Watch Your Thoughts

“Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habit. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”    -  Laozi

This phrase has haunted my dreams. It is so simple yet so powerful.   Something as simple as the way I think can ultimately determine who I become. The really scary thing is that I know this is true. I have seen it in my own life.  I have caught myself thinking negatively about an issue then when asked about it I spoke negatively about it. When the issue finally came to a head I acted negatively and that negativity spurred the next issue and it was very difficult to not start the process all over again.
When my parents got divorced I became a very negative person. I didn't trust people and wasn't a person worth trusting in. This negativity led me ultimately into a life of drinking and thoughts of suicide. On more than one occasion I stuck a knife to my arm and prayed, ACTUALLY PRAYED, for the strength to end my life. By the grace of God I never did, but I went to college still broken, angry and alone. Only after a night of drinking myself nearly to death did I decide I didn't want to live that way. Did you catch that? I decided! I chose... a different path. The change in my thought process started a chain reaction that brought me into a relationship with Jesus, with people who loved me, and ultimately created the person I am today.
While I am free from the thoughts of suicide, there is still a daily struggle to guard my thoughts against negativity. One the exercises that Stephen Covey suggests in his book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" is to visualize an experience in your life that stresses you out. Visualize how you want the experience to go, making it a positive experience. In doing this exercise, I have seen how negative my thought process can be. It has been a real struggle for me to not visualize the worst case scenario. The other day I visualized an issue I was having at work and tried to think about it positively. I eventually gave up on this exercise because no matter how hard I tried it always ended up with people yelling and me quitting my job. Not very positive...
I have learned the battle for me is still in my mind. I've noticed when I need to have an uncomfortable conversation or if there is a stressful situation in my life I tend to envision the worst case scenario.  This is definitely an area I need to work on. I hope that this hits a cord with you and helps to spark a change in your life. Let's work on this together!

Cheers!