Success Starts Early - Positively Powerful

Do you ever think about what you think about?  I don't think my dog spends much time thinking about much besides food and squirrels...and maybe how he'd like to finally catch a squirrel so he could have it for food (and that's never gonna happen).  Do you think it matters if you think about the right things?  I do!  What you think about most tends to affect the things you do, which eventually determines what kind of person you become.  And how do you control your thoughts?  Through words! 

Our brains have a lot to do, but fortunately for us they usually do a pretty good job of handling everything.  A mentor of mine once compared the brain to a 3-pound computer that never stopped running as long as a person was alive.  Scientists have shown that even when we're asleep our brains keep working hard - in fact, the important work they do then is one of the big reasons we need to get so much sleep!  If the brain is the computer, then our mouths must be the keyboards.  What we talk about helps program how our minds work, and it has led many people to encourage everyone to avoid negative self-talk at all costs.  What is negative self-talk?  It's saying anything bad about yourself or your situation, even if you're just kidding or don't really mean it.  For instance, if you're talking to friends and forget something for a moment, it might be a little bit embarrassing and you could mutter something to yourself like, "you dummy, why do you always forget things?"  You may not realize it, but something that little could cause you a lot of problems.

There are two parts of the brain: the conscious (which does the things you're specifically thinking about) and the subconscious (which runs in the background most of the time).  Sometimes these two handle the same jobs - you could consciously change how fast you're breathing or blinking your eyes, for instance, but most of the time your subconscious handles those important tasks for you.  The subconscious actually does most of the work, and sometimes it interrupts your day by tossing things into your conscious mind.  Your friend may have been telling you about a beautiful green car that's been driving around town, but couldn't remember what kind it was.  Suddenly your subconscious mind starts pointing out green cars all over the place.  They were always there before, but until your brain thought they were important, you'd never really paid attention before.  It's the same way with being positive - if you talk your brain into looking out for good, positive things it'll actually try to show you examples.  Maybe that's why the Bible tells us this (my own emphasis added):

Philippians 4:8 - Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

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