| Have you tried positive thinking, self talk, affirmations, | | | | people you know who despite honest attempts to |
| read books on the power of suggestion, | | | | change their destiny |
| autosuggestion, watched "the secret" or taken courses | | | | - lead unfulfilled or unsatisfying lives |
| on how to materialize your goals and are still waiting | | | | - continue to struggle with money problems |
| for results? If so, you may be positively surprised by | | | | - suffer from low self confidence and its unfortunate |
| what you're about to learn. | | | | consequences |
| Research by leading universities in the field of cognitive | | | | - are not satisfied with their work and simply show up |
| and behavioral science proves the existence of so | | | | day after day to collect a pay check at the end of the |
| called “automatic thoughts”, i.e. thoughts that | | | | month |
| come to mind involuntarily and effortlessly as an | | | | Why do these people continue to fail? In most cases it |
| automatic response to certain stimuli. These are the | | | | isn’t for lack of trying or good will. It’s because |
| thoughts that ultimately determine whether you'll fail or | | | | our brains are programmed to subconsciously react to |
| succeed. | | | | certain stimuli in the form of predetermined (automatic) |
| The average person processes over 60'000 separate | | | | thoughts that guide our behaviors. |
| thoughts per day, of which 90% occur subconsciously. | | | | If the conscious mind tries to initiate a behavioral |
| Automatic thoughts are produced by our subconscious | | | | change that conflicts with the subconscious mind’s |
| mind and continue to execute without the involvement | | | | pre-programmed thought patterns, the subconscious |
| of our conscious mind. Think about how many things | | | | mind always wins. In his famous book “Self |
| you just do, day in day out, without even consciously | | | | Mastery through Conscious Autosuggestion” Dr. |
| thinking about it. These automatic thoughts are like mini | | | | Emile Coue writes: “In the conflict between the will |
| computer programs in our subconscious minds. They | | | | and the subconscious mind, the force of the |
| automatically come into action as a response to stimuli | | | | subconscious mind is in direct ratio to the square of the |
| in our environment. | | | | will”, i.e. even if you're willing to change, you won't |
| While many automatic thoughts are positive, some of | | | | change unless you change the subconscious |
| them can create undesirable limitations in terms of your | | | | automatic thoughts. |
| ability to evolve and progress – you could call them | | | | Think of how many people you know fully understand |
| “success blockers”. They simply prevent you | | | | that smoking is damaging to their health, and yet they |
| from progressing or being successful in certain areas. | | | | continue to smoke. Or how many people know that |
| Automatic thoughts determine your thought patterns, | | | | eating excessively not only makes them feel |
| attitudes and behaviors. The reactions you then | | | | unattractive but is also bad for their well being, and yet |
| observe from your environment validate your thoughts. | | | | they continue to eat more than they should. There's |
| A key observation is that certain “automatic | | | | clearly no lack of consciousness here, and yet, the |
| thoughts” are triggered by many common belief | | | | behaviors persist. The latest statistics indicate that |
| patterns (schema) with groups of people who | | | | fewer than one in five people who follow a formal |
| experience the same or similar challenges and | | | | weight loss program actually succeed in loosing weight. |
| limitations. | | | | Why is the failure rate so high? Because despite all the |
| The first step in eliminating automatic thoughts that | | | | good intentions the cognitive and associated behavioral |
| prevent you from being successful in a certain area is | | | | patterns of these people remain unchanged and |
| to determine the thought patterns that trigger success | | | | continue to produce the same old undesirable |
| limiting thoughts, attitudes and behaviors. | | | | outcomes. |
| The second step is to actively change these thought | | | | The only effective way to produce results is to |
| patterns (cognitive modification) and introduce cognitive | | | | re-condition your thought and behavioral patterns. In |
| patterns that have been observed to trigger positive | | | | unscientific terms it could be compared to erasing old |
| results. | | | | “success blocker programs” and installing new |
| But how do you do that? Ask yourself, how many | | | | “success enabler programs” on your computer. |