As a Man Thinketh…

When I was in primary school, we were fortunate to have a mathematics teacher from Norway. On one very cold and rainy she walks into class wearing a sleeveless maroon top and black pants. Being one of those students who sat next to door, I felt the cold when she opened the door. I remember trying to tuck my hands inside my sweater on my stomach, to “steal” the warmth beneath it. A few minutes into the lesson, she saw one of the students rubbing her hands to keep them warm. Staring at her, she explained to us how warm she finds Kenya to be. And we were all in shock. Did she just say that it is warm in Kenya, yet it is raining cats, dogs, puppies and kittens outside??? Then it didn’t make sense.

Fast forward, On one chilly Thursday morning, in the kitchen of an international flower farm, my manager found me tightly hugging a cup of hot coffee and since he always had a word befitting every minute, he told me, “Serah, the cold you are feeling is all in your head, in your mind. Shift your focus off it and see how it goes.” As he walked away, I gave him a very long look, remembered my primary school math’s teacher “Kenya is a warm country compared to Norway and the rest…” statement and attached to his comment. I went back to my desk drawing a million and one conclusions about why he didn’t feel cold and why he wore no sweaters or jackets no matter how cold it was from his origin, masculinity, physique, he doesn’t have chest complication problem… you name them and the one he’d just dropped on me, “it’s all in the mind”. Later on, I got to try it and believe you me, it worked. I choose not to pay so much attention on the surrounding, and it worked.

At first I was afraid of falling sick because I hate taking medication, so I took infant steps.  Any time I thought of how cold it was outside, I got goosebumps but once I focused on something different, they disappeared. I happened to even forget that it was raining outside.
Sooooo……….

It’s all your mind.
Not just the cold or change in weather, but everything. It’s all in your mind.
Our minds may be likened to a garden, which may be cultivated or left to run wild, but either it must and will bring forth. Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and take root there, produces its own, blossoming later into act, and bearing its own fruitage of opportunity and circumstance.
Change how you think. To achieve lasting change and real results, give up the idea of just trying. Go for what you want not what you think is possible. Average people live within the triangle of ‘comfort’, ‘it is obvious’ and ‘I know’. Innovators live outside this triangle. Think outside the box inside the box. Shift your focus, upgrade your skills, and invest in yourself. Block out the noise from outside and see yourself achieve your dreams. Get rid of all the alibi excuses in your mind – origin, physique, gender, emotions.

None of those reality matter.
Dream the big dream.
Have an open mind open to everything and attached to nothing.
Set yourself up to win.
Proverbs 4:23 – Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts.