Shifting From Sabotage To Success

It has been said that every thought you have has an impact on something.   And I believe it.  What about the thoughts that fly randomly through your brain – the ones you have little or no awareness of?  And what about the thoughts that get stuck in your head, repeating themselves over and over and over…?  That’s what this week’s video post is all about.  I hope you enjoy it!

Here’s what I said (and sang) in the video:

A SONG OF SABOTAGE:  “I cannot help but feeling that I have so much at stake. So I lock myself inside my head and I just run in place.  So many directions, I don’t know which way to go. I’m so busy doing nothing, that I’ve nothing to show. I’ve got a new LOW…”

Lyrics from A New Low by Middle Class Rut

 A SONG OF SUCCESS:  “When a problem comes along, you must whip it.  Before the cream sets out too long, you must whip it. Now whip it, into shape. Shape it up.  Get straight.   Go forward.  Move ahead.  Try to detect it.  It’s not too late – to whip it.  Whip it good.“

Lyrics from Whip It by Devo

 “I can’t help feeling like I have so much at stake so I lock myself inside my head and I just run in place.” Do you have a song like this running through your head?

We get songs stuck in our heads and before we know it, they’re playing over and over. It’s really similar to the negative beliefs and doubts and negative things we say to ourselves all throughout the day. And we may not even have any idea what it is we’re telling ourselves until we recognize that we’re just feeling lousy.

When that happens, we can get conscious of what’s at the root of that.  And often times, it’s something that we can easily adjust. The only way that I know of to get a song out of my head that won’t go away is to replace it with another song.

So, if you think of that in terms of what we’re saying to ourselves, what’s the song that you need to play inside your head right now?  What’s the song that you can play that’s going to make you turn your view around and help you show up in a whole new way?

For more on Shifting From Sabotage To Success:

The Pinocchio Principle: Becoming the Leader You Were Born to Be

A Strategy for Overcoming Fear

The Tyranny of Should: Chore vs. Choice

Beyond Boundaries

Lightening Your Load: Mind Over Matter

Image by digitalart.

Harnessing the Power of Thought

As many of you already know, I’ve been working on writing a book on authentic leadership for over three years now (and I’m almost done!) The process of writing has illuminated many things for me, one of which is the power I believe each of us has to create the reality we experience. Last week, I wrote an entire chapter on that. And I found myself musing over the fact that while many of the experiences I’ve envisioned for myself have come to be, others have not. As I pondered the reasons for that, this month’s ezine article, Harnessing the Power of Thought, emerged. Below is an excerpt and you can click the link to read the full article.

Harnessing the Power of Thought

“There are powers inside of you which, if you could discover and use, would make of you everything you ever dreamed or imagined you could become.”

~Orison Marden Swett

The above quote is one of many I have seen over the years that references our ability to create that which we most desire. In his beautiful book “As a Man Thinketh”, first published in 1901, James Allen writes “Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.” Henry David Thoreau wrote “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.” And Napoleon Hill affirmed, “What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

This power is not the result of a magic pill or some kind of sorcery. Rather than being something we must rely on others for, it is a gift we are all born with that we gradually learn to utilize as we become more and more aligned with what is most true within us. This gift is quite simply the strength of the feeling we generate when we identify with something so specifically that we take it to be real. With sustained and unwavering belief, whatever we hold in our minds and our hearts in this way becomes our reality.

As a teenager I began to read a lot about the power of positive thinking and visualization. I was enthralled by stories of athletes who would spend time imagining themselves sinking those critical shots to go on at game time and perform exactly as they rehearsed in their minds. I utilized affirmations of positive intent around the person I was becoming and the wonderful things that were coming into my life. I played with creating vision boards for myself, made from large poster paper with various pictures of things I wanted to have or symbols that represented experiences I longed for glued onto it. I created movies in my head that featured me performing anything from sports to public speaking powerfully and passionately with great success. Many of these visions and dreams have come true over the years. And some have not.

I have reflected at length on what it might be that differentiated the dreams and visions that came to fruition from those that didn’t. And I have come to the conclusion that there are three significant factors… click here to read the full article