The following article is from a chapter in Randal Churchill and Cheryl Canfield's provocative new book, Churchill-Canfield's Law: What Can Go Right Will Go Right.

Every moment of your life you are creating through thought. You create your own inner conditions and you’re helping to create the conditions around you. -Peace Pilgrim

Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better. – John Updike

A mind that is stretched to a new idea never returns to its original dimensions. – Albert Einstein

Whatever you believe you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic to it. – Goethe

Thought is a function of mind and to fully utilize this most precious of gifts, it serves us well to understand the complexity of our cognitive potential. The conscious mind is the reasoning mind. It contains the seat of our will power, discipline, discernment, discrimination and concentration. The conscious mind can be likened to a computer programmer, the part that directs and makes decisions.

Like a computer, the subconscious mind is the storehouse of our prior programming. It is a memory bank of our thoughts, feelings, emotions, memories, imagination, creativity, habit patterns, impulses, desires and instincts. It includes that automatic part of our mind that operates the physical body without any conscious direction. The subconscious mind can also be called a gateway to the superconscious.

The superconscious mind is our source of greater awareness. It connects us to that place of intuition and inner guidance as well as to the collective unconscious, a vast reservoir of information that can be accessed through this channel.

When you begin to understand more fully the almost limitless boundaries of your mind, you can use your tremendous creative potential to create a more rich and empowered life, filled with purpose and meaning. In order to successfully make positive changes you need to use more than the conscious mind or seat of will power, which may be in conflict with deeply held patterns or beliefs in the subconscious mind. When you make a connection with the underlying aspects of mind, you are able to reach and affect deeply held patterns and beliefs for the purpose of reeducation and facilitating permanent change.

A decision utilizing the conscious mind alone is an act of will and though it may work in the short term, it usually doesn’t affect the level at which habits reside. Therefore an individual may intellectually decide to quit smoking, but unless he or she reaches down into the subconscious mind and makes a shift at the source, the force of the habit is more likely to resurface. By utilizing tools which access our subconscious minds, such as imagination and emotion, we can get to the source and change a habit pattern or unconscious belief, which is the basis of hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis.

In order to use the full potential of your thoughts you need to get past any limiting beliefs that have held you back or blocked your ability to create the rich and empowered life of your choosing. Your core beliefs are predominantly the product of ideas taken in from the influences around you when you were young, before you had developed a reasoning mind of your own, and those you continued to take on as a result of your experiences as you grew. You may even hold conflicting beliefs which cause you to wonder why you seem to sabotage yourself or have difficulty following through with an intention.

Let’s say your intention is to be successful in business but you keep holding back instead of trying to get that promotion. In may be that a conflicting belief is being held in the subconscious mind, perhaps that you are incapable or don’t deserve what you desire. Where do such disempowering perceptions or misconceptions come from and how do you get rid of them? Processes like hypnosis and meditation allow you to tap into a greater pool of your mind potential, enabling you to uncover and uproot disempowering beliefs. Then you can get the power of your creative mind behind you to create empowering beliefs that enable you to move forward.

Once you have created an empowered belief system, the first step of any desired change is to define your intention. What is it that you wish to change? When you make the changes you desire, what do the changes look like? Visualization or imagination is a powerful step in the process of creating positive change and direction. It can be especially powerful in helping to break down habits that have held you back in some way. Let’s say you’re a procrastinator. There are many things that you want to do, that you plan to do, but you rarely get to them. And you don’t understand why, so you berate yourself, feel guilty, and stay immobilized.

How can you use the creative power of your thoughts to break this pattern? A first step would be to define your intention. What are the things that you want to accomplish but have not acted on? It’s important to state your intention clearly. It may be that you’re unhappy in your present position at work. You want to stay with the company that you’ve invested your time and energy in, but you want to move up into a better position. And you want to make more money so that you can move into a home that meets your family’s growing needs.

This is as far as you may normally get in your thinking before becoming overwhelmed and immobilized. This is not the place to stop, but the place to begin creative thinking. You need to determine if these are realistic goals. If they are not, they need to be modified. It’s important to get fully behind your belief in the possibilities. Then you can look at what steps are needed to move in that direction. Perhaps it will be necessary to take several courses in order to qualify for that promotion or there may be special training to look into. Or it may mean finding the courage to speak up, confidently, to your boss.

Next, it’s time to visualize what the outcome of that intention looks like. In your mind you can imagine signing up for that class or training. You can see yourself successfully completing the program. You can imagine yourself speaking confidently to your boss and being congratulated on actually getting the desired position. In your mind’s eye you can go through a day performing your new duties. The more you engage your emotions, practice feeling confident and excited and being good at this work, the more empowering the visualization will be in manifesting the desired outcome. You can imagine your new paycheck and feel the satisfaction. You can look around in your imagination and find an ideal house that would best suit the family’s needs, and take time to enjoy being there. Still in your state of creative thinking, you can look back at all the steps it took to get to this place.

These steps can be applied to any desired skill or goal: public speaking, confidence, concentration, athletic or scholastic achievement, enhanced relationships. The following is a general outline of steps that can be contracted or expanded or changed in any way that fits a personal goal:

Create an empowered belief system. If a belief is holding you back in any way, it is disempowering. Change the belief by substituting an empowered one. Example: Change from, “I’ve never been comfortable in new situations,” to “I’m ready and excited to embrace new situations and the rewarding experiences and adventures to come.”

State an intention: What is it that you want to accomplish or change? Be as specific as possible. “I want to lose weight” is general. “I want to weigh 135 pounds and be radiantly healthy” is more specific.

Check the goals. Are they realistic? (Not, “Am I confident enough?” But, “If I want to become a teacher am I willing to put in the time and effort to get through school, etc.”)

If necessary, modify goals to be realistic. Get beliefs fully behind the intention that is set.

List all of the steps it will take to get to the realization of the goal.

Visualize. Engage your emotions. See yourself successfully accomplishing each step you have listed and notice how good the accomplishment feels at every step along the way. You may discover more steps to add to your list.

Let your imagination play with the fantasy of your goal already being accomplished. Begin acting as if you are already there.

Step by step, move your visualizations into action. Modify when necessary.

Research and science show the validity of the mind-body connection. The reality is that we are not hardwired to be a certain way for the duration of our lives and our genes do not pre-determine a certain path or outcome. We are constantly adapting and changing. The creative power of our thinking gives us tremendous ability to shift from powerless to powerful by changing the way we think.

Intention, the first step in goal setting, is general. It enables us to connect to universal energy, which is amazingly powerful. Wayne Dyer calls intention the spiritual aspect of goal setting. There are seven words he used to represent this connection to that higher directing force: creativity, kindness, love, beauty, expansion, abundance and receptivity. If we feel or behave inconsistently with these seven facets of intention, he says, we’ve disconnected from the power of intention. That means we’re on our own - without those powerful universal forces.

When we enter this elevated place of working with intention we have an opportunity to examine any and all self-imposed obstacles. These are the limiting beliefs or misconceptions we have that can hold us back from setting our intentions and achieving our goals.

Once we see a negative thought pattern or belief we can recognize it as a disempowering thought and replace it with an empowering one. What we focus on, we tend to manifest. As you become aware of your inner dialogue you can ask yourself these questions: are these thoughts empowering or disempowering? Am I in charge or a victim? Am I coming from fear or compassion? By becoming aware we are able to reframe our thinking to a positive perspective. As inspirations come from this elevated state they can then be put into action. Without action they become unrealized potential. As we act on our inspirations doors we may not have even anticipated can begin to open. Positive inner dialogue becomes the link connecting us to intention, and intention leads to inspiration and action.

Research shows that with the conscious direction of thought things beyond the ordinary are created, beyond even what was thought possible - within the boundaries of reality. We live in a vast field of potential. We can use our minds with deliberate intention, as a powerful creative tool. We can lift our awareness from the restrictions of our ordinary reality into that universal force, surpassing the confines of formerly limited perceptions.

Start with your creative imagination, and imagine looking through a special window that allows you to see right to the source of all creation. You yourself are connected to this source, this limitless energy. Your intention is to stay connected, to live your life on purpose, open to the inspiration of your own higher nature. Feel the dormant forces come alive. As you begin putting your focus on the positive things that you’d really like to see happen in your life, you may be surprised at what you can actually do.