Did you know that the majority of the thoughts you have on a daily basis are negative?
According to the National Science Foundation, approximately 80% of the thoughts you have on a daily basis are negative. The average person has somewhere between 12,000-60,000 thoughts per day, so let’s see here, that’s…okay, math’s not my strong suit (I’m more artsy-fartsy than mathsy-wathsy), but that’s a LOT of negative things!
Even more alarming is that the vast majority of these thoughts are completely automatic. They’re so deeply ingrained in our subconscious minds that we don’t even realize we’re thinking them. We go about our daily lives making decisions based on this negative programming and don’t realize how we’re sabotaging ourselves. (I don’t even want to think about all of the opportunities that passed me by because some internal limiting belief stopped me from taking action.)
It’s no wonder that so many fail to achieve their well-intentioned New Year’s resolutions and goals. We’re sort of set up to fail. As long as we keep running the same old negative programs through our minds, nothing will change.
But not YOU, my friend.
There are science-backed techniques you can use to effectively reprogram your mind so that you can stop sabotaging yourself and become the HIGHEST, most AWESOME version of you.
If you’re ready to hop off the negativity train, join me in this video to learn my 7-step action plan for reprogramming your mind for success. Implementing this plan can help you achieve all of the amazing things you want for yourself this year…and every year for the rest of your life.
You can watch the video or read the main points below.
(This post contains affiliate links, which means—at zero cost to you—I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Thank you for your support!)
It’s Not Your Fault
Before we get into the 7 steps to reprogram your brain for success, you need to know that the negative programming that runs through your mind is NOT your fault.
Many, if not most, of our negative thinking patterns are passed down from our parents (but don’t go blaming your parents just yet; they got their negative programming from their parents, and so on). Negative thoughts about money, relationships, and other issues are often passed down to us and compounded with our own life experiences. Additionally, from a purely evolutionary standpoint, some negative thoughts are there to help us survive.
Ultimately, however, negative thinking can disempower you and stop you from reaching your potential. Although much of your negative thought programming isn’t your fault, it is up to you to fix it so that you can live the extraordinary life you were meant to live.
7-Step Guide to Reprogram Your Brain for Success
As 2022 came to a close, I realized that I really needed a bit of a mindset reset. With stresses piling up, life started to feel HARD. My normally optimistic outlook began teetering into pessimism.
Knowing that I had set some pretty big goals for myself for 2023, I needed to get my head on straight or those goals simply weren’t going to happen.
The following 7-step guide is the exact plan I created for myself to reprogram my brain for success. I hope you find it useful as well.
1. Recognize That You Deserve to Be Successful
The very first step in being able to effectively reprogram your mind is to recognize that you are deserving of success. This really comes down to loving yourself and recognizing your inherent worth as a human being. Surprisingly (or maybe not surprisingly) this is extremely hard for many of us.
Like many people who grew up in an economically challenged family, I often felt extremely unworthy when I was younger. This belief stayed with me well into adulthood, and I still wrestle with these thoughts from time to time. This might be true for you as well.
The truth is, no one is born with more inherent worth than others, regardless of internal or external circumstances. Once you understand this, you can start to love yourself and recognize that you are worthy.
One technique I’ve used frequently to get into that space of loving myself when I’m being very self-critical is to picture myself as a young child, maybe 4 or 5 years old. I ask myself, “Would I speak to that child the same way I’m speaking to myself right now?”
The answer is always a strong “No.” Then I ask myself, “What can I say instead? What might I tell that child if she was having those thoughts about herself?”
This technique has been a really powerful way to shine a light on how damaging—and downright abusive!—my thoughts about myself can be. If you try this technique, bring a box of tissues; I don’t think I’ve ever used it without breaking down into tears. This can be a good thing, though, if it helps bring about a much needed emotional release.
2. Define What Success Means to You
Success is a pretty subjective term; it means something different for everyone. That’s why it’s so important to get crystal clear on exactly what success means to you.
For most people, money and financial freedom are most certainly important components of success, but they’re just one part of the equation. We also need to live lives of purpose and meaning.
My own definition of success is to be able to provide a safe, comfortable, happy life of loving relationships and enriching experiences for me and my family. Included in my success equation is the ability to help other people provide the same thing for themselves and their families.
When defining what success means to you, keep in mind that most of us don’t dream big enough, and as a result don’t live up to our true potential. While good health and financial security are good things to have, I want to remind you that you have unique skills and abilities that can help you make a real impact in this world. The amazing thing is that pursuing your true potential can lead to a life that you can’t even fathom right now, a life that not only provides you and your family with economic stability, but one in which you create positive change in innumerable lives.
There’s a lot to be said about the power of visualization. Take some time to clearly envision what a life of success looks like to you.
3. Believe That Your Personal Version of Success is Possible for You
Depending on your current mental programming, there may be a part of you that doesn’t really believe that you’re capable of creating the life you envision for yourself. Even if you can use your imagination to conjure up exciting plans for your future, you might subconsciously start coming up with reasons they’re not possible. These subconscious thoughts can bubble up into your conscious mind and cause you to start coming up with excuses, obstacles, and other reasons you can’t succeed.
It’ll be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to achieve your goals if you don’t truly believe that you can achieve them. If you’re having trouble believing, remind yourself of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s powerful statement:
You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the FIRST STEP.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Any great success always starts with one step.
4. Become Aware Of Your Negative Self-Talk
Most of our self-talk is completely automatic and we don’t even notice how it affects our moods, behaviors, and actions. To become more aware of your thoughts you have to slow down and consciously take note. Listening to the things you tell yourself will quickly reveal your negative programming and you’ll easily see how and why you’ve been holding yourself back.
Personally, I’ve found that the easiest way to do this is to pay more attention to how I’m feeling. If I notice that I’m feeling stressed out, demotivated, or generally negative, I try to uncover the thoughts underneath the feelings.
This practice also becomes easier if you regularly build in some downtime each day, whether through meditation, deep breathing, or just unplugging completely and sitting quietly.
5. Actively Replace Negative Thoughts with More Accurate Ones
Earlier I mentioned that around 80% of the thoughts we have every day are negative—but they don’t have to be! We can tip the scales by becoming more aware of our thoughts and replacing the negative ones with more accurate, positive thoughts.
For the past 20 years or so, I’ve been practicing something called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). I learned about CBT in David Burns’ book, The Feeling Good Handbook. I bought this book when I was in a deep depression, and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that reading it saved my life.
The main principle behind CBT is that our interpretation of external events leads to our self-talk. It’s this self-talk that impacts our feelings, reactions, and behaviors.
When you notice yourself having a negative thought, try and write it down immediately. It’s best to do it as soon as you notice it. Then, write out a positive counterstatement that will effectively invalidate your negative self-talk. If you can do this practice consistently, on a day-to-day basis, you’ll slowly develop the ability to talk back to your negative thoughts automatically, without having to write them down first.
If you find it difficult to replace your negative thoughts with positive ones because you’re afraid that your negative thoughts actually do represent the truth, you can investigate them further using rational questioning.
Ask yourself questions such as:
- What is the evidence for this negative thought?
- Is this always true?
- Is there a more accurate way for me to reflect this?
- Am I being fully objective?
The idea is to see if your negative self-talk actually stands up under careful, objective scrutiny.
For example, if you’ve ever had the thought, “I never reach my goals, so why even bother creating any this year?”, try asking yourself, “Is this always true?” You can then create a counterstatement, such as, “It’s not true that I’ve never achieved a single goal. If I’m not reaching my goals right now I can assess my goal-setting process, pinpoint where things are going wrong, and make changes that can improve my chances of reaching my goals next time.”
This simple exercise has the incredible power of turning negative thoughts into more realistic, empowering thoughts that lead to clear action steps. If you’d like to learn more about CBT and how it’s kept me depression-free for the last two decades, you can check out this video, How I Use CBT To Manage My Depression and Cope with the Stresses of Daily Living.
6. Visualize Your Success
There is a LOT to be said for the power of visualization.Elite athletes regularly use visualization exercises to condition their brains for successful outcomes. Here’s how to get started.
Close your eyes and picture yourself achieving your desired outcome. Be sure you visualize yourself going through all of the necessary steps to get there, how you’ll confidently handle any obstacles that might present themselves, and how that success feels throughout your whole body.
Visualization stimulates the same regions in the brain that are stimulated when you’re actually physically performing the tasks you’re visualizing, so when it comes time to act in real life you’ll be primed to take the action steps necessary to meet your goals.
The technique is easy enough to learn and doesn’t take a lot of time, so I highly recommend making it part of your daily mindset practice to help increase the odds of your own success.
7. Schedule Daily Check-Ins with Yourself
You may have heard the saying, “What gets scheduled gets done!”, and it’s true! When you put something in your calendar you have a much higher probability of actually doing it. That’s why I highly encourage you to schedule five to ten minutes a couple of times a day (preferably once in the morning and once before bedtime) to proactively work on reprogramming your mind for success.
It’s SUPER important to actually schedule this time in your calendar, because the minute your life gets busy, you’ll forget about it and will very likely find yourself at the end of the year without having accomplished your goals.
Once you get your morning and bedtime routines down, try throwing in a midday five-minute check-in for good measure. Before you know it, you’ll find that you’ve built a habit loop that’s sure to help you move towards your goals. Zig Ziglar once said, “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing, that’s why we recommend it daily.” Keep it going!
A Recap of the 7 Steps to Reprogramming Your Brain for Success
Now that you’ve learned my 7-step plan for reprogramming your brain, let’s do a quick recap.
- Recognize that you are deserving of success in the first place.
- Define exactly what success means to you.
- Believe that your personal vision of success is possible for you.
- Become aware of your negative self-talk.
- Replace your negative self-talk with positive, more accurate counter-statements.
- Use visualization to train your brain for a positive outcome.
- Schedule a daily practice in your calendar (once in the morning and once at bedtime) to counter negative self-talk and use visualization to imagine yourself achieving success— whatever that looks like to you.
If you’re an aspiring online entrepreneur and you feel like you could use a little help mapping out your first steps, download my free guide, “The 4 Step No Time to Waste Online Business Start-Up Blueprint.”
You’re also invited to join my free Facebook group, Rachel’s Sandbox.
