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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