25 Oct Mind your mind and think positive [Part 1]
Have you ever attended a really great school lesson where the teacher and the content being delivered was super informative and you got stuck in by doing something practical and worthwhile?
I recently had the pleasure of speaking at a local networking group to around fifty business people.
‘Networking’ is a concept where business people get together regularly and learn more about what each other is selling with a view to spreading the message through of word of mouth.
The event gave me the opportunity to share what I do in my working life and as you can probably guess, it’s difficult to shut me up when I start talking about coaching and teaching programmes.
The reason why I asked you to think about an informative and practical lesson is because you retain more of what you learn when you get involved with the subject rather than just being talked at.
I only had fifteen minutes for my presentation so instead of trying to condense a huge amount of information that might have sent everyone to sleep, I decided it would be more powerful to demonstrate my work using audience participation, a flipchart and coloured marker pens. I love a good flipchart! There’s nothing better than drawing diagrams and seeing people digest the information and start to understand the concepts. Do you understand new ideas and theories better when you see a visual diagram or even a video instead of the written or spoken word on its own? Many people learn better this way.
“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”
Life through the eyes of BOB
You’ve been introduced to BOB in a previous article, can you remember? BOB explains what goes on in between your two ears in a fun and playful way. He looks at how you take information from the outside world around you and how you then process it in your internal world inside your mind. This process filters through the external information and gives it a meaning in a split second, which then allows you to give it a feeling. This feeling dictates your response and your reaction to the situation. This all forms part of your behaviour and it’s your behaviour that often determines the outcome and results you get. You may or may not get the result you want based on your behaviour. A simple way to explain this is if you do perform well in an English Literature test but you don’t read the recommended text then the outcome will be far from ideal.
“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”
The reason you don’t have the outcome you want
Whatever aspect of your life is not where you would like it to be is down to one single reason – the story you tell yourself about why you can’t have it. The little voice you’ve heard me talk about so many times, the one that whispers 60,000 thoughts a day, is responsible for why you don’t have what you want. If you get in-tune with your stories it becomes easy to stop and observe them. Think of it a bit like the Green Cross Code where you learned the steps to take before deciding whether it is safe to cross the road. Think carefully about why you think in a certain way. Question your beliefs and the origins of your feelings and choose to change them for a better outcome. You might be thinking ‘yes but TeeJay you can’t control your thoughts can you?’ ‘You can’t help what you think.’ ‘I’m just a negative thinker so I won’t change this.’ ‘It’s hard to think differently isn’t it?’
If this is your thought process then you may not like it when I say you can control your thoughts and you can start to think differently. It’s true and it’s scientifically proven. The way you think now is a habit that you’ve developed over time or due to past experience and your nervous system has been wired to think this way. There is nothing wrong with this but being negative and resisting change will not help you lead a fulfilling life. I never said it was going to be easy. You have to want to change and it will take practice but it is as simple as rewiring or rethinking your neuro-network. Technically, it’s called ‘neuroplasticity’ and it’s the process by which you develop new thoughts. Visualise an easy, flat, green path in a country park or a tougher rocky red path on a trail. The choice is yours and one will be harder than the other. As with anything you practice though, it gets easier.
“The time is always right to do what is right.”
The ten-day ‘mind your mind’ neuro challenge
Back to my networking presentation. I made the session interactive and set everyone in the audience a challenge. A ten-day ‘mind your mind neuro challenge’. Please make a note of this because I want to come back to it and give you a challenge to do. I hope you’re up for it!
For ten consecutive days I challenged everyone in the room not to dwell on a negative thought or emotion for more than two minutes. It wasn’t that they couldn’t think negatively, it was more about learning to catch themselves doing it within a two-minute timeframe and to consciously change their thoughts and emotions about whatever they were thinking. High five if you’re able to do this, but here is the stinger … if the negative thoughts remain after two minutes or if they came back to it later that evening, the ten-days have to be reset. Urgh!
And yes, this reset absolutely will happen. After a bad phone call with a friend, reading an uncomfortable post on social media or being frustrated with a piece of homework, it’ll happen.
When I was first introduced to this concept I think it took me four weeks to do ten consecutive days. But once I had gone through the exercise and achieved a successful outcome … WOW! I’ve never looked back. And so will you. Honestly, once you start to reprogramme your neuro-network to think positively all the time, there’s no going back and you’ll never be the same again. Your life will be so much more enjoyable and situations you once found stressful and mulled over for what seemed like an age will become a breeze.
Exactly this happened with my networking group. They were inspired. I received emails from people thanking me, telling me about how they struggled with certain situations and times of the day or week, but overall, people loved it and shared the concept with their family and friends. Imagine how powerful this ripple effect is. I had an audience of fifty people, but what if it was five hundred? It could make a huge difference in the world. How cool is that?
“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”
Need a little help to think positive?
I can sense you feel a little unsure about where to start with the reprogramming of your neuro-network. Fear not, I have twenty tips that will totally help you make this work. You don’t have to do all twenty because they are all designed to positively support you to ‘mind your mind’ and change your emotions for the better. I won’t go through them now because you’ll probably need a quick recharge of your batteries and a fresh focus. Grab a drink or a snack, pop to the loo and come back to the next blog article to start the real challenge. I promise it’ll be a game changer! Click here when you’ve had a boost!
Choose the life you want to lead
I hope you’re up to the challenge and would love to find out how you get on. I’m here if you need a reminder of the resources or just want to run any questions by me. Message me or find me on by searching for TeeJay Dowe or clicking one of the social links below.
Wishing you a wonderful and inspired week, and remember, think positive every step of the way.
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