by Kelly Beischel PhD, RN, CNE

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I love change.

I love reading about it. I love listening to podcasts about it. I love learning about the neuroscience behind it. And yes, I love participating in it.

Why is this important to me?

Because I KNOW that thoughts become things. And if I don’t like my outcomes (things) I need to change my thoughts. I know this to be true only all of the time. I’ve experienced it myself at least 1,000 times. 🙂

I’ve also seen this phenomenon repeatedly play out with students, friends, and clients.

Thoughts are like boomerangs.

The thoughts you send out to the world are what you’ll get back. So take care of your thoughts. I teach my students this concerning testing. I tell them “If you think you are going to fail a test. You will.”

And then we work together on changing their thoughts. If this sounds too woo-woo for you, please keep reading. It will all make sense. I promise.

  • You see, our thoughts cause feelings to arise.
  • These feelings guide our actions.
  • Our actions determine our results.
  • And then? Our results feed our thinking.
  • And on it goes.

The TRUTH: Our thoughts are everything.

If we want new results, we must think new thoughts. It really is that simple. But there is a catch. That catch is this: It takes work to change our thoughts.

You might scoff at this but neuroscience tells us that over time our thinking has established deep neural circuits in our brain.

And it takes conscious work to rewire these circuits.

But you can. How do I know? Because I did.

You see, I recently fell down the rabbit hole of “victimhood”. My thoughts were thriving on “this stinks” and “she did this to me”. The funny thing is I live and teach this phenomenon, that poor outcomes come from negative thinking.

I believe this to my core.

But, I forgot to do the important work

of consciously checking my thoughts, of being the watcher of my thoughts. The result? I became unmotivated, resistant to moving forward.

  • Yes, some bad things happened “to me”.
  • Yes, my rose-colored glasses were smudged.
  • Yes, I had every right to my indignation, both ethically and legally.

But, the thing is my negative thinking was keeping me mired in the muck of apathy, an unfamiliar, hostile territory. And I didn’t like it.

The Change

These are the thoughts I had that changed it for me, “Duh Kelly, your negative thoughts about the circumstance are only hurting YOU!! “Not the perpetrator of the circumstance!” “Nope.” “She’s happy as a clam.”

So, I did the V8 smack against my head and changed my thinking. When resistance crept in, I used a “refuturing” technique.

I changed my thoughts to, “And I choose to…”. (I love the power in this thought because it reminds me that how I think is my choice.)

And this is what happened.

These conscious acts of changing my thoughts

  • changed my feelings
  • changed my actions
  • changed my results.
  • And I got moving.

Whoot!! I love how this works.

Now, here’s the 2nd TRUTH:

I have no doubt that you can do this too. What negative thought is holding you back? My advice? Do the work.

Change the thought.

We can keep a stranglehold on our negative thoughts and live with our outcomes. Or we can transform our outcomes by changing our thoughts. The choice is ours. Which will you choose?

Post a comment below to be in the drawing to win Therese Huston’s book, Teaching What You Don’t Know, an engaging, useful book about: preparing to teach a new course, how to increase your credibility, and what to do when you have no clue how to answer a question.