“Thought” generally refers to any mental or intellectual activity involving an individual’s subjective consciousness. It can refer either to the act of thinking or the resulting ideas or arrangements of ideas.

Wikipedia

Thinking has been with us since we evolved from the apes and used our mental faculties to stick the stone on the stick. It has been a prerogative of a humain and so far there hasn’t been a successor in sight. For most people it is the process of evaluating chances or events in past or future, modelling situations, reality or finding an answer to a question or the solution of a practical problem. Last one is going to be the topic of this article.

As we go through our everyday lives, we rarely think about the thinking process, even more so about changing or shifting it in the direction that will help us to achieve this or that. The whole idea that our thinking can be changed may seem like blasphemy, but it has been shown by many personal development gurus that it is very much possible to shift the way you think.

noun

1. the product of mental activity; that which one thinks: a body of thought.

2. a single act or product of thinking;  idea or notion: to collect one’s thoughts.

3. the act or process of thinking;  mental activity: Thought as well as action wearies us.

4. the capacity or faculty of thinking,  reasoning, imagining, etc.: All her thought went into her work.

5. a consideration or reflection: Thought of death terrified her.

What are the benefits of changing the way we think? Wouldn’t it change our identity and make us not us? How long does this process take? These and many other questions can be answered very easily: do it and you will know. It is quite simply that for each one of us the result will differ in one way or another. You may argue about certain similarities or generalize some aspects, however the fact that you cannot tell what someone else is going to experience to exact same detail as if you were them is undeniable, just as you cannot have someone else’s mind and/or body.

How can we change the way we think? Simple enough – by starting to think about it! If after some time you start to notice that thoughts in your head are not what you want them to be – change them, force yourself to start thinking about what you want. If unwanted thoughts come back again and again, persist, persevere, be consistent about elimination of thoughts, do not give up without a fight! Show your mind that you are its boss, you tell it what to think over what and when you want it. Mind often wanders around topics or reacts to things received through external and internal stimuli. It is a difficult objective on its own to cut those distractions or simply ignore them, however result will worth it and even more. And this is another thing that you might have come across – you are not your mind. Your mind is just a tool, just like your arms and legs, and you have be able to use it to get something when necessary.

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.

Buddha

This is where we come to the point of self discipline, which is a separate topic of its own as well, but, when it is combined with determination, passion, desire, or any of great many other traits, the combined result will be enormous. And when I say enormous, I mean on the scale of compound or geometrical magnitude, which is explained by many great personal development authors who came to the same conclusion that investing into yourself is the most worthy investment of all. You are a common denominator in your life and the more you grow – the higher the remainder (results) will be.

To sum it up: KISS principle applies to thinking as well which should have four parts: question, answer, application and the result, because otherwise you risk going into endless debate with yourself. If this approach becomes the way you live, there will be no boundaries to what you can achieve. Having a goal in mind and next task in clear sight, you become like a tractor that slowly but inevitably gets to the destination. You may feel slow and heavy at the start, but the more you go through, the quicker you become. Reviewing the way you were thinking in the past and are thinking now will assist tremendously, and it can be achieved in a very easy way through diaries or quick notes jotted down on a consistent basis…

… eventually mastering the art of “Using no way as way” or “Having no limitation as limitation” (Jeet Kune Do)

Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.

Mohandas Gandhi

Procrastination is the bad habit of putting of until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.

It is 10PM and you are sitting in the lounge with a laptop on the lap, reading to this article. You have been here before and found some value in the content of this blog – you feel that it can help you on your life’ journey – and it will. It will happen, but only when you really start listening to yourself and follow through promises that you made to yourself. And this has to start, the sooner – the better, because if you cannot follow through things you’ve promised to yourself, how can others trust your word? The only thing that your friends or family will think is “oh yeah, you always say that” or “like this will ever happen”. If you managed to maintain ratio of promises to its delivery at decent level and realize that, even though others most of the time fail to deliver them, you can make it so that your word counts.

And this is just the first part – the second part comes with enough motivation. Do not look up to others for it as you may become too dependent on them, instead learn how to motivate yourself, and this is where personal development and self-reflection shines. It shines because you will have to understand the other ‘you’ on the inside, know for real what makes him/her tick one way or the other. Only then you will feel what it is like to be able to play the song of your life by running fingers through strings of your inner self.

Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.

Wayne Gretzky

Okay, let us cut the abstract to the minimum and get to the point. If you can not control yourself, you can not control others simply because you will lack self respect. Without self respect you will sound weak and needy because you will be constantly doubting yourself in front of others. Strong people look up to those who are stronger, thus anyone you meet will not think highly of you.

To avoid this disease, you have to start practicing following up on promises you made or carefully consider before giving one away. Thinking too much is another disease that we will touch in the next article, however try to quickly overlook why you can or cannot make the promise. If it means taking an hour off work to get the car from the service or running back from train station for a bit of an exercise, do a quick, 10 second review, make a decision and stick to it no matter what. Here is the golden rule of thumb that you can apply:

Weight the odds and doubts before making the decision. Once it is made, follow it through.

This means that if you suddenly forgot to buy groceries and have to run back with a full backpack of them – do it. This will, at first, teach you to consider things that generally slip by your mind, and later will even present an opportunity to test your personal limits, be it physical, mental or spiritual.

Procrastination is like a credit card: it’s a lot of fun until you get the bill.

How often do you go about your everyday life without wondering why to do this or that? It’s not everyday tasks like shopping for groceries or performing work activities, but rather your response, reaction to things that surround you. Do you become frustrated when a baby cries aloud non-stop, someone tossed a newspaper on the lawn or jumped in front of you on the bus? How often do you say to yourself “I’ve got to stop doing this or that”, but later on find that it was either forgotten or simply slipped past your mind?

This sort of behavior is normal. It’s a norm of life for pretty much everyone, including me, so you should not worry too much about this. The point of concern lies right on the borderline of your identity and your mind. They just simply do not cooperate and work together, for some reason they feel that each has its own path and tear you apart, dragging back and forth.

I’ve planned to do some sit-ups and push-ups at 10pm and it is the time. Would I continue writing this or drop down on the floor and do what was planned? Even though plan was made by myself and for myself, I know that I can postpone it until finishing writing of this article – in other words, I can always negotiate with myself – question is, how much of it is negotiation and plain laziness in me that moans ‘Oh, I can always do it later’.

Let’s continue. Even though you know that persistence and stubbornness will help you achieve certain things, there is very little application of them in your life. But have you ever wondered what or rather who in you had chosen not to train these or other skills that you consider valuable of having on the mind level? Have you ever wondered how many of “you” there is in you and what makes you lean towards one choice than the other?

Of course, you would say, these investigatory skills and techniques are learned by my psychiatrist, whom I attend once a year and who already helped me to deal with mood swings. This is great and in a world where others are responsible for your inner mental health it sounds perfectly valid – after all, nobody has time these days to simply sit down and quietly recall events and occasions happened throughout the week that seemed a bit odd! However, my dear reader, you’ve fell into same trap once more by blaming circumstances instead of yourself.

Reflecting on oneself is something that most of us lack, including me to some degree. What is reflection?

Human self-reflection is the capacity of humans to exercise introspection and the willingness to learn more about their fundamental nature, purpose and essence.

Wikipedia

In simpler terms, it’s the ability to examine his or her thoughts, actions and emotions and find the underlying cause behind them. It’s also the willingness to keep asking yourself questions about yourself that are based on concrete facts and be able to accurately recall events that lead to decisions that were made. Combined with persistence to go beyond the standard “how would I know?” answer to questions you ask yourself, it is a powerful way to discover your true self behind all the layers of social conditioning and “normal” insanity of everyday life.

What is it in us that reacts to shouts, “you are an idiot” responses and insults? Truth hurts, but our usual reaction to it is denial, covered by belief that so far in life we would know some things for certain, and the pain others inflict on us is THEIR fault.

Time to face facts. Everyone lives in their own world, and without understanding its mechanisms, how it works and behaves, you will only get so far. There is also a belief that we live in a single world that does not revolve around us, but in that case it would be even more so, simply because it is alot harder to understand someone else than yourself.

More to come …