Cancel That! How Two Simple Words Can Change Your Life

In my last blog, I explained that thinking positive, uplifting thoughts leads to better outcomes, and negative thoughts leads to negative outcomes. We call it a “mindset.” Our mindset is a habit of thinking and tends to be either growth-oriented or stagnate and fixed.

Since the basis of your mindset is repetitive or similar thoughts that promote or reinforce a particular way of thinking and behaving, you have the power to change them. Once you become aware of them, you can change them and, in many cases, eliminate them for good. But how?

Let’s take Katie, for example. Katie recently applied for a marketing position with a new company. After the initial phone interview with the recruiter, Katie felt unsure of herself and thought of fifty reasons why she wasn’t going to get the job. She thought that she wasn’t a fit for the position. The industry was different from her previous experience. The interview questions didn’t match the posted job description. What the interviewers said they were looking for was over her head. She didn’t like the interviewer’s personality (or lack of it). She didn’t like the company’s standards – you get the picture.

So, when she received a follow-up call for an in-person interview, she was shocked. She never expected to get past the initial interview. That’s when she came to see me and asked for my help sorting through her feelings. Together, we made a list of the thoughts she held about the job. Immediately, we both noticed that they were all negative. Then, we made a list of ways she could think more positively and possibly attract the job. She practiced her positive thinking repeatedly in the days leading up to the second interview. She felt confident going in and moved on to the final interview with the top executives. In the end, Katie received a job offer.

Making a list of beliefs, assumptions, and thoughts you hold about a person, event or experience is one technique to start changing your mindset in the short run. But what about long-term negative thinking or a habitually fixed mindset?

When you think a thought over and over, it forges a neural pathway in your brain. Done often enough, that pathway becomes the go-to route for any thoughts of a similar nature. Information, true or false, would rather travel along the easiest path, the one that is well-worn and believed to be predictable.

Changing your thoughts from negative to positive requires that you pave a new pathway with the new positive thinking and then PRACTICE the new positive thought until it becomes ingrained. In essence, you are changing your brain by changing your thoughts.

As you move through each day, become aware of your thinking. If you recognize it as negative, interrupt it with a simple technique called Cancel, Cancel – That’s not the truth! Then, follow up with a truer, more accurate statement rooted in positivity.

As an example, Katie also thought she was too old to change jobs. That is one of the negative things she was thinking regarding the job interview. Once she hit “cancel” on her thinking, she replaced it with, “my successes in my previous environments have made me highly qualified for this new venture – they will be lucky to have me!”

Another of my clients, Tom, was a top-tier salesperson with a major corporation. He had hit a wall and couldn’t seem to attract new clients or close a deal and had not made a bonus in months. He was depressed, fearful, panicked, and wasn’t sleeping much.

Tom’s limiting thinking had evolved into, “I don’t have what it takes to be a top-tier salesperson anymore. I’m over the hill. I’ve lost my Midas touch.” We replaced it with, “Cancel that! The truth is, I’m a great salesperson. My customers love buying from me. I DO have the potential and the know-how to be top- tier again. I need only to stay focused and work my plan.”

This cancel and re-think technique is one of many in my arsenal to help you adopt a more positive mindset and live more positively. You can find more helpful techniques in my book, Emotional Self-Mastery, The Best Book on Regaining Personal Power, Self-Confidence and Peace.

For one-on-one coaching help, contact me at Cheryl@SimplyTheBestResults.com. We can quickly identify your negative and limiting thoughts and rewire your mindset for positive outcomes.