September 1 is here – clean up your thinking

September in Cape Town is often still a cold month. Today 1 September 2014 is a glorious spring day. It is a day of new beginnings and new opportunities. Now in the Northern Hemisphere this day brings Autumn, so the mood is slightly different, but is does not matter where you are in the world, you need frequent 1 Septembers or 1st day of spring.

SpringMany people will go into a frenzy of cleaning – the store room, the house, the garage. Everything should be clean and neat. You could tackle the cleaning by doing a little bit every day or then one huge energy blast where you take 24 hours or even 48 hours to clean what you want to clean. This depends on your energy levels. I always find that it is easy for me to take one bite and to finish the job. If I do a little bit here and a little bit there, I get demotivated. You need tofind out what works for you and then stick to it.

thinkingI have realised today that I also want to clean up my thinking. The way that I think plays a huge role in my actions. If I think that something is impossible then I would not even attempt to do it. It is much easier to clean up my desk than it is to clean up my thinking, but let me share something that I have learned quite a while ago. If you start writing on a piece of paper what you are thinking, then it is easier to change the thinking around. The thoughts are often hidden and they influence you and me. While they are only in the mind,we cannot challenge them. The plan works if you write it out or type it out. You write/type every thought that comes to your minds until you get to the possibility where your mind accepts that it can work. In this way you are starting to clean the mind.

Let me take an example

I Hansie Louw run a marathon (42,2 km) in 3h28 minutes.

thought: your last marathonwas 5:11 or so

thought: a year ago you ran a marathon of 4:11

thought: your best marathon was 3:44

thought: you ran a 5 km in 20:25 on the treadmill a week ago

thought: at that speed it gives a marathon of below 3 hours (2hr 53)

thought: ok, treadmill is easy … so add 30 seconds per km of pace … so this still leaves me with 3:15 minutes for the marathon

thought: ok I cannot run at that same pace the whole marathon, so let me add another 10 minutes to the total time – another 15 seconds per kilometer slower

thought: you know, maybe I can do that 3:28 marathon.

So from a sceptical: your last marathon was more than five hours to yes maybe I can do that 3:28 marathon is a change of thinking and creating a new possibility for myself – cleaning and improving my thinking.

From here I want to go and set the goal:

I Hansie Louw have put in place the correct training,eating and resting habits while testing my progress from time to time to run a comfortable 3hr28 marathon on day (e.g. 22 September 2015)

So, clean up your thinking and get great results.

Einstein

 

 

 

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