Thoughts are the Beginning of All Actions
Until the second draft of this post, I did not realize the irony that I am writing about forming positive thought patterns while I struggle to enjoy creating these posts rather than stressing over each one. Reinforcing, or strengthening existing habits, is a concept I am becoming very familiar with. In life coaching, clients talk through the areas they feel stuck in and the coach guides them to create realistic action steps to move forward in these areas. The most transformative aspect of this process is the clients regularly meeting with the coach because the coach checks in with the clients’ progress on their action steps each session. The accountability from the coach encourages the clients to continue progressing in the areas they desire, and the client’s continuous pursuit of action leads to lasting change in the areas they once felt stuck in.
A few days ago, I listened to a woman talk about her recent medical struggles which greatly contributed to the hardest season of her life. In the podcast, she said she finally began to get out of the cloud of pain and darkness the minute she realized she still had reasons to praise God. In that moment, she went from crying on the bathroom floor out of hopelessness to singing joyfully, and her husband was shocked at her drastic change of state. Similar to the husband’s reaction, I think that my brain would be surprised to see positive thoughts in the spotlight. Negative thoughts comfortably reside in my head. I’ve even believed in some moments that I didn’t have the ability to be in a joyful state because of how much negativity shrouded my mind. I can acknowledge things I am grateful for with not much effort, but arriving to the point where I am able to focus on hopeful and productive thoughts requires much intentional effort. Thus, I must start reinforcing positive thinking habits by deliberately replacing my familiar detrimental thoughts with helpful ones as they arise.
I share these thoughts because in this past week I have been reminded of the almost endless capacity of our minds. I spend a decent amount of time learning from other people’s contributions, and I fail to realize that all of them adopt habits of their own to better engage their minds. And in order to initiate these habits, these “smarter” or “more successful” people at one point had to begin viewing their minds as valuable.
