Does the thought of having to go to work at your studio as soon as you open your eyes in the morning seem to threaten to bring down your entire day? Do you dread having to confront certain people concerning certain issues? Are there things that when you think of them, bring up immense amounts of fear to the point where you'd almost prefer to do anything else but face these folks head on?

If any or all of these seem to be you at certain points in your life, not to worry. We all have feelings such as these from time to time. The key to all of this is to not let any of these thoughts bring you down. Thoughts such as these can all but stop you from moving forward. The examples I've just taken you through can all be attributed to something called Habitual Thought Patterning. These are thoughts that are always connected to feelings that seem to come up on a frequent basis. We've conditioned ourselves by way of outside stimuli. We remember situations of a negative nature and are often doomed to repeat them again and again because of how we think about the issues connected with those particular situations. These are literal repeating patterns of thoughts that don't always serve us.

If a review with an employee has gone bad, that could turn you away from wanting to conduct future employee reviews with the rest of your staff simply because you had a such a bad experience with the last review. Your thoughts connected with the issue could go something like this; "I HATE giving employee reviews because they never seem to be appreciated. The outcome is nothing short of terrible!"

Habitual Thought Patterning can even go deeper. Say that in your childhood, you had nearly drowned in a community swimming pool. That experience was terrifying because for the first time in your life, you were confronted with the possibility of not pulling through a trying situation. Even though it's years later, your friends now insist you go with them to the beach for a day of swimming, sun and fun. Fun, yes. Sun, sure. But swimming? Not! The thought pattern that has been firmly engrained in your subconscious remembers the feelings associated with your childhood swimming pool experience and the same fear you felt way back then is very much a part of your present day experience. Because something happened years ago, you are preventing yourself from experiencing something that might be of benefit to you in your present day life. There is no right or wrong when it comes to something like this. It's just a given.

So how does one break these thoughts and feelings that come up from time to time that paint a mostly negative pallet that prevents us from moving forward? How do you get out of bed each day and feel excited about going to work? How do you feel motivated to give each employee a review? How do you go to the beach and have the time of your life? The answer might be easier than you think.

If it is safe, if it seems right, no matter what your mind-chatter might say about it, take the steps you need to take to just get the task done. In other words, if you don't feel like getting out of bed to go to work today ask yourself, "Does what I'm thinking at this moment have more to do with my past than my present? Maybe I didn't feel like going to work two weeks ago but how about if I give it a go today? If I go I just might be surprised how wonderful my day might be. Maybe I need to give myself a chance and not let old stuff prevent me from moving forward in my life."

Concerning giving your next employee review you might think, "I will not let one bad experience giving a review in the past taint all future reviews. Employee reviews can be very constructive and helpful things, not only for the employee, but for me to keep a connection with my employees as well. I'm going to use this as a tool to continue to build my business and make it a positive thing instead of thinking about it as a negative. That was then, this is now."

How about a dip at the shore? "I acknowledge that almost drowning as a child was truly horrific. I'm not taking anything away from that but I need to know and feel that this happened so long ago. Maybe things like this happen so that the next time something similar presents itself to me, I will embrace it with open arms instead of run away from it. Do I want to have something from my past continue to have a hold over my present experience?"

You have more power concerning your direction in life than you might have thought. The issue is not letting patterns from the past have a hold on your present and future experience. Then you need to put your newfound thoughts and words into action. You are the only one who can make it happen. Negative issues from the past can service as gifts of learning for our present. Seeing them as a gift, we now have the choice to move on from what was a lesson worth learning.

So the next time you are aware of thoughts from the past holding you from moving forward in a positive direction, see if those thoughts might be old patterns of feelings connected with things that no longer need to exist. Not letting those thoughts and feelings hold you back can often be as easy as overriding them with a present choice such as "I'm going to the beach today and I will do everything I can to get in the water and have a great time. I deserve it...I'm just going to do it!"

You are the Captain of your ship. Don't let storms prevent you from getting to your destination. Storms are temporary. The blue sky and sun that always lurks behind storm clouds are what you need to keep your heart set on.