Power of Thoughts

Thoughts are peculiar ones. Right from Vedas to Buddha to the modern thinkers, all indicate that what we think defines us. And if we analyze our own life, it stands to be true; whatever we thought in the past, it defined our actions, and our actions had effects and those effects define who we are today. So, its only logical to say we are responsible for our present state. And this affects all aspects of our lives such as professional, personal, friendships, financial, romantical, social, etc. I will say about 90% of this is under our control, the remaining 10% are things that we couldn’t control, such as weather, economy, wars, etc. Now the next step is to be in command of our thoughts.

How to be in control of your Thoughts?

First things first, I am going to tell you that it’s not easy. And if you struggle in the beginning – it’s all right. It’s a three-step process:

Being aware
Decision trees
Clarity of thoughts

Being aware:

Make a habit of sitting down quietly once a day at least. No interaction with anyone, no music, eyes closed, not too cold a place neither too hot, no other sounds. Just you with yourself. Not too breezy a place either. Now focus on your breathing. Air traveling in from nostrils and out. Nothing else just listen to that sound and focus on it. After about 5 minutes of sitting quietly, the next step is to start thinking intentionally.

Decision tree:

Remember, thoughts are the cause and the state of your life is the effect of it. Now there are two ways of intentional thinking. The end state of both ways is the same. You pick what is easier for you. The first way, think of a previous or current state of your life and reverse engineer to a thought that caused it. For example, I recently finished my MBA, which means somewhere in the past there was a single thought that came to my mind that I should do an MBA. Now before that thought, it was I want to do higher studies. Before that, I am not happy with my current state and I should do something about it. In the past, there was a situation that I did not like and

a thought came to my mind that I should do something about it. Out of that thought came the resolution and the action plan. The second way, usually once you master the cause and effect of the thought through past experiences, is to think of the future event or your state of being. For example, getting up at 4 am every morning, and saying ‘No’ to work that is not your responsibility in the office, or eating vegetarian food and so and so on. Now each of these thoughts will create a future state of you.
And that future state will create many other options in the decision tree for you to think and make choices. For example, if you start saying ‘No’ to extra work, you will have time to do your job with better quality, in a timely manner, and hence feel more confident about yourself. Over time, this confidence will permeate and be seen by your colleagues and superiors; they will start respecting you more, possibly leading to a promotion or a raise. So if the goal is to get a promotion, you need to do a better job at what you do; for doing that you need to have a good workload balance, hence saying ‘No’ (politely) is important. Now, this is an oversimplified and quite positive outcome example, but you get the gist.

Clarity of thoughts:

Now that you understand, how one thought can lead to defining your state of being, pick that thought that will define your future state. Have a crystal clear idea of what that thought is; naturally, it will become a resolution and soon it will reflect in your actions. It happens automatically. All you have to do is, understand what that thought is (for example, saying No) and know why thinking that way is important (your end goal – promotion).

Remember this is a start. If you want to understand about Space, learning about gravity is a good start. If you want to decide your future state, learning to control your thoughts is a good start.

In the end, If you want to go deeper in the process or you get stuck, I will be more than happy to do one-on-one sessions and coach you in your journey . For your quick reference, I have converted the entire model into a one-page snapshot for you; its easy to remember, so put it on your wall, and follow through. Wish you all the best!

Bonus Section

Click below to get customized worksheet and journal that will help you to get back on feet
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-9FHDZCWaiQ1wtY75LDXVu5kbIqozWTT