What Not To Do

Don’t Think Of A Pink Elephant!

If I told you don’t think about an elephant with a top hat, I will bet that right now you are thinking about an elephant with a top hat. This is evidence that  we resist, really does persist!.

What We Resist Persists

Someone once said that our unconscious minds cannot discern the meaning of the concept of not. I tend to believe that is true. This reinforces the success principle: Where you focus your energy, focuses your attention.

What you resist persists because that is where your focus lies. Rather than looking at what you don’t want to do, look at what you want to do!
One effective way to keep from thinking negative thoughts is by focusing your attention on a mantra to help you focus on your goal. The mantra that I am using is “I can do this and I know I can. Whatever you chose to repeat over and over needs to be in the present tense (I am). My monthly affirmations are a form of mantra. This month is “I am a prolific writer”.

Therefore, I have a system that gets me enthusiastic about the goals that I have for the day. Before I begin each session,  i set a timer and repeat over and over the words, “I can do this, and I know I can” over and over for five minutes. I focus on my breathing, the mantra, and that I am calm and confident. After the five minutes is up, I begin writing. I do it the same time every day and don’t quit until I have at least one thousand words on my novel. Later at the library,  I determine which bubblew or blog post that I need to write and I work on it until I am done.

If I had however, focused on the fact that I have a lot to do, I doubt I would get any of it done. I would start making excuses concerning why I cannot get it done. As you can see however, I am not doing that. I am reaching my daily, weekly, and monthly goals. In just over six months I will have also completed my annual goals because I am not focusing on negative aspects of my goals.

Don’t Hang Onto Bad Relationships

I saw my estranged husband the other day and I told him about speaking in front of an audience the other day. He tried to take credit saying that what he had been saying to me had finally sunk in. i have no idea where he thought that he had anything to do with the positive place where I am now. I always felt that he was the one who kept me from reaching for my goals. I felt as though he thought that my goals were not worthy to attempt. I felt as though any time that I wanted to do something, he made it all the more difficult to do it because he stressed my inabilities rather than my abilities.

I told him that I realized that neither of us were good for the other and that we were stuck in that relationship for too long. Staying too long in a relationship that does not serve either party is definitely something that someone should not do.

Donna Brown is an ordained minister. As Author Cygnet Brown, she  has recently published her first nonfiction book: Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues. Her upcoming book A Coward’s Solace will be available soon. Click here for more information about Cygnet Brown and her books.