What do you see?
I’m guessing you can see both triangles?
Yes?
The one with the black outline and the white one…
Agreed?
And do you see the three black circles?
Of course you do!
Actually, you don’t!
There are no triangles and no circles.
Sure we can see the black lines that would create a triangle if they were extended and joined up.
And we can see that three black circles could be created by putting back the missing sectors.
But what about the white triangle, I hear you ask?
Well, it simply isn’t there at all!
What you see is just a thought.
Not reality.
Just a thought, made up by you, to make sense of the lines and shapes in front of you.
Just a thought.
And even after it’s been explained to you and you know there are no triangles and no circles…
You still try and convince yourself that you can, indeed, see them.
But you can’t.
It’s just a thought.
Now, I’m not trying to be clever here..
Or to make you look stupid…
I’m just showing you that everything you see in life…
Everything you believe in life…
Everything you do in life…
They’re all just thoughts.
All just your brain, trying to make sense of what you see, hear, smell, feel or taste.
The problem is, these thoughts can have a massive impact on your life.
You see…
Simple things like your parents telling you to be careful when you were growing up stay with you for life.
Subconsciously, you keep in your mind that you shouldn’t take risks…
You shouldn’t be adventurous…
You should take the safe option.
You then spend the rest of your life, holding back…
And never reaching your true potential.
All because you held onto a thought.
All because your parents were looking out for you.
Of course, there are many other thoughts we hold onto that cause far worse problems and issues than that.
Feelings of being worthless…
Unattractive…
Useless…
Stupid…
To blame for everything that goes wrong.
The list goes on.
But every single one of them…
They’re just thoughts.
The problem is, these thoughts have a massive impact on the person holding onto them.
The good news, however…
You can change your thoughts…
You can destroy the images they create…
You can change the emotions they cause…
You can create new, empowering thoughts.
You see, the thing is…
The world…
Your world…
Is made up of thoughts…
Your thoughts.
Once you understand that…
And accept it…
You’re well and truly on the road to creating real and lasting transformation in your life.
The trouble is, many people never, ever get it.
They never understand that their world is created by them…
Created by the way they think.
They feel like they have no control over their thoughts…
Which in turn means they have no control over their life.
Life controls them.
In my previous post in this series (Click here to read it now, if you haven’t done so already), I talked about how our thoughts are influenced by many things…
Including things said by our parents as we grow up.
Many, many parents tell their children to ‘be careful’, ‘slow down’, ‘look out for that…’ etc… etc… etc…
They’re only looking out for their kids, of course.
Just caring for them and trying to save them some pain and anguish.
The problem is, comments like this can sometimes leave their child lacking the confidence to take on even the smallest hurdles, not only in their childhood, but in later life too.
Because they develop a cautious approach to life.
They never take chances.
Play safe.
We pick up things in our subconscious mind and they’ll become reality…
Until we decide to change the way we think.
As an example…
As a kid, the word ‘reckon’ had somehow become ‘retton’ in my mind.
Don’t ask me how or why…
It just did!
The thing is, when it’s said fast and in a Black Country dialect like mine was, the two sound very similar!
So I wasn’t picked up on it.
And when I was, by my peers, I’d argue vehemently that I was right!
The thing was, I was so confident I was right, I wouldn’t even consider looking it up in a dictionary.
My thoughts were cast in stone.
Oh, and by the way, there were no smart phones or internet when I was a kid!
So, it wasn’t as easy to check it as it is now.
It wasn’t until I was about 13 or 14 that my English teacher, whom I massively respected, pointed out my error and I started to use the correct word.
Of course, I never owned up to my mistake to my friends… that would have been a step too far!
What this shows, is how easy it is to create a thought in our minds and for us to believe that it’s totally, 100%, true.
However, this story also shows how easy it is to change that thought to something that actually is true!
As soon as someone I respected as an expert in the English language, pointed out the error of my ways, I listened…
And I changed my thought.
“Just like that…”, as the late, great Tommy Cooper used to say.
We just have to be open to change.
Open to the fact that our thoughts are just thoughts…
Not reality.
Just thoughts.
Once you accept that.
Changing your thoughts is not only possible, but also easy to do.
Start by writing down a list of thoughts you carry around with you, in your mind.
For instance…
For me, as I was growing up, I used to think…
I was quiet.
I was shy.
I wasn’t attractive to girls.
I was good at sport.
I was academically pretty good.
There were a few other things as well, but that will do for now!
Anyway, because of these thoughts…
I often didn’t engage in conversation at school until someone spoke to me…
When girls spoke to me, I clammed up and turned a bright shade of red out of embarrassment…
When I played sport, I was in utopia…
And I performed well at school without really excelling.
It took me many, many years to shake of some of those thoughts, and even now, I’m not 100% comfortable being the centre of attention…
Though I’m masses better than I was all those years ago.
The thing is…
As I was growing up, all of the things I was thinking about myself were reality.
In my mind they weren’t just thoughts they were totally, 100% cast in stone.
They were me.
These thoughts were how I defined myself.
They became so strong that they were present in me all day, every day.
It wasn’t until I started to question things…
That my thoughts became exactly that…
Just thoughts.
As soon as I realised I didn’t have to believe my every thought…
And that I could create my own, brand new thoughts…
I started to create a massively different life for myself.
So, how do you get started on changing your thoughts?
How do you start to dispel the thoughts that are holding you back?
How do you replace them with far better, empowering thoughts?
Now, if I’m totally honest, this works far better as part of a conversation…
But it can be done by yourself…
You just have to believe in the process…
And not let your thoughts stop you from giving this a chance!
OK…
- Take any one of your thoughts
- Write it down on a blank piece of paper and as you work through the following questions and thoughts, write down your answers and thoughts.
- Think long and hard about this thought… this belief.
- Where did it come from?
- Look back to the point when it first became part of your life… when you first gave it meaning in your life. Go back as far as you can remember.
- Is this thought true?
- Or could it have a different meaning?
- Is it a thought you want to hold onto?
- Or one you want to let go of and change?
- If you want to change it…
- What thought would you like to replace it with?
- If you can think of anything you’ve done in your life so far, that confirms that this thought is true, write them down.
- If not, think of at least 3 things you can do in the next week that will convince you this thought is, indeed, true.
- Do them.
Follow the same process with all of your other thoughts.
Now, some people like to concentrate on one thought at a time…
Others like to go for broke and get everything on paper and then work on several things at once…
Your choice.
Do what you instinctively think will work best for you.
Oh, by the way…
Here’s a passing thought to leave you with…
You will need to take action to make this work.
Just reading this article won’t change anything.
Just a thought.