Now, we're all products of our environment and I'm a firm believer that what we are exposed to shapes our thinking, our decision making, and our actions. So if we just break this down just a little bit, we all have a spiritual, social and relational history.

Your spiritual history - that's kind of like your belief system, or your faith. Then we have a social history, and that's largely dictated by our parents and what they exposed us to. Finally, we have a relational history - that's our friends, marriages, partners and peer groups.

So pretty much all of the time, we are exposed to thinking, ideas and suggestions that influence our outlook on the world, and what we determine as being possible or impossible.

On the basis of that information, we will then use our initiative to take action, or the fear of change, being different and stepping out from the crowd will keep you exactly where you are.

When it comes to this idea of negative thinking and people - getting drawn into a pattern of negative thinking can literally be likened to building a prison in your own mind because it holds you captive.

Negative thought patterns are repetitive, they're unproductive, they serve no real purpose and directly cause negative emotions.

When the mind casts itself into the future, and conjures up scenes and thoughts about what could go wrong, or create 'what if?' scenarios, you've pretty much become trapped in what I would class as a negative thought pattern.

I read somewhere once that a shark in a fish tank will grow eight inches but in the ocean, it will grow to eight feet or more. The shark will never outgrow its environment and that is exactly the same for you.

Change will begin with choice and that choice is yours. Any day you wish you can discipline yourself to change it all. Any day you wish you can open up the book that will open your mind to new knowledge. Any day you choose, you can start a new activity, you can start the process of life change, and guess what - you can do it immediately.

We all have both the ability and the responsibility to make better choices - beginning today.

What's your coaching takeaway? Change will happen when the pain of staying the same becomes far worse.

I want to share some ideas with you about negativity: how to recognise it, and how to wave goodbye to negative people.