Thinking is absolutely crucial. Most of success isn’t dependent on circumstances, skills, or time spent. The single most important aspect you can have as a winner is your thinking. Oddly enough, if thinking is so critical, why don’t more people do it?
- People think it doesn’t truly matter
- Most of us are deluded by the successful on TV and think that they are lucky or one of the few chosen ones that were destined for greatness at birth.
- They don’t think they can change it
- Once people understand the toils and trials that winners take to achieve greatness, they consider themselves par and there’s nothing they can do to get better.
- They aren’t motivated enough
- Many times this is absolutely true but there are numerous examples of motivations that are more negative than positive. Because of incidents that happen throughout life, winners take obstacles that have been thrown at them and decide to overcome them instead of being beaten down.
The Two Circles
There are two circles that we must come to grips with and find out which one we are placed in; the thinking circle and the dreaming circle. The thinking circle are those sets of people who have the right mindset. They understand the power of thinking positively and drown out the negative. They realize the power of the mind and have resolved not to use it destructively. The dreaming circle are those people that can see their life differently in the future. They see the good that they can do or the benefit they can have to society. They see the new car, the college fund for their kid, or a dream home. The dreaming circle includes people who can see in the future a better life for themselves and those around them.
Nobody that is placed in one of these individual circles are winners. The thinkers never move forward towards a certain tomorrow. The dreamers never take action today. Those that utilize both circles will, undoubtedly, win.
The Power of Your Thinking
- No negative thinking in your thinking circle
- If our thoughts become our actions then by introducing a negative thought, we are paving the way for negative actions. Positive thoughts push us through to our goals and dreams because it’s where our focus lies. As a Christian, my focus is not on the things of this world. If it were, I would allow circumstances and negative influences to affect how I live for Christ today. If you want to achieve something worthwhile, you must continually be pressing on toward your goal instead of being bounced around by the waves.
- Law of exchange
- Negative thinking will undoubtedly be introduced into our heads. Whether by outside influences, friends, or even our nature. Instead of suppressing, we need to be exchanging. Your thoughts can always be exchanged by simple suggestions. For example: I want you to think of the White House in D.C. You probably have it pictured in your head with the American flag flying in the foreground around the gardens surrounding it. Now if I told you to imagine a purple elephant stomping around the grounds and blowing its trumpet while smashing all the flowers and knocking down the flag pole, you might have a different perspective on visualizing the White House. In accordance with that, when a negative thought flows in your head, you take a positive thought and stomp the negative one to the ground which will diminish the negative one to practically nothing.
- If you can’t see it, you’re not doing it enough
- Our minds are incredibly resilient if we put something in enough times. I haven’t seen the Brady Bunch for probably over 15 years, but if you asked me to start singing the theme song, I could do it in a flash. (Now take that purple elephant and start smashing those nine different sections with the Brady faces.) My point is that if you can close your eyes and your dream still seems a bit fuzzy, then you aren’t dreaming it enough. It has to be visualized in your mind so much that you can feel the sandy beach, smell the T-bone steak, and hear the voices of your friends you want to spend more time with.
What do you do now, you ask?
- Create a goal
- Visualize it till it’s a solid future memory
- Find a respected mentor who has achieved your goal
- Ask what steps need to be taken to achieve that goal
- Do it without cutting corners