Three Pillars of Righteous Living

"Three Pillars of Righteous Living"

Controlling Your Thoughts to Control Your Life.

“Righteous Living means defining what you allow yourself to experience and receive influence from, so you will preserve the best mind-set which allows you to achieve success.”
- Lance E. Ong

Have you ever felt stuck in life? Like a hamster running on a wheel, and you are not getting anywhere or achieving new results in your life? Many people cannot make breakthroughs in their lives because they are unable to adopt the mind-set of a high achiever.

Let’s say a guy is a fresh graduate, who wants be an entrepreneur who can make the big bucks roll in. But all he can think about is women, sex, drink, gamble, and smoke. What fills most of his days are office work, pubbing on weekdays, and clubbing on weekends. Now you tell me… with this routine, what are the chances he will become an entrepreneurial success?

My point is that to become the person you want to be, you have to break out of habitual living. Choose positive experiences which help you grow, rather than those which hold you back and waste your time.

There are many evils in the world. You expose yourself to them, and they suck you in. Have you heard the saying, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison?” Well, there are many poisons disguised as meat! Many people eat it, and they look like they’re having fun. But you eat it, and suddenly, you’re hooked for life.

What would happen if you could avoid these poisons and control the shape of your mind-set? Imagine what it would be like to have your brain on track and growing in the right direction. You’ll wake up in the morning with the peace of mind, drive, and energy to achieve your daily goals, which lead you to live the life you’ve always wanted.

Have you ever seen people, who want you to look up to them, and they do that by bragging? They’ll tell you stories of all the wild and extreme experiences they’ve had. In fact, some may even invite you to join them, and taunt you if you decide not to. But I’m not going to pretend to be tough guy and call you a wimp for saying ‘no’ to bad experiences. I’m here to help, and therefore I only tell you the truth – some experiences are better NOT experienced. Why? Because as Yoda said, "For once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you it will… as it did with Obi-wan's apprentice."

What you’re about to learn, is the key to controlling your own thoughts and feelings. To master your destiny, you must first master your Self. As you read every word in this article, you commit yourself to practising these principles in your life. This simple action can help you avoid the dark path, and break through the mental barriers which hold you back from high achievement.

First Pillar of Righteous Living
“What you expose yourself to, influences your mind”

Psychological studies have shown that when kids watch violent movies, they express more violence in their behaviour. This influence affects the subconscious mind; not to mention that children love to copy their favourite action heroes. When the action hero goes around blowing everyone’s guts out, and strangling the enemy… children try to do the same. Now… you’re not a child; you’re an adult. But if you’re not careful what expose yourself to, it will influence you on a subconscious level, and you will begin following that behaviour.

Your subconscious mind always says ‘yes’ to whatever your conscious mind tells it. If you tell yourself, “No, I’m not good-looking… my eyes are too small, my nose is too big, and my lips are like sausages.” Your subconscious mind will say, “Yes, that’s right.” If you tell yourself, “I’m gorgeous today, from head-to-toe, every bit of me is looking fine!” Your subconscious will still say, “Yes, that’s right.”

For a more practical example of unconscious influence, imagine a guy who watches pornography all day… he’s used to ogling at women’s sensitive areas. When he goes out in public, he can’t control his eyes. He sees a woman, and immediately his eyes lock onto her breasts. He’s not even aware of what he’s doing. The woman notices this and quickly walks away, only to warn her friend later of the pervert she met outside. Talk about unconscious sabotage.

Before you expose yourself to anything, ask yourself, “If I make this a habit, where will it lead me?” Anything you expose yourself to, has the potential to become a habit – just repeat it a few times. That’s why you should focus on developing good habits, and refuse any experience which has the potential of turning into a bad habit. For example, refusing the first cigarette, refusing the third drink, refusing to visit the red-light district, and refusing to fly into rage. Sometimes, we have to learn to say ‘no’, for our own sake, for our parents’ sake, and for our future’s sake.

Second Pillar of Righteous Living
“You become whatever you think about”

Your brain has trillions of tiny cells called neurons. When you have a thought, one of these little neurons stretches out its dendrites and connects with another neuron. That’s how you have your sudden, “Aha!” If you keep thinking in a certain way, more and more of these cells will connect in the same way, and you’ll form a neural pathway. A neural pathway is the physical form of a thinking habit, which inclines you to think in a certain way. This may be good or bad, depending on what you’re thinking about most of the time! If you’ve been thinking mostly sad thoughts, you may become severely depressed. If you’ve been mentally murdering someone for half a day, the slightest irritation may cause you to hurt someone. Neural pathways are powerful and sensitive mechanisms. Learn to watch your thoughts, and you’ll build pathways to success. Let yourself indulge in wayward thinking, and you’ll bring forth a mind-set from hell.

When you sense a negative thought – anger, greed, lust, jealousy, hate, apathy (lack of emotion), self-pity, wistful yearning, or depression – tell yourself, “STOP! What will happen if I continue to feel this way?” And when you have the answer, ask yourself, “Now, will that help me or hurt me?” And if the answer is that it hurts you, then you can ask the next question: “So, what can I do about it?”

Try it yourself, right now. Pick a negative emotion, and remember a time when you could feel that strongly. Now, answer this question, “What will happen if you continue to feel this way?” Okay, tell me, “Now, will this help you or hurt you?” That’s right, “So, what can you do about it?”

If you decide not to follow the impulse of the emotion, then you have used this technique correctly. Use it any time you need to correct a negative emotion.

Third Pillar of Righteous Living
T-F-A-R
“Thoughts evoke Feelings producing Action leading to Results"

You understand that whatever you expose yourself to, influences you. You also understand that what you think about, you become. This third pillar explains how your thoughts turn into reality.

Most people act out of emotion. They kill out of anger, they rape out of lust, and they rob out of desperation. It’s the emotions that motivate the actions. That’s why I’ve put an emphasis on minding your thoughts, so you can control the emotions which form. Have you heard the definition, “E-motion is Energy in Motion”? Imagine a choo-choo train running down the tracks. Can you stop a train that is moving at high-speed without brakes? Not unless you’re Superman, right? Emotion is like that train. Its energy is in motion, already moving at high-speed – difficult to stop. The easy way to prevent a moving train is to steal the coal so it has nothing to burn! Your thoughts are the coal. Each time you have a negative thought, you are feeding another lump of coal to the train headed for trouble.

Thoughts evoke Feelings producing Action leading to Results. Once you have this formula, you can see how your thinking controls your life. And why you must deliberately control the types of experiences you expose yourself to, and the kinds of thoughts you indulge in, so your life can be beautiful. By practising the Three Principles of Righteous Living daily, you can grow the ideal mind-set to help you build your dreams and set you on an upward spiral of success.