Do you ever think about what you think about? I know it sounds strange, but the truth is, there is an immense amount of POWER in your thoughts! Your thoughts control your REALITY.  Most people never spend the time to take an inventory of their thoughts. It’s easy to get distracted by our lives and let our minds take the wheel. But you don’t have to live like that. You can TAKE CONTROL of your thoughts and alter the direction of your entire life!  Are you wanting to break through a barrier that is holding you back from finding success? Do you know you are so close to winning but need a small shift in your MINDSET to put you over the edge?  The difference between winning and losing is SO SMALL that it’s scary to even think about. And it all has to do with CONTROLLING your thoughts. Do you want to know how to do that? Here’s some good news — in this episode, I'm sharing with you exactly how to control your thoughts and alter the MOMENTUM of your life!  Your BRAIN is a weapon. It is the most powerful organ in the body, and you can HARNESS that power! When you first UNDERSTAND how your brain works, you can then shape it to manifest more success, joy, and happiness in EVERY area of your life. Are you ready to TAKE CONTROL of your life and train your brain to attract joy, happiness, and success? Are you are ready to finally #MAXOUT your mind and completely alter the direction of your life? I’m going to tell you exactly how to do that.. 

The Power of Your Thoughts 

Did you know that you have about 75,000 thoughts rattling around in your brain every day? If you think that’s wild, get this — 91% of those thoughts are IDENTICAL to the thoughts of the previous day, and the day before that, and so on.  And we wonder why our life seems to repeat itself over again! It’s so easy to fall into the same traps and continue our lives in the same way when there is only a 9% difference between what we think about each day. But that doesn’t mean that 9% difference isn’t significant — you can use it to CHANGE your life completely.  Our thoughts are like magnets. They draw the things that we obsess about towards us. That’s why I’m always saying, “Your obsessions become your possessions.” Guys, you literally draw into your life what you think about the most!  That’s why the most successful people I know are SELF-AWARE. They are aware of what they are thinking about, and they know how to alter their thoughts each day to hone in on what serves them. You can do that too!  You don’t see things in your life as they are. You see them as YOU are. You control who you are by what you think about. This is the power of that 9% difference. When you are obsessed with what you want, you begin to see what you need to make it happen. You’ll start to hear conversations that you wouldn’t have noticed before. You’ll see an opportunity or prospect that you would have missed otherwise.  This is the power of what we think about. Your thoughts can serve you, and you can use them to attain your goals. Or, your thoughts can become like a virus in your mind. Think about when a computer gets a virus. What happens? It slows down and doesn’t function at its optimal level.  The same thing can happen in our brains —  if we cannot get our thoughts to serve us, we risk losing track of our MAXIMUM potential. We risk letting our thoughts control us instead of the other way around!   That’s why it’s essential to be aware of our thoughts and have the right FILTER on our brains for success. The brain actually has a specific component for this exact process, and understanding it is the key to controlling your mindset! 

The Reticular Activating System: Your Brain’s Special Filter for Your Thoughts 

In my book, Maxout Your Life, I talk a lot about the part of our brain called the Reticular Activating System. That’s because it is the filter through which we see the entire world!  Have you ever wondered why you don’t feel the blood rushing through your ears? Or why you’re not conscious of your breathing? If we felt all of the stimuli in the world around us, we would go insane! That’s why we have the reticular activating system, which allows us to filter our thoughts and senses so that we only consciously think about the things that are important to us.  If something is important to you, the reticular activating system reveals it to you, whether through vision, sound, touch, or conscious thought.  Say, for example, you are buying a new blue Honda. All of a sudden, you are noticing blue Hondas everywhere on the road around you! You’ve never noticed them before, but now you can’t “unsee” them, even if they’re three lanes away! This is because the information that blue Hondas exist is important to you now!  What does this mean for accomplishing your goals and controlling your thoughts? It means that you can control what your mind thinks about! You can make your goals become the “blue Hondas” of life — the things that your mind pays attention to every day.  Guys, you can program your brain to pay attention to the things you want in life. By repeatedly thinking about and visualizing our goals, you can make them MATERIALIZE in your life! What thoughts would help you attain a certain goal, dream, or vision? Write those thoughts down and repeat them in your head over and over again each day.   In addition to that, I want to challenge you to take inventory of the thoughts that don’t serve you. What are the thoughts that are preventing you from achieving your goals? Write them down. And then eliminate them by replacing them with new thoughts!  Remember, your mind is a magnet. Point it towards your goals. Trust me — I know this is easier said than done. But there are a few different practical ways to control your thoughts, and I’m going to share them with you now! 

Four Ways to Program Your Mind for Success 

It’s easy to talk about the science behind programming your thoughts for success. But how do you actively incorporate it into your everyday life? There are four ways to do this that I’m about to share with you. If you can do these things every day, you can HARNESS the POWER of your thoughts! 

Step #1: Be Smart with Your Smartphone 

Did you know that the average person checks their phone about 400 times a day? That means that you can use your phone to emphasize the thoughts that will serve you!  Put your goals on your screen saver so that every time you pick up your phone, you will be reminded of them. Then, your Reticular Activating System can start filtering them as important parts of your existence. That’s 400 TRIGGERS per day to begin alerting that 9% of your thoughts that can change your life! 

Step #2:  Be Specific 

While general goals are helpful to get started, it’s important to get more specific. The more SPECIFIC you are with your thinking, the higher the probability of your thoughts making a difference. Be intentional about your thoughts and narrow them down to concrete, specific things you can easily visualize!

Step #3: Be Repetitive

 I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “Practice makes perfect.” Repetition is critical for training our brain to think the way we want it to. The brain likes to gravitate towards what it's most familiar with!  This means that the more you think about something — the more you place yourself on that beach, in that house, with that amount of money — the more your brain becomes familiar with these things. With repetition, your brain begins to think, “I belong here.” You can eventually convince yourself that you belong in your dream life by repetitive and specific thinking! 

Step #4: Start and End Your Day with Intentional Thinking

Controlling the beginning and end of each day with intentional thinking is an incredible way to take charge of your life. This means that when you wake up in the morning, one of the first things you need to do is take five minutes to visualize your goals and dreams. Picture them as videos in your mind. Visualize yourself possessing them and look at them written down on a sheet of paper. This will start your day off by setting the tone for your thoughts.  The same goes for the end of the day. When I’m lying in bed at night, one of the last things that I do after my prayer is read through my goals and dreams. I picture them and then allow my subconscious mind to go to work, revealing what I may have missed during the day that could bring those goals to reality. 

#MAXOUT Your Mind 

If you follow those four steps, you can alter that 9% of your thoughts that make a difference in your life. You can literally change the way you think and pinpoint the focus of your brain. You can make your Reticular Activating System see ways to your goals in everyday conversations or in people you wouldn’t have noticed before.  Most people use the variable 9% of their thoughts to process a new fear. They use that space to worry about something they can’t control or be anxious about an email response they might have to make. They never dictate the terms. But remember, YOU can make the terms. Your mind is a weapon —  you can either control it or let it control you.  Many people let their thoughts control them. They don’t point their weapon at something —  instead, they let the world point it and watch as it misfires. My challenge for you today is to pick up the weapon that is your MIND and begin to point it at the things you want. It is a magnet that draws the things in your life that you want to your side —  use it to #MAXOUT your life.  Use the FOUR STEPS I mentioned to change your thinking. Over time, the direction of your life will be completely different, and you will see yourself living to your maximum potential. It all starts with your MIND.  If you got value out of this episode, make sure to send it to a friend or share a screenshot of it on social media and make sure to tag me on Instagram, @edmylett.  As always, I run the two-minute drill on social media EVERY DAY. You don’t want to miss it! I make a post at 7:30 AM Pacific Time, Monday through Friday. If you comment within the first two minutes, you’re entered into a drawing to win any one of some fantastic giveaways — including a flight on my plane, coaching calls with myself or my guests, and gear from my shop. Turn on your notifications so you don’t miss your opportunity to enter! And if you miss the first two minutes, there's another way to win: If you comment on all my posts for the week, I’ll enter your name into the weekly drawing.  Thanks for joining me today! Now go take control of the weapon that is your mind and #MAXOUT your life!