Preach the role of though

Business and life coach Jacqueline told us this story last week about

a mechanic in a school district complaining of having punched the clock

and doing the same thing on his job over and over for the last 20 years.

“I’m burned out and need a change!” the mechanic declared.

“Possibly,” Jacqueline replied. “But you might want to try learning to

love what you are resisting, because if you don’t, you will likely run into it

in your next job too, in another guise.”

The mechanic responded, “I’m not sure that I believe that, but even if I

did, how is that possible?”

“Well,” his coach said, “what is a higher purpose to your job than just

turning nuts and bolts every day?”

“That’s easy,” replied the mechanic. “The higher purpose of my job is

saving children’s lives every day.”

“Yes, that’s great!” whispered the coach. “Now, every morning when

you get into your higher purpose, saving children’s lives every day, you

will be clear that your job and responsibility is so important that the time

clock almost won’t matter anymore.”

She had given him a new way to think. She had put him in touch with

the power of thought to transform experience.

Make certain all the people you want to motivate understand the role

of thought in life. There is nothing more important:

A: I’m depressed.

B: You just think you’re depressed.

A: Same thing...it feels like the same thing.

B: It feels like the same thing, because it is the same thing.

A: What if I thought I was really happy?

B: I think that would make you feel really happy.

A: I know it would.

Why is it that the rain depresses one person and makes another

person happy?

If things “make you” feel something, why does this thing called rain

make one person feel one thing and the other person feel the other thing?

Why, if things make you feel something, doesn’t the rain make both

people feel the same thing?

One person you lead might say, “Oh no, bad weather, how

depressing.” Another person might say, “Oh boy, we have some

wonderful refreshing rain!”

Because the rain doesn’t make either person feel anything. (No

person, place, or thing can make you feel anything.)

It is the thought about the rain that causes the feelings. And

throughout all your leadership adventures, you can teach your people this

most important concept: The concept of thought.

One person thinks (just thinks!) the rain is great. The other person

thinks (but just thinks) the rain is depressing. Nothing in the world has any

meaning until we give it meaning. Nothing in the workplace does either.

Your people often look to you for meaning. What does this new directive

really mean?

Do you sense the opportunity you have?

We can make things mean anything we want them to, within reason.

Why not use that power?

People don’t make your employees angry, their own thoughts make

them angry. They can’t be angry unless they think the thoughts that make

them angry.

If your employer wins the lottery in the morning, who’s going to make

her angry that day? No one. No matter what anyone says to her, she isn’t

going to care. She’s not going to give it another thought. Your employees

can only get angry with someone if they think about that person and what

they are saying and doing and what a threat it is to their happiness. If they

don’t think about that, how can they be angry?

Your people are free to think about anything they want. They have

absolute freedom of thought.

The highest IQ ever measured in any human being was achieved by

Marilyn Vos Savant, many years in a row. Once someone asked Marilyn

what the relationship was between feeling and thinking. She said,

“Feeling is what you get for thinking the way you do.”

Marcus Aurelius wrote, in 150 A.D., “The soul becomes dyed with the

colour of its thoughts.”

People feel motivated only when they think motivated thoughts.

Thought rules. Circumstance does not rule. The closer your relationship

to that truth, the better the leader you are.