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How you manage your self, what you do, how you act, each and every moment, every word you speak, motion you make, and action you take, or do not take, will determine how well anything in your life works for you.
Every action we take is first filtered through our feelings. How we feel about something will always determine or affect what we do and how well we do it.
Our feelings will directly influence our actions.
Your feelings about anything you do will affect how you do it. It doesn’t have to be feelings of like or dislike, joy or fear; all of your feelings affect your actions.
How you feel about your job, your mate, your family, your money, your health, your self, and your success, will determine how you behave in each of these areas. If your feelings are positive and productive, your actions will follow.
Your attitudes are the perspectives from which you view life.
Whatever attitude we have about anything will affect how we feel about it, which in turn determines how we’ll act about it, and that in turn determines whether or not we will do well.
What we believe about anything will determine our attitudes about it, create our feelings, direct our actions, and in each instance, help us to do well or poorly, succeed or fail.
Belief does not require something to be true. It only requires us to believe that it’s true.
In logical progression, what we believe determines our attitudes, affects our feelings, directs our behavior, and determines our success or failure:
1. Programming creates beliefs. 2. Beliefs create attitudes. 3. Attitudes create feelings. 4. Feelings determine actions. 5. Actions create results.
self-talk is a way to override our past negative programming by erasing or replacing it with conscious, positive new directions.
Self-talk is a practical way to live our lives by active intent rather than by passive acceptance.
It offers us the chance to stop being the old self and start to become a different, better self, a self which is no longer the product of conditioned response, but governed instead by personal choice.
Level 1 self-talk represents everything from our simplest misgivings to the worst fears we have about ourselves. It is our way of telling ourselves to hesitate, question our capabilities, and accept less than we know we could have done, had we only given ourselves a chance. It is our way of timidly hiding in the shadows instead of boldly thriving in the sunshine. There is no way to estimate the amount of havoc and misdirection that Level 1 self-talk wreaks in our lives. It clutters, blocks, and confuses. It turns self-assurance into self-doubt and chaos. It cripples our best intentions and
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When you think about it, why would anyone (once they know) want to use any self-talk that would program them to fail or do less than they could? Yet, that is exactly what most of us have done.
Level 2 self-talk is characterized by words such as “I need to...” or “I ought to...” or “I should.” Why does that work against us? Because it recognizes a problem, but creates no solution. When you say to yourself (or to someone else) “I really need to get more organized,” what are you really saying? You are saying, “I really need to get more organized...but I’m not.” When you complete the sentence, it is always, unconsciously, ended with an unspoken, but still programmed, Level 1 statement of negative self-talk. “I really should try to get to work on time.” “I’ve just got to lose some
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Instead of giving birth to dreams and accomplishment, Level 2 self-talk creates guilt, disappointment, and an acceptance of our own self-imagined inadequacies.
Level 3 is characterized by the words “I never,” or “I no longer.” In this level, you say, “I no longer have a problem dealing with people at work.” “I never eat more than I should.” “I never get upset in traffic.” “I no longer put off doing anything I want to get done.” When you move to Level 3, you are automatically beginning to rephrase old negative “cannots,” putting them behind you, and stating them in a positive new way that tells your subconscious mind to wake up, get moving, and make the change.
Remember, the subconscious mind will believe anything you tell it if you tell it long enough and strongly enough. It will simply go to work to carry out its new directives. Your subconscious mind will receive the new direction, create a new, more successful picture of you in your control center, and, over time, will convince you to put the cigarette out, put down the fork instead of eating that extra dessert, or close your mouth before you shout those angry words at a coworker or loved one. You no longer choose to maintain the habit that worked against your actions and your success. You choose
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Level 4 self-talk is characterized by the words, “I am...” “I am organized and in control of my life. I am a winner. I am healthy, energetic, enthusiastic, and I’m going for it. Nothing can stop me now. I like who I am. I am in tune, on top, and in touch, and going for it. I have determination, drive, and self-belief. I am living the life I choose, and I choose what’s right.”
notice that, once again, this self-talk is stated in the present tense. Always keep in mind that by stating your self-talk in the present tense, you’re not trying to kid yourself, or tell yourself something that isn’t true. What you’re actually doing is giving your brain a completed picture of the task. In essence you’re saying, “This is how I choose to be. This is who I want you to help me become.”
Instead of struggling with the past Level 1 self-talk, the Level 4 self-talker deals with problems and opportunities in a whole new, productive, self-activating way. The past procrastinator, who had been programmed to put things off, now says, “I do everything I need to do when I need to do it. I enjoy getting things done, and I enjoy doing things on time and in just the right way.” The past problem is turned around to begin creating ongoing daily success.
I want.” Level 4 self-talk is the positive self-talk that is the opposite of Level 1. It replaces helpless “cannot’s” with vibrant “Yes, I can’s.” Level 4 self-talk inspires, encourages, urges, and implores. It tugs at our hearts, touches our hopes, and paints in the pictures that color our dreams. It excites, demands, and pushes us forward. It strengthens the armor of our spirit and hardens the steel of our determination. This is the self-talk that challenges us to do battle with our fears and end up the victor. It is the self-talk which stirs us to action, fills us up with self-belief, and
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am a winner! I believe in myself. I respect myself and I like who I am. I have made the decision to win in my life, and that’s what I’m doing!”
Affirmation – A usually spiritually-oriented phrase, often general in nature, which affirms an overriding consciousness of unity and well-being. Self-Talk – Specific statements of self-direction designed to wire new neural pathways into the brain.
Starting right now, the moment you recognize why the self-talk you have used at Levels 1 and 2 hasn’t worked, stop using it. There’s no reason to use it any longer. Replace those two negative kinds of self-talk with the positive self-talk of Level 3 and level 4.
people who typically think positively, actually grow more neurons in the left prefrontal cortex of their brain. That area of the brain is, in part, responsible for our ability to seek alternative solutions to problems, deal with challenges, and maintain an even balance.
people whose thinking is typically negative, grow more neurons in the right prefrontal cortex of their brains. That’s the part of the brain where pessimism, uncertainty, and negative moods live.
The more time you spend in either the left or right prefrontal cortex of your brain––that is, the more time you spend being positive or negative––the more neurons you will grow in that area of the brain, and the more dominant that area will become. (This is why people who have the habit of being negative usually stay that way. They have grown more neurons in the “negative” part of their brain, so that part of their brain becomes dominant.)
Just “believing” everything will work out, without creating an action plan to solve the problem, will only end in disappointment, and any notion of becoming a true positive thinker will soon fade away.
When you decide to stop thinking negatively, and do not have an immediate, new positive vocabulary to replace the old, you will always return to the comfortable, old negative self-talk of the past. If you got rid of your old furniture and stored it in the garage, and you had no new furniture to replace it with, if I were to visit you again in three weeks, you would have all of your old furniture back in your apartment. You would probably have rearranged it, to make it look different, but would be the same old furniture, the same old programming you had in the first place.
The new mental furniture stands on the sturdy legs of self-assurance; you have replaced frustration and quiet resignation with the enthusiasm of promise and belief.
external motivation is temporary. External motivation is the kind that may wake you up, but will not keep you awake for long. External motivation is motivation which comes to you from the outside. It may influence you to make a change, but it cannot make the change for you. And it cannot keep you from drifting off course when the motivator is gone. It is the external coach who supports, encourages, demands, and rewards. But when the coach is gone, so are the support, the encouragement, the demand, and the reward.
If you are responsible in any way for the training, development, motivation, inspiration, or direction of other people, regardless of your field—whether you are a business person, educator, clergyman, parent, or friend—remember that the people you are talking to want to believe in the best you are giving them. But always remember that their progress toward accepting, believing in, and acting upon it, is first and always filtered through their own previous conditioning and programming. If you truly want to reach them, work first with their self-talk. It is the unconscious self-talk they are
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Any motivation that comes to you from an outside source, no matter how exciting or powerful that motivation may feel at the moment, cannot be stored by your brain. And that is why all motivation that comes to you from someone else is temporary.
If you’d like to get motivated––and stay motivated––you have to have the right self-talk. The right self-talk creates internal motivation, which, because of the way the brain works, is the only kind of motivation that lasts.
staying motivated is to practice being your own motivator.
Your internal coach is your strongest believer. With the right self-talk and the right programming, that coach will show you the best in yourself and help you achieve it. It will give you direction, strengthen your will, and give you belief. It should become your ultimate motivator. It is you.
Self-talk, on the other hand, deals with a much broader range of mental programs, and “permanently” rewires neural pathways in the brain through the use of conscious repetition.
But when you’re fully aware of your own self-talk, and every program you’re allowing to be wired in to your brain, you’re taking responsibility for yourself.
Personal responsibility is at the root of everything we think, do, conceive, fail at, or achieve in our lives. It is the bedrock of all individual action.
We are born, live, and leave this life entirely on our own.
No one else can ever live a single moment of our lives for us. That we must do for ourselves. That is responsibility.
active, daily self-talk, you, personally, are taking complete responsibility for yourself. You are consciously in control and in charge of the much broader scope of programs that affect every facet of your attitudes and your behavior.
1) Self-talk is not hypnosis, and it is not subliminal. Self-talk gives you the power to program your own mind, consciously, every day, and it leaves the responsibility up to you. 2) There are those who would try to program your mind for their purposes. Take responsibility for the programming of your mind. By not taking responsibility for our own thoughts, we leave our minds open to the whims of others. As individuals, we should be capable of exerting more control over our own minds, individually, than any outside control or influence which anyone else would like to have over us.
No idea, no matter how good, will work if it doesn’t get used.
Through a natural law of cause and effect, when we improve ourselves, the things we would like to have in our lives follow naturally.
Improve who you are, and by that same law, you will improve your life.
The more successful you become inside, the more successes you will automaticall...
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