“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.” – Henry Ford

 Success-Minded People understand that to think negative and unclean thoughts will cause you great harm.  We have to work at what we think about and allow into our minds and hearts.  A.W. Tozer said “The neglected heart will soon be a heart overrun with worldly thoughts; the neglected life will soon become a moral chaos.”  But there is another problem that afflicts many when it comes to their thought life and that is not thinking at all.

NOTHING HAS NO VALUE

Have you ever asked someone what they were thinking and got “Nothing” as a response?  The sad thing is, too often that was exactly what they were thinking.  We have all been guilty of it from time to time.  We allow our minds to go blank, to not be thinking of anything – good or bad.  That may seem nice at times but it is highly dangerous and very unproductive.  I am not saying you must be figuring out the problems of the world all the time, but we were not created to live in a vacuum.  If you do not fill your thought deliberately they will be filled by the world around you.

 HEROIC THINKING

Success-Minded People understand that it is not what you don’t do that changes your life but what you do.  Don’t think that if you are thinking of nothing you are at least not thinking of negative things.  There is no value in nothing.  Benjamin Disraeli said “Nurture your mind with great thoughts.  To believe in the heroic makes heroes.”  Success-Minded People need to fill their thoughts with great things.  They dream of the future and of how they will change it.  They are always developing their life by the thoughts they focus on.

DELIBERATE THINKING

“Guard your thoughts,” said J.C. Ryle, “and there will be little fear about your actions.”  The most important thing you can do to prepare yourself for success is to prepare your mind.  Think about your goals and dreams.  How do they look?  What do they feel like?  What must you become to see them achieved?  These are the questions our minds should go to when we have time to think.  Driving the car, working in the garden, cleaning the house are all tasks that allow us time to think.  Use that time to plan your life and how you will live it.

CHANGE YOUR WORLD

I love the words of Pastor and teacher Chuck Swindoll: “The secret of living a life of excellence is merely a matter of thinking thoughts of excellence.  Really, it’s a matter of programming our minds with the kind of information that will set us free.”  Your thoughts are the only thing in the entire universe that you have full control of.  Be responsible for your thinking and you will see your life change in dramatic ways.  As Dr. Norman Vincent Peale use to say: “Change your thoughts and you change your world.”

 © 2011 John Patrick Hickey