What Picture Have You Painted?

Excerpt from a book I'm reading:

Most people have what they are not firmly embedded in their minds. There's a saying, "Argue for your limitations and they're yours." Very true.

If you say, "I'm not a morning person," "I don't like to exercise," "I'm not very disciplined," I just hate vegetables," "I'm lazy," "I'm a procrastinator," "I'm depressed," "I'm fat," "I'm old," or "I'm sick," then you're absolutely right!

However, if you say, "I'm a 'go-to-bed-on-time-and-get-up-ready-to-rock-and-roll-at-6:00-a.m.' kind of person," "I love the feeling I get from completing a workout," "I am disciplined and motivated," "I am healthy," and "I am orderly and a hard worker," then you're absolutely right!

What you need is to exchange your old, lousy, self-loathing, limiting beliefs for ones that actually are moving you toward the person you dream to be, the person you were created to be, and the person you really are.

What Joyce Meyer said long ago is true. The battlefield is the mind.

I love to hear my kids reminding each other of the right things to do and choices to make. I'll hear them in the other room saying things like, "Remember, use self-control," "Uh-oh, remember, don't fuss," "Remember, put others first," or "Remember, Mama said words are powerful." Words are powerful.

But, the other day it came time to take it a step further. Hadley started to say something and then stopped herself. I asked her what she was going to say and she told me. Then I said, "Yeah, that's not nice, huh?" She smiled and said, "Yes, that's why I didn't say it." :) Loved that. It's working. The endless training is working. :)

But, it opened the door to a discussion about how the next step to that is to not even have those wrong thoughts. Or, to take those thoughts captive. If you practice that enough, taking those thoughts captive, you get quicker and quicker at not entertaining those thoughts. Every time you have a wrong thought, you immediately take it captive. The more you do it, the quicker you get. And the more you practice that, you start to not have those thoughts at all. It's called renewing your mind. It's a lovely thing.

Your actions spring forth from the way you see yourself and think. Your life and who you are is a direct reflection of your thoughts...of your mind.

So, what picture have you painted of yourself that you repaint every day? Do you paint positive things about yourself? If not, what are you going to do to change that this year?