First comes the power of choice, then by making your decision and choosing your path, you adapt. All of this would not be possible without the power of thought. Man is the only creature to have this ability. After all, the difference between you and your best friend, the dog is that the dog can not choose his future but live by reacting to circumstances. However, as humans, we have the gift of thought over matter.
My best friend, Shelby (my dog) is an amazing friend and someone who never gives me crap – When talking to someone about how we met, I always mention that “she chose me” instead of the other way around. I remember seeing her for the first time, I threw the ball across the small tiny room and at 3 months young, she chased it while the other dogs didn’t even bother to play with me. At that moment, I knew she liked me. She chose me and life has been great for the both of us since then.
The problems with humans is that we forget we have the power of choice. Like lemmings, we go to work in masses and come home in masses and we rarely stop to think and observe why we do it. Its almost like having a pre-fixed meal at a restauarent. Life is similar in that our parents want us to go to college, get a good job after and have a few kids. Rinse, repeat and the same for the next generation.
Today, more than ever, we live in a turbulent environment. This is not only a national recession but worldwide. However, during all recessions, there are loads of chances to take advantage of and new opportunities if only we can stop and observe the new landscape that the recession has carved out for us – isn’t this called adapting to your environment? Opportunities are everywhere but only if we stop and observe.
It was worse a few years back but everyone always complains about the lack of jobs and job opportunities. What people are not realizing is that they have been replaced with robots, automated systems, cheap labor from India and other developing nations. In some ways, its true, there are few jobs but because of the power of the internet, we no longer need a job to survive – in fact, if we lost our job, the internet provides many opportunities for the able person to not only survive but instead, to thrive.
This is where the power of thought makes things possible. For the most part, people are lazy. It is very simple to do but very hard for people to sit and think. We live in a digital age where we’re bombarded with thousands of distractions on a daily basis and most people suffer from ADD (myself included). Asking yourself simple questions will teach you more about yourself than you’ve ever imagined. What a way to raise self-awareness!
Questions to ask yourself:
- What are my strengths?
- What are my weaknesses?
- What do I love doing?
- What are my hobbies?
- Where do I see myself in 5-10 years from now?
- How will I be remembered?
I can go on and on but the last question is probably the most important. You see, if we did everything with the end in mind, the quality of our life and the lives of others around us would be amazing because we would always act and behave in a way that would remind us of how we will be remembered by those around us. It takes a decade to build reputation and it takes one wrong decision (or action) to ruin it.
However, most people wouldn’t put in the time to ask themselves these questions. It requires thought and a lot of it. For most people with busy lives and depending on how active their ADD is, it may take days. Finally, what to do with all of this information once it has been accumulated?
If only people learn to adapt to their environment by making a choice and thinking about their future with the end in mind, their results would be a life lead with fulfillment and happiness. However, most won’t. Like lemmings, these people will wake up and follow the herd to and from work. Rinse, repeat.
Agree? Disagree? I would love to hear from you. Please comment below and lets start a discussion. Thanks for reading!
