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These categories will help you study the subject of thought management. Click the areas which are most interesting to you right now … or use the search box below:

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How to Stop Watching TV the Easy Way

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How to Stop Watching TV
the Easy Way … use RAIN

Here is a serious but easy way to stop watching network TV using the acronym RAIN.

  • R – Recognize: The next time you find yourself starting to watch TV notice what’s happening.
  • A – Allow:  Don’t fight it.  Accept what’s happening.
  • I – Investigate:  Instead, right (1) before you start and (2) after you stop and think about how you feel at the moment, what preceded it, and what will follow.  E.g.,  After you are through you might note that you felt it was a waste of time since the shows found were lousy and 40% of what you saw were ads.
  • N – Note:  Make a point of taking and remembering a few key mental notes (e.g., couldn’t find a decent show, 40% ads) so that you can recall them later as you study similar instances in the future.

What you will find is that your inner self will eventually figure out what is beneficial to you and what is not. If you study the patterns carefully you will automatically develop over time a distaste for things which your inner self begins to realize, deep inside, do not benefit you.

This tip definitely works for network TV; I’ve tried it. RAIN is scientifically based and works for many other cravings as well. For more details see RAIN.

Related Sources & Links    top

  • Tips Overview – More of our best tips
  • How To Conquer Unhealthy Cravings
  • The Craving Mind by Judson Brewer, M.D., Ph.D. & Director of Research at the Center for Mindfulness – Discusses RAIN and other modern research about breaking bad habits. Chapter 1 is the source of most of the material in this article and the page numbers shown are from this book.
  • Ted Talk – Can we break bad habits by being more curious about them? Notice the urge, get curious, feel the joy of satisfying your curiosity, then repeat. I.e., Become a detective.
  • Top of Page, Categories, Index and Home Page

Why and How To Change Your Beliefs

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Why and How To
Change Your Beliefs

We humans are limited by beliefs developed during childhood or from our environment.  Our unconscious beliefs limit what our minds are aware of just as horse blinders limit what a horse can see.   Like the grown elephant who can still be tied down with the small chain used in his youth, beliefs limit what we think we can do as adults.

Regardless of what we consciously want and consciously “do” our unconscious belief systems set things up to make sure that what eventually happens is what we believe will happen. Beliefs act like thermostats, returning to their equilibrium, which explains why many of our desires don’t pan out even when we think we are working hard doing the right things.

Luckily beliefs can be consciously changed by changing our thoughts and actions.   Here are some practical suggestions to try:

  • Body Language:  Physically act as if your positive belief is true.  Body language is one of the easiest things to consciously change though we rarely think about it.  Start with our just smile tip.  Also breathe deeply and keep your shoulders back, act calm and generally fake it until you become it.
  • Self Talk:  Talk to yourself; don’t just automatically listen to the negative talk that comes from many egos and associates.  Positive affirmations really can change beliefs.
  • WWW What Went Well:  Start seriously tracking the many good things about your life.   Focus on the full portion full portion of the glass rather than the empty portion.  This can include making daily what went well lists or gratitude lists.
  • Visualization:  Visualizing positive beliefs helps to clarify them and to make them feel real inside.  Create a detailed mental equivalent in your minds eye; this doesn’t have to be a visual picture but “see” it the way you would see yourself doing something like going to the grocery store.    If believing something is initially difficult start by asking yourself the question  “If this were true how would things be?”  Or try stating “I am becoming so & so” rather than asserting “I am so & so” is already true.   Another good practice is to mentally review past successes.  In all cases feel the “good” … this is actually more important than seeing it.
  • GIGO Good In Good Out: Consciously improve your mind’s environment.  E.g., what you read, listen to, & watch and who you associate with.  Studies have shown that the impact of environment on our unconscious beliefs is amazing.  So control your environment.  Use this psychological fact to your benefit.

Start studying your own unconscious beliefs. What are they? Then ask yourself “Is this the most beneficial belief for my life?” Being beneficial is more important than being right or wrong.  Then, start improving your beliefs, one by one, using the tools described above.

Here are some related areas to consider when working on your unconscious belief system:

  • Attention:  Different aspects of attention to start working on include being here now,  mindfulness and concentration.  Meditation is an excellent practice for consciously sharpening these skills.
  • Habits:  What we habitually do, our physical and mental habits.   Watching for and becoming more aware of your physical and mental habits.  Becoming more aware of your habits will give you clues as to your unconscious beliefs.
  • Best Friend:  Be your own best friend and coach.  Who better knows you and wants you to do well.  If you treat yourself, your best friend, right than others will also start treating you well.

 

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Control The Controllables

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Control The Controllables

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  • Focus 100% on what you can control … not on outcomes you can’t control.  The latter are truly just a waste of time.  Besides getting better results this will dramatically help your self confidence.
  • Commit to doing controllables 24 hrs/day to close the gap between where you are and where you want to be.  (source p.8 … see related links for sources)

Commitment List

Burn your wish list of uncontrollable goals.  Instead make a commitment list of things you can control and commit to do.  p.10.  Here are ideas for things you can control including some real life examples.:

  • body language – E.g., See just smile tip.
  • self talk – See affirmations & wise sayings.
  • exercise – This is the best way to get happier and healthier.  Commit to 15 minutes every day.
  • environment – Control your environment or it will control you.  E.g., Don’t buy candy & cokes to leave sitting in the refrigerator; you know if it’s there you’ll eat it.
  • perspective –  Use the day to practice being the person you want to be.  Don’t let your job use you up; use it to grow and learn.
  • positive mental attitude – E.g., Practice looking at the half full portion of life’s glass rather than the half empty portion.  I.e., Focus on the positives.
  • what went well – E.g., Keep up a running list of what went well on your desk.  Review it at the end of the day.
  • gratefulness – E.g., Mentally list 3 things you are grateful for before going to sleep each evening.
  • communication – E,g, Look for ways to truthfully compliment important others in your life; and, do it!
  • routines  (steps, moves) – Polish the dance steps of your life.  Break the skills you want to learn down into separate steps.  Then polish them and group them into moves and routines.
  • schedules –  Commit to a schedule, not an uncontrollable goal or deadline.  E.g.,  I’m going to spend  two hours every morning and one hour every afternoon working on mastering this subject.  Or, I’m going to exercise at least 15 minutes every day.
  • habits – When you have a good habit keep repeating it.  E.g., Do chin ups every morning right after I get up.  Brush teeth immediately after eating dinner to reduce snacking & cavities.
  • processes – E.g., a sales call would be an example of a process you can keep continuously improving as you go.
  • being here now – This is a master skill which can be used to improve you concentration and mindfulness.  Meditation can be used to sharpen all three of these mind skills.
  • concentration – E.g., Break your day down into segments and focus on concentrating on one thing at a time. When doing a bunch of details make a list and focus on checking them off one detail at a time.   Don’t let yourself get distracted when something else comes up; just make a side note for review later.
  • mindfulness – E.g., In breaks between concentrated tasks mentally fly by what’s going on and reprioritize you to do list as needed.  This will help keep you doing 1st things 1st.
  • visualization – Take the time to stop and think and feel about the details of what you really want every now and then.  Think about the steps to get there.  Don’t just drift or thrash around all day every day.
  • next one move – When stuck ask yourself “What is one thing I can do to make it better?”
  • learning –  Always ask yourself “How can I learn and grow from this?”   By looking at it this way you can make almost every experience useful.
  • growing – E.g., Use your daily tasks to increase such mental abilities as concentrating or handling boredom.  When doing physical work use the work itself to increase your physical strength and endurance; then you will need to do less formal exercise.

Related ideas

  • Focusing on controllables greatly reduces the mental load of what you have to track.
  • Don’t worry about what you can’t control.  This includes past regrets and future concerns.  Be here now.

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The Magic Of Thinking Big – Best Ideas

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The Magic Of Thinking Big
Best Ideas on Thought Management

The Magic Of Thinking Big has been very popular for good reason since 1959. It covers a wide variety of practical success tips based on Dr. David J. Schwartz’s observations as a professor, keynote speaker, and developer of many groups for executives and salespeople.

The primary theme is thought management as can be seen from the following quotes (which include page numbers from the book):

* “Your mind is a ‘thought factory.’ It is a busy factory, producing countless thoughts in one day.” “All you need to do to signal either foreman is to give the slightest mental beck-and-call. If the signal is positive, Mr. Triumph will step forward and go to work. Likewise, a negative signal brings Mr. Defeat forward. ” “Now the more work you give either of these two foremen, the stronger he becomes.” p.18-19

* “To be sure it is thrilling to watch what can happen when men cooperate carefully with nature (e.g., like when growing a garden). But it is not one-tenth as fascinating as watching yourself respond to your own carefully administered thought management program. It’s fun to feel yourself growing more confident, more effective, more successful day-by-day, month-by-month. Nothing — absolutely nothing — in this life gives you more satisfaction than knowing you’re on the road to success and achievement.  And nothing stands as a bigger challenge than making the most of yourself.” p.22

* “1. Deposit only positive thoughts into your memory bank.” “Confident , successful people … ‘don’t give it (i.e., bad thoughts) another thought.” “When you are alone … and … just before you go to sleep, deposit good thoughts in your memory bank.” p.41
* “2. Withdraw only positive thoughts from your memory bank.” “Your mind wants you to forget the unpleasant. If you will just cooperate, unpleasant memories will gradually shrivel …” “In brief, it is really easy to forget the unpleasant if we simply refuse to recall it.” p.42-44
* “Thoughts, positive or negative, grow stronger when fertilized with constant repetition.” p.24

* “But, when you believe, really believe, something can be done, your mind goes to work for you and helps you to find the ways to do it.” p.69
* “Many of us whip and defeat our desires simply because we concentrate on why we can’t when the only thing worthy of our mental concentration is why we can.” p.71
* “Practice adding value to yourself. … Ask, ‘What can I do to make myself more valuable today?” Visualize yourself not as you are but as you can be. Then specific ways for attaining your potential value will suggest themselves. Just try and see.” p.60

* “A leader is a decision-making human machine. Now, to manufacture anything, you’ve got to have raw material. In reaching creative decisions, the raw materials are the ideas and suggestions of others. Don’t, of course, expect other people to give you ready-made solutions. That’s not the primary reason for asking and listening. Ideas of others help to spark your own ideas so your mind is more creative.” “Before a top man makes a decision, he asks, How do you feel about it? What do you recommend? What would you do under these circumstances? How does this sound to you? p.77

* “The main job of the leader is thinking.” p.186
* “Resolve now to set aside some time each day (at least thirty minutes) to be completely by yourself.” “You can use this time to do two types of thinking: directed and undirected.” p.185

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