Think Results NOW: You Are What You Think book 1 – #9: Mold Your Character With Thinking Habits

You Are What You Think book 1

Article #9

My life is an Excellent Adventure from using “You Are What You Think book”

Mold Your Character With Thinking Habits

THERE IS A VERY definite connection between a person’s habits and his character.

Most of us recognize our strong and weak points, but we are inclined to regard them as being fixed, or unchangeable.

Nothing could be further from the truth. We don’t realize that our characters are being modified every day by our associations with others.

MANY OF OUR HABITS are formed when we start to imitate someone we look up to. A student may start to smoke not because he likes it but because someone he admires smokes.

He may cut classes or become sloppy in fulfilling his homework assignments because his friends are doing these things.

He doesn’t realize that by repeatedly acting this way the grooves or “samskaras” we spoke of last week are growing deeper.

ONE DAY HE WAKES up to the fact that these habits have become deeply ingrained, and he can’t change them.

Never get to the point where you think you are not normal if you don’t follow the crowd. You may be the one who is normal !

An ordinary person’s character is shaped by outside influences. An outstanding person’s character is shaped by deliberate self-training. He learns the conscious control of his subconscious mind, as we discussed in previous columns.

YOU MUST BECOME aware of the importance of the way you think, and what you think about.

You form the habit of thinking along certain lines, and your character is formed accordingly.

Suppose a person is constantly thinking of himself as being unsuccessful. His subconscious mind, (which doesn’t reason) will objectify his thoughts and that is the way he will be.

ON THE OTHER hand, if he makes an ideal of success and accomplishment, his every act will automatically be toward the objectification of that ideal.

You are molding your own character by your habits of thinking. The weak person allows himself to be molded by the thoughts of others. The strong person does his own thinking, and takes the building process in his own hands.

Many of us have acquired habits that we would like to be rid of, but we don’t feel we have enough will power.

Before we can DEVELOP THE WILL TO DO SOMETHING, WE MUST FIRST HAVE THE DESIRE. If the desire is strong enough, the will power will be automatically supplied.

The Yoga masters taught their students that the best way to rid themselves of unwanted habits and replace them with desirable ones was to practice visualization.

They were told to make a clear mental picture of themselves the way they would be if they no longer had the habit.

IF IT WERE A NEW trait of character they were seeking, they would picture themselves as already having it.

They were to let their minds dwell constantly on the advantages that would be theirs instead of thinking about how difficult it would be.

If the mental picture is strong and clear, you will find it gradually taking form without much conscious effort on your part.

IF YOU WANT to change some condition in your life, YOU MUST CHANGE YOUR THOUGHT AND KEEP IT CHANGED.

You already have formed mental pictures of everything that is in your life. Destroy the picture of the things you don’t want and they will disappear. Make new pictures of the things you do want.

If you were showing slides you would put the slide you wanted to see on the screen in the projector. You have the same choice in your own life. Why picture things in your mind you don’t want ?

IF YOU HAVE wrong mental pictures, get rid of them by supplying the opposite. The right thought always obliterates the wrong thought.

This is no vague theory. It has been tested and proven for untold centuries.

Prove it to yourself in this manner:

SELECT A PROBLEM in your life and change your thinking about it. Keep your mind concentrated upon the new condition that you want to produce. Mentally deny the existence of the unwanted condition or habit and ACT AS IF the new condition were already a fact.

If you do this consistently, and don’t allow your mind to dwell on the unwanted condition, the results will amaze you.

Assume the feeling that would be yours were you already in possession of your objective. The subconscious will be moved to build the exact likeness of your assumption.