Think Your Way to Financial Freedom - You Are What You Think You Are

This thought occurred to me even as I prepared to write this article: You are what you think you are - rich, poor, slovenly, useful, use-less, shrewd, stupid, knowledgeable. However, if you think too hard about it, you may just realize that you have no idea what this means.

If we are what we think we are, then why can't I think of myself as the person that has Jennifer Anniston's body, Oprah Winfrey's money, and a friends list as long as Tila Tequila's - and make it all reality?

Well actually you can be and have all of that and more, if only you would take the time to manage your thoughts. Everything that you want to see, do, and be is in reality and actuality quite possible through thinking "aright". Unfortunately, most of us are not masters of our own minds and are content to let our thoughts drift like so much flotsam and jetsam. Were we to harness and control our thoughts, not only would we become self-aware, but we would create an unstoppable success train!

Your Mind is a garden and if you do not cultivate it then someone or something will.

This means that if you don't plant the seeds yourself then you will most likely end up with a garden full of weeds.

Truly successful men and women know this: "Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires, so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless, and impure thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful, and pure thoughts. By pursuing this process, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life. He also reveals, within himself, the laws of thought, and understands, with ever-increasing accuracy, how the thought-forces and mind elements operate in the shaping of his character, circumstances, and destiny."

To control your thoughts means also to not be contrary in your thoughts. Metaphysicians teach us that we must prepare for the thing that we hope for - so we cannot hope for the best of times, all the while preparing for the worst. Nor can we anticipate an avalanche of abundance with one part of our minds, while our fingers Google debt consolidation loan options, or bankruptcy lawyers.

This contrariness causes blockage in the channels we use to turn thoughts into substantive things. You are what you think you are, and in the end, you will get only that which you think you deserve.

In "As a Man Thinketh" we are given three examples of contrariness in thought. The first is a man who lives in poverty and "is extremely anxious that his surroundings and home comforts should be improved, yet all the time he shirks his work, and considers he is justified in trying to deceive his employer on the ground of the insufficiency of his wages. Such a man does not understand the simplest rudiments of those principles which are the basis of true prosperity, and is not only totally unfitted to rise out of his wretchedness, but is actually attracting to himself a still deeper wretchedness by dwelling in, and acting out, indolent, deceptive, and unmanly thoughts."

The second example is that of a rich man who is eating himself to death and "wants to gratify his taste for rich and unnatural viands and have his health as well. Such a man is totally unfit to have health, because he has not yet learned the first principles of a healthy life."

Lastly we have a crooked employer who places large profits above the well being of his employees. He is "altogether unfitted for prosperity, and when he finds himself bankrupt, both as regards reputation and riches, he blames circumstances, not knowing that he is the sole author of his condition."

So we see that "man is the causer (though nearly always unconsciously) of his circumstances, and that, whilst aiming at a good end, he is continually frustrating its accomplishment by encouraging thoughts and desires which cannot possibly harmonize with that end."