Your thoughts determine how you live your life. They become your mindset and outlook, which impacts your actions, which changes the outcomes of your life. Your thoughts inform your beliefs about you and your relationships with others. Whatever you believe about yourself and others, then, can become your perceived reality. 

Do you have dreams about where you would like to be in life? If you want to manifest those dreams and desires into life, you first have to believe that you can succeed. Once you think that you can achieve what you set out to do, your mind begins looking for solutions to problems rather than obstacles and challenges. The opposite is also true. If you believe you won’t succeed, you have set yourself up for finding blocks to your success. So, what happens when you believe negative thoughts about yourself?

How Negative Thinking Manifests Itself

If you think you can’t and if you focus on your faults and live in fear of possible outcomes in what you want to do, it impairs your ability to achieve your intended goals. When you think negatively about yourself and say such things as, “I don’t deserve to succeed”, you set yourself up to become less motivated to succeed.

Every time you come across something that is an obstacle to your success, you will think that is what you deserve and will likely give up trying. When you do this you are lowering your self-esteem and you can end up settling for less because you don’t believe you deserve to actually achieve your dreams. In short, you’ll keep getting in your own way until you fulfill your prophecy about your ability to achieve your goal. 

How to Turn Negative Thinking into Positive Beliefs

Set the Tone

The first step to changing negative beliefs into positive manifestations is to quiet your mind and connect with yourself. Starting your day with a positive frame of mind is crucial and it will set the tone for your entire day. 

Before getting into the tasks of your day, engage in quiet meditation. Meditation will help you focus your thoughts, calm your anxieties and fears, and create room in your mind and heart for  positive thoughts. 

Through meditation you touch silence, your inner self and the Spirit that makes you whole. It teaches you the 'interconnectedness' of all that exists as a sense of oneness. Some refer to this phenomenon as the coming together of the universe, others understand it as the dynamic grace of a loving God within all that exists.


Clarify Your Vision

Knowing what you want is vital to positively manifesting your goals. Focus on your bigger picture and what it is you are trying to accomplish. If you want to live a purposeful life, picture in your mind’s eye that purpose and visualize yourself actually having accomplished it. It is your vision that will drive you to a successful end. 

Now, every time you need to make a decision, ask yourself, does this get me closer to realizing my vision or goal? Is this helping me to manifest my vision? If not, it’s not worth your time, so move on. Negative thoughts don’t have a place in this process, and they certainly don’t contribute to your ability to fulfill your goals. 

Practice Gratitude

Learning to be thankful for what you have in life is crucial for manifesting your dreams. When you are grateful for your abilities and achievements, you begin to love yourself more and strengthen your confidence in your ability to achieve your goals. Shift your energy toward gratitude, and you will notice that you will feel better about yourself and will have an improved focus for attaining your goals. (See my post on gratitude here)

Feed Yourself With Positivity

Staying positive is the key to manifesting what you want in life. Your negative thoughts about yourself will get in the way every time as your brain finds ways to make your fears and negative beliefs come true. If you believe you will fail, you will fail. If you think you don’t deserve happiness, you don’t deserve happiness. Focusing on positivity and working towards your goals means changing the way you feel about yourself so that you can make your dreams a reality. 

The bottom line in all of this is how your mind works. In order to eliminate negative thinking you will need to reprogram our mind. The good news is that you already have the power within you to do it. All you need to do is open the door to a better way. Manifest what you want in life by changing how you think. Release all that power within you. Go here to find a way to reprogram your thinking.

Final Thoughts

How you think about yourself powerfully impacts your everyday decisions, which will influence your dream and the goals you set out to achieve them. Instead of believing the worst in yourself, chose to think only the best. It just may be your elixir for a better and more prosperous life.  

Thank you for reading,
Richard P Fontanie

"Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment." Thomas Carlyle   ​

Self-confidence and self-esteem complement and strengthen each other. Humble confidence in what one can do and a healthy sense of well-being helps us achieve success, build relationships and enhance a positive outlook on life.
 
In a previous post I pointed out the difference between the two concepts of self-confidence and self-esteem and that business and organizational leaders seek people who have a healthy sense of both. Strengthening one's confidence and esteem is not a one time event but an on-going process. Consider the following six strategies for improving your self-confidence and self-esteem.
 
1.   Change Appearance:  How people project themselves tell us something about how they feel inside. Successful people are concerned about how they look on the outside and how they feel on the inside. Many businesses have a grooming and dress code because they know that personal appearance, especially when dealing with the public and customers, is important for their public image and workplace morale.  Present a positive image, but there is no need to be a fashion model. Your self-image is improved when you dress for success and dawn a look of success. Having a clean, neat and tasteful appearance that is appropriate for the job strengthens self-esteem on the inside and positively influences one's confidence and public persona.  
 
2.    Exercise: Boost your energy with 20 minutes of exercise a day. You don't have to join an exercise club or gym to do this. A ten-minute brisk walk three times a day will do wonders. Go for a run two to three times a week. Change your walking and running route to break the monotony. If you need encouragement find a friend or an acquaintance that will exercise with you. There are simple ways to activate your body at work as well, for example, stretch at your desk, clean your office, go for a ten-minute walk at coffee time, walk briskly to meetings and take the stairs. Setting exercise goals and achieving milestones boosts self-confidence, improves self-esteem and in the process, does wonders for one's health.
 
3.    Control Weight: Weight control is a touchy subject as there are many reasons why one may be overweight ranging from medical to self-esteem issues. If you are overweight - and you may be overweight if your waist measures more than half your height - get your weight under control. If you are overweight for medical reasons make sure you discuss this with your doctor. However, there are some basic strategies everyone can follow to control weight. Eat well balanced meals. Use simple food measuring techniques such as using the palm of your hand as a measure for meat portions; clenching your fist as a measure for vegetable portions; and a simple calorie counter to measure your sweet intake. Drink plenty of water which promotes healthy skin and fills the stomach when it craves for more food; and, replace junk food with fruit. Practice good eating habits at work too by reducing the temptation to nibble at your desk, eating donuts at meetings or fast foods for lunch, and substituting soft drinks for water. Healthy eating habits coupled with exercise will bring your weight in line with your height and waist measurement. Achieving a proper weight level will have a positive impact on your overall health and well-being.
 
4.    Celebrate Successes: Take time to celebrate an achievement, even if it is small. When building confidence, it is important to take the big thing that confronts us and break it down into pieces. That way we can work at achieving it one step at a time. After each step take a time out with a quick personal pat on the back; once a week look back and identify all the successes accomplished in the past seven days and give yourself a special reward. Successes recognized and celebrated, even by oneself, improves self-confidence and self-esteem.
 
5.    Talk to Yourself Positively: Positive affirmations work. They push us ahead when we are struggling, cheer us up when we are down, and re-calibrate our attitude in the face of negativity. Don't be afraid to say "I did a good job on this one," or "I'm all right" or, "it's a great day." You will feel better and your confidence will blossom.
 
6.    Focus on the Things You Can Control: Our anxiety grows when we think we can control the uncontrollable. Recognize what you can control and what you can't. Put aside the uncontrollable and focus on what you can control - get those tasks done, check them off and realize that each successfully completed task is another rung up the ladder to personal success and confidence.
 
What to do: If you want to strengthen your confidence then arm yourself with confidence building strategies. Review these six strategies and if one fits your situation that you can apply immediately, do it.  Practice it every day for a minimum of three weeks or until it becomes part of your behaviours. If you forget to apply it for a day or two don't fret, just reaffirm your intention and start where you left off. In a short time, you will find you are acting more positively, feeling better about yourself, projecting a stronger self-image and looking ahead with greater confidence.

Author:  Richard Fontanie MSW, FCMC   From the Archives Fontanie Learning Solutions
Image: Freedigitalphotos.net
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