I just spent the past five days in a hospital bed fighting a bought with bi-lateral pneumonia. Two nights ago the coughing was so bad I could not sleep and with so much time to just think I noticed the multiple changes in my attitude in a very short amount of time.

I always take pride in my ability to maintain a positive attitude despite any current circumstance. Although I never really stopped in the heat of the moment to see just how positive my attitude really was under such a circumstance.

What I came to note is that I really was not maintaining the winning attitude that I pride myself in. Actually I found myself wallowing in self-pity, one of the most destructive of all human emotions.

Self-pity is not an emotion that stands on its own, not by a long-shot. Self-pity is the manifestation of a number self-destructive attitudes.

First there is the backbone to the whole lot which is fear, the almighty destroyer of a winning attitude.

Following fear you have self-doubt and this can be anything from the belief that you have no control over your thoughts, feelings and or actions to something as small as the “I can't” syndrome.

I can't, I can't, I can't get a head in life, I can't succeed at anything I try, I can't because I'm a failure.

Next we have the loss of positive expectations. If you expect to fail you will fail, if you expect to lose a fight to an illness you lose! These are not the qualities of a winning attitude!

I actually caught myself losing hope. Because I allowed all my fears and doubts, my “I cant’s” and ultimately perceived failures to take hold I soon found myself right back to self-pity.

I found this to be rather amazing because my mind had cycled through all these self-destructive emotions over and over again and had I not taken notice of how my attitude was holding out, well there's no telling just how deep rooted these attitudes would have become.

Oh yeah, there was one other important thing I noticed as well. Not only was my mind harboring such negative attitudes I was doing what I could to backup the negativity.

Instead of focusing my mind and efforts on my recovery I was dwelling on all the possible negative outcomes of my situation.

It's not what happens to you that determines how far you will go in life; it is how you handle what happens to you.
Zig Ziglar

The Wondrous Benefits of A Winning Attitude!

When I say that “Attitude is Everything” I really mean it is everything. Just look around you, everything you see is a direct result of your attitude.

Your outer world is a mirror image of your inner world and it's your attitude that shapes your inner world.

All successful people have one thing in common and that is a winning attitude and each one of us has the ability to achieve any level of success in our lives but it all starts with our attitude.

The greatest part of this whole scenario is that we all get to determine our attitude as we set out on a new day, everyday.

It is our attitude that will give back to us precisely what we expect of it.

If we choose a positive winning attitude one filled with achievements and success that is precisely what it will return to us.

However on the other end of the spectrum if we choose an losing attitude then you can expect to endure many failures and personal let downs.

You see attitude is the one thing that comes close to being everything about success or failure.

A winning attitude will bring forth all sorts of favorable opportunities in life that would otherwise be absent with a negative attitude.

Although a positive attitude alone will not bring about the success and happiness we all desire and deserve.

You see everything is energy and without energy your winning attitude goes stagnant.

In order for us to take full advantage to all the opportunities presented to us as a result of our winning attitude there must be an energy, an enthusiasm that will transform our attitude into action.

The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind.  Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

There are certain conditions in life that we all would like to have or achieve, I can describe most with one word, happiness, love, health, achievements, ability and success.

There is one word that controls the outcomes of all the previously mentioned conditions that we would all enjoy.

This one word describes a condition that can bring us everything we desire or it can keep us from achieving anyone of them.

The word I speak of has been the basis of this entire site since the day I typed my first article over 4 years ago. If you haven't figured it out yet the word is “Attitude.”

A Winning Attitude Taking Control of Your Future Success!

Our attitude controls our entire world. If you have an excellent winning attitude you will enjoy excellent results although if your attitude is poor, well your results in life will be poor.

As I said earlier our world, our environment and our circumstances are a reflection of our attitude. You can tell how good your attitude is just by looking around you.

Do you have friends that enjoy being around you?

Is your work environment stressful and dull or is it productive and positive?

How's your family life? Are your children and spouse excited and happy to see you when you come home or is there a constant feeling of stress and tension in the air?

The answer to those questions will tell you how your attitude is and they can help lead you in the right direction to improving your winning attitude.

I started out by telling you about my five day hospital stay which is the 3rd or 4th one this year and we are only starting the second week in February.

Some of you might think that the poor attitude I found myself in as being warranted due to my current circumstance but it doesn't work that way.

My circumstance did not cause my poor attitude, I caused it.

You see that is one of the greatest aspects of life, we get to choose our own attitude. Now had I chosen to cling to my negative attitude I would have been choosing the consequences as well.

Poor attitude poor results! Winning attitude winning results!

Do you think my poor attitude was helping my situation? Of course not!

Your attitude affects every area of your life right down to your health and the strength of your immune system.

Did I cling to my poor attitude? Heck No!

Had I remained in that state of mind the chances are I would still be laying in that hospital bed fighting off the disease in my lungs.

Can you see how my attitude became responsible for my environment?

A Winning Attitude Will Bring You Good Luck And Fortune!

Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. A Winning Attitude determines how well you do it!

It is really sad to see so many people living miserable, narrowed, darkened lives. In many cases you will find that these people take no responsibility for their circumstances and they will moan and groan all the time instead of trying to change things for the better.

It is this type of person that wants to constantly dump all their troubles onto anyone who will listen.

They don't have a winning attitude. They will put more energy into complaining about their situation then they will to change it for the better.

They act as though the world has singled them out to live a miserable existence full of failures and bad luck.

In essence it is our attitude that will determine if we will be lucky or not.

Those with a positive winning attitude who expect to be lucky and expect to have good things happen to them more often than not will enjoy more success and good fortune in their lives.

And on the other side of the coin you have those that go through everyday life with a poor attitude and they expect things to go poorly and they do!

The person with the attitude that he cannot do something will seldom do it because he expects to fail, he is predicting his own failure before he ever gives it a try.

Conversely the person with a winning atttitude believes that he can do something and in most cases he can and he does and at the very least he gives himself the confidence to believe in his abilities.

We Get From Life What We Tend To Expect of It.

Everything in life is a choice. We choose where to live, we choose where to work, we choose who we want to spend our lives with and the one condition that will affect all of our choices is our attitude and that to is our choice.

Choose To Have A Positive Winning Attitude!

Once you begin to put your mind and attitude to work for you your entire life will improve!

I have personally taken my fair share of risks in life and with each new venture I had plenty of people telling me not to try it because I would surely fail.

Had I listened to them I would not have achieved a fraction of the success I have throughout my life.

Those people had losing attitudes, they never got ahead in life because they never gave themselves the chance.

Most things that matter in life have some aspect of risk to them, if everything was a sure thing it would be a rather boring life.

You need to fully intend to win at everything in life because with an attitude of failure you have lost before you even start.

You need a winning attitude to achieve or enjoy all the conditions we all desire, those that I mentioned at the beginning of this article, love, happiness, health, ability, achievements and success.

Never forget, all successful people have one thing in common, a Winning Attitude!

The Original Post is Located Here: Winning Attitude Visit Positive Thinking For Personal Development for Free resources such as eBooks, video and more, so for all your Personal Development needs visit Positive Thinking For Personal Development

Well technically it would've been better had you started yesterday or last week or last month but that's all in the past so let's start fresh right now. What do you say?

This article is going to be a little different from my typical articles, it's the first day of the new year and I just can't let it go by without posting something new for my readers.

If you are a regular visitor to Positive Thinking For Personal Development there's a good chance that your already aware of my health issues if you're not you can check out the video on this page about depression.

I'm experiencing severe headaches today and blurred vision and that makes it difficult to sit down in one sitting and right out of full article but as I said I cannot let the first day of the year go by without adding some content about positive thinking.

So Positive Thinking For 2012 will just be a montage of thoughts and ideas for you to read through. I will fix it up when I am feeling better or maybe not!

Positive Thinking For 2012 Moving Forward

Positive Thinking

Sometimes what holds us back the most is the past, we hold onto old failures and bad memories and we allow them to dictate our attitude.

If you're always looking backwards it's hard to look forward. Try to look at every day as a new beginning with new opportunities because that is exactly what it is.

People like to make New Year's resolutions, things such as losing weight, getting in shape, buying a new car etc.

I say that you make a New Year's resolution about positive thinking but take it one step further and make it a commitment.

A lot of people are skeptical about positive thinking because they don't understand how it works, why it works or how to work it.

I've got a simple little exercise for you, this is beneficial for anyone whether they believe in positive thinking or not. Although you are here reading this article on a website about positive thinking so that tells me that you are at least interested in the concept.

So here's what you do, take out a blank sheet of paper, grab yourself a pen and at the top of the paper I want you to write out:

Positive Thinking is.....

Then just start jotting down any ideas that come to your mind, don't take too much time to think about it because this isn't a test so there are no wrong answers.

I will help get you started with a few ideas and then you can take it from there.

Positive Thinking is.... Believing in myself!

Positive Thinking is.... Expecting the best out of every situation!

Positive Thinking is.... The ultimate triumph of mind over matter!

Positive Thinking is.... A great way to keep a great attitude!

Okay you should get the idea so now it's your turn. Remember this is to be a positive experience so there is no pressure and no reason to get frustrated.

If you find yourself struggling for ideas just start writing down anything that's positive even if it doesn't make sense in the sentence.

The whole idea is to open your mind to all the possibilities and all the opportunities that lie ahead.

Be A Positive Thinker And Don't Ever Give Up.

Always try to find happiness in everything you do.

I know some of you may be saying that's not always possible but I'm telling you that it is possible and you can do it.

Positive thinking comes in many forms it can be optimism, enthusiasm, a feeling of personal power or just a plain hopeful attitude.

Always Have Hope!

Hope, it's a wonderful thing it's all yours and no one can ever take it away from you. Hope is everlasting you can use the feeling of hope whenever you need to.

Positive Thinking And Discouragement

Let's talk about discouragement. It can be difficult to focus on positive thinking when you are feeling discouraged.

Try some of the following suggestions to help you from becoming discouraged.

• Difficult Times Don't Last.

When you're feeling discouraged just keep telling yourself that difficult times don't last forever and this time shall pass as well.

• Stay In Charge of Your Thoughts.

The one thing we all have complete control over is our thoughts but if you don't take control of your thoughts they will take control of you.

Choose positive thinking, you control your attitude so choose to have a positive attitude no matter what.

• Learn To Let Go!

Like I said earlier every day is a new day, every moment is the new moment, if something went wrong and there's nothing that you could do about it will let it go.

Often times people will hang onto the bad things that happened in the past and not the good. Don't let this be you!

• Make Positive Thinking A Habit!

You want to get into the habit of hanging on to the good things that happened in the past because that my friend is positive thinking.

• Always Do Your Best!

Whatever you do always do your best and if your best isn't good enough you can still take pride in the fact that you gave it your all.

• Give Freely And Love Anyways.

Give freely, don't have any expectations when you give of yourself, give with an open heart and a healthy loving attitude.

Don't look upon positive thinking as a goal you're trying to reach look upon it as a way of life. Positive thinking is not a destination it is a lifelong process one that you get to enjoy every step of the way.

The Original Post is Located Here: Positive Thinking For 2012 Visit Positive Thinking For Personal Development for Free resources such as eBooks, video and more, so for all your Personal Development needs visit Positive Thinking For Personal Development

So what is a Positive Attitude? How do you get one? How do you keep one? And most importantly what do you do with it when you have one?

I will answer the last question first being that it is the easiest or rather the shortest. You Enjoy It, You Share It and you live a wonderful life because of it.

Positive Attitude

A Positive Attitude can be defined in many ways but basically what it all boils down to is just being happy.

I realize it's probably a frustrating statement for those of you that are struggling with negative thoughts and feelings but I just want to start off with the most simplistic definition of a Positive Attitude.

Your attitude, my attitude, everyone's attitude is the byproduct of our most dominant thoughts. And by dominant thoughts I don't mean just for a day or two days, a week or two weeks, I mean your pattern of thinking that is most consistent throughout your life.

Life has its ups and downs, we all have good days and bad days, good times and bad times, happy moments and sad moments those are all just part of life and unless you know something I don't know they are unavoidable.

However, there is one thing that is not unavoidable and that is how you choose to react to those situations. To get the most out of life you have to decide if you're going to allow people, places or things, circumstances, situations or events to dictate the way that you think, act or react.

Developing A Positive Attitude

Everybody knows what a Positive Attitude is and everyone has had a Positive Attitude off and on all throughout life.

But of course this also means that everyone has had a negative attitude off and on all throughout life. The trick which actually is no trick at all is to string one positive moment after another.

You see maintaining a Positive Attitude is really only as hard as you make it out to be. You can decide well in advance of how you're going to react to a situation, any situation whether it's good or bad.

You have to make the choice, are you going to dedicate your time and energy dwelling on the negative aspects of any situation?

I hope your immediate answer was NO!

It takes just as much energy to dedicate yourself to being a positive person that reacts to situations in a positive way as it does to being a negative person and reacting in a negative way.

So once again the choice is yours, are you going to dedicate yourself to maintaining a Positive Attitude or are you going to take the same amount of energy and dedicate that to maintaining a negative attitude?

Maintaining A Positive Attitude

If you need some action steps, something that you can grab hold of in the heat of the moment, you're going to have to dedicate yourself to developing new habits, the type of habits that foster a Positive Attitude.

Consider the fact that remaining positive is all in the mind. Your attitude is exactly that, Yours! Everything around you can either reinforce your attitude, challenge it and/or destroy it. But then again that is still a choice, your choice.

You can choose to have a Positive Attitude but you need to be aware that attitude challenges are all around you and the hardest ones are those that are closest to you. Your family, parents, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters and close friends they are influence your thinking. And what influences your attitude? Your thoughts, your most dominent thoughts.

You have heard the saying that “Misery Loves Company” well that couldn't be more true. Just think about it for a minute how often is it that the problems of those around you soon become your problems?

You have to have the inner strength to just walk away if someone wants to drag you down in the dumps because that is where they choose to be.

Developing A Positive Attitude By Developing New Habits.

You have to develop new patterns of thinking and you have to make them a habit.

Having a Positive Attitude feels a whole lot better than having a negative attitude.  Try to remember that whenever you feel grumpy.

You matter, you are as important as anyone else in this world.

Start treating yourself like you are the most important person in the world. Be selfish but keep it to yourself.

You control your thoughts, your thoughts control your feelings, your feelings can foster a Positive Attitude or a negative attitude.

Knowing the above, I ask you; who controls your attitude? Not what controls your attitude but who controls your attitude?

I hope your immediate answer was that you do! You control your thoughts and you are no longer going to allow those around you to influence your thinking. You are going to develop the habit of making your dominent thoughts Positive.

Whether Things Are Good Or Bad It's Our Thoughts That Make It So

You have to tell yourself that you control your destiny, you control the way you react to any and every situation, good or bad.

Things will go wrong in life that I can guarantee.

The real trick to maintaining a Positive Attitude is to know well in advance how you will deal with it when things do go wrong.

Get in the habit of telling yourself that you have control, you always have a choice, in every situation, good or bad you only have two choices.

This sounds stupidly simple and that's because it is simple.

Use your daily self-talk to remind yourself that you always have just two choices. This applies to everything in life, good or bad you can choose to dedicate your thoughts to the negative aspects of any situation or you can choose to dedicate your thoughts to finding the positive aspects of any situation.

This Is Exactly How You Develop A Positive Attitude And This Is Exactly How You Maintain A Positive Attitude.

OK I can hear some of you saying that not all situations have any positive aspects and you could very well be correct but I wouldn't know because I choose to believe that every situation has some positive aspects.

If you are having a hard time with this because you can think of situations that couldn't possibly have anything positive to focus on that's OK because I have an answer.

First I would have to point out that you are currently choosing to find something negative, Stop That!

This will never work for you if your first instinct is to search for a situation that has no positive aspects.

If your mind is headed in that direction then what you have to do is to tell yourself that you will always try to find the least negative aspect of a highly negative situation. This will be the foundation to your new and lasting Positive Attitude.

So this is what you are going to do; everyday you are going to use your inner voice or your self-talk to remind yourself that everything in life can affect you in only one of two ways and that is negatively or positively.

Next you have to make the decision everyday to dedicate your thoughts to the positive aspects of every situation. If you do this on a daily basis it will become so far embedded into your subconscious mind that you will not even have to think about making the choice because your mind will be conditioned to always look for the most positive aspects of any situation.

You will have conditioned yourself into having a Positive Attitude all the time.

The Original Post is Located Here: Positive Attitude | Developing And Maintaining A Positive Attitude! Visit Positive Thinking For Personal Development for Free resources such as eBooks, video and more, so for all your Personal Development needs visit Positive Thinking For Personal Development

A Negative Attitude Will Affect Every Aspect of Your Life and Regardless of What You May Believe Maintaining A Negative Attitude Is A Matter of Choice!

Maintaining a negative attitude can cripple the person you are meant to be. A self-defeating negative attitude will have a negative impact on every aspect of your life and if you allow it to it can alter your physical and mental well being.

I will be the first to agree that things go wrong in life at times but ultimately we each choose how we react to troublesome events.

If you choose to allow certain events or circumstances in life to dictate your mood you are giving away you personal power to whatever the stimulus may be that has triggered your negative attitude.

We all have the ability to defeat negative thinking but the only way that you will ever win that battle is if you arm yourself with some specific skills to take back control of your life.

Maintaining a negative attitude drains the energy right out of you and if you allow this to go on for too long it will negatively affect all other areas of your life and it becomes a vicious cycle of negativity.

When you have a negative attitude it does not just affect you, it affects everyone around you and overtime this will take it's toll on all your personal and professional relationships.

Let's face it, there are going to be those days when it seems as though nothing is going your way. The worst thing you could do is to allow those things that go wrong define you as a person.

We all have it within us to fight off the negative thoughts that try to tear us and wear us down. Although you must be prepared for the fight beforehand. You must build the mental fortitude to be able to stop negative thinking before it stops you.

Learning how to deal with situations that could trigger self-defeating thoughts will improve both your mental health and your physical health. You can actually weaken your immune system with such negativity. There have been studies that show how people with negative attitudes are more susceptible to getting sick compared to those with a positive outlook on life.

Defeating A Negative Attitude For Good!

Do whatever it takes to rid yourself of that negative attitude. Like I said it is a choice so you just might have to consciously say to yourself I refuse to be negative.

I am not trying to make it sound like defeating a negative attitude is that easy but I am trying to tell you that it is up to you to put in the effort it takes to improve your attitude.

As I have told you in another section of this site I have made it a habit to choose my attitude before I even get out of bed in the morning and you can get into the same habit as well. When I first awake in the morning I sit up in bed, I take a big stretch, I put a smile on my face and then I say OUT LOUD: "Today I am going to have a terrific day." I do this every morning without fail and I have been doing this for years.

This is an easy habit to forge and once you do it will change your life in ways you can only imagine. I don't care how bad the day before may have been because the fact is that day is gone and that is the beauty of life, everyday we get a brand new day and it is up to us to make the best of of every new day of our life.

You have to tell yourself that the past is the past and regardless of how good or bad it may have been you cannot change it, all you can do is to focus on the day that's right in front of you and you have control over how that day turns out.

Learn to focus on the here and now and do all you can to make the most of what you have. If you take this approach towards life you empower yourself to control your destiny and with this type of personal power you can defeat a negative attitude.

A Negative Attitude And Negative Thinking Can Ruin Your Life!

Make The Next Day of Your Life The Best Day of Your Life And Do This Everyday of Your Life!

The clears signs that tell you that you have to make some changes in your life.

If you are generally a negative person you have to start making changes in your life...RIGHT AWAY. Negativity cripples and corrodes the human spirit.

A negative attitude is self-destructive it will only hinder the process of maintaining good relationships. You will find yourself blaming others for your problems.

You will make your rut even deeper by complaining all the time. You will actually be stricken with physical and mental stress. There is nothing good at all that comes from staying in that state of mind.

A negative attitude drains you of your energy you lose focus and motivation. It strips you of your ability to achieve any type of success in your life.

You spread misery to all those around you and you constantly act as though you are a victim. You lay around and moan and groan expecting others to feel sorry for you, but they don't because the people around you know that you have brought it all on yourself.

I know that all sounds a little harsh but those are the facts and maybe if you read them it will make you think about all the things that a negative attitude causes in your life and to those around you.

I have had a lot of things happen to me throughout my life that I could have easily allowed to take control of my personal power but I refused to give in or give up.

I have built a large personal development library in my home from all the resources I have purchased over the years to help me learn how to handle and difficult situation in my life.

I own hundreds of books and audio programs that deal with personal development issues and out of all that I own I can tell you that "The Power of Positive Thinking" by Norman Vincent Peale is one of the all time greatest personal development resources that I have ever owned and to this day I still listen to this program at least once every week. The things you will learn in this audio program are timeless and they are powerful.

When I first listened to the entire program it was near impossible to maintain a negative attitude or any type of negativity. If you are constantly battling a negative attitude I couldn't recommend this program any stronger. Heck your life could be perfect and I would still tell you to get this program because it is that good and it is that uplifting and inspirational.

The Power of Positive Thinking By Norman Vincent Peale

In this inspiring, uplifting, and amazingly practical program — one of the all-time personal development classics —Dr. Norman Vincent Peale offers you a system of simple, powerful techniques for living a happy, joyful, satisfied life — every single day, no matter what.

How To Overcome A Negative Attitude And Improve Your Life!

First off, Always remember that reaching out for help is a true sign of strength!

Nobody wants to live with a negative attitude and nobody has to. I realize that it is not as easy as just turning it off and then to start thinking positive but I do know that it is something you can overcome and you do not have to live another day in misery.

Sometimes the grip it has on you can be so tight that you need to reach out for help and there is no shame in that at all.

I have basically lived the last 25 years of my life asking for help. And you now what? It has worked!

As I said earlier I have built a huge collection of personal development resources and there isn't a day that goes by where I haven't read or listened to something from my collection.

I spend a lot of time writing in or reading from my personal journals which helps me from falling prey to those negative thoughts that try to creep into my consciousness.

The point that I am trying to make is that we all need some help at one time or another and there is no shame at all in asking for help or in using something to help improve your attitude.

That is why I am try to put on this site a lot of the resources that I have used either now or in the past that I know for certain will be beneficial to my readers.

After all my years of study in the personal development field I am lucky enough to be able to keep my mind focused on the positive and far from the negative.

I do use positive thinking to keep myself in a good mood and it works without fail and no one can argue that with me because they will lose.

Positive thinking works and it is something you can put to use starting this very moment. When you have a negative attitude just think to yourself that you have the power to change how you feel.

Focus hard on some positive aspects of your life and keep your mind focused until it just naturally takes over on its own.

Repeat positive affirmations, visualize positive situations, give it a try it is definitely better then feeling totally miserable.

Practice it often and try some of the resources I have pointed out. Get yourself some really motivational audio programs and listen to them in your car or get a CD player and sit quietly and just listen to one for a half hour or so, it will brighten your mood.

These simple acts can pull you out of that negative attitude and can selvage your day. Make a habit of this and people will begin to notice a change in you. You will begin to notice a change in yourself, I Guarantee It!

Nothing good can ever come from having a negative attitude, it will lead you down a long and lonely dark path.

The Original Post is Located Here: Negative Attitude? Let’s Change That In A Hurry! Visit Positive Thinking For Personal Development for Free resources such as eBooks, video and more, so for all your Personal Development needs visit Positive Thinking For Personal Development

For some success might be more money and for others it might be a happy marriage, a better personal life, a new home. Regardless of how do define success the fact is you can have just about anything you wish, as long as you open your mind to the possibilities.

Most people have no idea just how powerful the human mind really is and how to harness the power of the mind to shape their lives in a way that brings them the most happiness.

So why is it that some are so successful and happy while others struggle to get by in both their personal and professional lives?

The answer is Fear!

Fear is a powerful emotion and if you allow it to it can ruin your life. Although fear is not always a bad thing, it can be both a blessing and a curse it just depends upon how and when one yields to it or rejects it.

Using The Power of The Mind To Overcome Your Fears

Fear looms everywhere in today's society but more often than not, it is an emotion that is self-generated. When you give into your fears you give it strength. By placing your attention and your focus on the things that go wrong in your life you strengthen the grip of fear allowing this debilitating emotion to shut down you potential to move forward.

Many fail to ever reach their full potential in life because they allow their fears to hold them back. The fear of failure is just as powerful as the fear of success. When you focus your mind on your fears this can attract the causes of failure, and the fear of defeat is an open invitation for defeat.

As you can see this is all a vicious cycle but you can use the power of your mind to break this cycle. Once you learn how to move beyond your fears you will open the doors to your innate power and your true potential in life.

The key to living a successful life is to break through your fears and re-discover the true power that lies within.

So how can you make this happen for yourself? It is all within the power of the mind!

You need to open your mind to the reality that you have just as much right to live a happy, fulfilled and successful life as anyone else.

A closed mind keeps you where you are in life, where you have always been, and will continue to be. A closed mind limits your possibilities, it destroys your inner creativity and it kills your drive for success.

Eventually you begin to separate yourself from the positive thoughts it takes to achieve any level of success. As these feelings of loss and despair strengthen you become beaten down inside and for many this turns to anger and envy.

But this doesn't have to happen to you or if it has you can use the power of the mind to overcome these feelings. I have mentioned before just how powerful thoughts can be. If you allow your mind to dwell upon negative thoughts your chances of working past your fears and realizing your true potential are pretty much shut right down.

Use The Power of The Mind To Shape Your Thoughts And Destiny!

Thoughts are energy and emotional thoughts carry even more energy. Our entire universe is controlled by energy so if your thoughts are negative you are sending out negative energy and that will only attract more negativity into your life.

It is up to you to use the power of the mind to create positive thoughts, emotionally charged positive thoughts. This may not come easy at first but I promise if you work at producing positive thoughts, if you focus your mind upon success it will come.

We all get knocked down at times, it's the winners in life that pull themselves backup. I am speaking to you from firsthand experience. I had the Great life, I was successful, I had achieved all my dreams but it did not come without it's price.

I had no advantages in life, my Father was a drunk we didn't have the money to buy the things that all my friends had. My childhood was a challenge but I never let that stop me. I didn't realize it at the time but I had tapped into the power of the mind, I always knew that I could do anything if I believed.

I took our disadvantages and turned them into my personal advantage. I never let my mind focus on what we didn't have instead I focused on what I could do with what I did have.

I had the drive and desire to succeed. I didn't need money to work hard and become the best in my class or the best athlete on the field.

I focused on the positive and that positive energy kept me going and I became the best I could be at whatever I wished to achieve.

I graduated at the top of my class, I built a successful business/businesses, I excelled as an athlete to a level that I could only imagine. I built a beautiful life for my family and by time I was 30 years old we had more than we could have ever wished for.

I don't tell you all that to brag, I want you to see how I achieved so much success. Look back through the previous three paragraphs. You can see that I never focused on anything negative, I envisioned my success, I dreamed of being the best, I worked hard towards achieving my goals. That is the power of the mind!

Had I focused on all the bad things in my life I would never have had the drive and desire to succeed. Nothing good comes from focusing your mind on the negative aspects of life.

If You Focus On What You Don't Have You Will Never Get What You Want To Have.

My story didn't end there, not by a long shot. At the age of 35 I was diagnosed with my first of six brain tumors. I wrote goodbye letters to all my family members and left them with my attorney to mail upon my passing. I was telling myself that I was just being realistic when in fact I was doing nothing more than feeding into the negative situation.

I eventually turned my attitude around and that is the only reason I am sitting here today typing this article.

Here it is 11+ years later, I lost my businesses, I lost my health, I lost my athletic career and we are financially bankrupt. I am permanently disabled and cannot support my family but honestly I don't focus on all that. In fact I don't even like that I had to type that all out because I don't want to clutter my mind with those negative thoughts.

I know that I am here as a result of the power of the mind. My entire life is different than the one I had built but I know in my heart and my mind that I will achieve a new level of success.

I refuse to allow negative thoughts and feelings to clutter my mind and hinder my progress toward my new goals in life.

I hope that if you are fighting with negative thoughts you can see from my example that everything in life is a choice. You can choose to be a victim of your circumstances and hide behind your fears and negativity or you can fight off the negative thoughts and trust in the power of the mind.

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People tend to associate the word imagination with children and they fail to see the possibilities and realities that can emerge from their own imagination.

The imagination is what fuels the power of visualization and having a child like imagination can open a whole new world of possibilities. Visualization is the conscious creation of desired outcomes in your life.

The word conscious distinguishes the difference between dreams and visualizations. Dreams only occur while you are sleeping where as visualizations occur while you are conscious.

Power of Visualization You Have The Control

Visualization is sensing and seeing with your inner mental eye and although you may not realize it you have used your power of visualization throughout your life.

If you think for a moment that you do not hold the power to visualize I can prove you wrong with simple statement. Are you ready? Okay now I don't want you to think of a large Pink Elephant.

I would bet you anything that you are having a hard time trying not to think of or envision that large pink elephant. I realize it may seem like a stupid exercise but I wanted to show you that you do have the capability to visualize.

Now what you want to do is harness your powers of visualization to keep your mind focused upon that which you want most out of life.

A thought pictured transferred into action is the basis of all visualizations. A visualization should include all five senses and this requires mental focus and imagery.

What ever your desired outcome may be you need to mentally focus upon the successful completion or attainment of your desire.

You need to see it, taste it, smell it, feel it and hear it. Now don't get frustrated in thinking that you cannot visualize with such intensity and don't you dare stop reading this article.

In order for you to tap into the power of visualization you need to draw upon your personal powers of self-discipline. One trait that is common among all successful people is that of self-discipline.

Visualization will come natural to some while others must work at it a little harder but the only people that cannot visualize are those that lack the discipline to work at it.

Visualization did not come easy to me, I had to work at it everyday but because I believed in its immense power I never gave up.

If you are not familiar with my personal story and all the challenges I have had to overcome as well as the challenges I must deal with on a daily basis you should take a moment to watch the video on this page: How To Overcome Depression

If not for the power of visualization I would not be sitting here writing this article.

A successful person is one that can tap into the deeper regions of their mind allowing their subconscious mind to go to work on their goals. Visualize how you want things to be in your life and then act on it.

Power of Visualization Saved My Life!

When I was diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor I was told that I had less than 12 months to live. I refused to accept that and after pulling myself out of a two week state of depression I went to work on visualizing my recovery.

I spent my days focusing my mind on future events, I made plans that exceeded the 12 month deadline. My wife and I booked a non-refundable vacation 14 months out and I used that in my visualizations.

I am here today because I believed, I had faith, my mind was not crowded with doubts and fears it was filled with faith and belief!

You have to believe, throw all your doubts out of your mind and replace them with your most desired dreams and aspirations. As a great man once said:

"What The Mind Of Man Can Conceive And Believe, It Can Achieve"

Napoleon Hill

What ever you believe with feeling becomes your reality. What ever you expect with confidence becomes your own self-fulfilling prophesy.

Ask yourself, what are your belief's, if they are negative or destructive you must change your belief.

Take a moment to view this short video clip it has a lot to offer and despite its age the messages are universal truths that are responsible for everything you see in this world.

Your thoughts proceed both emotion and action so you must develop the skill to take control of your thoughts.

The quality of your thinking improves the quality of your life or better said is that your outer world becomes a mirror image of your inner world.

You can change the quality of your thoughts and your thoughts can change the quality of your life.

Through The Power of Visualization YOU Can Change Your Life!

As I stated earlier we all possess the power of visualization so if you are filling your mind with negative thoughts and visions you will attract those circumstances into your life.

The power of visualization has helped me to cheat death on a number of occasions throughout the past twelve years so if it can do that for me just think of what it can do for you.

I will expand upon this subject on another day soon but for now why don't you begin to put the power of visualization to work in your life.

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We all want to live happy successful lives and we all can but it is up to us to break our focus on those streaming negative thoughts corroding our minds.

Success, beyond anything we might now imagine lies in wait for those who can put together enough courage to actually live the life they imagine.

Most people live in two worlds. First there is the real world the one in which they move and work and live and then there is the world of the imagination, the world they would secretly like to live in.

The Power of Negative Thinking

So what keeps most people from moving from the real world to the world of their imagination?

The answer is “habit, fear and negative thinking.”

Henry David Thoreau  once said:

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

Most people never chase their dreams for fear that they might lose that which they already have. They foster their negative attitude allowing it to control their lives and keeping them from chasing their dreams.

The Power of Negative Thinking And Breaking The Bonds!

If only we could get it straight in our minds that life pays off most handsomely when we are doing that which we most want to do, when we are living the life that we have imagined for so long.

It is when we break free from the bonds of negative thinking we then find the strength to follow our heart, to pursue and to live our passions.

We all know what we want out of life, we can feel it with ever fiber of our being. It's that idea that tugs at us day after day year after year. It's the dream we imagine as we lie awake in bed at night and we think about it every time there is a lull in our day. It is the dream that forever invades our consciousness.

You have this dream, we all have this dream it is the beautiful life we imagine but sadly it is the life that very few will ever realize because they just don't believe they deserve it.

All too often people allow their fears, worries and doubt stop them from ever taking that leap of faith to living the life they deserve, the life they imagine day after day. This is the power of negative thinking!

Negative thinking will take your dreams, your greatest desires, your hope and it will crush them all as though they never existed.

Negative destructive thoughts destroy any chance of you reaching your goals or even worse yet it will keep you from ever setting any goals for your life.

A life without goals is worse than mediocrity it is one that lacks hope, pleasure and enjoyment. Be conscious of your thoughts and feelings this is how you overcome negative thinking.

Day in and day out render these questions to yourself.

What am I thinking right now? What am I focusing my thoughts on at this moment? Make this a habit! It will be difficult at first but I promise you if you can stick to it for just 21 days from then on it will just be a natural part of your day.

So why ask yourself these questions throughout your days? This is how you will overcome the power of negative thinking. This is you engaging your personal power to take back control of your life.

By asking yourself these questions you awaken the power of awareness. You will catch yourself in the midst of negative thinking and you will shatter its pattern.

Negative thoughts corrode your consciousness and distorts your perception of what happiness really is.

Most people believe the fallacy that happiness hinges on pleasant circumstances and congenial surroundings. People tend to believe that if their circumstances were better they would be happy but this yields no truth.

If one cannot find happiness in their daily life now, unless they wake up they may never be happy regardless of their circumstances. This is the power of negative thinking!

Genuine happiness is hidden in the quiet simplicities and fundamental virtues of life and these cannot be purchased at any price.

If you fail to maintain positive thoughts and feelings, if you do not break free from the bonds of negative thinking you will find it difficult to see that you already have all it takes to be happy.

Everyday of our lives is either successful or unsuccessful. If you permit the success of your days to depend upon things such as the weather, the talk and actions of those around you or if you concentrate on the things that you don't have instead of all those that you do your day will not be successful.

We were not put on this earth to live dull, unsuccessful lives fostered by negative thoughts and feelings of sorrow and self-pity.

We all shape our world in our own likeness and if it is not a happy world that is because of how we choose to see it. This is the power of negative thinking!

The Original Post is Located Here: Power of Negative Thinking And What You Can Do To Defeat It Visit Positive Thinking For Personal Development for Free resources such as eBooks, video and more, so for all your Personal Development needs visit Positive Thinking For Personal Development

Throughout this article you will learn just how powerful it is to maintain positive thoughts and feelings.

Positive Thoughts Productive Life!

You can achieve success by maintaining positive thoughts and feelings.

Your mind is really not much different than your body.

If you feed your body garbage you will in turn damage your health.

If you fill your mind with garbage you will damage your mental health.

Negative thoughts, negative results! Positive Thoughts, positive results, there really is no away around this.

Control your thoughts and you control the outcomes in your life!

You have no doubt heard the phrase that "You are what you eat" and any sensible person would have to agree with that. Well it's the same with your mind, "you are what you think."

They Can Because They Think They Can.
Virgil

We all have dominion over our body and that includes your mind. If you can cause your physical health to break down what do you think you can do to your mental health?

Consider some of the great athletes, they maintain their health with the proper nutrition and physical conditioning and this leads to the success of their athletic prowess.

Although physical conditioning is only half the equation. A dedicated athlete works just as hard to maintain their mental health by constantly feeding their mind with positive thoughts.

It's a simple analogy to remember, feed your body with good nutrition and feed your mind with positive thoughts and feelings.

If you treat your mind and body in this manner you will achieve greater heights of success.

You Are Today Where Your Thoughts Have Brought You; You Will Be Tomorrow Where Your Thoughts Take You.

Let your positive thoughts take you to new heights of success for if you believe that you can and you expect that you will failure will not be an option!

Achieving Success Through Positive Thoughts And Feelings

Phrases such as "We are the masters of our own destiny" and "We are the bringers of our own fate" are also familiar to most, but they have remained very much in the abstract, all a little bit 'airy fairy', due to the relative impossibility to physically see the effects that our thoughts have on our lives.

Again to achieve success you must feed your mind with positive thoughts and feelings as anything less will only deliver negative results.

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.
Thomas Jefferson

There are many people that would argue the fact that you can improve your health both physically and mentally by the dominant thoughts you hold in your mind and until recent years it was scientifically hard to prove.

However due to advances in the fields of medicine and quantum physics we can now show that positive thoughts and feelings affect your DNA in one way while negative thoughts and emotions affect it in another and these results are measurable.

An esteemed scientist, Doc Childre formed what is called the HeartMath Method which in essence is a way of accessing your inner intelligence directly associated with the heart.

An experiment was undertaken recently, by the HeartMath Institute, that looked at how DNA responded to those that concentrated their mind on positive thoughts and feelings and alternatively negative thoughts, feelings of anger and stress.

The results make for interesting reading.

When feelings of anger or stress were directed at the DNA, the DNA tightened and emitted photons of light.

When positive thoughts and feelings of love or peace were directed at the DNA, the DNA opened or unwound and attracted light to it.

The results of the experiment clearly demonstrated that how you feel effects the life and energy that surrounds you.

By being more positive and relaxed, the more open and responsive those surrounding you will be.

Maintaining Positive Thoughts Is Key For How To Achieve Success

I have only touched upon the methods of testing involved the three decades of study and research into the positive affects associated with the HeartMath System but the findings are sound and they correspond with my own personal belief's in the overall power of positive thinking.

The facts are indisputable by accessing the magnificent, intelligent power of your own heart you can eliminate stress, facilitate change, infuse yourself and others with a renewed sense of hope and empower yourself to live life to its fullest potential.

Therefore, you should adopt a positive, can-do attitude at all times, from the moment you wake-up, until the moment that you go to sleep.

Positive thoughts help maintain a positive attitude and the two combined can help you string one success after another.

Failures Do What Is Tension Relieving, While Winners Do What Is Goal Achieving.
Dennis Waitley

You are a winner and a winner will achieve more success in life that one who just goes about his day in haste just wanting to get through it without any effort to do anymore than what is expected of him or her.

By living like that, you can expect life to be more positive to you in return, and that continued positivity will quickly translate itself into success.

So I ask you; is it possible to achieve success by maintaining positive thoughts and feelings? You bet it is!

The Original Post is Located Here: Positive Thoughts And Achieving Success! Visit Positive Thinking For Personal Development for Free resources such as eBooks, video and more, so for all your Personal Development needs visit Positive Thinking For Personal Development

Developing Self-Confidence One Step At A Time!

The process of Developing Self-Confidence begins when you first change your belief of what you think you can or cannot accomplish.

If you don't believe that you have the ability to accomplish whatever it is that you are striving for you are without question guaranteeing your failure.

Most of us sabotage our chances to achieve higher levels of success in life because we fail to believe in ourselves.

If you try your hardest and you still find that you cannot make yourself belief in your ability to accomplish a particular task, then Fake It!

That's right, I said fake it, just forget what your mind is telling you and start telling yourself that nothing can stop you.

You see it is not your mind that is telling you that you cannot do something, it is You telling your mind that you cannot do whatever it may be so you have to get past your own self-defeating beliefs. This is something that you can do and I will help to show you how but it will be up to you to take the actions that I suggest.

So now we know that developing self-confidence is a process and not an impossibility and we know that it starts by changing the belief that we hold in our mind. If you are having a difficult time with changing your mindset what you need to do is start with something small and by small I just mean choose something that you would like to achieve that does not present an overwhelming challenge.

Developing Self-Confidence Is Easy But It Takes Action!

It really can be anything, baking a pie from scratch, sinking a ten foot putt, reading a book within a week you see where I am going with this so find something similar and we will get to work.

If your mind is telling you that it is just too difficult you are going to have to start to tell your mind that you can do it because in essence you control your thoughts. You can start this process through the use of self-talk, this is where you just spend a day continuously telling yourself that you can accomplish the task you have chosen.

Now, after spending the day taking control of your thoughts and telling yourself that you can accomplish the task at hand "get to it," jump right in and show yourself that you have the power and the ability to win!

There you go, you just took your first major step in developing your self-confidence. Your self-esteem will rise with every accomplishment regardless of how grand or glorious it may or may not be. The fact is you took the first step and you proved to yourself that you can change your beliefs.

As your self-esteem rises so does your self-confidence and your belief that you can accomplish tasks that you might otherwise not have been able to accomplish.

This all becomes a vicious yet wonderful chain reaction that results in you developing self-confidence to set higher and higher goals. This is how you build upon your smaller success.

You started with one small goal which you did not believe you could accomplish yet you proved yourself wrong but in reality you proved yourself to be right because you spent that one day telling yourself that you could accomplish the task at hand and in the end that is exactly what you had done.

So What Do You Do Now?

Developing Self-Confidence One - Two - Three Steps At A Time!

You begin to set a series of higher goals but you take each of those higher goals and break them down into smaller steps. Just visualize it in your mind as a stairway with a small landing at every 5 to 10 steps, these landings are the small goals that once achieved present the accomplishment of the larger goal you had set for yourself.

As you make your way up those steps with every smaller goal you achieve your pride begins to climb right along side you and the more self-pride you have the greater your self-esteem thus leading to the development of your self-confidence.

Self-confidence comes from positive knowing. Positive knowing just means that you are certain that you know how to do whatever it is that you need or want to do.

Now where did we start with all this?

We said that developing self-confidence required one to change their belief , to go from believing that you cannot do something to believing that you can. A person that believes in him or herself holds a strong healthy self-image.

You must begin to work on changing your thoughts, really taking control over them and to begin to truly believe in yourself. You have more personal power than you might think and isn't it time for you to begin to harness that power?

You can do, I can do, anyone can do anything they set their minds to so you don't have to live a life with limits, you have the tools to begin developing self-confidence to achieve your greatest desires.

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Personally I KNOW that the law of attraction is real and I put it to work in my life every minute of everyday.

OK I just wanted to get my point of view right out there so there is no question in your mind as to whether I am a believer or not. Having said all that I will still do my best to be somewhat objective as I write this article.

For those who may have never heard of The Law of Attraction the basic premise is that if you wish to achieve a certain goal you can do so by focusing your mind on exactly what it is you wish to achieve and you will attract that into your reality.

This is what powers the universe and we all play a role even the non-believers.

The Law of Attraction How And Why It Works

The Law of Attraction is the most powerful law in the universe and the best part is that we all have access to this power every second of everyday of our life.

You have the power to create the life of your dreams if you believe that can, I do not mean if you wish that you can it has to be an inner belief or better yet a sense of knowing at the highest level of your consciousness.

If you are to achieve any level of success you will have to develop and maintain a positive and expectant attitude, when you expect the best and you believe that you can achieve the best The Law of Attraction will go to work to deliver the best.

It is our dominant thoughts and state of mind that attracts like circumstances, people, physical environment and other like thoughts.

If you have a negative attitude you will attract negativity into every area of your life and conversely a positive expectant attitude attracts positive events and circumstances into your life.

When it comes to The Law of Attraction there really is no middle ground if you follow what is outlined within this article you can have the life of your dreams.

Although if you choose to let your fears hold you back you can have a mediocre life at best void of any great achievements.

There is no disputing the facts, The Law of Attraction responds to your thoughts, emotions, and beliefs. Whatever you think, feel and believe with faith the majority of the time will ultimately determine the experiences of your life.

By Controlling Your Dominant Thoughts You Can Control The Outcome Of Your Entire Life.

There are many that are extremely resistant to this concept and it's typically those that refuse to accept responsibility for their current situation in life.

Pessimism is what typically rules the minds of those that refuse to accept the concepts of the law of attraction.

These are the types that walk around with a chip on their shoulder acting as though the world owes them something, when in fact they can have be or do anything they want if only they had faith.

I believe that a lot of people actually fear success because with all success there is some failure attached. The difference between those that achieve high levels of success and those that do not is "Fear."

"The Fear of Failure Creates a Failure Out of Those That Fear."

The Law of Attraction And Positive Thinking

I am very passionate about the defending the merits of The Law of Attraction because in essence it is on the same playing field as positive thinking.

As I have stated time and again throughout this site, one who maintains a positive attitude mixed in with some enthusiasm and optimism will without question attract positive people, results and events into their life.

The greatest gift you could ever give to yourself would be to learn all you can about The Law of Attraction and then practice and perfect it because once you do your greatest dreams and desires will become your reality.

I offer a Free video course through this site or you may visit my other site The Secret Laws of Attraction which has a short demo video and you can then choose to sign-up for the course if you like.

Once you begin to believe with faith that The Law of Attraction responds to your every thought and feeling your life will be forever changed.

Aligning your thoughts and feelings with the things you want for your life rather than what you do not want is the whole basis behing The Law of Attraction.

The Original Post is Located Here: The Law of Attraction The Universal Law of Success! Visit Positive Thinking For Personal Development for Free resources such as eBooks, video and more, so for all your Personal Development needs visit Positive Thinking For Personal Development