Personally I think that most of us have far more control over what we do or say than we neccessarily appreciate. George Bernard Shaw said, “People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, they make them.”
Well, he’s got a point, hasn’t he? We become what we think about.
Of course the opposite is almost certainly true as well, the person who has no goal, who doesn’t know where he’s going, and whose thoughts must therefore be thoughts of confusion, anxiety and worry – his life becomes one of frustration maybe even fear. And if he thinks about nothing… he’s probably not going to get anywhere.
How does it work? Why do we become what we think about? Well, I’ll tell you how it works, as far as I know. Let me tell you about a situation that parallels the human mind.
Suppose a farmer has some land, and it’s good, fertile, productive land. The land gives the farmer a complete choice; he may plant in that land whatever he chooses. The land doesn’t care. It’s up to the farmer to make the decision.
We’re comparing the human mind with the land because the mind, like the land, doesn’t care what you plant in it. It will return what you plant, but it doesn’t actually care what you plant.
Now, let’s say that the farmer has two seeds in his hand- one is wheat, the other is nightshade, a deadly poison. He digs two little holes in the earth and he plants both seeds-one wheat, the other nightshade. He covers up the holes, regularly waters and generally takes care of the land…and what will happen? Invariably, the land will return what was planted.
As it’s written in the Bible, “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”
Remember the land doesn’t care. It will return poison in just as wonderful abundance as it will wheat. So up come the two plants – one wheat, one poison.
The human mind is far more fertile, far more incredible and mysterious than the land, but it seems to work the same way. It doesn’t care what we plant…success…or failure. A concrete, worthwhile goal…or confusion, misunderstanding, fear, anxiety and so on. But what we plant seems to return to us.
You see, it’s been said that the human mind is the last great unexplored continent on earth. It contains riches beyond our wildest dreams. It will return anything we want to plant.
Massive thinking point isn’t it?