Remember the computer saying G.I.G.O. ?

Did you know that at birth, a baby’s brain contains 100 billion neurons, roughly as many nerve cells as there are stars in the Milky Way, according to a Times magazine article? And what do we feed it?

My first reaction? “Wow, we get all that power and hardware with no owner’s manual or instruction booklet.”

Just imagine what we could do if we understood a tenth of what our brains are capable of.

So let’s think a bit about what and what not to put into our brains.

The power of the words we use and how they affect what we think has been grossly underestimated by most folks.

And it’s all because your brain is simply a computer that takes in what you give it, whether it is in your best interest or not.

There’s a reason that you are told to

“Change your thinking, change your life.”

Basically we are what we think.

Ralph Waldo Emerson told us that a person is what they think about all day long.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Roman emperor and philosopher, said

“The world in which we live is determined by our thoughts.”

Garbage Words and Phrases

There are words that we can call garbage words, words that if you allow your brain to use them, will lead to garbage thinking. Garbage thinking leads to garbage feelings and garbage actions, all of which can keep you from living the kind of life you want to live.

Do you use any of these?

“I have to”     There are very few things in life we have to do. There are many things in life we choose to do. Don’t diminish your power of choice. Replacing “have to” with “choose to” allows us to choose and bypass the brain’s natural resistance to being forced.

“Try”              This is the most common one. Try to pick up your computer mouse. You either pick it up or you don’t. Those are the only two outcomes. As Yoda in Star Wars said “Do or do not. There is no ‘try.’”

 “I can’t”         This usually means “I won’t” or “I choose not to.” Replacement might be “If I could, what would I do?”

“Yes, but…”  Our brains automatically disregard everything that comes before the word “but.” That’s because when you hear the word “but,” you think, “Ah, ha. Here comes the truth.” Instead of saying “but,” you can use the word “and” (as in, “You did a good job with this and you could also do that”).

Is this just a form of positive thinking? Not really.

While positive thinking can be good, it’s not enough all by itself. If you are walking in the rain saying “It’s not raining, it’s not raining,” you are still going to get wet.

What this is about  is choosing to use your words to operate your brain more successfully.

Replacing one of these garbage words a week will gradually eliminate them from your vocabulary. And your life’s results can only get better!

 

 

What phrase or word would you like to eliminate?

Tags: choices, garbage, GIGO, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Yoda