Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life: How to Unlock Your Full Potential for Success and Achievement

Unleash Your Mental Powers
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When you can combine a clear mental picture of your goal
with the same emotion that you would have if it were achieved,
you activate your higher powers of mind. You trigger your creativ-
ity. You get insights and ideas that will help you to achieve your
goal far faster.
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PROBLEMS AS OPPORTUNITIES
The second factor that triggers your creativity and activates your
positive mind is 
pressing problems
. It is only when you are experienc-
ing the pressure of problems and obstacles that you are motivated
to perform at your mental best. Facing and solving the inevitable
problems and difficulties of life make you stronger and smarter, and
bring out the very best in you.
Most people do not understand the nature of problems. Prob-
lems are a normal and necessary part of life. They are inevitable and
unavoidable. Problems come in spite of your best efforts to avoid
them. Problems, therefore, come unbidden.
The only part of a problem over which you have any control is
your 
response
to your problems. Effective people respond positively
and constructively to problems. In this way, they demonstrate that
they have developed high levels of “response-ability.” They have de-
veloped the ability to respond effectively when unexpected or unde-
sired difficulties occur.
Problems of all kinds bring out your very best qualities. They
make you strong and resourceful. The more pressing your prob-
lems, and the more emotion you invest in solving those problems,
the more creative you will become. Each time you solve a problem
constructively, you become smarter and more effective. As a result,
you prepare yourself for even bigger and more important problems
to solve.
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THINK ON PAPER
One way to improve your ability to solve problems, and to trigger
your creativity, is for you to think on paper. Take a few moments to
ask,
“What exactly is the problem?”
Then write the answer down in
such a form that it describes the problem exactly.