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

Change Your Life
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much as possible. In the military, the heroic acts of soldiers and
sailors from the past are taught as part of the curriculum, encourag-
ing young soldiers and sailors to think and act like them when the
situation demands it.
The people you most admire and look up to have an inordinate
influence on how you think and feel about yourself, and the kind of
decisions you make. Who are 
your
role models?
■
CHOOSE YOUR ROLE 
MODELS WITH CARE
There is nothing wrong with being thoughtful and concerned
about the feelings and reactions of others toward you and your
choices. When you select admirable people to look up to, you de-
velop an inner guide that leads you to conduct yourself in an excel-
lent way yourself.
What is silly and self-defeating however, is for you to allow
yourself to be inordinately influenced by the fleeting opinions of
people whose regard and respect is of no concern or value to you. If
you have been raised with destructive criticism, you can easily slip
into the trap of organizing your life around trying to gain the ap-
proval, or escape the disapproval, or people you don’t even know or
care about.
Here is the way to avoid this form of negative emotion:
Decide for yourself the men and women you most admire, and
the qualities they have that you would most like to emulate.
From now on, when you have to make a decision, think about
someone you admire and ask, “What would he or she do in this
situation?”
When you ask this question, you actually connect at an 
unconscious level with a higher power that will then give you
guidance and insight. You will experience a deep inner knowing 
of exactly the right thing to do or say. You will make the right 
decision and achieve the desired result. This is a technique used
by many successful men and women. Give it a try and see 
what happens.