I want you to ask yourself something: Are you genuinely happy? Take a moment to honestly think about that. Have you genuinely found happiness in life?
If your answer is no, or even maybe, let’s talk about the reasons why you aren’t happy, and the mistakes you might be making unknowingly that are costing you happiness.
Learn to Activate The Law of Attraction, Achieve All of Your Goals, and Find Happiness.
1) You Haven’t Transformed Your Inner Critic into Your Inner Coach
The first mistake you might be making that is costing you your happiness is that you haven’t successfully transformed your inner critic into your inner coach.
Research indicates that, on average, people talk to themselves about 50,000 times a day. Unfortunately, most of that self-talk is about yourself, and according to the psychological researchers, it is about 80% negative.
Some examples of this might be:
“I shouldn’t have said that.”
“I don’t like the way my hair looks today.”
“I’ll never lose weight.”
“I can never seem to get organized.”
… and the list goes on.
We know from this research that these thoughts have a powerful effect on us. Our negative thoughts actually control our behavior.
The first thing you have to do if you want to find happiness in life, is put a muzzle on that inner critic and transform it into an encouraging, loving, and positive inner coach.
One of the most powerful exercises for retraining your inner critic is to teach it to tell you the total truth. Just like your parents disciplined you for your own good, your inner critic really has your best interests in mind when it is criticizing you. It wants you to get the benefit of the better behavior. The problem is that it tells you only part of the truth.
Whenever you hear a part of you judging yourself, simply reply,
“Thank you for caring. What is your fear? What specifically do you want me to do? How will this serve me? and Thank you.”
Do not let the seeming simplicity of this technique fool you. It is very powerful if you use it.
2) You’re Letting Your Limiting Beliefs Control You
Another mistake you might unknowingly be making and therefore sabotaging your own happiness is allowing yourself to be controlled by your limiting beliefs.
Many of us have beliefs that limit our success — whether they are beliefs about our own capabilities, beliefs about what it takes to succeed, or even beliefs about how we should relate with other people.
Moving beyond your limiting beliefs is a critical step toward becoming happier and more successful.
Learn How to Find Happiness in Life in 4 Steps
To do this, you must first believe that you are capable of accomplishing your goals and that you are capable of being happy.
Here is a simple but powerful four-step process you can use to transform any limiting belief into an empowering belief:
Step 1: Identify a limiting belief that you want to change.
Step 2: Determine how that belief limits you.
Step 3: Decide how you would rather be, act, or feel. And…
Step 4: Create a turnaround statement that affirms or gives you permission to be, act, or feel this new way.
For example, a negative belief might be: “If I express my true feelings, people will think I’m weak and take advantage of me.”
The turnaround belief would then be:
“The more I express my true feelings, the more people love, respect, and support me.”
Once you have created a new belief, you will need to implant it into your subconscious mind through constant repetition for 2 or 3 minutes several times a day for a minimum of 30 days.
In conclusion, keeping these 2 possible mistakes in mind (listening to your inner critic without retraining it to be your inner coach and letting yourself be controlled by your unconscious limiting beliefs). Make a list of any beliefs that might be limiting you and follow the steps outlined above.
Activate The Law of Attraction & Achieve All of Your Goals
Jack Canfield, America’s #1 Success Coach, is founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul® and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you’re ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com
As I’ve said countless times before, “Success leaves clues.” This means that if you want to be successful, then you simply have to look at what successful people have done before you. All successful people have successful habits – habits that they have created and refined over time because they helped them to reach their goals.
Learning how to develop a habit can be as simple as observing others who are already successful. Study successful people, and then ask yourself which of their habits would help you to reach YOUR goals.
Once you have that list, then it’s time to actively work on building those habits and making them a consistent part of your daily life.
Now what I’m about to tell you is a step-by-step method to help you create better habits.
It works because it’s simple. You don’t need complicated strategies. This template can be applied to any area of your life: business or personal. If applied consistently, it will help you achieve everything you want.
Learning how to develop a habit involves three fundamental steps:
1) Clearly Identify Your Bad or Unproductive Habits
It’s important that you really think about the future consequences of your bad habits.
These may not show up tomorrow, next week, or next month. The real impact could be years away. And when you look at your unproductive behavior one day at a time, it may not look so bad. The smoker says, “What’s a few cigarettes today? It helps me relax. I’m not wheezing and coughing.” However, the days accumulate and twenty years later in the doctor’s office, the X-rays are conclusive.
Consider this: If you smoke 10 cigarettes a day for 20 years, that’s 73,000 cigarettes. Do you think 73,000 cigarettes could have an impact on your lungs? Of course!
In fact, the consequences can be deadly. So, when you examine your own bad habits, consider the long-term implications. Be totally honest with yourself. Your life may be at stake.
2) Define Your New, Successful Habits
Usually, this is just the opposite of your bad habits.
In the smoker’s example, it would be, “Stop smoking.”
When defining your new habit, what are you actually going to do? To motivate yourself, think about all the benefits and rewards of adopting your new successful habit. This helps you create a clear picture of what this new habit will do for you. The more vividly you describe the benefits, the more likely you are to take action.
3) Create an Action Plan
This is where the rubber meets the road.
In the smoking example there are several options:
Read how-to-stop-smoking literature.
Start hypnosis therapy.
Substitute something else when the desire for a cigarette arises.
Place a bet with a friend to keep you accountable.
Start a fresh air exercise program.
Use a nicotine patch treatment.
Stay away from other smokers.
The important thing is to make a decision about which specific actions you are going to implement and then you must take action.
Start with just one habit that you really want to change in any area of your life. Focus on your three immediate action steps and put them into practice. Remember, nothing will change until you do.
Now, here’s your homework.
Write down one unproductive habit you’d like to change, as well as the new one you’d like to create. Then, create your 3-step action plan, in writing, of how you’re going to take action to create this new habit. Give yourself a check-in date of when you’ll assess your progress to see how far you’ve come on creating this habit.
One of my favorite habits is practicing a daily meditation to stay grounded and clear-minded.
To hold yourself accountable, leave a comment below with the bad habit you’re going to change and the one you’re going to replace it with. I’ll follow up with you to make sure you’re staying on track!
Jack Canfield, America’s #1 Success Coach, is founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul® and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you’re ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com