Stop Saying That!

Have you ever had “one of those days?”  It seems like I have had “one of those days” for three weeks now.  Busy, busy, busy, and a little under the weather too.

So, if you don’t mind, this week I am going to post a couple of articles that I published 3 or 4 years ago.  I hope you enjoy them, and thanks again for visiting my blog.

Stop Saying That!

Standing by the desk in my office one day, I suddenly blurted out, “I am really getting frustrated over this!”  And I was, too!

About five or six seconds after saying that, I caught myself, and said, “I need to stop saying that!  Why in the world do I want to admit, agree, confess and focus on all the frustration that I am having here?”  I knew that by putting my focus and attention on that, I would simply attract more frustration.

After a short prayer, I decided to stop thinking about the dissatisfaction I was experiencing, and instead start telling myself that a breakthrough was coming soon. I simply made a decision to change what I was thinking.  Once I changed my thoughts, my attitude changed, and I was in a much better mood.

Emotions

Emotions follow our thinking.  That’s the way we were designed and built.  Try it out.  Close your eyes and think for a few minutes on your most favorite food.  See it in your mind, taste it, go ahead have another bite!  Wow, that is good!

And just how do you feel after doing that?  Are you angry and upset?  No.  Thinking pleasant thoughts will evoke pleasant emotions.  Be careful though, because food thoughts can get you feeling hungry too!

My point is, that soon after I changed my thinking, and my attitude changed, I did have a breakthrough, and yes, that was so much better than all the frustration I had been trying to deal with.

It Happens To All Of Us

No one has reached nirvana.  Everyone faces obstacles and challenges.  But we can still choose how we are going to think in challenging situations.  And we certainly ought to make an effort to stop blurting out defeating phrases.

I have from time to time quoted Orison Swet Marden, and I’d like to offer you another excerpt from one of his writings.

“No matter what comes to you, defeat, threatened failure, never lose your victorious consciousness.  I am a winner!

The more trying your situation, the harder the way it looks to you, the darker the outlook, the more necessary it is to carry the victorious consciousness.  If you carry the down-and-out expression, if you confess by your very face that you are beaten, or that you expect to be, you are a goner.  The victorious idea of life, not the failure idea, the triumphant, not the thwarted ambition, is the thing to keep uppermost in the mind, for it is this that will lead you to the goal you aspire to reach.

Have faith in your God-given power to succeed in a worthy ambition.  Concentrate your efforts on its realization, and nothing on earth can keep you back from success.  Such an attitude will make you a winner.

The conviction that you are born to win is a tremendous creative force in your life, just as the conviction that you are a failure will keep you down till you change the model of yourself.  Life is not a losing game.  It is always a victorious game when properly played.”

Good Advise, Isn’t It?

Those are some really inspiring words, aren’t they?  It is quite obvious that we are the ones who decide which thoughts we will entertain.  Consistent thoughts of victory will produce victory in our lives.  Consistent thoughts of failure will produce failure in our lives.

Far too many people have chosen to think thoughts of failure and they cloak it with being a victim.  Being a victim or a victor is a choice.  Being a failure or a success is a choice.  God’s desire for all Christians is to be victorious in every area of life.

Keep thinking and speaking victory, day by day!

Michael Verdicchio
2007

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There’s More!

For past articles, click on the, “Posts” tab above.  For past videos and podcasts, mouse over the “Posts” tab above.  Look for more videos as well as more podcasts coming soon to Confidence And Joy!

Obstacle Illusions

It’s Another Podcast!

After the day I had yesterday, I thought maybe I ought to do a podcast about obstacles.  My latest Pep Letter article is titled, “Obstacle Illusions,” so the topic is pretty fresh in my mind.

Actually,  I applied the information I share in that article to handle the obstacles I was faced with.  They weren’t big obstacles, but even if they were, the principles still work.  Discover in this short podcast (9:20) what to do when you’re faced with an obstacle, big or small.

[If you cannot see the player below, just click the title above]

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Look for more podcasts as well as more videos coming soon to Confidence And Joy!

Opposite Thoughts

You’ve probably heard the question, “What are you thinking about?”  But have you ever wondered how many thoughts you actually think?  Scientific research varies on estimtes from 12,000 to 50,000 thoughts per day.  But, there is something that you cannot think about!

In this article I am going to show you just how magnificent the human mind is by asking you to do something with your mind that you cannot do. I’ve tried it and I can’t do it.  In fact there is no one on the planet that can do it.

I’ll explain more in a few minutes.

What you focus on in your mind will always set the course for your life, whether it is positive or negative, success or failure, victory or defeat.  Amazingly, few people know and understand this and even fewer believe it.  Believe it or don’t believe it; the battle will always take place in the mind.

Thoughts Are Seeds

I like to think of thoughts as seeds.  Seeds have a planting and germinating process. If they are planted and nourished, they will grow and produce. This is true with weed seeds too.

Just because a negative thought comes into your mind doesn’t mean you need to harbor that thought and entertain it.  You can simply dismiss it, like pulling a weed out. Or, you can choose to keep it and let it settle in.

Now, consider opposites.  How do you get rid of darkness?  Simply by introducing light.  Light and darkness are opposites. The same is true with cold and heat.  Hot and cold are opposites, just as light and darkness are opposites.   One replaces or neutralizes the other.

Try This Experiment

Now when it comes to our thinking and our thoughts, we just cannot think two opposite thoughts at the same time.  Have you ever tried?  If not, here’s an experiment you can do right now.

tall-buildingPicture a building in your mind.  Make this building a very, very tall building and, at the same time, make this building a very short building.  You can’t do it!

You cannot picture the same building as a very tall building and a very short building at the same time.  That’s because tall and short are opposites.

Want to try another?

Picture a car at a racetrack going one-hundred and fifty miles an hour and at the same time see the car going twenty miles and hour.  You cannot picture it because fast and slow are opposites.42-15599538

You cannot hold two opposite thoughts in your mind at the same time. One will simply overwrite the other.  That is how the Creator designed our brains to work.

This Gives Us A Great Advantage!

The thoughts that you hold in your mind are the thoughts that you are planting and nourishing, and they will grow.  The question is, “What kind of crop do you want to harvest?”

Get busy planting and nourishing the seeds that you want to harvest. If a farmer wants to harvest wheat and corn, does he just sit around all day and do nothing, and then hope that maybe someday he could harvest some wheat and corn?  No.  He plants seeds and nourishes them.

972948What kind of seeds does he plant?  Wheat and corn, of course!  It’s so simple and so very obvious in so many categories of life.  And, it works just as accurately and precisely in our minds.

You must decide what you truly desire, and then start planting and nourishing the seed. When those destructive, negative, defeating thoughts pop in, drive them out, by replacing them with what you do desire.

It’s Your Choice

Your thoughts will truly bring to you courage or discouragement; success or failure; confidence or fear.  It is always in your own power to choose which thoughts you will hold in your mind. Changing your thinking is absolutely required if you want to change your circumstances.

God gave us all free will.  You can choose to think whatever thoughts you want to think.  But remember, you are and you will be a product of the thoughts that you have planted and nourished.  The Bible says, “As he thinks in his heart so is he.”

Mike Verdicchio
2009

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