Planting the Seeds of Change

By now you're probably noticing that you're paying more attention to the thoughts you allow into your mind and those that surface that you can recognize as destructive. That's great! Now it's time to begin replacing the old limiting thoughts and beliefs with positive thoughts (which will become beliefs).
Unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard of 'positive affirmations'; maybe you even remember the skit from Saturday Night Live in the 90's in which Stuart Smalley would stand in front of the mirror and repeat, "I'm good enough. I'm smart enough. And doggone it, people like me." Funny stuff! But that's not what I'm talking about necessarily. In fact, saying positive affirmations that are far from your truth right now can do more harm than good. Why? Because if you know they're completely off the mark, you're taking yourself farther away from the feeling you actually want to create.
Here's an example: Suppose you want to generate more revenue in your business and you know that the rates you currently have in place are not reflective of the value you bring to the business. You want to raise your rates, but hold the belief that if you charge more people may not want to pay it. You fear you may lose customers rather than attract them. If your tried telling yourself, "people will pay me whatever I ask and I'm not afraid to raise my rates", you're lying to yourself, not helping yourself change your belief.
If instead you start by making an incremental change in your belief system you will change your beliefs one shift at a time. Start with changing your thoughts to something that's closer to how you really feel, but a step in the right direction: "I want to believe that I can raise my rates to a figure I feel good about and my customers feel good about." Whenever you think about raising your rates now you will no longer to to the limiting belief, but rather the new belief by default. Can you see how this is working?
When you become comfortable with this new belief you can shift it a little further to something like, "I [do] believe I can raise my rates... " and progress to something like, "I CAN raise my rates... "
So, now you see how simple it really is to replace our old, limiting belief systems with new thoughts that will eventually take their place and become the way we operate in the world. One small shift at at time and you're making some terrific changes!
In Lesson 4 you will be introduced to the role Intention plays in your life and why having your thoughts and beliefs in check are the foundation for creating a life by design, rather than a life by chance.