Building a New You…

In the last post, I told you that the when you reach the level of self-awareness to become the thinker of the thought – that’s the day you’re actually born.  What we’re talking about is using your mind instead of being used by your mind.  You have to be able to step back, rise above your thoughts, and be conscious of them.  When you become the thinker of the thought, you become the architect of your life.

You stop believing in fate, luck and happenstance, and start realizing that you’re a co-creator of your life. 

When you can think about your thoughts – as opposed to just being run by them – you are on the most important step to higher consciousness.  So if someone invites you to invest in their new company and you think, “If it was really a good deal all the stock would already be gone,” you notice what just happened.

You can then ask yourself, “Why did I think that?  Is the opportunity really already gone – or am I just having a defeatist thought?  And if I’m having defeatist thoughts, why am I having defeatist thoughts?  What is the underlying programming and subsequent beliefs that would cause this?”

This is the single most important level of self-awareness, the awareness of your thoughts. 

Until you develop this awareness, you’re always subject to manipulation and control by forces outside yourself.  Once you develop this awareness, you have the ability to see yourself – inside and out – and view it with the objectivity as if what you’re witnessing is happening to someone else.

You notice when you’re angry and look for the hidden fear that is causing the anger.  You notice you’re being petty or vindictive and search for the insecurity that is driving it.  You can notice negative behaviors and decide that’s not the kind of person you desire to be. You can also notice positive behaviors and determine you want to become the kind of person who acts like that more often.  What you are aware of, you can direct, what you’re oblivious to, directs you.

What we’re going for here is to actually change your thought process.  Here are some actions that will help you in that process:

• Spend daily self-development time. (Create a learning curriculum of positive podcasts, blogs, and books for this.)
• Invest in things that actually help you progress (books, seminars, continuing education, etc.), not things to impress other people.
• Surround yourself with people who challenge you and force you to be a little breathless to keep up.
• Schedule at least 45 minutes every week simply to think. (Block it off and do it.)
• Challenge yourself to do one thing that scares you every week.
• Every time you uncover a belief or fear you can’t do something, question the premise. Ascertain if the action is really not possible for you or you just have bad programming.
• Choose to live your life without regrets, anger, or jealousy.
• Measure the habits or behaviors you want to improve.
• Do cardiovascular exercise every day.
• Eat and drink to fuel your nutritional needs, not for pleasure and taste alone.
• Nurture your curiosity. The greatest breakthroughs of humankind have primarily come from people who were curious.
• Have some hobbies and varied interests that cause you to explore new and different areas.
• Create new neural pathways by doing sudoku, crossword puzzles, and brain teasers.
• Begin and end every day with a prayer of gratitude. Keep your heart in breath-taking awe, at the daily miracles you experience.

You have to intelligently select what kind of programming you are exposed to.  And when you are randomly subjected to external programming, you must consciously and mindfully choose how to respond to it.

We devoted lots of ink in the recent posts about the subliminal messages infecting the books, blogs, TV shows, movies, religious doctrines, and government information, so I won’t belabor it here.  You have to mindfully analyze all of these sources of influence and program accordingly.  This doesn’t mean you have to eliminate all pop culture. (But you should probably eliminate most of it.)  You can still have guilty pleasures you enjoy but be consciously aware of the negative programming they provide, and counterprogram accordingly.

For example, I’m a big fan of The Wire, The Sopranos, and Billions television shows.  All three of those series have horrific underlying programming.  But as a writer myself, I was enamored with the plot twists and brilliant writing.  I chose to watch these shows, but for every hour I viewed them, I found myself needing two or three hours of positive programming to negate the effects.

We are all victims of circumstances and our environment at some point or another.  To create your true radical rebirth, you must become a “program director” for your mind.  This means you’re going to need to purposely select as much of the stimuli you receive and be mindful about how you respond to the stimuli you don’t volunteer for.  Instead of living in victimhood, you will then become a co-creator of your life, becoming the highest possible version of yourself.

But there is still one more area you’re going to need to run a virus scan and update in your operating system.  The people in your life...

That’s what we will explore next.  Until then, I would love to see your thoughts in the comments below.

Peace,

- RG