the 10 minutes is up.
Anything the mind can imagine, it can achieve—if you direct it in a positive fashion. The best way to change your life is to change your mind.
Go-to Books on Positive Thinking:
What to Say When You Talk to Yourself by Shad Helmstetter, Ph.D.
Psycho-cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S.
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Dare to Win by Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen
Hung by the Tongue by Francis P. Martin
The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Dr. Joseph Murphy
Tongue Fu! by Sam Horn
The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper
The Tortoise and the Hare by Janet Stevens (adapted from an Aesop fable)
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