Control Your Destiny.

"A person is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts." - As a Man Thinketh, James Allen.

James Allen means character in both the broad and narrow sense; our total being in the broad sense and our moral fibre in the narrow sense.

We are where we are today because of all the thoughts we had up until today. Where we are in the future will be based on the thoughts we accumulate until that day. Through our thoughts we have created the life we live. And that was probably as hard for me to accept as any thing I've encountered because I didn't want to admit that the garbage in my life had been my own creation.

But I learned something very valuable when I really analysed this concept. If it was my thinking, and my thinking alone, that had brought me such a miserable condition, then Hallelujah! I could change my thinking and change my condition.

And it was true --- and it worked. And it continues to work!

He's not talking about the fleeting thoughts that come into our mind and disapear quickly. He's talking about the thoughts we dwell on, the ones we return to over and over.

Maybe it's the past negative circumstances that we've built personal monuments to. Maybe it's a negative thought about some aspect of our health or finances, and we keep returning to this thought again and again. Or perhaps it's some wrong we've suffered at the hands of someone who used to be close to us. It's these thoughts that shape our lives in ways that bring us misery and unhappiness.

How devastating if we look back at our life with regret. Doesn't that act of looking back create another thought (or thoughts)? Doesn't that affect our life today and tomorrow?

On the other hand, how exhilarating it is if we look forward with confidence. If we accept James Allen's philosophy it means that we each alone control our destiny. William James, the great psycologist of the early twentieth century, said the greatest discovery of his generation was that people could choose their destiny.

It's not our circumstances, not our spouse, not our boss. It's our thoughts that are in control! So we can be in control... because we can control our thoughts.

And that's worth thinking about.

- Vic Johnson


-- Posted from my iPhone