“Once you begin using the formula I provided you you will discover many positive changes in your life. As with any process or program you need to continue with it. It is mental and spiritual nutrition. You don’t eat once and never eat again you eat to maintain your health and well being. In the same way you don’t just think one positive thought and never do it again. It is a daily exercise regime. Once you engage in the process and discover then fantastic benefits you want to continue and you will.

I have been sharing this process and these concepts for many decades now. I introduced people to my methods in personal development trainings that I conducted for the public and for businesses (and still do), in my Mind Design programs through my training company IDEA Seminars, in workshops and NLP trainings and seminars worldwide, and in my coaching and mentoring and consulting sessions.

I have seen and worked with scores and scores of people and have heard back from hundreds of people from all over who have changed their lives for the better using this transformational approach.  I released some of this material, the process, on Attitude Activator Audio Program, a guided relaxation program for activating your attitude whenever needed, in the early 90’s. Since then more and more people through live seminars and through the Attitude Activator have benefited in countless ways. This is fabulously rewarding for me at the personal level.

My point is – IT WORKS – so use it. I have shared it here with you so you too can improve your lives as many, many others have. If it is possible for any one person to make positive changes it is possible for you. Keep in mind, some others are not nearly as fortunate as you or I may be and they still have forged ahead and made a positive difference for themselves. If they can, we can. If I am able, you certainly can!”

Continuing from yesterday’s writing:

“When you begin to practice what I have suggested you begin to get free from limitations. You begin to free yourself from habitual conditioning, you begin to create space to be a new you and behave in a new way.  You begin to experience the world with more delight. You find yourself expanding your boundaries safely and wisely.

It is simple process, but it is not always easy.

The method I described is not hard either. It is whatever it is. It is what ever you perceive and deem it to be. Your thoughts about it determine whether you think you can or can’t do it. Your thoughts determine whether it is easy or difficult.  Whatever you think and conclude about it makes it so.

THIS IS THE POINT!!! PERCEPTION IS EVERYTHING!!!

Henry Ford said “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right.” He is correct. It is up to you whether you find it easy or hard, It is up to you whether you can or you can’t. It is up to you whether you will or won’t. It is completely up to you and how you think.

Some people try to shift the responsibility from themselves and their inner processes to others and the outside world. They may say ‘it is too hard, or she won’t help me, or he prevented me, or I don’t have enough money or time, or the economy sucks’. Instead of realizing it is not about ‘the other’ or ‘the outer world’ it is about how we think. Our thinking is what determines whether we move through the world with ease or not. One saying is, ‘Our attitude determines our altitude’.

There certainly are real world constraints, I am not saying there are not, but we can more readily overcome them when we think we are the kind of person who is able to. We won’t even bother trying if we think we can’t or that it’s too hard or that other’s or circumstances will prevent us.

I return to the notion of being in charge. Who is driving the car? Who is in the driver’s seat? The road may be rough or smooth, long or short, there may be detours or broken roads, even dead ends but it is up to you to steer yourself to your destination.

Face it, we just grew up used to whining and complaining. Either we complain ourselves or we listen to others. The media is full of it. So were many of  the adults around us while growing up and our peers. We grew up with it so we accept it as normal. Until someone points it out one may not even recognize they are doing it. Negativity fits us like our skin. It is not even that positivity is difficult its just that we have had so much practice doing otherwise.

So the time has come to stop being a back seat passenger in your automobile and take the wheel. Learn the new pathway to the new glorious mansion and enjoy the journey. Don’t you really want to anyway? Wouldn’t that be exciting?

Perception IS every thing.

I have said for decades, I have asked this question of countless thousands: What is it that stops most people from anything they want to do in life? What stops them from success, from happiness, from love, from riches? What stops most people?

A THOUGHT!!! A mental packet of energy. A thought combined with a feeling. If you think you can’t and don’t feel like you can or will you most assuredly won’t. YOU WON’T.

UNLESS you change the thought and feeling.

This is why Henry Ford is correct. Whether you think you are able to or you think you are not able to YOU are right. Your thoughts, your thinking determines where you go and how far you get. Little else has such power.

SO a thought can stop you. It is insidious actually because one little ole negative thoughts invites all his nasty friends and family to join him, resulting in ‘woe is me’ thinking and ‘bad feelings’. But if a negative thought can have a Pity Party then a positive thought can do likewise in the opposite manner. One little positive thought can transform and invite so that you have a Power Party. So if a thought has that much power then you want to manage your thoughts.

When you begin thinking positive you may have many negative thoughts to over come, but don’t resist them, it isn’t about fighting them. Fighting negative thinking is just focusing on the negative. It is like the ultimate joke, the prank. Fighting the negative means you are hooked into focusing on the negative and WHATEVER YOU FOCUS ON EXPANDS!

Recognize and accept them and then re-direct them.

STOP – Take a deep Breath!!! Remember. Go to Neutral Then Shift focus.

One positive thought can throw a positive Power Party too. Then all the friends and relatives show up and before you know it you can be feeling good. You just have to make room for this possibility. Because you may have never done so in the past, because it is not what you automatically do, at this time you have to consciously choose what you think.

It is all a matter of awareness and good taste. You become aware of the need to think more positively (most of the time during your day) and you begin to do this. Good taste means choosing really nice positive thoughts and nourishing them and not returning to or nourishing those nasty negative ones. Whichever you focus on you will get more of them. So, I think it is wise to chose the best.

Remember, if you think you are defeated you are. If you believe you can win you at least have a chance. If you think it is difficult and you can’t do it, well yup, you probably won’t. Don’t blame others, don’t blame the world, don’t even blame yourself (this is truly poor taste) just own up to it. Take responsibility and realize you won’t go uphill thinking downhill thoughts.

This is the point!!! PERCEPTION IS EVERYTHING!!!!

We have opportunities when we consider them opportunities. We have challenges when we consider them challenges. Nothing is actually one way or the other. It is only as we label it.

If we label something as hard it may very well be hard. Still, you could  surprise yourself with how easy it actually is, when you give it a try. This has occurred for me. Have you ever had this happen for you? Said another way, our thoughts OR our beliefs, IF NOTHING ELSE, set the framework with how we see and experience the world around us. Sometimes we are more accurate in our assessment than other times. Some times we are WAY off base.

Have you ever tried to convince another person, especially, a child, that it they just go, if they just try it, the will have a great time?They don’t believe you, they don’t care and they are convinced it will be otherwise. However, once there they play or hang out and have a marvelous time. Thinking back on it they may not even be sure why they did not want to go or try something in the first place. Has this ever been you? Have you ever been the one refusing to try something? I sure have been.

I am aware there are counter-examples anyone can provide here. No one analogy is ever perfect and all encompassing. But here to if you are always looking for the counter-example if you are always saying ‘yes but’ or ‘nope, what about this’ then recognizing this about yourself right now should reveal to you how you have learned to think (up until now) and how you process and what examples you look for. It should tell you a lot about how you and others may get along. There is nothing wrong with what you do, I am just pointing out a tendency you may have.

If you tend to nearly always look for the counter argument then this is something you have learned to do, it is an habitual way you think. Don’t get me wrong, I grew up thinking that way, and I still do, but I have learned to think otherwise too.

Our thoughts determine who we are, how we feel, what we do and whether it is simple, easy, fun or not. This is what is typically meant when we say our thoughts create our reality.

We make it so by how we regard it. If you want your life to change you have to change things in your life. What we think about we become AND we get what we think about. Your thinking sets your boundaries.

You alone determine whether you are a ‘can do it person’ or a ‘can’t do it person’ by how you think about it.

Whether you believe the world is a great place or a terrible place, whether you think it is an abundant universe or believe in lack it is all up to HOW YOU think about it. Our thoughts determine our reality SO your thoughts determine yours.

As it has been said “You are today where your thoughts brought you. You will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you. You can not escape your thoughts.’

I’ll give you a few fascinating examples. For example, you come home put your keys down and later go to look for them where you placed them but cannot find them. They are there but you don’t see them. You look and look but nope not there. Then all of a sudden voila’ they are there right where you put them. Have you ever had anything like this happen?  You look right at what you are wanting to find but you do not see it. While it actually is right there, momentarily at least, for you it does not exist.

Do you know how they train fleas. They collect flees and put them in an aquarium. Over the top they place a glass plate. The flees jump up and hit the plate over and over. They learn this is as far as they will be able to hop. After a few days they remove the glass and most, if not all the flees remain in the aquarium. You can perform the same experiment with flies. Catch some flies, put them in a jar and put some plastic wrap over the top. The flies bump up against the plastic and after a while decide that is as far as they are able to go. You can take off the plastic wrap and most if not all the flies will remain and even die in the jar.

They have made what researchers call a ‘premature cognitive commitment’ which means they decide on the  boundaries and then live within them. It is premature because they don’t know that you will remove the boundary, yet they continue to live as though it were in place. They are committed. The word cognitive of course means thoughts.

We are limited by our own ‘premature cognitive commitments’. We don’t have all the information and we don’t know what will change tomorrow. We live from beliefs and from thoughts we made previously. Then we habitually maintain these thoughts and these limitations.

BUT we no longer have to. We can begin to live and think differently. Understand now you can begin by choosing what you will think. Choose the best thoughts and discover new freedom. Learn that you can live, you can be and have whatever you decide you can.

You need to decide to believe you are worth it. You may want to begin to think there is plenty for everyone and if someone else is able to get rich so are you. You might as well consider that you deserve to be happy, healthy and wealthy. Decide now the future you want to have and take charge of your thinking. ‘You will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you’ so choose the very best thoughts.” Rex Sikes

More tomorrow. I hope you will find blessings everywhere you go and fill your day with smiles.

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