Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life: How to Unlock Your Full Potential for Success and Achievement (29 page)

The good news, however, is that how you interpret an event is under your control. It is a matter of choice.You determine how you are going to feel and react by how you choose to explain a situation to yourself. Choose to put a positive spin on it, whatever it is. You are in charge.

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MAKE IT SIMPLE

When you verbalize your goals in the form of positive affirmations, you should use words that your subconscious can easily understand and go to work on. Make your statements simple and practical. For example, “I like myself ” is personal. “I’m the best” is personal and positive. And “I love my work” is personal, positive, and in the present tense.

These are the kinds of affirmations that are immediately accepted by your subconscious mind as commands. They have an im-ccc_tracy_10_179-200.qxd 6/23/03 4:16 PM Page 189

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mediate impact on how you think and feel about yourself. They instantly boost your self-esteem and self-confidence. To remain optimistic, you must be continually talking to yourself in terms of the way you
want to be
rather than the way things are at the moment.

In neurolinguistic programming, the way that you talk to yourself about what is happening to you is called your “interpretive style.” The way you interpret things is a key part of changing your thinking. The question is always whether you interpret things that are happening around you in a positive or negative way. Remember, the optimist sees the glass as half full while the pessimist sees the glass as half empty. Choose to be an optimist.

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BECOME AN INVERSE PARANOID

The multimillionaire W. Clement Stone started off selling newspapers on the streets of Chicago at the age of 12. He went on to build Combined Insurance Company of America, and died recently at the age of 100 worth more than $800 million. He was a great inspiration to thousands of people, and was famous for his habit of being an “inverse paranoid.”

A paranoid is someone who believes that people are conspiring against him or her. An
inverse
paranoid, in contrast, is a person who is convinced that the world is conspiring to make him or her
successful
. An inverse paranoid insists upon interpreting everything that happens as part of a great plan leading to success. W. Clement Stone used to respond to every difficulty with the emphatic statement, “That’s good!” Then he would concentrate his attention on finding out what was good about the situation. And he always found something, even if it was just a valuable lesson.

If you change the definition of a problem to a
situation
, a
challenge
, or an
opportunity
, your response to the problem will be positive and constructive, rather than negative and angry. If you look at every problem as a potential opportunity, you will almost always find within the problem an opportunity or benefit that you can take advantage of.

Norman Vincent Peale used to say, “When God wants to send you a gift, He wraps it up in a problem.” The bigger the problem that you have, the bigger the gift—in the form of valuable lessons, ccc_tracy_10_179-200.qxd 6/23/03 4:16 PM Page 190

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ideas, and insights that it probably contains. Is the glass half full or is it half empty? It’s up to you.

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YOU WILL BELIEVE IT

WHEN YOU SEE IT

The third part of the five-part process of supercharging your thinking is
visualization
. You already know how powerful this can be in helping you to achieve your goals. It is only when you learn to use visualization on every goal and activity that you will truly tap into its amazing power for good in your life.

As it happens, everyone visualizes, all the time. The difference is that successful people visualize the things they want, and unsuccessful people visualize the things they don’t want. Prior to every new experience, a successful person will take a few moments to recall and relive a previous successful experience in that area. Unsuccessful people, in contrast, prior to a new experience will recall and relive a previous failure experience.

In each case, people are creating a predisposition to succeed or fail. When they visualize, they send a command to their subconscious minds. The subconscious mind then coordinates their words and actions in the upcoming situation so that they perform consistent with that picture.

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IMAGINE A PERFECT OUTCOME

In visualizing, you project your mind forward and create a clear picture of your ideal future goal.You imagine what it would look like if it were already achieved.You make your picture as vivid as possible.

You repeat this mental picture over and over, as often as you possibly can during the day, and for as long as you can.

There is a direct relationship between how clearly you can see your goal or performance on the inside and how rapidly it comes into your reality on the outside.Visualization is one of the most powerful faculties available to you to become a possibility thinker, to change your thinking about your life and your future. With visualization, you can make your current dreams into future realities.You can change your thinking completely by changing your mental pictures.

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PROGRAM YOUR MIND

There are three techniques combining verbalization and visualization that you can practice to achieve your goals faster. These are often referred to as “mental programming techniques.” They are amazingly effective in preparing yourself and your mind for an upcoming event.

The first of these methods is what is called the
quick programming technique
. Here is how it works. Prior to any nonrecurring event of importance, like a sales call, a meeting, or an interview, you take a few moments to prepare mentally, like an athlete would warm up for a competition.

First, take a few deep breaths. This relaxes you and drops your mind into the alpha state. In this state, your subconscious mind becomes highly receptive to any incoming command. Second, you visualize the ideal outcome of the upcoming situation. You imagine it as turning out perfectly for you in every respect. For example, if you are making a sales call, visualize the client responding to you in a positive, receptive way. Especially, visualize the client signing the check or sales order at the end of the conversation.

One of my good friends has used this technique for many years to become one of the highest-paid people in his industry. He says it is absolutely amazing how many times the sales situation works out exactly as he visualized it before he went in. Try it for yourself and see.

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Affirm and Visualize

The third and last part of the quick programming technique is for you to verbalize or create a positive affirmation that is consistent with your mental picture. A simple affirmation would be “This sales call goes extremely well and concludes satisfactorily for everyone involved.” This command instructs your subconscious mind to give you the words, feelings, behaviors, and body language consistent with achieving your goal of a successful sales call.

We teach this “quick affirmation” technique to applicants who are going on job interviews, speakers giving public talks, performers in the arts, and even to politicians. It is an extraordinarily effective technique, and it only takes a few seconds prior to each event.

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WRITE AND REVIEW YOUR GOALS

The second method you can use to bring about rapid internal changes to your thinking and your life is called the
standard affirmation technique
. This technique requires that you write out your major goals in the form of present, positive, personal affirmations on three-by-five index cards, one goal per card. You can work on 10 to 15 goals at a time using this method.

Carry these cards around with you. At the beginning of each day, take a few minutes by yourself to review each goal.

Take the first card and read it. Perhaps the first card says, “I earn $50,000 per year.” Read the card and let your eyes focus on the message so that it is imprinted on your subconscious mind.

Then, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and repeat the affirmation five times. As you affirm, visualize your goal as already achieved. See it. Feel it. Then open your eyes, relax, exhale deeply, and read the next card.

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PREPARE FOR THE DAY

This entire exercise, with 10 to 15 goals, takes about 10 minutes. It programs your subconscious mind at a deep level, and prepares you to perform at your very best for the rest of the day.

If you practice this each morning before you start out and each evening before you go to bed, you will be absolutely amazed at how quickly your goals begin to materialize.

Your subconscious mind is the sending and receiving station for the power of attraction in your life. The more you feed your subconscious mind with words and pictures consistent with what you want to accomplish, the more you magnetize your goals. You become a
living magnet
. You begin to attract people, opportunities, ideas, and resources into your life that make achieving your goals a possibility.

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PRACTICE MENTAL REHEARSAL

The third mental programming technique that you can use to perform better and achieve your goals faster is often called
mental re-ccc_tracy_10_179-200.qxd 6/23/03 4:16 PM Page 193

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hearsal. It is taught and used extensively in sports of all kinds. The process is both simple and powerful.

First, you sit or lie down, completely relaxed, with your eyes closed, and breath deeply until your whole body is calm and quiet.

Second, you clearly visualize an upcoming event, or a goal that you desire. You allow yourself to enter into the experience and see it clearly in your mind. You imagine yourself actually doing and saying the things you would if the upcoming situation is perfect.

One of the very best times to practice mental rehearsal is just before you go to sleep. By verbalizing and visualizing your ideal goals or activities for the coming day immediately prior to sleeping, you program your subconscious mind to work on those goals all night long. Then, when you wake up in the morning, you will often have insights and ideas that you can use to make those goals a reality. It is an amazing technique and is extremely effective.

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PREPROGRAM FOR

PEAK PERFORMANCE

You can use this technique to preprogram your mind for a variety of things. For example, let us say you have a problem that you are worried about. Just before you go to sleep, turn this problem over to your superconscious mind and ask for a solution. Then, forget about it and go to sleep. Very often, when you wake up in the morning the solution will occur to you. It will be crystal clear and perfect in every respect.

You can use this method of mental programming to assure that you wake up feeling positive and energetic. The process is both simple and effective. Just before going to sleep, say to yourself, “When I wake up in the morning, I feel terrific!” Repeat this several times.

Imagine yourself getting up the next morning feeling happy and full of energy. Especially when you go to bed late and you need to be at your best the next day, use this technique to wake up feeling re-freshed. It works every time.

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WAKE AT A CERTAIN TIME

You can use mental rehearsal and preprogramming to wake up at the desired time without an alarm clock. No matter where you are, or in what time zone, you can “set your mind” on a certain time before you go to sleep, and you will wake up at exactly that minute.

Before you fall asleep, you say, “I wake up tomorrow morning at seven o’clock sharp.” You can then fall to sleep without worrying.

The next morning, your heart rate will gradually speed up, waking you at your preset time. You will be unable to go back to sleep. You can even travel great distances and wake up in different time zones on schedule using this method.

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GET THE FEELING OF SUCCESS

The fourth element in mental programming is
emotionalization
. This requires that you create the feeling that would go with successful accomplishment of your goal. This is the part that makes idealizing, verbalizing, and visualizing really work for you. Your emotions are the energy source, the jet fuel that drives you toward your goal.

You have heard it said that humans are 10 percent logical and 90 percent emotional. The fact is, however, that you are initially 100

percent
emotional.You decide emotionally, and then justify logically.

Everything you do is governed and controlled by your emotions, in some way. The only question is, “What emotion is in charge?”

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MASTER OR SLAVE?

Many people are slaves to their emotions. With very little control over their feelings, they continually react and respond to other people and situations. They have no minds of their own.

One of your chief responsibilities to yourself is to get your emotions under control. Take charge of your positive emotions rather than allowing yourself to be dominated by your negative emotions. By using your emotions deliberately and purposefully, especially by keeping them positive and focused on what you want, you can put enormous power behind your visualizations, verbalizations, and idealizations.

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IMAGINE YOUR IDEAL OUTCOME

One way to unlock the energy and power contained in your emotional nature is for you to get the feeling that you would enjoy if you had already achieved your goal. See it in your mind’s eye and create within you the emotions you would experience if your dream came true this very minute.