For the month of May, I’ve committed to a 30 day Positive Mental Attitude Adventure. My coach and dear friend, Coach Joelle, suggested a Positive Mental Attitude diet to live into the awesomeness of my life and the life I want to create by allowing only positive thoughts into my mind for 30 days. I loved the concept, but decided to change the title from a “diet,” which makes most people cringe, to an “Adventure” which creates a sense of fun and excitement.
While I’m a proponent of positive mind power and give it my best effort to immediately stop any negative, disempowering thoughts, the reality is we are bombarded by so many thoughts each day that some stinkers can visit when we are not paying attention. The goal of this 30 day Positive Mental Attitude Adventure is to keep your focus and awareness on what you are thinking about, stop any negative thoughts and immediately replace them with positive, supportive empowering thoughts. If you commit to this practice for 30 days, not only will it become a habit, your life will reap the benefits of reflecting your mindset – positive, supportive, empowered and filled with possibilities.
The following information on mind power and exercises to help you reframe negative thoughts into positive ones are from one of the lessons in my 21 Day Create Your Inspired Life program. Try it on and leave me a comment below on how your life is impacted by shifting your negative thoughts into positive, empowering thoughts!
Ready? Let’s do this!
21 Day Create Your Inspired Life program
Lesson 6: Power of the Mind, Part I
“The quality of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts and ideas.” John Kehoe
Can I let you in on a little secret? Your mind is the key to your success. Yep, it’s true. It’s not how many hours you put in or how hard you work or who you know or how well-funded you are. Your level of success is defined by what you believe. If you can unlock and harness the power of your mind – your thoughts – you can design the life of your dreams.
Our minds make up our thoughts, beliefs and self talk. According to Marci Shimoff, author of Happy for No Reason, we have about 60,000 thoughts a day: one thought per second during every waking hour. Of those 60,000 thoughts, 95% are the same thoughts you had yesterday, and the day before and the day before that. Your mind is like a record player playing the same record over and over again. Sadly, for the average person, 80% of those habitual thoughts are negative. That means that every day most people have more than 45,000 negative thoughts.
Your mind has the chameleon ability to play the role of cheerleader or grim reaper. Importantly, there is a direct connection between what you let play in your mind and how you show up in life. If you don’t pay attention to what plays in your mind, you fall prey to its whim. Unfortunately, left unchecked, your mind can play on automatic pilot as the same thoughts run over and over again on a hamster wheel.
We cannot get to where we want to go with the same thoughts that got us here. As Albert Einstein observed: it’s insanity to do things the same way and expect different results. If we want to grow, we have to upgrade our thought processes, much as we have to upgrade the software on our computers.
If you want to change your circumstances, you have to change your thought process. Here is the good news. According to John Kehoe, an expert on mind power, “any thought put into your mind, and nourished regularly, will produce results in your life.”
Question: Do you know what plays in your mind throughout the day? If you want to know what you think about – take a look at your life. Stop right now and take an honest assessment of your life:
♦ Do you struggle making money, finding quality relationships and moving up the career ladder?
♦ Or do you create wealth with ease, enjoy nourishing relationships and have a fulfilling career?
The first scenario has a mindset that it’s hard to make money, to find quality relationships and find a fulfilling job. The second mindset supports life – it’s easy to make money, to enjoy quality relationships and create fulfilling job. If you want to move from the first to the second, which is possible, you have to change your internal programming to support the shift.
“Whether you believe you can or you can’t, you are right.” Henry Ford.
Your life will always reflect your thoughts and beliefs. Fortunately, a thought does not have to be permanent. You have the ability to change your mind, change your thoughts and ultimately, change your belief system. But you have to do the work.
Are you ready to shift your life to support your dreams? The first step is to start becoming aware of what stories are playing in your mind. Start paying attention to the thoughts running through your mind. This takes some practice since we are accustomed to our mind running on automatically pilot. What are your thoughts telling you? How often? When? If you have never done this work before, you will probably be surprised at how much that little voice inside your head talks to you and how defeatist it can be. Awareness of what this voice is telling you is the first step to changing it.
“In order to change external conditions, you must first change the internal. Most people try to change conditions and circumstances by working directly with those condition and circumstances. This always proves futile, or at the very best temporary, unless it is accompanied by a change of thoughts and beliefs.” John Kehoe
Once you’ve become aware of what your mind is telling you, determine if it is supporting your desired life or sabotaging it. If your mind is telling you that: you can’t do it, it’s hard, it’s impossible, it will never work, then your life will reflect those thoughts. In order to change your life, it’s time to replace these negative thoughts with empowering thoughts. I want to teach you to imprint a new way of thinking to replace the disempowering, negative thinking that is keeping you from living a fully expressed life.
Journal Prompt. Pull out your journal and favorite pens, grab your favorite beverage and get comfy. It’s time to be really honest with yourself and take a look at what is playing in your mind. As you go through this exercise, I want you to be gentle on yourself and do not judge yourself as you start to discover what’s playing in your mind. Sometimes, it’s a natural reaction to judge ourselves when we discover we’ve been thinking unproductive or disempowering thoughts. There is no need for judgment as you learn and discover more about yourself. Be compassionate, open minded and receive the knowledge you are learning.
First, create a list of the negative thoughts that fill your head. The ones that say:
I can’t________________________________
I’ll never be able to _______________________
I’m horrible at __________________________
It’s hard to _____________________________
I don’t know how to_______________________
It’s impossible to _________________________
There is no way I can_______________________
Now, create a second list with a new belief to support your desired life, dream or goal. You can reverse of the above list or create a more empowering belief. Keep it simple – use a few words that are fully supportive:
I can easily _______________________________
I excel at _________________________________
I embrace ________________________________
I know how to _____________________________
I expertly ______________________________
Here are some real-world examples of converting a disempowering thought to an empowering thought:
“I’m a klutz.” to “I move with grace and confidence.”
“I am not creative.” to “I embrace the artist within me.”
“I can’t run a marathon.” to “I can walk a mile.”
“It’s hard to make money.” to “Abundance flows with ease into my life.”
“I never know what to say.” to “I speak with ease and clarity.”
“I’m overwhelmed.” to “I’m blessed with opportunities.”
Practice these lessons for the next 30 days and see where your life takes you. Wherever it leads, it will be much more enjoyable on the positive path! Drop a note below in the comments or come on over to my Facebook Page and share your results! I’ll also be giving daily encouragement on my Facebook Page, so stop by for some inspiration and motivation. I’ll leave you with this parting quote for motivation:
“Train your conscious mind to think thoughts of success, happiness, health, prosperity, and to weed out fear and worry. Keep you conscious mind busy with the expectation of the best, and make sure the thoughts you habitually think are based upon what you want to see happen in your life.” John Kehoe
I help purpose-driven entrepreneurs upgrade their mindset, eliminate limiting beliefs and reprogram critical, negative self-talk so they can courageously and authentically use their voice, gifts and talents to make a bigger impact.
If you're ready to thrive and develop an unshakeable belief in who you are and what you can achieve, let's talk!
Carpe Diem!
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Hi Joan,
This 30-day positive mental attitude adventure of yours is really empowering. A lot of people need this in their lives. There is too much negativity in today’s society and people can get a dose of positive vibes even for just 30 days. Excited to know the results for you! Would love to try this out for myself. Thank you.
Erika Ann recently posted…3 Easy Ways You Can Motivate Your Team