Switching your self-talk from cant’s to cans will open your mind and make positive thinking second nature to you. 

Just choosing to be wise and keeping at it improves your ability to imagine alternatives and judge their likely outcomes; that is what makes you wise. 

The common thoughts below that are underlined diminish you.  The thoughts with dots empower you.

A-1 Get the most out of your ability to think: 

I already have so many demands on my time I don’t really have time to learn about thinking and couldn’t concentrate if I tried.

• Thinking saves time by reducing mistakes.
• A little thinking can save a lot of work.
• Becoming the best I can be requires my best thinking.
• Becoming better at thinking starts with my decision to do so.

A-2 Making Better Explanations:

Making important decisions makes me anxious.

• I will make better decisions if I think more about getting them right and less about what will happen if I don’t.
• If I am still anxious after becoming adequately prepared I will exercise or get away from the subject for a while to shed my tension.
• If I’m not recovering from bad decisions I’ve already made I will have more time to make good ones.
• My life is worth the extra time it takes to make good decisions.
• I will resist the pressure to make decisions before I have my thoughts right.
• By think more before I react, I will say fewer things that don’t reflect my best thinking or that I can’t take back.
• I will do more research before I choose what I will think or do.
• Putting decisions off can make them harder to make in the future.

It is easier for me to just react to life than to analyze my thoughts moment by moment.

• Life is a pinball matching until I take charge.
• Long term thinking channels my efforts and consolidates my gains.
• Until I give the direction of my life more thought it will be built on guessed and unexamined assumptions.
• By knowing what I want for my life I can side-step more of the activities that produce no lasting benefits.
• I will not allow my emotions be the boss of my thoughts.
• I respect myself when I allow the time it takes to make good decisions.
• Making better explanations is the only way to improve my life.

A-3 End the Pressure of Guesswork:

I hate looking things up.

• Accurate information is only important for important things; how important is my life?
• If my information isn’t accurate why would anyone be interested in what I have to say?
• To progress beyond where I am I have to know more and it has to be right.

A-4 Explaining Our Future:

When people are watching me, especially those I don’t know, I can’t function.

• If I have more patience with myself, others will seem to have more patience with me.
• Exposure to more people would help. Where can I get a job dealing with the public?

A-5  Take Charge of Your Thought Habits:

That’s just the way I am.

• I’ll try your idea, can you show me how.
• Who would be the best teacher on that subject?
• Being just the way I am hasn’t got me very far; I am ready for something more, where is the best place to start.

It will be too hard.

• The benefits of succeeding at this will help me for the rest of my life.
• If the goal is not hard it’s probably not very important.

I wish I could.

• How can I make this happen?
• Where can I go to see this being done?
• What can I read or who can help me advance?

A-6 Choose Thoughts That Will Lead You:

Happiness for me is just reacting to life; not over-analyzing it.

• Being spontaneous is what I’ll do for fun, but my long-term future is worthy of my very best effort and concentration.
• My life has been on auto-pilot. Instead of just letting it happen, I am going to set high goals and make them happen.

A-7 Shed Anxiety and Boost Creativity in Your Fort:

I couldn’t get into the Fort thing; I’d feel odd in a place that was dark and silent.

• Counting my blessings and allowing my brain to relax will help me think better, be more productive and feel better about my life even if I don’t get a single breakthrough idea.
• One really good idea could be more valuable than all the physical work.
• Becoming more creative will build my self-esteem.

I’ve never been a creative person!

• Being a feeder fish requires no creativity; getting the most out of my life will.
• I don’t know if I can be clever because I’ve never attempted to be clever.
• Cleverness like muscles need to be used to grow
• The sooner I act as if I am clever the sooner I’ll be clever
• Once I’ve been clever for a while I’ll be able to rely on my creativity.
• Ideas are free and I can have as many of them as I want.
• Using my creativity in everything I do will lead me toward what I can do best.