There Are Two Things You Need To Control If You Want To Be Successful.

Photo by Frederik Löwer on Unsplash

Today's post is actually inspired by a very interesting post I have read here on the blockchain last week.

The post was about A Fixed And Growth Mindset. by @merit.ahama.

What she discussed were two mindsets. The one is a fixed mindset that sees failure as limiting versus the growth mindset who sees failure as an opportunity for growth.

Two Things You Need To Control

There are many things to consider if you want to be successful and before you set out to start any new venture.

But before you start anything, make sure you can control these two things...

• your words
• and your thoughts.

You need to understand the cycle of your words and your thoughts and how they impact one another.

I'll let you in on a little secret...lol.

For quite some time I've been working on a "bigger piece of work" if I can call it that for now.

I am intrigued by how we are thinking and how it affects our lives in the way we do things.

Why do we do what we do and can we change it? I have put a lot of what I have learned in writing and who knows, maybe someday something might develop from that...

Here is a snippet from that...

The Impact of Your Words and the Cycle of Your Words and Thoughts

It is crucial that you understand the impact of your words and your thoughts, and the effect they have on your life.

• It all begins with words:

  • Words which are spoken by other people (often during childhood – by parents, close friends or relatives), such as “you are great” or “you are worthless, good for nothing” or “there’s no money”.
  • Also your own words - not only “self-talk” such as affirmations – but general things you “declare” about yourself….such as “I can easily do this or that…..” or “I just can’t do it”.

• The second point to remember is that these words form a picture in your subconscious mind. At this point, it is necessary to be aware of the fact that the conscious mind is responsible for only 20% of our daily actions. The subconscious mind is responsible for 80% of our daily actions. In other words, only 20% of the time we consciously think, concentrate, or make decisions as to what our next action is going to be. The other 80% of the time we act on “autopilot”.

We Live in Two Worlds.

We live in two worlds: An external world and an internal world.

• The external world: the physical world and environment that we live in.
• The internal world: your mind – This is how you think about things, your perception of your physical environment and circumstances, and how you respond to it.

The first words you hear, and later statements you start making yourself, eventually form beliefs. You either form positive or negative beliefs. The subconscious mind cannot distinguish between right or wrong, true or false. Whatever it hears (on a continuous basis) will be accepted as fact. This can be referred to as your “belief system”.

As soon as the information has been absorbed in the subconscious mind, you start acting on “autopilot”.

E.g. when you learned how to drive a vehicle, you consciously had to think about every action you took. Today you never consciously think about using indicators, changing lanes, changing gears, taking turn-offs, etc……you do all this without thinking.

Let me give you another practical example of how your subconscious mind works:

As quickly as you can, answer the following questions.

How much is:

• 2x2=
• 3x3=
• 10x10=
• 57x83=

I bet you got stuck at the last one and had to stop and consciously think for a while (maybe even a calculator or two came out…..lol). Why? Because the other answers got drilled into you at school by repetition…..2x2=4, 3x3=9, etc., etc….

So, firstly you need to consciously decide what kind of words you are going to listen to (or pay any attention to). Then, equally important, you need to decide what words you are going to speak (positive or negative).

If you have the habit of negative thinking (or any other negative habit), you need to make a conscious effort to change it (normally starting with what you say, which will affect what you think).

Often you will start developing a positive or a negative attitude during childhood which then creates your "belief system" with which you enter the "adult world".

It started with words you heard until you started speaking those words yourself because you believed it.

Now, as an adult, you want to start a new project which needs some funding.

I am just using this as an example as many of us would like to earn some extra money...

So, now it starts with your thinking, which is based on what you believe.

So the process starts with the:

• Belief:
  • Positive: Maybe I don't have the money now, but I can learn how to raise some funds.
    vs
  • Negative: I can't. I'll never have enough money.

This leads to:

• Thoughts:
  • Positive: Happy thoughts.
    vs
  • Negative: I will always battle.../What's next?

This leads to:

• Emotions:
  • Positive: Cheerful, relaxed and calm.
    vs
  • Negative: Depression and/or anxiety.

This leads to:

• Decisions:
  • Positive: What can I do to get the desired result?
    vs
  • Negative: It's not worth it (or procrastinating).

This leads to:

• Actions and Habits:
  • Positive: Set and achieve goals.
    vs
  • Negative: Always putting out fires. In extreme cases even leads to suicide.

This leads to:

• Results:
  • Positive: Success.
    vs
  • Negative: Failure (often even with the statement "see. I told you so").

This leads to:

• Validation of beliefs (either positive or negative),

which leads to:

• Words (which is confirming the belief again)

Which gets the whole cycle to start repeating itself all over again.

You Have To Consciously Take Action to Improve The Quality Of Your Life.

As you can easily see from the points above, it often starts with words (during childhood). This obviously influences what we believe, leading to thoughts that eventually manifest in various forms in life. The way these thoughts manifest leads to either confidence and success, or fear and failure.

There is no doubt about it. Words influence your thinking...especially if you hear them consistently.

Now you have the facts and you know the process.

You now have the power to consciously take charge and change your thinking.

Photo by Zac Durant on Unsplash

Change your thinking and you will change your life.

Still following the process from the points above, you will notice that by changing your thinking, you will also have a positive impact on your emotions. But in order to accomplish this, you have to make a conscious decision to do so.

These are extremely important principles to know. Positive thinking and the use of positive affirmations are widely used and taught these days.

I am not shooting it down. By far not. But you need to know and understand how to influence and change your thoughts and emotions.

You need to know exactly what you really believe, why you believe it, and the impact thereof. Without proper knowledge of how this process works, you may end up repeating your positive affirmations a thousand times a day and enjoy little to no results.

Without really knowing what you believe, you may find it very challenging to really think positive thoughts anyhow.

You can repeat something a thousand times per day, if it is not realistic to you and you do not really believe it, it will mean nothing to you.

Start with something small. Something that you do think you are capable of and set out to achieve a goal doing that.

Repeat that process until you start believing in your own capability of achieving these goals. Then start setting bigger goals.

You will notice, as you start to change what you believe, your vocabulary will also start changing...lol.

I hope this was helpful.

Thank you for reading my post.