Is Positive Thinking Really That Simple?

So is this really true? We are the ones who control the thoughts we think, so we can control the direction of our lives. In fact, our thoughts are probably the only one thing in life that we truly can have control of. So, positive thinking is a choice we can make. Oprah Winfrey, is one of the most successful people in the world. To quote Oprah, “I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we become.” Is it this power of concentrated positive thought that has led Oprah to be one of the most successful people in the world? I believe it is. I think that positive thinking is so powerful, that if we would harness it’s power and constantly think about, focus on and concentrate on what it is we want in a positive way, we can achieve it. After all, isn’t this how we achieved all of what we have today? Think about your life and what you have achieved. Didn’t you first create the thought in your mind of what you wanted, think positively about it and finally get the result? In other words, our thoughts are totally creative. Thinking positively about what we want is one of the most powerful forces know to getting what we want.

To quote another extremely successful person, W. Clement Stone, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” Whether thinking positively or negatively about situations, results, relationships, beliefs and feelings, we are in control, as we are constantly creating them by the way of our thoughts.  It’s amazing what happens when you think positively about a goal. You will begin to figure out how to achieve it. However, when you think negatively about a goal, your brain literally shuts down. The creative thought process disappears, and so does the achievement of the goal.

Positive Thinking is a Choice

Yes, positive thinking can help us get the results we want. Positive thinking is a choice we can make. Positive thinking should be a habit that we all learn to use, as it can shape our lives for the better.  You will find many resources on this site intended to motivate, inspire and spark you into making positive thinking useful. The goal of this self improvement article, is to help guide you in a direction that will help you in all that you do, by using positive thinking to your advantage. It’s up to you to expand your thinking and your life. Nobody else is going to do if for you. It’s true that it’s much easier to be swept away by circumstances that are out of your control, right? The distinction to make here, is that you are the creator of circumstance.  We can change our circumstances at will, by deciding to use positive thinking as a means to self improvement and personal change.

Final Thoughts

Is positive thinking going to help you succeed at achieving something, just because you’re thinking positive? The answer to this question is no! Just thinking positive alone, is not going to help you climb the mountain of success. If your looking to the west for the sun to rise, your going to be disappointed. You can think really positive about seeing that sun rise while facing west, but you’ll never see it for obvious reasons. If you have a worthwhile goal, and you know the exact steps to getting it, then, thinking positively when faced with challenges along the way, will help you create solutions and achieve breakthroughs. Remember, negative thinking is useful as well, if we use it to see what does not work. However, negative thoughts like, “I can’t do that”, “Why do I always screw up?”, and my favorite “I can never get things right!” will shut you down physically, emotionally and mentally.

Finally, no one is perfect. We all get down at times. Don’t think that you have failed if you keep getting negative. It’s habitual. We created these habits over time through repetition. So, by making positive thinking a practice, we can really begin to positively change our lives.

To contrast this, negative thinking would be thinking about things that dis-empower us. I think a useful way to combat negative thinking is to reject the negative thought as quickly as you can and replace it with something like “what I really meant was…” and make sure that the new thought is stated in the positive. We will always have negative thoughts. The key is not to dwell on them and remove them as quickly as possible.

I have an exercise for you to try. For 10 days, try to replace your negative, dis-empowering thoughts with positive thoughts. If you can do this, I think you will see a huge improvement in the quality of your life. To embed as a new habit, do this exercise for 30-45 days. Studies show that this is the time it takes to embed a subconscious habit.

Take for example a person who constantly thinks about something negative. Can this person be happy when they think of that situation? If that person’s primary focus in on a negative situation, I can tell you that while they continually focus on that situation they will be in a negative state of mind. How effective will this person be in producing positive results if they stay focused on that situation? What will this affect their destiny?

Keep in mind that we get exactly what we focus on the most. One of the greatest things that I have learned, is to focus most of my thoughts on what I want. It has helped me create a life full of great experiences and I am constantly and effortlessly creating and improving that each and every day. I’m not bragging, but want to point out that we become what we think about most of the time. I could easily digress, but I choose to learn from negative experiences.  Remember, life is full of positive and negative experiences and although we cannot control the responses of others, we can consciously control how we respond and feel about those situations. Think about the positives. Ask yourself, what can I learn from this situation? Also, think about what you don’t want from the experience. If you allow the experience to make you feel lousy, how will that affect your decision making in the present and future? How will that ultimately affect your life’s destiny?

Finally, here are some questions to ask yourself that will help improve how you think about situations:

1. What can I learn from this situation that will help me grow and succeed?

2. How can I create more fun and joy in my life on a day to day basis?

3. By responding intelligently and calmly to intense situations, what will be the benefit for everyone involved?

I have a question for you. Being that these questions direct your thoughts to create positive answers how will they affect your life’s destiny? As you can see what we choose to think is a powerful moulder and shaper of human destiny.  Choose to take control of your destiny by managing your thoughts.