The Sunday Mail
The beliefs that you hold in your mind affect the way you behave and what you do.
When you change what is going on in your head, you change where you are headed. Beliefs do not need to be real or have any factual backing to take hold of your life.
Your beliefs could be empowering or dis-empowering. My school’s motto was: “We can, because we think we can.”
You have to think it before you can have it. When you hold beliefs like: “I will never make it; I am too old or too young; there is no opportunity any more; I am cursed; I am not intelligent enough; I am inferior and incapable”, you are drinking from a poisoned chalice.
Change your mindset and you change your life and what you begin to see. Beliefs are the operating system software that is running in your mind.
Programme yourself with purpose and not with mere superstitions. Be more mindful and audit the beliefs that you are nursing and brooding.
You can always trace your success or failure to a belief that you hold or once held.
Stop scaring yourself into hopelessness.
Replace or eliminate every negative belief that you have. You have to work at it gradually and consistently. Mental exercise is as important as physical exercise.
I have a few beliefs that have helped me through the years. To you they may not look real. Beliefs do not need to be. Some people are imprisoned by beliefs that are mere effigies. To install new beliefs, read them out aloud several times a day. If possible, read them in the same way you take a prescription: “Two or three beliefs verbalised three times a day after meals.”
Do whatever helps you to be consistent in personal reprogramming. Share your new beliefs with whoever cares to listen. The more you speak and verbalise your beliefs the more they take root. Take time to think about the statements, meditate on them and embrace them. When a negative belief comes to your mind, quickly catch it in mid-air and replace it with a positive, purposeful and powerful one.
You cannot stop birds from flying over your head, but you can certainly stop them from building a nest there. Do not settle over the negative or dwell on it. Dwelling on a negative belief gives the belief space to take root.
Here we go.
“Today is the beginning of the rest of my life!”
Today is not a hopeless and aimless day in my life time-line. It is the beginning of the rest of my life. I can start today and reinvent my life. Its a new day and a new season. I may have made mistakes in the past, squandered both time and money, but today is my real birthday.
It is the genesis of my greatness. It is the day I choose to embrace a new life and a new way. The past will not hold me back anymore.
I take bold new steps and actions to change my life’s story. I embrace a new vision of myself and see myself doing great things. I refuse to dwell on yesterday or camp on failure. I am a child of success and greatness part of my ancestry. I refuse to complain, blame or point fingers.
I take personal responsibility. My life is now pointing to the future and I begin with a new energy, drive and narrative.
There will be a running-in period, but I am determined to crawl, walk then run towards the light. Those that see me today will not recognise me in the near future because today is the beginning of a new life for me. I put off the shell of negativity and I throw away the jacket of heaviness.
“What I have today is just a seed of the future”
There is awesome power in a seed. What I hold today is my seed of greatness. I can tell the number of seeds in an apple but I can never tell the number of apples in any seed. Every seed is a promise of a forest and a harvest.
I look at anything I have as a seed that I diligently plant for my coming harvest. There is no small job, little assignment or small dream. Small today, big tomorrow. I actively plant my seed and accord my best attention to my work.
Every relationship that I create is a seed. Every assignment I take is a seed. Every coin that I receive is a seed. I look at my seeds with respect and plant them actively and diligently.
I keep planting in hope and I refuse to give up, retire or quit. I keep working on my goals and my goals start working on and for me. I know that my seeds have life and they grow. They may look like they are dead, but they are waiting for their opportunity and space.
“Size is just a matter
of perspective”
No one can make me feel inferior without my permission. I am not a lizard, I am destined for greatness. Size is only a matter of perspective. What looks big and intimidating today, may soon look small and quaint.
I, therefore, dream big, attempt great things and take bold action. I keep increasing my grasp and exposure. I refuse to let other people’s opinions intimidate me. I humbly and diligently work on my dream and fertilise my vision.
A short person is not a boy. A small dream is not a toy. Small steps are not insignificant. I respect myself and my dreams. I take action and move forward.
What is small today will not be small forever. What is intimidating today, will soon look like a molehill. I have my place and I will keep working on my goals and dreams. Greatness is my portion and birthright.
“My opportunities are here and waiting for me”
The canvas of my opportunity is ever-widening and growing. I see opportunity everywhere I go. I am standing on a minefield of opportunity and new opportunities are being born everyday.
The presence of difficulties and challenges does not erase the possibilities that I see.
The presence of challenges signifies the presence of opportunity. Every problem is an entrepreneurial opportunity.
My opportunities are waiting for me and they have been waiting for a long time for me to tap into them and to take them.
I already have everything that I need in order to become great. It has been waiting for this moment of stimulation.
I will keep working, thinking and doing. Every step that I take is taking me close to where I belong. I will knock and keep knocking until the door opens for me. I will seek and keep seeking until the sun breaks forth.
I will walk and keep walking until I arrive.
Every day is opportunity day. I am opportunity-minded. I do not dwell on problems or think like a mad victim.
I am an agile actor and I create things.
“This too shall pass”
Life is a continuum, a journey. No season escapes its turn and every season comes with its blessings. In this season there are some gifts that I have been sent and lessons that I have to learn.
I keep an open mind, hopeful spirit and engaged soul. The difficulties that I face today will not be forever. The opportunities of today will not be there all the time. I therefore make the most of today. I optimise this moment.
I stretch my thinking, strengthen my hands and do my best with what I have got.
I do my best today and keep working to make my life a blessing. I keep learning and growing. I will not park at any fork in the road. I turn my disadvantages into advantages. I am on the move.
Every day in every way I am getting better and better. I grow daily and learn all the time.
Someone reading these axioms will think these are just lies. That is not what my life is like! Wait a minute. That is not true, you have to shape your experiences in your mind first.
Build the belief and mindset first and then you start to take control and shape your life experiences.
If you allow your mind to live in darkness, you will not see even the opportunities that are close to your nose. Dis-empowering yourself is not fashionable or strategic. If you let dis-empowering beliefs take hold, you will run all your life thinking that the sky is falling and that all the systems of the world are conspiring to keep you down, poor and disadvantaged.
Adopting a protest posture in life is not going to create anything for you except bitterness.
Choose your beliefs and build them. Make them positive, empowering and motivating.
Use affirmations actively and consistently.
Confess the positive and start building positive capacity. Keep complaining and you will sink lower and lower and become bitter and bitter.
Your words shape your world.
Your thoughts are the moulds of your reality. To change your reality, change the thought moulds that you are using.
Negativity is not style, strategy, tactics, truthfulness or fashion. Rise and be positive.
Embrace empowering beliefs that power you forward.
Milton Kamwendo is an international transformational and inspirational speaker, author and coach. He is a strategy, innovation, team-building and leadership consultant. He can be reached at [email protected] and WhatsApp number 0772422634
