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, make them."
Well, it's pretty apparent,
isn't it? And every person who discovered this believed (for a while) that he
was the first one to work it out. We become what we think about.
Now, it stands to reason that
a person who is thinking about a concrete and worthwhile goal is going to reach
it, because that's what he's thinking about. And we become what we think about.
Conversely, the person who has
no goal, who doesn't know where he's going, and whose thoughts must therefore
be thoughts of confusion, anxiety, fear and worry — his life becomes one of
frustration, fear, anxiety and worry. And if he thinks about nothing ... he
becomes nothing.
How does it work? Why do we become
what we think about? Well, I'll tell you how it works, as far as we know. To do
this, I want to tell you about a situation that parallels the human mind.
Suppose a farmer has some
land, and it's good, fertile land. The land gives the farmer a choice; he may
plant in that land whatever he chooses. The land doesn't care. It's up to the
farmer to make a 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 care what you plant.
Now, let's say that the farmer
has two seeds in his hand — one is a seed of corn, the other is nightshade, a
deadly poison. He digs two little holes in the earth and he plants both seeds —
one corn, the other nightshade. He covers up the holes, waters and takes care
of the land ... and what will happen? Invariably, the land will return what was
planted.
Remember, the land doesn't
care. It will return poison in just as wonderful abundance as it will corn. So
up come the plants — one corn, one poison. The human mind is far more fertile,
far more incredible and mysterious than the land, but it works 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 it must return to us.
You see, 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.
So what matters most is what you
think.
