What are you thinking? Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
Many times we have thoughts that run in and out of our minds without us really paying any attention to them, but if we actually thought about our thoughts we might be surprised at how much negativity is in our minds. As a counselor it doesn’t take long for me to figure out what a person thinks of themselves, because if I listen long enough the way a person speaks about his or herself will let me know.
Yes, I can tell if you love yourself, if you have low self esteem or if you are highly confident in a matter on minutes. I can tell if one is happy or greatly depressed, all by the words that come out of their mouth, because our words are a direct result of our thoughts. For many years I allowed negative thinking to consume my life without even knowing it. I would think thoughts such as: I will never get out of debt, why can’t I ever have the right relationship, or my business is always suffering. Unknowingly I was only attracting more of the same results in my life.
It is a must that we begin to speak positively before we will begin to see positive outcomes. Our thoughts and words are attractors for what we receive, so change your thoughts and you can change you life. This is nothing that you have not heard before, however it takes much effort and practice for it to work. Many of us don’t even realize that we are doing it. Most of us want to feel good before we speak well of ourselves, but you must say it before you will begin to feel it. Unfortunately many of our negatively thoughts were programmed by the negative words of others. These words stay lodged in our minds for many years. This is why the Bible tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
We must understand that many of our ways of thinking limit our ability to become all that God would have us to be. I call these thoughts, limiting beliefs. You might recognize a few, such as: I am not worthy, I am a victim, I am not as smart as others, or I am not successful, and the list of negative thoughts can go on and on. We have to choose to think positively and really put some effort into it because it does not come naturally. Let me give you a little exercise that I would like for you to try every morning for the next 7 days. This exercise is just to train you to begin paying attention to your thought patterns, because you can’t fix what you don’t realize is broken.
Imagine when you wake up that there is a barrel on your left side and a barrel on your right side that will be with you through out the day, when you catch yourself thinking a negative thought, toss that thought into the left barrel. Now, if a positive thought happens to run though your mind, you toss it in the right barrel. Do this throughout the day, keeping a mental, imaginary count of your thoughts and at the end of each day see which of your barrels is filled up with the most thoughts.
Almost every time I have asked someone to try this exercise, they are surprised at how many more days they have of negative thoughts than positive ones. Begin not only to watch your thoughts, but to reprogram them. Replace those negative thoughts with positive affirmations and positive scriptures. This change will not happen over night, but be patient with yourself and don’t give up. You will soon begin to see the fruits of your positive thinking, as they manifest through your positive speaking.
