Life’s Journeys

Picture your conscious mind as somewhat like a man riding an elephant. The man is in charge only as long as the elephant doesn’t mind.

In the same way, you can only make conscious decisions as long as your unconscious doesn’t mind. And unfortunately, your unconscious mind tends to feel uncomfortable with anything new or with any significant change of behavior. So, your unconscious mind will resist almost any change you try to make and quickly return you to your old ways or habits – effectively defeating your conscious decision to improve your behavior.

If you try to use self discipline and willpower to enforce your conscious decisions, you will mostly only trigger greater unconscious resistance. (Have you ever decided that you were absolutely not going to eat dessert with dinner, only to find yourself eating two desserts, instead?)
So, how do you get this very independent and stubbornly contrary unconscious mind to do what you want? To allow you to act how you want to act? Fortunately, there is a simple proven model for you to follow.

But before we discuss this model, let me ask you another question.

Who makes a living by getting you to take the specific actions they want you to take?

Yes. Sales, Advertising, and Marketing professionals. And what is their secret method for getting you to take action?

They sell to your unconscious mind, not to your conscious mind.

They all use variations of a very simple script. It’s simple, but it works. And the good news is, you can use the same simple template to ’sell’ behavioral changes to your own unconscious. And once your unconscious mind is sold on the changes, it will decide, on its own, to take actions to implement the new behavior that it has bought into and is all excited about.

So, what makes an effective sales pitch? A sales pitch is only effective if it gets you to take action. Advertising, Marketing, and Sales professionals make a living at getting you to act – and they have it down to a science.

The secret process can be distilled down to a few simple steps. In fact, the entire strategy of an effective sales pitch is to accomplish these six goals…

Evoke strong negative emotions (like fear, insecurity, envy, greed, etc.) to get you (your unconscious) feeling really distressed about your current situation.

Tie those bad feelings to your current behavior.

Evoke strong positive emotions (like freedom, success, pride, etc.) and connect those emotions to your distressful situation being resolved.

Tie losing your bad feelings and gaining the good feelings to switching to the desired behavior.

Supply your conscious mind with the logical reasons (rationalizations) it needs to explain and feel good about the decision (made unconsciously) to change behavior.

Call for specific immediate action.

The result is that you want to act (unconsciously), and you can easily justify the action (consciously), so you act (and the salesman gets his commission).

The sales model starts with the desired action and then tries to tie it to emotions and rationalizations that will work on the salesman’s target (you). Generally the salesman doesn’t really know much about you, so he has to construct this approach based on a lot of assumptions.

If you use this model on yourself, you have several advantages that will actually make you more effective than the sales pros in changing your own behavior.

You know what new behavior you want, plus you already know what logical reasons you have for making the change. And, you know (or can discover) more about what evokes the strong negative and positive emotions in your own unconscious that will create the emotional desire to take action.

Affirmations and visualization are important tools with which we can change ourselves and the world around us.

Our thoughts shape us who we are. Behind every action there is a thought. We are what we think. We become what we think all day long.

The mind utilizes images and words to think, remember and reason. The words we speak influence our brain. Positive words and thoughts can influence us in a positive way and negative words and thoughts can influence us negatively. We can refer to them as “positive self talk” and “negative self talk.” Self-affirmations are nothing but self-talk.

What we say to ourselves can be just silent speech or out loud words we say to ourselves. Both have similar effects on our brain. What many people don’t realize is that we talk to ourselves silently all the time. For the most part we talk negatively to ourselves. It is not some transient negative self-talk. We hold negative talk SESSIONS with ourselves. According to one report, in our silent self-talk we make about 9 negative statements to ourselves but only one positive statement on average. Children hear “No” from their parents thirteen times and “Yes” only one time. So as we grow, we learn to think in such terms as, “I can’t do this,” “I won’t get it” or “It won’t work out.” Since, we hear negative stuff all the time and have heard it all our lives, negative talk becomes our “automatic behavior.” An automatic behavior is that that we do without thinking or below the level of self-awareness. We tend to think most of the time without thinking. How about doing some thinking about thinking itself?

What we say to ourselves matters! Many cultures of the past or even present have a taboo about saying anything bad because they fear it will come to pass. They are not supposed to say anything bad will happen to them or their loved ones. One may laugh at such beliefs and call them “superstitions” but there just might be some truth in such beliefs. Perhaps, these cultures had some idea that people’s minds are influenced by what they say and then the mind works to transform those words into becoming realities. If negative words can produce negative outcomes, it can be argued that positive outcomes can result from saying positive things to ourselves over and over again.

Affirmations are saying the same thing over and over again. Even if you don’t believe right now that you can ever achieve those things that your affirmations say you will achieve. Repeat those affirmations enough number of times so you can start believing them. Who was that who once said something to the effect that if you repeat a lie enough number of times, people will accept it to be truthful.

Many people think that self-affirmations are “corny”, “cheesy” and childish. Why is it that some don’t use such pejorative terms for their negative self-talk? Why the positive self-talk should be regarded childish or corny? Is negative talk a sign of maturity? No, it is not! But, we tend to think grown ups are supposed to be realistic and keep everything toned down and saying anything self-supportive or self-affirming would amount to babying ourselves.

Be aware that your negative mind will try to talk yourself out of the positive self talk or affirmations if you will. It will mock you or say disparaging things. It might tell you that if you say positive and self-affirming things to yourself, you will become self-conceited and people won’t be able to stand you for your habit of beating your own drums. Your mind might tell you that any effort to change yourself or better your life would be futile. It might say to you that no change in your circumstances is possible because the odds are stacked up against you. Well, you need to ask yourself “Who is stacking up those odds against me?” The answer you might hear, “Of course me!”

What makes a good affirmation? A good self-affirmation is that which is believable by you. If you can believe it, then your brain and body can believe it and may decide to act on it. When you believe yourself, the world around you can believe in you. By that I mean people around you will begin to see positive developments and changes in you. Affirmation should be about achieving a goal YOU believe is attainable. Design your affirmations about a concrete and specific result or outcome you want to see happen. Or, it may be about performing a behavior you are not able to perform right now or improving on a quality or a skill which is not at a satisfactory level right now.

Write down your affirmations. That’s the first step. But, writing down your affirmation is the easier part. More difficult part is repeating them over and over again, days after days and weeks after weeks. Even more difficult is putting your heart and soul in those affirmations. For example, when you say, “I like myself” but you don’t really create the feelings you should experience when you really like someone, you are not being very self-affirming. So put strong emotion into your affirmations.

When you repeat an affirmation, feel it in your body, your heart and your soul. Half-hearted affirmations would give you half-hearted results. Tell yourself you are not kidding around. You mean business and you will make it happen! Back up your affirmation with your action. Put your money where your mouth is!

What makes an affirmation work or fail? Make sure you write your affirmations in a positive language and present tense. For example, if you were to say, “I don’t want to be a couch potato anymore” or “I don’t want to be a procrastinator anymore,” you are not telling your brain as to what do you really want to be right now. It is better to say, “I am becoming active and energetic!” “I am an action taker!” I act promptly and proactively.

Here are some of the reasons why your affirmations might yield poor results:

1) You didn’t put the right body language, emotions and beliefs that should go with that affirmation.

2) You gave up too soon and practiced little.

3) There was more negative self-talk before and after the affirmations, hence, positive affirmations were outweighed by negative affirmations

4) You had plenty of talk with yourself, but you were short on action or there was little correspondence between your affirmations, emotions and actual actions. For example, affirmation says, “I make healthy food choices” but made faces at the sight of healthy food and hardly ever went to the grocery store to buy healthy food, never found time to cook healthy food at home and ate all the time at fast food places.

Don’t sell yourself short! Don’t be sucked into the tendency for self-discouragement such as, “Oh I have always been shy. How can I ever be different? I would give anything to be different, but it is not possible.” To take another example, you might be closing the doors on yourself for prosperity by telling yourself, “I have always been poor. My parents were poor. All I have known is poverty. So, there is no point for wasting my words on ever becoming rich.”

Einstein once said that your imagination is a preview of the life’s coming attractions. If you are shy, first you have to be able to imagine that you are holding conversations and enjoying it to overcome shyness. If you are poor, you have to first imagine what you would be like as a happy person or a rich person. Imagination leads to thinking of the ways that can make that imagination a reality. Imagination is nothing but visualization of something you have not yet experienced. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale used to say “Visualize in order to materialize.” When you can imagine having achieved what you truly desire, your mind begins to think of ways to get you there in reality.

When you verbalize and visualize something over and over again, it begins to sink in the mind.

The term, “sinking in the mind” means that what we are saying is becoming a part of our subconscious. Repetitions make inroads into our deeper mind. When you hold something in your mind for a long time and you repeat affirmations over and over again for a long time, perhaps you might begin to dream about new life and a new you. You begin to think about them in your sleep and semi-sleep and wake up with thoughts related to them. They begin to sit there in your subconscious mind and may prompt appropriate actions.

How often should I repeat the affirmations? Until it comes true! If a goal or an outcome is that important to you, keep on doing it until it comes true! Bear in mind what you are up against. If your affirmation consists of developing a new behavior or habit that is opposite to a life long habit, then it would take a decent length of time. Bear in mind that affirmations often might have to be repeated for weeks rather than days. How long do you repeat them and how long do they occupy your conscious mind? What occupies the conscious mind for a good bit of time filters down to the subconscious!

How do you know if your affirmations are doing any good to you? Be careful how you measure progress. Register even a small increment of progress. Against a life- long firmly entrenched trait or habit such as shyness or procrastination, even infinitesimal progress is progress indeed and needs to be celebrated.

How do I fight off negative thoughts against positive affirmations? Become an expert in identifying your negative thoughts quickly and instantly rather than spending the whole afternoon or morning and then realizing, “Oh my! I have been thinking nothing but negative thoughts and casting doubts and self- aspersions on myself all this time” Stop them quickly before they leave too many “foot prints” on your mental ground.

Instead of “fighting” with your negative thoughts, just be aware and watch them. Don’t get sucked into them. Stay away and watch. Then, simply go back to your affirmations as a counter measure.

Tips for increasing the chances that your affirmation will come to pass:

a) Generate strong feelings and emotions that go with your affirmations.

b) Let your body feel how you would feel if your affirmations have come true right now. For example, stand steady, tall and strong if your affirmation concerns winning an award for a performance.

c) Relax and breathe fully and deeply with your abdomen when repeating your affirmations.

d) Back your affirmations up with actione) Always, counter negative affirmations that negate your positive affirmation

Here is an example of a person who utilized affirmations to change her eating behaviors and develop new health habits:

“K” has struggled with her weight for last two decades. She knows she should eat healthy and exercise. But she doesn’t get down to eat healthy or do exercise with any consistency. If she gets started at all, she would quit in a matter of just a few days. She is aware that she keeps procrastinating actions related to eating healthy and exercise regularly. She acknowledges she really likes the taste of junk food and at the end of the day, enjoys putting her feet up on the table and watch TV rather than exercise. She describes herself in negative labels, “I am just a procrastinator” or “I am too lazy to exercise in the night” and uses them to explain to herself why she doesn’t stick to a plan. But hates her weight, hates herself being that way and doesn’t want to go out or socialize because of her embarrassment with her weight. This has caused problems in the marriage because her husband wants to go out and entertain friends at home.

She is afraid of exercising

She developed goals for liking herself in spite of her weight. She decided she would eat healthy and in small portions and not focus on any diet plan or banishing any specific foods. That she wanted to be active and energetic and healthy rather than slim or loose specific number of weight. However, it was important to her to have a number like loose one pound a week. So, she wrote her affirmations consistent with these goals. She rehearsed these affirmations with the right body language and emotions. She also taped them so she could listen to them when she was getting ready for work or doing household chores.

She then began to stand in front of the mirror and repeat affirmations about how likeable, funny and attractive person she was. Because why would you do anything for someone you were really embarrassed or disgusted with? She would in front of the mirror act, stand, walk around and feel that she really was attractive, funny and likeable. She practiced to smile on the negative thoughts and focus on her affirmations.

She put in her daily/weekly plan to buy healthy food and cook at home. She set a specific time for exercise first thing in the morning before going to work so the other demands would not encroach on her exercise time. She hated to exercise because she was totally out of practice. She developed a strategy to start with a mild exercise and started with five minutes exercise. Once she broke the 5-minute barrier, she kept on increasing the time and intensity of her exercise.

First she had to do her affirmations many times a day or all the time in her silent thoughts. She had to move herself to action by repeating to herself, “Move. Get on with it. Now is the time,” etc. She would hear music in her head to make her feel like dancing or doing something. She would hum or whistle to get into the spirit of starting her exercises.

Six months have passed. She is working with her plans. She doesn’t have to do her affirmations now except occasionally silently tell herself to persist with her program. Now it has become very much a part of her daily routine.

In summation, put your money where your mouth is. Affirmations without action are mere words. Develop a strategy for action and a strategy how you would act towards your goal every day in some way. Affirmations without strong corresponding emotions are also mere words! Put your heart and soul into it.

Start today! Take some action today. That’s the secret of getting started.

Whether you have the winter blues, you’re suffering from a disappointment, or you’re just feeling a little down, we all have times when we could use a little lift.

Here are 10 ideas to get you back on the upswing.

1. Plan Some Fun.
Get out your calendar. Next do a search for things to do in your area. Local newspapers usually have a “What’s Going On” section. Pick out your favorite 5 or 10 things. And remember the things you choose don’t have to be big events. It can be as simple as taking a long drive in the country or going for a walk on the beach. Write them into your calendar. Invite someone to join you on some. For others go and meet some new people.

2. Express Your Creativity.
Do some painting. Decorate your house with flowers. Do a paper mache project. Pick up that guitar, practice and write a song. Practice juggling. Make a funny photo album with all those old photos you’ve got in boxes by adding quirky caption above each picture. Learn how to play the harmonica. Write and illustrate a mini book or comic book. Maybe pick your favorite movie get a friend to act out one of the scenes with you while you videotape it. It doesn’t have to be good. Just doing these things will make you feel good. And if you keep doing them you’ll naturally get better.

3. Get Outside.
Fresh air does wonders for your body and spirit. If you can go to a park or a place in nature, even better. Here are some things you could do: go for a walk, fly a kite, plant some vegetables or flowers, roller skate, ride a bike, or go on a ‘treasure hunt” to find things for an art project.

4. Let Music Take You Higher.
Turn on your favorite music and sing! Pull down the shades and dance. Rent a video on belly dancing. If you’re in your car, you can still move a little to the music. Go for it! What do you care what other people think? Have fun with it! Sing, dance, play an instrument. Practice your favorite song and then go to karaoke and let the world hear your talent!

5. Walk a Dog.
If you don’t have your own dog, offer to walk a neighbor’s dog. Or even better yet, sign up at the local SPCA to walk the pooches who have no one to love them. What a nice way to make a difference!

6. Volunteer.
There are so many ways to help others. Here are a few ideas.
· Feed people. Volunteer at a food kitchen or make your own homemade batch of food and share it with people who could use it: shut-ins, elderly, new mothers, someone who is works too much, etc.
· Help People: volunteer with the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, or Meels on Wheels.
· Mentor. Check out Big Brother/Big Sister, Mentoring.org, or SCORE(mentoring small business start-ups).

7. A Change Will Do You Good.
Get some order in your house. Change your furniture around. Change your decorations, or maybe go minimalist for a change. Clear out the clutter. It doesn’t matter where you start. Just pick a place in your home that’s been bugging you and attack it! Then sell, throw, or give away stuff you don’t need. You’ll feel great afterward and you’ll have made a dent in making your living space more peaceful. And maybe it will give you inspiration to tackle another area tomorrow.

8. Plan a Party.
There doesn’t need to be a good reason other than it’s time for some fun. Start with a small idea and build around it. Maybe you can get inspired by a theme, certain foods, or your favorite music to get the ball rolling. Then think about who you would like to invite. When and where will you have it? Will you cook, hire caterers, or make it pot luck? A meal or finger foods? Will there be dancing, contests, games, or other fun stuff like costumes? Maybe it will be low key with some jazz music, wine and cheese. Or maybe it will be a Hawaiian luau. Or maybe if you have a lot of singe friends you can have a white elephant party. Call a friend for help with the logistics.

9. Personal Spa and Relaxation Day.
Include as many of these ideas as you like or have time for. Get a massage, pedicure, and haircut. Take a bubble bath with candles, music and champagne. Give yourself an egg-white or mud mask facial. Line up 2-3 movies to watch in bed while eating your favorite delights: ice cream, chocolate, whip cream, jello, popcorn, finger food hors d’oeuvre, and more. What else would you include to pamper yourself?

10. Reach Out.
Connect with friends and family. When was the last time you wrote and mailed an actual letter? Why not do it today? Or how about making some home made post cards with materials you have lying around the house. Cutout some pictures from magazines or from your photo collection and make a mini collage. Maybe just call one old friend from college or high school that you haven’t talked to in forever. Or maybe you could visit a neighbor who might need some cheering up too! Bring some cookies!

There are two parts to our brains- the conscious mind, which handles all things we are aware of and the subconscious mind, which controls everything else. The conscious mind works only some of the time (when we are awake). But the subconscious mind is always at work.

Whether we are aware of it or not, the subconscious mind, not including involuntary physical behaviors such as breathing and our heart beat, works off of signals sent to it from the conscious mind.

In other words, whatever we spend our conscious time thinking about most becomes a point of interest for our subconscious mind. And since our subconscious mind is always at work, it puts forth a great deal of effort addressing those topics.

Have you ever gone to bed shortly after watching a scary movie? More often than not you have some sort of nightmares, right? Even if you can’t recall being woken from the nightmares, there is a good chance that you had them. The occurrence of the nightmares is a prime example of the awesome power of our subconscious minds. While you watched the movie your conscious mind was creating thoughts and images of the parts that you found scary. If you don’t change those thoughts before going to sleep, then your subconscious mind has nothing to work with other than the movie you just watched. During sleep is the most effective time for the subconscious mind, because there is no chance of conflicting signals coming from the conscious mind. This is why when making an important decision people will sometimes want to “sleep on it”.

Ultimately your subconscious mind knows what’s in your best interest, and will nudge you in that direction. Without the negative influence of the conscious mind, which tends to make decisions based on emotion rather than logical thought, your subconscious is free to do what it does best. That is, to help you achieve whatever it is you desire.

Now that we’ve determined that sleep is the best time for your subconscious mind to handle its work, we need to be sure that the scary movie thoughts are replaced with positive, problem solving and productive thoughts. This way, when your subconscious mind gets working it is addressing the issues of most importance to you, and not caught up with trivial matters that are out of your control anyway.

Following is a list of ten methods you can apply to your life that will help you access your subconscious mind.

Although the ideal situation would be to apply these tactics right before bed, it’s not practical to expect to do so. I also think there are advantages to applying them throughout the day so that you’re sure the things you want are reaching your subconscious mind.

Like anything else, these concepts will become easier with practice, but even when implemented poorly or improperly, you should still begin to see substantial results.

1. Leave Reminders – The easiest way to be sure you’re thinking about things that are important is to leave physical reminders. There are a number of ways you can do this. The simplest is to write yourself notes. A to-do list can be helpful, though it’s easy to have your primary goals blend in with other, less important daily activities.

What I suggest instead, and have found personal success with, is to firmly and clearly write your goal or desire on an note card or piece of paper and put it in a strategic location. I did this with my recent weight loss goal. The idea being that you will see it often, and the goal or thought will begin to fester in your mind, even if you are unaware of what’s taking place.

Physical reminders use your conscious mind as a bridge to get to your subconscious mind. First, by creating the reminders (i.e. drawing the notes) you are instilling the thought into first your conscious mind, and then your subconscious.

Second, when you place the reminder in a strategic location, one where you will see it frequently, you give the thought an opportunity to take a direct route to your subconscious. (Think subliminal messaging.) If advertisers take advantage of this method so freely, and with such success, why can’t we “trick” ourselves, too?

2. Meditate – I’m not a person who puts myself into deep trances on a regular basis, but as someone who daydreams occasionally, I can attest to the benefits of allowing your mind to drift into a relaxed, thoughtless state.

Thoughtless may be the wrong word. Focused is probably more accurate.

The next time you catch yourself daydreaming, take a moment and think about how focused and in tune with your thoughts you were. That is the state of mind you should shoot for when you meditate. Relax until you are literally lost in thought.

Be sure to have a focused topic as you are drifting into meditation or your thoughts may be misdirected. Take a minute to specifically identify the goals you want to achieve or the problem you’d like to solve. Once you’ve got them clearly in your mind, close your eyes, control your breathing and relax your body. Don’t let those thoughts leave your head. Now visualize (see step 3.) yourself achieving the goals, or functioning in a world where your problem has been solved. Continue in this state for as long as you feel necessary, and repeat as needed.

3. Visualize – Visualization works best when it’s paired with meditation, but it doesn’t have to be. Meditation puts you in a relaxed state, which makes it easier to create visual sequences. By creating visual sequences you put yourself in a situation that you anticipate yourself being in, before it actually happens. This allows your brain acclimate itself to the situation that is about to occur.

Essentially, visualization is practice for your brain. It’s no different than practicing an athletic event, except rather than training muscles, you’re training your brain, so it knows how you want it to respond in a specific scenario.

To visualize, all you do is create mental pictures (some people prefer videos), of yourself successfully accomplishing something. You would actually see yourself performing the task, either in third or first person, whichever you prefer.

It’s important to remember to create the picture in as much detail as possible, making note of such things as sounds and smells. The more detailed the visualization, the more successful it will be.

Visualize through the entire event or performance, imagining the desired outcome and all the excitement that comes with it. Allow yourself to feel the joy that you will feel when you actually do successfully complete the task. Make it as real and as accurate as possible. Repeat as necessary, and don’t stop until you’re convinced you’ve already achieved the goal.

4. Tell Others About Your Goal – If you were to state your goal or desire aloud on a daily basis, your subconscious mind would have no choice but to listen. In order to speak, your brain must formulate thoughts, and in order to formulate thoughts, your brain must first compile and organize those thoughts. Such a simple thing as telling others about your plans requires that you make important decisions before you can do so.

The entire process is orchestrated by your conscious mind, which relays the plan to the subconscious. Suddenly, you’ve opened up the channel of communication between the two minds, simply by stating your thoughts. While you’re explaining away, your subconscious has already begun working on how you’re going to accomplish your goal.

A beneficial byproduct of this step is the accountability factor. This is another strategy that I used when starting my weight loss plan. The more people you tell of your plan, the more people you will let down if you fail to achieve it. For me, the accountability aspect adds an extra element of motivation to my already desired goal. It is also a huge help when dealing with procrastination.

5. Talk to Those Who’ve Been There – Trails are blazed for a reason. Could you imagine if every time you wanted to do something you had to completely start from scratch? What if recipes had to be invented new each time? Or if computers weren’t built based on successes and failures of previous builds? Imagine how impossible progression would be on this planet.

Thankfully, that isn’t the case in manufacturing and cooking, and there’s no reason why it should be in life either. If there’s a particular thing you’d like to do with your life, then make it a point to speak to someone who has already done it. If you can’t get in touch with them, then read everything you can about them, or study their career. Do everything in your power to follow the path that they created for themselves. If there’s something you’d rather do differently, you can always veer off, but there is no need to insist on being a pioneer to get to the same place someone else already has.

You don’t have to stop being your own person to follow a blueprint for success. Having a plan that is already proven successful will allow your subconscious mind to work on the nuts and bolts of following the plan rather than designing its own plan. The closer you can get your subconscious mind to the heart of the matter, the better.

It begins with starting down the right road.

6. Set a Deadline – Tell your subconscious mind that you mean business. If you were to combine a deadline with the accountability factor, you’d give yourself no choice but to accomplish your goal.

A deadline tells your subconscious mind that there is an urgent matter at hand, and it must be taken care of immediately. Your mind will feel the importance of the matter, and will make all the necessary adjustments to be sure that the proper attention is given to solving this problem, which it understands to be the most pressing.

Even if it isn’t the most important thing going on in your life, a deadline will keep your mind working on it, until it’s met.

The amazing thing about the subconscious mind is it does whatever it takes to accomplish the things that you ask it to. Attaching a deadline to a particular goal simply increases the rate at which the subconscious mind works, without you even realizing it.

7. Maintain Focus – It’s extremely easy to become distracted from the goals that are most important.

Typically, when you lose focus on what’s important it’s because your conscious mind becomes occupied with something. Although your subconscious mind wants to continue working on the original plan, your attention is diverted from the ultimate goal to something more timely, but usually not nearly as important.

When your focus shifts, the ability of your subconscious mind to take on and solve the problems you’ve layed out for it becomes significantly lower. To counteract this, you’ve got to make a conscious effort to maintain your focus on the issues that you want your subconscious to concentrate on. By this I mean you’ve got to be aware of the distractions that are presented to your conscious mind, and do your best to flush them out.

Once you understand how to filter your thoughts so that only the absolutely important ones make it to your subconscious, you’re on your way to realizing its potential.

8. Chart Progress – The only way to truly understand progress is to see where you were then, and compare it to where you are now. To see a visual map of the road you traveled is an important step towards reaching your ultimate goal.

To begin, take the goal you’d like to achieve, the one that you’ve been calling on your subconscious mind to accomplish, and write it down in as much detail as you can.

Next, identify a few of the stages or milestones that you plan to reach on the way towards achieving that goal. Keep them in your mind as necessary benchmarks.

Now when you approach those benchmarks you’ll be able to see how far you’ve come, as well as how much further you have to go.

The road map lets your subconscious know that it’s on the right track, that it’s making progress, and what the next benchmark is, so it can apply its efforts accordingly.

9. Be Realistic – It’s easy to tell your subconscious that your goal is to end world hunger. However, when you do that, and then realize that such a goal is beyond your scope of ability, you’ve set yourself up for failure. As a result you become discouraged and risk losing faith in yourself.

A better way to accomplish your goal is to set a goal that challenges you, yet is realistic. If ending world hunger is your ultimate goal, how about setting your first goal at ending hunger in your community. Once you’ve accomplished that goal, then you can broaden your scope and work on something bigger.

Give your subconscious mind a challenging goal, but pace yourself. Going for it all right off the bat is a recipe for disaster.

10. Persevere & Persist – Understand now that there will be setbacks. There will be struggles and difficulties. But keep in mind that those things are only temporary.

No setback has to be permanent. It only becomes so if you allow it. It’s your responsibility to train your subconscious and conscious minds to see the difference between setbacks and failures.

When you hit a roadblock, go around it. When you have a bridge to cross, cross it with confidence.

Tell yourself that no matter what, you will accomplish that goal. Your subconscious mind, once it has the assurance that you want it to work on a goal, will do whatever it takes to succeed. But if it has the slightest bit of doubt (i.e. you’re not totally convinced of what your want, or if you can accomplish it) then it struggles to find solutions.

Be persistent, persevere through tough times, decide confidently in what you want and allow no temporary setback to put you off course.

If you relay this message to your subconscious mind by making a conscious decision that this is what you want, your subconscious mind will respond.

You Control Your Destiny – Remember, your subconscious mind exists to serve you. Put it to work in a productive way and it will provide overwhelming results.

Make conscious decisions that are in the best interest of your overall goals, and your subconscious mind will receive the message, and go to work.

The more you utilize the great power that your subconscious mind provides, the better you will be at calling on it. And the better you get at calling on it, the more success you will realize.

Only you control your destiny. You have the ability to make decisions that impact your life. Take advantage of the power you have to make the best decisions.