Do you remember when I talked to you about making a decision and then acting on it?
Well, so many of us are afraid to make a commitment because we fear failure or the fact that we might not be able to stick to it.
This fear might be an old fear. Think of yourself at 5 years old. Most 5 year olds decide that when they want to do something, they just go for it. Sometimes they will succeed and sometimes they will fail, but firstly they focus on what they want to achieve, and then act on that decision.
A lot of problems start when an adult fails to encourage a child to keep on trying. Most of us have experienced this negativity; somebody told us to give up before we even tried because it was too hard, or we were too young to accomplish what we wanted to do, or that someone else was better than us. These kind of belief systems never come from inside of us; they come from outside and ruin our inner campus and courage. I like to refer them as lies.
As an adult you have the ability to fix that problem by re-training your mind to see the potential rather than the failure. Once you make a commitment to writing a book and set up a map detailing how and when to do that, you will get there in the end.
A few techniques that I use to stay focused on my goals are:
- Affirmations. As I explained, our beliefs are just learned behaviors developed during childhood. While some of these may work well, others now can work against us and cause us to sabotage ourselves away from being able to achieve what we want. Every affirmation we use or develop is a reflection of our inner beliefs. Positive affirmations are short and positive statements which are targeted to challenge negative beliefs, replacing them with positivity and self-nurturing thoughts. A good example is: “When I believe in myself, so do others,” and also “Everything I want and need will eventually come to me.”
- Visualization. This means to develop the mental ability to see something happening, before it actually occurs. A great example of positive visualization is to get yourself a white board and some pictures of the things you would like to have in your life, such as your name on a book cover, the new car you plan to buy when you make the money and an ideal vacation location. Look at these pictures every day and spend a few minutes with your eyes closed actually seeing yourself in these situations and places. Feel what it would feel like to be the person you want to be. The longer you do this, the easier those images will come into your mind. If you believe in the Universal Laws, you will find that you develop the power to attract these things into your life.
Keep in mind that this is not magic; it won’t help you change your old beliefs over night, but it will slowly create a better vision of a brighter future and help to erase the negative thoughts that were placed into your mind by your parents/teachers/friends/society.
The reasons to use these techniques are to remind yourself, on a daily basis, where you want to go and what you want to achieve. We all have the tendency to forget our goals if we have the slightest doubt about how and if we can get there.
For example:
If you tell yourself, “I want to write a book,” use the following:
Affirmation: “I feel great about being a published author and selling my book on Amazon.”
Visualization: How would it feel and look like to you to be talking with your peers about your book, and signing copies of it?
Once your mind is set in this way, you’ll find that it will force you to act on fulfilling your dreams. And this works because otherwise there will be too big a gap between your mind-set and your actions, and you will find that you will not feel whole until you will do something about it.
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