Another thing to look at when improving your thinking is to be aware of the questions you ask yourself when things don’t go your way.  Notice anytime that a question you ask yourself begins with Why?

There are two important things to do here. Humans have a great deal of difficulty in accepting that some aspect of our experience cannot be explained. As children, this is endless as we seek explanations for the things around us. Why? is a child’s favorite question. When you find yourself asking this question with regard to an adverse event, put Martin Seligman’s findings from Learned Optimism to work for you.

Seek answers that are external – make it the fault of someone or something else outside your control. Make the explanation temporary and specific by seeing as pertaining to that single event. Then do what Tony Robbins suggests and change your focus by asking questions such as:

• What am I grateful for right now?
• What am I proud of?
• Who do I love?
Who loves me?

And one last thought on thinking. Echart Tolle in his book The Power of Now offers an amazing technique to stop the mind in its tracks. It’s simply this. When your mind is racing along and you can’t seem to reel it in, just ask: “I wonder what my next thought will be?” So let’s do that. Take a deep breath, close your eyes and just say to yourself “I wonder what my next thought will be?”