“Your thoughts trigger images and pictures, and the emotions that go with them. These images and emotions trigger attitudes and actions. Your actions then have consequences and results that determine what happens to you”
Brian Tracy – Change Your Thinking Change Your Life
Here are some lessons I learned that involve thoughts.
4. Beware of fire ants
You may ask what kind of lesson this is. Seriously, on the one side it is good to watch out for fire ants, their bites pack a punch.
But that is not the actual life lesson I have learned. The ANTs I am talking about is Automatic Negative Thoughts. These are thoughts that you have automatically. Mostly when you have to change. And they have a similar sting!
Do you realize that we have a conversation going on in our mind ALL the time? We ask ourselves questions and then immediately come up with answers. Then based on the answer, we ask another question, and so on and so forth.
It is here that we should watch that ANT nest. It is here that the ANT's can be very destructive if we are not aware of it. Negative thoughts lead to negative questions that lead to negative answers. You have to fight these ANTs
How do we do that? Firstly you have to be aware of the presence of the Automatic Negative Thoughts or Thinking. Listen to that little voice in which you talk to yourself. Hear what it is saying. Then know that this is one area of your life in which you have full control. It is your little voice, when it asks a negative question, change it to a positive thought.
Like anything else, as you become aware and practice changing these thoughts, you develop your mind into a positive strong "muscle" and the negative thoughts will atrophy.
5. Learn to kick some butt
Sometimes it is good to kick some butt. That is however not the lesson I have learned.
Have you noticed when someone uses the word BUT, it is followed by mostly negative reasons to differ? Or excuses? This is part of the automatic negative thought process. You need to do something BUT you would rather not. You see some chocolate and you know you shouldn't even buy it BUT you do like it and you will only eat one block a week. Yea right. You have to call someone to deal with a problem BUT you put it off because it is almost time to go home, not a good time right now, excuses, excuses, excuses. Those are the ANT's working.
One thing I'm trying to do and believe me, this is an ongoing battle, is to watch out every time that I use the word " but". Once you are aware that some negative thought normally follows it, you can change it. Condition yourself to find something positive to follow "but". This way you will really kick some BUTs.
6. Watch your Language
This sounds sooo much like something my parents told me but looking back this is so true.
Tony Robbins, in his book Awaken the Giant within, talks about watching your TV. “TV” meaning transformational vocabulary. What he is saying is that you should watch out which words you use. Even if you don't say them aloud and is only using them in your thoughts, you will eventually believe it.
If whenever you feel down you tell yourself or even those around you that you are feeling depressed, eventually when you're down you will automatically be depressed. Our word choice is very important because it affects our emotions. If we use the same example again but this time say to ourselves "I'm not feeling good yet" we will get a totally different emotion than when we use the word "depressed."
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