Use Your Thoughts to Produce Personal Power

I have thought a lot lately about the importance of our thoughts and beliefs about life. I have come to the conclusion that what we think and believe has a direct influence on our success and happiness in life. What we think and believe directly influences how we act, and our actions produce the outcomes and results we experience in life. However, becoming aware of and changing thoughts can be extremely difficult, and many people aren't even aware of their own thought patterns. In addition, negativity and hopelessness is prevalent in our society and limits the happiness and success of many people. In this post I will describe the kinds of thoughts that produce personal empowerment and success and give suggestions on how to create personal power through your own thoughts.

Empowering Thoughts
To produce personal power, our thoughts must have two characteristics: They must be positive and the must be true.

The Power of True Thoughts
As you can see in the continuum image above, thoughts can be false or true. And thoughts that are true provide personal power. Knowledge produces power. When you increase your knowledge and understanding of what reality actually is, you increase your personal power because a thought is true if it is based on evidence. The more knowledge and truth you can gain, the greater your personal power. If your thoughts and beliefs do not align with the natural laws and principles with which the world functions, then they will not produce positive results. For example, you can think all day that you can fly, and you can even believe that you can fly. But natural laws seem to indicate that you cannot. But if you attempt to act on that belief, you will likely end up very scraped up or very dead. In the same way, we must be sure that our thoughts and beliefs are based on the best evidence we can find.

The Power of Positive Thoughts
 To produce personal power, our thoughts and beliefs must include a level of hope or faith that we can help bring about positive outcomes. A thought is positive if it constructively affirms your strengths and abilities and produces effective or meaningful activity. For example, you can think the thought "I am not a millionaire" and have any number of reactions to that true thought (assuming that you currently are not a millionaire). Your attitude might include the following thoughts and feelings: All of my high school buddies are millionaires, therefore I am a loser (negative). Millionaires are all dishonest or greedy, therefore they are losers and I am much more righteous than they (negative). I am happy with my life and am fine with not being a millionaire (positive). I am going to start an incredible business and become a millionaire in 7 years (positive).

All of these attitudes come to a conclusion about how you relate to the thought and therefore produce a feeling or attitude. If you want your thoughts and beliefs to give you a sense of empowerment, then you must ensure that they are positive and constructive, affirming your own true talents and strengths.


Producing Empowering Thoughts
So, what can you do to increase the power of your thoughts? You must consciously work to produce thoughts and beliefs that are positive and true. If you can deliberately apply yourself to move your thoughts in this positive direction, you will be astonished at the power and happiness it will produce in your own personal life.

Based on my experience, I recommend the following strategies:

1. Become self-aware. To improve your thoughts, you become aware of and monitor your own thoughts. This means you have to learn to think about what you are thinking your thinking, which can sometimes be very hard work. Ask yourself questions like these: What am I thinking about right now? Is what I am thinking true? Is it based on reality? Is what I am thinking negative? Does this thought hurt myself or others? Is my attitude about this thing giving me a sense of strength or empowerment?
2. Flood your mind with the positive. We live in a world with many negative messages, and you must therefore do everything you can to fill your mind with the good, pure, motivating messages. This might mean a change in some of your habits, but train yourself to read uplifting books, watch empowering documentaries and movies, and listen to motivating, empowering audio books and music. At the same time, eliminate negativity by cutting out mindless television, negative music, and negative people from your life.
3. Learn. Gain knowledge that is true. Do everything you can to gain more and more knowledge and abilities. Go to school and gain relevant, empowering knowledge. Read books, watch videos, and visit websites that impart knowledge about the world. Infuse your mind with knowledge so that you have a sound foundation to build on.
4. Seek Spiritual Truth. The most fundamental truths, in my opinion, are spiritual in nature. A positive relationship with yourself is founded upon a positive relationship with God. I have found that when I seek and "drink" from religious texts and teachings, my view of myself and life is heightened and refined. I personally draw great spiritual knowledge, perspective, and strength from reading the Bible and the Book of Mormon.
5. Travel. If you can, travel to new areas of your city, state, or country. Travel internationally, whenever possible. Learn about different cultures and people. When travel is not an option, go to museums and libraries. Do what you can to expand your view of the world and develop your understanding of what truth and reality is.

Do what it takes to increase your knowledge and improve your attitude. My experience has been that a consistent effort will yield excellent results. And consistently increasing knowledge through study and experience will slowly and surely build your capacity to achieve success and happiness. So, how will you improve your thoughts this week?

A Cure for Procrastination: 20 Minutes of Focus

Have you every had a task or a project at work that was so boring or so overwhelming that you just kept putting it off? In a world of distractions, competing priorities, and overworked employees, it can be hard to focus energy on what is really important.

20 Minutes of Focus
I have recently devised a strategy that has helped me to accomplish a great deal of procrastinated work in a short amount of time. I call this strategy 20 Minutes of Focus. Instead of putting that important task off, I focus all of my energy on doing it for only 20 minutes. Here is how to do it:

1. Identify the task or project that is most important, the one that you keep procrastinating.
2. Identify what to do next.
3. Set a timer for 20 minutes. I have been using this countdown timer.
4. Start the timer and focus on this specific task for the full 20 minutes. 

You can repeat the cycle or move on to something else. Either way, you have made progress on that important task. I have found that just getting started on those difficult tasks helps me break through the procrastination and get the project moving forward, and I often keep working on the project after the 20 minutes is up.

Creating Results in Life

I've been thinking a lot about achieving success and happiness in life. I believe that there are some fundamental processes that shape our reality, and we have the power to use those processes to create happiness, success, and peace. Here is how I believe our reality and the results we get in life are shaped:

In life, we receive endless information input- what we sense with our bodies. These inputs have massive influence on our thoughts and on how we perceive reality. This perception of reality shapes our attitudes, or how we feel about and relate to reality. Our attitudes have a huge influence on our actions, what we do in the world, which ultimately drive the results and shape our reality. This reality then becomes input which perpetuates the cycle.

Using The Cycle for Success and Happiness
We have the power to take advantage of this cycle and use it to achieve goals of happiness, success, and peace. Each of these elements - inputs, thoughts, attitudes, and actions - can be used to our advantage:

• Inputs - We can choose to place information that is Positive and True into our minds. It should be positive and provide motivation to act in a proactive manner. It should be true or based on what is real it is useful. Tips include:
• Do: Read motivational, empowering books by authors such as Stephen Covey, Zig Ziglar, and Anthony Robbins. Read sacred literature, scripture. Surround yourself with positive poeple who have similar goals and ambitions in life. Listen to music and spoken words that are positive and uplifting.
• Don't: Spend time with people who are negative or who complain excessively. Watch mindless television or waste time excessively on the internet.
• Thoughts - While our thoughts are heavily influenced by Inputs, we can still choose what we think about. We are constantly "talking to ourselves" in our minds. Our minds are always thinking, and we can choose what we think about and how we think about it.  Tips for creating empowering thoughts include:
• Do: Choose thoughts and beliefs that empower you, that bring success and happiness to you and to others. These include thoughts that are positive, true, and hopeful. 
• Don't: Dwell on negative things. Acknowledge that they are there, to be sure, but live proactively, focusing your thoughts on the things you can control and on things that will bring positive results.
•  Attitudes - Although attitudes are heavily influence by our thoughts, we have the capacity to consciously choose a positive, self-sustaining attitude. By controlling attitudes through consistent efforts (and trial and error), we will find that our actions are more proactive and bring greater results.
• Do: Have a positive attitude about life and about yourself. This means exposing our minds to people and media that infuse a healthy, positive attitude into our minds.
• Don't: Focus on the negative or on things that you cannot control. Avoid watching too much news or being exposed to people and media that are overtly negative.
• Disciplined Action- Our actions are the most vital component to success and happiness in life. We must align our actions and habits with the results we want, and we have the power to control our actions and habits.Habits are the vehicle through which success is attained.
• Do: Focus your actions on those that will bring you positive, lasting results in your life. This usually entails work of some kind.
• Don't: Waste time or energy on habits that limit personal success, growth and happiness. This can include addictive habits and gross time-wasters such as mindless television or internet.

By taking control of each of these components in our live, we have the power to create the Results we desire - success, happiness, peace, or whatever outcome we desire.

This view certainly isn't absolute, and outside influences (Input from the environment and people we are in and around) on our thoughts, attitudes and actions are massive. But viewing the world according to the process described above focuses our energy on the things that we can control. It enables the individual to take control of personal habits and to begin to move forward toward desired goals.

What do you think? Any insights? Does this seem right? I appreciate all critiques and feedback.

Essay: Becoming Our Greatest Selves

For more articles, see my publications page.


This essay was originally published in Weeds Literary Journal in 2001. Please feel free to refer to and use these materials, just be sure to use the reference below when citing the publication:

Gardner, J. (2001) Becoming our greatest selves. Weeds Literary Journal, Snow College.

 Becoming Our Greatest Selves

Joel Gardner

 It has been said that if we put our minds to it, we can accomplish anything, but it seems that each of us has failed time and time again in accomplishing the thing upon which we have set our minds. How many times have we vowed to lose those extra pounds, make that grade in math class, or go to bed at a sane hour of the evening? Time after time we try, and time after time we fail. So many of us look at life as if we will never gain those things which we want most. But if we will follow the steps of establishing a vision of what is desired, outline steps for obtaining that vision, and follow the steps outlined, we can reach every aspiration that we have desires to reach.

The first step in setting goals is to create a vision of what is to be accomplished. The golfer hopes to one day reach the performance level of Tiger Woods. The artist has desires to create art such as that of Picasso. Wherever we focus our time, as student or sportsman, chef or charlatan, we must create a vision of what we truly want to accomplish, obtain, and become. However we choose to define ourselves and whatever vision we set for ourselves will inevitably come to pass.

There is a principle related to goal setting that must be explained before I continue onto the next steps: Wes Monroe, the accomplished entrepreneur, once said, "A goal unwritten is just a wish." Writing down exactly what is to be accomplished must be done to help keep our sights focused on what is desired.

After establishing and recording our vision, we must outline steps that will lead to the accomplishment of that vision. When preparing this set of steps, we need to ensure that they are SCRAM-based: Specific, Challenging, Realistic, Action-based, and Measurable. Our steps must act as a mathematical equation, the sum of which will end in the accomplishment of the goal. A golfer shooting to reach the level of a professional would not set as a step the perfecting of lawn-mowing techniques. Each step that he creates should increase his effectiveness as a golfer.

Once we have ensconced our vision and organized the steps leading toward it's accomplishment, all that is left is to follow the steps that we have prepared. It seems that this is the point of failure for nearly all of us. We need to keep continually in our minds the vision that we have set for ourselves, reading over the steps several times a day to keep track of the things which we accomplish. We could even ask our friends and family for support. As we follow our steps, we will become as the work of the artist, continually improving in richness and progressing in style.

If we create a vision, organize an equation of steps that lead toward that vision, and follow the equation, we will attain every aspiration that we have set for ourselves. We will overcome every obstacle that stands in our way and become whatever we desire. I hope that we will all realize our potential and strive to improve ourselves each day. In the words of self-improvement guru Kevin Trudeau, "God bless us, and may we never be the same again."