Facing Challenging Thoughts

The Mind: Take Thoughts Captive

We all have the thoughts that challenge our ideas and abilities. None of us are immune to them. Although we cannot control thoughts coming into our mind, we can control what actions those thoughts manifest. It's up to you to either allow the thoughts to bring you discouragement or encouragement. For example, none of us were experts when riding a bike for the first time. There were some learning curves when trying to figure it out. For some of us there were even cuts and bruises while going through the process of figuring it out. But none of us quit after trying to ride a bike for the first time. We pushed on despite the failures of riding until we got it. What if you submitted to the thought that riding a bike was hard, you can't do it and you're not cut out for it? The manifestation of those negative thought would have led to you giving up on trying to ride the bike. Instead, you took captive of those negative thoughts, and processed it in a way that says, "This is hard but so many others had to go through this process when learning to ride a bike and they achieved it.” You may have even answered the challenging thought with, "This is hard but I am going to continue to try this until I get it!” Just because you didn't figure it out the first dozen tries does not mean you were a failure, it was just part of the process. What made you a success in riding the bike was going through the process and sticking to it until you achieved the goal of riding a bike.

One way of processing the thought brings about a negative response and the other way of processing the thought brings about a positive response. Every one of us is going to have challenging thoughts but those that confront the challenging thoughts and from that place produce a positive reaction, will continue to move forward and end up in places few ever attain.

Sometimes it's a matter of training ourselves to think positive and not negative. Research has shown we can wire our brains to think a certain way. If you start making habits of thinking negative then you will train your mind to naturally think negative. We have all met those people who are always complaining. Everything is always wrong no matter how good things are. A friend once told me he got a raise at work. I praised him but his reply was, “It's not that good, the raise was small.” WHAT? Any raise is a good raise. See how the negative thinking can rule over us and steal joy and value from us.

A recent example happened on a car ride while on our way to drop one of the kids at ballet. We were driving in my wife's car and one of the children said, “I hate this car because it does not have air vents in the back." My wife quickly replied with, "Don't train your mind to think that way, instead you should think and say, I'm very grateful that God gave us this car, I hope our next car has air vents in the back". She took a situation and put a positive spin on it. Instead of having negative thoughts about the car, my wife was grateful for the car and hopeful for the future car.

Daily Challenge

As challenging thoughts pop up in the next few days, don't run from them and don't ignore them but instead pause for a second to process the thoughts.

Write down the challenging thoughts and if possible answer them.

What positive reaction can you produce concerning the thought?

Start training your mind to think positive by correcting your thought pattern.

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Urban Life Coach @Dominique is committed to making the process of startups as simple and smooth as possible. Visit www.urbanlifecoach-dominique.com for startup resources to help launch your startup into success. Dominique also offers private coaching, online private coaching, email coaching, group coaching and speaking engagements for those wishing to dive deeper into the process of making your God given dream a reality.

Dominique comes from a family line of business owners and idea seekers. He has seen first hand the failures and successes that startups and businesses bring. Through those failures, successes and knowledge passed down through generations, Dominique has gained a wealth of wisdom to help you create a clear path and a firm foundation to jump start you in the right direction. In the past 30 years, he has developed product, start up several businesses, gained national recognition as an artist and musician and experienced several ministry endeavors. Whether your idea involves a business, organization, product, ministry or a creative expression, he can help guide you to making that idea a reality. Don't let another day pass without pursuing your dream. Team up with Dominique to jump-start you in making your dream a reality.