How we think about something will have a profound effect on the outcome of whatever it is we are trying to achieve. We often hear about the power of positive thinking, but consider for a moment that there may also be a power of negative thinking. Growing up, I had very little self-confidence. As a kid I suffered from asthma and this prevented me from being any good at sports. Nobody wanted me on their football or rugby team, because I was pretty awful at sports.
If I ran 100 yards I would be wheezing and fighting for breath. There were all sorts of limitations put on what I could and could not do by my asthma. Because nobody ever wanted me on their team, I started believing I was useless at everything. Gradually, as I grew older and moved into business, I slowly but surely started to see that I had far more ability than I ever thought possible. Gradually I became good things, and gradually I started to see the fruits of my efforts. Over time, I developed a lot of self-confidence and I became a very positive thinker. Confidence can be a little bit like a snowball rolling down a hill. As you start to see that you are very good at things, and you start to see the results of your actions, then it can give you even greater confidence to set even bigger goals.
As Henry Ford once said “whether you believe you can or believe you can’t you are right”. This really applies to everything we set out to achieve in life. Belief in our own abilities determines everything. If we don’t believe that we can achieve something, then despite all our efforts we can usually be prevented from achieving it. You see, over time and through lots of difficult experiences we can gradually build up all sorts of negative beliefs about what is possible and is not possible for us.
It is this accumulation of subconscious beliefs that actually controls what we can achieve in our life. If it’s true that hardship, disappointments and big challenges can gradually close us down to innumerable possibilities in life, then it’s really important that we learn how to overcome these subconscious beliefs. We can gradually become a positive thinker, just like we can gradually become a negative thinker. When we start to stretch our realm of possibilities by setting goals for ourselves and achieving them, we gradually start to become more positive, and develop more self-confidence and belief in what we can achieve. But even if we become abundantly positive and confident, as I managed to do many years ago, positivity can still be swept away through challenging experiences. It is true to say that we never reach a plateau where we are full of confidence and positivity, or that we will never be shaken from that state.
It is the truth to say that within all of us is positive and negative. Light and dark. Wisdom and disillusion. Depending on how we manage our own minds, and the experiences that we go through, will determine whether positivity or negativity will dominate our lives. Several years ago, I went from being very positive to becoming quite negative, and this happened as a result of extreme hardship. Having gone from a teenager who believed that they could not do anything, gradually to becoming very optimistic and positive and confident, my positivity was all swept away and very quickly. Having been very successful in business, I made the mistake of trusting the wrong people, and making the wrong investments. Over a short period of time I went from being a millionaire to losing every cent in my entire world.
When you reach the stage where you don’t have any money to feed your wife or new-born baby son, then it can be incredibly fighting. This is exactly what happened to me, and when you are losing vast amounts of money every single week it is very hard to remain positive and optimistic. I definitely went from being positive to being negative, and expecting the worst. So as I said a moment ago in life we don’t reach a fixed stage where we never regress. Everything depends on the degree of control we have over our mind and how we face our most difficult experiences. Within every great hardship lies the seed of enormous growth and benefit, even if we do not see this at the time. It took me some time before I started to see the value in this incredibly painful and frightening experience. Because my thoughts had become predominantly negative, and I was expecting more and more difficulty, that’s exactly what I experienced. I experienced more of the same.
My subconscious mind became dominated by fear, uncertainty and I constantly listened to my negative inner voice that kept telling me that I was useless, and that I’d lost my abilities, and that I really would not be able to change my circumstances again. Then when you experience so many different challenges that reaffirm to you that your negative beliefs are true, then there is even greater momentum towards suffering and pain and fear and more negative experiences. This can be a vicious circle and it can be extremely difficult to transform unless you know what to do in order to change it.
We all have positive and negative within us. Likewise, most of us give in to our own inner negativity most of the time. It’s because most people give in to their own limitations that they may not achieve anything remarkable during their lifetime. However, the fact is you really are capable of incredible things providing you adopt the right mind-set, and make constant, consistent efforts towards changing your circumstances.
A great man once said “strive to become the master of your mind, rather than letting your mind master you”. Unfortunately, most of us allow our minds to run rampant and control us totally. But it is possible to take back that control, and to weaken the effect that your negative thoughts and feelings have over you and what happens to you. For me the crucial turning point came when I rediscovered the incredibly transformative power of gratitude. By bringing up gratitude every 30 minutes of the day, I gradually started to reprogram my mind towards positivity and expecting positive changes in the future. The effect was incredible. Within only a few days I started to see coincidences or synchronicities starting to appear again. Although the entire situation took time to change completely, positive change began the moment I started to use the power of gratitude to transform everything. Gratitude really does have this power.
At any moment of our lives we are expressing to some extent either gratitude or complaint. Appreciation or blame. If our tendency is to complain, then this keeps us locked into a negative pattern of loss, where we experience loss instead of gain. On the other hand, when you start to reprogram your life with gratitude and begin to appreciate even the smallest things in your life, then your gratitude becomes a powerful magnet that will draw into your life all sorts of wonderful benefits and happiness. Gratitude is your powerful and transformative happiness magnet!
Even though your thoughts and feelings really do have an effect on your environment, and draw into your life all sorts of experiences based on your dominant thoughts and feelings this also works on a physical level in your own body. Scientists have observed that when we feel anger or other negative emotions, then all sorts of toxic chemicals are released into our bloodstream that actually affects our health and our brain itself. You really can think and feel your way into becoming ill, and into an experience where your brain and your mind operates at a far lower threshold. It’s even possible to think in such a way where you become less intelligent.
The expression “if you don’t use it, you lose it” is so true. On the other hand, by adopting a far more positive mind-set, and taking actions based on those positive thoughts and feelings, you will release into your bloodstream chemicals that are beneficial to your body. It’s also possible to increase your intelligence greatly, when you continually put your brain to task. So, if you have ever found yourself in a vicious circle of negative thoughts and feelings and reactions, then you can change everything by learning how to reprogram your thoughts and feelings. I go into this in great depth in my training programme The Millionaire Mind Secrets. This program can completely transform your circumstances, and enable you to achieve all your goals in life. Learn more by clicking the following link
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