Speaking of chilling out for the summer, you won’t even come close to breaking a sweat with this piece of prosperity-building advice. We’ve all heard of subconscious programming, how negative thoughts hold us back and positive ones move us forward towards our true goals. But did you know that we’re almost always singing an inner tune to ourselves? It’s part of that annoying programming that causes us to hear the same stupid commercial jingle over and over in our heads all day, simply because we had the misfortune of hearing it on the car radio on the way to work that morning. It’s a mindless, contagious phenomenon, just as reflexive for most of us as yawning in response to seeing someone else yawn. But, really, is your life going to be enhanced at all today by the fact that you’re thoughtlessly running a song about broiled hamburgers or a wireless company’s latest technology through your head? Probably not. In fact, it could be doing your subconscious some harm!
Tunes, just like any other self-talk we send through our subconscious, can actually alter the outcomes of the events in our lives and set us up for a fall. A case in point was a silly set of lyrics I put to the song, "I’d be Lost Without You." Being a theater major in college and a professional writer, lyrics have always come easily to me, so I rewrote the words to this song in a humorous way, in order to cope with a virulent coworker.
Instead of singing, "You’re the cream in my coffee, you’re the ice…" I sang, "You’re the nail in my driveway, you’re the gum in my hair…." This seemed particularly applicable to my venomous co-worker, who was renowned for handing in the most incomplete and confusing sales paperwork in the business, then blaming me (and everyone else in the office) for the shoddy outcomes of her transactions. So, this seemed, on the surface, an amusing and innocent way of coping with the tension she brought to our environment. But, alas, this silent coping mechanism of mine turned out to be anything but innocent. After weeks of running my revised lyrics through my mind, it was ultimately this co-worker, out of a possible 130, who caused life to become so unbearable in my workplace that I was compelled to resign.
I took heed of this "coincidence" and began at once to replace my biting tune about her with something much more positive for my future. Whenever I caught myself running my nemesis lyrics through my mind, I instantly changed my tune to "We’re in the Money." And what an excellent choice that turned out to be! Within a week of changing my tune, I was informed by mail that I had inherited a very sizable amount of money in a fund I’d totally forgotten about!
Now, I’m not saying we should all get together and hum "Blue Skies." In fact, I cannot think of a faster way to bring drought upon the land, except maybe global warming! But I am saying that "changing your tune" is far more than a saying. It’s a much more powerful tool than most of us realize. And we’d do well to advise the lovelorn in our lives not to dwell too long on those torch songs and heartbreak tunes they’re usually so fond of.
It doesn’t take much effort to discover what words we’re singing to ourselves on a daily basis and resolve to replace them with something more suitable to our goals. In fact, you can do it in your favorite hammock without lifting a finger! Just make a better selection on your mental jukebox or iPod. It will probably be one of the easiest, yet most productive, things you’ll do all summer!
