From Average to Exceptional: How I Improved My Thinking Skills
““Your life experiences harness a formula that’ll dictate the growth and development of your future, and your future successes.””
Below are 5 examples that I've personally experienced and thought I would share them with you today. Here's a great quote from my book to kick off these 5 life lessons. Start reflecting on your life, the good, the bad and everything in between. They hold vital answers for your present-future. Here's a clue, learn the power of emotional intelligence to filter out the bad.
TOP 5 EXAMPLES
1. Know what you truly want.
Hyper-focusing & Mind Mapping is what we call using “Brain Plasticity” its the new and improved, “Brainstorming”. Focus solely on the specific outcomes you want from life. Life doesn’t give us anything, we have to make something from life. So understanding and reminding yourself everyday what your overall intentions are for the next five years allows you to start painting those steps, it allows your stress levels to go down and increases the quality of questions you are asking yourself, not to mention the boost of self confidence. You start to feel in control again, life starts bending and dancing to the beat of your heart and your true passions.
Some of the biggest successors in: business, politics, sports and entertainment credit the Law of Attraction and visualization for their accolades, not all, but a few. I wouldn't mind becoming 1% legendary…wouldn’t you? It’s a mindset. As legendary basketball player Michael Jordan once put it, "You must expect great things from yourself before you can do them." As a business leader, head of your household, backbone of your family, or starting your own legacy, you have to envision yourself in the place you want to be before you can get there- mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.
2. Focus on gratitude and positive self-talk.
Gratitude comes from shining the light off of you for sec, and putting it on someone or something else. Once you begin to understand the metaphor, “it could always be worse” it removes a mental barrier and releases tension like fear, anxiety, or social objections.
Reassuring yourself is more powerful than one might think. Here's a cool example from my adolescence. I was 14 years old working in GPS/GIS Engineering over the summer for a water company in the silicon valley, I didn’t realize the skills I possessed at the time. By the time I realized it, I was training new undergraduate students who just graduated from San Jose State University. When my boss at the time told me to train these engineers, my mind was like woah! This just got REAL real-quick lol. But I used the law of association to reduce my anxiety at the time by relating this exact scenario to another situation in my life where I had to be “courageous, motivated, and knowledgeable” Well, I also played soccer overseas prior to this moment so I linked my mindset of training with the top youth soccer players in europe to this new obstacle or how I like to say “Opportunity” (I use power words in-place of negative words, it helps, give it a try). I self talked myself up by injecting my mind with good-positive thoughts, naturally leading to humbleness and gratitude. My mind redirected to the positive and ended up grateful just for being a part of this soccer program or grateful my boss at the time would put so much trust in me, it was self validation I was doing “something right” haha jk. Side Note: by simply reflecting on this past life experience it felt good and just as I put it, it really is self validating, I feel so good about myself right now lol. Sounds pretty chest but hey it makes me happy and I know that's all that matters.
Anyways where is this all going and how does this tie into the law of attraction. You will have failures in life, but remaining consistent with your daily/weekly habits is what will attract all of your goals. Self talk leads to gratitude, gratitude leads to a healthy mindset and reassures a positive outlook on life. Bypassing all the negative people, situations, and your own negative self beliefs along the way, naturally. Good habits fight for you on those days we need some mental support or self reliance. “Small hinges swing big a@@ doors!” Never-ever underestimate the power of habit.
3. Intentional Communication & Thoughts.
This is exactly what we call Conscious-Imagination. Feeding your mind exactly what you want it to create, visualize, and execute. Unintentional communication is just like side-stepping in life. Moving but not progressing, putting yourself second. Intentionally communicate with yourself and feed yourself positive-reassuring thoughts. What kind of day do you want to have today? How do you want to feel by the end of your work day? Energized? Sleepy? Whats the worst/best case scenarios if try a new restaurant, a new podcast, a new gym, a new road trip, meeting new people, and focus on what you want exactly to happen.
Tri it! every single morning. Focus on the exact outcomes you want to experience in life. This week, this month, this year, next year, in 10 years. Set the bar so high you feel like you’ll never accomplish those goals. Now you have something to chase in life. Us humans have developed certain patterns, based on the laws of human nature, and one of those patterns is, were always in a constant chase. There's this absolute-constant in the Quantum universe, so instead of trying to fight it, go with the momentum like in jiu-jitsu, roll with the punches, roll with the momentum and find ways to use it towards your advantage. Start taking full ownership of everything you see, touch, smell, hear, and taste. Eliminate outside excuses so that all roads lead back to you and the only person you can blame from now on, is yourself and trust me you’ll get tired of it and change is awaiting..
4. Visualize success.
I love this one, visualizing success is such a great way to start “meditating” or “daydreaming” deep thinking is where i’m heading with this one. There are so many daily things' ' we oversee and take for granted.. Success comes in all shapes and sizes. You’ve probably heard that saying before.
When I started my journey with loki, my service dog. It was a two year process that I thought was going to be over in 48 weeks. But at the same time, during my experience with Operation Freedom Paws that was when I really started visualizing what the finish line looked like with loki, but also the changes I wanted to see within myself. The “daydreaming” turned into nightly dreaming, about my future. My future with Loki, my future with myself and my internal conflicts. Meditation allowed me to calm my mind by visualizing what my life could possibly look like if I stick this thing out a couple more weeks. A couple of weeks, turned into a few months, and ive never looked back. Take this affirmation home with you, “Irreversible change without regret is cleansing.”
Spin that wheel of life in your mind and bend reality by visualizing what success looks like to you. Do you want to be a world traveler? Top manager? Teacher of the Year? Top Athlete? Father of the Year, heres anther secret, you can have it all bro! Dive deep into each one of your superhero characters mentally. Change the facade, Change that hat, shape-shift like water, and focus on the exact outcomes you want from life. The universe doesn’t know the difference between a big goal or a small goal, only you do.
5. Accountability is key.
Own that sh*&!...Here are the facts, Once you stop lying to yourself, your life starts changing. Go give it a try for the next 3 days. Go do what you keep telling yourself your going to do “next week”, “Once i get paid”, “once i move out” “Once i…fill in the blank. Stop lying to yourself, go write that on your mirror on the bathroom and re read it everyday. And focus on one goal, and the first 2 steps. If you want to lose weight, set weight goal, set a date by when, and build a game plan from here on forward or reverse engineer it from the finish line backwards. Start visualizing all the variables and possibilities. Once you’re self accountable, your life changes, your environments change, your bank account changes, your smile changes, your glow grows and and your mind flows.
Here are 4 principles to grow towards your potential:
Concentrate on one main goal.
Trust the process & improve/adjust along the way
Forget the past. Irreversible change without regret is cleansing.
Focus on the future, think about your future, and visualize your success in the future.
Big Picture thinkers are always learning new skills, meeting new people, and are lifelong learners.
What's Creative thinking?
Creative thinkers value ideas, they never solely rely on their talent. They rely on their discipline and understand how to manipulate their thinking or conscious-imagination, naturally leading to stimulating your creativity and attracting new milestones in your life. Imagination is more important than knowledge, it's your own trial/error, to test new ideas or plans before physically executing them. Creative thinkers link the uncreative or unrelated ideas to their sole purpose, boiling down the “problem” to its sole fundamentals (Form vs Function). This could only be achieved if you have self awareness, life experience, and adaptability. Asking the right questions during the process of creative thinking. Creative thinkers don’t fear failure and we know, failing vs failure are completely different once you become self aware.
