You Become What You Think About

Over 20 years ago now, as a young manager in a bank leadership program, we had a speaker present to us on the topic of goal setting and goal achievement.  I remember being so disappointed with the speaker and the lack of tactical advice he gave us.   I wanted to know what to do and he just kept telling me what to think. 

While he didn’t give me what I thought I needed, he did leave me with a list of books and audios, which I dug into searching for the answer.  From this list I discovered my all time favorite novel (which I have read or listened to 7 times), many tactical actions I could take, and The Strangest Secret, by Earl Nightingale.

I have to admit that listening to that recording created a pivotable moment in my life.  This was the moment I began to learn and understand the importance of goal setting as a tool to direct your mind on the future you are creating.

While he covers a lot of ground in a 30 minute recording (you can listen here), the most important thing, and actually what he calls The Strangest Secret, is that you become what you think about.  

Oh yeah, we are back to what to think, not what to do, but stay with me…

Just for fun, take a minute to reflect on what you have thought about in the last 15 minutes.  Make a quick list.  Now, assuming that his secret is truth, what will you become based on what you are thinking about?

Are you thinking about activities and tasks you want to do to move a goal forward?  Are you thinking about the good things that may happen tomorrow?  Are you thinking about what you want in your life?

Or, are you thinking about everything you don’t want to do?  Are you thinking about all the things that could go wrong tomorrow?  Are you thinking about what you don’t want in your life?

You will become what you think about…positive or negative.

While I am the first to admit I am not always focused on what I want to create in my life.  I am definitely here to tell you that I have become what I thought about over and over again, in both positive and negative ways.  Which is why it is so important to remind myself, and my mind, what I want to create and what I want to become.

And why goal setting is so important to me.

So, why is goal setting so important?  When you take the time to intentionally set a goal, to plan where you want to be, or what you want to do, to put a stake in the ground as a future desire, your mind immediately goes to work.  You now have something concrete to work toward.  

The best example I can think of is that your mind works like a GPS.  Unless you tell it exactly where you want to go, it has no idea how to tell you to get there.  But, when you put in a specific location or destination, it reveals the path to you each step of the way.

What destination are you giving your mind?  How can it possibly reveal the right path if it doesn’t know where you are headed?

In this session, I am not only going to expand on why what you think about it important, I’ll also share how to create a goal and a process to think about that goal that helps your mind achieve it.