The Biggest Thought Ever

What I’m about to share with you is the most important information you will ever need to hear. I know that sounds like a big call and it might be hard for you to trust me and follow through this idea at first, but that is where I am going to start – because this truly is the most important information you will ever need to hear.

You probably think there is no way you could find anything of such profound significance hidden within my words.  Afterall, you hardly even know me, but when you’re done reading everything I have to say, I believe you will find a natural affinity for everything I’ve said – because it’s something you already know somewhere deep inside – and all I am really doing is connecting you with your own inner beliefs.

 

How you think the world to be, is how it will be.

 

If to you the world is a bright place, full of opportunities and lucky breaks just waiting for you, then that is exactly how it is. If you think it is a terrifying place that you can’t trust because of the bad things that lie ahead, then you will discover that you are right.

I have come to know this as absolute truth because I have been lucky enough to have experienced two very challenging events in my life.

For the most part, I am the complete optimist; the glass is always half full for me and I could find the silver lining in a typhoon. However, there have been two deeply personal and heart breaking events that have had a profound impact on me, one in my late teens and one in the past four years. Both came with a solid dose of depression and a full set of mind splitting life questions. This is the sort of thing that could change a person’s worldview from the positive to the negative permanently. For a while these events probably did make me a different person.

Now bear with me, what I’m about to say is probably a little hard to take in with one chew so you may want to re-read this next part a few times and let it sink in.

The reason people do not realise the world they are living in is a projection of their internal mind is simply because they have no external benchmark or reference to prove this point. For your whole life, you have been constructing the script and watching the film play out at the same time, one constantly validating the other. A positive minded person sees the world as a positive place and the positive world they occupy reinforces their positive thinking. The opposite is also true for the negative thinkers reading this.

I was lucky to strike a bout of turbulence on my own journey as that is why I now have that external benchmark. I got to be a different person with a different worldview for an extended period of time. This worldview manifested in my mind first, then in my body, and then was being reflected back at me from the world around me. What I noticed was that with this altered state of mind, my life genuinely began to to take a more negative direction. My health, my relationships and my finances all had turns for the worse during these periods. Most people would put this down to the general ups and downs of life, but it was much more than that. I was projecting negativity into my world, through my thoughts, through my behaviour and through a general negative experience of life.

In my late teens I had no idea what was taking place, 19 year old males are not usually the most self-aware creatures. At middle age, I was able to understand myself on a deeper level and could see that the negative event had changed my outlook and could change my life permanently if I did not take action. That call to action came in the form of a thunderous voice screaming at me, ‘What are you doing? You are running a pity party and that is why things are going to hell’.

I got up the next day and started taking action and my decision to share this experience with you is a product of that moment. I literally started channeling more of my old self and less of the negative person I had become. My perception of life began to change for the better, my relationships, my physical health and my financial state dramatically improved. It was not all smooth sailing out of a negative state towards the glowing light of happy days, there was some backsliding along the way. This was also a good thing. A fall from grace will help you recognise when you are living in a blessed state. If I had just shaken off the shadowy state of mind in one go, I am not sure that I would have come to see so clearly that it was my state of mind that was creating my reality.

As I said at the start, this is tough to digest, but theoretically the concept is very simple. The hard part is truly believing it. It’s so much easier to blame your life situations on other people or events. To accept that you are the the conductor leading the band is to be fully responsible for the music that is playing. We have seen our role models blaming all sorts of things for their situation. I can not remember a single adult I knew as a child ever saying, I need to really improve my attitude because my current financial problems are a direct reflection of my thoughts and beliefs around money. The adults I grew up with talked about the bank, the government and their boss, all not giving them a fair go.

What you think, believe and say to yourself is exactly how your life is right now and will be in the future. Now if you can truly say, “Yes, that makes sense, I believe in that”, then the next issue is figuring out what to do with this information and, if you need to, how you can change any deep rooted limiting beliefs, thoughts, or self talk which is holding you back from being the very best version of yourself.

 

Here are my top three tips for Better Life Living

1) Take some time to learn to meditate and try to get 10 hours of practise

I am not expecting that you turn into the Dalai Lama, just keep it simple. Jump on YouTube and find some guided meditation videos and give yourself some space to listen to these. I personally have found counting my breathing on the exhale to be the very best way to calm my mind. 1 to 10 then take a break, repeat as needed. If you can develop a routine of regular practice this will profoundly impact your life for the better.

The main reason that I recommend giving meditation a try is because the moment you try to calm your mind down, you will discover just how busy it is in there. If you are like most people, thoughts are going to come through like commuter trains as you try to calm your mind. Ideally you will sit in a relaxed position in a quiet space where you can label each thought and just let it pass. If you find yourself hopping on the thought train and riding until you remember you are meant to be meditating, just focus on your breathing and get back into it. With some regular practice you will be able to identify your own internal talk and see the internal chatter for what it is. You need to hear this clearly before you can start to see positive changes.

 

2) Set some goals and make them measurable

If you are in agreement that you are the architect of your reality, it just makes logical sense to have a plan. Write down your goals or create a vision board with your goals and pictures. Private Pinterest boards are good or there are loads of other goal setting apps available. I use a digital platform called Trello for my goal setting. Put the pictures of your goals up where you can see them regularly. Try and get emotional about your goals, really feel the outcome and see yourself in those pictures.

Here is the most important thing, take action and keep taking action towards your goal until you have it. Goals without actions are just hopes and dreams. The action is what breathes life into them. Honestly, the action does not even matter that much, don’t get caught up in the plan, just act consistently. In this way, you have told the universe what you want and then you have followed that request with effort. The effort will create more emotion and that emotion will ignite the energy of the world to help you achieve that goal.

Remember there is a process here and you might be new at it, so give yourself a chance. Ask for something simple at the start and follow through with action and keep your eye out for any little unexpected breaks that help you reach your goal. Remember to keep it simple and review your goals regularly. Once you find the groove I assure you the results will flow exponentially and begin to flow from the most unexpected places.

 

3) Learn to control your self talk

This is probably the hardest and the most important thing to learn. The tricky thing about self talk is how real it sounds. You have been talking to yourself for as long as you can remember. This is the single, longest conversation we are all having. Without meditation, recognising this conversation for what it is and even identifying your self talk may be impossible. Now what we need to do here is actually get a grip of the things you are saying to yourself. In particular, we need to cut down the negative thoughts and beliefs that are going to hold us back. This is where the world is really playing out, if you want a different world, the first place where change needs to occur is in your mind and self talk.

There is no point taking action toward a goal while holding limiting conversations in your head. So here is the simplest method I have found to cut through limiting self talk when it occurs. Saying “It is Possible! Other people have done this – I can as well.” Rewrite that statement and place the thing you are trying to achieve in there, and say it out loud as well as in your mind as often as you catch yourself doubting yourself or engaging in negative self talk.

I learned this idea from Les Brown (who is probably the greatest Motivational speaker in the world). I have applied it numerous times when doubts and negative self talk come creeping up around my goals, and I can say that this statement has an immediate positive effect. This might seem too simplistic for some people, you might even be thinking that you have real world problems out there that are stopping you from getting what you want and that no positive affirmations can fix.

I am here to tell you that every person that ever achieved anything, faced real world problems, but they had to believe it was possible before to reach their goal. You too need to believe.

Realising you can achieve just about anything if you bring the right mindset to the table can be scary at first. So be gentle with yourself and remember that any improvement you might make will be marginal when you really come to see how brilliant and amazing you are right now.

 

Goodluck on your journey!