What You Think About, You Become

What you think about, you become.

This sounds like a simple enough phrase, but it is really profound, and it penetrates every aspect of your life. It is always at work. Your entire being is based on your thinking. Every aspect of you: your mood, your level of happiness, your parenting, your relationship, your finances, your health, your weight, and your career. Everything in your life relates back to this one simple concept.

Let me give you an example from my own life. In 1984 I began 24 months of training in Anesthesiology. I worked and studied for an average of eighty hours a week, often times for continuing shifts of 35 hours or more at a time (that’s when I coined the phrase, “The 40-hour work DAY.”) My training included all aspects of medicine as they related to providing local, regional, and general anesthesia to patients.

My primary job as an anesthesiologist is to protect the safety of patients during procedures and surgery. To do that, I had to be able to anticipate every possible negative outcome. This included every possible negative reaction of the patient to the drugs and the surgery, and any equipment failure as well, including power failure to the hospital. My patients’ lives depended on me being able to predict and be prepared for any unexpected negative outcome.

As you can imagine, as I focused on this idea repeatedly for eighty hours a week, it penetrated every aspect of my life. I began thinking continuously in this way. When driving, I imagined flat tires, the wheels falling off my car, the engine dying at any time. I had blankets and winter clothing in case I ever got stranded in winter. I had the most amazing security system in my home, including state of the art fire-detection, radon detection, the works. Needless to say, I had a medical kit at home with antibiotics in case anyone had a minor scrape or cut and was at risk of an infection, no matter how remote the chance.

I was basically prepared for every negative outcome in my life, no matter how tiny the probability. And insurance? Oh my gosh, I had home insurance, car insurance, replacement value property insurance, $2 million in life insurance, over $100,000 per year of disability insurance, health insurance, and even a $5 million liability umbrella policy in case someone slipped on my sidewalk and decided to sue me.

The point of this is that all of these protective and risk-preparation behaviors were due to my training, to my continuing thinking about what might go wrong. This was a good and necessary component for my success in my career.

Whatever it is that you are thinking, it is creating everything about who you are. You are in complete control. The choice of your next thought lies in your control every moment. Accept that, appreciate that, and recognize that you direct your own life, from the inside out!