As I was going through my review of Simpleology 101 – The Simple Science of Getting What You Want this morning, I once again came across Lesson 12 – The Two Most Important Decisions Of Your Life.
This lesson goes over the idea of strengthening and weakening decisions (which, by the way, aren’t the two most important decisions – just examples of them). Something jumped out at me that I’ve probably read 10 times before, but never really noticed:
“A weakening decision is one that in the moment will weaken any of your sources of power.”
Which caused the following train of thought:
- A negative thought weakens my power.
- Dwelling on a thought is a decision.
- Therefore, the decision to dwell on a negative thought is a weakening decision. It takes away my power.
I don’t believe that I can (yet) choose every thought that pops into my head. I can, though, choose what to do with the thoughts that come, and create a second thought that is somehow related to the first.
Outright rejection (“don’t think about that!”) usually doesn’t work. It’s usually better (and easier!) to either accept the thought and dwell on it (if it’s positive), or take the thought and ask myself “How does this serve me?” if it’s negative.
I’ve always looked at the idea of strengthening and weakening decisions as outer actions. Many of them are: to smoke or not to smoke, to walk or drive, to eat McDonald’s or the bologna sandwich I’ve brought to work.
But I’ve never thought of them from the perspective that I’ve learned is where all of the outer actions come from… inside of myself.
What thought produces what feeling which drives me to take the action that will increase or decrease my own power?
Because if we can change what’s going on inside, what’s going on outside will follow.
Sometimes, the best way to change what’s going on inside is to change what I’m doing outside: to take the action first, do the “fake it till you make it” thing.
But even when I do it that way, the taking of the action is creating new neural pathways, and showing my brain that there’s another way to go, a new way to think, if I choose to.
It’s a dance between our actions and our thoughts, each both producing and reacting to our feelings.
And we get to choose what kind of dance it is, every moment of every day.
Similar Posts:
- Nine Keys to Making Good Decisions
- What Simpleology 101 – The Simple Science of Getting What You Want – Can Do For You
- Do What Now?
- 3 Clear Thinking Techniques You Can Use This Minute
- Changing from the Inside
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