Carolyn Smagalski

Ignite Your Passion

Founder - Editor - Host

"Life is a field of unlimited possibilities," says Deepak Chopra.  Do you believe this?

Roger Ellerton, Master of Neurolinguistic Programming, speaks of the deep structure and surface structure of the mind.  At your deepest level of thought, you have complete knowledge of what you want for yourself, and what you want to communicate to others.

Your thoughts are unconsciously structured through your idea of the world, based on your beliefs, values, and interpretation of experiences.  For the sake of efficiency, you delete, generalize and distort your inner thoughts, based upon these beliefs, values, memories, (self-limiting) strategies, and what you believe others want to hear.  What you communicate (to yourself and to others) is only a small sub-set of your original thoughts, and may be ambiguous, confusing, or life limiting.

In order to recover the information that is missing from your deeper thought structures, John Grinder and Richard Bandler, developers of NLP, identified 12 patterns with corresponding questions to cut through the ambiguity that causes us problems in our communication.  These questions focus on gathering more information from your unconscious mind, and not on creating a structure that needs to be rationalized or defended, or one in which excuses need to be created.

Ben Sweetland speaks of common  attitudes and expectations toward life:  "The world is full of abundance and opportunity, but far too many people come to the fountain of life with a sieve instead of a tank,  carrying a teaspoon instead of a steam shovel. They expect little and as a result they get little."

This is an exact illustration of how powerful and ambiguous our habitual thought patterns may be - thought patterns based on beliefs about what is proper behavior; thought patterns based on what we think others will think of us; thought patterns based on "fear of disappointment" after having expected more than our fair share; thought patterns based on a situation that occurred in the past.

Whenever you find yourself communicating thoughts of need, rather than thoughts of abundance, ask yourself specific questions that will unearth your hidden beliefs and patterns, and cast them away like weeds.  Edith Armstrong offers this technique to set the stage for Abundance Thinking.  "I keep the telephone of my mind open to peace, harmony, health, love, and abundance. Then, whenever doubt, anxiety, or fear try to call me, they will keep getting a busy signal and soon they'll forget my number."

You may, on occasion, be moving ahead like a steamroller, only to suddenly see your accomplishments in a mirror.  You may be so stunned by your progress, that your unconscious thoughts say, "Whoa!  You can't do that!  You're not qualified!  Do you think you could possibly measure up to _________, (fill in the name of someone great - Martha Stewart, Bill Gates, Les Brown, Martin Luther King, Jr.), who will be remembered for years to come?  What makes you think you can compete?"

Stop and ask yourself non-defendable questions.  Answer "You can't do that" with "Do what, specifically?"  Answer "You're not qualified" with "To do what?  How have I progressed in order to communicate my knowledge and research to others?  What makes me able to follow through?  Who might I be able to help?  Does everyone know this?  Are there people who are less qualified than I am, to whom I may be able to pass on my knowledge?  Are there people who are willing to pay a reliable source for this information?" 

You get the idea.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote, "He who is plenteously provided for from within, needs but little from without."  Reach into the deepest part of your unconscious thoughts, and release the filters and limiting strategies that hold you from success. 

Recommended Reading: 

Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill.

Content copyright © 2003-2008 by Carolyn Smagalski. All rights reserved.  This content was written by Carolyn Smagalski. If you wish to use this content in any manner, you need written permission.  Contact Carolyn Smagalski

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