So remember: We find the best thoughts and feelings we can and fill up each moment in our day. We seek to find the best we can discover and we deliberately choose to focus on these. This builds our ability to look for and to find great things. It builds our ability to make positive choices.

Since we deliberately do this it means we are taking charge each time we decide to and then follow through. We are putting ourselves in control. As we repeatedly do this we reinforce building a positive habit.

Just as we gain results by repeated physical exercise we gain results by mental exercise. Just as we are able to do more and gain more energy through physical conditioning we gain more energy and momentum through this mental conditioning. We are taking charge of our thinking process and building a powerful positive habit.

Another useful, powerful, yet simple way to stay focused on the positive is to seek to discover what is good and new in your moment to moment experience. What is good about your on going experience right now? What might you discover that is new, or that you had not previously considered?

You build this awareness and focus by asking yourself the question ‘What is good and new right now’.  Look to find the best answer you can find in the moment. Really ask yourself and look. Consider what is good about right now and what is new.  What IS good and new about me, the situation, others, this instant?  Anything you place your attention on positively counts. 

Ask this often and you will be surprised how many things you now notice you never paid attention to or that you took for granted. Celebrate and enjoy these discoveries. Our life is made  up of moments. When we enrich the moments we enrich our overall life.

Also I don’t let the news or talking heads or experts in media much room to influence me. The media seems determined to scare us, bring us down, inflate sad, bad, disappointing news and push us to buy or vote or invest not always in our own best interests. They have their own agenda and I don’t believe I am very important to them as anything other than a consumer. While I may watch or listen from time to time to keep  informed, I steer clear from buying into it.

Keep in mind that media works by repetition too. If they keep saying something loud, enough and long enough and if it scares you or riles you up voila’ they have exerted some control over you. I always think NOW is a good time to claim it back.

Recognize this: that they use to scare us what we use to scare us. They use the very same process, in their way to make bad that we use to make positive changes. It is the same process we us this is important to understand.

You don’t have to learn to do anything new. You don’t have to add in anything from the outside. You only have to learn how to use what you already are doing. This is an important point!

You only have to learn HOW to direct your thoughts and this is what you are learning to do. Isn’t that good and new?

You learn to make it a habit to control your thoughts instead of letting them control you. You only have to think for yourself instead of having someone else think for you.

Isn’t that liberating? You don’t need anything else. You only have to work with what you already have. You only have to do what you are already doing. You are only taking charge of the process so that it works for you the way you want it to. You become the master and your brain becomes the servant.

So I pay attention to what I think on the inside and I pay attention to what others may want me to think from the outside. I respect them and their opinion but I don’t have to adopt it or adhere to it as they do. That too is very freeing. We can listen if we must or if we wish, we can respect their opinion, and yet, we do not have to make it our own. We can allow them to think and feel and behave however they do, without having to accept it for ourselves. We decide for ourselves, not them.

Since is true that not everyone is out to separate me from my dollar or make me afraid I seek out the good sources to listen and learn from. I

I maintain this attitude with family, friends, colleagues and strangers. I can respect them and their opinion but I am free to think, feel and act differently. I think they are entitled to believe whatever they wish I just don’t have to buy into it.

I will respect them and not belittle them, I will allow them to think their thoughts. I do not have to convince them to change them but accept them as they are. Instead, I will work on myself, improve myself and I will shower them with love. I be grateful they are in my life and consider them perfect as they are.

But then, since someone could rain on my parade, I just don’t discuss much of what I am working on for myself. I tend to play it close to the vest without trying to appear secretive. I keep what I am working on secret so that I don’t get bombarded by their doubts and advice.

Even when they have the best intentions their energy about ‘my work on myself or my future’ can be a downer. If that is the case I let them be rather than make a point of arguing over my self work.

They don’t necessarily see things as I do nor do they care or wish to adopt my point of view.  They may not think what I want is possible. I believe that I don’t have to live with other people’s limitations in thinking about what may be possible. 

This is the way I keep the energy to myself and don’t dissipate it. Typically, we discuss our problems to weaken their hold on us, we talk them out to release the energy. In order to maintain the positive energy I don’t talk much about what I am doing. I reserve it for myself.

Still, I do appreciate wise counsel and do seek feedback as necessary. I always want to stay open and welcome input and make adjustments as necessary. Still I consider the source I seek it from important. I don’t want  a ‘yes’ person who never tells me I may be incorrect, but I also don’t want ‘energy vampires’ to zap my efforts either. I seek positive wise people for guidance.

Regarding the advice from experts: experts have historically been wrong about many things. Experts thought the world was flat and thought those who believed otherwise wrong. The experts believed the sun revolved around the earth, the experts believed we could never fly or climb Everest, or break a four minute mile. They have been incorrect about many things.

Experts have frequently said something couldn’t be accomplished and then someone went and accomplished it. At times experts are correct at other times they are not. I prefer to determine what is or is not possible for me. Again, I seek wisdom in this area.

I don’t care what my genetic makeup may, or what anyone tells me about heredity. People considered disabled or unable have proved themselves beyond capable countless times. They have proved the experts wrong. This occurs many times in medicine where a dire prognosis made is proven completely wrong.

People told they may never walk again have walked. People told they would die have survived and lived long and well because they refused to accept the bad news as the final authority.

Obviously, not everyone can or will for a variety of reasons but there are those who do. Some have overcome incredible odds,  It is important what we believe and determine what is possible for ourself. I’d rather try and fail while maintaining the best attitude than never try at all. A famous statement by Henry Ford is, “If you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right.’ It is important what we think.

Here is what I absolutely I know. I may attempt something and not make it as intended or in the time frame I hoped but I know once I quit the matter is sealed. If I never give up there is still hope. If I keep going I may need to adjust what I am doing to better my chances for a successful outcome, but in order to reach my destination I must keep at it. I can move forward everyday at least by inches if nothing else. I know if I never try nothing will change.

I know if I wait to begin I will wait and wait. I know once I begin, however difficult at first it seems, it gets easier. Sometime starting something is exciting and sometimes for some people it seems the most difficult. For me, I know once I jump in it is important to keep going by doing a little bit on my behalf each day. 

I keep in mind a phrase: “If it is to be IT is up to ME.” Another phrase I embrace is “Quitters never win and Winners never quit.”

I like mottos, and brief to the point quotes. It helps organize and keep me on target. I mentioned some today which I repeat frequently to myself.  I share them again:

You become what you think about.

Birds of a feather flock together.

If you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right.

If it is to be it is up to me.

Quitters never win and winners never quit.

Sometimes we  have to make things happen even in the face of all opposition. No one ever said self change was easy, but I have found it far easier than I thought it to be at one time. Though challenges continue to arise they have become easier to handle and I have gotten better at directing myself back to my personal best sooner, rather than later.

Everything I have been doing and discussing in these blogs has been working for me. It has made an incredible difference in my life. Which reminds me of another saying I keep in mind.

‘If you want your life to change you have to change things in your life’

Add it to the others and you have some powerful maxims to take with you and guide you each day.

Most importantly, if I am able to do any of this, if I am able to implement these ideas and practice these principles, YOU CAN.

So do for yourself the best you can today!  Once you do you will be delighted to discover how much farther you go as a result of simply beginning.

Step forward into a bright new future for yourself. Become the person you always wanted and knew you could be. Do what you love and enjoy and make your life the life worth having. You can do this, you can begin right now” Rex Sikes

Have an incredible blessed day!

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