Not everyone is lucky enough to have a mentor — someone to turn to for help, direction, motivation and the next big steps in your life. But sometimes you have to make your own luck. Even if you find yourself without a mentor, you can still establish that same relationship with someone that might not be as real, through the inspiration they left behind.
Thoughts can make or unmake you
Thoughts influence the circumstances. As James Allen prolific author and publisher wrote, “Man is made and unmade by himself”. While positive thoughts elevate your circumstances through joy and peace, negative thoughts are like internal weapons, self-forged and self-imposed, that destroy us from within.
Our thoughts can both be the fuel that drives our ambitions or the obstacles that stand in their way.
Sure, getting lucky can help, but learning how to control your own circumstances and shape your destiny is extremely powerful.
Your mind is like a garden
Mind is quite powerful, but it needs to be properly cultivated to thrive. Our circumstances usually develop from the thoughts and actions that we let into our lives, like seeds growing in a garden. Positive thoughts bear the fruits of our efforts; negative thoughts poison the soil. Even neglect results in weeds taking over our lives, leaving no room for any useful growth.
Just like a garden, you can either intelligently cultivate your mind or let it run wild. Keep weeds out of your garden by planting your goals and marking a straight path towards achieving them. Maintain healthy positive thoughts with effort and consistency. By controlling the soil and seeds out of which circumstances grow, you become the master of your own life.
Dream lofty dreams
Our only limits are the ones we impose upon ourselves, so don’t limit your dreams. The loftier your dreams, the greater you can become, but dreaming big only starts by thinking big. You can choose to be as small as the empty desires that control you, or as great as the aspirations of who you aim to be. Created with the right thoughts and followed with the right action, we can turn our dreams into reality.
Success starts with believing in a dream — not wanting or wishing for it, but knowing it’s attainable. Any goal can be attainable with a well-structured thought process and a strong work ethic. Even big dreams can come true as long as we have an actionable plan to achieve them. So, if you dream of success, make an effort to earn it.
How to train your thoughts
Stay positive by staying away from people that put you down. Onlookers love to ignore the efforts, sacrifices and failures that people endure before they achieve success and simply comment, “How lucky they are to be successful!” If you can brush off those foolish comments, fine, but if that negativity gets into your head, then surrounding yourself with fools only makes you another fool among many. Instead, seek out people who support, love and push you towards success — not just money-seeking, but a serene life in general.
Train your mind to keep calm no matter what you encounter. Don’t think everything is a fire and break down when something bad happens. You end up making decisions without thinking them through, and rash decisions are not usually the right ones. If you can keep calm, you can more objectively view the situation and make decisions that yield positive outcomes.
