“Don’t imagine a pink elephant,” I said.
My client closed her eyes. I could see a slight smile as that silly pink elephant popped into her mind.
What do pink elephants have to do with your thoughts and improving your life? Stick with me here because I want to share something so profoundly important, that it can change your life.
PLEASE DO THIS SHORT EXPERIMENT
After you read this sentence, please close your eyes and tell yourself out loud, “Don’t imagine a pink elephant.” Great. Thanks for doing that. Now, I’ll bet one of two things just happened.
One, an image of a pink elephant popped into your mind.
Two, you saw the image of a pink elephant and you quickly made it disappear.
HOW TO MAKE SURE YOU GET WHAT YOU WANT IN YOUR LIFE
While your subconscious mind will always do what you want – without question – it can’t process the word DON’T. In fact, it ignores the word DON’T. All of the time.
When you say to yourself, “Don’t imagine a pink elephant,” your subconscious mind will delete the word ‘DON’T”, and hear your request as “Imagine a pink elephant.” The result is that you’ll always see the image of a pink elephant first.
The word DON’T will cause you to do and feel what you don’t want.
If you say to yourself “I don’t want to be nervous during my presentation,” your mind translates that as “want to be nervous during my presentation.” That image of being nervous is the first thing your subconscious mind sees. Guess what happens next? You end up being nervous during your presentation. The EXACT OPPOSITE of what you really want.
When you say, “I DON’T want to be afraid to start my own business,” your inner mind hears “Want to be afraid to start my business.”
When you say, “I DON’T want to worry today,” your subconscious mind hears “Want to worry today.” Then you’ll keep on worrying.
When a dieter says, “I DON’T want to eat chocolate,” their subconscious mind hears “Want to eat chocolate.” What will that dieter think about all day? Chocolate.
When you say, “I DON’T want to be anxious about money,” your inner mind hears “Want to be anxious about money,” causing you to continue to feel anxious about money.
When a golfer says “I DON’T want to hit it into the hazard,” his subconscious mind hears “Want to hit it into the hazard.” Guess where that ball ends up? Right into the hazard.
When mom says “DON’T forget to put those toys away, her child hears “Forget to put those toys away,” and those toys don’t get put away.
This week notice when you say the word “DON’T. As soon as you do, then change your thought to the opposite. You might want to start your sentence with “What if…” or “I would like to…”
For example, if you say “I don’t want to worry today.”
Change it to: “I would like to to feel calm today.”
“I don’t want to be anxious about money.”
“I want to feel relaxed about money.”
You get the idea.
JUST DON’T SAY “DON’T”. by Wendy Merron
What’s one thought that you have often that will benefit from eliminating the word DON’T? Share it now in the comments below!
Wow this is great. What would I change if I cut out the word “don’t” HHHMMMM Wow that one is hard and I will have to think about it and get back to you. 😉
Don’t is a tough one to take out of your vocabulary – but I was recently sick and kept telling people and myself, that I didn’t feel good. I purposely changed my thoughts to, “I am feeling better today” and soon after that I did start feeling better. Good advice !!!
I’m glad you started to feel better. It’s normal to say that to ourselves when we are feeling bad. And it’s OK, too, because it’s true. But it doesn’t help to get us to feel any better. Purposely changing your sentence sends that direct message that you DO WANT TO FEEL BETTER. Amazing how this stuff works!