Winning Thoughts

Look around you and you will see that people who regularly win have winning thoughts. There is something different about the way they think and make decisions. Many people are hampered by negative thought processes that prevent them from fully utilising all the resources available to them. Thinking negatively has two sources and are very natural. The first is from conditioning as you grow up. Parent's, teachers, partners and friends tell you what you can and can't do and you take much of this on as if it were true. Much of it is not! Many of the things you think you cannot do were imprinted on you before you had an adult mind capable of making your own judgement. They told you and they appeared to know things so you believe them, code it in and never come back to challenge them. The work you must do now is to challenge these assumptions and work with the question 'how can I do this thing I think I cannot do?'. Put another way what is the positive thought that can replace the negative thought you are having? There always exists an answer to this question.

The second source comes from your own defence mechanisms. Your thinking and physiological systems are all working to protect you from harm. There is a bias of 2.5 to 1 in favour of avoiding a possible threat to you over an opportunity for pleasure. This makes sense if you think about it. If there is a possibility of being run over or enjoying an exquisite view you want your systems to apply a disproportionate amount of energy to protecting you from the former. You survive and live to enjoy views in the future. The problem is that your mind judges too many modern day events in the threat category. Teeing off at a famous golf course or standing up to present to 1000 people for the first time are given the same threat status as a tiger attacking you in the jungle. These examples should show you how ridiculous this is. When you present to 1000 people the risk of you being killed is actually quite low. Also fearing death will give a far less accomplished and relaxed delivery of your speech than accepting that the worst that will happen is the audience doesn't like what you say. The key step for you to take here is to be aware of the bias you have and to notice it when you are about to take on your task. Changing the bias from 2.5 to 1 to 1 to 1 will set you up with winning thoughts and more often than not you will win as a result.

Give this a go and I am confident you will win more often.