It may appear to most of us that life just happens and we have little or no control over what happens or how it happens. But life doesn’t just happen. While it’s true that circumstances beyond our control do happen, it is not what happens that creates our reality. It is the way we think about what happens that creates our own unique reality.
Whatever you think it is, it is. While it has been said that thought is just thought and it is neither good nor bad, if you think something is bad, then it is bad for you. Someone else may think that what you think is bad is good. Who is right? You both are right, because thinking makes it so for each of you—whatever you think it is makes it exactly that for you. Have you ever noticed how differently siblings from the same family perceive the exact same shared experience?
What you think matters because what “you think” about another person, a job, an experience, and even a day, whether accurate or inaccurate, makes it so in your brain, even if your thoughts and perceptions are faulty. Here’s how it works:
• An event happens, or someone says or does something.
• You have a thought about the incident that occurred.
• The way you think about what you heard, saw, or experienced creates your own unique version of what happened.
• The way you think about what happened, not the actual facts of what occurred, determines how you feel about it and then how you react to it.
The way you think about what happened doesn’t have to be accurate to be real for you. Once you have the thought, it becomes real for you until you change your thinking about it. How can you change your thinking to truly benefit your life?
