Program Your Subconscious Mind And Improve Your Outlook

Don’t let excuses get in the way of reprogramming your outlook on life

Programming your subconscious for success is not as difficult as it sounds. Many people think that the workings of the subconscious are deep and mysterious and that we have no control over it. The truth is that the messages our subconscious sends us are messages that we have learned over the years. Often they are messages from childhood. Unfortunately, many of those messages may be negative-messages that tell us that everything that goes wrong is our fault, or that we’ll never succeed or that we’re no good.

The good news is that if we learned something we can also unlearn it. The first thing you must do is become aware of what your subconscious is saying to you. Pay attention to your self talk-the “soundtrack” that runs through your mind every day in response to situations. Carry a journal and write down what happens and what your automatic thought is. For instance, “Ten minutes late to work – Idiot, can’t do anything right. Boss liked my project – Amazing, I thought it was terrible. Ate a donut for lunch – I’m so stupid, I’m never going to lose this extra ten pounds.”

At the end of a week, read over your journal. Pay attention to recurring negative thoughts. In the example above, for instance, the writer called himself names, frequently expressed the belief that he couldn’t do anything right or was destined to failure, and attributed the positive thing that happened to luck.

Once you’re aware of your automatic negative thoughts, choose positive thoughts to replace them. For instance, instead of thinking, “I’m so stupid,” you might think, “So I made a mistake. I’ll learn from it and do better next time.” Or when good things happen, instead of thinking, “I got lucky,” you might think, “I tried my best and did really well.”

Now that you’re aware of your negative thoughts and have consciously developed positive thoughts to replace them, it’s time to start programming your subconscious for success. Again, pay attention to your self talk, but this time, every time you catch yourself thinking a negative thought, do something to interrupt yourself. You might say, “Stop!” out loud, or put a rubber band around your wrist and snap it whenever you catch yourself in a negative thought. Once the negative thought is interrupted, replace it with whatever positive thought you’ve decided. Do this over and over, until the positive thought becomes as automatic as the negative thought.

There are other ways to reinforce positive thoughts as well. Try coming up with two or three positive thoughts such as, “I know I can work hard and accomplish what I want to accomplish,” or “I am worthy of success.” Write these sentences ten times each every day. Or make a looped recording of your voice saying these sentences aloud and play them at night when you go to sleep.

You won’t notice changes overnight, but slowly your subconscious will learn the positive messages, just as long ago it learned the negative messages. As you continue to work at programming your subconscious for success, you’ll notice more positive thoughts and fewer negative thoughts flitting through your mind. Eventually you won’t even be consciously aware of the positive thoughts anymore, but you will still benefit from their encouraging messages at a subconscious level; your hard work will have been amply rewarded.