Don't Believe Everything You Think

Well good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on when and where you're tuning in.  This is episode 19 of The Blue Collar Executive podcast.  I am your host Lewis Taulbee, Jr.  How many times have you said I don't know what I was thinking.  Well that is not what I thought it was.  Well we proved time and time again that the truth is not always what we think but I think I can do this episode so let's go.  When I was young everytime I would do something dumb Dad would walk around patting his forehead repeatedly telling me you need to think, you need to think.  He didn't just do this when I was a kid, he did it his entire life.  When my son was barely old enough to talk, he would follow me around imitating his papaw smacking his little head saying daddy you just need to think a little.  Dad thought it was hilarious and I guess it was cute but I was never amused because I knew he was right.  It really is amazing that what we think, how we think or what we lack to give thought to can have such a great impact on our lives.  One of my favorite quotes is from Henry Ford.  He said whether you think you can, or you think you can't you're right.  That is a perfect way to state it and illustrate how powerful our thinking can be.  Think about it.  We cannot change anything without our thinking and positive thinking will always lead to better results than negative thinking.  If you want to kill a dream, just think you can't do it but if you want to achieve great success, always believe that you can and never let a roadblock change your way of thinking.  I'm not talking about the power of positive thinking although I love the little engine that could and there is a good moral behind that story.  The Power of Positive Thinking is one of the biggest selling books of all times.  I've read it and it was okay.  If you want my review in one word, it would be duh.  I mean it is true there is an incredible amount of power in both positive thinking and negative thinking.  I remember a story my mom once told me as a kid.  A psychology group conducted a study in New York City.  They posted someone at every corner to greet this businessman as he was walking along.  At every corner when he would stop, one of them would ask him if he was feeling okay.  Then they would tell him he looked a little pale and show a little concern for him.  He told the first couple I'm fine but by the time he got to the sixth one they had to call an ambulance for him.  There was nothing wrong with him, but because of being questioned he began to think that there was something wrong with him.  He made himself physically sick.  I once read that 30% of all medication prescribed is placebo.  Think about that.  People can be perfectly healthy but convinced themselves that there's something wrong and then the doctor can give them a little sugar pill and they convince themselves that they're all better.  Getting back to Henry Ford's point, it is true that our success and entire life can be influenced solely by our thoughts but there is one major key.  We can't just think about something and it comes true.  We have to act on our thoughts.  I hate when I hear someone say it's the thought that counts.  No it's not.  A thought might help the one who's thinking it, but it don't do a dang thing for anyone else in the world.  You can think about something your entire life and even intend to do it but not a single thing will happen if you don't move on it.  There is no power in positive thinking if all you ever do is have intention.  What if I told my wife that I intended to bring her flowers.  She would tell me that she intended to make me dinner.  She would be mad and I would be hungry and likely sleeping on the couch.  I can think I want to lose weight and get in shape.  I can think hard and meditate about it for days, but until I get off the couch it's not going to happen.  So yes, there is power in positive thinking, but we have to act on it.  Another issue is that sometimes we fail to look for better ways of doing things because we think the way it's always been done is the best way to do it.  The very sad truth is that most people will live their entire lives without ever questioning what they have come to believe is true.  Let me give you an example.  Believe it or not a banana is the largest selling product in Walmart stores.  They sell more than a billion pounds of bananas every year.  Another banana fun fact is that they actually grow upward from their stem.  That stem is so strong that it holds that banana up until it's time to be picked.  That's its purpose but for most of us, we thought its purpose was the banana opener.  We'd grab it and pull it down breaking our banana open usually also breaking off or squishing at least one bite of our banana.  We all did this most of our lives because we thought that was the way to do it until some smart guy noticed an ape at a zoo gently pinching the opposite end and easily pealing the banana open.  He then posted it on social media for the rest of us.  Remember the famous mom quote if your friends jump off a mountain, would you?  Of course she wasn't talking about a mountain otherwise we'd have some pretty dumb or perhaps dead friends.  She was talking about thinking for ourselves and being independent.  We should never allow others to think for us.  If we're going to be successful we have to have some of our own ideas.  We aren’t herd animals.  We're not cattle.  We were created with our own independent mind.  We just need to use it.  We may even surprise ourselves.  Have you ever felt something wasn't right with the way things were going but it didn't change anything and then said, oh my goodness, I knew that.  Of course you have because we all have.  On the other hand, have you ever listened to your internal instinct and was very thankful that you did?  Call it internal instinct,  following your heart, or divine intervention.  In the end it's the thoughts in your brain that we can choose to act on or not.  Unfortunately, too many times we continue down the same road, following the crowd and ignore our thoughts.  I could tell you about many times where I sat in a meeting and didn't speak up when I had an idea because it would not have been the popular opinion, but then it turns out that we either failed or someone else later thought of my idea and they got credit for it and I kicked myself.  We can even set our own values and gain success by influencing what other people think.  Large companies do this every day by convincing us that their product's worth more because of the name.  It's called branding.  When I was growing up everybody wanted that swoop on their shoe and Jordache jeans.  Well I was poor so I wore Nike likies from Kmart and Wrangler jeans.  I used to say boy Jordache must think their jeans are made of gold, but the truth is they knew they weren't even made as good as the Wrangler jeans, but through strategic marketing and branding they convince their customers that they were worth the price of gold.  This is how all big companies sell their brands for 10 times more than what it's worth.  People smoke Marlboro cigarettes because in their mind they look like the cowboy on the commercial.  If companies know how to influence our thoughts, surely we can too.  Not just our own thoughts, but we can easily influence what others believe is truth.  Have you ever heard the story of how Lewis and Clark were able to make that 2 year expedition across the west unchartered territories without losing a single guide to the many Indian tribes that wanted to torture and kill them?  It wasn't because all their men had muzzle loaders they carried for hunting.  Indians had no fear of them because they knew that once it was fired it took too long to reload.  The Indians would just wait for them to fire once and then charge them with knives and arrows.  The crazy truth is that expedition was a success because of a bb gun.  Yes an air fired bb gun that Merryweather Lewis bought right before they headed out.  He would show it off to the Indians and they feared it.  They thought it was some kind of magic gun because it was silent and it could continue to fire multiple rounds without reloading.  The Indians thought all the men were carrying this mysterious gun and they stayed away from them.  See the power of thinking or better yet the power of influencing what others think?  So while there is tremendous power in positive thinking, there is also equal power in negative thoughts.  Have you ever been to the circus and noticed the elephants tied up with those little ropes?  It would be so easy for that giant beast to snap that little rope, like a thread, but it will never try because that same rope has been used to hold it since it was a baby.  It is conditioned to believe that it can never break free with that rope on.  Like that elephant many of us go through life hanging on to a belief that we cannot do something simply because we failed at it once before.  Albert Einstein said learn from yesterday, live for today and hope for tomorrow but the important thing is to never stop questioning.  What we think means more than anything in our life.  More than what we earn, more than where we live, more than our social position, and more than what anyone else thinks about us.  When we roll out of bed in the morning we can think, I'm not going to feel well today or my anxiety is going to be high.  You know what?  We'll be a hundred percent correct.  Or we can think today is going to be a great day.  There may be some stress in my business.  Maybe the doctor didn't give me the best news.  Maybe I'm not even feeling all that great today, but I'm going to keep my mind focused on positive thoughts and be happy.  Well, that concludes another episode of The Blue Collar Executive podcast.  I hope you found some value in it or at the very least found it entertaining.  I wish you all great success and thank you so much for listening.