The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible.

Man said that it wasn’t humanly possible to run and break the four minutes mile, until Roger Bannister came along and proved it was possible. Thank mother nature for people like him who can see past the boundaries of our societies limiting beliefs and reach out and achieve the impossible.

Another example of amazing feats is of Joe Simpson who you may know from the award winning book “Touching the Void” and film of the same name. After successfully reaching the mountain peak of the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes disaster struck for Joe Simpson and his climbing companion Simon Yates.

As they descended the mountain in bad weather Simpson fell into a crevice and being roped together Yates was forced to cut his partner free in order to save himself, leaving Simpson to fall 150 ft.

However, left for dead in a crevice at -40 below zero he managed to find the steely grit and determination to crawl for four days without food or water over five miles through the ice and over rocks with a shattered tibia to reach base camp. He arrived delirious, exhausted and just hours before Yates was due to abandon their tents for civilisation.

These people all had goals they had to reach. Some of them built up to these goals over a long period of time. Some of them believed in themselves against all the odds and just did it anyway. Some of them reached their goals because it was a do or die situation. You too can reach your goals. You can plan to do it now and set your sights on a target and make plans to reach it, or you can carry on living your life the way you have been with the hope that one day by chance you will arrive where you want to be, the choice is yours.

Ask yourself now if you have a specific goal in mind and how you are going to reach it.

Well, what did you decide in your mind just now as you read the question in that last sentence? Did you decide to take control of your destiny and set out to plan exactly what you were going to do next?

So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.

Christopher Reeve

YOUR INNER VOICE

Mental strength is really important because you either win or lose in your mind. And I’m not solely talking about sporting matches, boxing events – anything you do, you do it first with your mental strength and you can actually train and develop it.

Wladimir Klitschko

Your ‘inner voice’ is the voice you hear in your own mind as you go through the day. It can also be referred to as “internal monologue”, or “verbal stream of consciousness”, like thinking in words. Much of what people consciously thinking about or the conversations they have with themselves is in fact their “inner voice”.

For most people it just background noise or an inconvenience. Yet the inner dialogue we all have is the definitive element linked to your future success.

As you hear yourself read the question below, as ask yourself if there is an internal dialogue in your mind responding to, or reacting to it.

“If you could be the person you want to be, who would that person be?”

Did you notice a conversation starting in your mind? Maybe you saw some images or started to “feel” being the person you dream to be?

The important point is to become aware of how your “inner voice” or the way you respond internally is influencing you on what you were going to decide on doing next.

Initially there may not seem to be too much importance in this fact, until you look at the bigger picture of what really is taking place and how it is affecting you at every level and facet of your life.

At the most basic level, your inner dialogue is giving you directions on every decision you make in your life. Those decisions are going to either have a positive or a negative effect on your life and will have a profound effect on your past, present and your future!

THE SANCHEN AND YIN AND YANG

Don’t cry over the past, it’s gone. Don’t stress about the future, it hasn’t arrived. Live in the present and make it beautiful.

The Sanchen is an ancient Japanese concept of how the decisions you make and actions you take every moment of your life will affect your past, present and future. Before the Sanchen is Yin and Yang, the choices you make in life. At every moment in life you have the choice of what to do right at that given moment. You can break the choice down to benefiting you or not benefiting you, yin and yang. If you choose Yin or Yang, your past, present and future will then be created based on that choice, the Sanchen.

To give an example, let’s consider the following:

Imagine you are in a book store and Sir Richard Branson is standing on the other side of the book shelves next to you. You have the choice at that moment to either go and chat to him or not go and chat to him. That is the Yin or Yang in your decision.

If you choose in your mind to speak to him, regardless of the outcome in this theoretical example, you will feel great about your future self who is about to walk up, full of courage and start chatting to one of the most successful people on the planet. You are now creating a great future for yourself if you do.

As you are chatting to him you will be experiencing the rush of excitement and joy of chatting to someone so inspirational. Therefore, your present moment is one of having fun and maybe being inspired.

Once you have finished chatting, regardless of the outcome in this example, you will have the history of a person who has the courage and experience of walking up to someone so famous, rich and successful.

You will have created a positive ‘Sanchen’ in your life

Your inner dialogue will have influenced the decisions you made in that scenario every step of the way. If we take just the example given, where you were deciding on whether or not to chat to Sir Richard Branson, your inner dialogue would have been giving you a constant commentary influencing and manipulating your decision.

If your inner confidence is weak, your inner dialogue would probably not have been very supportive, and instead of giving you positive words of encouragement, you would probably have heard the exact opposite. The choice you made would have been a negative yin or yang and the outcome of your past, present and future would have been very different indeed.

Your inner dialogue is a huge contributing factor to your past, present and future success. If you decide to go to the gym your past, present and future will be one of better health. If you decide to go out and get drunk your future may be one full of fun, the present will probably be one of fun and drunkenness and your past may be one of a head splitting, gut vomiting hangover. Too many of those types of decisions could end up in your present being that of an alcoholic. However, if you say to yourself to decide to stop drinking, even for one minute, your future is that of a person who does not drink, your present will be that of a teetotaller and after only one minute you could state that your history as an alcoholic is now in the past.

Is your inner dialogue giving you the best support to aid you in meeting your goals?

People who succeed in life have an inner dialogue driving them towards their chosen destiny. In most cases the dialogue is of a positive nature, however, there are examples where the dialogue can seem to be negative in nature, but still pressing them towards positive outcomes. This is especially true when the person is under duress. Obviously a continuous negative dialogue can lead a person towards outcomes that are definitely not in their best interests or the people around them.

You may want to stop for a moment and tune into the inner dialogue in your own mind to hear what it has to say, or get a sense of what you are feeling inside yourself at this present moment in time, if you are not aware of it already, to feel if it is pleasant or not. Just stop for a moment and close your eyes and relax. Listen to what you can hear yourself saying to yourself, or make a mental note of how you are feeling. Is it positive or negative? Does it make you feel good or bad?

Many people are actually scared to do this exercise because they already know from experience that they don´t want to stop, even for a moment and listen to themselves. Sometimes it is too much to bear and instead they fill their mind with music, chatting, TV, books, anything to distract them from having to listen to their inner voice or notice how they are feeling.

Think back for moment and ask yourself if you are constantly giving yourself a hard time about everything? Are you often mentally saying to yourself comments like “I can’t”, “I couldn’t”, “I won’t”, “it’s not possible”, “I’m not good enough”, “I don’t deserve it”, “good things like that never happen to me”, “it will all go wrong anyway”, “I´m an idiot”, “I don´t deserve”, “oh forget it”? Are these maybe some of the self deprecating statements you repeat to yourself on a daily basis?

Are you constantly walking around in a state of dread, or fear? Do you get really frustrated or angry really easy for no apparent reason? Are you constantly worried about everything even though nothing bad ever seems to happen? Are your muscles tight? Do you lay awake at night or wake up during the night a lot? Does your mouth go dry or you suddenly have mental blocks and can´t think of what to say?

The list could go on, but where did this amazing fear and belief system come from in the first place? You didn’t put it there for sure. Surely your parents didn´t say, “oh, by the way son/daughter of mine, be really scared, in fact freeze with fear and doubt yourself every time you want to do anything in life!”

It’s important to become aware of your inner voice because at least then you are in a position to look for ways to improve on it and become a better person, the person you want to be. Start to become aware of what is going on inside your mind and body. Become aware of what you are saying to yourself on a continual basis and how you are feeling throughout the day.

Ask yourself if that is how you want to speak to yourself? Ask yourself if you would prefer to change it? Ask yourself why you might be saying it? Ask if you would like to choose pleasant comments instead? Would you prefer to feel a different way? Would you prefer to feel more confident, happier, relaxed or friendly? And, if it was someone you loved you were speaking to, would you talk to them that way?

When you start to hear the inner turmoil more clearly you will begin to notice that left unchecked even an insignificant event can sometimes turn into a life challenging ordeal. Your inner dialogue can very quickly destroy self confidence, self worth, self belief and much more. It can mentally and emotionally cripple people in their jobs, relationships and life in general. In the most severe of cases it can lead people to commit terrible deeds upon others and themselves.

The Tao gave birth to One.
The One gave birth to Two.
The Two gave birth to Three.
The Three gave birth to all of creation.
From the “Tao Te Ching”, Lao Tzu