The incident I shared in Potential – part two has weighed heavily on my mind as I have compared this young man to my own life growing up and that of the two boys I mentioned in Potential – part one. I am one of those people who responds positively to talk of my potential. To me, it means that someone sees qualities in me that I may not even see in myself. It motivates me to a higher level of behavior, effort, or achievement. I am convinced, though, that such talk does not have the same effect on everyone. The difference, it seems, is in the interpretation, which is filtered by the language of the mind, what you say when you talk to yourself. For example, if you are constantly telling yourself that you are fat, then when someone comes along and says, “Wow, you are a big girl” because you are 5’11”, what you might hear is, “Wow, you’re really fat!” because to you big means fat.
In Potential – part one and part two, I shared stories of children who grew up with bitterness in their hearts, in spite of loving, nurturing parents. I am convinced that this heart problem is poisoned by the language of the mind. In 1986, Shad Helmstetter published: What to Say When You Talk to Yourself – A Rational, Methodical, incredibly Simple Program for Success and Lasting Self-Change.
He compares the human brain to an incredibly powerful personal computer that is capable of doing anything reasonable as long as you know how to use it correctly. However, if you give your mental computer (brain) the wrong directions, it will act on those as well and will continue to respond to the negative programming that you and the rest of the world have been giving it without even being aware of it.
Check this out: “Through scientific discovery, the relationship between your own "mental programming" and whether you will succeed or fail in any endeavor you undertake, from something as important as a lifetime goal to something as small as what you do in a single day, has been proven. In short, how successful you will be at anything is inexorably tied to the words and beliefs about yourself that you have stored in your "subconscious" mind!” (p10-11) The brain simply "believes" what you tell it most! And, what you tell it about you, it will create. It has no choice!” (p11-14)
He recommends a “Self-Management” Sequence – Five Steps that can control your success or failure.
2. Feelings: How you feel about something always affects what you do and how well you do it.
3. Attitudes: Your attitudes are the perspectives from which you view life.
5. Programming: Your beliefs are created and directed entirely by your programming. You believe what you are programmed to believe. Your programming ("conditioning") from the day you were born, has created and reinforced most of what you believe about yourself and what you believe about most of what goes on around you, whether the programming was true or false.
Your programming sets up your beliefs, and the "chain reaction" begins:
(1) Programming creates beliefs
(2) Beliefs create attitudes
(3) Attitudes create feelings
(4) Feelings determine actions
(5) Actions create results
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Everything begins with thought. Life consists of what a man thinks about all day".
Even better and more simply put is the King James Version of Proverbs 23:7:
What are your thoughts on this?
Posts
2 comments:
I just posted something similar to this on my blog entry called "Watch". It takes work, and retraining. Just like loosing weight, you gotta ask yourself, how bad do you want it? Great post! :0) On a side note I heard on the news how bad the mosquitoes are now around your neck of the woods from the rains. I guess it was a result of too much of a good thing?
Hi Sharon,
I lost track of you! The mosquitoes were bad for awhile, but now we are having genuine fall weather, with rain and everything! Thanks for visiting!
Post a Comment