We are lead into action by our thoughts.

A person is with hmself 24 hours a day and never stops thinking.

We are influenced by our own thoughts more than any situation we encounter.

The other day one of my School of Entrepreneurship students gave me a gift.  He knew that I credit Nightingale-Conant  corporation for getting me started on my adult learning journey when I was about 19 years old.  They produced audio cassette programs.  I loved it.  I ate them up.  Earl Nightingale was like a wise grandfather to me.  My student presented me with one audio cassette tape called “The Strangest Secret” – a classic by Earl Nightingale.  It’s kind of like the fountainhead of my journey – and that of many others.  

But it’s not the cassette tape, but the truth of the message on it that was so important to me and to everyone, whether they studied it or not.

What’s the idea?  

That we become what we think about most of the time.  If we think something can be done by us and want it, we will do it and have it.  If we think today is going to be great, it is.  If we think the people we meet at this event are great people, they will be.  If we think our future will be like _______, it will be.  

Our attitude affects what happens and what we experience in a very active way.

He’s the magic – We can control our thoughts.

Our brain will act on whatever we tell it and believe.

With this simple idea in action, we can determine the outcome of our lives.  It’s under your control.

What thoughts are you thinking today?  What do you expect?

A bias for action

Some people have ideas – and wait.  They wait and wait and never do anything.

They may think, and prepare, and “get ready”, but never take action.

Others take action while they are inspired.  Taken to extremes, this leaves them changing their minds and course all the time and never finishing anything.

I think the best approach is to have a bias for action, but not to act when you are emotional or angry.

You learn a lot by taking action.

Even if you don’t know all the steps to accomplish something, by taking action, you will learn what the next step is.  

In my life, I see things through, even when inspiration is gone, and it turns into work.  I finish.

Vision and inspiration to start are not always there, but when they come, I take action and start.

People who produce the most results have a bias for action.

How about you?

Grow toward the sun

Every decision is a choice – a fork in the road.

You make many of them each day – even the choice to continue on a path you decided in the past.

Set a worthwhile goal.  Envision a life that fulfills you – one that you are excited about each day. 

Decide what you really want.  Write it down and put it on your bathroom mirror.

Make a total commitment in your mind.

Make each choice each day one that takes you towards what you want – how you spend the next hour, what you learn, what you do NOT do, and what actions need to be taken.

Every moment is a choice.

Grow toward the sun.

Don’t believe everything you think.

Your best thinking got you here.

If you knew how to do it better, you would have – right?

But at this point you want to be/do/have something better – right?

You can’t be left to your own thoughts.  You can’t solve a problem with the same thinking that created it.

You’ll have to learn something new from other smart/experienced people.

When you learn something new you see the world differently and believe in new possibilities.

You think new thoughts that drive new action that create new results.

Your brain is hardware that will run any software you put in.

What do you need to learn to go where you want to go?

I know how you will die. It will be trying this –

When you’re a kid you think that you have unlimited time.

You’re not going to live forever.  

But you will die trying.

Unfortunately, we don’t try as hard to live long when we think death is far away.  We value today more than a distant tomorrow.

Take care of your health now.  Eat, sleep, and move well as habits – now.

Next, fully live now while you have the chance.  Tomorrow is not guaranteed.  Don’t waste a day.  

When my time comes, I hope I am very old.  And when it comes, I will say, “I took advantage of my chance.  I lived well.”

Ok.  Now go out and live well today.

Breakup with your habits

First we make our habits, then our habits make us.

A breakthrough demands a radical departure from our habits.

Stop doing what you always did and start doing something new.

Bedtime, coffee, social media, moving your body, gratitude calls daily, who you put around you, where you go each day…

Substitute your old routine for a new routine.

New habits, new you.

What is not serving your major goal?  What would?

What can you change today?

Manage your “seeables”

Your environment makes a big difference to how you feel and think.  

Clutter is probably killing clarity.  Mess is hurting your self-esteem.  Reminders of a difficult past project into today.

Color, light, and quality all matter.

Manage all the things you can see.

Your desk, the rooms in your home, your car, your yard, your office – wherever you spend time.

Be positively influenced through your eyes.

How to get out of a rut

We get stuck in a repeating situation that isn’t working when we use the same pattern of thinking.

All action is preceded by thought, and it’s the thoughts that are the problem.

“You can’t solve a problem with the same thinking that created it.” – Albert Einstein

What old Albert said is pretty fundamental when we have a problem.  We cause most of our own problems.

But our thinking comes from our beliefs and expectations.  They are also influenced by our environment.  And if we want to think anew to get out of a rut, our beliefs and expectations remain.

So how do we change them?  

We get new inputs.  We learn something new.  We talk to people we admire and respect for their advice.  We can read a book or listen to a podcast or watch a video and get other information and opinions.  With new information we can do some new thinking which leads to new action – and we can climb out of the rut.

How do you get out of a rut?  Break your pattern of thinking by learning something new and spending time in new places.

Master your situation to move up.

You will travel the same ground until your understanding of it is complete.

Once you have mastered being you in this situation, then you can move up to a higher level.

If you are struggling in it now, you can’t go higher.

Are you mastering your situation?

Small minds talk about other people

The wisest among us don’t spend their time talking about other people – gossiping, talking about other people stumbling, having trouble or failing.

They know they could waste endless hours trying to bring others down this way to make themselves feel relatively better.

They understand human nature, and the behaviors and trials of other people do not surprise them anyway.

The top people talk about ideas.  Ideas they have learned or are studying.

They talk about ideas to solve problems, get better, and elevate themselves and others.

What do you talk about?