Of all the tools I have used in my life, using affirmations has been one of the most powerful. When I first learned about affirmations, I was a bit skeptical. I have tried many different ways of using them. I learned that just saying them (while it is better than not saying them at all) produces very little results. The key is BELIEVING them!
If you just merely say them, you are simply saying words. It is the belief that makes them real and work. The more we believe in them, the quicker they return the results we are looking to attain. Staring our affirmations with “I AM” is one way to make them real. Whatever follows those words create a conviction that are so very powerful.
Here’s a few tips to create strong, powerful affirmations. Affirmations should:
1) Concise
2) Clear
3) Have Meaning
4) Contain Positive Words (never use negative words like “not”, “never”, “without”, etc.)
5) Start with “I AM”
6) Stated with conviction & confidence
7) Said out loud
If you want to SUPERCHARGE the affirmations, state them with movement (like walking, jogging, arm gestures, etc.). If you want to supercharge them even more, visualize the affirmation as if it already occurred.
I truly believe that if we taught our kids the true power of affirmations and they practiced them, we would not read another story about bullying. Affirmations build high self-esteem when practiced correctly. Let’s make a difference in our kids future by teaching them the power of positive thinking and using goals to achieve success.
With gratitude and peace,
Bill
Kindness For those Who DON’T Deserve It
I asked myself this question today, “Why does kindness matter?” It is a valid question to ask since I built the idontstink.com site around the kindness meter and regularly issue Kindness Challenges. But what does kindness mean to me and why should any of us care. Well, let me just tackle those questions today.
To me, kindness isn’t something that you do as a task for your “to do” lists. It is more about being gentle, thoughtful and caring to others who could use it. Actually, it is the people we believe that DO NOT deserve our kindness are the very ones that need it the most. Kindness is showing empathy, tolerance and restraint to these people. Remember, we are all fighting our own battles and who is it for me to say that my battle is bigger or worse than yours?
I still can’t get out of my head reading all the stories about bullying, the negative statistics associated with them and the consequences bullying has on our society. We must take a personal stance for finding a solution. I believe searching for a solution has much more power than “fighting against” bullying. For me, I believe that kindness is one of the most powerful tools we can use create a better place. Kindness always delivers and is never, ever wasted.
Join me today and take the Kindness Challenge. Together, you and I can and WILL make a positive difference in the world.
With peace, gratitude, and kindness,
Bill
The Power of I AM
Of all the tools I have used in my life, using affirmations has been one of the most powerful. When I first learned about affirmations, I was a bit skeptical. I have tried many different ways of using them. I learned that just saying them (while it is better than not saying them at all) produces very little results. The key is BELIEVING them!
If you just merely say them, you are simply saying words. It is the belief that makes them real and work. The more we believe in them, the quicker they return the results we are looking to attain. Staring our affirmations with “I AM” is one way to make them real. Whatever follows those words create a conviction that are so very powerful.
Here’s a few tips to create strong, powerful affirmations. Affirmations should:
1) Concise
2) Clear
3) Have Meaning
4) Contain Positive Words (never use negative words like “not”, “never”, “without”, etc.)
5) Start with “I AM”
6) Stated with conviction & confidence
7) Said out loud
If you want to SUPERCHARGE the affirmations, state them with movement (like walking, jogging, arm gestures, etc.). If you want to supercharge them even more, visualize the affirmation as if it already occurred.
I truly believe that if we taught our kids the true power of affirmations and they practiced them, we would not read another story about bullying. Affirmations build high self-esteem when practiced correctly. Let’s make a difference in our kids future by teaching them the power of positive thinking and using goals to achieve success.
With gratitude and peace,
Bill
Kindness Matters
Kindness matters. It plays a major role in helping ourselves and others stay positive. We have to remember that we all have our our struggles and battles that we fight daily. It is so easy to forget this and put our values and rules on others. That is a losing proposition for sure. With kindness, we seem to break through all those barriers that otherwise would not have been broken and reach people on their soul level.
I remember when I was planning the Arts and Jazz Festival Kindness Challenge. I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of time and money it took to have a kindness booth for three consecutive days. Others around me rallied for support of the work I was attempting to accomplish and the results were simply amazing. During that event, I watched time after time people light up when we would offer kindness. We were not trying to sell them anything, just offering to be kind. Kindness matters.
I did a search on Google yesterday for stories about bullying and it returned 320 (wait for it)….. MILLION pages. I started looking through a few of them and time after time, there were completely horrible outcomes to bullying. I read over and over again where one person that was bullied as a kid would then turn into a bully themselves (Ritchie Incognito of the Miami Dolphins comes to mind quickly). While my book, STINKIN’ THINKIN’ STINKS isn’t a book on bullying, it does offer tools and techniques that will help build self-esteem in our kids today. This site was built to quickly and directly help kids deal with what they are struggling with today. It may not solve world hunger, but it is a tool. Bullying as it sits today is simply unacceptable. We can no longer look the other way when it is happening or about to happen because it is occurring DAILY with 90% of kids in 4th through 8th grades reported as being bullied. Seriously? This is all a symptom of STINKIN’ THINKIN!
The answer to all this madness is kindness. It is impossible to be a bully and be kind at the same time. If you want to change your life and the lives of those around you, practice kindness. It doesn’t take much, just some effort. You can do that, right? I challenge you right now to take the Kindness Challenge and start making a positive difference in the world today.
With Peace, Gratitude, and Kindness,
Bill
Oh No! I Do STINK!
I sure hate to say this but sometimes, we all STINK! Well, that is our thoughts STINK! More often than we would like to admit, our thoughts can get the best of us. One thing out of our control will lead to negative thinking and just like that, we have a bad day.
One thing that I know with certainty is that we all have a choice. We have a choice to consciously select positive thoughts over negative thoughts. We also have a choice to select negative thoughts over positive ones. Unfortunately we make a lot of these choices without being aware. That is where awareness comes in. Through awareness, we can consciously change our thoughts and turn things around.
Recently, when I was feeling a bit down, I started to wallow in that negative thinking. Fortunately, however, once I realized I was choosing negative thoughts, I was able to change them immediately. My thoughts were that I can choose to be miserable or accept what I cannot change and replace the negative thoughts with positive ones.
It reminds me of the stories about bullying that I hear regularly these days. The one thing in common with all of them is that they started out with negative thinking that grew way out of control. We need to constantly remind ourselves that we have choice when it comes to our thinking. When we do, it helps remind us that we can choose something different in the moment.
With peace and gratitude,
Bill
Change Your STINKIN’ Beliefs
It is critical to change any self-limiting beliefs that you carry with you. What I have learned is that a lot of our “STINKIN” beliefs are passed down to us in the form of family, friends and things not really about us. We can easily pick up beliefs that others held for themselves and many of those were passed down to them. It isn’t about awareness because if we were aware, we would certainly not buy into some of these.
Here is what I have learned about beliefs:
1) Beliefs are really just thoughts held to be true.
2) They are not right or wrong, true or false.
3) They are simply VERY strong OPINIONS we hold.
To eliminate those self-limiting beliefs, here are a few things that I have done that helped me get rid of them:
1) Become aware of your STINKIN’ beliefs. When you hear that little voice, ask the question, “What would I have to believe to make this true?” and “Is this belief worth changing?” If it is, continue to #2:
2) Change your thoughts. Purposefully change what you think about for the self-limiting belief. Simply re-affirm a positive belief instead. For example, Old belief: “I am a slow reader.” will change to “I AM a fast reader who comprehends everything I read.” Now, just saying those words will not change the belief so you have to go to #3.
3) Re-write or Re-program the old belief. This consists of two parts: 1) Create repetition to re-enforce the new belief and 2) Take action to help convince yourself that the new belief is true. For the reading example above, you would find resources to help you with reading. Maybe you could take a reading class, hire a reading specialist, find something on YouTube, the internet or a book store. Then create the repetition of learning and re-enforcing the new belief.
4) Change the words you use. Create powerful affirmations that support the new belief and practice several times each day. Use the words “I AM” to get maximum effect. It would look something like this: “I AM a powerful, positive person. I read fast and comprehend everything I read with ease.”
What are some of your self-limiting beliefs? Do you care to share them here? If not, please feel free to email me directly.
With peace and gratitude,
Bill
Skids & the Kindness Challenge
Meet our friendly (and sometimes misguided) skunk, Skids. Despite his struggles from time to time he loves collecting inspiring quotes from famous people. Join him today and take the Kindness Challenge going on this
month. Click hereto see how you can get involved and start making a positive impact in the world.
Bill
Take the Kindness Challenge Today!
With Peace and Gratitude,
Bill
Positive Thinking Produces Sa-WEET Results!
You really want to focus on positive thinking because….
28 Days of Kindness Challenge Starts TODAY!
Today is the first day of IDontStink.com’s 28 Day Kindness Challenge. We are challenging you to do at least one kind act each day for the next 28 days. You can do that, right? Easy peasy! I will be posting some of the kind deeds that come up during the challenge and I encourage you to post your comments on your kind deeds so we all can benefit. To get things started, I decided to practice kindness yesterday and here is the story.
Yesterday, Sunday March 2nd, we had a ice storm hit the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I was in my office working on the March Daily Positive Points when I saw my neighbor trying to get her car up her slick, ice coated driveway so she could park it in her garage. I decided right then and there to offer a hand. I went to my garage, grabbed a shovel and headed over there. After about 20 minutes of shoveling, scraping, (slipping), and freezing, we were able to get her car in the garage. She was very grateful but I know we all would have done the same thing. I left feeling like this was a good start to the Kindness Challenge I was launching on Monday.
Share your stories here in the comment section or send me an email via “Ask Sweetie” barrel and she will send them directly to me.
Peace and gratitude,
Bill
Send that STINKIN’ THINKIN’ Packin’!