Managing Thought: Think Differently. Think Powerfully. Achieve New Levels of Success (BUSINESS SKILLS AND DEVELOPMENT) - Hardcover

Lore, Mary J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0071703411 ISBN 13: 9780071703413

Publisher: McGraw Hill, 2010

Synopsis

“Managing Thought is to this century what How to Win Friends and Influence People and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People were to the last century.”―Barbara G. Stanbridge, change management expert and former president of the National Association of Women Business Owners
“A must-read.”
―Howard Putnam, former CEO of Southwest Airlines and author of The Winds of Turbulence
WINNER of two Nautilus Awards, the Eric Hoffer Award, the Axiom Business Book Award, and two USA Book News National Best Book Awards
“Managing Thought teaches us how to actually manage our thoughts to be creative, inspired, and impactful in all we do.”
―Gordon Krater, CPA, managing partner of Plante & Moran
Hailed by business leaders from coast to coast, Mary Lore’s multiple-award-winning guide not only changes the way you think about success―it changes the way you think, period. With a groundbreaking approach to harnessing mental power, Managing Thought turns “positive thinking” into practical actions, so you can:
RETHINK your path to success
REFOCUS your goals and priorities
REFRAME your negative thoughts
REIGNITE your creativity
REVITALIZE your energyRESTORE your sense of purpose
RECLAIM your peace of mind
Lore’s proven process includes dozens of eye-opening and energizing self-awareness exercises, , targeted thought techniques, and real-world applications to help you shift your perspective on your career, your relationships, and your life. Whatever you think, you can achieve. It’s all in your mind…
Everything you do begins with a thought. From making small day-to-day decisions, to changing company-wide strategies, to plotting a lifelong career path―the way you think determines the way you live.
When you manage your thoughts, you manage your life.
That’s the simple and revolutionary premise of Mary Lore’s award-winning book. Managing Thought goes beyond other “positive thinking” books by offering a practical, systematic, step-by-step approach to thought management. These proven techniques help you :
* Identify your goals and focus on ways to achieve them.
* Eliminate thoughts that waste time, energy, and money.
* Turn positive thinking into positive action.
* Balance professional success and personal fulfillment.
* Find true peace of mind in everything you do.
The best thing about this powerful thought management system is: you can apply it to all aspects of your life. You can conquer your greatest fears and self-doubts, deal with difficult people and situations, face the toughest challenges head-on, and inspire yourself to achieve new levels of success you never thought possible.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Great men are they who see… that thoughts rule the world.” With Managing Thought, the world is yours.Mary J. Lore is the founder and CEO of Managing Thought, LLC. An internationally recognized leader, public speaker, and executive mentor, Mary has worked with corporate leaders throughout North America and Europe. She earned a BBA in finance, with a minor in philosophy, and serves as a chair and expert resource for TEC, also known as Vistage International, the world's preeminent organization for the personal and professional development of CEOs. She writes a popular blog and e-column, conducts public and corporate workshops, and can be reached at www.managingthought.com.

About this title

About the Author

Mary J. Lore is the founder and CEO of Managing Thought, LLC, which helps individuals and organizations develop self-awareness and change how they think and conduct business to attain long-lasting success.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Managing Thought

Think Differently. Think Powerfully. Achieve New Levels of Success.

By MARY J. LORE

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 Mary J. Lore and Managing Thought LLC.
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-07-170341-3

Contents

INTRODUCTION
1. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MANAGING THOUGHT AND THE MOMENT
2. HOW DO YOUR THOUGHTS RULE YOUR WORLD?
3. WE ARE NOT OUR MINDS
4. INFINITE CALM BRINGS IMMEDIATE RESULTS
5. OUR FEELINGS ARE KEY INDICATORS
6. THE MANAGING THOUGHT PROCESS
7. DECIDE WHAT I WANT
8. DESTRUCTIVE AND DISEASED THOUGHTS
9. THOUGHTS THAT WASTE TIME, ENERGY, AND MONEY AND BLOCK TRUE REALITY
10. DISCOVERING AND RELEASING LIMITING PERCEPTIONS AND BELIEFS
11. HOW TO SHAPE THOUGHT
12. CHOOSING MY INTENTIONS
13. ASKING POWERFUL QUESTIONS
14. MAKING POWERFUL STATEMENTS
15. REPLACING WEAK THOUGHT PATTERNS WITH POWERFUL THOUGHT PATTERNS
16. DAILY CULTIVATION
17. MANAGING ENERGY
18. MANAGING SPIRIT
19. MANAGING THOUGHT: PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE
20. ENJOY THE JOURNEY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT MANAGING THOUGHT

Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MANAGING THOUGHT AND THE MOMENT

There is no such thing as the future. The future is an illusion. What we have isa now, followed by a now, followed by a series of nows.

We do not suddenly become bankrupt. We have a series of bankrupt nowmoments. We do not suddenly become a great leader, a great parent, or healthy.We do not suddenly accomplish a goal or fulfill a resolution. We have a seriesof great leaders, great parents, or healthy now moments. When we haveexperienced enough of these moments, goals are accomplished, bad habits arebroken, and resolutions are fulfilled.

We achieve results by focusing on the moment.

It is the same with achieving a great attitude, thinking positively, beingengaged, accessing creativity, practicing thankfulness, changing our beliefs,focusing on what we want, creating powerful intentions, fulfilling our purpose,and living our passion—all the things that we are told we must do toachieve success and fulfill our dreams. And it's the same with being happy, atpeace, inspired, creative, and true to ourselves and making a difference. Itdoesn't happen suddenly. It happens as we build a critical mass of thesenow moments.

We achieve results by focusing on the moment. And the results weachieve—bad, good, or significant—depend on what we focus on in themoment.

Through my experience at work and in life over the last thirty years, I havefound that what makes a great leader, a great organization or family, and agreat human being are the very same principles. In other words, the keys tosuccess in life and work are the same.

These keys are self-awareness, self-mastery, and being on purpose. Idefine being on purpose as focusing your thoughts and actions on what istruly significant to you. Without self-awareness, self-mastery, and being onpurpose, we live each day as we did yesterday. And then a year goes by, twoyears, five years, and then ten, and we wonder what happened. We have the samefrustrations and experiences over and over with different jobs, partners,customers, coworkers, employees, children, and spouses. Essentially, we continueto make the same mistakes.

Without self-awareness, self-mastery, and being on purpose in themoment, we live each day as we did yesterday.

We read books, listen to speakers, and attend courses and seminars to help uslearn the best practices, the latest management techniques, systems, processes,methods, and ways of thinking. In most cases, although we say we want toimplement what we learned, we don't. We go back to the hustle and bustle of ourwork and life without making any changes. Sometimes we do implement a change,and it works for us—for a time. Then the going gets tough, and we revertto the familiarity of our previous behavior. Or perhaps we do gain somepermanent improvement, yet it's minimal.

How is it that while we want to change, we rarely do? Or when we do, it's amediocre change, not a transformation? It is because many of us are taught thatour actions and our behavior drive results.

We learn that if we want to change results, we must change our actions. That'swhat management is all about—changing actions, behavior, processes, andsystems. That is also what New Year's resolutions are all about—changingour actions to lose weight or achieve a goal. Thus indoctrinated, we focus onmodifying action and behavior as a means of improvement.

The empowering discovery about Managing Thought is this: What goes oninside our heads is what drives results.

Our beliefs, perceptions, attitudes, intentions, passion, purpose—ourthoughts—drive our actions. If we don't address our thoughts, meaningfulchange does not happen. Conversely, when we do begin to investigate ourunderlying beliefs and attitudes and become mindful of our thoughts, truetransformation takes place. We can choose to be aware of our thoughts and whatlies behind them because they drive our actions and our ability to devisecreative ways to achieve significant results. I am not talking about developingrahrah motivational goals, mission statements, and resolutions. I am talkingabout developing self-awareness, being aware of our thoughts and feelings andmaking subtle yet powerful changes that result in ideas, desires, intentions,and ultimately actions that bring us peace and inspire us.

We choose to be aware of our thoughts.

We become inspired when we are in states of happiness, thankfulness, vision andpurpose, and wonder and possibility. In these states, we are in tune with ourhigher awareness and in touch with our creativity. It is when we are inspiredthat we achieve significant results. It is when we are inspired that wetransform.

It is when we are inspired that we transform.

CHAPTER 2

HOW DO YOUR THOUGHTS RULE YOUR WORLD?

Everything we say, do, and physically manifest first begins in thought.

First we have an idea—a thought—followed by desire, another thought,followed by intent, another thought, followed by strategy, goals, and plans,more thoughts, until, finally, we act. We say something, do something,physically manifest something, or create something.

Everything we say, do, and create first begins in thought.

How do your thoughts rule your world? How do your thoughts rule your life,relationships, career, organization, and family? Are your thoughts producingpositive results, or are they preventing you from growing fully into yourpotential? Do your thoughts inspire you, or are they plagued with self-doubt,fear, and worry? Are your thoughts causing you to feel happy and peaceful, orare they causing you to feel stressed and victimized? Do your thoughts result ina life of joy and perfect health, or do they result in a life of pain andsuffering? Do your thoughts cause you to live your life the way you want to liveit, or do your thoughts paralyze you, undermine your intentions, or sabotageyour efforts? Do your thoughts serve you? Or are you helplessly at their mercy?

Most of us would not imagine that in one moment, we can actually change thecourse of our lives, our families, and our organizations through our thoughts.

When we are ruled by our thoughts, we are usually in reactive mode. We may findourselves being offended by our customers or employers; snapping at our spouses;resenting competitors, friends, and coworkers; and generally walking around likeemotional time bombs. This is because most of us have taught ourselves to relyon certain familiar thought processes. Jerry Wind and Colin Crook, in ThePower of Impossible Thinking: Transform the Business of Your Life and the Lifeof Your Business, refer to these processes as "mental models," which areshaped by a combination of genetics, education, and experience. Mental modelsare not necessarily bad, although they can be limiting. They tend to be reflexactions that are performed without thought. And because they are habitual, theydon't lead to growth. They are the mind's version of being set in one's ways.

In one moment we can change the course of our lives.

When we manage our thoughts, we take a proactive approach instead of being ledaround by our habitual attitudes and self-limiting beliefs. We are able to useour thoughts to proactively affect those very stressful episodes that weformerly reacted to defensively. In doing so, whole new vistas of options emergeand we experience very different results. Instead of wasting our time, money,and energy on reactivity, we focus on what matters to us—the reality wewant.

By managing thought, we consciously choose our futures.

This is what the Managing Thought process is all about. It liberates usfrom passive acceptance of our thoughts and frees us from our attachment orfusion to them. It empowers us to live our lives as we want to live them. Inother words, by managing thought, we can consciously choose our futures becauseeverything that we think is a matter of choice. There is no situation or personresponsible or to blame for what goes on inside our heads. The quality of ourlives, our organizations, our families, and our careers is dramatically impactedby how we think and how we behave. And how we behave depends on how we think.

How we behave depends on how we think.

When we are mindful of every thought we have and every action we take each day,we achieve significant results at work and in life. The following story showsthat how we choose to think in any given moment affects our circumstances, ourdestiny, and our success.

A Golf Lesson

One of my clients was on the golf course with his business partner and thepresident of their major customer (representing 80 percent of their revenues).At some point in the middle of their round, the customer mentioned that in sixmonths, he planned to take his business to a manufacturer in China. At thisdisclosure, my client's partner got very angry and played poorly for the rest ofthe round. His anger and frustration were not restricted to the course. When hegot back to the office, he threw things around his workspace, yelled about howbadly they were being treated, and predicted that they were going to be screwedby this customer. [In this industry, agreements are often made and contractsdrawn with these very large original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), which thendo not sign the contract. In this case, two million dollars of inventory ownedby my client's customer was sitting on the shop floor, and there wasn't a signedcontract to that effect.] He screamed to get the attorneys on the phone to drawup letters demanding the acknowledgment of ownership of that inventory and asignature on the contract.

My client, on the other hand, played well for the rest of the golf round. Heimmediately shaped his thought to remind himself how thankful he was that hiscustomer valued the relationship so much that he provided six months' notice. Healso reminded himself that his company had recently realized that the work theywere hired to do for this customer was low-margin work and was not work at whichthey were world class. They didn't have the nerve to give up business from acustomer that made up 80 percent of their revenue base to pursue higher marginsand world-class customers. He realized that his customer's decision would forcethem to make this bold move, and he was excited about the opportunity. He alsoacknowledged his company's mission in dealing with its customers—be apartner. He thought that it needn't matter whether the customer was new,continuing, or on the way out the door—the intention is to be a partnerwith customers. So, he asked his customer, "How can we be of service to you?Have you ever transferred business to China before? How can we help?"

Over the next six months, my client worked with his customer to effect a smoothtransition for which his company was paid handsomely. At the same time, hefocused on securing customers for work for which the company could be worldclass and could secure a higher margin. At the end of the six months, he and hispartner had new, higher-margin clients. Even more significant, the large clientultimately didn't transition all of its business to China. Instead, it kept thehigher-margin business with my client, and my client's company ended up with itsbest year ever.

Would his partner's approach have achieved the same result? No! With the samecircumstances, he very well might have embarked on a path of war and lost. Hewould have then announced, "See! I told you they were going to screw us!" Hisfocus would have become self-fulfilling.

CHAPTER 3

WE ARE NOT OUR MINDS

Most of us believe that we don't have control over our thoughts. To demonstratethe fallacy of this belief, take a look at the following exercise.

Were you able to do it?

If so, you have just proven that you have control of your thoughts. You wereable to stop what you were thinking to think about the ice cream cone. You werealso able to stop thinking about the ice cream cone and begin thinking about thepuppy.

Can you also see that you are not your thoughts, and you are not your mind? Thatyou are in control of your mind? You chose to think about the ice cream cone.You chose to think about the puppy. You are the observer, the witness, thewatcher, and the user of your mind and your thoughts.

I am the observer, the witness, the watcher, and the user of my mind andmy thoughts.

Our brains are tools, just as a computer is a tool. They perform many functions:observing, sensing, storing, retrieving, and relaying information. We are notcomputers. We are not our brains. We are not the tools. We are the onesusing the tools. In each moment, we are perfectly able to watch ourthoughts, to look at our thoughts, not from our thoughts. We cancatch a thought, look at it, and determine whether it is empowering andconstructive. In each moment, we have the ability to choose what to do with thethought. Do we identify with or attach to the thought and let it rule our world?Do we let the thought go? Do we rephrase the thought? Or do we take the momentto say to our brains, Thanks for sharing, and choose thoughts that moveus in a direction that serves our purpose?

Our brains are tools, just as a computer is a tool.

I have observed that many of us spend much of our lives fused with the reptilianportion of our brains, the oldest and most primitive brain structure, andconsequently experience a great amount of pain and suffering.

Have you ever been alone at night and heard an unexpected noise? When you heardthe noise, did you stop to listen intently? At that moment, and with amazingspeed, your hypothalamus, which is inside the limbic system of the brain, made adecision on your next course of action and provided you with three choices:fight, flight, or freeze. Without self-awareness, when we hear or see somethingthat is different from what we expect, our brains act as if we are in physicaldanger and present us with fight, flight, or freeze thoughts. We may choose toargue, criticize, judge, complain, blame, act defensively or offensively, orbecome angry, anxious, or frustrated (fight). Or we may choose to avoid asituation by leaving, denying, or ignoring it, or we may worry, becomeoverwhelmed, experience self-doubt, or feel regret (flight). Perhaps weexperience shock and do nothing, or we procrastinate, suffer from depression, oract like victims (freeze). In fact, when the reptilian portion of the brain isactivated, the limbic system takes over, and the part of our brain that plans,prioritizes, and evaluates information becomes incapable. When we are notmindful, we unknowingly remain in fight, flight, or freeze; lose sight of ourpurpose; waste significant time, energy, and money; and achieve less thandesirable results. When we are in fight, flight, or freeze, we are completelycut off from our ability to access our higher awareness and creativity.

Before we react, we can pause to observe our thoughts and shapethem.

When we manage our thought, we are capable of being aware that our brains are infight, flight, or freeze and adding another choice. I refer to this choice aslight. When something happens that is not a life-or-death matter or is notphysically unsafe, we can take a moment to add light to the situation. Insteadof fighting, fleeing, or freezing, we can practice taking a breath before wereact, first exhaling deeply, then inhaling, and utilize that moment toconsciously assess the situation. We can pause to observe our thoughts and shapethem. This simple action causes our thinking to move from the hypothalamus tothe frontal cortex of the brain, where we have a vast array of alternativecourses of action. We achieve very different and significant results, as wasdemonstrated in the story "A Golf Lesson" in the previous chapter. The one manchose fight. The other chose light. Choosing to fight or focusing on lightresults in dramatically different circumstances.

Through managing our thought, through mindfulness in each moment, we move fromthe back of our brains to the front of our brains. In doing so, in that momentwe reshape our circumstances, remain on purpose, and achieve significantresults.

(Continues...)

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Managing Thought by MARY J. LORE. Copyright © 2010 by Mary J. Lore and Managing Thought LLC.. Excerpted by permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: McGraw Hill
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0071703411
• ISBN 13: 9780071703413
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272