Everyday, we have around 60,000 to 80,000 thoughts. Experts say, if we pay attention to these thoughts, we would realize that most of these are useless and insignificant. In normal, daily life, most of this thinking is an automatic process, a mental habit that we may not be aware of. It is only when we focus on something in particular that we become aware of the many thoughts competing for our attention. These are those that we do everyday from the moment we wake up until we fall asleep.
This endless flow of deliberate thinking can be exhausting no matter how positive you perceive them. Yet you may not realize that hours, days, weeks, and months pass that you are just loaded with thoughts but of no benefits to you at all. Consider these:
- The energy and time you could have saved, if the number of your thoughts is reduced.
- The better focused you could be, if thoughts did not bother you.
- The inner peace and calmness you would have embraced, if there was a way to control all ‘unprofitable’ thoughts, which are of no value to you.
What are these other thoughts that need to take another form so they don’t spoil in your brain? (NOTE: This article focuses only on the positive thoughts.)
Probably the positive ones are those dreams you want happening for real; those wishes you want granted; those unique concepts you believe will bring you good fortune; those ideas you think are worth sharing. So many things for the day you want done but you cannot do for so many reasons.
At this point, you might have started convincing yourself that your thoughts have become simply insensible. They just frustrate you. In order to draw the attention away from these thoughts, others engage instead in hobbies or in various fun activities. By now, some may have chosen to party and drink, while others are into baser things in life. But these may not be the right solution.
So instead of just ignoring these thoughts or getting rid of them, what about converting them into daily consumable energy? Install them into your program and become part of your daily tasks. But that might be another frustrating part as you haven’t decided which thought could be worth acting on.
Identify that dream’s physical form. Your wish or your dream may be a preferred life other than what you live now— a social or a career status. You can’t live it now by simply role playing it. If it is something you cannot even describe nor calculate, then forget about it. Go clearer and more physical. What are the solid forms of your dream? A house? A business product? A big income? A highly paid profession? Whatever your purpose is, let’s set it aside for now. Just make sure it won’t cause you or others any harm.
Express it in a goal statement. For instance, “By 2021, I should have made 10M net earnings.” Now you would realize, there are sets of numbers to define that goal. The time involved, the monetary value, the dimension, the quantity— all are numbers which will determine if you would rather get rid of your thought that has been consuming you for some time, or convert it into action.
So if your dream is about being everywhere and owning everything because you are financially rich, you probably would associate it with a business or a career that would bring in millions. Because you aren’t there yet, you have to figure out how to get there. So how to make it, is not to dream it. You get rid of repetitious thoughts of your dream. It is now taking the “action” form.
Your thoughts begin to convert into behaviors. You write things down, you google for information, you seek advice, you visit relevant institutions, you watch youtube, you attend seminars. These are the activities now installed in your program, aside from your work or personal routines.
This set of new activities is personal. You don’t need to be part of a strategic planning workshop nor seriously learn project management. Nevertheless, If part of working towards your goal is learning new set of skills, then this is part of converting your thoughts into action. You need social media to make things work, then learn to use social media. You need to use excel to record your transactions, then learn excel. You need clientele, then learn to connect with people. You need to be more efficient in order to attend to your personal and work obligations, then learn “discipline.”
You can’t afford to overload your brain no matter how positive those thoughts are. If there’s too much, pick one that you truly can work on. In between are new behaviors that you will learn, whether you like them or not. No matter how positive, if they overstay as pure thoughts, those thoughts may have negative effects on you.
Make it a habit— translate your thoughts into productive behavior.
