Successful people know that one of the most important things you can do to make yourself more successful is manage your thoughts.

Dr. Daniel Amen, a well known brain scientist and psychiatrist, who is often seen on PBS says that researchers tell us that we think about 60,000 thoughts a day. And here’s the important part, most of them are repetitive.

Dr. Amen also tells us that our internal thoughts and conversations, unless we’re very, very aware of the power of our thoughts, are similar if not identical to the ones we were fed by our parents, teachers and the other influential people in our lives as we were growing up. Most of us incorporated their beliefs about ourselves, whether wrong or not.

If you were lucky, you were brought up by parents who adored you and thought you were talented and gifted. But in my experience as a coach, I’ve found it far more common for people to have critical voices in their head, something coaches call the saboteur. And most people have a whole committee of saboteurs, not just one.

This is the critical internal commentator who tells you all the reasons you can’t try something new, why you’ll fail, why you’ll be rejected, that you’re too young, too old, in other words you just can’t win.

An important factor in success is communication – the most important aspect being what we communicate to ourselves and then with others. Brain scientists tell us that our brain and body respond to every thought we have. The quality of our thoughts is either helping us or hindering us.

Positive, happy hopeful thoughts release chemicals that help you feel good, while negative, worried, or angry thoughts release chemicals that make you feel bad and this is important, erode brain function. Scientists tell us that when we’re thinking positively, we actually see more visually and that helps us see solutions that might be right under our noses.

Successful people also know that thoughts create emotions, which in turn lead to actions and behaviours. If your business is relatively new and you’re thinking that you have no centres of influence, you’re probably going to start feeling bad about yourself because of the chemicals that thought is releasing and that’s going to limit the actions you’re going to take. What if, instead, you thought, wow, what a challenge, when I overcome this hurdle, I’ll be able to do anything?

We aren’t taught to question or correct the negative words or images that run wild through our heads. And it’s important that we do so, because these thoughts are at the core of our anxiety, relationship and work problems.

So the next time you find an ANT in your brain, (Another Negative Thought) question it. Find out where the thought came from, whether it’s factual or not. If it’s not, replace it with a more positive one.

Dr. Mona Lisa Schulz, a neuropsychiatrist and brain scientist says that if we continue to replace our initial negative thoughts with more positive thoughts, over time, the more positive thoughts will be the first ones we think, rather than the negative ones.

In simple terms, the positive thoughts create new neuropathways. If these are used more frequently than the negative neuropathways, the positive pathways are going to expand. It’s like driving through snow, the ninth or 10th driver on the road is more likely to follow the track already established than to drive along the edge through fresh, untouched snow.

To become more positive, optimistic and successful, do what my more successful clients do: question and replace your negative thoughts with more positive ones.