How many thoughts run through your head everyday creating chaos and putting limits on how you think, act, and who you are? We’ve unconsciously done this same routine for years. No one ever told us we could stop and consciously say “NO.”
So many of our thoughts are built from experiences and our environments. We don’t question them. We believe without awareness or intent. It’s a dangerous oversight. It leads to hearing an unending mantra of I’m not good enough for love, career achievement, higher spirituality, extraordinary friendship, or wealth.
We’ve made thinking these thoughts a habit. Have you ever questioned them? Do you know they’re true with every ounce of your being? Did you ever question what would happen if you decided right now to disagree with one of them? When you do, you change your life.
These early experiences through family and school friends play a role in the thoughts we tell ourselves today. When you begin to question what you took from them, you see some people led you to think life could be embraced with joy no matter what was happening, others complained nothing good ever happened. We didn’t know any differently then. We buy in and don’t think about it because we were children, or we learned from someone we respected. You can decide you’re done being dictated to by your past or by someone else’s limiting beliefs.
The past is done. You get to decide where today leads. You can decide now that you are more than any past limiting thought. You can choose to believe what you want to believe. For instance, one can take all the experiences of romantic relationships and take on negative associations. Thinking love isn’t real; it can’t happen to me; the failure is the other persons. The ending of a relationship can shape our thinking about all future relationships, for a lifetime. Imagine changing your thought on love to one that love exists, that it will be different from your past experiences. Stop putting limitations on a future encounter that has the potential to be extraordinary.
Every day from today forward, ask “what if” you love how you want to love, lived how you want to live, believed in yourself, became healthy, succeeded at a goal, become the person you always wanted to become. Choose a thought that is limiting you. We can change any thought associated with our doubts and self-limitations. It takes one thought, one action, and practice every day.
Right now, choose a new thought. One that maybe you didn’t realize had become a habit to think. Maybe you’ve been thinking you’ll never be good enough at your job. Instead, choose “Every day I learn something new at my job, or every day I’m improving in my job, or even how can I enjoy my job more today?” Some of these negative thoughts we’ve hung onto for 10, 20, or 30 years. Explore the thought. See if you can figure out where it comes from.
Then, decide you don’t have to believe it.
Next, put post-it notes of your new thought on your mirror, your closet door, your steering wheel, your desk. Set a reminder on your phone and don’t clear the reminder. Read it every time you look at your phone. Read it every day. Focus on it. Take a deep breath and feel it. Try this every day, multiple times a day, for two weeks or two months!
Our minds experience the new thought as if it’s real, and the more often we practice this thought, the more our minds believe it. A new habit of thinking arises.
Don’t put limitations on yourself. You are an amazing human being. You get the freedom to choose how you identify yourself. Practice this new thought every day. Your old thoughts will be insistent, but that doesn’t mean they’re right. Take control of one thought. Every thought creates a moment. This is your moment.
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