When AMRE Inc., a home-improvement licensee in Dallas, went out of business in 1996, Mac Martirossian, vice president of operations, was terminated along with four other key executives.

Throughout his 20-year career, Mr. Martirossian had been a high achiever. Born in Armenia and educated in the U.S., he earned his CPA in 1978 and was a dedicated, high-energy performer. He started his career in public accounting, progressed to become a chief financial officer in the private sector, then switched to operations. When AMRE decided to close, he helped orchestrate its shutdown and the departure of 3,000 employees. Now, for the first time, he was without a position.

Devastated by his termination and anxious about his future, he became angry about his plight. Next, he was filled with self-doubt, wondering if he’d done enough to save the company, let alone his job.

Mr. Martirossian knew that both these emotions, if allowed to continue, would hinder his job search. He reminded himself that having a positive outlook and drive had propelled him in the past and would do so again. Resetting his attitude to "optimistic," he shifted gears and focused on his goal of finding a new position. He concentrated on making the effort to succeed and reach his objective. Fear, anger, anxiety and other considerations became inconsequential.

In less than four months, he landed a senior marketing management position in Dallas with Howard Schultz & Associates Inc., an international financial services firm operating in 15 countries on four continents. Within a few months of being hired, he was promoted to senior vice president of worldwide business development.

Accomplished professionals understand the impact of their thoughts and attitudes. Like Mr. Martirossian, they concentrate on the outcome they want, assume they’re responsible for reaching their objectives and minimize or overcome barriers to their goals.

But many people assume that external factors control what happens to them. The term locus of control describes the orientation you believe is responsible for the outcome of events in your life. Those with an external locus of control believe the economy, government, employer, friends, enemies or another external factor determines their destinies.

If you believe that your life and its inevitable ups and downs are controlled by outside events and forces, you’ll see no point in trying to manage it. Some indicators that someone believes in an external locus of control are expressions of:

• blame ("He, she, they or it did this to me")

• weaknesses ("I can’t")

• rigidity ("That’s the way I’ve always been")

• belief in fate or chance ("I’ve never had the chance to...")

• wishful thinking ("If I hadn’t done that, things would be fine").

If you believe you have control over your destiny (internal locus of control), you’ll take responsibility for managing it. Internally focused individuals perceive that positive or negative events result from their own actions. They expect a certain event or outcome to materialize based on their personal effort or thoughts.

Examples of statements you might expect to hear from internally focused individuals include: "Yes, I’m lucky, because I work hard at making my own luck," "My job is fun and rewarding because I look for the good in it" or "If it’s going to be, it’s up to me."

Most successful people have an internal locus of control. They accept their own creative powers. They recognize and take personal responsibility for what happens to them.

Lou Smith, a real-estate agent in Dallas for more than 40 years, practices this philosophy and notes its effect -- or lack of it -- in other professionals.

"I had associates who experienced their best business performance during the worst economic times and others who couldn’t make a sale in the best of times," she says. "It’s all a state of mind."

Ms. Smith graduated from the "school of hard knocks," leaving formal education early to work and start a family. She began her career in real estate in 1950 in eastern Montana. After several years of success, she began studying the power of the human mind.

She shared her findings with others, conducting classes on the subject. Eventually, she landed a federal grant to start Recreating Your Future, an institute in Dallas that worked with unemployed professionals. Ms. Smith, who has since closed the school, focused on enhancing their personal selling and job-search skills, emphasizing how to creatively use the mind.

Ms. Smith teaches people to create the job they really want by first mentally envisioning it. Once you know how a job will look when you’re actually working in it, finding it in the becomes much easier, she says.

As you approach the job market, your mental frame of reference is a key factor in your success. It’s important to learn and apply the tactics of job searching, such as conducting research on the Internet, writing a new resume, creating tailored cover letters, setting networking goals and interviewing assertively. But if you pay as much attention to your attitude, you may be more effective. The quality and quantity of opportunities you uncover are related to your perspective and your behavior.

Consider a geophysicist who sought outplacement assistance after his job was eliminated at a major energy company in North Texas. He expected he’d have to take a significant pay cut to find a new position because, after 20 years with his former employer, he believed his pay was high for the marketplace. With this belief, he had programmed his expectations and braced himself for a drastic cut.

Sure enough, the geophysicist soon located a similar job to the one he had just left, but at a 30% lower salary. Nevertheless, he was pleased because he thought his pay might have dipped even lower. He received what he expected.

Fortunately, the story didn’t end there. After discussing his attitude with a career counselor, he learned to use positive "self-talk" to raise his self-esteem. He then received another job offer from a Houston company that paid nearly the same as his previous position.

Is your self-talk positive or negative? This inner dialogue is an automatic, almost constant occurrence in our minds. Researchers say most people’s self-talk is more negative than positive, but you can take control of your inner discussion and make it work for you. By taking this step, you can program yourself to achieve what you want. In your career, this might mean new positions, promotions, pay increases, new business opportunities and other successes.

A good way to create positive self-talk is through affirmations. An affirmation is a statement that represents your desired condition. You can replace stale, counterproductive or negative mind chatter with positive affirmations, ideas and concepts. In his book, "What To Say When You Talk To Yourself" (Pocket Books, 1990), author Shad Helmstetter suggests using the following rephrasing process to make your inner dialogue positive:

1. Formulate your statement in positive terms. Say what you want and avoid stating what you don’t want. For example, instead of saying, "I don’t want to be sick," say "I’m healthy." Instead of "I don’t want to take a cut in pay," say "I earn $_______."

2. Phrase your statement in the present tense as if it were already so. Pretend that your goal or success is here and now. For example, instead of saying, "I want to be relaxed," rephrase it to "I’m relaxed." Instead of "I want a position", say "I’m in the position of _________." This can be difficult because the statement isn’t currently true. However, reprogramming your subconscious requires invoking absolute, positive words and pictures that represent what you want. The subconscious doesn’t judge your thoughts or differentiate between truth and falsehoods. When you tell it something or create a picture, it accepts the input without question. You’re programming your inner self just as you would a computer.

3. Construct your statement to be specific and concise. For example, say "I’m thin and physically fit" or "I’m a successful sales rep earning top compensation of $___________."

4. Keep it personal. Formulate affirmations that are right for you. Avoid taking on others’ goals or desires. Your goal is to satisfy yourself -- not someone else.

5. Create a feeling of belief. Suspend your doubts and hesitations (at least temporarily). If you allow contradictory thoughts or negative self-talk to dominate, your affirmations won’t bear fruit.

For those making career transitions, these general affirmations may apply:

• "I’m competent, and I effectively market my credentials to prospective employers."

• "I have the ideal job for me, involving only the things I love to do."

• "My compensation is high enough to satisfy all my needs and wants."

Whether you call your inner dialogue self-suggestion, programming, self-talk or reframing, the affirmation process is a powerful tool of the mind. Applied correctly and consistently, it’s the basis for setting and achieving your goals.

When creating a positive mental attitude, creative visualization goes hand-in-hand with affirmations. This process simply means using your imagination to create what you want in your life. The "mechanics" of visualization include these five steps:

1. Think of something you would like to be, do or have. While you can visualize with your eyes open, perhaps even while engaged in other activities, the ideal condition is with eyes closed and relaxed.

2. Turn inward and picture your goal in your mind. You might see clear, sharp images or experience colors, feelings or words.

3. Visualize the accomplishment of your desired outcome as if it has already happened. Picture your goal in the first person, present tense. For example, you might see yourself at a desk in the job you want.

4. Allow all your other senses (touch, smell, taste and hearing) to participate as well. Experience your goal fully and vividly through your mind’s domain.

5. Continue visualizing for as long as you can or want. Fifteen to 30 minutes is optimal. Some avid practitioners take more time. On the other hand, five minutes is better than nothing.

For job seekers, visualizing a successful encounter prior to every interview can be a powerful search tool. Picture yourself talking with the interviewer, handling the dialogue easily and effectively.

Incorporate a relaxed, self-assured feeling that portrays competence and credibility. See yourself receiving a job offer or promotion under your own terms and conditions. You might even visualize yourself performing in the job. If you practice and mentally duplicate the activity in advance of the actual event, you’ll generate a more comfortable and confident feeling during the "live" performance.

You may wonder, "How can I visualize a person or physical setting I haven’t seen before?" The answer is to use your imagination. Create a setting that you haven’t seen and think about it until it becomes real and vivid to you.

Jim Adams, an insurance consultant in Dallas with New York Life Insurance Co., has practiced affirmations and visualizations for years. Being a positive person who takes responsibility for himself makes life more enjoyable, he says.

"What we think about is what we get; so we create our own outcomes," he says. "It’s more rewarding to be up (positive) than it is to be down. If you observe other people, you realize they prefer to be around upbeat individuals."

What you focus on is what you get. You can take charge in a positive way and program what you want or abdicate to your automatic pilot. In the latter case, the outcome might not be what you want. The choice is yours.

-- Mr. Yaquinto is vice president and senior consultant in Dallas for Right Management Consultants, an international career-management, human development and organizational consulting service firm.