How to change your thoughts and change your life

Change your thoughts change your life

What you are today is a reflection of your thoughts. The material provided here will give you a fairly good idea on how to change your thoughts and change your life. We are incessant thinkers, and thoughts are the product of the stimuli that we receive through our five senses. An average person has 30,000 thoughts a day. Every thought that we think is labeled and filed in our mind. We are habitual thinkers; we are used to a particular way of thinking and we are happy with it.

Our thoughts are predominantly negative in nature, and this is because every stimulus (people or events) in the environment is perceived as good or bad, ‘like’ or ‘don’t like’. Emotions and judgments are stuck to the person or event that is perceived and filed for future reference. All our present thoughts are coloured by these archives. This system of thinking may not always be the healthiest. Thoughts have tremendous power and we need to direct them rightly.

Have you ever looked at a vacant piece of land? Weeds, prickly shrubs and brambles cover the place if there is a little moisture. Our mind is like this too; if we allow any kind of thought without discretion into it, we will eventually find that, all kinds of unwanted vegetation grow there. We need to take thought about what we want to fill our minds with. Not only that we need to cultivate thoughts that will make us productive, we need to retrain our mind.

How to change your thought?

We are unaware of the thoughts we think, we are always on auto pilot, doing so many tasks simultaneously that we even forget that there is a thought process going on. Thoughts cause us to act or speak in a particular way. Repeated thoughts and actions cause us to form habits; habits form our character or disposition. It is imperative to review our thought life, correct negative thoughts, replace them with positive thoughts and make it work for us. Ask yourself why it is that some people achieve much more than you in probably same circumstances and same period.

Where do we start?

“We are always getting ready to live but never living.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Evaluate your thoughts

Don’t put off what you can do today for another day, get to work today. We often find that the fear of failure, the fear of the unknown deters us from embracing change. These fears need to be overcome as change is the only way to progress. Thoughts can be modified based on the knowledge that you acquire on that particular subject, which in turn causes change in your belief system.

The first exercise in changing your thoughts and changing your life is by simple evaluation of your thoughts. I suggest that you get yourself a fresh writing pad and make sure that there is no disturbance while you do this exercise. Don’t think of anything specific; write down the thoughts that cross your mind as they come for atleast fifteen minutes. Now take a look at all thoughts and categorize them as positive, negative, critical of self or others and baseless or junk. If you do this sincerely for about three or four days, you will come up with a fairly good number of thoughts that point the direction of your thought life.

Eliminate negative thoughts replace with positive thoughts

You need to take at all negative thoughts about yourself and deal with them in the right way. Negative thoughts always work against you. If you think, ‘I am no good at this job’, it is baseless- if someone has employed you, it is because you are good at something. A negative statement labels you as ‘no good’, leaving you with no hope or means of improving yourself. Engaging in negative thoughts and working hard to succeed is like having your cell phone switched off and trying to remain connected.

What you need to do is take that blanket statement that is not the truth and modify it, thus giving yourself scope for improvement. Find out your strengths and focus on them, gain more knowledge in the areas where you are weak. This puts you in a position to change the way you look at your potential.

Critical or judgmental thoughts about yourself only instill irrational fears in you. They only mean that you need to improve your knowledge base in those areas and modify your beliefs based on knowledge you have gained. If critical or judgmental thoughts are about others, you have to ensure that you are not biased. Try to understand their point of view; don’t jump to conclusions based on your limited knowledge of their circumstances. Make sure, that anger and bitterness towards them is not making you ineffective. Let go and forgive, it helps you recoup your energy and concentration and allows you to pursue your goals.

Baseless fears and thoughts need to be trashed immediately. Are you wondering why the positive thoughts are left untouched? Positive thoughts need to be enhanced and written down as statements of self affirmation . These need to be repeated to yourself and vocalized everyday! These are power affirmation or positive affirmation that revitalizes your thought life.

Replace negative thoughts with positive ones

Another way of handling negative thoughts is to substitute or replace them with positive thoughts that are realistic. For example if you are upset that you are not earning enough as a writer on the net, you need to look at it from another perspective. You are sharpening your tools at no cost, people are reading the material and reviewing it freely, you are obviously making a difference somewhere or in someone’s life. That would be a good motivator for a start. You will go on to find what you wanted. Overcome any unacceptable habits that are coming in the way of your success rightaway.

Changing thoughts can change your life

Do not live in an idealistic world

Most of the opportunities that we have in life are over-looked because we are waiting for something to happen. Speculation and wishful thinking rule our minds. It is good to have visions and dreams, but these need to be acted on and converted into reality. The ‘if only’, ‘should have’ and ‘would have’ statements are only excuses for not being able to achieve something. They do no take us in any direction other than self pity. Self pity is the biggest hurdle to positive action. To live a successful life we need to work on our thought life, direct our thoughts in the right direction and program our mind for success.

Be Alert

Now that you are on the job of transforming your thoughts and making it productive, you need to be alert. If you find yourself going back to the same way of thinking, check your step, admit you are wrong, correct your thinking and go on. This may be like weeding or pruning and enables better growth. This may be tedious initially; you will soon become conscious of your thoughts and be able to objectively view them.

If you react emotionally to a particular situation, you are more likely than not to be unreasonable or irrational. These thoughts that are brought on by feelings need to be corrected or modified at the earliest instance. Right thinking and aligning emotions to them is paramount to success.

Be unified in approach

Everyone wants to succeed, but not all our thoughts are directed towards success. Consider this: on the one hand you want a promotion, on the other you are thinking that promotion will never come your way. Even though you are working hard, your negative thoughts do not allow you to work at your confident best, you are under performing. It is important to be in complete control over your thought life and be singular in approach. Focus on winning.

Change your thoughts - change your attitude - change your life

Change your attitudes

As your thoughts are set right your attitudes change. Your fierce dislikes and tough stances are now being modified and changed. You learn to view failure as a means to grow. Your irrational fears are addressed and you look at circumstance that you face as opportunities to explore. Your fear of the unknown is now eroded and you are up to taking a challenge. There is one more thing that needs to be handled. Don’t discount the positive side of life. For example, saying, ‘Promotions never come my way, it happens only to my friends’. This is irrational and the probability of promotion is the same for every one in your cluster. Focus on positives and expect good to happen.

Persistence pays . Work hard at taking charge over your thought life. Never give up .

Life is not always about doing. It is also about being- being positive, happy, kind, etc. Remember that we are human beings and need to Be.