Perhaps The Most Important Post I’ve Ever Written

Feeling is what you get for thinking the way you do. – Marilyn vos Savant

We are not X because of Y, we are X because of our thinking about Y

*  *  *

In the above X = how we’re feeling and Y =anything outside us.

*  *  *

So many don’t get this. They think that how they’re feeling, and their situation, is because of things outside themselves.

I won’t get into whether or not anyone’s “situation” is because of things outside them or not (although most of the time, and mostly, it is . . . ); rather, I’ll focus on what’s more important: how we’re feeling and where that comes from.

We feel the way we do because of what think.

If you think something is unfair, you are going to feel slighted.

If you think someone is mean, whatever they do or say is likely to hurt you, or, at the very least, you are going to feel as if they are going to hurt your feelings at some point.

If you think the Life is hard, you are going to feel as if the odds are stacked against you.

BUT:

If you think some people act in unfair ways, but they are a minority and that there are more “good” people out there, then you will shake off any perceived injustices and keep moving towards what you want.

If you think someone is troubled, for whatever reason, you are going to feel some sort of sympathy, or perhaps even empathy, for them.

If you think the World is challenging, but yields to experimentation and hard work, you’ll feel like doing hard work.

I could go on and on and on . . . .

But I won’t, because I think you get the point – at least you do if you’re willing to think differently.

Similar Posts

  • What Makes You Weak

    Something we were withholding made us weak, until we found it was ourselves. – Robert Frost One of the things that gets in the way of our strength is how we mask, deny, subjugate and otherwise dis-empower our true selves. Our true self is a well-spring of power, and creativity, and industry and, most importantly,…

  • What Do You Look For?

    What we see depends mainly on what we look for. – John Lubbock There’s so much “out there,” but what you see is depends on what you look for. It also depends on what you’re willing to see. *  *  * What do you look for? What are you willing to see? The answer to those…

  • What (Real) Optimists Do

    Optimists are those who go after Moby Dick in a row boat with a bucket of tartar sauce. – Zig Ziglar First off, nobody beats Zig for deep truth delivered well. Second, the key take-away here (I humbly suggest) is that the Optimist is one who takes (intelligent/bold/authentic/useful/necessary/game-changing) action. So many people pooh-pooh optimism and…

  • The Wastefulness (and Impossibility) of Multi-Tasking

    Here’s some ancient wisdom: “To do two things at once is to do neither.” – Publius Syrus And some modern “validation:” People confuse “rapid-switching” with multi-tasking [NPR article] And Peter Bregman explains that trying to multi-task makes us less-smart, less-productive and less-competent [HBR Blogs] I’m convinced (of course I already knew that trying to multi-task was…