I’d like to use a good analogy I read in The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz.
In it, he states that your mind has two very capable workers. One called Mr. Triumph and one called Mr. Defeat.
Call anyone of them and they will snap to attention. Feed them any statement or question and they will search your entire brain at the speed of light and provide hundreds of reasons to back it up at the drop of a hat.
My life sucks. (Mr.Defeat snaps to attention and runs a google search in your brain). Mr. Defeat will then proceed to rattle off 100 reasons why your life sucks. Down the abyss you go.
My life is great! (Mr. Triumph snaps to attention and runs a google search in your brain). Mr. Triumph will then proceed to rattle of 100 reasons why your life is great. Up you go.
Now, the more you use either one of these workers, the stronger and faster they become.
Unfortunately, most people choose to exercise Mr. Defeat way too often, and as a result Mr. Defeat becomes the primary mode of thinking.
You’ve got to fire Mr. Defeat and only put Mr. Triumph to work.
Yes, cheesy names but the point gets across nonetheless.
You have the power to choose who to use. Choose wisely, because your choice will lead you down two very different paths. Mr. Defeat will always lead to inaction, loss of personal power, depression, and hopelessness. Mr. Triumph will always lead you to action, happiness, personal power, control, and optimism.
You want to get to the point where Mr. Triumph is the only one working in your brain, but that’s easier said than done.
The reason why people fail when it comes to positive thinking is because they have not habituated it.
They have not instilled in them the habit of calling Mr. Triumph each and every time, automatically, without giving it any thought.
You want to get to the point where any situation that comes at you in life, you will automatically give it the best positive meaning, therefore guiding you to the best possible action. When you choose the best possible action, it makes it that much easier to choose the best positive meanings to the given situations stemming from the best possible actions that were chosen. You then get caught in a positive feedback loop that will carry you straight to the top.
So how can you habituate positive thinking?
Realize the significance and importance of your thoughts and the effects they have on your life.
Don’t underestimate the power of positive thinking, even when it applies to the smallest of situations. We all know of the butterfly effect, in that one small change can lead to a huge change later on down the road. It’s not enough to be positive 50% of the time and negative 50% of the time.
The difference between positive and negative thinking can be as big as choosing to walk down two of the most diverged roads in the forest.
You don’t get a call back from an interview you thought you did well in.
Mr. Defeat will call you a loser and a total failure, resulting in depression, anger, and inaction.
Mr. Triumph will see it as a sign that you must change something, leading you to research more on interviewing skills, which in turn, helps you ace the next interview, landing you an even better job.
Never would’ve happened if Mr. Defeat was used.
Be aware there’s always two sides to every situation.
Simple enough, yet we always seem to choose the negative side by default. Blame it on society, blame it on negative conditioning during childhood, blame it on whatever. You’ve got to realize there are always two sides to a coin.
Learn to separate those two sides called fact and perception.
Fact: I don’t have a job.
Negative perception: I’m a loser.
Positive perception: Great! An opportunity to get an even better job than before!
Negative perception/thinking always leads to inaction and loss of personal power.
Positive perception/thinking always leads to action and increase of personal power.
Ask yourself the right questions.
Asking yourself the right questions about the situation can guide your thinking to the positive side. Instead of asking yourself “Why does this always happen to me?” whenever something bad happens to you, try asking yourself:
What can I learn from this situation?
How can this situation make me grow as an individual?
What’s the best part about this situation?
In what ways do I benefit from this situation?
Questions have the power to reframe the situation easily so use it to your advantage.
Think of the future rewards your positive thinking can lead to.
I call this projecting WAY into the future via the butterfly effect. There might be times when we get discouraged with positive thinking, because you don’t see results as fast as you would like. When that happens, try thinking of the butterfly or domino effect resulting from that one step you took to think positive of the situation.
For example, a driver cuts you off on the way to work. You’re pissed off, but you apply some positive thinking. You think:
“Maybe he/she’s just having a rough day. We all have our rough days. Or maybe he/she is on his way to an important meeting and was running late. I won’t let that bother me. In fact, I should take note that I should always leave early when I have an important meeting so I won’t drive like that and get into an accident. I feel much better now. Wow, I’ve exercised my own personal power here. I didn’t let this situation get to me. I feel great!”
From that one small event and that one application of positive thinking to it, you can think of the multiple future rewards it leads to and feel great about it.
Edit: (one of my readers have pointed out another terrific way to harness the power of positive thinking so I’ve included it verbatim in my post. Thanks go to Peter for doing this)
Start your day with positive thinking.
“Start your day with positive thinking. Sit and just think about all the blessings in your life. Even if it is just for 5 minutes, do this every day in the morning. At first it will seam weird and much like a waste of time but remind yourself, it is only 5 min (or whatever you choose). With practice the positive thinking will seam more natural and this 5 min will give a tremendous payout later in the day. You will be ready to think positively when the situation calls for it, this morning workout will give you readiness.” – Peter
If you rinse and repeat these steps, you will find positive thinking to be much easier and fun to do actually, believe it or not, and that’s when you’re on your way. It’ll soon become second nature and that is the best place to be. Nothing will faze you.
Imagine always choosing to think positive for every situation, which leads to positive action, which in turns leads to positive situations, making it even easier to choose to think positive of those situations, loop that a billion times and what a life that would be!
So in conclusion:
Realize the significance and importance of your thoughts and the effects it has on your life.
Be aware there’s always two sides to every situation.
Ask yourself the right questions.
Think of the future rewards your positive thinking can lead to.
Start your day with positive thinking by counting your blessings.
And you will find yourself harnessing the power of positive thinking.
