Awareness precedes change. If you don’t know what you’re thinking or how you’re responding to your external world, you will never be able to deliberately change your thought patterns and actions for the better.
It’s like telling a bee flying into a glass window that there is a pane of clear glass there, but the bee keeps on flying into the window anyway. It does not see or understand there is a sheet of clear glass separating it from where it is to where it wants to go, which is outside into the garden.
Many of us are like that. Even as aware as we think we are of our thoughts and actions, that glass window is the blind spot in our lives. Things that we don’t see or aren’t aware of about ourselves.
If you find that you are consistently getting results in your life that you don’t like, and you don’t know why, it means that you have a blind spot in your awareness. It could also mean that you aren’t aware of the natural laws that govern this universe, laws which once you understand and follow will allow you to enjoy your best life.
If you truly want to live your best life, the first step is to become aware of your thoughts, your actions, and the results of what those actions bring. And once you are aware, you can change them.
Changing Your Reality
Changing your reality can be truly very simple. It is not as difficult as many people make it out to be. One of the key things to create awareness of our thoughts and actions is through asking simple, yet positively focused questions. What do I mean?
If you are experiencing something in your life that you don’t enjoy, you could ask the following questions:
- What am I thinking that is causing this result in my life?
- What are the reactions that I have consistently displayed that further reinforces this particular reality?
- What new belief, response or action can I take to affect a potentially different, preferably desirable, outcome?
As you ask these questions, you might find yourself taken on an inner journey to discover the roots of that belief or thought that causes you to behave the way you do. And when you become aware of it, you have the power to change your belief or perspective of it. Which then causes a ripple effect into this present moment of your life.
It’s like instant time travel to your past to change your perspective into something useful and productive for you today. 
Whatever new perspective, belief or action that you come up with, use your imagination to practice responding the way you would like to respond. You can go back to the last situation that this thing happened, and visualize yourself thinking and acting out your new response. Also imagine what things would turn out if you respond the way you would like to. If you aren’t getting the outcome that you like, tweak your belief or response until you get it.
Remember, this is all happening in your imagination. Repeat this visualization as often as you need, until you can feel yourself thinking and acting the way you want.
The next time a similar situation happens, become conscious of how you would like to respond instead of just reacting to the situation as you normally would have in the past.
An Example Of How This Works
If your life isn’t as awesome as you would like it to be, you can apply the discovery framework to get change going. For example, you want to expand your circle of friends and have more positively focused people in your life. But every time you want to make changes, you find it hard to do so.
Here’s what you do…
What Am I Thinking That Is Causing This Result In My Life?
This question will help you become aware of what you are thinking each time you have an opportunity to expand your social circle. What thoughts run through your mind? What emotions do you feel?
For example, you could be thinking that you don’t know how to start a conversation. Or you’re afraid to meet new people because you feel that you aren’t up to their level of accomplishments in life. Or even perhaps you are conscious of how you look.
There will be habitual thoughts that come into play each time this situation arises, and only when you become aware of what you think will you be able to change it to something productive.
It’s a case of “do you think about what you think about“? 
When you become aware of your thoughts, question them. Why are you thinking what you are thinking? What is the basis for you to think that thought? Does it really make sense? It is absolutely true, or does it apply only to specific situations? Could you change your perspective of what happened in the past to make you think this way?
Start poking holes in beliefs and thoughts that are not productive or particularly helpful to you in life right now. You will likely find that many of the beliefs you have don’t really belong to you in the first place. They come from either your parents, your friends, TV, or from something in your environment.
You were very likely and literally programmed to believe what you do, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
When you realize this, you have come to a place where you can start to deliberately choose what you believe about yourself and life. And then you may even start to question what you believe about reality.
What or How Have I Been Reacting In The Past That Continues To Reinforce This Outcome?
As you start to question your beliefs, you will realize that your reactions have could have been based on arbitrary and false premises. For example, if the last time you went out with a group of new friends and had a slip up, you may believe that it’s better for you to stay at home instead of going out to get laughed at all over again.
But that event could have been a one time experience that you have replayed in your mind over and over again, making it way larger than it truly was. So the next time your friend asks you out, the memory of that last experience kicks in and your reaction is to turn down the invite.
So how do you change this belief or experience into something more useful?
First, realize that this is just a one time event. And even if it isn’t, everyone slips up every now and then. It’s how you handle it that creates the outcome. Instead of immediately rushing into your shell or getting all defensive, it might just be more useful to laugh it off as a blooper. And then continue with your outing.
There is a split second gap between a stimulus and reaction, where you can consciously go into your mind and choose the response that you want to deliver. When you become conscious of this, the next time a similar event happens, you can choose a different response, and hence you get a different outcome.
What new belief, response or action can I take to affect a potentially different, preferably desirable, outcome?
Play with this. How would your role model react? What would he or she say? What would your favorite superhero do? What would your favorite storybook character say?
Try out different responses in your imagination. Find something that you like, that you can feel would be more in tune with a better version of yourself. Replay that response in your mind, until you can really feel as though that is how you would naturally behave the next time a similar experience happens.
And it’s ok if you don’t get it right in real life. Perhaps you didn’t get the effect you were hoping for, or you didn’t exactly pull it off like you thought you would. That’s all right. No one really gets it exactly perfect the first time round anyway.
Applying This Self-Discovery Model To Other Areas of Life
Questioning what you believe about areas of your life brings awareness to what you have been thinking about them. You can apply this to your career, your finances, your relationships or your health. Practically anything in your life can be examined using this model of discovering your beliefs.
In the process of doing this, you will start to discover there are certain natural laws that govern this universe we live in. And if you apply these laws correctly, you start to co-create together with the universe to create more joy, fun and awesomeness in your life.
Not everything you believe about life and yourself is true. In fact, most of what you believe is probably questionable.
However, once you do start living an examined life, you will start to realize that many of the limitations that you believe you have are truly self-imposed. And by questioning the validity of these limitations, you start to open yourself up to a truly amazing universe.
Life can truly be an awesome adventure, once you open up to the possibilities of joy and fun that the Universe wants to offer you.
