Daily Gratitude: How can your dashboard help change your life?

I want to introduce a concept that involves mental pictures or imaging.

This is called the Thought-o-meter. Thanks to Napoleon Hill for this idea.

Put an image in the front of your mind of one of those meters on your dashboard. It’s always there as you drive and you’re usually checking it out as you move along.

Once you get this image in your mental dashboard you will constantly be checking it.

On this meter put the word negative on the left side and the word positive on the right. You can color code them if that will make them more impactful for you.

This is your thought-o-meter.

All day long practice periodically looking at your thoughtometer and see where it is. If you see it on the left (negative) stop and figure out what thoughts you’re having.

Then pretend you’re driving your car and mentally put your foot on the brake – find a thought or image that will make the needle on your meter zoom on over to the positive side

If you can find something funny to take the place of your negative thought, it will be even more effective.

The point is twofold. One, you want to get your mind from the negative side of the dial over to the positive side.

Secondly you can’t erase a thought (whether positive or negative). You have to replace it. That’s easy to remember.

Replace don’t erase!

Does it work?

This morning I was reading something political and started to get upset.

But I immediately recognized it, stopped and asked myself “can I control this? Can i do anything about this right now?

And of course the answer was no.

That’s all well and good and it stopped me from reading any more but it didn’t totally get rid of the anger and frustration I was feeling. You know when they say someone is stewing over an issue?

Well that’s what was happening internally even if I had turned off the burner. All I’d read and thought was still simmering inside.

What to do?

This works Even if you haven’t totally become aware of what’s causing those internal yucky feelings. (That’s a medical term – yucky.)

First I visualized my thought o meter and saw that the dial was over on the left (negative). I wanted to get it over to the positive side and since I said I was stewing, I thought about making a stew and then having it served up to me in a fancy dish and it made me laugh. That process enabled me to replace my thought and get a good laugh too.

I think if you practice this all day long it will become a habit and then when you really need to deal with something hard, you’ll already have the tool in hand.

Daily Gratitude: This is great. Talk about tunnel vision. You’re staring at the same thing over and over all the while missing everything that’s going on all around you.

I also see this as another way to say you’re beating your head against the wall.

Here we have someone long ago advising you not to do what metaphysics calls “outlining “.

What is outlining?

Deciding what we want, and in what exact form, and in what exact timing.

The universe looks at that and laughs because we think we know what’s best. We don’t.

I had a perfect example. Since I was 4 I planned everything, focused on becoming a doctor. “Do this do that and in 1972 (I think. It was too long ago) I can hang out my shingle.” After all I know what is best for me, right?

Ha! The universe stuck its tongue out at me. And said “not so fast buddy”

So I got rejected. And there went all my carefully laid out plans.

My immature and inexperienced reaction at that time was anger pain and rejection of God. After all God told me I was going to be a doctor and here I was stonewalled.

If I knew what I know now I’d have said. “Oh I wonder what the universe has in store for me. I know it will be better Than what I had planned”. I would have just gone with the flow and listened for the message.

But my anger and indignation kept me from realizing that I really didn’t know what was best for me. I just kept staring at that same old worn out locked door.

I wouldn’t have been so miserable, and depressed. I should have stood back, took a deep breath, said thank you to the universe, and then looked around at all the doors that had opened.

And as with many doors, they may not be labeled, and you don’t know where they go, but you just have to be brave enough to explore what’s behind the doorway.

So much was opening up for me, but i couldn’t see any of the doors
because my perfect plan had been derailed. I could do nothing but stare at that darn door expecting that if I looked harshly enough it would open. Ha. Not going to happen.

Now I describe what I want carefully and in detail, but I always add “this or something better”.
I don’t give a specific time but add a phrase like “with or in divine timing “.

Try to think back to times in your life when you missed out on happiness because you were staring at that one door!

Daily Gratitude: OK so this is obviously telling me that I’m still working on becoming mature- even after 77 years. Ha ha.

Seriously, though, we do get better at enduring uncertainty or at least not fighting it. When we stop resisting (which is what not fighting it is), it’s easier to endure the unknown (which is the uncertain).

It’s just a habit forming process. As we are continually exposed to that uncertainty, and as we come out on the other side still alive, our brains begin to recognize that it’s not the end of the world. And that same brain also begins to develop new neural pathways for enduring each event.

We build strength by being exposed to uncertainty repeatedly. The more we examine what is happening and what has happened the more we can reassure our brains that we are safe despite the situation. As it sees the same process occur over and over, it stores the strength and as a result no longer interprets uncertainty as danger. That’s a pretty cool thing when the brain no longer thinks it has to go to full alert every single time.