Principles for mastering your thinking

By Lloyd J. Thomas, Ph.D. 

In his book, “Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life,” Brian Tracy writes about seven principles for mastering your thought processes. Since we know that the stress we experience in our lives is caused by

our thinking and perceptions, I wanted to share Tracy’s principles with you today.

Brian Tracy writes, “When you begin thinking in a positive, confident way about the main aspects of your life, you take control over what is happening to you. You bring your life into harmony with cause and effect. You sow positive causes and reap positive effects. You begin to believe more intensely in yourself and your possibilities. You expect more positive outcomes. You attract positive people and situations, and soon your outer life results will begin to correspond to your inner world of constructive thinking [and your communication skills will reflect precisely that.]

“This entire transformation begins with [the nature and quality of] your thoughts. Change your thinking and you will, you must, change your life. The one thing you must do is to create the mental equivalent of what you want to experience in your reality. Everything else will follow from that.”

Principle of control
You feel positive about yourself to the degree you feel in control of your own life (and vice versa).

Principle of cause and effect
Says that for every effect in your life there is a specific cause whether you know what it is or not. There are no accidents.

Principle of belief
Whatever you believe with feeling becomes your reality.

Principle of expectation
Whatever you expect with confidence becomes your own self-fulfilling prophecy.

Principle of attraction
You are a living magnet. You invariably attract into your life people and situations in harmony with your dominant thoughts.

Principle of correspondence
Your outer world is a reflection of your inner world. You can tell what is going on inside you by looking at what is going on around you. “By their fruits ye shall know them” translates to “by your fruits shall you know who you are.”

Principle of mental equivalency
(Law of Mind): Thoughts objectify themselves: Your thoughts, vividly imagined and repeated, charged with emotions, become your reality.

Putting these laws to work
These mental exercises enable you to begin unlocking the powers of your subconscious mind. They enable you to put these laws to work in a deliberate and systematic way.

You activate the Law of Control by choosing consciously to view yourself as an active creative influence in your own life. When you take mental control, you place your hands firmly on the steering wheel of your own destiny. You become the architect of your own future.

You free yourself from the Law of Accident when you become aware of the role of your own thoughts in directing the course of your life.

You activate the Law of Cause and Effect when you stand back from your day-to-day life and reflect upon the incredible number of coincidences that have shaped you into the person you are today. You see that nothing happened by accident. You realize that everything happened, and is happening, as the result of immutable law – even if you can’t see clearly where your life is going at the moment.

You trigger the Law of Belief when you accept that your life and your experiences are leading you toward the accomplishment of something important. The more you think about this as inevitable, the more likely it is to come true for you. Your beliefs do become your realities.

You apply the Law of Expectations when you confidently expect to gain something worthwhile, if not invaluable, from everything that happens to you. This attitude of confident self-expectancy makes your

life into more of an adventure, with unpredictable but happy events occurring to move you toward some positive outcome. You become more optimistic and cheerful, as well as calm and relaxed, and your  expectations do become self-fulfilling prophecies.

Your positive, future-oriented thinking triggers the Law of Attraction. You begin drawing into your life people and circumstances in harmony with your dominant thoughts of hope and optimism and confidence. The more you think of yourself and your life as uniquely blessed and important, the more you attract to yourself the ideas, opportunities and people that make your dreams come true.

Consistent with the Law of correspondence, you see yourself as a special person put on this earth with a special purpose, and your outer world of relationships, health, work and material accomplishments begin to reflect your inner attitudes of mind.

As you plant these thought seeds into your subconscious by continually holding them in your conscious mind, by the Law of Subconscious Activity, your subconscious begins to make all your words, feelings, actions and even your body language fit a pattern consistent with your new self-concept and your new goals.

You use the Law of Substitution continually, know that your major responsibility in this process is to keep negative thoughts of fear, anger and self-doubt out of your mind. You do this by holding thoughts of faith, hope and love instead, until these new thoughts are firmly rooted and growing with a life and power of their own.

You apply the Law of Concentration by dwelling continually on thoughts of courage and confidence, of hope and love and on the wonderful future life has in store for you. You take time each day to sit and soak your mind in positive and uplifting thoughts, knowing that whatever you dwell upon long enough and hard enough will eventually materialize in the world around you.

 

Dr. Thomas is a licensed psychologist, author, speaker, and life coachfrom Wellington, Colo. He serves on the faculty of the International University of Professional Studies.