That may come as a shock to many people, with the 50,000 thoughts a day that the average person has, it is no wonder that at least some of them are going to be negative or less than positive or productive.

Having negative thoughts is not the problem in and of its self. Having them and then focusing on them, feeding them even, until they are the prevalent thoughts you are having is a problem, and all too often a totally paralyzing one at that.

Starting off with the proper mindset that not all your thoughts will be positive or productive is an important first step. No one expects all the traffic lights to be green on their drive to work, but still we are disappointed when they aren’t or even when they may all be green but one or two.

Does that really make any sense at all?

Granted, most people don’t agonize over the fact that one of the lights was red, but still that moment of negativity, disappointment, and even anger pops up even when we know deep down that the lights aren’t going to all go our way.

Usually those thoughts lesson or disappear as soon as you hit the next green light. But what happens if you hit two red lights in a row? There is often a snowball effect. Heaven forbid you should hit three or more in a row. From then on you are just blowing through the green lights that do come while strewing over the red ones in the past and looking ahead to when the next one is surely going to come.

Silly, isn’t it?

The same thing happens with negative thoughts. Even when we hit good thought – good thought (green light – green light), it only takes one negative thought to completely wipe out the good you just experienced.

Accept that negative thoughts will come. Let the negative thoughts pass and look for tyour next positive thought as soon as possible. Unlike green lights, positive thoughts are something you can control. You can even prepare them ahead of time to pull out when you need them.

We are not quite at the stage where you can prepare a green light to pull out whenever you need it, but till then, get your positive thought ready.

Copyright 2011 Allen Williams

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When you get dirt in your mouth, do you swill it around and savor it? I most certainly do not, and I’m pretty sure you don’t either. You spit it out, right? If the taste is really bad, do you just grab a mouthful of some other dirt,  to swill around in its place?

If you’re like me, you probably try to rinse you mouth with whatever liquid you have handy that is safe to drink.

If you knew you would get dirt in your mouth a lot, you would probably keep something you like handy to get that taste out of your mouth, wouldn’t you? If you didn’t, you would look pretty silly.

You don’t just swallow the dirt, try to internalize it either, do you?

Although you can probably try to limit the amount of dirt that gets in your mouth, you can’t eliminate the possibility of something going into your mouth that that sets off your taste buds in a negative fashion. You can of course reduce the risk, the amount, and the number of chances, but unless you live in a bubble and are fed the same food through a tube, you will have this risk.

Why is it then that when negative thoughts come, and they do come to everyone at some time or another, the tendency is to swill it around and savor it rather than spitting it out – letting go – and rinsing your mind with something to get that bad thought out?

Now you will have to proactive this a bit to get good at it and be prepared with your “brain rinse”, but it will work and work fast with just a little effort at first.

Stop now and choose your “brain rinse”. Pick a thought that is positive, about a success you have had, and make it as clear and precise as you possibly can. It can be a really long though. That’s no problem, and here’s why. After you have run the thought through in preparation a few times and refined it to some very specific images, emotions, and posture, choose a keyword or phrase from your brain rinse that out and use it as a trigger. Run the thought from the trigger, and continue to run it faster and faster.

Any time you find a negative thought creeping in, use your trigger to run the good thought and boot the negative thought. Remember you cannot replace something with nothing, so be prepared. It sounds simple, and it is. You will find your “brain rinse” will begin to come to you easier and faster as time goes by, and soon it will be an automatic response. Give it a try. You will banish those negative thoughts and get more done.

Copyright 2011 Allen Williams

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First off, and not to be over-looked, everyone has negative thoughts. With that enormous number of thoughts pinging around in our brains every day, the law of averages are against all of them being positive. Some will be negative. You have to accept that. It’s not the fact that you have negative thoughts, but it is more about how deeply negative they are, how frequently they occur, and how they then affect your following thoughts and actions or reactions.

You can’t really banish all negative thoughts. They are going to come. You just need to be ready for them and pass over them and on to better more productive thoughts.

Let yourself admit that you will have negative thoughts, but set your mind to just accepting them and moving on as quickly as possible. The longer you dwell  on the negative thinking and images that enter your mind, the harder they are to let go of and to move on from them.

If you have a recurring negative thought, you can plan ahead. For example if you often get frustrated while performing a certain task and say to yourself, “Ack! I’m never going to get this right”, then simply be prepared to add to that thought a statement such as “as long as I keep doing it this way” or something silly like “and I’m never going to be able to fly”.

The key here is if you have the thought, laugh it off, brush it off, and do not dwell on it. You can also prepare yourself with a little positive thought to bump that out of the process. Think of something you are good at or that is a positive for you. Immediately after having the negative thought that tries to stick around, say to yourself this positive trait. It can be anything. It does not even have to be related. Maybe you make a mean brownie. Go with whatever makes you feel good about yourself. Make a list now of three to five positives you can use as defenders for when those negative thoughts come. Go through them one at a time. Sometime you may need to repeat several of them to counter-balance the last negative thought. No problem with that. Whatever it takes to get your mind off of the negative thought and onto something more positive, and more productive, just go with it.

You may find that those positives might start to lose their effectiveness, or just to change things up a bit, review this list of ideas and add new ones regularly. You will be surprised at how many you may be able to come up with as well.

Copyright 2011 Allen Williams

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Striving to be your best is admirable, but most often leads to disappointment in results. Who ultimately determines for you what exactly your best actually is? How is that determined? Are there specifics to that goal? Since we are each responsible for our own perceptions of ourselves and our productivity, outside influences aside, too often we fall into the prison of perfectionism instead of the free moving world of productivity. Your ego also come into play, and the lack of self-confidence in having actually become your best since we know our own faults and shortcoming better than anyone else can, makes this a nearly unattainable feat for most people. You also leave yourself open to self-recrimination. Feeling sorry for yourself or even angry with yourself for not completing a given task or not following through on a plan with as much effort as you possibly could have applied may seem lime humility or humbleness, but is is more likely to lead to wasted time and energy and provide more excuses for your lack of productivity instead of motivation.

On the other hand, if you are willing to accept two things about doing your best, you will find this a much more productive path.

Doing your best as your goal means you have to let go of doing it perfectly. For some this can be a paralyzing problem. Doing your best is also a moving target and must first be applied to your current situation and the time frame for completing a specific task. Your best means for right now, in this moment, with your currently available resources and skills. “Right now” is the important consideration. Getting caught up in “what if” or “If I had this” leads to procrastination and disappointment. Get going at doing your best with what you have and accept that you are doing all you can for the moment, for today, for this task at this moment. Doing your best in any given moment or situation allows for you to get your work done but leaves room for you to improve as you go or repeat tasks.

It is a difficult question to honestly ask and answer, but start your day or your work with the question of “what is the best thing I can be doing right now to get me to, or closer to, my goal. Then get to doing it as best you can. Doing your best does not mean perfect. It just means you have done your best in that moment.

Apply this approach to as many aspects of your day as possible. Make this the best job of brushing your teeth, straightening your work area, or talk with your friend that you can. You will feel better about your productivity and results, and others around you will as well.

Copyright 2011 Allen Williams

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You are most likely going to have to sneak up on this one with a different approach.

Here are four possible solutions to overcoming this specific weakness.

1. Aim low, but keep firing

It would be great if you could just set your sights on excellence and put all you have into hitting that target. However, other areas of your life and work are likely to suffer from the lack of attention and use.

Shoot for small increases instead of big ones. IF this is a required ability, you have little chice but to keep at it and accept that change and growth are going to come slowly, but if you are determined and keep after it, you will get better. Set your goals in smaller, more reasonable increments, and keep working and adjusting the goals, and you will get there eventually. Not as much fun, but it is very reliable.

1. Can’t dunk? Develop your hook shot

Sometimes you may find that another path will lead you to the same destination. If you really lack the talent to do something one way, lean on a strength or a developable  weakness to overcome it. While dunking draws the ooh’s and ahs from the spectators, a layup or hook shot is still 2 points. Search out other means to score your 2 points. Let you mind be open to finding another strength you already possess that may server you in the stead of the weakness.

1. Opposites make great teams

If everyone in your organization possess the same skills at the same levels, you would have a lot of redundancy and the likelihood of what could very well become an unhealthy competition or even jealousy. Team up with someone who has the strengths you need but compliments your strengths as well. Perhaps you are happy tweaking or perfecting but get stuck too often in the creation stage of projects. Some people lack the talent to follow through and jump from unfinished project to another. Together, one starting and one refining/finishing, you will be able to accomplish more than you ever would alone, and often times more than 2 people who both start and finish projects.

1. Throw your hands in the air – Give up, and celebrate

Sometimes, painful as it may seem, you come to the realization that you just are not going to reach a high or high enough proficiency at something. Or perhaps the time and energy investment is not justified when considering the lost productivity. It may be time to throw your hands up in the air in surrender. Why do people surrender? They do it because they realize fighting on is fruitless or not worth the cost. While it may sting at first, there is also a certain freedom and new energy that comes from the acceptance. Give up on this one and throw yourself into something more suited to your skills and talents.

Not all of these methods will work for every situation, but you will find, if considered carefully, that it is likely that at least one of these will fit each of the weaknesses you may be facing. So, don’t beat yourself up about those weaknesses. Take action by either taking small steps, developing other strengths, finding a partner or team mate, or even the action of giving up so you can focus on more productive things, and you will soon forget about those weaknesses. You may also discover some more of your strengths.

Copyright 2011 Allen Williams

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Before you go off half-cocked and spend too much time or energy heading off in what very likely could be the wrong direction you need to do a careful evaluation.

When we are faced with accepting that there is an area in our personal or professional lives that is seen as a weakness, our first reaction all too often is to attack it or dwell on it. The first thing you need to do is decide if it is relevant. Does it really stand in the way of your reaching your goal? If it does not, then you must simply accept it and ignore it. It is not as difficult to do this as you may think either once you have clearly determined and agreed that it is not something that will hold you back.

That is not really the problem we want to address here though. The real problems arise for us when the answer to that question is “yes”. What should you do?

First you need to determine what kind of weakness it really is. Is it a lack of knowledge, a lack of skill, or a lack of talent weakness?

Remember that issue must first be relevant and truly be an obstacle on the path to your goal. If it is actually a weakness of knowledge or skill, and it is relevant, you then need to devise a plan to strengthen that area. Will that plan derail you for an unacceptable time period for reaching your goal? Is it feasible that you can acquire the knowledge or skill and put it to work as a strength? Based on the answers to those questions, you can then decide if it is worth pursuing or perhaps better to just delegate that task to someone better at dealing with it.

What if it turns out this actually is a matter of talent? Also, how do you know? It certainly is not an easy thing to set an ironclad rule for, but in most cases, if you have acquired or have the knowledge and skill necessary and your performance is still not up to your acceptable standard, then you are likely dealing with a talent weakness. From here it may be time to abandon your attempt to study or practice your way to the top and try some more creative approaches.

What to do about a weakness – Four approaches to overcoming your talent weakness

Try to improve in small steps without wearing yourself out or letting the work make you discouraged. You can also try to use a strength to replace or overcome a weakness. Another choice might be to team up with someone whose strengths compliment your weaknesses. Here opposites really do go best together. Finally, as a last resort, just give up. Yes, give up. Sometimes coming to the realization that this is just something you are not going to conquer allows you to stop focusing on the negative and spend time on using and developing areas which are productive.

Copyright 2011 Allen Williams

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1. You have weaknesses
2. You need to do something about them

The real problem arises when you either cannot or will not face up to those weaknesses, but it can also be a problem if you misidentify what those weaknesses really are.

In fact, this can be an even bigger problem than trying to ignore them.

If you look up weakness in a dictionary, you are likely to find it defined as a “lack of proficiency”. Ouch. That’s going to put a lot of things into our “weaknesses” category.

First you need to define weakness as anything that prevents you from reaching a level of excellence in an area you want or need to excel. That may seem similar at first glance, but weaknesses defined by the first method are very likely to fall into the realm of irrelevant.

I cannot dunk a basketball any more. Is that a weakness? Well, since I only play basketball with my young sons, it is hardly something I need to focus on. Does it bother me? Frankly, yes it does sometimes. However, when I consider the time and effort I would need to put in to upgrade that deficiency, I quickly realize too many other areas of my life would suffer and drop off, and I might – ack! – never regain that ability. I know I can’t do it, and I accept that. Instead I focus on the strengths I have and still work to improve those.

Unless you are hoping to be a power forward or center in the NBA, dunking is probably not that high up on the list of required strengths to be a worthwhile expenditure of your time, money, and energy. A layup counts for the same points as a dunk. Ask yourself then, what weaknesses do you really have? Are they really relevant to your success? Do they really keep you from reaching your ideal of success? How much would your strengths suffer if you diverted time and energy from them to focus on improving this weakness? So, is that really a weakness or just something you should ignore?

Most importantly, do not let a perceived or mislabeled weakness become a major inhibition of your success.

Copyright 2011 Allen Williams

Visit http://www.powermeup.com to get your free goal setting course and motivational quotes ebook now.

Stop filling your head with junk! Get the classics of motiviation and development now in easy to consume audio format here: http://www.focusonsuccessnow.com/audioclub Get a free copy in PDF format of “Think ang Grow Rich” while you’re there.

You also probably worry about what to do about them, and even worse you most likely spend a lot of time working on them. What you really need to be doing though is managing those weaknesses.

You also need to be careful not to spend too much of your time, energy, and resources thinking about them. While everyone has weaknesses, the successful in life do not spend a lot of time worrying about them.

The people who become successful are not those who have no weaknesses. They are also not the ones who just ignore them either.

It doesn’t really matter what awards you may have won or what you and everyone else sees as your personal or professional strengths. It is inherent human nature to instead focus on our weaknesses. “I’m not good at organizing” or I’m poor at keeping a schedule” or whatever your personal weakness may be.

We also tend to live in a sort of anticipatory fear of that weakness creeping out from under the bed and dragging us into the abyss despite our known strengths.

The tendency for many then is to focus on bringing our weakness, perceived or real, up to an acceptable level. Or worse, completely ignoring our strengths while trying to bring a weakness – that may just be something we are never going to truly overcome – up to the same level as our strengths.

The end result of this all too common approach is that our strengths are unused, and we become exhausted and discouraged by focusing on our weakness. You should never sacrifice a strength to improve a weakness. Never.

Since it is not in our nature to actually be able to ignore our weaknesses, what should we do then?

Think of it in terms of a professional athlete or even better as a professional team. All teams have strengths and weaknesses. These teams that reach their successful goals are the ones who first clearly define both sets of skills as either strengths or weaknesses. The coaches then game plan to enable an approach to the game that allows them to use their strengths and limit the effects of their weaknesses.

Notice though they may try to eliminate the weaknesses they have by replacing members of the team, once the roster is set, they are no longer trying to eliminate them but are instead simply using their strengths to manage the exposure of and to their weaknesses.

You have to be able to do the same in a sense. Defining your strengths and weaknesses first, and then choosing and approaching goals and tasks based on implementing your strengths leads to your best chance for success. It also gives you’re your best chance for satisfaction rather than disappointment due to another failure chalked up to your weakness.

Everyone has their weaknesses. The successful are simply those who focus on their strengths and manage around their weaknesses.

Copyright 2011 Allen Williams

Visit http://www.powermeup.com to get your free goal setting course and motivational quotes ebook now.

Stop filling your head with junk! Get the classics of motiviation and development now in easy to consume audio format here: http://www.focusonsuccessnow.com/audioclub Get a free copy in PDF format of “Think ang Grow Rich” while you’re there.

It is important to first define what a talent really is before we can begin to assess our talents or the talents of others. Once that is done, you might be surprised by the new talents you find that you have.

Since we all live in a world that deems talent as important, we might be inclined to think less of our own and more of others’ talents. First off we think in narrow terms of what talent actually is and see it as an innate ability or aptitude that is above average.

However, in everyday life and work we meet and need many different talents. Many of them have nothing to do with singing, dancing, or juggling sharp objects while blindfolded and riding a unicycle.

In the workplace and at home a talent should be seen as any natural patterns whether of thought, feeling, or action that can be used productively. The juggling example above may not fall into the talent category for most of us if we are applying this definition. Could you use this juggling ability in a productive way? If not, it is simply a skill.

When viewed from this angle, something previously seen as a talent might now be seen as a skill, and something previously seen as a negative, might also now be seen as a talent. This can happen when what may be seen as a negative trait can be applied to something productive. If a person doesn’t work well with others, they may be very good at work others would find boring and lonely. Who better to man the fire station located miles from the nearest residences or townships? Being a stubborn person may make you a great candidate for positions that require you to stand your ground such as a lawyer, a salesperson, or a researcher.

So to properly determine your talents, you need to think of the things, traits, abilities you have that can be used to allow you to be more productive at a given task. Perhaps you will find, in fact I am almost sure of it, that you have more talents than you previously thought. You just need to find a productive use for them.

Copyright 2011 Allen Williams

Visit http://www.powermeup.com to get your free goal setting course and motivational quotes ebook now.

Stop filling your head with junk! Get the classics of motiviation and development now in easy to consume audio format here: http://www.focusonsuccessnow.com/audioclub Get a free copy in PDF format of “Think ang Grow Rich” while you’re there.

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