We all have read Newton’s Third law of motion- “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction”. In simple words, for every consequence, there is a reason behind it. Have you ever wondered if our life was a consequence of some reason, what is the reason behind it? Few people would feel it is the destiny and few may think it is fate. But you know what exactly is the reason behind our life? Our Thoughts.
Yes, exactly. Our thoughts are what makes us good or bad. Our thoughts are what makes us ordinary or extraordinary. Our thoughts are what makes us special or weird. And very importantly our thoughts are what makes us what we are today. In simple words what you think is what you become. Our life is just a visual projection of what we think.
One would wonder how exactly that works? How exactly is that the thoughts shape of our life? Just like various laws in different subjects, there is a law in psychology- Law of Dominant Thoughts. The law states that our life is shaped on the basis of our dominant thoughts. Your mind will act on thoughts which are dominant in your mind. These dominant thoughts are what we call as “Belief”.
Orison Swett Marden- “What we sincerely believe regarding ourselves is true for us”.
I have briefly given few examples wherein I’ve explained how one’s thoughts have an impact on his/ her life.
Strength/ Weakness: We all have our own set of strengths as well as weaknesses and both have their own importance in our life. I have always believed that not only just our strengths but even our weakness makes us special and unique. But how do we build these strengths or weaknesses in our life? People are good at something because they think they are made for it. Also, people are weak at some things because they think they are not made for it. Any way around, our thoughts are what gives us strengths as well as weaknesses.
Many people are weak in mathematics. You know why? Not because they are not good at it or because it is too hard. But because they think that they are not made for it or think that they are not intelligent enough to crack the problems. And the thoughts and belief are so strong that the sub-conscious mind accepts this as truth and behaves accordingly.
Henry Ford “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.”
Success/ Failure: Now one would say that to achieve success, one has to work hard, put efforts continuously, be committed, persistent, etc. and our thoughts have nothing do with being successful or failure. But the truth is, to be successful, one has to think and believe that he is successful. Only when a person thinks himself to be successful, he would be successful. Similarly, people most often fail because they believe that they are failures.
Dominant thoughts are like the starting point of the journey to success or failure. For example, when you think that you will succeed, you often do those things which are required to achieve success like being dedicated, committed, persistent, hard-working, etc. When you think you will fail, you do those things which lead you to failure like negligence, escapism, etc. In simple words, thoughts are what makes you successful or failure.
As rightly said by Dr Joyce Brothers, “Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success”.
Mr Virgil said that “They can because they think they can”.
Attitude: There are two sets of people in the world- One with a positive attitude and the other with negative. The positive attitude people often find opportunities and good in each and everything happening around them, whether that is good or bad. The negative attitude people are those who often find threats and bad in each and everything happening around them, whether that is good or bad.
And what makes the attitude of a person good or bad? It is again our thoughts. As rightly said by Jeff Keller in his book “Attitude is Everything” that our thoughts and beliefs make our attitude and that attitude is everything in our life.
Health: There are numerous cases, where a person going through a dreadful disease whom even the doctors had written off that they would not survive, have survived and we term it as “Miracle”. Yes, it is a miracle and it happens due to the strong positive belief of the person that they will survive. On the other hand, there are instances where people suffering through mild fewer do not survive. It happens due to the negative belief of the person.
As rightly said in Bhagavad Gita, that medicine does not heal your pain or disease, it only helps/ aids your mind in healing your pain or disease and your thoughts are actually what keeps you healthy or sick. Now you know why people with unhealthy diet do not fall sick [including me] and why people following a strict diet and not having junk food do often fall sick. It is their thoughts and belief.
Kindly note that I am suggesting you follow an unhealthy diet. A healthy diet is very important in life along with healthy thoughts.
Wealth: People with a negative belief that they cannot make money often end up being poor and people with a positive belief that they can become rich often end up being rich. When people often think and repeat that they are losing money then they will definitely end up losing money no matter what.
Likewise, your thoughts and belief have an impact on each and every aspect of your life, whether it is your happiness, relationships, etc. Our lives are majorly dependent on what we think and believe. Over a period of time, we often have certainly fixed thoughts of ourselves in our minds that often make or break us.
But you can change your things and accordingly change your lives. In the words of William James, “The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.”
So how can you change? The answer is Dominant thoughts. You fail because of your negative dominant thoughts. This can be changed by thinking dominantly that you are a success. The thought which outweighs the other is the one that shapes you. So, in order to succeed, your positive thought should be dominant and should outweigh your negative thought of failure.
How to build a dominant thought? Positive affirmations, think continuously with a clear mind that you are successful when you wake up and before you sleep. Meditation is the best way for positive affirmation because that is when you will have a clear mind.
Imagination, imagine yourself to be successful, imagine yourself winning your goal, receiving a particular award, etc. The more you imagine positive the more your positive thoughts become dominant and you become successful.
Visual aids, like writing a cheque with the amount which you want to earn as your first salary, write in a page that you will achieve what you desire and paste it where you sit so that you can read every time you sit at that place or having the phone wallpaper with you will reach your goal.
For example, I have pasted in front of my bed, that I will meet my inspiration professionally in 10 years and trust me I have started to believe it and I have been working on things which would ultimately help me meet my inspiration.
Before ending, I would say that our life is shapeless like water. Like water takes the shape of the container in which it is stored, in the same way, our life takes the shape as per our thoughts. Think positively and your life will get shaped as per your thoughts in a beautiful way.
The biggest investment in your life is your thoughts. Invest with positive thoughts and have a successful, happy and peaceful journey.
It is the time of new year with many new year resolutions. Hope you make it a resolution to have positive dominant thoughts and beliefs and lead a happy, successful, healthy life.
A very happy new year to each and every one. Hope my article was helpful to you in one or the other way.
The author can also be reached at ragnansrk@gmail.com.
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