Success Secrets - Changing Our Thought Patterns

I am reading Sandra Anne Taylor’s fascinating Quantum Success: The Astounding Science of Wealth and Happiness and, while this is not a standard “book review”, I want to highlight one very original (at least to me) technique that Ms Taylor suggests, because it seems to be a potential “breakthrough technique” related , but different from , affirmations and visualizations.

It is often said in the motivational literature, that we need to change our thoughts to change our lives, and certainly affirmations (oral and written) seem to have that effect. But how do we change our actual thought patterns? Sure, we can say affirmations throughout the day, but how do we change those reflexive habits of, for instance, judging others, or obsessive worry?

Ms Taylor suggests a two-part technique:

1. Write down the negative thought , such as “What if I don’t get that new job?”

2. Then replace that thought with a more optimistic conclusion, or multiple conclusions:

What if I do get that job?

If I don’t get that job, another will come along

What I like about this exercise is that an actual “erasure”, if you will, of the old pattern, occurs, right at the time we are experiencing the worry, self-criticism, etc.

I believe this exercise really has the potential to change our thoughts as we initiate them. I would guess that, over time, the repeated “canceling out” and replacement of that pattern might result in major life changes.

Techtags: Sandra Anne Taylor Quantum Success Thought patterns Affirmations Visualizations