Practicing the art of good thinking

Good thinking is essential if you want to grow, and to do this you need to harness good thoughts. It is the energy that fuels the brain. It is the engine that makes the brain function properly especially when it is serviced regularly. Your thought is like a tiny mustard seed which could eventually grow into an oak tree. William Bernbach once said: “For the flower to blossom, you need the right soil as well as the right seed. The same is true to cultivate good thinking”.

Equally too, Henry Fords once said “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason so few engage in it”. Your self growth is a process and the process involves change. But change will not happen until you decide to embrace change.

If you want to see changes in your life don’t look back to the way things were. Why? Your thoughts, as powerful as they are, is responsible for your present state. And you simply cannot bring about change if you let your thoughts keep dwelling on the past. Invariably, if you continue to do this you are unwittingly keeping your self imprisoned.

Interestingly, the brain functions with the information you feed it. If you keep feeding it with negative thoughts or phrases such as “I can’t” or “It is impossible”, then your brain shuts down momentarily until you start feeding it again with positive thoughts. You can reactivate a dormant brain by growing quality thoughts about feelings of self belief, self worth and achievement.

Your thoughts are responsible for your actions. How you feel is responsible for your habits and character, and this ultimately helps you to determine your destiny. Your words, which emanate from your thoughts is a strong indication of how you see yourself and how other people see you. When you speak, do you speak with confidence? Does your demeanour announce you as a depressed person who is low in self-esteem, or as a person of high confidence when you enter a room full of people?

Not surprisingly, when people say the process of change is difficult, it comes down to two things. For starters, they hate change and will resist change at all costs as that will mean changing all their old habits and forming a new one. Secondly, you have another category of people who want to change their results and the way their life is panning out without changing the way they think.

A serious appraisal of your self needs to be carried out in order to properly engage in the process of cultivating good thoughts, otherwise it will only be a futile attempt. In order to blend good thoughts with action, you need to first know yourself.

Are you a notorious procrastinator? Do you lack good time management? Are you a person of integrity? Are you lazy and laid back? Do you always expect someone to push you in order to do anything? Are you expecting others to change first before you change yourself? Have you taken the mirror test? Do you like what you see? Do you speak sternly to yourself that you can do much better than what you are currently doing?

Next, identify what the problem is, or the change you want to see in your life. Confront your fears and deal with them. A man once said that he was always overwhelmed with fear every time he received bills through the post. As the bills started pilling up, he couldn’t bring himself to open them. His fear paralysed his brain through his negative thinking of seeing himself as a debtor.

His thoughts also gave him a false sense of security by making him feel his problems will go away if he didn’t open the bills. Then one day he focused his mind on positive things. He said he let his thoughts dwell on the assets he owned over the years, and immediately he felt a sense of joy when he realised that everything he owned dwarfed all the money he owed his creditors. In other words the problem he thought was a huge mountain became a molehill when he started dwelling on good thoughts.

Good thoughts clears your mind of clutter and unwanted thoughts. It lets you focus on the more important things than on the lesser ones. It helps you to be organised, to prioritise your goals and to plan effectively to carry them out.

Once you are clear about what you need to focus your thoughts on, clarify your thinking by giving your self the freedom to think about alternatives to that will aid your decision making. Doing so will enable you to brainstorm effectively.

You can also engage in good thinking by allowing your subconscious mind to roam free. Creative ideas do not really come when you think harder. Rather they come when you least expect them, such as when you are reading, watching television and doing your shopping.

What you need to do is write your ideas down. As someone once said, don’t let your ideas escape. What ever ideas come through your mind either through random thinking or brainstorming sessions, however irrelevant, write it down anyway. If it is not useful now, who is to say it won’t be useful later.

Finally, find a quiet room to think and set a dedicated time to do this. Afterwards, reflect on what you have thought about. But remember to be receptive to new things around you. They offer you a different perspective and by focusing your mind on it, new ideas can spring up that you can begin to apply to your life.

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