One of my favorite authors to either read or listen to is James Allen.
If you believe in controlling your own destiny, his work As a Man Thinketh provides the necessary toolbox to shape and craft a better version of yourself.
I discovered the power of positive thinking nearly a decade ago and recently this work has been a go to source of motivation for me.
James Allen’s philosophy on the power of thought is both timeless and transformative. He suggests that our internal world shapes our external reality.
Please enjoy this selection from Chapter 1, Thought and Purpose.
“Man is a growth by law, and not a creation by artifice, and cause and effect is as absolute and undeviating in the hidden real of thought as in the world of visible and material things.
The aphorism, “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he,” not only embraces the whole of a man’s being, but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every condition and circumstance of his life. A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.
As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the see, so every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought, and could not have appeared without them. This applies equally to those acts called “spontaneous” and unpremeditated” as to those which are deliberately executed.
Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits; thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry.
Thought in the mind hath made us. What we are
By thought we wrought and built. If a man’s mind Hath evil thoughts, pain comes on him as comes The wheel the ox behind…If one endure in purity of thought joy follows him as his own shadow – sure.”
Allen’s words remind us of the power of thought.
Thoughts are like seeds.
From these seeds our actions are born, and the outcomes of those actions grow.
Just as seeds and plants require nourishment, our minds require positive and purposeful thinking to create our best life.
