The MONTHLY Motivator - September 2010

Successful thinking

Everything you do begins as a thought in your mind. Although you won’t make things happen solely by thinking about them, with your actions you are constantly making things happen in your world, and your thoughts direct those actions.

Think of how a speedboat moves through the water. The engine turns the propeller and that pushes the boat forward. The rudder moves from side to side to guide the boat in a specific direction. In your life, your actions are like the motor, pushing your life forward. Your thoughts are like the rudder, guiding those actions in a certain direction. Both are essential to get where you want to go.

Your attitude is a key component of the whole process. So what is your attitude based on? Well, you might think your attitude is determined by the things that happen to you. If you’re in a lousy situation, you’ll naturally have a lousy attitude, right? Wrong. Your attitude is based not on what’s happening, but on your interpretation of what’s happening. Your attitude is based on what you are telling yourself about life. Your attitude is based on your thoughts. So your thoughts are not only guiding you in a specific direction, they’re also determining your attitude, and your attitude determines how effective you are in moving forward.

All throughout the day, you’re talking to yourself. No one talks to you more than you do. No one has a greater influence on your thinking, on your perspective, on your attitude, than you. And, whatever you’re saying to yourself, you’re absolutely going to believe. You accept it almost without question. After all, why would you lie to yourself? If you can’t trust your own words that you speak to yourself in your mind, then who can you trust?

So you’re always talking to yourself, always thinking to yourself, and you have absolutely credibility with yourself. That gives you an enormous amount of power over your life.

Just think how it would be if someone else were constantly whispering in your ear, giving you advice, interpreting the world, saying the same things over and over again. Obviously that could be very annoying, but no matter how annoying it would be, you would listen. You’d have to. You would have no choice. And those words constantly whispered in your ear would have an effect. Now just consider how much greater effect your own words, constantly whispered to yourself through your thoughts, would have on everything you do.

And as you think about that, you can easily understand what an outstanding opportunity it is. You have the power to control a highly creative, highly productive, highly effective human life -- your own life. The possibilities are endless, and those possibilities are accessed through your thoughts.

It’s important to realize your awareness has limits. There are only so many things you can effectively focus on at one time. In fact, in any given instant you’re just focused on one specific thing, although you can switch your focus very quickly. What this means is that the more positive, empowering things you focus on and fill your mind with, the less room you’ll have for things like doubt and despair. When you think about the positive possibilities, again and again and again, and crowd out all other thoughts, you naturally and effectively guide yourself to the successful realization of those possibilities.

So how exactly do you keep your mind filled with positive thoughts?

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--Ralph Marston

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