Thinking a Thought

It is easy for us to get swarmed by the trivialities of everyday life. We come to the office on Monday and immediately get ourselves entangled in a web of activities that forces us to constantly act and react to external events imposed upon us.

Motivational gurus such as Stephen Covey and Anthony Robbins tell us that we have to control the space between stimulus and response. We have a choice to choose how we want to react to the world. Yet we seldom do. Why? Because we are weak.

We are creatures of habits; and most of our habits are bad. We seek the easy way out. When faced with a daunting task, we create excuses to avoid facing them or we choose to procrastinate. Why? Because procrastination is a lesser pain (= pleasure) which we choose over the greater pain of doing something difficult (which might bring us pleasure in the longer term).

Forced to choose between pleasure and pain, we instinctively veer towards the immediate pleasure. Again the motivational gurus have devised many different ways to help us train or "reprogram" ourselves so that we asssociate pleasure with a difficult task which would brings us long term benefits, and avoid the immediate "pleasure" of avoidance or procrastination that ultimately brings doom. They call it Neuro-Linguistic Programming or NLP.

A lot of people go for such motivational courses. They come back feeling like they can conquer the world. But this high only lasts for a while. Then they fall back into their old patterns of sloth and torpor. There is no quick and easy solution. In the end, it falls back on ourselves.

Unless one has a very strong will power to continuously seek to improve oneself, one will always become creatures of habit. We do not have the luxury of having a motivational coach by our side to keep reminding us that we should avoid the immediate pleasure of lighting up a cigarette or to refuse a second helping of that mouth-watering cheesecake.

I am also a creature of habit. Many of them are bad. But one thing that I do well is that I am conscious of not picking up new bad habits. The existing ones are already difficult enough for me to handle. We need to have that presence of mind, and that strong will power to tell ourselves that something is not good for us in the long run.

But all is not lost, for we can make the enemy work for us: We can build good habits. How? Through constant repetition and reinforcement. Have you noticed how rubbish or things accumulate in your house? It did not happen in a single day but grew one item at a time, and suddenly we realise our closet is filled with clothes that we don't wear anymore.

Why can't wealth accumulate that way too? We just need to consistently do something and without us realising it, we would have achieved a considerable amount. We don't need to look too far ahead. Just concentrate on the immediate task at hand. Do one thing at a time and do it well. Soon we will have a mountain of achievements.

Easier said than done of course. We all know what is right for ourselves. Just that we are too weak to take the next step. It is an effort of the will that requires strength of mind and not brawn. Let us halt the train of thoughts. Stop. Checkpoint. And then ask ourselves: What should our next step be? All action begins from a single thought. Consciously control that next thought. And the thought after that...

Think a fresh new thought. Try giving it a thought.