Confessions of A Positive Thinking Guy

OK, hands-up…….I’m guily as charged!

I try to be an eternal optimist. I don’t see the point in being negative about anything really. Negative thoughts tend to manifest negative situations in your life. However these last few days I have been feeling pretty down about a few things and I’m wasn’t entirely sure how to make them better or what to do.

As I did not wish to feel this way I had been trying to consciously change these thoughts in my mind but because the two issues causing me to feel negative could not be solved overnight I was looking for a formula or method to make me feel more positive anyway. This is what I came up with. It is not difficult, it is not magic but it worked!

All I did was to simply write down all the things that I do have to be thankful for in my life. Here are some of them: Excellent health, a large very supportive family, freedom to hike in the national park nearby, the six-nations rugby matches coming soon, fantastic memories from my several round the world trips, my (relatively) high level of eduction, being born in to a developed country with clean running water and food,  my sisters pregnancy with twins, the abundance of opportunities in business and employment that I am fortunate to have available to me. And one of my favourites: the knowledge that I will be able to undertake another round the world trip in the future (yes I am a travel addict).

What this did was make me focus my attention on all the good things I have in my life. The above was just a handful of them. Insted of feelin down I now feel so lucky and privileged that I have all of these benefits in my life.

What I did next was to work out the exact cause of my negative thoughts. I again did this by writing down various statements about what I thought the problem(s) was/were. I came up with a list of five possibilities. By concentrating on my feelings as I re-read the statements it was clear which problem was causing the negative thoughts.

After identifying the problem I straightaway felt better as I knew I would be able to tackle it and because of the first exercise I was already in a more buoyant mood. The problem then did not seem half as much of as a problem in fact I have managed to turn it into an opportunity!

It was quite an effective turn-around and pretty effortless really…totalling about 20 minutes of my time. So, If you are feeling a bit on the blue side, you might want to give it a try.

Oh and as a follow up to my last post I forgot to mention that there is a FREE copy of ‘Think and Grow Rich’ available instantly on this link: The Positive Thinking Guy

My BIG Problem With ‘Think And Grow Rich’ Philosophy!

As the blog title clearly  states I do actually have one big problem with this philosophy. You see, I’ve read and re-read the books, in fact I’ve just finished the new version by Ted Ciuba and I’ve also heard him and others speak live on the subject. Firstly I agree the approach does work. There are many people who serve as a testimony to that but it clearly states in all the books I’ve read that  the starting point of all riches is a ‘burning desire’ for them.

Now if I can just illustrate this problem by using some of the examples in the book it might be clearer. Anyone familiar with the books will recognise these.

Edwin Barnes a no-hoper from New Jersey  deisired to work with the incredible inventor Thomas Edison, after taking the only job he could get in his company as a cleaner he eventually ended up marketing Edison’s inventions and subsequently becoming very wealthy.

Henry Ford dreamed of and desired a horseless carriage. He has subsequently created more cars than anyone else…and became ridiculously rich.

Arnold Scwarzenegger desired to the worlds best built man…a movie star  and now a politician, he has subsequently become very rich.

I could go on with a lot more similar examples. Has anybody spotted my problem yet?

My point is these people did not set out to become rich, there intial desires did not appear to be that of money. They seem to have followed that one innate drive they had inside each of them. They all followed their dreams, were true to themselves and pursued the one object of their desire as hard as they could but…the object of their desire was not money!

Their desires were goals and achievments and very prominent ones at that. In return for achieving their goals they were passed great wealth.

You see there in lies the problem. If you have to desire money so much that you will do anything to get it then sorry count me out. These guys were not pursuing money! they were pursuing their main purpose in life… not money.

I can’t say I know anybody who could tell me their main purpose in life was to make money…..to me that’s a very shallow life purpose. Sure some people are very rich but generally their main purpose is not to make money. They have gained great wealth from providing other products and services which have just happened to have yielded great wealth.

This leads me to the question ….what if you if your main purpose in life from within,  one you are following with all your heart ….is not a profitable one. I see many nurses, teachers and so on,  many of whom I believe may be pursuing their main purpose in life….their rewards just don’t happen to be in the way of money.

If your still with me here well done, stick with it. Therefore if you do want to use  ’Think And Grow Rich’ to make money but your inner goal and desires are not profitable ones…..then in my humble opinion you are going to really struggle with this philosophy.

Why is that then?

Well, first off you are going to have to ignore what it is you know you do truly desire deep down, which might be to teach for example. I’m guessing now that the teacher in you is going to feel pretty frustrated and unhappy, how long is it going to be therefore before you give-up on your self -inflicted desire for money?

Ok so apparently you can reshape your mind and beliefs through ‘auto-suggestion’ but can you kid your imagination that you want something more than the thing you’ve always really known you want in life?

They might even be opposites! If your deisre in life is to run orphanages in Africa then I think this might struggle to make you rich and you may  struggle to change your thinking to desire money. 

How can I say all this well…..I’ve tried it. And for the above reasons, it didn’t work for me. I now know that I don’t actually desire to become rich, I do however desire to achieve other things in life that may if followed whole-heartedly make me rich…….. but to me a desire for riches is not what makes the philosphy work.

Following your inner hearts desire and goals with all your might may well lead you to great achievment, but this may not necessarliy mean riches. On the occassion where you hearts desire is a highly profitable one…like creating the worlds first motor car…..then for sure you will become very wealthy. If your main desire is not profitable then how can you monetise this desire? and can you really change your deep seated desires nurtured inside you for years to profitable ones?

Maybe I mis-read the philospohy…but In my opinion it should not be called’ Think And grow Rich’ at all it should be called ‘Think and Achieve’…and then possibly get rich on the back of your achievements.

I actually made a list of the things that I would do if I was a millionaire and they actually included all the things that I can do now for FREE such as hiking in the mountains, spending time with family and so on….. how bizarre is that. Ok being wealthy would give me the time to do these things more I guess but hey I can still enjoy them all freely now without being rich.

‘The rich man is the one who needs least, not the one who has most!’

Any thoughts?

Three Hot Tips to ‘Think And Grow Rich’

If you’ve ever come across a book by Napoleon Hill called ‘Think and Grow Rich’ you will undoubtedly be aware of the fact that you can deliberately create wealth in your life by manipulating your mind. In fact this remarkable book claims to have launched a million millionaires and that is proabaly no exageration either!

Anyway here are three tips that I came across recently that can help you super-charge your life to attract riches. Here they are then:

Be more aware of what you do want i.e.  a pay rise, a new sports car, more sales etcetra than what you do not want. Instead of focussing your thoughts on your job and constantly thinking about how little it pays and how you can only just cover your bills each month consciously switch your thoughts to thinking about the new job and pay rise you are going to get shortly. Do not focus on the lack of wealth, instead focus on the presence of wealth. This ensures that your mind is starting to feel wealthy and in doing so can utitlise the law of attraction to naturally bring you that money.

In your wallet place a 100 dollar note.  Every time you walk down the street or past some shops look through the window and mentally spend that 100 dollar note. Just go ahead and see yourself buying whatever it is that you want. By having the bill actually in your wallet you can really gain a feeling of assurety that you can actually have those things. This creates the feeling of abundance and wealth inside you that again through the law of attraction will enable you to attract the wealth that you desire.

This third hot wealth tip is a very simple way of utilising free time more proficiently. Do you let your thoughts wander and just drift along by the environment around you. If so then you are missing out on valuable wealth attracting time. Here is an easy way to immediately develop positive wealth attracting thought habits. Start by saying to yourself  ’What I’d really like is….’ then go right ahead and finish the sentence concentrating on really seeing the object of your desire in your possession. Once you have done this repeat the statement with a new desire and then go ahead and list as many objects of desire as you would like. At first this may feel awkward but you will soon notice that thoughts attract alike thoughts so you should be able to string together a long line of positive wealth attracting thoughts. Make a mental note of how long you made the list and next time try and better this tally. Again here we are using the ‘Law of Attraction’ to enhance and improve our life.

So there you have it, three sure fire ways to attract wealth into your life. However just reading this article won’t help….actually putting the words into practise will! Enough said. 

More personal development and positive thinking articles here!

I was busy pondering how it is some people seem to be content with what I would consider a ‘9-5′ lifestyle.  Please don’t take offense at that statement, of course people have committments, family and indeed some people are very fulfilled through their work, but if I took a vote on it……..

Having never subscribed to the conventional views of society I have always believed there was something more, something we were missing about life. I guess that’s why I’m writing this blog really, to express my thoughts and try and work-out what this ‘life’ thing is all about. Anyway whilst doing so this verse popped into my mind: 

The wonder of creation,
The wonder of your mind,
Ain’t it just a fool who thinks
We’re  here for 9 til 5.

I think this verse suitably sums up my opinion that there is a great deal of life to experience, so lets not waste any of it, if at all possible.

Don’t Control Your thoughts – GUIDE Them

Hi again. I’m sure your well acquainted now with the ‘law of attraction’ and realise what a great effect it can have on your daily life. Once you have come to except this as a part of your life you will soon realise that the next thing you should be concentrating on is controlling your thoughts. Now I’ve been at this ‘positive thinking game’ for a while now and I have comne to the realisation that we don’t seem to be responsible for the thoughts that come into our mind, but we are responsible for whether we keep them there, for how long and how much emphasis and focus we wish to place upon them.

What I’m trying to say is that we are not really trying to ‘control’ our thoughts, they just naturally flow anyway, it is more a case of naturally guiding them the way you wish them to go. I liken it to a small boat sailing down a river, you cannot stop the flow of water, you can’t physically move the river but what you could do is direct the boat to the safest parts of the river. You could take it to the places where the river runs smooth where there are no objects in your path, where the current is strongest and can take you to your destination/goal more quickly.

OR you could just let the water toss you about from side to side, let you bump into various objects – rocks, logs and other debris that you could generally do without.  So from this analogy what would you rather do: guide your thoughts throught the various challenges quickly smoothly and easily or face danger at every turn.

Again it’s your choice: guide your thoughts or be randonly thrown from pillar to post and never make any easy progress. If you wish to take the easy route to success and would like to discover some simple techniques to guide your thoughts which will allow you to get to the places you want to go fastest and easiest you may wish to pop across to positivemindwealth. com now by following this link: Power Of Positive Thinking where you can find some suitable techniwues to implement and really go beyond positive thinking.

Constantly Growing?

A few days ago I received a phone call from my father. He is of a certain age and heading towards retirement. In fact he could probably take retirement now if he so wished ( or at least in the next couple of years). Anyway it turns out there is a top job  going at this compnay, a position above his with slightly more mangerial responsibility and so on.

Initially he did not want to apply for the job. He gave many reasons why he should not apply,  such as: possibly more stress, more responsibility, more travel and so on. In the end he decided not to apply. However it seemed that the compnay actually want him to take the job so they kept the post open for him a bit longer.

In the meantime I spoke to him a number of times about it and he asked my opinion of it. Well I do have a habit of speaking my mind so on this occassion I just came out with:

‘Dad, you are either growing or dieing! Which would you prefer?’

I just figured if he didn’t apply for the job then his focus would have switched to taking it easy and so on. Of course it’s not uncommon for people who suddenly retire to lose interest in life and quickly pass away or loose good health. Of course the words just came out. I don’t want to see my father dieing, although of course one day it is going to happen but i’d just sooner it wasn’t yet.

So what are you doing? are you moving on with life? Are you trying to achieve that next target? Do you have a definite purpose in life? Are you striving for that next goal?

In short are you growing or are you dieing? it really is a choice that you have to make there is no in between!

More from the Positive Thinking Guy.

I recently found this inside one of the newsletters from: affirmware.com.au and thought it was too good to leave there!

The Parable of the Rose
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A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully. Before it blossomed, he examined it. He saw a bud that would soon blossom. He also saw the thorns, and he thought, “How can any beautiful flower come from a plant, burdened with so many sharp thorns?” Saddened by this thought, he neglected to water the rose, and before it was ready to bloom, it died.

So it is with many people. Within every soul, there is a rose. The “God-like” qualities planted in us at birth, growing amidst the thorns of our faults. Many of us look at ourselves and see only the thorns, the defects. We despair, thinking nothing good can possibly come from us. We neglect to water the good within us, and eventually it dies. We never realize our potential.

Some don’t see the rose within themselves. It takes someone else to show it to them. One of the greatest gifts a person can possess is to be able to reach past the thorns and find the rose within others. This is the truest, most innocent, and gracious characteristic of love – to know another person, including their faults, recognize the nobility in their soul, and yet still help another to realize they can overcome their faults. If we show them the rose, they will conquer the thorns. Only then will they blossom, and most likely, blooming thirty, sixty, a hundred-fold, as it is given to them.

Our duty in this world is to help others, by showing them their roses and not their thorns. It is then that we achieve the love we should feel for each other. Only then can we bloom in our own garden.

Author Unknown

Positive Thinking Guy

The Positive Thinking Guy Says….

“If you’ve got a pulse you’ve still got a chance of making all you dreams come true”

Go ahead take your pulse. Do you have one? Good, then go ahead and make your dreams come true. Nobody can do it for you!

Positive Thinking Guy

Alternative Use For Google :)

Imagine Google develop a piece of software that you can install in your brain (let’s face it, it probably won’t be long). All day long you are going about your usual routine thinking your usual thoughts. Each thought however now counts as one google search.

Say for example you were shopping and you went around looking at the expenisve price tag on that new jacket you want and the only thought that came in to your mind was that of how you would never be able to afford the new jacket, this thought would then count as a negative thought. Instead you could have just simply imagined your self wearing the jacket and seeing how good you would look in it – this would have counted as a positive thought. You have simply put a positive spin on the thought.

When you get home in the evening you download your thoughts on to the computer and you can actually see the total count of searches your brain has done on positive and negative thoughts. Clearly if your mind is churning out net deficits of ‘positive thoughts’ your going to have to be a lot more mindful of your thoughts if you are ever going to be successful.

A visual count on a screen really would let you know exactly how much of a positive person you are. You would then be able to see that all the little negative thoughts throughout the day really do add up and effect your over all positive score.

In fact I think that would be a really cool tool….so come on google wake up and get it sorted for me…..or if you like send me a few thousand dollars and I promise to get onto it as soon as I can   

power of positive thinking

Now There’s A Thought…

“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.”

When I came across this quote earlier today I was immediately struck by it. Not only did it ring true to much of my own observations of successful people but it also struck me when I noticed then name of the person who quoted it….. none other than Michael Jordan the basketball player. Now to be brutally honest I had expected the quote to have come from some famous deep thinker…. you know Einstein, Vincent Norman Peale or well……err you know someone of that ilk. However then I stopped and considered, i realised I should be in no-way surprised.

Michael Jordan is extremely successful at what he does and has clearly had to work very hard for it. As most successful businessmen also use positive thinking techniques whether knowingly or not …..and indeed the top achievers in any given field seem to possess these unerring qualities that manifest in positive thinking. After considering that most top sports people use visualisation ( have you ever seen Jonny Wilkinson taking a penalty – watching the ball go through the posts first in his minds eye), goals setting (just gotta beat that pb!) and the ‘positive principle’ (especially when overcoming injuries) Jordans comment should have come as no surprise whatsoever!

I guess what I’m saying is that it seems apparent that there is an underlying theme, currrent, ’set of habits’ call them what you will that successful people in life have either: learned and used, picked up naturally or simply always used then to give them that edge on the competition.

My question is then…why has apparently so little been researched about this subject and why are students in schools not taught ‘how to think’ in order to be succesfful and not just ‘what to think’. it seems quite apparent that these underlying skills are the real reason for many successes in life.  aaahhhrrrr that feels better, glad to get that rant off my chest. OK then can anyone point out the exception to the rule…any really successful people who don’t appear to display any of the charcteristics of positive thinking as covered at: PositiveMindWealth.com oh and todays beyond positive thinking quote: “get busy living or get busy dieing…. you choose!”