The Miracle of Right Thought

Marden says: Optimism builds. Pessimism destroys.

Science agrees.

Here’s how Martin Seligman puts it in Flourish (see Notes): “We estimate that being in the upper quartile of optimism seems to have a beneficial effect on cardiovascular risk roughly equivalent to not smoking two packs of cigarettes daily.”

Think about that. Being in the top 25% of optimism has the same benefits as NOT smoking two (!!) packs of cigarettes a day.

In other words, if you’re super pessimistic, you might as well be smoking two packs of cigarettes a day in terms of your cardiovascular health.

*rubs eyes*

That’s crazy. And, alas, true. So… How’s your optimism these days?

Are you choosing to see the most empowered response in any given situation? As we discuss all. the.time, make it a game. Something “negative” happens. That’s inevitable. But how we choose to RESPOND to it is, of course, completely within our control.

Like anything we want to master, getting really good at choosing a really good response takes a lot of practice. So, PRACTICE!

Next time something kinda annoying happens see if you can notice your habitual negative/pessimistic response and see if you can choose a slightly (or significantly!) more positive response.

Get out of the dungeon of negativity. Nourish your soul with the radiant sunshine of optimism.

—> “Live in the very soul of expectation of better things…”

That’s basically the definition of HOPE: expecting your future to be better than your present. Science says that belief in a better future is HUGE.

Combine that with “the conviction that something large, grand, and beautiful will await you if your efforts are intelligent, if your mind is kept in a creative condition and you struggle upward to your goal.” and you have what scientists call “the best selves diary”—which happens to be one of the best ways to build your optimism + hope.

Are you fired up about your future? It’s always a good idea to stoke that fire and build it into a BONFIRE so let’s add some fuel to it, shall we?

Fast-forward 5 years. You’ve worked hard, everything’s come together. (SWEET!) What’s your life look like? See it. Feel it. Get excited.

Spend 30 seconds thinking about it and another 30 seconds capturing the essence of that awesome here: ___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

As I said, Marden reminds me of James Allen.

Here’s a passage from Allen’s classic As a Man Thinketh (see Notes) that comes to mind as I read that passage: “Cherish your visions. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment; of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built.”

What is your vision?

CLING TO IT WITH ALL THE TENACITY YOU CAN MUSTER.

Cherish your visions. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart.

Then go out and take the next baby step in pursuit of that ideal.

I love that image of your mind being all cramped.

Imagine trying to do physical work in a cramped position. Put yourself in the most awkward position you can and then imagine trying to lift a ton of weight from that position. (Hah.)

Now imagine trying to do creative work in a cramped position—aka, with doubt, fear, anxiety, etc. You literally don’t have the mental bandwidth to do your best when you’re leaking energy on all that stuff.

Here’s how Wallace Wattles frames the same idea: “You can never become a great man or woman until you have overcome anxiety, worry, and fear. It is impossible for an anxious person, a worried one, or a fearful one to perceive truth; all things are distorted and thrown out of their proper relations by such mental states, and those who are in them cannot read the thoughts of God.”

Stretch out your mind.

Let go of your fear and uncertainty.

Trust thyself. Let it rip.

P.S. More on the debilitating nature of fear and it’s antidote: “Fear benumbs initiative. It kills confidence and causes indecision, makes us waver, afraid to begin things, suspect and doubt. Fear is a great leak in power. There are plenty of people who waste more than half of their precious energy in useless worry and anxiety.

We can neutralize a fear by applying its natural antidote, the courage thought, the assuring, confident, faith thought, just as the chemist destroys the corrosive power of an acid by adding its opposite—an alkali.

Men can not get the highest quality of efficiency and express the best thing in them when their minds are troubled and when worry is sapping their vitality and wasting their energy. The worried, angry, troubled brain can not think vigorously or clearly.”

This is awesome: “It is the ship at wharf, not the ship at sea, that rots the fastest;—the still pool, not the running brook, that stagnates.”

Reminds me of da Vinci’s great line: “Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.”

It also reminds me of George Leonard’s wisdom in Mastery. He tells us: “A human being is the kind of machine that wears out from lack of use. There are limits, of course, and we do need healthful rest and relaxation, but for the most part we gain energy by using energy… It might well be that all of us possess enormous stores of potential energy, more than we could ever hope to use.”

George also tells us: “It’s instructive to watch the immediate surge of clarity and energy during training that comes from the simplest act of writing one’s name on a notice.”

<— What notice do YOU need to put your name on?

Remember: Pursuing and achieving meaningful goals VITALIZES.

Note: That’s not just self-help pom pom waving.

In Flourish (see Notes), Martin Seligman, the godfather of the positive psych movement, gives “Achievement” a permanent slot in his PERMA model of flourishing. He says that science says that we need:

• Positive emotion • Engagement • Relationships • Meaning • Achievement

“No element defines well-being, but each contributes to it.”

So… We need to DO things if we want to feel alive.

And… We need to relax + make waves if we want to sustain that DOingness. More on that:

This is another simple but powerful idea.

The next time you feel jaded, discouraged or just a tad toasty-burned-out, before you question all things big and small, start with a quick check in to see if you’ve simply exhausted yourself (and/ or allowed some less than optimal habits in).

Tal Ben-Shahar has a great line about the importance of recovery. In The Pursuit of Perfect he tells us: “The problem in today’s corporate world, as well as in many other realms, is not hard work; the problem is insufficient recovery.”

In other words, it’s not that we work too hard, per se, it’s simply that we don’t RECOVER enough. We don’t make enough waves. We don’t honor our ultradian rhythms enough. We don’t bake in planned recovery enough. (At least, I don’t. Hah!)

I’m actually pretty good (most of the time) during the work week but on the weekends I can benefit from SCHEDULING something like a trip to see a movie and *disciplining* myself to actually go see it.

It’s funny how disciplined I can be to get WORK done and how easy it is to let the RECOVERY slide. (And I know I’m not alone. :)

We need to prioritize and execute both the “on” phase of that wave AND the “off” phase.

Quick q: What’s one tiny thing you can do to dial that in a bit more?

(For me? Go see a movie this weekend. And make a habit of seeing *at least* one per month!)

Love that image.

We no longer touch hot stoves or squeeze bumble bees, so why do we do the mental equivalent of gashing and poisoning ourselves?

Seriously. WHY?! (Hah.)

Reminds me of Eckhart Tolle’s wisdom from The Power of Now (see Notes) where he tells us: “Once you realize that a certain kind of food makes you sick, would you carry on eating that food and keep asserting that it is okay to be sick?”

He continues by saying: “It is certainly true that, when you accept your resentment, moodiness, anger, and so on, you are no longer forced to act them out blindly, and you are less likely to project them onto others. But I wonder if you are not deceiving yourself. When you have been practicing acceptance for a while, as you have, there comes a point when you need to go on to the next stage, where those negative emotions are not created anymore. If you don’t, your ‘acceptance’ just becomes a mental label that allows your ego to continue to indulge in unhappiness and so strengthen your separation from other people, your surroundings, your here and now.”

So… What thought food are you eating that’s making you sick?

Let’s make the connection and quit eating it. No more negative nom nom. No more mentally burning and poisoning ourselves.

It’s pretty straight forward that we’re never going to achieve great things unless we have an image of ourselves CAPABLE of doing great things.

Gold-medal winning Lanny Bassham would agree. Here’s what he has to say about Self-Image in With Winning in Mind (see Notes): “Your Self-Image ‘makes you act like you.’ It keeps you within your comfort zone. If you are below your zone, Self-Image makes you uncomfortable and turns up your power until you are within the zone. Likewise, if you are above your zone, the Self-Image will cut your power, dropping you back within your zone. As long as you ‘act like you,’ the Self-Image is content and does not interfere. To change your performance, you must change your Self-Image and elevate your comfort zone.

Controlling that change in your Self-Image may be the most important skill you will ever learn. You can change any attitude you do not like. When the Self-Image changes, performance changes.”

Do you see yourself as up to GREAT things and hold yourself to that standard?