One of the best ways you have of improving yourself is by looking into your thought processes. The easiest way to do this is to look at the results in your life by using results based thinking.
I mean, look at what is happening around you and what is happening to you. This is an easy way for you to change your life because you get instant feedback, just by looking around. The results you see are the end product of the accumulation of your thoughts. Changing these thoughts is results based thinking. Your thoughts actually carry ‘weight’ and determine what your world is like. This is not always apparent. We have so many thoughts, most people are unaware of the majority of them.
How Your Mind Works
It is estimated that you have around 50 000 thoughts per day. Let me explain how your mind works.
You have experiences, through your 5 senses which are the process of the conscious mind. These experiences are recorded by your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind faithfully records everything that happens to you, what you think about it and how you feel about it. Your subconscious mind can’t judge the quality of this information it only records it.
If you imagine something that is vivid (vivid means a clear image with depth of emotion), then your subconscious mind treats this as a real life experience and records it as such. Your subconscious mind just records as it sees, it doesn’t store past and future with an image. It lives in the present.
What is recorded in your subconscious mind forms your belief system and your self image. Your self image is the opinion you have about yourself. The image of yourself that you form comes from your accumulated beliefs and the judgements you make in regard to what you can and can’t do.
It is the job of a part of your subconscious mind to harmonize your external world with your self image. When the two don’t match it creates an inner tension and something must change.
How To Change With Results Based Thinking
There are two possibilities for change. Either your external world changes or the tension is reduced.
Lets come back to this later!
Most people exist and accept what happens to them as their lot in life. They float through life. I say, you can have whatever you wish. How? Just reverse the way you do things. Use results based thinking. Look around at your world and see what results you have. Pick something that you wish to change and set a goal.
Setting goals is not a new concept. All successful people have used the concept of goal setting. However less than 3% of the western population set and write their goals. Setting a goal is putting a new image of what you want into your subconscious.
Lets say I am overweight and I want to be slim. I need to do the following.
1. Set the goal. (I want to be slim)
2. Be specific with the goal. (I want to be 70kg.)
3. Write an affirmation. An affirmation is a statement of intent and must be written in the first person, present tense. A statement of intent has more impact if you add emotional words. (I am a stunningly slim 70kg and I look wonderful.)
4. Repetition of the affirmation everyday. Say it as often as you can.
Don’t worry about how you will achieve it. The concept is actually one of faith. Faith is belief without evidence.
There are two things that stop you using one of the most magical sources of creation – your subconscious mind.
The first is if you look for the ‘how’. The ‘how is never apparent otherwise your goal is to easy. The second thing that stops you is requiring proof before you act. Proof means you have no faith. Without faith you cannot harness your subconscious mind.
Why does it work?
Why Does Results Based Thinking Work?
Lets go back to where we left off. Your subconscious mind is faced with two choices. The tension created has to go or your external world must change.
Your mind will do whatever is easier!
If the image of the new you, is strong enough, an external world will be created to fit the image. How? In the overweight example outlined before, you will start unconsciously making the choices that a slim person makes and eventually you will become one.
If the image is weak it will reduce the tension because that will be easier. How? Your goal will be compromised and ‘thinking’ will start. “Maybe 70kg is too light, what about 75”
As soon as you compromise you send yourself a message that your are not serious and this further weakens your vision. You are on a roller coaster to nowhere.
It is important to monitor your thought process, you may not realize that you are spending a lot of ‘thought’ energy fighting and going against what you want. If you worry about an outcome and constantly think of what you don’t want you have a recipe for disaster – that’s NOT results based thinking.
The worry is based on fear and is a very strong emotion. Thinking about the outcome that you don’t want, forms a picture in your mind of that very thing. Having now coupled this with a strong emotion you have a great way of producing what you don’t want.
The thought process and movement towards something is happening to you whether you want it to or not. I say that you can turn on the light. I have successfully used these techniques to completely change my world in every area I can think of. They work.
You decide what your world looks like.
Authors Details:
Aymen Fares is an International Life Coach with clients all over the world. He is based in Melbourne Australia.
