Thoughts are Things: Finding Ways to Change Your World

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What if there was a way for you to control just about every aspect of your life and change them for the better. Will you use it?

While reading Napoleon Hill’s book, The Law of Success In Sixteen Lessons, I came across a very familiar and valuable poem which contains the essence of several excellent success and self-improvement books and I want to share it with you.

Thoughts are Things: Finding Ways to Change Your World

Thoughts are Things

by Henry Van Dyke

I hold it true that thoughts are things;

They’re endowed with bodies and breath and wings;

And that we send them forth to fill

The world with good results, or ill.

That which we call our secret thought

Speeds forth to earth’s remotest spot,

Leaving its blessings or its woes

Like tracks behind it as it goes.

We build our future thought by thought,

For good or ill, yet know it not.

Yet, so the universe was wrought.

Thought is another name for fate;

Choose, then, thy destiny and wait,

For love brings love and hate brings hate.

(Source: http://www.sathyaish.net/poetry/ThoughtsAreThings.aspx)

 

What are building blueprints, airplane schematics, business plans, economic agendas, and physics theories? Goals and plans? They are simply thoughts and ideas written down, and they’re as real as any physical object. It doesn’t end there, however. Our idle thoughts and ideas about the world affect much of our lives as well.

As much as people love thinking that their wins and achievements are all solely thanks to their efforts, they also love blaming the government, their parents, spouse, friends, family, the economy, bad luck, and literally just about everything else in the world for their failings (biases in attribution).

While it’s true that we can’t change lot of things in this world there is, however, one thing we CAN, and it can mean the difference between achieving prosperity or poverty, happiness or despair, success or failure. That one thing is simply our THOUGHTS.

 

Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries and inventions, and all achievement.

— Claude M. Bristol

Secret thoughts STILL affect things

Like how the person we secretly like senses our intentions though our body language and actions, our innermost thoughts will always find a way to influence the world we live in.

If you think someone is kind or friendly, you’ll unconsciously treat them well and they’ll likely treat you kindly in return. If you meet a good person and you mistakenly think they’re mean, rude, or evil, you’ll subconsciously treat them rudely and they’ll treat you that way as well.

Think well of people and they’ll think well of you. Think badly of people and they’ll think badly of you. No matter how much you try to hide it, people will sense it from the sincerity or deceit behind your smiles and frowns.

Remember that whatever you think about certain people or things will certainly affect how you act around them. You’ll either attract them to you, or you’ll drive them away. Let me ask you this then. What do you think of money? Is it “evil” or is it simply a tool humans use similar to shovels or plane tickets? What do you think of “rich people”? Are they “cheaters” and “crooks”, or are they diligent workers who provide excellent services and products (like life-saving doctors and the engineers who built our computers and gadgets)?

Your thoughts will always affect your actions AND the results you achieve in life no matter how much you may want to believe otherwise.

 

If you would know what the Lord God thinks of money, you have only to look at those to whom he gives it.

— Maurice Baring

The lack of money is the root of all evil.

— Mark Twain

 

Thought is another name for fate

You decided to take your college course because you THOUGHT it was right for you.

You decided to apply for the job you have because you THOUGHT you could do it. You continued doing that job or you stayed with that company because you THOUGHT you’d do well at it or you THOUGHT you couldn’t do better by moving somewhere else. If, on the other hand, you decided to quit your old job and move to a new one, it was because you THOUGHT it was the right thing to do.

You started your own business because you THOUGHT of building one, and you THOUGHT you could succeed at it. You never gave up even when some of your past businesses failed because you THOUGHT you could make it as an entrepreneur, and so you did.

On the other hand, some people never bothered applying for the job they want or they never bothered starting their own business or expanding it because they DIDN’T THINK they could succeed. They lost before they even started.

Your destiny is built from everything you do. Everything you do now, like investing a part of your income as opposed to getting buried in debt, learning how to lead people as opposed to cheating customers to get more money, or doing your best to advance your career as opposed to sticking to a safe yet low quality job you hate, will certainly affect your future. As the decisions you make and the things you do come from your thoughts you think, then it’s safe to say that your destiny stems from the things that fill your mind.

What do you wish to achieve in life? Will your thoughts help you earn it or will they discourage you from even trying? Only you can answer that.

Think about it carefully.

Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

— Napoleon Hill

 

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