One of the great things about being human beings is our ability to make decisions that can affect the course of our lives, positively or negatively.

Take a very simple example….what are you going to have for dinner tonight?  You could have fish, poultry, steak, almost any thing you want and cooked almost any way you want it cooked.  A very positive thing and you will enjoy eating what ever you decide to eat.  Now that is power.

But, you make eating decisions several times a day, every day.  If you choose to eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables with most of your meals your body is going to perform better now and for years to come.  But how many of us actually make the choice to eat healthy?  Very few.  Most of us choose to eat what tastes good and give us enjoyment in the moment, with little regard for the long term effects of eating hamburgers, and drinking soft drinks.  Over the years we get fatter and fatter, our bodies begin to malfunction, and we get sicker and sicker.

This is not an article about healthy eating habits.  But, the above is an excellent example of using our human power of choice in a negative and destructive way. But, we can use the power of our minds, our power to choose, in positive constructive ways too.

So, you have tried several online businesses and you are not rich yet, right?  Why do you think that is?

Some of have convinced yourselves that it is too hard, too difficult to make money online.  Yes, making money, online or offline can be challenging.  You need to find a way to convince yourself that by doing the right things often enough and for a long enough period of time you will be successful and make money.

Some of you believe that you don’t know what are the right things to do and if you could only find a mentor who can teach you the right things to do you could be successful and make money online.  If you are in this category I have excellent news.  Later in this article I am going to tell you exactly what you need to do to sell any product or service online.

The unfortunate truth is that most of us already know what we need to do to sell products or services online.  We just choose not to do those things.  Why?  Because we do not believe that we will be rewarded for the effort.  We are afraid that we will waste our time and have nothing to show for it.  We then decide we will only decide to work a business that proves itself to us before we put any effort into it.  But where do you think you are going to find a business that will pay you an income, to prove itself to you, without you putting anything into it?  Doesn’t exist.  Ain’t gonna happen.

Our logical “conscious” mind knows that if we advertise any product or service often enough and for a long enough period of time we will eventually sell that product or service.  The more we advertise our product or service, the more of those products or services we will sell.  If we advertise that product or service often enough and for a long enough period of time, we will become what some people consider rich.

So if you believe my above statements, then why aren’t you (most of us) out there advertising your product or service and making a lot of money?  I believe we all limit ourselves by our own belief system and that affects the decisions we make every day, business related or otherwise.

In some articles I refer to this as the power of positive (or negative) self talk.  In some articles I refer to this as our inner programming we have received since childhood.  In this article I will refer to this as the power of our subconscious minds and how we can use this power to positively influence any area of our lives we want to influence.

Being human beings, we have the power to change our thoughts, change our beliefs, and change our actions which will directly affect the results we achieve.  Try this exercise:

Think about how much money you have in the bank right now.  Do you have enough to retire today?  Do you have enough to buy a new home?  Or even a new car?  Heck, do you even have enough to fly to some big city, spend a long weekend, have a wonderful time?  And, how much debt do you have?  If you are like most people, you have more debt than money in the bank.  How are you ever going to retire?

Kind of depressing, huh?

Now, think about how things would be different if you won a couple of million dollars in your local lottery.  What would you do tomorrow if you had $2,000,000?  Pay off your measly little debt?  Buy a new home or a new car?  Travel, in style?

Feeling better?  Your thoughts control your feelings and most people reading the above two paragraphs will get somewhat depressed after reading the first paragraph and then a little bit excited after reading the second paragraph.  But, winning the lottery is not a realistic thought for most of us and after a brief period of excitement, reality sets back in.

Let’s try a more realistic thought pattern…..something that would actually work if we choose to implement those thoughts in our lives.  If you are like most people you really don’t have that much debt…..banks won’t let you get so far in debt that you can’t get out of debt.  You just have to do the right things (pay off debt, little by little) over a long enough period of time to eliminate your debt.  That will take a conscious choice on your part to create some excess money – we all spend money every month on wasteful things – and use that excess money to pay off our bills.  How much better would your life be if you were able to eliminate your debt in three years?  Then a few years later how much better would your life be if you began saving that excess money you used to pay off your debts, and had $50,000 in the bank or investments?

This should be popping positive thoughts into your mind but the unfortunate reality is that most of us make short term decisions to spend our money (or credit) to buy things that decrease our wealth, rather than increasing our wealth.  Psychologists tell us that we do these things to receive instant pleasure and that makes a lot of sense, right?  The pleasure of buying that new dress feels good right now.  Using that money to pay off a bill won’t feel good until perhaps years from now.  Instant gratification.  So do we really have control over our own lives?

Your conscious mind knows buying that dress, or eating that McDonald’s grease burger and fries is not the right thing to do but your subconscious programming wants, needs that short term feel good feeling – and your subconscious internal programming usually wins out.

Can we change our subconscious programming?  Yes, we can.  If you attempted the exercises I offered above, you experienced changing a feeling of frustration with a feeling of happiness or excitement, simply by changing your thoughts.  That should convince you that you can do this – replace negative/fearful thoughts – with positive, powerful thoughts anytime you choose to.  But, just like building an online business it takes a conscious decision on your part and effort over an extended period of time to get good at changing you internal programming from too many negative thoughts to primarily positive thoughts.

If you want to change your life from lack to abundance, from negative to positive, from poor to rich, here is how to do that:

Spend just a few minutes each day, practicing changing negative thoughts into positive thoughts.  Some people refer to this as meditation or active visualization.  I don’t intend to suggest that simply by visualizing something you can have it, although there is a lot of recent research that would suggest that meditation or positive visualization does work.

No, my point is that if you become good at changing negative thoughts into positive thoughts you can have anything or be anything in this world that you want.  And, you will be a lot happier.

Do an exercise similar to the one we did earlier in this article for just a few minutes every day.  Start by sitting in a quiet room by yourself and think about any aspect of your life.  Your finances, your goals, your dreams, your marriage, your children…..any aspect of your life that you would like to be better.  Undoubtedly, some negative thoughts will creep into your mind.  Then, as soon as you notice yourself thinking a negative thought, instantly replace that thought with a positive thought and experience how much better you feel when you replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts.

It is almost magical and anyone can do it any time they want to. And, the best part is the more you do this the better you get at it.  Any time you are having a bad moment, just force yourself to turn your negative thoughts into positive thoughts.  You will feel better immediately and you will begin to take actions on those positive thoughts which will further improve your life.

Your positive thoughts don’t even have to be realistic, at least not at first.  I used to play really lousy golf.  I thought I should be better than I was but I kept mishitting the ball and throwing my clubs.  Then one day, I said to myself, either find a way to enjoy playing golf or stop playing.  Golf is too expensive if you are doing nothing but frustrating yourself.

I didn’t want to stop playing golf…..I enjoyed most of the time I spent on weekends with a few close friends playing golf…..I just hated playing lousy golf.  So, I decided right then and there I would have to practice if I wanted my game to improve.  And, I believed that if my golf game were just a little less embarrassing I really would enjoy playing more.

So, I did some research and came up with a practice plan that would help me improve key aspects of my game and if I practiced enough I could shoot around 90 most of the time.  It wasn’t quick or easy but I now shoot between 85 and 95 most of the time and that is enough to allow me to beat most of the people I play against.

I did the same thing in building my online business.  I figured out a way that I can put a lot of small ads out there for my business where people will see them (articles just like this one), and at the same time I can motivate myself and others to do the right things to build/grow their businesses, and I can teach people what the things are that they need to do to build/grow their businesses.

By: Don Merrill