You may recall a recent blog – The Habit of Self-Delusion, a habit many of my clients describe as being the one that most prevents them from attaining some sense of happiness.

Today, our focus will be on the one habit that I believe, more than any others, drives the direction our lives will take and whether our days are spent smiling broadly or frowning sadly.

It is The Habit of Empowering Thought and it plays a vital role in shaping our perspective, boosting or lowering our energy and strengthening or weakening our resolve.

Every Thought Counts

I have recently read several studies suggesting that we have more than 60,000 thoughts each day.

I’m not sure how this research was conducted and what kind of high-tech counting device was attached to the heads of the research subjects, nor do I know whether there is any truth or accuracy to the results, but I do know this; there is a constant stream of thoughts going through our heads at all times and it is the content of this stream that is the focus of this posting.

These thoughts have great influence over our emotions and these emotions have immense impact on the decisions we make and the actions we take.

Fact: the results in our lives come from our actions.

Translation: if we are not generating the results we want, it is enormously helpful to remember that before we choose different courses of actions, it is critical to evaluate the content of our thoughts to ensure they are congruent with the results we want.

Simply put, everything counts. Never forget or discount that each belief began as a mere fleeting thought, that over time, gained sufficient traction to become firmly ensconced within your psyche. Yes, you did that all on your own without even realizing it was happening or the extent to which it would impact your life. 

Empowering Thoughts Only

The Habit of Empowering Thought drives us to become acutely aware of our stream of thought and to make constant course corrections, meaning we need constantly drive out, and permanently banish, all thoughts of self-criticism, doubt, fear, anxiety and all those that serve no purpose other than to help move us further away from where we wish to be.

I believe our lives exist in our heads, and only in our heads. Of course, this sounds absurd as almost every experience we have takes place outside of ourselves.

What this means, though, is that all our experiences are nothing more than events in our lives and remain so until we place our unique and individual meaning on each one.

And then they become real – for us.

The Habit of Empowering Thought empowers us to create whatever reality we choose to place on each event and whatever reality we choose will then greatly affect what we do.

If there truly is a difference between those who do and those who don’t it is this: those who do are driven there by The Habit of Empowering Thought, those who don’t have very different thoughts flowing through their heads.

Our lives are the result of the story we tell ourselves. This is why you have likely heard the advice that to change your life, you must change the story.

Make no mistake about it – you are already a master storyteller, in fact you have been crafting your story for years. And don’t kid yourself otherwise, your story had guided you – just like a loyal friend – to this exact destination.

You always have a story, whether by design or default. This is key: if your story has not been designed, it has been created by default.

One way or the other you already have a story, but is it the story that keeps you where you are or catapults you to where you want to be.

Only you know the answer.

Let’s make a habit of meeting like this.