What Kind of World Do You See?
By: Bill Abbate
Tags: Leadership, Life Lessons, Thoughts, Life, Self Improvement

When your brain activity ceases, life ends. The same is true for your thoughts. When your thoughts stop, you cease to exist.

Sure, we can capture thoughts through various means. We have many recorded thoughts through art, pictorial, audio, video, and written formats. They may influence many throughout history; however, your physical existence and the thoughts in your head that made you who you are will no longer exist.

Once the thoughts in your brain cease, the world existing in your mind disappears. One may, therefore, conclude thoughts determine your existence in human form. That is why James Allen published his book As a Man Thinketh, more than one hundred years ago. Allen’s realization that thoughts create your life came from a 3000-year-old scripture in the Bible:

“For as he thinks within himself, so he is.” Proverbs 23:7a NASB

It is well established today that our thoughts determine the course of our life. Our thoughts literally create the world in which we live.

Your thoughts create your world

Because thoughts create the world in which we live, changing our thoughts will change our world.

In what type of world are you living? What do your thoughts tell you about this world?

Are you living in a world where you see yourself as a victor or a victim? Are you free or oppressed? An adventurer or a hermit? Do you see yourself or self-identify as a businessperson, a writer, a spouse, a parent, a child, a worker-bee, a leader, a volunteer…? On and on the list can go.

“You are not a helpless victim of your own thoughts, but rather a master of your mind.” Louise Hay

You have created the world in which you live, and you are responsible for creating the person you have become and are becoming. This is because your thoughts create your world in your mind. While others may influence it, you are free to choose these thoughts and how you see the world.

The important thing is to understand how you see yourself. How you see yourself is who you are, and it is likely how others see you.

Many years ago, I had risen through the ranks to a high-level executive position, wondering what made me different from other people. I was in a grocery store when the thought initially hit me. There was a very distinguished-looking gentleman, bagging groceries. He had been working there for some time. I thought to myself, put him in a suit, and by his looks, he would fit into any executive team anywhere. Yet there he was, bagging groceries.

Before you get too judgmental of me, I was not in any way looking down on him. I did not know a thing about his life. I did not know if he was the owner working as some owners do, although he didn’t appear to be. My only thought was due to my curiosity about why some people work for minimum wage while others make hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

“If you realized just how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.” Anonymous

It isn’t their looks. It could be their education, yet I had known exceptions to this. Maybe it was their upbringing, having both parents at home growing up, or any of numerous other things. Yet none of these rang true. My conclusion, which has borne out many times since, was it was in their head. It was in their thoughts. It was in the way they saw themselves and others in their mind.

There may be more to it than that, yet it starts in the mind.

The way you see yourself in the world determines the course of your life. When you mix in circumstances, natural abilities, intelligence, and all the other contributors, it still rests on how we see ourselves. We will rise to the highest vision of ourselves, but likely no higher.

“We are a product of our thoughts.” Scottie Waves

Final words

I leave you with some questions to reflect on:

· How do you see the world?

· How do you see yourself in the world?

· How are your thoughts defining the world?

· How are your thoughts defining you and your life?

“When you look at the world in a narrow way, how narrow it seems! When you look at it in a mean way, how mean it is! When you look at it selfishly, how selfish it is! But when you look at it in a broad, generous, friendly spirit, what wonderful people you find in it.” Horace Rutledge

You can change your thoughts if you wish. It may take some work and some time, but it is absolutely, positively possible to do. My life benefited from the work on myself, and I have known and seen numerous others do it as well. The only thing that can keep you from changing your thoughts is you.