Have you ever wondered where a person’s character comes from? Some say a person is naturally born with it. With this way of thinking, how does a person change? You can’t say that they don’t. People change all the time. They change their habits, they change their relationships, and they change their environment. So if a person isn’t born to be a certain way, and they can change if they want to, what exactly is changing within them that causes their change in character? It is their thoughts. How and what a person thinks are what defines who they are. You can say it is some learned behavior from when they were young or they always believed that is how they are, but both of these examples prove that it is the person’s thoughts that dictate their personality and character.
One common analogy is between a person and a plant. Sometimes it’s a tree, sometimes it’s a flower, it really doesn’t matter for the analogy. This analogy works well with a man and his character. As stated above, a man’s character is defined by his thoughts. Without his thoughts, even the one in the deep recesses of his brain of which he might not even be conscious of, he is nothing.
“As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, so every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought, and could not have appeared without them”[1]
Necessary Action
Alright, well thinking is nice, but action is still necessary. Actions are a direct result of thought. You must think, at least on some level, however primal, before you do something. These actions have the ability to bring joy or suffering. Keep in mind that this is guaranteed from an internal perspective. Meaning, a man’s actions will either bring him joy or bring him suffering, on aggregate total. Following this line of reasoning, a man’s thoughts have a very direct influence on the outcome of his experiences. A man is a gardener where his thoughts are his crop, and the sweetness or the bitterness of his crop are of his own planting.
Defining Success
People tend to see super successful people in an almost godlike way, at least in terms of their character. The successful person reaches their status, from the perspective of the bystander, in either of two ways: an act of luck or and act of extreme character. Unfortunately, the former tends to be the first response of non-successful people. So how did this person become successful? Let’s work this backwards to get a different angle of this concept. To become successful, this person had to have done certain things, he must have taken certain actions. Well, we know a person acts a certain way based off their character. People who are known to be a certain way tend to continue to be that way unless what happens? Unless their thoughts change. Again, the way a person thinks derives their character, which defines their actions, which leads to their success.
All of this leads to the idea that a person makes themselves. You can literally make yourself into any image you want, you only need to change how you think. This is very simple; however, it is not easy. People tend to believe that simple and easy are synonyms. Not really. A common path to wealth is to create a successful business, use that business to purchase passive income investments that cover all of your expenses, and then you can retire financially free. That’s a pretty simple blueprint. However, I doubt there are many people out their who will tell you building a successful business is easy. So, all you need to do is change how you think to become successful, but how do you change how you think?
How to change how you think
For this answer, let’s turn to James Allen, author of As a Man Thinketh.
“Man is always the master, even in his weaker and most abandoned state; but in his weakness and degradation he is the foolish master who misgoverns his ‘household’. When he begins to reflect upon his condition, and to search diligently for the law upon which his being is established, he then becomes the wise master, directing his energies with intelligence, and fashioning his thoughts to fruitful issues. Such is the conscious master, and man can only thus become by discovering within himself the laws of thought, which discovery is totally a matter of application, self-analysis, and experience.”[2]
“’He that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.’ For only by patience, practice and ceaseless importunity can a man enter the door of the temple of knowledge.”[3]
To change how you think you must be in constant search for further knowledge. You must be willing to truly understand multiple points of view of the same topic, for only then can you truly make intelligent decisions. Strive to be the conscious master who is always searching for ways to bring joy into the world. Allen likens thoughts to the status of law for a reason. The way you think is literally the laws of who you are. You hear about how you must improve your mindset before you can prove your life. This is where this comes into play. When you change your mindset (i.e., you thought), you are literally changing the laws you have constructed on your very being. However, changing your mindset isn’t an easy task. It takes a long time of consistently applying your new knowledge and analyzing yourself. You must be honest with yourself. It is through this patient practice of discovery that you can change your thoughts, and from there you can do anything you desire.
To your wealth and future,
James Forsythe
For more thought provoking work
https://jamesdforsythe.com/category/personaldevelopment/
https://jamesdforsythe.com/you-are-not-special-destroy-an-entitlement-mentality/
https://jamesdforsythe.com/crime-and-punishment/
For a YouTube Video of me going more in depth
To find As A Man Thinketh
[1] As a Man Thinkethby James Allen, pg. 23
[2] Ibid pg. 25
[3] Ibid pg. 26