"Deposit only positive thoughts in your memory bank. Let's face it squarely: everyone encounters plenty of unpleasant, embarrassing, and discouraging situations. But unsuccessful and successful people deal with these situations in directly opposite ways. Unsuccessful people take them to heart, so to speak. They dwell on the unpleasant situations, thereby giving them a good start in their memory. At night the unpleasant situation is the last thing they think about... Confident, successful people, on the other hand, "don't give it another thought." Successful people specialize in putting positive thoughts into their memory bank." ~ David J. Schwartz from The Magic of Thinking Big
How about you? What kind of deposits are you making in your memory bank? Do you replay the "Check-me-out,-I-rocked-that!" high points or the "OMG. Did-I-really-just-say-that?!?" low moments? :)
The cumulative effect of our little decisions makes a HUGE difference. In The Magic of Thinking Big, Schwartz tells a great little story to magnify his point. He says, imagine what would happen if, every morning before driving to work you took a scoop of gravel and threw into the car's "crankcase." (For those who aren't mechanics, that's part of your engine! :). What would happen? Well, he says, "That fine engine would soon be a mess, unable to do what you want it to do."
Same with our brains. When we throw negative thoughts in it every morning (and mid-day and night and...) guess what? We fall apart. The alternative? Take every opportunity to make good deposits. We need to think of all the things we've done that we're proud of—from the award we won in college or early in our career or whatever. Think about all those things for which we're grateful—from our health to our past successes to the fact that we're alive. We need to overload our brains with good thoughts.
What kinds of deposits are you making? Become more conscious of what thoughts you're poppin' into your head and deliberately take advantage of the quiet moments by yourself (in your car, in the shower, at the gym, on walks, etc), to overdose on the good stuff.
"In brief, it really is easy to forget the unpleasant if we simply refuse to recall it. Withdraw only positive thoughts from your memory bank. Let the others fade away. And your confidence, that feeling of being on top of the world, will zoom upward. You take a big step forward toward conquering your fear when you refuse to remember negative, self-deprecating thoughts."
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