It was William Shakespeare’s Hamlet who said, “Nothing is either good or bad, it is our thinking that makes it so”. Those words might serve to remind you of the power in your thoughts.
Yes, there will probably be times when you will face difficult and maybe deeply upsetting circumstances in your life over which you have no control. However, what you can control is how you eventually choose to deal with those events.
In her popular book, Choose the Happiness Habit, Pam Golden offers a lovely illustration of this principle when she tells the story of two brothers who are twins
“…… One grows up to be an alcoholic homeless man. The other becomes an extremely successful businessman. When the alcoholic is asked why he became a drunk, he replies, ‘My father was a drunk.’
When the successful businessman is asked why he became successful, he says, ‘My father was a drunk.”
Same background; same upbringing; but different choices.
The brothers chose different paths. They took different motivations from what was an identical experience. One took the fact that their father was a drunk as an example for him to model. And in contrast, the other brother perceived the same situation as something to be avoided, motivating him to do the very opposite thing, and becoming a driver for him to succeed.
The thoughts and the different motivations the brothers derived from the same experience, over many years eventually shaped the circumstances in which they found themselves.
The journey of personal development and self-improvement begins with an awareness that it is your thinking and perception that drive your choices and subsequent actions. There is much truth in the old saying …. “You become what you think.”.
You really can start changing your life right this very moment by changing the way you think about what’s going on around you – and thereby changing the choices you make when you respond to those events. To explore this theme even further, check out Mental Toughness
May your choices be wise ones that lead you to happiness.
