Julette Millien

How to Create New Success Habits that Help Change the World.

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You are here: Home / Mindset / The Ant, the Elephant and Personal Change

The Ant, the Elephant and Personal Change

May 7, 2014 by Julette Leave a Comment

Hello My Friend!

Have you thought much about what you THINK each day?

You will get some great insights into why you do what you do from knowing the pattern of your thoughts and where they lead…and even, what triggers certain thoughts.

As I thought of this the book The Ant and the Elephant: Leadership For the Self by Vince Poscente occurred to me. This book title conjures up a powerful metaphor which the author explores.

Here’s the metaphor: First, imagine an ant sitting on top of an elephant. Got that image?

Now, consider this. Your conscious thoughts and actions are like the size of an ant and the unconscious and subconscious thoughts, beliefs, fears, actions, etc…those are represented by the ELEPHANT.

Why is this significant? Well, if you are trying to make any changes – with habits, beliefs, thought life, emotions or behavior, we have to access our elephant as best we can.

We have to speak to that elephant as best we can because most of our habits, thoughts, beliefs, emotions and behaviors have their roots in our sub-conscious. We can’t impact them, we certainly can’t change them without “getting to them.” We get to them with affirmations, repetition and focused intentions.

When we do, think or feel a thing, there’s a lot that exist beneath the visible act, thought or emotion that we DON”T consciously think about or know about. You can be doing all the “right” things but if your  subconscious thoughts, feelings and beliefs are not supporting your desired outcomes, those right actions won’t become habits that stick.

Becoming more conscious then is essential if we hope to change habits, create new ones or maintain excellent ones.

Beyond more consciousness we also need to find ways to access and speak to our sub-conscious mind…which is where the beliefs [some very self-limiting] and bad habits have their roots. [Affirmations are wonderful in this regard.]
We have to go beneath the proverbial “tip of the iceberg” ( the ant) if we wish to access the ‘elephant’ and trigger real change.

Starting with our thoughts, we can begin to access buried emotions,patterns and beliefs.

Here’s what I suggest:

1) Be MORE AWARE than usual of your thoughts today – Do they support your efforts, your goals and your intentions? Are they doubtful? Are they inspirational, mostly optimistic or mostly pessimistic? Is there a recurring theme? Or phrase? Are you extremely hard on yourself and say things to yourself that you wouldn’t say to someone you love? [negative self-talk is one super powerful way to sabotage yourself – it’s done ALL THE TIME!]

2) Record ( write or speak them) some of your thoughts – as often as possible...Pay particular attention to those that seem to ‘pop up’ out of no where. Or those that lead to negative or positive feelings. Follow the dots of thoughts and emotions and check out where you go and where they came from.

3) Try becoming completely silent – no thoughts, just presence. Observe where your thoughts tend to go.

4)   Wear a rubber-band and snap it each time you have a negative or unhelpful thought – THEN,  turn the negative into a positive thought.

5)   Write your top 3 beliefs (that guide your life) at the top of a page and write about where you think they came from – role-models, childhood teachings, experiences – bad and good, peer pressure, etc.

6)   Observe your conscious thoughts, emotions and actions and evaluate how well you are  behaving in support of your beliefs.  For example, are you saying a belief of yours is “continuous learning is essential for me to grow” yet, your thoughts and emotions are negative about learning and you haven’t learned anything new in weeks?

7)   Take stock of where you may be out of alignment  – stated beliefs are not lining up with thoughts, emotions and actions, and commit to becoming aligned ASAP. Use powerful affirmations, repetition and focused intentions to help you each day.

Repeating these affirmations a minimum of 20 times a day will address any contrary beliefs you might have buried in your subconscious. Speak them as often and as passionately as possible. Out loud.

 *** I don’t believe in meaningless accidents – SO, when I ran into this article ►►► http://bit.ly/1io0BWj –  just as I ended this one, I knew it was meant for you, the person reading this sentence, right now –  How Negative Energy Affects Your Life and How to Clear It. Enjoy! ***

Wishing you ABUNDANT  joy, peace and light,

Julette Millien

~♥~

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Filed Under: Mindset, Thoughts Tagged With: alignment, ant and elephant, beliefs, personal change, thoughts, tip of the iceberg

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