“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”

Again I think this is profound because it is such an accurate statement. We are blinded by what occupies our attention. What we focus on expands and fills our mind and our view. When we focus on problem all we see is problem. However, when we focus on solutions we may find solution. When we focus on happiness instead of our sadness it expands in our mind and our being and we feel more happy and think more happy thoughts. We literally attract more happy thoughts. We find more happy thoughts that is how our brain works by association. One idea leads to another, one memory to another. This is why it is important to determine which thoughts we want to entertain. We become what we think about – we get what we think about – we get what we focus on. If you want more positive results you have to think about, maintain thinking about positive thoughts.

You can’t just think one thought and be done you have to entertain it. You repeat it – you focus on it. You literally become, create and experience what you think about most of the time. What are the predominating thoughts in your mind. If you are typically a negative or sad person consider that you may have become this way because of what you think about most of the time. It would be useful and beneficial to at least consider this notion instead of dismissing it because to accept it as true – to hold it as an hypothesis gives you the opportunity to experiment.

For at least thirty days – read inspiring books, listen to audio tapes, CDs, positive messages – read at least a page a day. Become aware of your thoughts and any time you discover you are having a less than glorious thought,  one that is not productive or positive, one that does not make you feel good, then choose to think a better thought that helps you to feel a little bit better. Look for the silver lining.

Sure, it isn’t the easiest thing in the world but it is do-able. It is like taming a wild beast or breaking a horse. The wild animal has its own way of doing things but through repetition and instruction and constant correction one can train it. This is true of our minds as well.

We can use or feelings as our guide. If we aren’t feeling positive, or happy then perhaps that is because we aren’t thinking positive or happy. Thoughts, conscious or unconscious always precede feeling and behavior and because of how we are feeling we keep thinking along certain lines. It is a cybernetic feedback loop. A cycle.  We can break the cycle and gain control bit by bit.

It may be tougher if you are feeling really horrible – perhaps feeling angry would be better. Angry enough to say “Stop it – enough of this I have to make a change” as long as you don’t direct it at your self or others, but at the behavior of feeling bad. Other feelings are certainly easier to move in positive ways.

The bottom line is thoughts determine how we feel, how we behave (or do not) and what we experience in life. What I propose is not a saccharin like adherence to platitudes but a scientific exercise program whereby you can exert better control over your own thinking mechanism. It is a rigorous exercise program where you take it step by step. You engage in the exercise and repeat it enough to recognize you get results.

It is magical and transformative and yet, it is not magic. This is a conditioning process to think better and more productively to get you more of what you want and what you want to experience in life. It is not a magic wand.  As with physical exercise it takes some time to see some results. If you expect them instantaneously you may be disappointed. COULD IT occur instantly, yes but I would not demand that.

Expect fast results and you may get them quicker because you expect the best of yourself. That is a good attitude but also you need to be reasonable or realistic. Know that, in time, you will see results as you would in physical exercise. Do this long enough and you will see fabulous results in all aspects of your life and as you get good at this great things will come your way so fast it will make your head spin. In the meantime you need to learn how to do this and make it a reliable habit.

When you plant food or a garden you know there is a time when you plant, then a time when invisibly, under the ground, the seed germinates and begins to grow, then it breaks through the ground and continues to grow with proper nourishment. Then a time to reap.

This is why Winners never quit and Quitters never win. You must stick with the process daily, many, many times throughout the day and as you consistently practice your mental positive focus there comes that time to harvest. When you get the results and can see the results.

Every farmer knows to plant, to wait and to reap. The farmer rests and trusts. You can do the same but you don’t let up while trusting When you wait – you continue to  nourish the positive seed and you continue to wait. When you do this expect the harvest to be bountiful. One seed planted results in plants that produce much fruit or vegetables. The results are always greater, more plentiful than the original seed you planted.  Your results will be greater than the original effort you put in but you must put in the effort. You must do it consistently without fail and then you will get more than you can imagine. The results will be bountiful! Try it for at least 30 days.

When or if you slip or make a mistake, treat yourself nicely, don’t be upset with yourself. Imagine a small child making a slip or mistake while learning to walk you would nurture the child not punish the child. Be gentle, be relaxed, chill out, see if you can make it fun, make it a game, the more you find out how you can enjoy the process the more easily you move forward and the more readily you change for the positive. Make it fun because when things are fun we tend to keep doing those fun things. As you see results coming know this is a process, a journey and you are on your way. More good results will come as you continue.

I will always share more about this process in other posts and other works but for now this is almost enough. I do want to add, however, that one of the most powerful ways you make your positive thinking work for you is to think the positive thoughts while having strong positive emotions.

The military does this to train soldiers to do what they must do to battle and survive. They have them “hoohaw” and recite and yell and engage physically while they chant military messages. So we too can do our exercise in similar fashion. We can do that while we chant our positive messages. Sing them, dance them, shout them, when you are feeling marvelous think them, find positive ways to express and have good feelings while you think and repeat out loud your positive messages to yourself.  Engage with them joyously and fully and it will bring magical results.

Whenever you feel less than glorious DO NOT GET down on yourself, GIVE YOURSELF a pat on the back, recognize that feeling as an opportunity to steer back to positive. THAT feeling is a signal that you can or that you must do something to feel better and think better. SO take it as an opportunity to change what is going on. Treat yourself gently as you would a child learning to walk or do anything. Then it is up to you whether or not you do make the change.

Keep in mind when you begin something new you are not an expert to start. What you are already an expert in is your old way of being. You embark on a new journey you need to stay open and available to all the new discoveries you can make. You have to shift your focus to find the open doors. Many times that old expert will call to you and try to derail your efforts because that is all the old expert knows. That expert will try and try and that is why you need to stick to the new program. As I mentioned you may find yourself off track now and again and AGAIN, be gentle with yourself and then steer yourself back in the right direction.

There are some additional sayings I will point out before closing for today. “If you always do what you always did you will always get what you always got”.  This is where you are already an expert. You are expert at getting and creating what you already got, even what you may not want.

So  you want to change your life you will have to change things in your life. You will have to change your thoughts, your feelings, your behaviors or actions. You will have to change what you do, you will have to change your habits because these brought you to where you are. Hey, there may be lots good about where you are, you do not have to devalue the good in your life to add more positive incredible changes.

Still, that expert has gotten you the results you have or do not have in your present and your past. Where you are today is what you have been thinking and doing all along.

“You are today where your thoughts have brought you. You will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.” If you want to be somewhere different and somewhere nicer, if you want to be happier and experience the world in more pleasant ways then you must decide to do whatever positive, healthy thing it takes to make that happen. You need to be open to being a beginner in the process and the journey. You need to decide this for yourself, that you will embark on a new journey of thought, feeling and action, you will be gentle and realize you are not an expert in this new way, but that you are open and available and expecting good things to come of it. Decide to try it and decide to have fun with it. You have absolutely nothing to loose and EVERYTHING TO GAIN>

Of course, some people sit around dreaming about being in a great vacation spot but unless you actually engage to get there you will remain where you are. You must put your thoughts into action. When you do begin then you must continue along until you get where you want to end up. If you give up and quit anywhere along the way you will not make the vacation spot so stick with it. If you quit during the journey – that journey ends. Will there be challenges and detours along the way, most assuredly but stick with it.

In the future, as stated I will be sharing many more insights about this and how to overcome any obstacles. For now it is enough to know there will be some and to commit to sticking with your decision and your new way of thinking.

This is very simple, it is easy enough, and it may take some “greasing the wheel” to get going for some people. When you do these things you will find it gets easier. Once you replace old unproductive habits with new positive productive habits it will be easy and outstanding!

A habit is something you have learned to do, through repetition, so that you do not have to think about it. You have learned how to walk, eat, dress yourself, write letters, sign checks, ride a bike, drive a car, and think however you already think. If you have to sign your name you can do so without effort, or when you get in your car you drive without going through all the steps you learned to drive, each time you get behind the wheel. You can do most of these things I mentioned without having to think about it.

Imagine have incredible new supportive habits that work as reliably as any habit does, to live your life from. Would not that being amazing? Wouldn’t it be fantastic to have your habits guide you into making easy changes and help you to be who you want to be, who you always knew you could be if given the opportunity and help you to get what you want almost as if it were magic? How delighted and excited would you be to discover you are able to do this for yourself?

It is at this point, when you find yourself in the zone, when you are in “FLOW” because now your new habits are generating what you want AND you are getting the results nearly effortlessly.

Through this process you have become the creator of a new lifestyle, a brand new wonderful life through a new attitude. Wouldn’t this be wonderful to have all your habits support you being the person and having the lifestyle you want? Wouldn’t it be astounding to go beyond anything you presently know and into a incredibly grand outrageously positive new fulfilling future?

Well you can. If it is to happen though you have to begin making it happen. It won’t come along and happen for you.

SO there is awesome power in positive thinking. I don’t mean the kind of positive thinking most people consider when the hear the notion and I don’t mean by looking at a pretty poster once in a while. There is more awesome power in taking charge and making the decision that you will do whatever it takes to make yourself and your life positive and better than you can even imagine right now. AND you can discover this power, you can harness this power and make it work for you. You can be, do and have anything you want once you learn how and continue in the process.

So never let your yesterday determine your tomorrow. Begin now to think and feel and act the very best. Make a commitment to yourself to tenaciously seek the best, find the best, or at least find the silver lining in every situation. If that is too big a stretch to start make it a point to at least feel a little bit better. You are still moving in the right direction when you do this and that is important to keep in mind. If you can’t find the best yet, at least find what is a bit better and keep doing that inch by inch. Ultimately, it will work for you in the same way.

This is not a competition with anyone else or even yourself. Just do the work and the results will come.

Choose the best most positive thoughts and feelings and engage them through action – sing, dance, laugh. The more time you spend focused on the positive the more you get back. REMEMBER What you focus on expands. REMEMBER We become what we think about most of the time each and every day

Your life can be so incredibly different. Imagine how you want it – see it in the movies and pictures of your mind and continue to entertain what you want and desire in spite of whatever may go on around you. Keep focused on the “happy future” regardless of what your past was or the present throws you. Entertain it again and again throughout the day. Enjoy it!  Feel what it would feel like to have that future RIGHT NOW in your present! Enjoy it, savor it, again and agin and keep the faith.

Decide now that your thoughts today take you where you will be tomorrow and make them the very best they can be. Step by step a journey of a 1000 miles is made.

Stop focusing on the closed doors and find the ones that are open. You are where your mind takes you. Focus on what you want, not on what you don’t want. Focus on prosperity not on lack. Focus on solution not on problem, focus on health not on illness, focus on love not on loneliness. Focus on what you want and look for, and find the open doors.

You can do this. Start today! Godspeed and much success because you will have it!!!” Rex Sikes