Grateful to be learning new thoughts

“Success comes to those who think new thoughts.” – Anonymous

In Marci Shimoff’s book entitled Happy for No Reason, she mentions that most of us (teachers and students, parents and children, and everybody else) think about 95% of the same thoughts today as we did yesterday. And will do so tomorrow.

No wonder we find that behavior change is not easy. Our thoughts, our thinking patterns, tend to drive our behavior.

So I am learning how to think new thoughts. This is not easy!

Not only that, it may not be the best way to proceed. One of my church leaders said that it is easier to behave your way to new behavior, than to think your way to new behavior.

Why this seeming contradiction?

We tend to get trapped in our familiar thinking patterns. Even if they are not productive, we seem to keep repeating them, and this may drive unwanted behavior as well as wanted behavior.

So if we go about it “backwards” and simply start behaving differently, even if this is “against the grain” so to speak, our thinking will tend to shift to reflect our new behavior patterns, even if the new behavior patterns seem ungenuine at first.

So, either way, I am learning to think new thoughts, or learning to try on new behaviors, both with a view to making myself more of who I would like to be.

Any teacher or student, parent or child–or anyone–can do this, eh?! 😮

Some have reported to me that I am gentler, kinder, more loving, and less judgmental than I used to be. So hopefully I am making progress. 😮

Relapses are to be expected. And I do have them.

“No worries mate,” as my Australian friends say.

When I stumble, I just get up, dust myself off so to speak, and walk on.

I am liking my new learnings, my new thinking patterns, and my new behavior patterns. It is not a complete makeover of course. I am keeping (obviously) some of my old thinking patterns and behavior patterns that have kept me in good stead over the years.

So its “out with the old” (some of it) and “in with the new” (some of it), with a view to becoming more of whom I wish to be, for myself and for others.

Here’s to change, to changing, and to learning how to change!

Doc Meek, Saturday, August 21,2010, at Calgary, Alberta, CANADA

P.S. Winston Churchill once remarked: “Occasionally we stumble upon the truth; usually we just get up and walk on.” 😮

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J. Collins Meek, Ph.D. (Doc Meek)
“What if you are smarter than you think?”
Learning Specialist https://docmeek.com

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