How you think does make a difference. Written in Sanskrit over 2500 years ago we find these words: “As one’s thinking is, such one becomes.” In Proverbs we find, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” William James, sometimes called the father of American psychology, said, “The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.”
As we start a new year, where is your focus? Is it on the potentials and possibilities? Or is it on the problems? There are certainly enough problems out there to focus on. There’s the problem with the economy, with who is in office and who is not. Then there’s the credit problem, the oil problem – and almost any other problem you can imagine. And most people would say that there’s not a darn thing you can do about it.
When Napoleon Hill wrote his classic book Think and Grow Rich, it was based upon interviewing some of the greatest achievers of his time in all walks of life. It was published at the end of the depression in 1937, but it was based upon 15 laws of success filtered over 20 years of interviews which he had written about in The Laws of Success.
These were not the best of times to think about raising yourself from failure to success (the title of another great book written by Frank Bettger). But in the darkest of times, people found hope and opportunity – they chose to focus on the potentials and possibilities – not the problems.
As you begin this next year, focus on the potential and the possibilities it brings with it. And perhaps create a small post-it note reminder that you can alter your life by altering your attitude.
