As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is – Proverbs 23:7

Everything that I am today is because of my thoughts. In my lifetime, I have had so many thoughts, good and bad. The book of Proverbs put this verse, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.” with a conviction which reminded me of the story about two wolves and the one that dominates is the one that you feed. The opinion that you may have of yourself may be the total opposite of what people perceive you to be. Little did we pay attention to our thoughts and actions to ensure alignment with our intentions. We think of the future and make plans, with a jaundiced eye we lose sight that thinking is always involved. Our plans are written fear and insecurity all over. And we worry and concern ourselves when things are not going the way they supposed to.

Whatever, you think about you come about – that is the thinking process. The Bible and many other personal development books have taught us the secret that we are what we think about. Our thoughts reflect on how we carry ourselves and we are enticed by the people of a similar train of thought – good or bad – the story of two wolves.

Comfort zones are real – this is when our brains and thinking are not involved at all – we are just consuming whatever we are given and brains waives are just on neutral. And when we are thrown out of our comfort zones, all of a sudden we feel strained, challenged and insecure in our way of thinking – our brains are at work. In this process the brain become like an elastic – the more you put in it stretches like a plastic bag and it does not grow back its original state, this process goes beyond mind’s eye – it is called GROWTH.

Let’s grow our way of thinking, instead of sitting and moving around doing nothing. Making time to control our thinking is the beginning of a potential greater person we could become. Peer pressure and doing things that aren’t congruent with what you want in life need to come to halt. I may be preaching to the choir because most of us have been there and some us are still there but come on, just imagine the greater person you’d be just by changing the way you think. The power of our thoughts and words is so paramount beyond your imaginations and I can assure that there’s hard work involved. The hard work I’m referring to translates to, commitment, determination, and discipline to mention but a few. Once you start working on these three aspects you are on your way to take over the power of your thoughts. The power of thinking.

COMMITMENT – No person has gotten where they are in life without being fully committed. There’s no grey area here fortunately, it’s either you are in or you are out. Commit to transform your life into thinking what it is that you want to be. This is like picking something that you want in a shop, pay for it and stick to it – your thoughts work the same – you tell yourself what you want to be and what you need to do to get it and do it. The key here is – ACTION.

DETERMINATION – It is so easy to repeat the words, “Wake up with determination and go to bed with satisfaction.” Because everybody and anybody can say or sing this quote, however, if we do not know the true meaning of determination we are a lost cause. Being determined means that once you have committed to something you do it with enthusiasm whether you feel like doing it or not. You remember the reasons why you decided to do in the first place and keep on keeping on. One thing that determination has taught me is that – you will be tempted to derail most of the time. Procrastination is a best friend of zero action – be reminded of that when you get tempted.

DISCIPLINE – This is a characteristic of the art of mastery. I have mentioned this before that repetition will make you improve from what you are even if you are still in the same place. It prepares you to stick to what you know and better yourself. Without discipline, failure comes to you like a thieve in the night, you won’t even know what hit you. And blaming witchcraft and bad luck are few excuses that failures use. Let discipline be your friend, take discipline with you wherever you go, even when you go to bed allow it to watch over you. When you do that – you will notice that the thoughts of seeing yourself as SUCCESS will come true.

So I ask, do you still think that thinking is like taking a walk in the park? When last did you get a chance to hear yourself think? Our bodies are everything that we need, they are the most powerful computer you can think of but yet, we are still thinking small. The winners and the success – have travelled this route and have seen more than what we ought to see.

Think of the people that you want to take this journey with. Accept that they may be as trapped as you are and involve them carefully – start a journey together. The African Proverb would not have said it better – If you want to go fast – Go alone. If you want to go far – Go as a team.

It is up to you whether you want to go fast or far – the choice is yours and surely success is awaiting you.

Written by Mduduzi Mthanti