Take Responsibility to Control Your Thinking

It has been said that as an animal, we humans are pretty weak. In a straight fight against a lion, tiger or bear there is little or no doubt that we’d come off worst. We are smaller, slower, weaker and more fragile. We don’t see as well, hear as well or smell as well as some animals do. So, how is it that we humans came to rule the planet?
The answer is because we can think better. Our ability to think is what really separates us from the animal kingdom. Our ability to think for ourselves rather than just act on our instincts is arguably our greatest asset. Yet, it seems to me that many people have lost their minds, or at least complete control over them. Allow me to explain what I mean by that.

I am a firm believer in the power of attitude. The great George Bernard Shaw once said, “People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can’t find them, they make them.” It is our minds and the way that we think that largely creates our attitudes. This produces our expectancy which in turn produces our reality.

I believe that whoever or whatever is controlling your mind is also controlling your life.
Every day you are bombarded by other people who want to access your mind in order to influence and control your life. These people write the news, commercials, emails, internet pop-ups and direct mail that find their way to your door. Then there are the parents, politicians, friends and colleagues that seek to do the same thing. At some level, all of them want to control, or at least influence, your mind.

Controlling your mind requires you to resist the negative messages and images. This does not mean that you should become a happy clapper and that nothing ever goes wrong. Earl Nightingale once wisely said that “You become what you focus on,” and with so many negative messages it would be easy to become negative about life. They say you are what you eat. Maybe it’s also true to say that you are what you watch, read and listen to.

Controlling your mind means that you take the responsibility to form your own ideas and opinions by being selective about the people we allow into our minds and lives and the subsequent impact that they have on us. Now is the time to take back control of your mind and to regain control of your life! Stop letting others control your mind and your thinking. Stop letting the media control your health choices, relationship outlook or business expectations. Recent events in London demonstrate the negative outcomes that can arise when people stop taking the responsibility to think for themselves and, instead, become a sheep following the crowd mentality.

Now more than ever is the time to take back control of your mind, your thinking, your attitude and your life because in today’s world you can’t count on anyone else for your success. Some people might say that it’s easier said than done, but being successful is about taking that responsibility for control and making conscious choices and directing the course of your life.

Take back control of your mind and you can begin to take control of your life. To do this you must make the critical decison to take responsibility for what you allow to influence you and the decisions that you subsequently make - decisions that directly impact upon the degree of success that you enjoy in your life.