Your Thinking OR Your Life

I know you’ve heard a lot, and I mean, a LOT about positive thinking, positive mindset, positive affirmations, the power of positive thinking etc. And of course, almost everyone knows the book The Secret.

You have heard so much about positivity that it’s coming out of your ears. You have probably tried many things and followed many opinions in order to think positively, to feel good and to achieve the results you desire.

Most people are not aware about what they think on a daily basis and how that affects them. We know we have thousands and thousands of thoughts daily, and we are aware of that, but we are not aware of the polarity of all those thoughts.

I admit, that was certainly the case with me. I was going through my days without ever asking myself about the nature of my thoughts.

I had no reason to ask, after all, I ‘knew’ they were ‘my’ thoughts so what was there to ask.

Only, there was. There is. It is called LIFE.

WHAT ABOUT LIFE?

We all want to have the life of our dreams, whatever dreams may be, and all of us keep working towards that dream life in one way or another.

Don’t we?

Everything we do, literally everything, is in one way or another to improve our lives, or to improve our selves in order to improve our lives.

However, this is where it becomes interesting.

We know that we do things to improve our lives, but, do we know how what we do affect our lives?

The follow up question on the above is:

Are we doing the right things, or rather, the helpful things that support us in creating our dream life?

In other words, are we really focused doing the things that truly make a difference in OUR lives or are we doing things that make a difference to someone else’s life? (Btw, I am not referring to helping others here).

Let me paraphrase this question in a different way.

Are we doing the things that we love and that are genuinely good for us, OR are we following the ideas of the others and we do what they think it is good for us?

Think about this for a moment. 

AWARENESS IS A VIRTUE

So what is this article about? I want to share with you something that helped me start changing my life, or more precisely, what helped me start taking control of my life.

You see, to change anything in your life, you need to be aware of it. Meaning you need to know that it is happening, that it exists, that it’s there.

If you are not aware that you are doing something, or being in a particular way, or thinking in certain fashion, then what chance do you really have in making any changes. Not much, isn’t it?! It is like a blind spot, or said differently, we don’t know what we don’t know.

Do you have any blind spots? OK, that was a trick question. After all, it is called a blind spot for a reason. 

We all have blind spots, e.g. at work, with our families, or in our relationships (with people, money, ourself, etc.)

However, the moment we become conscious that something exists, i.e. that we think in a certain way most of the day, or that we always use the same expressions, or that we react to certain foods,….then we are one step ahead and we actually have the opportunity to do something about it. If we so desire.

By becoming conscious of what we do, that blind spot suddenly isn’t blind any more. We have created a choice for ourselves. A choice that did not exist before becoming aware of that.

What is the choice?

– To either continue doing/being what we’ve always done/been, which will produce the same life we’ve always had (up to now).

Or,

– Dare to do/be something different than before and see how things in our lives start changing. See how WE start to change.

The choice is ours, and perhaps more importantly if nothing is done, the risk is ours too. 

DARE TO OBSERVE

So, here is one way to start changing things in your life, right now. It is connected with the way we think.

The secret is – OBSERVATION.

We all know that ‘thoughts are things’, that ‘what you think about you bring about’, that ‘what you resist, persist’ etc. There is a wealth of literature about the importance of our thoughts and how they influence our lives, so I am not going to expand on it here.

But I will suggest a way for you to find your dominant way of thinking and maybe get some answers about your life.

Here it is:

Make a simple choice every day, just for one month (or more), whenever you do (or be) anything, to ask yourself these 2 questions: 

• Am I doing this because I enjoy it, I love it? (meaning out of love), or
• Am I doing this because I am expected to do it? (meaning out of fear)

Here is a different way to ask the same questions:

• Am I doing this because I am following my bliss? (out of love), or 
• Am I doing this because I am following the majority? (out of fear).

Here is a third way, which is somewhat dramatic, but it illustrates the point very clearly.

• ”If I had only one more day to live, will I choose to do this, or be like this?”

Ask these questions in different areas of your life, with family, at work, in your hobbies and interests, about the material things you have in your possession (just replace the word “do” with “buy” or “be” or “have”). One note about these questions. They appear simple but if you really, really consider and think about what you are asking you will be surprised of the depth they have.

SO, WHAT’S THE SCORE?

This is a way of finding out the polarity of our dominant way of thinking; is it mostly out of love (positive), or mostly out of fear (negative).

If you are so inclined, which I would recommend, note down the frequency of ‘Out Of Love’ vs. ‘Out Of Fear’ responses each day in a notebook or your mobile phone notes.

See what happens after week, a month.

This score will give you a pretty good indication of how you think for the biggest part of your time. The more you ask yourself the above questions, the more aware you will become. The more aware you are, the more easily you can start making the changes.

Very Important!

If you decide to follow the suggestion, please do it as a GAME! A game that helps you gain awareness of how you think, which means no judgement or self criticism. Be light about this.

Awareness is the beginning of change!

The fact that you have given yourself the gift of being aware of the polarity of your thinking, by doing this simple exercise, gives you the chance to start changing things in your life and in you environment. 

As they say ‘you cannot have one kind of mind and another kind of environment.’

In everyday terms, it means we cannot eat junk food for 60 days in a row and then decide to have a heathy food for 1 day and expect to feel great because of the one day healthy food.

So, this is it. Play with it. It is the first step, and the most important step of transformation. Becoming aware of the score. We all play in the game of life, so knowing the score is what makes it enjoyable and what gives it any sense. Otherwise, we risk feeling lost not knowing what’s happening and why it’s happening. 

If you have any comments or questions on the above article please let me know by submitting a comment below, or through my contact form.

If you want to go much faster and see a visible transformation and achievement of your goals, or a breakthrough in a particular are of your life please click here.

One last suggestion. Read this article again in a few hours time, then in a few days time and maybe the next month and see if you have a new realisation. You may be surprised!