“Don’t believe everything you think.”, is one of my favourite lines. I heard it from Marci Shimoff in her Happy For No Reason training. The idea kind of blew my mind, this notion that, just because I think it, doesn’t mean it’s true or that I have to buy into it and make it my mantra.
I have a lot of thoughts each day. You do too. Some estimates put it at well over 80,000 thoughts a day.
Shirzhad Chamine, in his positive intelligence work, says we should aim to have at least 75% of our thoughts be positive. To get there, we need to recognize our saboteurs as the enemies that they are. (I’ve made a series of videos on each of these here; see how many lies you may be telling yourself without even realizing it?)
The real trick is to catch yourself in a negative thought as you’re thinking it, and then call it out for the lie that it is by countering it with facts. What if you have no facts with which to counter it? Then neutralize the thought by thinking thoughts that you can believe.
Here’s an example from my recent blogs (One Woman Climbs and Climbs Her Way to Confidence, The Critical First Step of Finding the Courage to Stare Down the Doubters)
Negative thought – He’s right, I’ll never make it on my own
Countering facts – I already have because I survived my sister’s death and a burst appendix, I am successful at my job, I am surrounded by loving family and friends, I am not in debt, I am a productive, contributing member of society…you get the idea
Neutralize the thought – I am moving forward each day and I am getting there
Try this ONE thing
Take a recurring thought you find yourself thinking a lot and counter it with facts from your own life. Keep neutralizing that thought until it has no power left to knock you off your game.
Then pick a next negative thought and repeat.
This is exactly how you start to build your confidence. It’s how I did it and I know it works.
I want that confidence for you so that you show up as the confident person you are meant to be. This world needs you and me being our fully confident selves.
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