Mid-week Inspiration,   

 "Thoughts are things".  He made the claim, and then argued his own testimony as proof.  This was the subject of his successful Toastmasters’ competition speech. I listened to it on the internet.

The toastmaster, Mike Dooley, went on to qualify how his thoughts, with a methodology, became actual events in his life a couple years later.  Such events and testimonies are becoming common place in western society today.  Many common people are having uncommon successes in their lives simply by redirecting their thoughts.

In fact pretty much all of us can attest to some kind of relationship between our thoughts and our experiences, assets and friends.

So although we say "yes, sure, I'll think a new thought" there is generally a lack of willingness to experience the usual discomfort associated with real change.

So what does it take to move us from our general apathy around our patterns of thinking?  What does it take to move us through our discomfort?  Unfortunately, for most of us it takes a general crisis in our lives.  An act of desperation will propel us to new heights of discovery, realization and accomplishment.  Cancer may lead a person to think about and quit smoking. 

Ulcers will encourage a 'workaholic' to consider taking some down time.  Likewise cutting words causing the loss of friendship may lead a person to reconsider their flavour of communication.  These are very black and white cause and effect scenarios; the majority of my acquaintances have made those connections.  But must change always come at the heels of another crisis? 

No! It is possible to think in new ways through the inspiring actions of others.  In fact much of the accelerated change of our society today has come from exposure to the discoveries of other people via radio, TV and now the internet.   What many of our parents thought could never happen they have today accepted as common place; their thinking has changed with the general tendencies of popular beliefs and thinking.

So we can change our thinking and experiences just by being part of the lowest common denominator of social change, simply by exposing ourselves over and over again to the sheer weight of popular opinion.

There is another way to change our thinking and that is by consciously directing our thoughts, choosing what our desires and needs will be. We can actually define our thoughts rather than let them randomly surface based upon reaction to our environment and social circles.  This kind of change takes desire and passion but it need not be predicated by a disaster.