Do You Think Motivational Thoughts?

Do you think motivational thoughts? Do they help or hinder you?

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can offer solutions if your thoughts are preventing you from reaching your goals. CBT is a kind of psychotherapy that helps people with mental health disorders like depression, PTSD, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) by changing their thinking patterns.

Believe it or not, when it comes to motivation, there are many roles for the mind to play. Your self-talk might be knocking you down when it comes to achieving your goals: "I can't do this" or "We'll never make enough money. . . . ."

Here are the concepts behind cognitive behavioral therapy and how to use it to:

* help you overcome your fears and doubts

* plan for success and challenge negative thoughts

* develop a mastery of your thoughts and decisions

* feel more inspired and motivated to move forward in your life.

To change your thinking, you would begin by identifying and challenging the irrational, unreasonable thinking that causes self-doubt and fear. You learn how to question yourself so that you no longer believe these negative thoughts "because" they are powerful or true. Instead, you learn that they are not true! If a thought feels wrong, it is not true. The "answer" lies within the other possibilities of what could be. If you think you can do it, then you do!

The idea is to help people accept negative thoughts and challenge them with the possibility of other outcomes and how they might feel differently. For example, a person might say: "I can't be successful at my business." That's a negative thought. The therapist would ask, "How much money did you make last year?" The answer will be "I made nothing." Now the therapist asks, "How much money will you make this year?" Of course there is no answer to that question. So the therapist continues by again asking, "How much money did your business make last year, when it was making money?" This time the client answers with some amount of profit. The therapist can then point out how success is not a matter of what others define as success, but how the client defines it. And if the client feels that he or she is capable of making money in their business, then they probably are. The CBT approach requires clients to first accept their reality and then look for solutions, rather than deny their reality.

Another concept used in CBT involves the idea that our thoughts influence our feelings. For example, if we think, "Oh no! Something bad just happened!" we may experience anxiety or anger. On the other hand, if we think "It's going to be okay," we can feel calm and relaxed. Cognitive behavioral therapy teaches us to replace negative thoughts with positive ones.

Along with changing negative thinking, the third part of CBT is planning for success and challenging fears. There are many options and tools that can help you to achieve goals. For example, if you want to lose weight, a therapist can help you examine what your fears are around dieting or exercising, and then design a plan customized just for you. If your goal is to develop new business relationships, a therapist would help you identify what your stumbling blocks are in prospecting and then determine ways in which you might raise your confidence level and improve your ability to approach strangers about doing business together.

This kind of psychotherapy is really about the clients' everyday reality and the challenge to change their mental processes to help them cope with life. Many people feel like they are at a crossroads in life, where changing patterns and old negative habits is not just an option but a necessity. CBT would help them realize that you do have control over your thoughts and why it is beneficial to start thinking about moving in a new direction. What's more, as you start thinking differently, you will begin to behave differently. Then again, if you don't think differently, eventually your behaviors will change. It's how the mind works!

Experiencing happiness is not about being the richest, the smartest or the most beautiful person in the room. It is about developing happiness from within. Happiness does not depend on other people or external circumstances. Happiness is a state of being, one that you define for yourself. CBT helps people to become happier by setting goals, moving toward them and then taking action. As you take action, you will experience more positive results, which will make you feel more energized and motivated to achieve more happy days ahead in your life.

To have a very happy life is to be happy within yourself and not depend on external sources to make you think happy thoughts. It is to have the ability and responsibility for making yourself feel good. To be happy is to make your happiness a priority in your life. It is about defining the steps that you need to take not to only feel good, but also be successful at what you want to accomplish in life.

"I'm going to buy this stock." "You can do it!" or "Oh, they did!" We say things like that all the time when we are confronted with hard work and inconvenient circumstances. Many other phrases and sentences are used in everyday situations. They might sound like: "This is going to be hard," or "I'm not sure I can do this."

We often find ourselves saying things like, "I'm trying," or, "At least I did something to help myself."

But these are self-sabotaging words! Why? Because what you say out loud becomes a reality. So when you say such things, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It will affect the outcome of what happens next. Of course we all feel unworthy at times and don't believe that we can succeed in life. And we have to overcome those feelings. But what we say can determine the outcome of our situations.

When you are faced with a difficult task, challenge or something you feel is impossible to do, stop yourself right away and replace those negative things you say with positive expressions. Instead of saying "I don't think I can do it", change it to "I'm going to try." Instead of saying, "I'm not sure if this stock will go up," (which is negative), change it to "This stock is going to be good!" (and believe it). Or better yet, use our favorite phrase when faced with a difficulty: "It's a challenge. I'm going to do it."

In this way you will begin to substitute a positive thought for the negative one. When you do, you will find yourself getting a feeling of accomplishment and success. Slowly but surely, your inner confidence will build up and make it possible for you to achieve great things in your life.

If you want to achieve what many people consider impossible dream, then think positive thoughts and focus on the positive things that may happen when you are successful. And when these things happen, be thankful! Make sure that they are the best things that can happen to you in the circumstances in which they appear. They can make all the difference between failure and success.

Conclusion

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has many benefits for improving cognitive functioning, stress management, and emotional distress. I hope this article helped you understand how to apply CBT in your daily life and how you can transform your negative thoughts into more positive ones.

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