Lesson 5: You choose your response to your environment — As a Man Thinketh by James Allen and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
Mr. Dan is a man full of many doubts. He, let’s say, has a very important test coming up for something he’s been wanting to be since he was a kid. Let’s say a commercial pilot. He is one who wants to accomplish but is too afraid of doing everything it takes to get to his end goal. How do you think Mr. Dan will fare in his ventures if he keeps up this train of thought? The short answer is, he will never accomplish. This is plainly obvious, but why is this? According to both James Allen, author of As a Man Thinketh, and Stephen Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, everyone’s reality is rooted in their individual way of thought and argues that outcomes in an individual’s life is subject to the individual’s way of thinking.
James Allen throughout his book packed with literary devices uses the metaphor that a man’s mind is a delicate garden of thought. Let your thoughts run wild and expect to reap the harm that weeds would cause a garden. On the contrary, make an effort to organize your thoughts in a well intended manner and expect to sow the fruits a successful farmer who nourishes his harvest would. Weeds being undesirable outcomes and fruits representing accomplishments and reward of focused well intended effort we can see how this metaphor represents the discipline thinking in a striking manner in the sense that weeds grow within hours of a gardener treating his garden poorly and fruits can only be harvested with continuous and dedicated care throughout a season. Wild thoughts of negative will rot your outcomes quick in life while thoughts of order and discipline let the individual control an outcome to their desired state over the course of time.
To back track and explain this overtly metaphorical concept, let’s look at what the more technical of the two books said about the two types of people there are in the world. According to Stephen Covey, there are people who are reactive to situations and those who are responsible in their attitude to their environments. Those who are reactive react to challenges in their life as things are thrown at them based on how they feel about a situation in the moment. People who are responsible are people who are able to respond to their environment based on principles already established before the circumstance the individual faces takes place. In order to be responsible, Covey argues, one has to establish principles in life around what their end goals and practice them regardless of how easy it may be to break them.
Looking back at Mr. Dan. Allen would say he is letting his thoughts run in disarray allowing the failure of his goals to be realized in his physical world. The weeds growing in his mind due to his anxieties, thoughts of self doubt, and incompetence of his skills are crystallizing into his physical reality. Stephen Covey on the other hand would say he is being reactive to his environment and potentially to his approach in life. Throughout his books claims that there are two types of human creations. First comes the creation of outcome in the mind and then comes the creation in the physical world. For there to be outcome in the physical world of an individual there first has to be a thought of projected outcome in the individual’s mind. Mr. Dan has too much self doubt about his capabilities because maybe he didn’t put in the time to study for his test because he lives his life with no principles. He sits and knows he has a test coming up, but that’s all he does. Test day arrives, and because of the lack of order he has established in his way of thinking he has to react to questions on his test based on intuitions led by doubts and anxieties.
If Mr. Dan took time a couple weeks before to organize his intentions and set principles he would have a why in accomplishing that task and a set of rules to hold himself accountable for the outcome of his test. We see many students across colleges blatantly not prepare for a test for them to predictably fail it, and then blame everything but themselves for their failure. This student in a way is expecting his or her environment to hold them accountable for their outcomes making them fall under the category of being reactive. If students like Mr. Dan and the one i just described took time to put a why in their head and establish principle then they would create value in succeeding in the task at hand in their mind and have a plan of attack to accomplish their objectives.
The key is to start listening to how you talk to yourself about yourself, your relationships. and your capabilities. Listen to the attitudes you have towards yourself and identify why it is you think the way you do. Someone in your childhood or current environment could have said something to you repeatedly that was seared into your subconscious mind. Clear your subconscious mind of those beliefs that you portray onto yourself that others might have said about you. Meditate, visit a therapist, or talk to trusted ones who won’t judge about what’s holding you back. People who get this far have identified their problems but haven’t finished the road to a clear mind quite yet. Trust me you don’t want to get stuck on this step, you’ll become an anchor to those around you. To see actual results you have to organize your thoughts and limit yourself of negative thoughts and beliefs that do you any good. That’s those weeds growing rampant in your mind. By putting effort into thinking positively about yourself, your capabilities, and your relationships you will find that your outcomes in life are more predictable, you hold yourself to a higher level of accountability, and your relationships will strengthen as you naturally attract more people. People love making happy people happier and positive thinkers successful. No nation wants a Debbie downer to lead them forth and quite frankly, no democratic system is designed to elect people who doubt their electability. Pay attention to how you talk to yourself about your work, relationships, and self, and you’ll start to put the puzzle together into why specific outcomes crystallize out in your physical reality.
Everything originates in the mind of an individual being. So pay attention to what you’re thinking and find a way to control it. Develop a goal, find a set of guiding principles, and just decide to live by them without deviating from them at any cost. In 2021, challenge yourself to identify a weak point in your life and manage to make it one of the strongest points of your life by realizing, acknowledging, reprogramming, and executing your thoughts. In doing so, the delicate garden your mind is will harvest you some nutritious fruits of life in the near future!
Allen, J. (2018). As a Man Thinketh. Martino Fine Books.
Covey, S. R. (2013). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. New York: Simon & Schuster.
